UN Geneva Press Briefing
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid press briefing which was attended by spokespersons and representatives of the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration, the World Meteorological Organization and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Launch of the Global Report on Food Crises 2026
Beth Bechdol, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Deputy Director-General, Jean-Martin Bauer, Director of Food Security, World Food Programme (WFP) and Ricardo Pires, Deputy Spokesperson, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), presented the new Global Report on Food Crises 2026. Ms. Bechdol said this tenth report was a neutral, jointly validated reference point that could help decision makers focus on where food needs were most severe and most persistent.
Acute food insecurity, Ms. Bechdol added, was becoming more entrenched, more concentrated, and more predictable. In 2025 (the year the report covered), 266 million people had faced high levels of acute food insecurity across 47 countries, nearly double compared to a decade ago. More than 80 percent of those affected were in protracted crises, and the burden was increasingly concentrated in a small number of countries, including Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.
Mr. Bauer said nearly 370 million people were living in stressed conditions (IPC2), in other words: one shock away from crisis. The number of people in IPC5 (the highest level in the five-point scale used to monitor and analyze food security worldwide) had increased by a factor of nine in the past ten years, reaching 1.4 million in 2025. Also in 2025, there were two famines confirmed in the world, one in Sudan and one in Gaza.
Mr. Pires said the report showed that in 2005, an estimated 35.5 million children under the age of five were acutely malnourished in 23 countries. Nearly 10 million of these children were suffering from severe wasting, a condition that was life-threatening but entirely preventable and treatable. In Gaza, the report noted the fastest deterioration in child nutrition ever recorded, with the number of acutely malnourished children more than doubling in a matter of months. In Sudan, famine was confirmed in areas where families were trapped, services had broken down, and children were increasingly cut off from life-saving care. These were not isolated cases: Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar and South Sudan were all classified as facing severe nutrition crisis, where children were exposed to a deadly convergence of poor diets, high disease burden, and lack of basic services.
Prevention must start early, before children reached the brink of death. Response efforts must prioritize multi-sectorial life-saving action combined with sustained political, diplomatic, and operational action to prevent further deterioration.
Health situation in Gaza
Speaking from Jerusalem, Dr Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, new World Health Organization (WHO) Representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, said that, in Gaza, damages to the health sector alone were estimated at 1.4 billion US dollars. More than 1,800 health facilities had been partially or completely destroyed, from big hospitals to smaller primary health care centers, clinics, pharmacies and laboratories.
Destroyed buildings and mountains of accumulated waste had created ideal breeding grounds for rodents and pests. 80 percent of 1,600 displacement sites had frequent, visible, rodent and pest presence; over 80% of these displacement sites reported skin infections, such as rabies, lice, and bed bugs.
Despite these challenges, efforts to boost the health system in Gaza were moving forward. WHO had thus completed a 128-bed extension at Al-Shifa Hospital. However, for saving life to have an impact, health and health care workers needed to be protected; and essential medicines and supplies must enter Gaza, including with the removal of bureaucratic processes and access restrictions on globally recognized essential medicines and supplies.
Answering questions from journalists regarding medical evacuations, Ms. Van de Weerdt said these were a complicated process from a security and logistics point of view, but first and foremost from a patients’ rights point of view: patients and their families had the right to be treated where they lived, and that meant medical supplies must enter Gaza.
Patients could leave Gaza to go to hospitals in East Jerusalem or in the West Bank: to do so, they would leave via the Rafah border crossing, going into Egypt and from there to other countries, now recently also back to Jordan. The last medical evacuation took place on 23 April, through Rafah, for 47 patients and 86 companions.
There was a reduced number of trauma-care patients in Gaza, Ms. Van de Weerdt also noted.
IFRC humanitarian response in Iran
Cristhian Cortez Cardoza, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Deputy Regional Director for the Middle-East and North Africa region, back from a 4-day mission to Iran, said the impact of weeks of intense conflict was deeper than what headline suggested, and that its consequences would be felt by Iranian society for months and years to come.
Hundreds of health facilities, business and educational institutions had been damaged or destroyed. There were growing concerns about access to specialized medical equipment and supplies, especially dialysis machines: the raw materials required to manufacture the filters for these machines were only available for the next two or three months.
What stood out was the extraordinary capacity and reach of the Iranian Red Crescent Society: its presence at community level across the country was remarkable, with 7,000 community centers that provided services ranging from psychosocial support, first aid, and support for shelter and livelihood for those in need. Their teams were well trained to deal with disasters, their response time being on average just 4 minutes after a strike. However, their operating environment was marked by constant insecurity and the fear of “double tap” attacks on the same sites: volunteers had been killed and injured in this context.
The IFRC was scaling up its support. This included a revised emergency appeal of CHF 120 million to serve 10 million people, meet increasing needs, and enable practical steps to overcome access challenge. Vital funding must be ensured, so that organizations on the ground could continue their life-saving work and help communities begin rebuilding their lives.
Report on deaths and displacement in Lebanon
Thameen Al-Kheetan, for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said the Office had published today a report on deaths and displacement in Lebanon during the first three weeks of the recent escalation of hostilities between Hezbollah and the Israeli military. The reported documented impacts on the rights to life, health, education, food, housing, work, a safe environment, freedom of movement, and freedom of religion or belief.
An analysis of the large-scale attacks, shelling and ground incursions had found that operations by Israeli forces in Lebanon had involved direct attacks on civilians, including medical personnel. Also documented were several incidents in which Israeli strikes had hit, and in some cases levelled, multi-story residential buildings, killing entire families. Similar incidents had continued even after the present ceasefire had been announced. Hezbollah had fired reportedly unguided rockets into residential areas in Israel, damaging buildings and other civilian infrastructure.
In many of the Israeli attacks, no warnings, or no reasonably effective warnings, had been given, preventing many civilians from evacuating safely. Israel’s vaguely communicated blanket evacuation warnings and displacement orders – covering almost 14 per cent of Lebanon’s territory – had led to the displacement of over a million people, according to the Lebanese authorities. Given the breadth and circumstances of these orders, they may amount to forced displacement, prohibited under international humanitarian law.
OHCHR continued to document frequent deadly attacks on healthcare workers, particularly first responders, and on journalists. On Wednesday, an Israeli strike had killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil in the south, and injured photographer Zeinab Faraj. Rescue teams, including the Lebanese Red Cross, attempting to reach them had reportedly faced obstruction by the Israeli military. This included the use of a sound grenade and live fire targeting an ambulance, delaying access to the site.
Deliberately targeting medical personnel, whether military or civilian, and other civilians, including journalists, would amount to a war crime. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called for impartial investigations into all incidents involving allegations of violations of international humanitarian law. He also urged all States to cease the sale of military equipment where there was a clear risk that they could be used to commit, or facilitate the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
Answering questions, Mr. Al-Kheetan said that, according to figures issued by the Lebanese government, 27 journalists had been killed in Lebanon since 2023. Some 290 media workers had been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023. In war zones, journalists and media workers performed a vital function by informing the public and by documenting violations, thereby supporting accountability. This was why they must be protected and there must be accountability for all incidents where they were targeted.
The full report is available here.
Ms. Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service, reiterated the condemnation expressed yesterday by the spokesperson of the Secretary-General: “We condemn the killing of Lebanese journalist, Amal Khalil, in a reported Israeli airstrike in Tiri, in Southern Lebanon yesterday. We extend our condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Amal, and we express our hopes for a full and swift recovery of the second journalist injured in the same incident”.
Drought-Driven Displacement in Somalia
Brian Kelly, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Senior Programme Coordinator in Somalia, speaking from Nairobi, said new IOM data showed that nearly 62,000 people had been displaced by drought since the beginning of 2026 in five districts, while the total figure could be over 300,000 for the country. At the same time, nearly 6.5 million people, almost one out of every three in the country, were facing high levels of hunger, and more than 1.8 million children were expected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year.
IOM projections indicated that drought could provoke the displacement of approximately 125,000 more people between April and the end of June, despite some forecasts of rainfall.
IOM and partners were responding with emergency support, including shelter, water and essential assistance for newly displaced families. But needs were rising faster than available resources. Collectively, UN agencies and NGO partners had received only 14 percent of the total funding requested for humanitarian assistance in 2026.
Urgent support was needed to sustain life-saving assistance, alongside greater investment in drought resilience and measures that help communities withstand future shocks. IOM was urgently seeking USD 10 million to save lives and provide a basic level of dignity to the most vulnerable.
Answering questions, Mr. Kelly said supplies in Somalia had become restricted for several reasons, including inflation in fuel prices due to the closing of the Strait of Hormuz: fuel prices had more than doubled, from around USD 0.6 cent per liter to USD 1.50. This was compounding the impact of drought and reducing the ability of families to cope.
El Niño event in 2026
Clare Nullis, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said an increasing El Niño event was expected to develop from mid-2026. El Niño events, she reminded, had a major impact on rainfall and temperature patterns, and tended to increase global temperatures.
Wilfran Moufouma Okia, Head of Climate Prediction at WMO, further explained that, in general, El Niño tended to provoke excessive rainfall in the Greater Horn of Africa and the southern part of South America; and, on the contrary, drought conditions in Australia, Indonesia and Southeast Asia. El Niño also led to spikes in the global temperature: in 2024, which was the warmest year on record, the temperature was up by 1.55 degrees. Depending on the intensity of the next event, this rise could be reached or even temporarily breached.
Currently, WMO was able to say for certain that the event would be strong. On the other hand, given there were different ways of measuring the intensity of El Niño, a refined statement on the intensity of the next event would be made available in May.
Ms. Nullis added that the issuing of El Niño updates was a lengthy international process, based on building a consensual expert opinion.
Announcements
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), said the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) would be concluding, this morning, its review of the report of Cuba. Next Thursday, 20 April, in the morning, the Committee would hold a public meeting with States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
The Committee against Torture (CAT) would meet in public next Monday, at 4 p.m., to review the follow-up to its concluding observations, to individual complaints received by the Committee, and to reprisals against persons who collaborate with the Committee.
The 11th Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) would meet at UN headquarters in New York from 27 April to 22 May. The review conference would assess the implementation of the Treaty since 2022 across its three pillars: nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and the peaceful use of nuclear energy; it would also seek to identify areas and means through which further progress could be made.
In this context, the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) was inviting journalists to join a hybrid press conference with Under-Secretary-General Izumi Nakamitsu, also High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, today at 1.15 p.m. New York time (7.15 p.m. in Geneva). The President of the Conference, Ambassador Do Huong Viet of Viet Nam, would hold a press conference on the 27 April at 2 p.m. (New York time) after the opening session. Both press conferences would be webcast on UN Web TV.
Finally, Ms. Vellucci noted that 24 April was the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace. She directed journalists to a video on multilateralism published today by the UN Library and Archive department.
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