United States

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a new report today which presents mounting evidence that the biodiversity underpinning global food systems is disappearing, putting the future of food, livelihoods, health and environment under severe threat, according to information from 91 reporting countries.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Mary Kirtley Waters of the United States as Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Washington, D.C.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Washington, D.C., from New York early on Tuesday afternoon, 13 November.

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

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived on Tuesday, 23 October, in Washington, D.C.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it is concerned about the resurgence of insecurity in the Lac region in the west of Chad.  The situation has forced some aid agencies to suspend operations leaving tens of thousands of people without food and health services.

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

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that recent insecurity in several areas in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has forced tens of thousands of people to flee for safety and caused many humanitarian organizations to suspend or limit their activities.

Marking International Day of Rural Women, the Secretary-General said rural women and girls are crucial in building a prosperous, equitable and peaceful future.  He called on countries to take action to ensure that women and girls fully enjoy their human rights, including the rights of land and security of land tenure.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reports that it has managed, for the first time since civil war broke out in South Sudan almost five years ago, to send a food-assistance boat convoy up the Sobat River, a tributary of the White Nile in the Upper Nile region, with enough food to sustain 40,000 people for one month.