Source: United Nations (Video News)
Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
– Secretary-General Travel
– Deputy Secretary-General
– Syria
– Occupied Palestinian Territory
– Sudan
– Democratic Republic of the Congo
– South Sudan
– Haiti
– Nigeria
– Refugee Funding Cuts
– ECOSOC
– International Days
– Briefings – Monday
Secretary-General travel
The Secretary-General arrived today in Rome, where tomorrow, he will attend the funeral of Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Square. He will be back in the office on Monday.
There will be a plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly to pay tribute to the memory of Pope Francis on Tuesday, in the General Assembly Hall at 3 pm. The Secretary-General will speak at that meeting.
And the UN flag will be flown at half-staff on Tuesday, as well.
DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL
The Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed will travel to Montevideo, Uruguay, later today to chair the annual regional retreat with UN Resident Coordinators from across the Latin America and the Caribbean region. Ms. Mohammed will also meet with senior government officials to strengthen the UN-Uruguay partnership and discuss priority actions to support the Sustainable Development Goals. She will return to New York on April 29.
SYRIA
This morning, the Security Council held an open briefing on Syria. Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, told Council members that the political transition in Syria is now at a truly critical juncture. He added that in his recent discussions with the interim authorities, including Mr. Ahmad Al-Sharaa, he stressed the need for future constitutional process that involves all of Syria’s societal and political components.
For her part, Ms. Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said that nearly three quarters of the population in Syria are in need and 7 million are displaced.
Since the start of the year, 960 trucks have delivered aid through the cross-border operation from Türkiye – more trucks than during the whole of 2024. However, we need more funding to sustain this work, let alone scale it further, she said.
Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=25%20April%202025