Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's briefing by Daniela Gross, Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

**Briefing

Hello, good afternoon, everyone. I'm really sorry for the delay. I'm going to start today with our guest, because she has been waiting for us patiently. So, thank you so much, Susan Ferguson. She's the UN-Women's Special Representative in Afghanistan and she's joining us virtually to brief on the situation of women and girls in the country after 5 years from the Taliban takeover. Susan, please go ahead. Thank you so much again.

[This part of the briefing was not transcribed.]

Ok and now, we are going to start the briefing.

**Afghanistan

I'm also going to do just a follow-up note on Afghanistan. The UN Children's Fund today said that more than 2.6 million girls in Afghanistan have been denied a secondary education in the five years since the de facto authorities took power. UNICEF warns that girls who are out of school face heightened protection risks, including child labour, abuse, early marriage and gender-based violence.

Despite the restrictions, UNICEF continues to support learning in Afghanistan.

**Occupied Palestinian Territory

Turning now to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, I will start with the situation in the West Bank. Our humanitarian partners warn that aid work is being delayed and limited by a network of over 900 physical obstacles - including checkpoints, gates, roadblocks and other restrictions. This hinders humanitarian access and leaves people in need underserved.

Today, aid and municipal workers have been struggling to secure access to three Palestinian families in Qusra village near Nablus. These families have been trapped there since Tuesday, following the establishment of a settlement outpost next to their homes and the tightening of access restrictions in the area.

Alongside municipal workers, our partners have been trying to deliver food, water, milk formula, medicines and hygiene items to those trapped inside, but such attempts have been unsuccessful so far. Our colleagues warn that efforts to protect Palestinians have been ineffective, with settlers reportedly reinstalling a tent that Israeli forces had dismantled yesterday.

Meanwhile, in the northern West Bank, where the humanitarian situation remains particularly severe, child protection partners have provided vital assistance, including psychosocial support, case management and services for children with disabilities, to nearly 30,000 children and 15,000 adults since the start of this year.

Turning to Gaza. OCHA says that humanitarians continue to provide vital aid to people in Gaza, despite persistent insecurity and restrictions.

Last week, we and our partners mobilized rapid support for people who had lost their shelters or were displaced again due to attacks, domestic fires and other incidents.

In more than a dozen reported incidents, people were displaced and lost their belongings due to attacks, impacting nearly 290 households. Two households were affected by domestic fires, which are often linked to unsafe cooking in shelters in the absence of proper energy sources. Another five households were affected by the placement of new yellow cement blocks, which often triggers displacement in Gaza by signaling the expansion of areas where access is restricted.

Most of last week's appeals for help come from northern Gaza and Deir al Balah, with the UN and our partners tailoring the response to meet families' specific needs.

Also last week, our partners report that more than 300,000 children continued to participate in summer learning programmes they support. To address the impact of extreme heat in Gaza, our education colleagues installed shade structures in 10 temporary learning spaces.

**Ukraine

And from Ukraine, our colleagues at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report that they continue to deliver humanitarian assistance to front-line areas that are hard to reach, at a time when the security situation is worsening across the country, driving needs even higher. Yesterday and today, OCHA, with support from partners leading on logistics, facilitated two humanitarian convoys to front-line communities in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions, delivering hygiene supplies, first-aid kits and food.

**Cameroon

And now turning to Cameroon, Tom Fletcher, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, has allocated $1 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support the cholera response in the country's Far North Region.

Our humanitarian colleagues at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tell us that the allocation targets 230,000 people with a focus on children, as well as refugees in communities at high risk near borders. The funds will help us and our humanitarian partners to provide support in cholera prevention, treatment and safe water and sanitation.

OCHA said that as of 12 August, more than 1,250 cases and 31 deaths had been reported across nine health districts.

The outbreak, which began in late June, continues to expand and has already exceeded the scale of recent cholera outbreaks recorded in 2019, 2022 and 2024.

The outbreak is affecting remote and insecure areas that become harder to reach during the rainy season, increasing delays in access to treatment. Conditions in Minawao refugee camp, which hosts more than 81,000 refugees and where 80 cases have already been recorded, further increase the risk of transmission.

The 2026 Cameroon Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan, which calls for $319 million, is just over a quarter funded.

**South Sudan

And in South Sudan, where the UN refugee agency and the World Food Programme warned today that without urgent funding 240,000 refugees will receive the final food and nutrition assistance in September. They are the last remaining refugees of the 650,000 who have been receiving food support across the country.

The agencies warn that the consequences of an interruption in critical aid would be immediate and long-lasting, including heightened risks of malnutrition and of exploitation and abuse of women and children. UNHCR is particularly concerned about the risk of yet more cross-border movement as people search for food and assistance.

This comes as more than 7.8 million people, that is over half the population, face high levels of acute food insecurity, and 2.2 million children are acutely malnourished.

WFP faces an immediate $37 million gap for its refugee response and an overall funding shortage of $258 million for the remainder of 2026. That's lots of money. Both agencies are appealing for immediate, flexible funding to prevent a suspension of lifesaving assistance.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo/Ebola

From the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that nearly three months into the Ebola outbreak, the Bundibugyo strain continues to spread, with Bas-Uélé now becoming the sixth affected province. As of 12 August, over 4,660 confirmed cases and 2,184 deaths have been recorded by the national authorities, with a case fatality rate of nearly 47 per cent.

As the outbreak expands, food assistance is also being scaled up to support patients and communities affected by Ebola. Starting tomorrow, the World Food Programme (WFP) will extend its hot meal programme to additional Ebola treatment centres in Ituri and other provinces.

Since the end of May, our colleagues at WFP have provided more than 260,000 hot meals at treatment and isolation centres across the provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu.

This assistance is particularly important as 2.6 million people are facing acute food insecurity across Ebola-affected areas in eastern [Democratic Republic of the Congo] at crisis level or worse, which means that families experience high acute malnutrition. More than half of these families are in the province of Ituri, the epicentre of the outbreak. However, the level of response is far outpaced by the scale of needs.

OCHA tells us that the food security sector is only 25 per cent funded, so urgent additional funding is needed to ensure life-saving food aid reaches those who need it the most.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo/Peacekeepers

One last note on also on the [Democratic Republic of the Congo], turning to Ituri, but this one is from our peacekeeper colleagues, they tell us that the UN Mission in the country has been conducting daily patrols across agricultural areas in the Djugu territory during the harvest season to protect farmers from the potential threat of armed groups. These patrols have been conducted in coordination with Congolese armed forces.

Within this context, MONUSCO established a Mobile Operating Base at Bassa to ensure freedom of movement along national route 27. Our colleagues note that this is particularly important to allow women to safely access their farms and transport their harvest. This is from me now. Just organizing my papers and I will take questions. Edie, please.

**Questions and Answers

Question: Thank you, Daniela. Is there any update on the UN's involvement in the earthquake relief operation in Colombia?

Associate Spokesperson: The last update I had was from yesterday. I know that our colleagues continue to work on the response. There was an assessment that was going on and we soon should have more information on that. We should have more updates on that for next week.

Question: Is the United Nations going to do any kind of an appeal for reconstruction aid for Colombia?

Associate Spokesperson: I would say that probably next week we should have more information on that as well. But I'm not going to promise anything.

Any further questions? Or we are ready for the weekend? I am, certainly. That's it. Thank you so much, everyone. Have a great weekend. Thank you.