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PRESS BRIEFING BY THE UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE
14 April 2023
Looming ration cuts for refugees in Chad
Pierre Honnorat, World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director for Chad, speaking from Ndjamena, stated that the WFP was once again extremely concerned about the funding challenges; USD 140 million was needed by the WFP for the next six months. Chad was surrounded by countries in crises and was currently hosting 600,000 refugees from Sudan, Niger, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic. In 2022, 90 percent of the refugees had not received even six months of assistance, which had led to increased malnutrition rates, violence in camps, and negative coping mechanisms. 2023 was another difficult year, as there was no funding to help refugees and other displaced people from May onwards. WFP was nonetheless hoping to reach at least 30 percent of those who are most in need, stressed Mr. Honnorat. Government of Chad needed international support with hosting the refugees, especially ahead of the upcoming lean season.
Responding to questions, Mr. Honnorat said that more than two million people in Chad had been estimated to be food insecure in 2022. Every two months, the WFP had to launch emergency appeals; more steady, consistent, and predictable funding was hence necessary. There were now more newly arrived Sudanese than Nigerien refugees, explained Mr. Honnorat. All 600,000 refugees should be empowered; they could, for example, be given land plots to exploit and thus become self-sustainable. There seemed to be goodwill on the part of the Government of Chad in this regard and return on such investments was encouraging. While the aid to Chad had increased in recent years, the needs had increased even more, thus creating gaps in funding. Mr. Honnorat explained that the largest donors included a number of European countries and the United States. More information about the WFP’s activities in Chad is available here.
Matthew Saltmarsh, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), added that UNHCR was looking to raise USD 172.5 million this year to help one million forcibly displaced people in Chad; this appeal was currently only 15 percent funded. Mr. Saltmarsh underlined that Chad was far from being the only desperately underfunded emergency in Africa. UNHCR was fully supportive of development-based solutions as well as considering voluntary returns of refugees.
Black Sea Grain Initiative
Responding to questions from journalists, Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), said that inspections on grain-carrying ships had taken place on 13 April. The Joint Coordination Center had published information on its website. The United Nations was very determined to implement both the Memorandum of Understanding and the Black Sea Grain Initiative; discussions were going on. UN would not speculate about possible outcomes as the process was ongoing.
Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), specified that six ships had been inspected on 13 April, which was an average number. She said that she would transmit the journalists’ interest for a press conference with the UNCTAD Secretary-General, Rebeca Grynspan.
Migrant crisis in the Mediterranean
Replying to a question, Matthew Saltmarsh, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that UNHCR welcomed the additional funds the Government of Italy had decided to dedicate to migrants. Italy had recently experienced a massive increase in the influx of migrants, and the country should not bear this burden on its own. He emphasized that saving lives on the sea was both a long-standing maritime tradition and a legal obligation of States. A robust and reliable state-led search-and-rescue capacity in the Mediterranean ought to be established, said Mr. Saltmarsh.
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), said that the UN had repeatedly expressed concern over perilous crossings of the Mediterranean, and referred to the need for safe migration as defined in the Global Compact for Migration.
Announcements
Clare Nullis, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), announced that on 21 April at 1 p.m., there would be a hybrid press conference to present the State of Global Climate 2022 report. Speakers would be Petteri Taalas, WMO Secretary-General, and Omar Baddour, Chief of WMO Climate Monitoring and report coordinator. The report, which would be published ahead of the Earth Day, 22 April, was based on the input from a wide range of UN agencies.
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination would conclude its review of the report of Niger this morning. It would continue its session the following week with the review of the reports of Argentina, Portugal, the Philippines, and Tajikistan.
The Committee against Torture would start its 76th session on 17 April, during which it would review the reports of Colombia, Brazil, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Kazakhstan, and Ethiopia.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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