Weekly schedule of President António Costa, 24-30 March 2025
UNICEF condemns looting of lifesaving supplies for children in Sudan
The attack on one of the last operational hospitals in the area further deepened the ongoing humanitarian crisis sparked by the civil war between rival militaries, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which started in April 2023.
Among the stolen supplies were 2,200 cartons of ready-to-use therapeutic food – a crucial treatment for children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition characterized by severe weight loss and muscle wasting.
Also stolen were iron and folic acid supplements for pregnant and lactating women, as well as midwife kits and primary healthcare supplies meant for mothers, newborns and children.
Attack on their survival
“Stealing life-saving supplies meant for malnourished children is outrageous and a direct attack on their survival,” said Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF.
“These unconscionable acts against vulnerable children must end. All parties must adhere to international humanitarian law, protect civilians, and ensure safe and unhindered humanitarian access to those in need.”
UNICEF had successfully delivered these supplies on 20 December last year, marking the first humanitarian shipment to Jabal Awlia in over 18 months. However, the looting, combined with escalating violence that has forced aid operations to suspend, is pushing the region’s most vulnerable closer to disaster.
Children pushed closer to catastrophe
The hospital is situated in Jabal Awlia, one of 17 localities at risk of famine.
The region has been struggling with severe shortages of food, medicine and other essentials. Fighting has blocked commercial and humanitarian supplies for more than three months, leaving thousands of civilians trapped amid intensified fighting.
More than 4,000 people have been forced to flee, further deepening the crisis.
Unprecedented humanitarian crisis
Beyond Jabal Awlia, the humanitarian disaster extends across Sudan, where millions are facing life-threatening conditions.
More than 24.6 million people – over half the population – are facing acute food insecurity, and the collapse of health services, the closure of schools and record levels of displacement have created an unprecedented crisis.
In the face of rising challenges, UNICEF called on all actors to urgently ensure unimpeded humanitarian access to deliver aid, the protection of hospitals and civilian infrastructure, as well as security guarantees for aid workers to ensure life-saving assistance can reach those in need.
Read-out of the online meeting between European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with the leaders of Iceland, Norway, Türkiye and the United Kingdom
European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met via video conference with the leaders of Iceland, Norway, Türkiye and the United Kingdom following the European Council of 20 March 2025.
‘The poison of racism continues to infect our world’, Guterres warns on International Day
21 March marks the adoption of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and honours the legacy of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, when South African police opened fire on a peaceful protest against apartheid, killing 69 people.
A toxic legacy
Despite decades of progress, racism remains a threat, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned in a message marking the occasion.
“The poison of racism continues to infect our world – a toxic legacy of historic enslavement, colonialism and discrimination. It corrupts communities, blocks opportunities, and ruins lives, eroding the very foundations of dignity, equality and justice,” he said in the message read by his Chef de Cabinet, Courtenay Rattray, at a General Assembly commemoration.
He described the International Convention as a “powerful, global commitment” to eradicating racial discrimination urging everyone to turn this vision into reality.
“On this International Day, I call for universal ratification of the Convention, and for States to implement it in full,” his message continued, urging business leaders, civil society and individuals to take a stand.
“This is our shared responsibility.”
General Assembly President Philémon Yang (centre) addresses the commemorative meeting on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Matching words with action
General Assembly President Philémon Yang also emphasised need of translating the Convention – an international legal instrument – into action.
“As with all other legal instruments, ambition must translate into implementation and action,” he said, urging sustained political will and global solidarity.
“Let us ensure that dignity, equality, and justice are not vague aspirations but substantive realities…we must all stand against racism, and build a world where equality is not just promised but practiced – for everyone, everywhere,” Mr. Yang said.
Meanwhile, Ilze Brands Kehris, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, warned of rising xenophobia, hate speech and divisive rhetoric worldwide.
“Racism still permeates our institutions, social structures and everyday life in all societies,” she said, cautioning that racial and ethnic groups continue to be targeted, isolated and scapegoated.
A moment to reflect
Also speaking in the Assembly, Sarah Lewis, founder of Vision & Justice initiative, underscored the importance of Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, as the blueprint to eliminate racism and protecting human rights
She said that many societies were built on racial discrimination and warned that such practices undermine future progress and harm everyone.
“When are we going to give up the lie that there is any basis for the idea that anyone is better than anyone else on the basis of race, colour, national origin or ethnic origin,” she asked ambassadors.
Sarah Lewis, Associate Professor at Harvard University and Founder of Vision and Justice, addresses the UN General Assembly.
Youth as agents of change
A recurring theme throughout the commemoration was crucial role of young people in shaping solutions.
General Assembly President Yang emphasised the need to empower the youth, not only to protect them from discrimination but to enable them to become agents of change.
“Their voices must shape the policies and solutions that lead to a just and inclusive society,” he emphasised.
Echoing this, Ms. Brands Kehris highlighted the power of education in dismantling racism.
“If we practice racism, we teach racism,” she said, urging everyone to correct injustices so future generations can learn from example.
She also highlighted that acknowledging historical injustices are essential to dismantling systemic racism, and fostering reconciliation, healing and equality.
Exhausted Gazans wake from another night of Israeli bombing: UN aid teams
“We’re waking up from another intense night of bombardments, the fourth night of bombardment since the ceasefire abruptly broke down on Monday night…the situation is gravely, gravely concerning,” said Sam Rose, Acting Director of Affairs in Gaza for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees.
Speaking from close to the Netzarim Corridor bisecting the Gaza Strip which Israeli security forces have begun to reoccupy, Mr. Rose said that bombardments “across the Gaza Strip” caused large-scale loss of life in the past four days.
His comments came as the Israeli Defense Minister reportedly issued instructions for further occupation of parts of Gaza and warned of partial annexation unless further hostages are released.
“Most of those deaths have occurred at night, the Ministry of Health here is reporting around 600 people killed; among those, around 200 women and children,” Mr. Rose told journalists via video link in Geneva. “Absolutely desperate tragedies.”
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) also relayed familiar scenes of panic and desperation from medical and ambulance teams in Gaza: “Colleagues have had hundreds of call-outs across the Gaza Strip and responded to dozens of fatalities and injuries as bombing continues,” he said.
“Doctors are exhausted, essential medical supplies are running low and corridors are crowded with people either in need of treatment or waiting to find out whether their loved ones will survive.”
Evacuation order misery
UNRWA’s Mr. Rose also described the damaging impact of new Israeli evacuation orders on an estimated 100,000 Gazans, in addition to the Israeli decision on 2 March to stop all humanitarian deliveries into the enclave. Aid convoys had been allowed back into Gaza on 19 January, when the fragile six-week ceasefire between Hamas and Israel began.
“This is the longest period [without aid being trucked in] since the start of the conflict back in October 2023,” Mr. Rose insisted.
He added that if the ceasefire is not restored, it will result in “large-scale loss of life, damage to infrastructure property, increased risk of infectious disease and massive trauma for the one million children and for the two million civilians who live in Gaza. And it’s worse this time because people are already exhausted.”
Bakery closure anxiety
The UNRWA senior officer warned that an estimated one million people in March will likely go without rations, “so we will only reach one million people rather than two million” he said, adding that six of the 25 bakeries that the UN World Food Programme (WFP) supports have already closed.
Gazans worried about food shortages are already congregating around bakeries in greater numbers than before the aid blockade resumed.
“As this continues, we will see a gradual slide back into what we saw in the worst days of the conflicts in terms of looting, in terms of crowd problems, in terms of agitation and frustration, all translating into desperate conditions amongst the population,” Mr. Rose said.
He explained the risk of aid supply cuts to malnourished children in Gaza who need steady supplies for five to six weeks “just to stabilize their condition – there’s no improvement in their weights (and) in their nutritional situation over those weeks”.
From the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), spokesperson James Elder condemned the impact of the war on the enclave’s youngsters, since it erupted on 7 October 2023 in response to Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel that killed around 1,250 people and left more than 250 taken hostage.
“Child psychologists would say our absolute nightmare is that they return home and then [the war] starts again. So, that’s the terrain that we’ve now entered. We don’t have an example in modern history in terms of an entire child population needing mental health support. And there’s no exaggeration that’s the case.”
UNRWA’s Mr. Rose noted that before the resumption of Israeli bombing, the UN agency had restored primary healthcare to 200,000 people by reopening its health centres.
In addition, children once again had access to education, with some 50,000 boys and girls back at school across central and southern Gaza.
“The images, the videos, the life and the happiness in the eyes of the children – the pupils – was really something to behold,” Mr. Rose said. “One of the few positive stories that we’d have been able to communicate from from Gaza, but alas, all that is, is back to naught.”
Statement by the High Representative on behalf of the EU on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2025/484 concerning restrictive measures in view of Türkiye’s unauthorised drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean
Statement by the High Representative on behalf of the EU on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision concerning restrictive measures in view of Türkiye’s unauthorised drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Running to bomb shelters, nothing new for Ukraine’s schoolchildren
There have been a staggering 1,614 recorded attacks on Ukrainian schools up to the end of last year says the report from the UN human rights office OHCHR – part of a legacy of death, injury, disability and family separation.
Children’s educational attainment level has plummeted during the unrelenting hostilities, “diminishing their future educational path and ability to realize their full potential in employment and beyond.”
Furthermore, children living in the four regions annexed by Russia in breach of international law, are “especially vulnerable” following the imposition of a Russian school curriculum.
Propaganda exercise
“Military-patriotic training is prioritised, and children are exposed to war propaganda,” Liz Throssell of the Office for Human Rights told journalists in Geneva on Friday.
“Children are also completely restricted from accessing education in the Ukrainian language and have been imposed with Russian citizenship,” she continued.
The horrifying impact on Ukraine’s youngest extends way beyond the classroom. As the report unveils, a verified 669 children were killed and 1,833 injured since February 2022, with the actual numbers likely much higher.
With hundreds of thousands of internally displaced and close to two million children living outside the country as refugees, many of them separated from a parent, High Commissioner Volker Türk said “their rights have been undermined in every aspect of life, leaving deep scars, both physical and psychosocial.”
OHCHR confirms that at least 200 children have been transferred to Russia, or within occupied territory in eastern Ukraine – “acts that may constitute war crimes,” Ms. Throssell insisted.
However, due to lack of access, the full scale of these incidents cannot be properly evaluated, the UN official stated.
‘Drastic wartime experiences’
“It is clear that Ukrainian children have endured a wide range of drastic wartime experiences, all with serious impacts – some as refugees in Europe, others as direct victims, under continued threat of bombardment, and many subject to the coercive laws and policies of the Russian authorities in occupied areas,” UN human rights chief Türk said.
“As our report makes clear, acknowledging and addressing violations are essential to ensure a future where all Ukrainian children can reclaim their rights, identity and security, free from the enduring consequences of war and occupation,” he added.
Children, refugees pay hefty price of global aid funding crisis
Spokespersons for UNICEF and UNHCR in Geneva warned that the liquidity crunch has jeopardized lifesaving work, including progress in reducing child mortality, which has fallen by 60 per cent since 1990.
By slashing severe acute malnutrition by one-third since 2000, UNICEF’s efforts have kept 55 million children alive, through simple interventions, it insisted.
“There are ways in which we can still be optimistic if we know that we can do it,” said Kitty van der Heijden, UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director said from Abuja, Nigeria.
But that work can only get done with the support of a “conveyor belt” of partners in government, philanthropy, and the private sector.
Donors are essential to delivering lifesaving assistance to children and mothers worldwide, Ms. Van der Heijden insisted: “We never do this alone.”
Advances being rolled back
But these gains are now at risk of being rolled back by recent pullouts, she warned, adding that the issue does not lie with a single benefactor.
“It is the fact that it’s a cumulative set of donors that are doing this. That really risks rolling back that progress,” she said.
“These decisions have impacts on real children, real lives every day in the here and now.”
Due to funding shortages, around 1.3 million children could lose access to life-saving support and ready-to-use therapeutic foods this year in Nigeria and Ethiopia.
In 2025, some 213 million children in 146 countries will need lifesaving humanitarian support, according to the UNICEF spokesperson.
Supply chain break down
In the Afar region of northeast Ethiopia, UNICEF runs 30 mobile clinics – which Ms. van der Heijden visited last week and described as a “sheet under a shaded tree”.
The facilities, aimed at supporting impoverished pastoralist communities that are on the move, provide pregnant and lactating mothers as well as children with the “bare minimum”, she said, including supplementary vitamin A, iron deficiency, malnutrition and malaria treatments.
Only seven out of these 30 clinics remain, with the others shut by the wave of financial cutbacks.
“Without new funding, we will run out of our supply chain by May,” she said. “And that means that 70,000 children in Ethiopia depend on this type of treatment cannot be served.”
Similarly, in Nigeria, UNICEF could run out of supplies between this month and May.
Beyond treatment, prevention
Investing in prevention, nutrient supplementation and early screenings is also crucial to preventing more unnecessary deaths.
“It’s not just about the treatment. We have to be able to prevent it getting to this stage.”
Earlier this week, Ms. van der Heijden visited a Nigerian hospital and saw a child so malnourished that his skin was peeling off.
“That’s the level of malnutrition that we’re seeing here,” she said, stressing the importance of prevention.
“As needs are rising, we need the global community to step up to the plate, to rise to the occasion, to keep investing in the art of the possible,” Ms. Van der Heijden stressed, adding that UNICEF will not retreat.
“All over the world, the price is the same. It’s children that bear the brunt of decisions in capitals.”
Failing the children
“If you’re holding a child that is about to die of a totally preventable, treatable disease. It is nothing short of heartbreaking,” said Ms. van der Heijden. “We should not allow the global community to fail children in this way.”
The severe financial crisis underway is also posing a security risk to staff, hampering humanitarians’ ability to deliver.
UNHCR downsizing operations
Finding itself in a similar position, UNHCR has also announced cuts to operations and programmes.
It is the latest agency to face painful cutbacks in the field and at headquarters following the announcement of a drastic drawdown in funding from the United States Government.
“The biggest concern that we have is, of course, in all of this for refugees, for the displaced, they will be feeling the brunt of these cuts,” said Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesperson for UNHCR.
Mr. Saltmarsh said the agency was conducting a review to determine how many staff would have to be let go.
UNHCR has already has to halt multiple initiatives including in South Sudan, Bangladesh and Europe, and closed offices in countries like Türkiye.
In Ethiopia, the organization has suspended operations at a safehouse for women facing death threats, Mr. Saltmarsh said.
“In South Sudan, only 25 per cent of the dedicated spaces supported by UNHCR for women and girls at risk of violence are currently operational. That has left some 80,000 people without access to services like emergency psychosocial support and legal and medical assistance.”
