Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General
Department of Public Information . News and Media Division . New York
13 November 2025
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
**Briefing
Good afternoon. Just a reminder, at 1:30 p.m., in this very room, you will be hearing from Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), who is here in New York, where he briefed the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) a bit earlier today. And then he will be speaking here with you at 1:30 p.m.
**Deputy Secretary-General
Our Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, is traveling to Kigali, Rwanda to participate in the Second Edition of the African Renaissance Retreat. This retreat will bring together some of Africa's most prominent leaders from business, government and development to help shape and accelerate the continent's transformation.
During her visit, the Deputy Secretary-General will be meeting with senior government officials to discuss advancing the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the African Union's Agenda 2063. The Deputy Secretary-General will also speak at the African School of Governance — a pan-African institution shaping the next generation of policymakers. She is expected to return back to New York on Monday.
**Health/COP30
I have a bit of an update for you from Brazil, where as you know, COP30 is being held, in Belém. At COP30 today, it is Health Day. In his remarks at the Health and Climate Ministerial Meeting, Simon Stiell, the UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, noted that in a big city like Belém, in the Amazon, we are reminded of the deep connection between human health and the health of our planet, and of our shared responsibility to take care of both. Mr. Stiell underscored that today's launch of the Belém Health Action Plan is a vital step forward. Led by the Government of Brazil and the World Health Organization, it integrates adaptation, equity and climate justice, the three pillars of a resilient society.
As the world faces record-breaking temperatures, an Extreme Heat Risk Governance Framework and Toolkit was launched today at COP30, and that toolkit was launched to help countries strengthen governance, coordination, and investment in response to escalating heat risks. The new Framework and Toolkit were developed by an international collaboration of national and global experts, led jointly by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Global Heat Health Information Network and Duke University in the United States. It responds to the Secretary-General's Call to Action on Extreme Heat. WMO points out that extreme heat claims more than half a million lives every year and has resulted in a record 639 billion potential work hours lost in 2024.
**Refugees/COP30
And for its part, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), launched today the Refugee Environmental Protection Fund, the world's first large-scale, refugee-driven carbon finance initiative. The Fund will support reforestation, cleaner cooking and green jobs that link environmental recovery with sustainable livelihoods and protection outcomes.
The Fund's first projects, launching in Uganda and Rwanda, mark the first step towards the initiative's 10-year goal of restoring more than 100,000 hectares of land and expanding clean energy access to 1 million people. The Fund is also already exploring opportunities to expand its work in both Brazil and Bangladesh. UNHCR notes that across refugee-hosting nations, almost 25 million trees are cut down each year for cooking fuel. This deforestation weakens soil, worsens floods and droughts and makes farming less productive.
**Food Waste/COP30
Also today, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and its partners launched an initiative to cut food waste in half by 2030 and cut up to 7 per cent of methane emissions as part of efforts to slow climate change. UNEP notes that the world wastes more than 1 billion tons of food every year, contributing up to 10 per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions. It accounts for up to 14 per cent of methane emissions, which is a short-lived climate pollutant that is 84 times more potent at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over 20 years. Funded by the Global Environment Facility, the UN Environment Programme will launch a $3 million, four-year global project to implement the targets of the Food Waste Breakthrough.
**Occupied Palestinian Territory
Turning to the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Since the latest ceasefire, our colleagues at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) have been leading a number of assessments across Gaza to areas where people are living or have moved, including those who are in close proximity to the so-called "Yellow Line", where as you know Israeli ground forces remain present.
Our teams note that communities in these areas urgently need aid, and it is essential that services are restored quickly. These assessments will inform a rapid response by ourselves and our partners to the most critical needs, which include water, food, shelter, hygiene supplies and healthcare. As winter takes hold, our partners working on shelter distributed thousands of tarpaulins, blankets, mattresses and clothing kits to vulnerable people across Gaza. That was done on Monday.
Our partners are reporting important progress in improving healthcare, with 27 health service points reopened or newly established across Gaza since the latest ceasefire came into effect. However, as we've warned many times, multiple impediments are still restricting our ability to scale up the response as quickly and efficiently as we have the capacity to do. Once again, we underscore the need to open additional crossings, to resolve bottlenecks, fully facilitate the operations of humanitarian agencies, and provide safety guarantees for our convoys.
Our partners working to support water, sanitation and hygiene note that various equipment needed to improve critical infrastructure and address the public health risks remain blocked by Israeli authorities from entering Gaza. Such equipment includes machines that are urgently needed to contain and properly dispose of medical waste. Not having such equipment inside Gaza, as you can imagine, increases public health risks and contributes to the already dire sanitary and hygiene situation across Gaza.
Regarding the West Bank, I can tell you that we are deeply disturbed by the attack by Israeli settlers who set fire overnight to a mosque in a West Bank village. Such attacks on places of worship are completely unacceptable. We have and will continue to condemn attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank. Israel, as the occupying power, has a responsibility to protect the civilian population and ensure that those responsible for these attacks, including this attack on a mosque and the spray painting of horrendous language on a mosque, be brought to account.
**Sudan
Turning to Sudan and the increasingly dire situation there, our colleagues at the World Food Programme (WFP) warn that more than 21 million people — that's 45 per cent of the entire population — in Sudan are now facing acute food insecurity after more than two and a half years of this conflict. As you well know, famine has been confirmed in El Fasher and Kadugli, both largely cut off from aid. However, in nine other locations where WFP has maintained consistent access, famine-like conditions have been reversed thanks to sustained assistance.
WFP stresses that where conflict has eased and humanitarian operations have expanded, hunger has declined, showing that consistent access is the difference between starvation and actual recovery. The agency is currently reaching over 4 million people each month with emergency food, cash and nutrition support, including in previously hard-to-reach areas across Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum and Al Jazira States.
With more resources, WFP could double its reach to 8 million people monthly and further reduce the risk of famine spreading into the hardest-hit areas. But, without additional support, this fragile progress could quickly be undone. We join the World Food Programme in urging the international community to continue stepping up, with the support and funding needed to help people in Sudan who so desperately need help.
**Somalia
From Somalia, our colleagues at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs inform us that severe drought in the country is putting millions of people's lives at risk, with humanitarian aid severely limited due to dwindling funding. This week, the Government declared a nationwide drought emergency. The drought is particularly severe in the eastern and northern regions, but it is spreading to central and south Somalia, as well.
Our colleagues tell us that approximately 3.4 million people in Somalia are currently experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, with more than 620,000 of them facing emergency levels of food insecurity. Between October and December of this year, more than 1 in 5 people in Somalia — this is at least 4.4 million men, women and children — are projected to face high levels of food insecurity. The nutrition situation is equally alarming, with 1.9 million children under the age of five expected to suffer from acute malnutrition between August of this year and July of next year.
Our humanitarian colleagues say that the new Government drought declaration calls on humanitarian agencies to scale up life-saving efforts in the areas of nutrition, health, water and food security. The appeal comes as aid organizations have been forced to reduce or suspend emergency assistance due to crippling funding shortfalls. The $1.4 billion Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan is only 22 per cent funded, with $317 million in the bank so far.
Our colleagues warn that, as a result, the number of people receiving emergency food aid will drop sharply, from 1.1 million in August to 350,000 only this month. This means that less than 1 in 10 people who need food assistance for survival will receive aid. Again, we urge donors to give and to give generously to our humanitarian appeals.
**AU-UN Annual Conference
And just for the record, I wanted to note that yesterday afternoon, the Secretary-General and Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission spoke to you, at the conclusion of the ninth African Union—United Nations annual conference. The Secretary-General said our collaboration with the African Union has never been stronger or more necessary, adding that since the start of his mandate. he has taken steps to keep the African continent high on the UN agenda. A closer strategic alliance with the AU was at the centre of this work, he said, building on shared values, mutual respect, common interests and complementarity.
Turning to climate, and as he prepares to return to Belém, the Secretary-General reiterated that developed countries have a moral imperative to act. By closing the climate ambition gap to keep the 1.5°C limit within reach, and by doubling adaptation finance to at least $40 billion this year and massively scaling up adaptation finance in the years to come.
**UNDSS/Event
I just wanted to add something just an event I wanted to flag for you is that we're the thirteenth today. Correct? Yes. Tomorrow at 10 a.m., there will be a an event in Conference Room 8, which I think you can watch virtually, recognizing 20 years of our since the creation of the UN Department of Safety and Security, a department which, as you know, was created as part of the review and studies done after the Baghdad bombing and has done amazing work in trying to ensure that our colleagues can do their work in safety and security throughout the world. This awkward silence means you can ask questions. Edie?
**Questions and Answers
Question: Thank you, Steph. The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said today that there was great concern following the takeover of El Fasher by the RSF that so few people came out of the city when thousands were expected. And he said that this indicated that either they were dead, too sick to travel, or totally malnourished. Does the United Nations share those concerns about so many missing people from El Fasher?
Spokesman: Very much so. And I think we've been talking and raising the alarm on the situation in El Fasher for a long time. As you know, it is a place where there was famine. It's a place that has been bombed. It's a place that has suffered from floods. I think you heard from Amy Pope, yesterday. We hope to have Mr. Fletcher, who's on his way to Darfur, speak to you on Monday, from Sudan. We're trying to do whatever we can to help those who have made it out. And the reports we've received from those who've made it to Tawila and other places are horrendous to say the least. And I think we can only... I mean, I don't know if we can even imagine what we will find when we get access to El Fasher. Linda, then Gabriel.
Question: Thank you, Steph. Mr. Lazzarini just told the Fourth Committee that he felt that UNRWA is crucial to implementing President Trump's 20-Point Plan for Gaza. And of course, as we know, the US is not contributing or hasn't been, I gather, since Biden Administration. I was just wondering what the Secretary-General's point of view is regarding the importance UNWRA in...?
Spokesman: UNWRA provides critical services, to Palestinians, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Syria and Jordan. I think the Secretary-General has always been very supportive of UNWRA. Gabriel Elizondo, Al Jazeera.
Question: Thank you, Steph. Our reporters in Gaza City are telling us no aid has entered in through the Zikim Crossing yet. From the UN standpoint, can you give us an update on what's going...?
Spokesman: That's correct. I mean from our standpoint, no aid has come in from Zikim into Gaza. Roads are still being checked. We're also trying to work out some of the procedures. I can tell you that I just looked at the website of the 2720 mechanism, which I would encourage all of you to look because it's full of a lot of granular data. A number of trucks have been offloaded. As you remember, trucks have to be offloaded from Israeli trucks taken down and then put on Palestinian trucks. So, things are moving, but not moving fast enough. And the bottom line is, I think, is that no aid has been picked up in the last few days from Zikim to be able to be delivered into Gaza.
Question: And just a brief follow-up on the Mosque attack in the occupied West Bank. Took note of your statement, but is the Secretary-General concerned that continued attacks of Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank could, endanger the Gaza ceasefire?
Spokesman: Well, I mean, that's clear. Right? But, we're... I mean, we are condemning these acts not only because of the risks they pose, but because of the very acts and what... because of what exactly is happening with these attacks on civilians are unacceptable. I think the attack and the defacing of a place of worship is particularly heinous. Madam, but we'll go down as we flow.
Question: Can you... there reports I mean, are pictures going around the Internet that the Israelis are building a wall in southern Lebanon?
Spokesman: I'm not unable to... I'm not in a position to confirm that. Dezhi?
Question: A follow-up also on Kim's question. You just mentioned that there are multiple impediments that restricting the ability to scale up your humanitarian work in Gaza. Zikim is not open. Am I under... is this understanding correct?
Spokesman: Well, what I think what I just... your understanding should be what I just told you.
Question: What I want to ask is, so UN has already made preparation for the opening of...?
Spokesman: That's correct. We're in the process of doing that.
Question: But, what's the... why is the delay?
Spokesman: Well, I mean, part of it are... is that as I think I explained yesterday was that there had to be trucks could be brought there and then offloaded one day and then reloaded another day. Right? They had to be it was slow. Not enough not all of the things that we need are allowed to be brought in. We're still checking, and we're still checking the road.
Question: So, the other thing is the equipment, which has also restriction by the Israeli authority. Did they give any reason why they don't allow those the waste?
Spokesman: I think those are questions you should ask them. Ibtisam?
Question: I have two follow ups. First, on El Fasher and on getting more information about what's happening there. Are you also trying to get maybe satellite images? Or...
Spokesman: I will... we have through various UN agencies, we have some access to satellite images, but I'll check where we are on those.
Question: On Gaza, you had similar I mean, it's not clear for me why actually the UN is not asking for a cross-border mandate as you did in Syria when you were not able to get to some areas. And you had the possibility to still deliver aid despite all the challenges you have... Gaza has a Rafah...?
Spokesman: We would like to see Rafah opened, as well. I think this is not the same, I would say, legal framework that we're talking about in terms of Syria, but there are a series of resolutions from the Security Council, notably 2723, calling for aid to come in. So, I mean, we have the resolutions are there. What we need is for them to be implemented, and we need to see... we need to see an easier way to handle... to kind of let the aid get into Gaza.
Question: But, you have been, I mean, it... Gaza under blockade for 19 years and not only in the last two years, and you have been not able to get the aid you wanted to get in. So, there must be a different solution because what has been happening until now, it's not working. There is a...?
Spokesman: I'm not going to argue that point with us, but it is one that we keep arguing with our Israeli counterparts and also in discussions with the Americans and with the Egyptians, is to let the aid get in. Islam.
Question: Thank you, Stephane. Question on Zikim Crossing. Are there any trucks, UN trucks or partners' trucks at the moment at Israeli side under the process that...?
Spokesman: I mean, there's aid that is registered through the 2720 mechanism, which has been offloaded, brought into Zikim Crossing, offloaded, but it has yet to be... we've yet to be able to pick it up and drive it into Gaza.
Question: Any time frame, any expectation when they may...?
Spokesman: We would like it to have done it yesterday.
Question: And on another question, yesterday, the Secretary-General said the ceasefire in Gaza is fragile but holding, yet repeatedly violated. Does the UN itself have any way tracked these violations?
Spokesman: No. We are not part of a monitoring mechanism for ceasefire violations. There are a group of countries, the guarantors, should be doing that.
Question: Thank you, Steph. Today in Geneva, the UN Committee against Torture in its sixth periodic report of Israel made a statement saying they were appalled of reports indicating that there had been systemic and widespread torture of Palestinian detainees by Israeli soldiers. Does the Secretary-General have any comments? And were there any requests or intent to launch further independent investigations?
Spokesman: Yes. I mean, there are a number of investigative mechanisms that are mandated to look into these very serious allegations, but the Israeli authorities need to cooperate with them. Alex?
Question: Thanks, Steph. There have been some reports saying Mr. [Raphael] Grossi is in Russia's Kaliningrad. Could you please confirm his trip or what we should call Vienna?
Spokesman: I like it when you answer. You give yourself, you give me an out, Alex. So, yes, pick up the phone and dial Vienna. Any questions online? I'll go back to the room. Okay. Islam, please.
Question: I'm going to follow-up my own question. According to the UN, the information you obtained, how many times Israel violated the ceasefire in Gaza since 10 October?
Spokesman: Again, we're not monitoring ceasefire violations. Right? So, whatever information we have or is publicly available information, it is not our information. I think that is something to check with the guarantors of the ceasefire. All right. Thank you all. We shall see you back at 1:30 p.m. in this very room if you're so inclined.
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