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

The text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the United Nations Peacekeepers’ Day ceremony in Mali today is not available in English.  For the French text, please see www.un.org/press/fr/2018/sgsm19057.doc.htm/.

On 29 May 2018, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) concerning ISIL (Da’esh), Al‑Qaida enacted the amendments specified with underline and strikethrough in the entry below on its ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2368 (2017), and adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

The World Health Organization reports that they have deployed 39 staff members, with plans under way for an additional 15 personnel, to rapidly contain a confirmed outbreak of cholera in Nigeria’s Adamawa State.  As of 26 May, 434 suspected cases, including 13 deaths, have been reported.

The 2 million people in northern rural Homs, Douma and southern Damascus were among the most desperate in Syria, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs told the Security Council today, adding that only six inter‑agency aid convoys had reached those areas this year.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations recommended 35 entities for special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council today, the fifth day of its resumed session, while deferring action on the status of 46 others.

BRUSSELS, 25 May (Office of Counter-Terrorism) — Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Vladimir Voronkov, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism, met in Brussels today to discuss the cooperation between the European Union and the United Nations in countering terrorism and preventing violent extremism, as well as efforts by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to reform and strengthen the Organization’s counter-terrorism work.

The United Nations mission in the Central African Republic says investigations are ongoing in Bria (in Haute Kotto prefecture), where United Nations police arrested an anti‑Balaka leader suspected of involvement in an attack on a Formed Police Unit patrol that resulted in the death of a peacekeeper last December.

Several gaps in the revised budget proposal for the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals could negatively impact mandate delivery, delegates warned today, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) examined the Mechanism’s financing requirements for the next two years.

Following is the text of UN Secretary‑General António Guterres’ video message to the event commemorating the 100‑year jubilee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, in Helsinki today: