Conflict and Food Security, South Sudan & other topics - Daily Press Briefing

All right.
Good afternoon.
This morning, the Secretary-General addressed the Security Council on the conflict on conflict and food security.
He said that critical food system.
We saw two famines confirmed simultaneously in Sudan and Gaza, which he described as a shameful milestone.
The Secretary-General called on the council to implement resolution 24 17 in full to protect food systems in their entirety and to protect humanitarian workers.
His full remarks were shared with you.
Also briefing was Carl Sku, the acting Executive Director, excuse me.
It's a very long answer to a simple question.
Carl Sku, the acting Executive Director of the World Food Program, also briefed the council speaking after his visit to Somalia last week, he warned that famine is getting closer there and stressed that waiting for famine to be declared is a total failure of duty.
We will have Carl speak to you at the Security Council stakeout after you are done with me here.
Just a quick update.
Excuse me, on South Sudan, following the attacks on peacekeepers in Jang Gla state that occurred yesterday.
Our colleagues at the mission tell us that in the immediate aftermath of the attack, the mission deployed a quick reaction force by road and evacuated the injured by air.
The mission tells us that all those injured are receiving the medical attention they need and are currently stable.
For the record, yesterday, we issued a statement in which the Secretary-General condemned the ambush by unidentified armed individuals.
He reminded us that attacks against UN peacekeepers may constitute war crimes.
All attacks on peacekeepers must be promptly investigated and those responsible must be effectively prosecuted and held accountable.
Turning to the excuse me.
Turning to the situation regarding the Kalandia Training Center in East Jerusalem, I can tell you that the Secretary-General condemns in the strongest terms today's action by the Israeli authorities, including its security forces to unlawfully enter and remain in the Unwa Kalandia Training Center in occupied East Jerusalem and to carry out unauthorized works on those premises.
The Secretary-General is greatly alarmed by this development as it will deprive young people of the vocational education they were receiving.
Over 70 years, the center has supported thousands of Palestine refugees through vocational education and a pathway to work.
Today's actions are the fifth instance of unauthorized entry by Israeli authorities in the center since May this year and follow other unacceptable breaches of inviability and of interference with Unwa premises in occupied East Jerusalem, including the seizure and demolition of the Shara compound, as well as cutting off supply of water electricity to multiple other Unwa facilities.
The services take place in the context of these incidents take place in the context of domestic legislation which significantly impedes Unwa from fulfilling the mandate in the occupied Palestian territory entrusted to it by the UN Zone General Assembly.
The Secretary-General reiterates the call for the repeal of the legislation.
The Kalbia Training Center and other Uwa premises are premises of the United Nations.
They are inviolable and immune from any form of interference.
These actions against Uwa premises are wholly unacceptable and inconsistent with Israel's clear obligations under international law, including the charter of the UN and the Convention on the privileges and immunities of the United Nations.
The International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion on October 22, 2025, confirmed that with regard to the premises of the UN in the occupied Palestinian territory, Israel must respect their enviability and not interfere with the performance of their functions.
The Secretary-General urges the government of Israel to immediately cease the interference with Unawa premises, vacate, return, and restore all affected premises to the UN without delay, and protect those premises from further interference or damage.
And just to add that the There was also a message in a similar vein from the special coordinator at interim, doctor Ramiz Al Akharov and just to flag that this was Unwas oldest vocational training center.
It has served people for more than seven decades.
Each year it provides hundreds of students from across the occupied West Bank with free vocational education and a pathway towards greater economic independence.
Just to stay on the situation in the West Bank yesterday, There was a question about a fire that had damaged a factory in the Ramallah area.
Our humanitarian partners tell us that according to witnesses, the factory was set on fire by Israeli settlers.
The fire caused extensive damage and stored material in the structure itself and to nearby farmland.
We and our partners are mobilizing humanitarian support for those affected by the incident.
Um In the sorry, just to put it in context, our humanitarian partners say that this year on average over 200 attacks on every month by Israeli settlers causing casualties and damage have been recorded, which is the highest monthly average any year.
By the end of July, more than 1,400 such attacks had been recorded.
In the wake of these attacks, our humanitarian partners assess people's needs and respond accordingly, including to support those who were forced to leave their communities and whose access to essential services and livelihoods is disrupted.
Meanwhile, our colleagues on the ground in Gaza tell us that airstrikes and other attacks on civilian areas in the strip intensified yesterday with reports of casualties, including among civilians as well as damage.
Four of yesterday's airstrikes hit close to a humanitarian facility in Shay Camp, in Al Baraj and two locations in De Alba.
Initial assessment indicate that the UN facilities were not damaged, but windows at the guesthouse used by some of our humanitarian partners were damaged.
As you'll recall, on Sunday, an airstrike damaged three UN warehouses.
We can add that today that supplies stored inside remained intact.
Civilians and civilian objects, including humanitarian facilities, of course, must never be a target by anyone.
Just staying in the region and moving north to south Lebanon, our peacekeeping colleagues at UNIFIL report that from Friday to Monday, peacekeepers continue to observe significant Israeli land and air activities across the area of operations, including 173 airspace violations, mostly by drones, but also fighter jets.
Peacekeepers observed 51 instances of drone activities, including several drones operating in the vicinity of UN operations.
One suicide drone overflew the main gate at a UN position before exploding about 550 meters away.
No casualties or material damage to the position had been reported.
UNIFIL peacekeepers detected ten airstrikes by IDF between Friday and Monday, including in a Monsori and other areas.
Also detected 668 trajectories of projectiles fired from the IDF from south to north during that period.
Continued to record demolitions and infrastructure done by the Israeli armed forces in UNIFIL area of operations.
On Monday, two detonations northwest of Al Mansouri caused structural and collateral damage to a nearby UN position.
Thankfully, no peacekeepers or casualties were reported.
On the same day, UNIFIL recorded aggressive behavior towards peacekeepers near Yar where local people on mopeds struck UN vehicles.
No casualties or equipment damage were reported.
There were also multiple denials of freedom movements involving the IDF during the reporting period.
Explosive and other potential hazardous items continue to pose a threat to peacekeepers and, of course, to civilians in the area.
On Saturday, UNIFIL peacekeepers discovered an unexploded ordinance along a road southeast of Hula, which was neutralized on site, and we cannot stress enough that UN peacekeepers must never be targeted.
They are there to support peace and protect civilians as mandated by the Security Council and must be allowed to carry out their work safely.
Meanwhile, UNIFIL continues to support humanitarian access in southern Lebanon with coordination with our OCHA colleagues.
Moving to this hemisphere, I have a statement on Haiti.
The Secretary-General condemns the latest gang attack that was witnessed in Kenskov, a commune on the outskirts of the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince.
This attack reportedly killed at least 47 people during the night of August 23rd, including 22 who were reportedly executed in a church compound where they had sought safety.
The relentless attacks on communities and the loss of lives underscore the alarming security conditions in Haiti and reinforce the urgent need to intensify Haitian and international security efforts to counter these ruthless gangs.
Secretary-General reiterates his call for the Haitian authorities to ensure that those responsible for the attacks are held to account, including through specialized judicial units recently created with international support to investigate mass crimes.
I can tell you that our humanitarian colleagues on the ground in Haiti are working with the local communities and local authorities to verify the information and assess what people need following this horrendous violence.
The U Integrated Office in Haiti reported that during the second quarter of 2026 from April to June, at least 14008 people were killed and 656 others injured because of violence across Haiti.
Gangs attacked accounted for more than half of all killings, injuries recorded during this quarter.
The report emphasizes the importance of keeping Haiti on the international agenda and accelerating the full deployment of the gang suppression force.
It also calls for progress on investigations into mass crimes and reiterates that all use of force by law enforcement officials or other actors acting on behalf of the state must comply with international human rights law.
Update from Ukraine where humanitarian colleagues say that attacks and hostilities have taken a heavy toll on civilians in recent days.
According to local authorities, at least 47 people were killed and 329 injured, and that includes children.
This was between Friday and the early hours of today.
One of the deadliest attacks was a so called double tap attack on a busy shopping mall in K in the Dniepro region.
Matia Smile, our humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine condemned the attack and reiterated that civilians must always be protected under international humanitarian law.
Civilians and casualties were also reported in Ternihiv and in Done, Dniero, Kharkiv, Sumi, and Japartza where homes, school, shops, and vehicles and other civilian infrastructure were damaged.
All of this continues to put vital aid operations at risk.
On Sunday, a drone attack caused a fire to Ukrainian Red Cross Society warehouse in Keron, damaging or destroying supplies worth more than half $1 million.
Thankfully, no one was injured.
Despite the dangers, we, along with our humanitarian partners are continuing to respond.
Following the attack in Cuvier, aid workers immediately mobilized at the site and hospitals to support people in need.
Humanitarian organizations provided families with as much as they could.
Just for the record, you saw yesterday Rosemary DiCarlo briefed the Security Council on Ukraine saying that noting that 4.5 years after the full scale invasion began, the need to end this war cannot be urgent.
Also briefing was Tom Fletcher, the emergency relief coordinator who noted that when the time he recently spent in Ukraine, he noted the devastating impact of drone warfare.
Technology is now outpacing accountability.
He said that warning that abandoning the rules of war, we all face the chilling reality the Ukrainians face right now.
Those remarks were shared with you and speaking of technology and warfare, You saw that today, the Secretary-General and the President of the International Committee for the Red Cross, Mariana Spargak issued a renewed call for states to adopt new international rules on autonomous weapons systems.
This joint appeal follows a similar call they issued three years ago.
Since the appeal, states have laid important groundwork through the General Assembly and the group of governmental experts under the Convention on certain types of conventional weapons.
However, weapons technology has continued to advance at a very rapid ce.
Pace, placing increasing strain on existing legal frameworks.
The Secretary-General and the president of the ICRC warned that were dangerously close to crossing what they described as a moral red line, allowing machines to autonomously target human beings.
They urged states to negotiate a legally binding instrument, establishing clear prohibition and a restriction on autonomous weapons system, stressing that the progress achieved over the past three years should not be lost.
The seventh review conference on the Convention on certain conventional weapons will be held in November.
That is an opportunity to move the work forward.
And also for the record, yesterday, we issued a statement on the nine years since the forced mass displacement of Rohingya and other communities from Myanmar.
The Secretary-General in the statement called for renewed global attention and action for the plight of the Rohingyas, noting that the Rohingya people in Myanmar and in Bangladesh and across the region face deepening insecurity, shrinking protection, and diminishing prospects for durable solution worsened by funding cuts impacting life saving assistance.
He also underscored that he appreciates the hospitality of Bangladesh and other refugee hosting nations.
Our Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed continued her engagements in Elan Batar the 17th Conference of the Parties on the UN Convention to combat desertification.
Which is she participated in the dialogue on accelerating drought resilience, where she urged countries to turn early warnings into early action supported by anticipatory measures inadequate financing.
The Deputy Secretary-General also took part in a high level event on sand and dust storms, which saw the launch of the SG's framework for the UN decade on combating sand and dust storms.
Um, and she also met on the sidelines with African leaders, heads of delegations, as well as UN country team.
She has since departed Mongolia for India.
A quick update from Sudan where humanitarian resident coordinator Denise Brown expressed deep concern over the situation Haban in South Kordofan where the conflict between non state armed groups continues to take a heavy toll on civilians, leading to displacement and the destruction of critical civilian infrastructure.
A statement, she said, the arbitrary detention of humanitarian personnel and the looting of destruction of humanitarian compounds, supplies and equipment are disrupting lifesaving operations and depriving people of critical assistance.
She urged all parties, again, to protect civilians and to respect international humanitarian law.
And um Before I get to the quiz, I wanted to update you on some staffing changes in our own office.
Two new members in the spokesperson's office, and we also had to bid farewell to another.
Our new teammates are Inacio Lopez Ochoa and Nadia Al Cabarriti.
Inacio comes to us from the Department of Global Communications.
He brings over nine years of experience in public information and journalism.
Before joining the UN, he spent five years as a journalist working in Spain at Basque Public Television, where he report on national and international news.
Nadia brings experience in strategic communications, digital partnerships across humanitarian media and development settings.
She has worked and studied a number of countries, including in her native Jordan in Geneva and in Vienna.
They're both very nice, so you can drop by and say hello.
Speaking of N, we also had to bid farewell and a sad farewell to one of our own.
Stephanie Tremble has received a well deserved promotion and has moved on to the Department of Political and Peace Building Affairs front office for at least a year while she'll be working on communications issues.
As I think you can back me up on this, but for the past eight years, Stephanie has been a pillar of stability and efficiency in our office.
We will miss her and I know you'll join me in wishing her best of luck her new assignment.
Chris, please stand up.
We have a quiz.
This Luco phonehone member state is one of the few countries in the world whose name in English contains all five vowels.
Do you know what the five vowels are? Yeah.
Sometimes, but we won't count.
What? Yes, Eric.
Thank you.
We say thank you to our friends in Maputo for their full payment.
Mozambique brings us up to 130 and they paid 63,579.
Come on down, as they would say and the price is right.
Let's go, Edie Okay.
First, I'm sure, on behalf of my colleagues, the UN Correspondents Association, a very warm thank you to Stephanie for helping us for all these past years.
She's been a great asset to all the media and welcome to the two new members of your team.
Yes, ma'am.
Two questions.
First, on the Israeli I takeover, apparently, of the Annoa training facility.
Was there actually any training taking place at the time or has it stopped? There was no training taking place, but there were about 20 Unwa staff members who were able to leave the premises safely.
And is there any chance at all that they might be able to go back? All right.
That's not a question to ask to us.
It's a question to ask to the Israeli authorities.
Okay.
My second question, does the Secretary-General have any comment on the failure to hold anyone accountable a year after Israeli soldiers killed 22 Palestinians in a double strike on a Gaza hospital, including journalists from the associated press and Reuters? Well, we've seen the recent remarks and findings by the Israeli military judge advocate, which launch investigations to some cases and drop others.
There will need to be accountability for the civilians killed, for the journalists killed and we will continue to call for that.
And for the investigations that are going on, we look forward to seeing their conclusion, and we look forward to seeing the findings.
Gabriel, and then Eric.
Thanks, Steph.
I echo Ed's comments on Stephanie and wish her the best in her new role and welcome to your new colleagues.
Stephanie has been very helpful in many things over the last many years here.
Step, I have a question about the Columbia Training Center.
I don't mean this as a flippant question.
I mean it seriously.
How is stuff like this continued to allow to be happening? Again, it's like your question to ID.
I mean, it's an analysis question.
It's not something that we invited.
It's something that we're fighting against.
We clearly have called out this violation of international law, the violation of the viability of the UN premises.
As you say, these things keep happening, and we're seeing in many other parts of the world, also a lessening for the respect of the UN and its work and its mandated work.
Eric, So on the SG's call on autonomous weapons systems, I'm sure you've seen the reporting in New York Times and analysts have said throughout the conflict that there have been autonomous weapons used, and in the report I'm referencing, New York Times said a Russian drone autonomously attacked in Ukraine.
Do you have any comment on that? Well, I mean, I think that reporting is a clear illustration of why we need a binding treaty.
I mean, we don't have any Hey, I don't have anything further than what we've read in the media.
We don't have an independent certification of that drone, but the reporting itself, I think is a clear illustration of why we need this binding convention sooner rather than later.
Min Lou and then Benny.
On the killing of two UN peacekeepers in South Sudan, we know the Secretary-General has said it may constitute war crimes and called for an investigation.
I'm also wondering about accountability here.
Who would conduct the investigation in the front? It is the responsibility of the state where it happened in South Sudan.
We obviously will support it in any way, but it is the responsibility of the state.
So far this year, nine peacekeepers have been killed.
Hundreds of peacekeepers have been killed in recent years in many peacekeeping missions, not all of them, thank God.
As far as accountability, it is sadly close to zero, and that is a responsibility unfulfilled by member states.
Y.
Steph, as you know, there's near consensus in Israel about the role of Awa in relations to Israel, including Awa officials being part of the attacks of October 7th, and what they say that in the school system of Awa, there's a lot of anti Israel propaganda.
Do the UN have some responsibility in this growing fight between Israel and Awa to have a little more oversight of ARA? Look, there is transparency.
Many, many studies, independent studies have been done on the educational system that Unwa schools.
To be clear, Unwa does not run all schools in Palestine, right.
The ones that they do run, I think the educational material is based on, um, on different countries syllabus, but there is strong elements on human rights, on teaching about the Holocaust, teaching about history.
And I think these independent studies have been very clear.
A number of other studies, I think, have been done and misinterpreted and being used to bludgeonw very unfair ways in terms of the accusations you've made on the terrorist attacks on October 7th, have we said repeatedly, whenever information was shared with Anwa about certain individuals.
Action was taken from the Anoi side.
It was Ana that acted, I think on about 20 of its staff members.
This was almost two years ago.
The list of every Anoi staff members is shared with the host country.
That includes Jordan, that includes Lebanon, that includes Syria, and that includes Israel.
So just to follow up, since this is a legislation in the severing of relations with AR is law in Israel that was actually not being raised by the government but by the opposition.
How do you explain the consensus in Israel from right to left of opposition.
Frankly, I think there's been a lot of disinformation about what Anwa is and what Anwa is not.
Okay.
Any questions online? Yes, Abdel Hamid.
Thank you.
I want to follow up with the questions on, no, no.
First, there are 340 students who are now part of that training center.
It was mentioned in Al Akbaov statement as you see.
So you said no student there, 20 were escorted safe as if that thanks Israel for escorting them.
I didn't Abd Hamid Abdel Hamid, please do not put words in my mouth, okay? I did.
Okay.
Unto I didn't say escorted.
I said they were allowed to leave leave safely.
The question was the question to me was how many people were people in the school at the time, and I think I answered it, but go ahead.
So the question is, don't you see that there is an attack on the UN and ICJ and on the Secretary-General when there is many mandates were issued by the GA to authorize Ana to work in the occupied Palestinian territories and the other operation areas like Syria and Lebanon? I mean, it is clearly an attack on the UN and it goes against the ruling of the ICJ.
And I think I've laid that out pretty clearly in the statement I read on behalf of the Secretary-General.
Yes.
So the attack was in the headquarters in Sheikh Jah and Israel went along and continued to attack on here again, they attack another training center and the UN, you know, just they keep contending and nothing practically has been done to stop Israel from doing that.
What else could the UN do? Look, to end this is committed by Israel.
Abdham Unwa works as mandated by the General Assembly.
The General Assembly is made up of member states.
It would be useful if member states also echoed or echoed more loudly the words of the Secretary-General.
Jacqueline Charles, I see a lot of your yellow hands go up.
Go ahead.
Okay.
So a couple of questions.
So I spoke to the mayor this morning and he's telling us that their official tally is 25 dead.
And I'm trying to figure out the huge discrepancy.
I mean, do we know why? And then, do you have any, um, We're also hearing reports about people have been kidnapped.
I don't know if you have any figures on that.
And then yesterday, I mean, everybody's asking, where's the JSF? Where are the Haitian security forces? I mean, are you guys asking us? Can you give us an explanation on how do we explain this attack and multiple attacks as outlined in your report with the presence of a foreign force in the country? Listen, I think all the questions about the security forces, whether national or international are valid ones, but those need to be asked to them.
They don't answer to us.
I have no doubt the GSF is doing the best it can.
On the discrepancy of numbers, I think it is sadly not surprising that in the immediate aftermath, there's some discrepancies of number given the difficulties in access, at least for us to the site.
So I think again, as we see in many of these horrific tragedies and mass murder because that's what it was.
It takes a few days for the numbers to stabilize, if I can use that term.
Thank you.
All right.
On that note, we will have call Scow come to you at 1:10 down at the Security Council stakeout.