10 December 2013 – The head of the United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom today voiced grave concern about the safety of journalists in Iraq following the recent murder of two reporters, Adel Mohsen Hussien and Wahdan Al-Hamdani. Mr. Hussien, 43, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq on 2 December, according to a news release issued by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He was a writer and journalist who worked for several Iraqi media and a representative of the Iraqi Journalists Rights Defense Association. Mr. Al-Hamdani, a…
Author: UN News
9 December 2013 – A group of independent United Nations human rights experts today called on the Iraqi Government to clarify the whereabouts of seven residents of Camp Ashraf, who were allegedly abducted last September after an attack that left 52 people dead, guarantee their safety and prevent their extradition to Iran. More than 3,000 Iranian exiles – many of them members of a group known as the People’s Mojahedeen of Iran – have been based at the Ashraf refugee camp near Baghdad since the 1980s. All of them have been relocated to Camp Hurriya, while the Office of the…
9 December 2013 – The Government of Israel has decided to resume the transfer of construction materials for United Nations projects in Gaza, the top UN envoy for the Middle East confirmed today, while stressing the urgency of addressing the shortage of energy and other needs of Palestinians in the territory. “The United Nations is implementing a package worth $500 million of critical construction projects such as schools, social housing and water and sanitation facilities in Gaza,” Robert Serry, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said in a statement confirming the materials transfer. At the same time,…
16 December 2013 – The United Nations peacekeeping in South Sudan is deeply concerned about a new bout of fighting that has forced some 7,000 civilians – many women and children – to seek refuge at the UN base in Juba. “I urge all parties in the fighting to cease hostilities immediately and exercise restraint,” Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Hilde Johnson, said in a statement from the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). She has been in regular contact with the key leaders to call for calm, the Mission added. In the meantime, peacekeepers are providing water and basic…
14 December 2013 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council have strongly condemned an attack in the north-eastern Malian town of Kidal that killed two blue helmets and left several others, including members of the national armed forces, injured. According to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the car bomb attack occurred early in the day as the UN and Malian troops were jointly securing a bank in downtown Kidal. The explosion killed two Senegalese blue helmets and wounded several members of MINUSMA and the Malian armed forces. “All those responsible for this criminal act must…
13 December 2013 – The humanitarian situation in the conflict-wracked Central African Republic (CAR) is deteriorating, with 450 people killed in the capital Bangui and 159,000 others driven from their homes in Bangui, in the last week alone, United Nations agencies reported today, as the largest airlift of emergency supplies since the violence erupted arrived in the capital. “Much more is going to be needed. We appeal once again to all parties to let humanitarian help through, and to protect civilians,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Adrian Edwards told a news briefing in Geneva in an update on…
13 December 2013 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is taking to the airwaves today to make a personal appeal to the citizens of the strife-torn Central African Republic (CAR) to end the bloodshed that is tearing their country apart with increasing inter-communal violence between Christians and Muslims, warning perpetrators that they will be held to account. “I am deeply troubled by what is happening in your country and I want to speak to you personally,” he says in his broadcast, which comes as United Nations agencies reported that the humanitarian situation in the impoverished nation of 4.6 million people is deteriorating,…