The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Vanessa Frazier (Malta):

With Tropical Cyclone Freddy putting 2.6 million people in Madagascar, Mozambique and Zimbabwe at risk, the United Nations and its partners have pre-deployed about 80 staff, has pre-positioned emergency stocks to areas likely to be affected and has two aircraft on standby to facilitate assessments and initial response.

Upcoming local elections — the first planned in the Central African Republic since 1988 — present the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to advance the country’s peace and political process, senior officials told the Security Council today, as members highlighted the deteriorating security and socioeconomic situations and their heavy toll on civilians.

Hailing peacekeeping as the truest form of international solidarity, speakers at the first meeting of the 2023 session of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations underscored the need to strengthen missions and operations through strategic communications, gender mainstreaming and better protections for those who serve in them.

The General Assembly adopted five consensus resolutions today on Africa’s development and durable peace across the continent, sustainable development, global health and chemical weapons, with the latter surviving a challenge by a competing resolution put forth by the Russian Federation, which also issued a litany of amendments to the text.

In Malawi, the United Nations and its partners are appealing for $45.3 million to help the Government there provide health, water, sanitation, nutrition, education and protection services to 4 million people devastated by the country’s deadliest cholera outbreak in recent history.

​​​​​​​The latest launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is dangerously heightening tensions in the region, a United Nations senior official stressed as he briefed the Security Council today, urging it to show unity in bringing Pyongyang back into dialogue to end its escalating weapons programme.

The Independent Audit Advisory Committee of the United Nations held its sixty-first session from 15 to 17 February, via hybrid format.

​​​​​​​The Security Council today adopted a presidential statement expressing its deep concern and dismay over Israel’s recent announcement of further construction and expansion of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well as the “legalization” of settlement outposts, as United Nations senior officials briefed members on the latest developments on the ground.

The Intergovernmental Conference to draft a new maritime biodiversity treaty resumed its fifth session today, as the President of the Conference called on delegates to find through commitment, flexibility and creative approaches a text that bridges the existing gaps.