The Security Council met this morning to hear a briefing on the situation in Syria. Addressing the Council were Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, and Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.
Three senior United Nations officials warned the Security Council today of imminent famine in the Gaza Strip, urging immediate action to avert humanitarian disaster in a territory where many Council members alleged the use of hunger as a weapon of war.
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett (Guyana):
The ultimate path to peace in Ukraine lies in upholding the Charter of the United Nations and international law as guides to a world free of war, the Organization’s top official told the Security Council today, declaring that the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour — started two years ago — directly violated both.
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council on Ukraine, in New York today:
A full-scale Israeli military operation in the densely populated Rafah area — where 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering near the only point of entry for goods — would be devastating, the head of United Nations peace efforts in the Middle East told the Security Council today, as he appealed for additional access points to northern Gaza to increase the flow of aid and reduce congestion in the south.
Applauding Colombia’s firm commitment to the 2016 historic peace accords, Security Council members today took measure of the demands of building peace and ensuring transitional justice in that country as observed during their recent visit.
The United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Central African Republic — a landlocked country replete with dirt roads unusable due to rains for two thirds of the year — needs adequate transport and logistics resources to fulfil its mandates to protect civilians and help extend State authority across the country, the Mission Chief told the Security Council today, as members called for tighter border control to stanch the flow of weapons to armed groups there.
The Security Council today failed to adopt a resolution that would have demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza owing to a negative vote of the United States — a permanent member of the Council — marking the second time Washington, D.C., has blocked such a text since early December 2023.
A dramatic spike in hostilities between the Congolese national forces and the 23 March Movement (M23) armed group in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has exacerbated the country’s humanitarian crisis, the top UN official in the country told the Security Council today, as she also condemned the violence in Kinshasa on 10 February targeting UN personnel.
