Food

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

In Syria, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that he United Nations and its partners continue to support the response there as the security situation permits. Health care across the country continues to be disrupted against the backdrop of a fluid security situation.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today released its first major global assessment of salt-affected soils in 50 years. It shows that nearly 1.4 billion hectares of land — which is about 10 per cent of the total global land area — are already impacted by salinity.

In Haiti’s capital, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its partners have distributed more than 900,000 litres of water to more than 60,000 [displaced] people in 26 sites over the last week. The World Food Programme (WFP) has provided more than 95,000 hot meals to some 24,000 displaced people across four sites.

The World Food Programme (WFP) today urgently appealed for $16.9 billion to address global food needs and the alarming gap between needs and resources. WFP’s Global Outlook 2025 shows that 343 million human beings across 74 countries are acutely food insecure, 10 per cent more than in 2023.

In Sudan, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports that since the war began 19 months ago there, the first domestic UN flight travelled today from Port Sudan to Kassala. The WFP-managed flights will now offer regular flights to transport aid workers and light humanitarian cargo from Port Sudan to Kassala once a week.

Despite pledges to slash methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 — key to getting global warming under control, only 1 per cent of the Methane Alert and Response System in the past year were responded to, a UN Environment Programme report released today states. The system is an untapped opportunity for climate action.

Speakers urged the Security Council today to prevent northern Gaza’s descent into famine amid relentless death and destruction, as the 15-member body convened an emergency meeting in response to experts’ warnings that immediate action is required within “days, not weeks” to avert the scourge.

The just released UN Environment Programme’s Adaptation Gap Report says that nations must dramatically increase climate adaptation efforts and urgently close the $187-359 billion per year gap that exists between adaptation finance needs and current international public adaptation finance flows.

The UN Secretary-General has issued a statement of deep concern over the Israeli Knesset’s adoption Monday of two laws, which if implemented, would likely prevent the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from continuing its essential work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.