Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for United Nations Day, observed on 24 October:

Today marks three years since the death of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan.  As the current Secretary-General said, Kofi was one-of-a-kind, a man who embodied United Nations values.  Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said that, on this day three years ago, the world lost one of its moral voices.

The United Nations and the Russian Federation held the Seventh Annual Aviation Talks on 21 and 22 July as part of the official business programme of the International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS-2021.

The Independent Audit Advisory Committee of the United Nations (IAAC) held its fifty-fifth session from 21 to 23 July.

The United Nations Board of Auditors approved 23 reports at their regular session at United Nations Headquarters in New York and remotely from Santiago, Bonn and Beijing on 22 July.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is warning today that, without urgent funding, the displacement crisis in the north of Mozambique could become a hunger emergency.  Displacement has left at least 730,000 people in Cabo Delgado without access to their land and no means of earning a living.

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

Democratic Republic of Congo authorities noted the end of the lava flow from the eruption of Nyiragongo, as well as a significant decrease in tremors in the area.  Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde Kyenge announced yesterday that people could return to Goma and the territory around the volcano.

A Kenyan peacekeeper, who recently completed her assignment in Darfur, Sudan, is selected to receive the 2020 United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award.

The Organization released today $65 million for the humanitarian response in Ethiopia, comprising $45 million from the United Nations-managed Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund and $20 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund, as the security situation in Tigray remains volatile.