In progress at UNHQ

Noon Briefings


The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest terms the attack this morning on a United Nations vehicle in Somalia’s Puntland region that killed four United Nations staff and three other people, while injuring several others.  He said terrorist attacks won’t diminish the United Nations commitment to work for the cause of peace in the country.

The Special Representative on sexual violence in conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, addressed the Security Council during its debate on women, peace and security.  She starts her visit tomorrow to Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey at a time when sexual violence is increasingly a tactic of terror used by extremist groups.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warns that children continue to be killed, injured, displaced and put at increasing risk of disease as the conflict continues in Yemen. The Agency says the conflict is exacerbating an already precarious situation for children in a country prone to food insecurity.

Head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) updated the Secretary-General this morning on the situation of Palestinian refugees trapped in the Yarmouk camp in Damascus, Syria.  In a statement this weekend, it demanded that civilians be able to evacuate safely.