U.N. : World Is Moving Towards "Age of Chaos."

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that the world is moving towards an “age of chaos” as a divided Security Council struggles to adapt to critical geopolitical issues and ongoing global crises.

“For millions of people caught up in conflict around the world, life is a deadly, daily, hungry hell,” Guterres told the UN’s General Assembly. This “age of chaos,” as he described it, has created a “dangerous and unpredictable free-for-all” at a time when the United Nations Security Council “is deadlocked by geopolitical fissures.”

Guterres stated that, while the Security Council has experienced division in the past, “today’s dysfunction is deeper and more dangerous.”

“During the Cold War, well-established mechanisms helped manage superpower relations" he said. “In today’s multipolar world, such mechanisms are missing.”

Guterres said he was “especially alarmed” after Israel said last week that it intends to focus its military assault in Gaza on the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million people have sought shelter.

“Such an action would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences,” he told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

“It is time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages,” he added.