UN chief warns global body faces 'imminent financial collapse' as unpaid dues mount
Antonio Guterres' warning comes as the US slashed voluntary funding and withheld mandatory payments to the UN regular and peacekeeping budgets
UN chief Antonio Guterres has warned that the world body is on the brink of financial collapse, urging countries to pay their dues.
"Either all Member States honour their obligations to pay in full and on time – or Member States must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse," the secretary-general said in a letter.
"The crisis is deepening, threatening programme delivery and risking financial collapse. And the situation will deteriorate further in the near future," Guterres wrote in a letter to ambassadors dated January 28.
He said that the global body would run out of cash by July.
The UN is facing a cash crisis as the world body's largest contributor, the United States, has slashed voluntary funding to UN agencies and refused to make mandatory payments to the UN's regular and peacekeeping budgets.
In the letter, Guterres said, "decisions not to honour assessed contributions that finance a significant share of the approved regular budget have now been formally announced."
It was not immediately clear which state or states he was referring to, and a UN spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.