diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 75768efb..9253ca45 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Fixed
 * Declared `f_ndim` as a C `int` in `_allocate_result` so the buffer size is computed in C rather than through a Python object, resolving a Coverity out-of-bounds (OVERRUN) false positive [gh-364](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_fft/pull/364)
+* Silenced a Coverity `UNUSED_VALUE` finding in `__create_descriptor_1d` by marking the `DftiFreeDescriptor` status (used only by a debug-only `assert`) as intentionally unused [gh-365](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_fft/pull/365)
 
 ## [2.3.2] - 2026-08-04
 
diff --git a/mkl_fft/src/mklfft.c.src b/mkl_fft/src/mklfft.c.src
index 6bbe33b8..8d9b42c2 100644
--- a/mkl_fft/src/mklfft.c.src
+++ b/mkl_fft/src/mklfft.c.src
@@ -170,6 +170,7 @@ __create_descriptor_1d_@prec@_@domain@(MKL_LONG len, @sc_t@ fsc, @sc_t@ bsc, Dft
     if(dfti_cache->hand) {
         status = DftiFreeDescriptor(&(dfti_cache->hand));
         assert(status == 0);
+        (void)status;  /* used only by assert; ignored under NDEBUG */
     }
 
     status = 0;