The Secretary-General arrived earlier today in Somalia on his annual solidarity visit for Ramadan, and discussed the Government’s valuable efforts to tackle terrorism and advance peace and security for everyone, among other issues.

An update from Afghanistan: nbsp;You will have seen that our colleagues in Kabul issued a statement very early this morning saying that following the decision of the de facto authorities to ban Afghan women from working for the UN in Afghanistan, the Mission there initiated an operational review period up to 5 May this year to conduct the necessary consultations and make required operational adjustments and accelerate contingency planning for all possible outcomes.

A quick note on Sudan, where I can tell you we are deeply concerned by a video circulating featuring a man requesting a fatwa at a public event last night in Khartoum to allow him to assassinate the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan, Volker Perthes.

In Ankara, Türkiye, today, Alvaro Rodriguez, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, briefed donor Member States to our $1 billion Flash Appeal on the earthquake. nbsp;The Appeal is 29 per cent funded as of today.

The Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, is continuing her visit to China before heading on to Japan and the Republic of Korea. nbsp;Today she met today with State Councillor and Minister for Foreign Affairs Qin Gang, and they discussed UN engagement and cooperation efforts with China and other regional developments.

Our team in the Gambia, led by Resident Coordinator Seraphine Wakana, has been supporting the National Disaster Management Agency to respond to heavy floods for the past eight months, in close collaboration with the Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In a statement we issued last night, the Secretary-General expressed his sadness at the passing of Benjamin Ferencz. Our best tribute to Mr. Ferencz is to continue his essential work to promote accountability for atrocity crimes and ensure that the voices of victims are heard.

Programming notes, at 6 p.m. tonight in the Visitors’ Lobby, there will be an opening event for the exhibition “Stories of Survival and Remembrance: nbsp;A Call to Action for Genocide Prevention”. The exhibit is a joint project of the Holocaust and the UN Outreach Programme, the Outreach Programme on the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and the Office for the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect.

Tomorrow, we will have, around 12:00 p.m., a briefing by the President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Lachezara Stoeva.

And lastly, we now have 88 paid-up Member States for their dues. nbsp;This South-east Asian Nation is home to three UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage sites, including one called Sambor Prei Kuk.nbsp;