Troubled by repeated concerns raised by the Board of Auditors, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today urged Secretariat officials to better manage the Organization’s financial resources while efficiently and quickly carrying out all recommendations of the United Nations top auditing watchdog.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Algeria from New York on Tuesday morning, 1 November, to attend the Summit of the League of Arab States.

The Secretary-General, welcoming the agreement by all parties to continue the Black Sea Grain Initiative to facilitate grain, foodstuffs and fertilizers export from Ukraine, said the United Nations is also fully committed to removing the remaining obstacles to exporting food and fertilizers from the Russian Federation.

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

Any further escalation must be prevented to avoid a potentially catastrophic spillover of the war in Ukraine, a United Nations senior official told the Security Council today, a day after an explosion that killed two people in Poland near the Ukrainian border, as speakers underscored the Russian Federation’s full responsibility for the war.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved six draft resolutions today, five of which focused on country-specific situations, while the last drew attention to the rising number of refugees and displaced persons in Africa.

Today is International Day for Tolerance. The resolution proclaiming the Day was adopted by the General Assembly in 1996, and among other things, the Day aims to foster mutual understanding among cultures and peoples.

Growing terrorism and violent extremism in the Sahel calls for a comprehensive response that integrates human rights and international humanitarian law, a senior United Nations peace operations official told the Security Council today, as speakers expressed concern about the overlapping security, humanitarian and political crises in the region.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks, as delivered, to the Group of Twenty (G20) Summit on Digital Transformation, in Bali, Indonesia, today:

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, via Zoom as prepared for delivery, at the Group of Twenty (G20) Leaders’ Summit Side Event:  Enabling Inclusive Development through South-South and Triangular Cooperation, today: