The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Situation in Tigray, Ethiopia
Andrej Mahecic, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that, together with 30 humanitarian partners, UNHCR was releasing today an urgent appeal for USD 156 million. The requested funds were needed to meet the critical humanitarian needs of Ethiopian refugees fleeing the conflict in Tigray through the first half of 2021.
The Regional Refugee Preparedness and Response Plan for the Ethiopia Situation
(Tigray) covered the period from November 2020 through to June 2021 and was expected to reach up to 115,000 refugees and 22,000 people from host communities. It aimed to support the governments of Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea in maintaining and facilitating access to
asylum and providing life-saving assistance to those who had been forced to flee.
Currently many refugees remained in overcrowded conditions without proper facilities and
there continued to be a shortage of medicines and other supplies. Partners were calling for
urgent new contributions in order to meet the immense humanitarian needs in eastern
Sudan and to ensure full preparedness throughout the region, concluded Mr. Mahecic.
UNHCR briefing note is here.
More than 52,000 refugees had arrived to Sudan thus far, said Mr. Mahecic responding to a question. Access to Tigray was very much needed in order to assess the situation there, including the number of internally displaced persons.
Elizabeth Throssell, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), stated that the continuing lack of overall humanitarian access, coupled with an ongoing communications blackout in many areas, raised increasing concerns about the situation of civilians.
OHCHR had received allegations concerning violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, including artillery strikes on populated areas, the deliberate targeting of civilians, extrajudicial killings and widespread looting. Those reports pointed to failure by the parties to the conflict to protect civilians, which was all the more concerning given that fighting was said to be continuing, particularly in some areas of north, central and southern Tigray.
One of the most shocking incidents reported to date was the alleged mass killing of several hundred people, mainly Amharans, in Mai Kadra, on 9 November. If civilians had been deliberately killed by a party or parties to the conflict, these killings would amount to war crimes and there needed to be independent, impartial, thorough and transparent investigations to establish accountability and ensure justice. Independent human rights monitors ought to be allowed to all areas of Tigray as soon as possible in order to ensure accountability, stressed Ms. Throssell.
OHCHR briefing note is here.
Refugee ration cuts in Uganda
Tomson Phiri, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that from February 2021 the WFP would reduce cash and food rations for more than 1.2 million refugees in Uganda. Uganda hosted around 1.4 million refugees, which made it one of the largest refugee populations in Africa. Most of those refugees had fled different conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Burundi. This year had been incredibly difficult for those refugees, and the WFP had received less than one half of the funds it needed. Since April 2020, the WFP had already been issuing reduced rations in order to keep up its activities.
WFP immediately needed USD 95.8 million to provide rations to Uganda over the next six months. WFP aimed to continue providing assistance to the most vulnerable categories, but there was a fear that there would be many who could not be helped. Many refugees were already food insecure, stressed Mr. Phiri. Consistent funding was necessary in order to secure continuous support for the refugees.
Geneva announcements
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that this was the last briefing of 2020. The next briefing would take place on Tuesday, 5 January 2021. Ms. Vellucci thanked all the spokespersons, the journalists and her staff at UNIS for being cooperative and going an extra mile in this extraordinarily difficult year.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Press Conferences | HRC
Press conference on the latest report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the UN Human Rights Council
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OHCHR
Victims Still Waiting: A Global Briefing on Transitional Justice Around the World
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | WMO
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”.
ends
1
1
1
Press Conferences | WMO , OCHA , WHO , UNICEF , UN WOMEN , OHCHR , IOM , UNHCR
Update on Ebola from WHO and OCHA, update on the situation of children with the beginning of school in Ukraine from UNICEF, UN Women on the impact of the settlers and restrictions on women and girls in West Bank, OHCHR on the recovery of extensive human remains in Gaza, IOM and UNHCR on the new wave of displacement in Yemen
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WFP
‘Super El Niño’ and converging crises worsen hunger in South Sudan and across the region - WFP
South Sudan’s hunger crisis is becoming increasingly catastrophic as violence, extreme weather and dwindling aid leave millions without enough food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | HRC
Update on the human rights situation in Belarus by the UN Group of Independent Experts on the Human Rights Situation in Belarus
1
1
1
Press Conferences | HRC , OHCHR
Update on the human rights situation in Syria by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNOG , IOM , UN WOMEN , UNCTAD , WHO , UNECE
IOM Yemen's Western Coast displacement; UN WOMEN on Gaza; UNCTAD Strait of Hormuz disruptions impacts; WHO Ebola logistics in DRC; WHO smoking and infertility; UNECE Data centres and energy.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNITAR , WMO
UNITAR: GA resolution on the merger of the United Nations System Staff College into the United Nations Institute for Training and Research; WMO: Air Quality and Climate Bulletin released; WHO: Ukraine update
2
2
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WMO
Powerful El Niño heightens extreme-weather risks through 2027, as countries brace for impact - WMO
Fuelled by extraordinarily warm waters across the tropical Pacific Ocean, the El Niño climate pattern is expected to intensify in the coming months. Forecasters are almost certain that it will persist through February next year, with unusually warm conditions expected across the globe.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | IFRC , UN WOMEN , WFP , WHO , WMO , OCHA
UN WOMEN/IFRC: Update on the impact of the floods in Nepal, WFP: Food assistance in the West Bank, WHO: Gaza’s rehabilitation needs and continued spread of diseases
1
1
1
Press Conferences | IFRC , ITU , OCHA , OHCHR , UNCTAD , UNDRR , UNHCR , UNICEF , WHO , WMO
UNDRR/OCHA/IFRC/UNICEF/WHO: Nepal updates; IFRC/WMO: El Niño Update; WHO: Health situation in Ukraine; UNHCR: 65 years after landmark Convention; OHCHR: Human Rights situation in Haiti;
ITU: Upcoming Greening Digital Companies 2026 report; UNCTAD: World Investment Forum 2026 in Doha 25-27 October