Tuesday, 20 October

UN Geneva Press Briefing (LINK) — 20 October 2026

Alarming humanitarian situation in Afghanistan ahead of the lean season

Olga Cherevko, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), speaking from Kabul: this crisis was not simply about whether food existed, but whether people could afford it, whether they could earn an income, access basic services, or whether they had anything left to fall back on when the next shock hit.

Between September and October, 15.9 million people — nearly one in three Afghans — had been facing acute food insecurity at crisis level or worse, with the outlook deteriorating in the upcoming winter lean season. It was projected that more than four million children aged six months to five years would need treatment for acute malnutrition the following year.

— One of the most striking findings, said Ms. Cherevko, was that food was available but remained inaccessible for millions of people. Better rainfall and agricultural production had helped, but one good harvest after several years of drought could not undo the damage of several years.

Systematic exclusion of women and girls in Afghanistan

UNICEF warned recently that, if current restrictions continued, Afghanistan could lose up to 20,000 women teachers and 5,400 female health workers by 2030. The impact on nutrition was equally important: malnutrition was not only from lack of food, but it was shaped by maternal health, access to healthcare, dietary diversity, education and the ability to earn a living.

Afghanistan also needed sustained investment in the foundations of recovery: agriculture and rural livelihoods, local markets, employment, water systems, health and nutrition services, and opportunities for women to participate in economic life.

Deteriorating situation in Taiz

Akhil Iyer, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Country Representative in Yemen, connecting from Aden: Escalating fighting and fuel shortages were threatening UNICEF water systems serving an estimated three million people.

Since the latest escalation in September, an estimated 120,000 people — more than half of all those newly displaced across Yemen — had been displaced to Taiz. Many had fled repeatedly, arriving in overcrowded communities with little food, limited clean water and almost nothing left to sustain themselves. Fighting had disrupted critical supply routes, including the Taiz–Aden corridor. Mr. Iyer said that the World Food Programme had already warned that wheat flour stocks in affected areas of Taiz were nearly exhausted — an alarming development in a governorate already facing some of Yemen's highest levels of food insecurity, with ten of its 16 districts previously classified at Emergency levels.

— This year, UNICEF had screened more than 168,000 children in Taiz, and more than 52,000 children had been found to be acutely malnourished. Now, diesel shortages threatened to bring water pumps to a halt, while the cost of trucked water had tripled since this latest escalation. For families already struggling to buy food, safe water was becoming increasingly unaffordable. UNICEF was helping keep water pumping systems serving an estimated three million people in Taiz operational through the provision of diesel, while providing emergency water and sanitation services to more than 300,000 people.

— Answering questions, Mr. Iyer said that the cost of trucked water had tripled in recent weeks. People were rationing water because pumping stations were not working constantly due to fuel shortages. In Taiz, local authorities did not have adequate amounts of diesel fuel, which affected regular collection of garbage and led to piles of garbage in certain parts of the city. While UNICEF had some therapeutic food prepositioned, it was now more access than supply problem. Receiving authorizations from the warring parties was necessary before distribution of therapeutic food could be conducted, he explained. The routes were blocked by fighting in general, he explained, and no route was safe. Negotiating with both sides was thus necessary to secure safe access.

Tarik Jašarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO): cholera was rising sharply across Yemen: from 221 the week of 6-12 September to 673 the week of 4-10 October. In addition, over 20,000 measles 400 diphtheria cases had been recorded. Access problems affected delivering supplies to 12 hospitals in Taiz, which were facing fuel and essential medicine shortages.

Matthew Saltmarsh, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR): over 250,000 people had been displaced internally between 1 August and 17 October. UNHCR had provided cash assistance to some 2,000 families and shelter to over 3,000 families. He reminded press that there were some 65,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Yemen, with some 3,800 new arrivals from Yemen to Djibouti.

Inequalities in non-communicable diseases

Dr. Søren Brostrøm, Director, Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, at the World Health Organization (WHO): report State of inequality: Noncommunicable Diseases and Their Risk Factors published today covered four major NCDs: cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, and key risk factors including tobacco and alcohol use, obesity and unhealthy diets, insufficient physical activity and air pollution

Eight out of top ten causes of death globally were now attributed to the NCDs, which led to death of an estimated 75 percent of people around the world. Almost 20 million deaths per year were caused by cardiovascular diseases, some nine million deaths by cancer, and four million by chronic respiratory diseases. For comparison, AIDS and tuberculosis each killed about 1.5 million people per year.

Ninth World Investment Forum

Marcelo Risi, for the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD): theme of 9th forum "Investing in the Future." Strategic sectors, including AI infrastructure, semiconductors and energy-transition technologies, accounted for 44 percent of global greenfield investment project values in 2025, up from 16 percent in 2020.

Some 3.7 billion people lived in countries which spent more on servicing debt than on social services and education. In Doha, more than 70 sessions would bring policymakers and investors together around all these questions.

Tuesday, 13 October

UN Geneva Press Briefing ((LINK) — 13 October 2026

International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction

Jeanette Elsworth, for the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR): Housing accounted for 43 per cent of direct economic disaster losses reported by countries through the Sendai Framework Monitor, highlighting the urgent need for greater investment in safer homes and household preparednesshousing accounted for 43 per cent of direct economic disaster losses reported by countries through the Sendai Framework Monitor, highlighting the urgent need for greater investment in safer homes and household preparedness.

Maria Moita, Director, Department of Humanitarian Response and Recovery at the International Organization for Migration (IOM): In 2025, IOM had reached 1.4 million people across 39 countries through disaster risk reduction programmes, supported 1,194 communities and helped extend early warning coverage to more than 1.2 million people. These investments helped communities prepare, protect lives and livelihoods, and reduce displacement risks. In Venezuela, following the June earthquakes, assessments found that more than half of affected households had identified housing repairs as a priority.

Friday, 9 October

UN Geneva Press Briefing ((LINK) — 9 October 2026

Recovery and preparedness in Nepal

James Elder, for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), speaking from Kathmandu: More than 32,000 children in Nepal had been affected by floods that had begun when a mountain of glacial ice and rock collapsed into a Himalayan river in late August.

Two hundred and forty million people lived in the Hindu Kush Himalay. Another 1.65 billion lived downstream and relied on the rivers this ice fed, which was nearly two billion people — about a quarter of humanity.

Caroline Holt, Director for Disasters, Climate and Crises at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), just returned from Nepal: teacher who had reacted quickly and warned his 900 students, making sure no child in his school lost a life, had been trained on disaster preparedness by the Nepal Red Cross.

Displacement across the Central Sahel

Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde, Director of the Regional Bureau for West and Central Africa at the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), just returned from Nepal: UNHCR was increasingly concerned about the deepening displacement crisis in the Central Sahel, with nearly four million people uprooted across Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, including more than 818,000 refugees and asylum-seekers. This was roughly twice the number recorded in October 2020. As of September 2026, however, UNHCR's response in the Sahel was only 27 per cent funded, forcing difficult choices over which essential services and activities could be sustained, warned Mr, Gnon-Konde.

Volatile humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Damien Mama, Humanitarian Coordinator in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, toured the eastern DRC over the recent weeks: More than 6.1 million people were displaced from their homes by conflict and violence. More than 26 million people in the DRC were food insecure and struggling to put food on the table. Children were disproportionately affected, with over four million under five facing malnutrition.

The Ebola outbreak was adding another layer to an already devastating situation. It was spreading through communities that were already dealing with displacement, hunger, insecurity, and the disruption of basic services.

Situation in Gaza

Sofia Calltorp, Chief of Humanitarian Action at UN Women: nearly 50,000 women and girls had been killed or severely injured since October 2023: more than 38,000 killed and 11,700 left with injuries so severe that they now lived with lifelong disabilities. This was equivalent to one in every 21 women and girls in Gaza. 277 women and girls had been killed since October 2025.

The number of women heading households had doubled over the past three years. Women now headed one in four households in Gaza.

Karl Baker, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Crisis Coordinator on Gaza Response, connecting from Amman: Despite one year since a ceasefire had been announced, nearly the entire population of two million people still required shelter assistance. Only 17 per cent of winter-specific shelter needs were covered by the pipeline of humanitarian shelter partners. This was due to the combination of insufficient funding and continued Israeli restrictions on the entry of critical shelter supplies.

According to the Palestine Shelter Cluster, coordinated by IOM, half of all existing tents and makeshift shelters were in poor or very poor condition and required replacement. While tents had been entering Gaza this past year, they were temporary solutions made to last only 6-12 months. Current forecasts indicated that a strong El Niño weather pattern could bring a wetter, longer and more intense winter. Most of the 1.8 million people living in displacement sites were in flood-risk areas.

Arrests and detentions of Syrians by Israeli forces

Shabia Mantoo, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): Some 280 incidents involving armed Israeli incursions into Syria had been recorded in September alone, through open-source monitoring -the highest monthly number since the start of the year. These included reported raids on homes, restrictions on movement, harassment and intimidation of civilians, arbitrary detention and destruction of livelihoods. According to information OHCHR had received, 49 Syrians remained in Israeli custody, although OHCHR had not independently verified a comprehensive, current total.

Floodwater risks rise in South Sudan

Vijaya Souri, Chief of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in South Sudan, speaking from Juba: Nearly 109,000 displaced people in Bentiu were living in a camp surrounded by flood waters. For nearly 150,000 people in Bentiu and Malakal IDP Camp, water taps could run dry. Around 2,200 latrines could overflow. Drainage pumps could stop operating. Floodwaters could contaminate drinking water sources, increase the spread of disease and trigger further displacement. IOM urgently needed USD 8.35 million to maintain these services for another 12 months, from December 2026 to December 2027

World Mental Health Day 10 October

Dr. Mark van Ommeren, Head, Mental Health and Substance Use Unit at the World Health Organization (WHO): the theme the role of lived experience. Deinstitutionalization was a gradual and planned shift from managing people in long-stay psychiatric institutions to supporting them through community-based mental health and social care, so people could live the life they wanted to live. But typically half of countries' mental health budgets remained tied up in institutions that were largely designed for a past era.

Tuesday, 6 October

UN Geneva Press Briefing webcast (LINK) — 6 October 2026

Health situation in Darfur

Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Sudan, speaking from Khartoum after a 10-day mission to Darfur: humanitarian and health needs across the region continued to outpace available resources. 5.6 million people were displaced across Darfur, representing 65 percent of all internally displaced persons in Sudan. WHO required USD 97.7 million for its health emergency response in Sudan but had received only USD 22 million.

Impact of the Ebola outbreak on child6ren in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Halimatou Amadou, Chief of Communication for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: More than 1,900 children had lost one or both parents or caregivers to Ebola, or had been separated from them, since the outbreak was declared in May 2026. Of those, 1,581 were in Ituri and 322 in North Kivu. She stressed that these figures reflected only the areas where UNICEF and its partners were operating.

Children accounted for just over one quarter of confirmed cases but around one-third of the deaths. She underlined that mortality had been particularly high among children under five years of age, with seven in ten confirmed cases resulting in death.

— UNICEF needed USD 113.4 million for its Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and had so far received just over one-third of that amount.

Population movements in Djibouti

Alexandre Coissac, Chief of Mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Djibouti: Over the previous three weeks, more than 3,700 refugees had arrived in Djibouti from Yemen, while IOM had also recorded more than 20,000 incoming migrant movements from Ethiopia and 539 Ethiopian migrants returning from Yemen since 10 September.

— Between 20 and 30 September, more than 3,000 stranded migrants had been observed across the country, with many facing dehydration, exhaustion, food and water shortages, as well as risks of exploitation and violence.