UN's Guterres Warns of War Outbreak during Pandemic

On Thursday, the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, warned of the outbreak of wars and conflicts during the pandemic, confirming that the virus will be the only winner.

In a tweet on his Twitter account, Guterres stressed need to a renewed push for peace to achieve a global ceasefire, saying, "Only if we work together, we can defeat COVID19, prevent climate catastrophe, and pave the way for a better world."

“We need a massive support of the international community,” he said. “We need a massive support of all those who have an influence on the parties to the conflict to stop all those more dramatic situations of conflict until the end of the year.”

The Secretary-General pointed to the newest conflict, between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces since a 1994 war.

“In the last two weeks, COVID cases have doubled in Armenia and increased 80 percent in Azerbaijan,” he noted. “Armenia is not winning. Azerbaijan is not winning. But COVID is winning. We need to stop.”

Guterres said the same holds true for the conflicts in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Africa’s Sahel region and elsewhere.

“I’m here to appeal to all of them to understand that there’s no way to win any war,” he said. “The only way is to join efforts for cease-fires, political talks and to defeat COVID. If not, the only winner is the pandemic.”