Recovery and preparedness in Nepal

James Elder, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), speaking from Kathmandu, said that 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. Parts of towns and villages still looked like war zones. Scientists warned that, as the Himalayas warmed, this kind of disaster was becoming more likely, and the countries that had done least to cause it were being left to pay for it.

Mr. Elder stressed that this problem reached far beyond Nepal. The Hindu Kush Himalaya held more ice than anywhere on Earth, outside the polar regions. Two hundred and forty million people lived in these mountains. 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. That system was now being pushed out of balance. Faster melting brought more water and more flood risk now, and serious shortages later as the glaciers disappeared. Both were driven by a heating planet. Nepal produced only around 0.1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet children, who were least responsible for the climate crisis, were among those bearing its heaviest consequences.

This disaster had not begun when the waters rose. Before the floods, more than half a million children in Nepal had been already exposed to at least multiple overlapping climate and environmental hazards. On a positive side, the response from Government, communities and the UN was comprehensive, with new bridges built just weeks after a mountain of water and rock ripped through such infrastructure. However, unless the world acted to reduce climate risks, we would keep returning to the same valleys after the next flood and the next landslide, and yet again find children once paying the highest price.
That was true in Nepal, across Asia and the Pacific, and around the world, concluded Mr. Elder.

Caroline Holt, Director for Disasters, Climate and Crises at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), had just returned from Nepal and shared what she had seen. She had witnessed stories of both loss and resilience. Ms. Holt provided an example of a teacher who had reacted quickly and warned his 900 students, making sure no child in his school lost a life. This teacher had been trained on disaster preparedness by the Nepal Red Cross. Investment in early warning and preparedness mattered and saved lives, stressed Ms. Holt. Now, the focus was shifting from immediate life-saving assistance to recovery. The Nepal Red Cross was the first organization to provide cash assistance, which allowed people to continue their lives with dignity. In the hardest-hit locations families faced numerous obstacles, and people now needed confidence in the future, which required planning. Sustained, reliable resources were very much needed as the recovery efforts were getting underway, concluded Ms. Holt.

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), who had just returned from the region, said that 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. The crisis was being compounded by continued attacks affecting civilians, climate-related shocks and severe humanitarian funding shortfalls. Together, these pressures were forcing more families to flee, eroding livelihoods and limiting opportunities for displaced people to rebuild their lives, contributing to further movements within and beyond the region.

In Mali, the vast majority of refugees were from neighbouring Burkina Faso. In Koro, in the Bandiagara region, the refugee population was now approaching the size of the local host community, placing mounting pressure on already scarce land and water resources, overstretched health services and limited livelihood opportunities. Climate-related shocks were adding another layer of pressure to communities already struggling with displacement and insecurity. In Koro, agricultural cooperative initiatives bringing together Burkinabè refugees and host-community members had helped expand cultivated land from 21 hectares in 2025 to 45 hectares in 2026, improving food production and household incomes. In Burkina Faso, similar support in Kaya was helping internally displaced people and host communities increase food production, reduce post-harvest losses and generate income. These efforts remained tiny compared with the scale of displacement, but they showed what could be achieved when people forced to flee were given the means to rebuild their lives while longer-term solutions were sought.

The crisis was also increasingly extending beyond the Central Sahel. For some, displacement did not end in neighbouring countries. When safety and prospects remained out of reach, refugees might move on, often alongside migrants, taking dangerous routes towards North Africa and Europe. This underscored the wider regional and international consequences of prolonged insecurity and limited opportunities closer to home. UNHCR had been working with governments and partners to establish multi-purpose service hubs that provide critical information, counselling, referral services and essential assistance. 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.

Full briefing note is available here.

Volatile humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Damien Mama, Humanitarian Coordinator in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had toured the eastern DRC over the recent weeks, traveling to hard-to-reach areas. Millions of people longed for peace and security, yet both remained out of reach in large parts of the country, particularly in the eastern provinces. 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. Essential services were under enormous pressure, and for some families who managed to return, home no longer looked like home, with their houses destroyed, schools gone, health centres no longer functioning.

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. These crises were not separate, stressed Mr. Mama; they fed into one another. When people were forced from their homes, they lost access to healthcare. When health services were disrupted, disease spread more easily. When humanitarian workers could not safely reach communities, both the humanitarian response and the Ebola response were weakened. Despite the constraints, humanitarian workers remained on the frontlines, reaching some of the most vulnerable communities in the country. Protecting both civilians and humanitarian personnel was not optional, the speaker stressed. It was an obligation under international humanitarian law. He concluded by stating that humanitarians needed sustained access, greater protection for civilians and humanitarian workers, and to reinforce the Ebola response and the wider humanitarian response at the same time. The international community had to act with the urgency that this crisis demanded.

Situation in Gaza

Sofia Calltorp, Chief of Humanitarian Action at UN Women, stated that the scale of suffering in Gaza could be measured in the lives of women and girls. UN Women estimated that 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. While most of the casualties had been recorded during the first two years of the war, women and girls continued to be killed and injured even after the ceasefire agreement entered into effect a year ago. 277 women and girls had been killed in Gaza since October 2025. Behind every number was a life: women with hopes and ambitions, mothers caring for their children, daughters, spouses and friends, and women contributing to their families and communities.

Today, almost every woman and girl in Gaza remained displaced, with the majority living in tents or among the ruins of their homes. The war had also reshaped family life. The number of women heading households had doubled over the past three years. Women now headed one in four households in Gaza, often while facing deeper poverty, repeated displacement and the responsibility of caring for their families with increasingly limited resources. Women’s organizations were lifelines to women, girls and their families, but funding cuts were threatening their ability to serve those who need them. The consequences were immediate, and nearly two thirds of the organizations surveyed said they had been forced to put women and girls on waiting lists or turn them away altogether. UN Women called for the ceasefire in Gaza to be fully implemented, international law to be upheld, and accountability for violations, alongside the protection of women and girls.

More information is available here.

Karl Baker, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Crisis Coordinator on Gaza Response, connecting from Amman, said that despite one year since a ceasefire had been announced, nearly the entire population of two million people still required shelter assistance. The reality was that the current shelter response was nowhere near the scale required to protect people. 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. This was a frustrating situation, stressed Mr. Baker, because humanitarian organizations had shelter solutions ready. IOM, like all Shelter partners, ensured compliance with Israeli security requirements and specifications, yet supplies continued to be turned away at crossing points. Humanitarian partners were doing everything possible to find alternative materials inside Gaza, but local markets had been exhausted. Mr. Baker concluded by stressing that meeting humanitarian needs and fulfilling the commitments outlined under the ceasefire framework requires the immediate and sustained entry of shelter materials.

Simple tents were allowed in, but more durable solutions were needed and at a higher scale, explained Mr. Baker in a response to a question.

Arrests and detentions of Syrians by Israeli forces

Shabia Mantoo, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that OHCHR was concerned by the continuing impact of Israeli military operations on civilians in southern Syria. 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.

Information from released detainees and other sources described prolonged detention periods - in some cases exceeding a year, detainees reportedly not being informed of the reasons for their detention, as well transfers between several and unknown facilities, and allegations of torture and ill-treatment. These included beatings, prolonged forced standing, setting dogs on detainees, and threats to harm them and their families. On 5 October, a 22-year-old man from Jaba town in Quneitra governorate, had been killed by Israeli forces near Al-Hamidiyah town. Information OHCHR received indicated that he had been walking at night in an area unfamiliar to him and had not known an Israeli military position was at the end of the road. No warning shots were known to have been fired. The High Commissioner called for a prompt and impartial investigation. Ms. Mantoo stressed that the Israeli authorities should cease actions that harass or intimidate civilians in Syrian villages, including raids, restrictions on freedom of movement, detention and destruction of crops. No person should be detained absent proper basis in international law.

Full statement is available here.

Situation of children in Yemen

Ricardo Pires, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that beyond the immediate dangers of violence and displacement in Yemen, there were deeply worrying signs of a worsening health crisis for children, with alarming levels of malnutrition and a sharp rise in disease outbreaks. Access to healthcare continued to shrink. More than one in three children recently screened by UNICEF mobile health teams in Yemen had been found to be suffering from acute malnutrition. Around 1,500 pregnant and breastfeeding women had also been identified as malnourished. Mr. Pires said that disease was now spreading. Cholera cases had tripled in just three weeks, while dengue and malaria cases were also rising.

This came as renewed fighting forced families to flee their homes. Since the beginning of September, more than 200,000 people, including an estimated 110,000 children, had been displaced across ten governorates. Since 3 September, UNICEF verified that 28 children had been killed and 25 injured. Three others are reported missing. For Yemen's children, warned Mr. Pires, the ongoing fighting was creating a crisis within a crisis, and every new wave of violence made their chances of survival more precarious.

Floodwater risks rise in South Sudan

Vijaya Souri, Chief of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in South Sudan, speaking from Juba, said that for more than a decade, families in South Sudan had been living through protracted displacement. Many had remained displaced since 2013, enduring years of insecurity, repeated flooding and uncertainty about when they would be able to rebuild their lives. Today, nearly 109,000 displaced people in Bentiu were living in a camp surrounded by flood waters. The camp depended on a system of protective dykes to keep the water out. Continuous pumping removed accumulated water, while regular maintenance helped keep the dykes standing. But these defences were under growing pressure and worsened by the risk of flooding with heavy rains were expected anytime between now and December. Humanitarian operations were facing increasingly severe resource constraints. Funding was becoming more limited, even as the needs of displaced communities remained high. By the end of November 2026, funding for IOM's critical water, sanitation and flood protection operations in Bentiu and Malakal would run out. Unless new resources were secured, these services could be interrupted from December. For the nearly 150,000 people in Bentiu and Malakal IDP Camp, this meant 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, warned Ms. Souri.

IOM urgently needed USD 8.35 million to maintain these services for another 12 months, from December 2026 to December 2027. With continued funding, IOM could keep these systems operating and undertake the maintenance needed to reduce the risk of flooding. Alongside maintaining essential services, IOM was working with UN agencies, non-governmental organizations and local authorities towards more sustainable infrastructure and longer-term solutions to displacement. Essential services should not be allowed to stop while longer-term solutions were still being developed. The coming weeks were critical.

World Mental Health Day

Dr. Mark van Ommeren, Head, Mental Health and Substance Use Unit at the World Health Organization (WHO), informed that the theme of this World Mental Health Day on 10 October was the role of lived experience. By putting lived experience at the centre of the conversation in countries, communities around the world would be reflecting on what meaningful engagement really meant; that reflection was fundamental to a much-needed change of culture in mental health care.

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. The goal was dignity, freedom, choice and the support to live a full life. In mental health, there now existed vast amounts of advanced science, and there was increasing goodwill for mental health. Yet, at the same time, the paradox was that typically half of countries’ mental health budgets remained tied up in institutions that were largely designed for a past era. Dr. van Ommeren emphasized that listening to people with lived experience was helping see a better path: investing in community-based support, protecting rights, and creating services that people actually want.

Today, WHO was focusing on institutions as the elephant in the room in mental health in many countries. By launching a practical guide to the deinstitutionalization/DI of psychiatric hospitals WHO sought to support countries, guiding them to move from managing people in institutions to caring and supporting people in the community to live the lives they wanted to live. This guide supported hospital leaders and policymakers to implement deinstitutionalization/DI locally. It focused on adults staying in psychiatric hospitals for more than six months. It focused on three areas of action: reducing new admissions and shortening stays; improving care practices in the hospitals; and enabling discharge as appropriate supports became available through building community alternatives.

Further information can be accessed here.

Nobel Peace Prize

Shabia Mantoo, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), congratulated Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, the former High Commissioner for Human Rights, who had just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She said that Ms. Pillay had been a staunch defender and advocate of human rights. It was important in this day and age to see that accolade being awarded to those who were speaking out on violations of human rights.

Other questions

Responding to a question on the ongoing protests in France, Shabia Mantoo, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), called on everyone to ensure that the protests in France remained peaceful and that there was no disproportionate use of force.

On another question, she said that the absolute prohibition of torture also prohibited public executions, anywhere in the world.

Answering a question, Alessandra Vellucci, for the UN Information Service (UNIS), confirmed that on 21 October, the Sixth Sudan Consultative Meeting on Enhancing Coordination of Peace Initiatives and Efforts in Sudan would take place at the Palais des Nations, co-hosted by the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General and the Government of Switzerland. This would be preceded by a meeting with various agencies on the humanitarian situation in Sudan in the afternoon of 20 October. More information on media opportunities would follow.

Announcements

Eujin Byun, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), informed that the UNHCR's 77^th Annual Executive Committee meeting would be held in the Assembly Hall from 12 to 16 October. The meeting would be opened by the High Commissioner on 12 October at 10 am, and those remarks would be shared with the media. The meeting would be webcast live.

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was reviewing Moldova today. The following week, the Committee would review Paraguay, Togo, Angola, and Cabo Verde.

The 6^th Forum of Mayors would be held at WIPO in Geneva on 12 and 13 October, under the theme "Cities Delivering for a Sustainable Future". The Forum would bring together mayors from across the UNECE region and beyond to exchange experiences, share best practices, and adopt an outcome document reflecting shared priorities, emphasizing the essential role of local governments in delivering a sustainable future.

***