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UN PhotoADDIS ABABA / GUTERRES AU SUMMIT PRESSER
STORY: ADDIS ABABA / GUTERRES AU SUMMIT PRESSER
TRT: 05:00
SOURCE: UN ECA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 15 FEBRUARY 2026, ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
1. Zoom in, Secretary-General António Guterres walking up to the podium
2. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“I carry with me my deepest gratitude to the governments and people of Africa for their global leadership in the struggle for justice and equality – and my deepest conviction in the enduring power and promise of Africa. That conviction is reflected in concrete action. The United Nations-African Union partnership is stronger than ever.”
3. Wide shot, press briefing room
4. SOUNDBITE (French) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“There is a decision calling for a ceasefire, but unfortunately, we continue to see bombings in Gaza. There is a United Nations decision for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, but they are still there. There are decisions of the Security Council and the General Assembly affirming that Gaza is an integral part of the Palestinian State and that it is absolutely necessary to move forward in respecting the self-determination of the Palestinian people. It is not due to a lack of decisions by United Nations bodies that things are not fully moving in the right direction, even though there has been progress. It is because there have been obstacles, and there are still difficulties — and most of these obstacles and difficulties have been primarily due to the actions of the State of Israel, which maintains control over a large part of Gaza.”
5. Wide shot, press briefing room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The difficulty has been that both sides believe that they can win the war, and at the same time, a number of other countries are feeding that war in a way that makes the negotiations for peace much more difficult, and the obstacles for peace much more difficult. And I strongly hope that there will be decisions, namely, at the level of the Security Council, for true accountability, in relation to all the crimes that have been committed until now, and some of them were horrendous - you mentioned El Fasher - it is probably the most horrendous, but we have seen a carnage in Sudan that is totally intolerable in the 21st century.”
7. Med shot, journalist
8. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The drama was - the dramatic cuts that humanitarian aid provided by donors have suffered. The biggest cut was of course the United States cut when the USAID was extinguished. But there were several other countries, namely in Europe and in other parts of the world that reduced their contributions to humanitarian aid. And this has created a dramatic situation in many of our operations. And you can't imagine, I was High Commissioner for Refugees, and I've worked for ten years with the most vulnerable people in the world, and I know how needed it is to provide them effective assistance. And I've seen my colleagues that are today in the High Commission for Refugees having to work with half the resources I had at that time and with more refugees than the ones that I had at that time. So, this is something that is extremely, extremely painful for us to see people suffering and not to have enough resources to respond to their most basic needs.”
9. Wide shot, press briefing room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Africa needs free trade for its goods, and Africa cannot be penalized, being a continent with enormous economic difficulties, by trade policies that are restrictive and by tariffs that do not allow African products to be competitive. We have witnessed the multiplication of tariffs in recent times, and I am a strong supporter of free trade, and I am a strong supporter of reducing the tariff levels at global level in order to be able to provide for global prosperity.”
11. Wide shot, end of press briefing
Speaking to reporters during the African Union Summit Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “the United Nations-African Union partnership is stronger than ever.”
Answering a question about Gaza solutions the UN Chief told the journalists in Addis Ababa today (14 Feb), “There is a decision calling for a ceasefire, but unfortunately, we continue to see bombings in Gaza. There is a United Nations decision for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, but they are still there. There are decisions of the Security Council and the General Assembly affirming that Gaza is an integral part of the Palestinian State and that it is absolutely necessary to move forward in respecting the self-determination of the Palestinian people.”
He added, “It is not due to a lack of decisions by United Nations bodies that things are not fully moving in the right direction, even though there has been progress. It is because there have been obstacles, and there are still difficulties — and most of these obstacles and difficulties have been primarily due to the actions of the State of Israel, which maintains control over a large part of Gaza.”
On Sudan Guterres said, “The difficulty has been that both sides believe that they can win the war, and at the same time, a number of other countries are feeding that war in a way that makes the negotiations for peace much more difficult, and the obstacles for peace much more difficult. And I strongly hope that there will be decisions, namely, at the level of the Security Council, for true accountability, in relation to all the crimes that have been committed until now, and some of them were horrendous - you mentioned El Fasher - it is probably the most horrendous, but we have seen a carnage in Sudan that is totally intolerable in the 21st century.”
Secretary-General also recalled his tenure as a High Commissioner for Refugees a decade ago and said, “my colleagues that are today in the High Commission for Refugees having to work with half the resources I had at that time and with more refugees than the ones that I had at that time. So, this is something that is extremely, extremely painful for us to see people suffering and not to have enough resources to respond to their most basic needs.”
Finally, on tariffs, he noted, “Africa needs free trade for its goods, and Africa cannot be penalized, being a continent with enormous economic difficulties, by trade policies that are restrictive and by tariffs that do not allow African products to be competitive. We have witnessed the multiplication of tariffs in recent times, and I am a strong supporter of free trade, and I am a strong supporter of reducing the tariff levels at global level in order to be able to provide for global prosperity.”
