The Secretary-General will travel this afternoon to Stockholm, Sweden, to attend the Stockholm +50 conference, which is being hosted by Sweden with the support of the Government of Kenya.

The Secretary-General spoke by telephone with HE Mr. Rashed Al-Alimi, Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council of the Republic of Yemen, to discuss the implementation of the UN-brokered truce and political and security developments in Yemen.

The UN welcomes the lifting of the state of emergency in Sudan. This is an important step to create an enabling environment for direct intra-Sudanese talks to end the political crisis in the country.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said today that it is stepping up its efforts to address soaring acute food insecurity in Sudan.

Six United Nations agencies – including the World Meteorological Organization, UNICEF, WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – together with eight meteorological agencies and NGO partners, expressed today their concern over what they call the unprecedented drought affecting Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths today concluded a four-day visit to Mali.

Yesterday, the peacekeeping mission in Mali released its quarterly human rights report, covering the first three months of the year. During this period, the mission recorded 812 cases of violations and abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners have begun distributing aid to thousands of people in Nyiragongo territory, including food to some 35,000 people, water and medicine to at least 10,000 people.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Secretary-General responded to the death of President Evaristo Carvalho, former President of São Tomé and Príncipe, saying that President Carvalho was a respected statesman who paved the way for a new generation of leaders after serving as head of state from 2016 to 2021.

Geir Pedersen, the Special Envoy for Syria, is briefing the Security Council today in closed consultations.

According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Ukrainians continue to try to evacuate Donetska and Luhanska oblasts in the east and Zaporizka oblast in the southeast under insecure conditions.

The UN has expressed its deepest condolences to the family and colleagues of French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, who was killed yesterday while covering the evacuation of civilians from the Ukrainian town of Sievierodonetsk for the French television channel BFM TV.

The Department of Global Communications today announces that it has renamed its annual training program for Palestinian broadcasters and journalists to the Shireen Abu Akleh Training Program for Palestinian Broadcasters and Journalists. It is in honor of Ms. Shireen Abu Akleh, the American-Palestinian reporter for Al-Jazeera who was killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on May 11 this year.

Today is World No Tobacco Day and the World Health Organization has released a report showing how tobacco harms both the environment and human health.

The spokesperson corrected information reported in error by some media last week. The Special Representative of the United Nations Mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has not bought a house in Laâyoune.

Tomorrow at 12.30 p.m. there will be a briefing by Ambassador Ferit Hoxha, Permanent Representative of Albania, who will chair the Security Council in June.