​​​​​​​Despite the best efforts of the United Nations Stabilization Mission, the security situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is worsening, with pervasive violence and armed groups killing civilians in the eastern region of the country, the Special Representative and Head of the Mission warned the Security Council today.

The Security Council today decided to provide a “humanitarian carve-out” — a standing humanitarian exemption — to the asset freeze measures imposed by United Nations sanctions regimes.

Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the Secretariat’s proposal to allot nearly $79 million for the 2023 activities of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals as it winds down its work investigating crimes committed during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

A report by the International Labour Organization, United Nations Environment Programme and International Union for Conservation of Nature notes that 20 million jobs could be created by harnessing the power of nature to address challenges such as climate change, disaster risk and food and water insecurity.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the Central Emergency Response Fund high-level event, in New York today:

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the Summit of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, held in Luanda today:

Noting that recent elections held in Angola, Congo, São Tomé and Príncipe and Equatorial Guinea showed significant progress towards democracy and rule of law, as well as a greater participation of women, briefers told the Security Council today that strengthened international and regional cooperation was needed to build and sustain peace and democratic strides in Central Africa in the face of persistent security challenges.

Celebrating the forty years of marine multilateralism ushered in by the adoption of “the constitution of the oceans,” speakers in the General Assembly today underscored the need to continue that tradition with a binding instrument on sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction.

Troubled by the ongoing humanitarian cost of global food insecurity, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the Secretary-General’s proposal to support two initiatives — meant to keep food and fertilizers flowing to developing countries in 2023 — with a $10.9 million injection of funding.

The World Health Organization released data showing that, in 2021, countries around the world held the line against further setbacks to malaria prevention, testing and treatment services, with an estimated 619,000 malaria deaths globally in 2021, compared to 625,000 in the first year of the pandemic.