International News
The fourth round of the Libyan 5+5 Joint Military Commission talks began at the Palais des Nations in Geneva this morning, with the participation of Stephanie Williams, Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya. The deliberations in this round will continue until 24 October.
The United Nations migration agency and the African Union launched their first‑ever report on African migration, showing that present-day African migration takes place mainly by land, not by sea, and that migrants’ destinations are overwhelmingly each other’s countries and not Europe or North America.
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on World Food Day, observed on 16 October:
Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the launch of World Food Week, today:
Following are UN Deputy Secretary‑General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, at the annual fourth informal joint meeting of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Executive Board and the World Food Programme (WFP) Board, today:
There has been a dramatic rise in major storms, drought, wildfires, floods and other extreme weather events over the last 20 years, which have claimed 1.23 million lives, impacted 4.2 billion people and caused almost $3 trillion in global economic losses, according to a report published today by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ statement on the awarding of the 2020 Nobel Prize for Peace to the World Food Programme, today:
The Nobel Committee has awarded this year’s Peace Prize to the United Nation World Food Programme (WFP). The Secretary-General congratulates David Beasley, WFP’s Executive Director, as well as the agency’s entire staff. The Programme is on the frontlines of food insecurity, serving the most vulnerable of the world.
To mark Space Week, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs will hold a webinar tomorrow on the KiboCUBE programme, a collaboration with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency giving developing countries an opportunity to deploy a satellite from Japan’s module of the International Space Station free of cost.
The United Nations is increasingly concerned about the impact of Syria’s economic downturn. Food prices there have more than tripled in the past year, a record 9.3 million people are food insecure, and without future support, over 2 million more risk being pushed further into hunger, according to the World Food Programme.