29 October 2014 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today deplored the planned holding by armed rebel groups in eastern Ukraine of their own “elections” on 2 November, calling the potential polls a “breach of the constitution and national law.” “These ‘elections’ will seriously undermine the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum, which need to be urgently implemented in full,” Mr. Ban said in a statement issued by his spokesperson in New York. Reiterating the importance of restoring stability and safeguarding Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Secretary-General through the statement urged all sides to uphold all parts of the Protocol, an…
Author: UN News
8 November 2014 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has applauded the measures adopted by the group of African states working to end the simmering tensions in South sudan and voiced hope that peace could quickly return to the young country, according to a United Nations spokesperson. “The Secretary-General commends the strong stance adopted by the [Intergovernmental Authority on Development] (IGAD) Heads of States on the conflict in South sudan which is in the interest of the people of South Sudan,” read a statement issued by UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric. South Sudan has experienced several bouts of violence over the past few…
7 November 2014 – The United Nations human rights office today voiced deep concern about a recent Dominican Constitutional Court’s ruling that the country’s recognition of the competence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is unconstitutional. “This ruling may jeopardize the capacity of Dominican people to protect their rights, and deny them a system of protection designed to complement the Dominican legal framework and institutions,” said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in a press briefing in Geneva today. Two weeks ago, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the…
7 November 2014 – Two United Nations human rights experts were forced to suspend an integral part of their visit to The Gambia this week when they were denied access to parts of a prison and prevented from completing a torture and killing investigation during the first trip ever to the country by such an independent fact-finding team, according to a press release from the UN rights office. Upon arriving in the West African country under the mandate of the Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteurs Christof Heyns and Juan Méndez were offered a guided tour to parts of the prison,…
6 November 2014 – The United Nations health agency warned today that as the world population aged 60 or older will jump from some 800 million to 2 billion in the next four decades, soaring levels of chronic illness and diminished wellbeing are poised to become a major global public health challenge. “By 2020, for the first time in history, the number of people aged 60 years and older will outnumber children younger than 5 years,” the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said reporting its findings in a series on health and ageing in the medical journal The Lancet. And…
4 November 2014 – Political action on the part of the international community is urgently required to tackle the fundamental issues that would determine the fate and plight of more than 5.1 million Palestinian refugees, the head of the United Nations relief agency tasked with their assistance said today. Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), emphasized that as the 65th anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s adoption of a resolution establishing his agency neared, Palestinian refugees – which amounted to just under one third of the world’s total…
5 November 2014 – The United Nations Security Council this evening voiced alarm and outrage at the eruption of hostilities in South sudan over the past week which left numerous civilians dead and injured and placed increasing pressure on the country’s already overwhelming humanitarian crisis. In a statement to the press issued in New York, the Council “condemned in the strongest terms” a series of clashes between the sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and Opposition forces in South Sudan’s Unity and Upper Nile states between 26 October and 2 November, adding that the deadly fighting had violated cessation of hostilities…
5 November 2014 – The African Union-United Nations hybrid mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has expressed its “deep concern” about allegations circulating in local media over the mass rape of 200 women and girls in a town in the region’s North, declaring that it is conducting a thorough investigation into the veracity of the claims. In a press statement today, the Mission cited reports of the alleged mass rape in the town of Tabit, located 45 kilometres south-west of El Fasher, in North Darfur. A UNAMID verification patrol was immediately dispatched to conduct an investigation but upon reaching the outskirts of…
4 November 2014 – Following a spate of deadly violence at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) today voiced concern about the security situation in the overcrowded settlement, urging a return to calm for all the communities sheltered there. At a press briefing in Geneva, UNHCR spokesperson, Adrian Edwards, told reporters that a series of “sporadic disturbances” at Kakuma had already claimed the lives of eight refugees from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South sudan over the past week. According to the agency, the violence began last Tuesday when reports of…
31 October 2014 – The Security Council this evening strongly condemned the kidnapping and murder by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorists of “scores” of Sunni tribesmen whose bodies were found in mass graves in Anbar province, and once again urged the world to unite in a “common effort” to defeat the group and “stamp out” the violence and hatred it espouses.In a statement to the press issued in New York, the Council deplored the incident and noted that many of these tribesmen had been combating terrorism alongside the Government of Iraq. News reports suggest that the…
2 November 2014 – Witnessing yet again the challenging dynamics of the Ebola outbreak unfolding in West Africa, the United Nations envoy coordinating the global response visited Sierra Leone today, where he reported efforts to halt the virus in former hotspot Kenema are starting to pay off, while some 200 kilometres away, Port Loko is now “getting slammed”. Continuing his tour through the front lines of the crisis, Anthony Banbury, head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), stopped in Kenema, Sierra Leone’s third largest city, where he said the strategy to defeat the disease is having some…
1 November 2014 – Visiting Guéckédou, Guinea, where the unprecedented outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is believed to have started, the United Nations envoy coordinating the massive global crisis response said that while there are now “basically zero” cases in the town, the challenge will be to replicate the strategy to defeat the disease throughout the country and the wider region. In the middle of his third trip to Guinea this month, Anthony Banbury, head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), told reporters that he had visited Guéckédou, in an area in the southern part of…
1 November 2014 – The head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has welcomed the Government’s request for more “blue helmets” to backstop Congolese troops fighting to protect civilians from armed rebels that have carried out a spate of attacks in and around the eastern town of Beni over the past month. “I welcome the request made by President [Joseph] Kabila yesterday morning in Beni asking MONUSCO to strengthen its presence in the region,” said Martin Kobler in a press release, referring to the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the country by…
31 October 2014 – The United Nations Mission in South sudan (UNMISS) extracted 30 civilians from the Rubkona airstrip yesterday and brought them to the Protection of Civilians site in the UN compound, the Secretary-General said today. Civilian casualties so far from the week’s fighting include one dead and eight wounded, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement today, as a result of a renewed outbreak of violence in two towns in the country’s North. In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, the Secretary-General strongly condemned the resumption of hostilities between the sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA)…
31 October 2014 – Fresh fighting in the Central African Republic (CAR) has aggravated the humanitarian situation across the country, UN humanitarian officials warned today, adding that amid the upsurge in violence, aid workers were now facing unprecedented attacks. At a press briefing held at UN headquarters in Geneva this morning, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that despite the lack of media interest in the Car crisis, the displacement of people was still being considered a “massive humanitarian emergency,” with 410,000 people displaced overall. The flare-up in violence has also heightened…
30 October 2014 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged an immediate end of all hostilities in South sudan amid a renewed outbreak of violence in two towns in the country’s North, the United Nations confirmed today. In a statement attributable to UN his spokesperson, Mr. Ban today strongly condemned the flare-up in hostilities between the sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and Opposition forces in the towns of Bentiu and Rubkona, located in Unity State. South Sudan has experienced several bouts of violence over the past few months, including an incident in which the UN base in Bentiu came under fire…
30 October 2014 – Greatly concerned by the deteriorating security situation in Burkina Faso, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for an end to the violence and announced that he is dispatching his special envoy for West Africa to the crisis-gripped country. According to a statement issued by his spokesperson in New York, the Secretary-General is following with great concern the deteriorating security situation in Burkina Faso. Media reports suggest that thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in the capital, Ouagadougou, facing off with security forces outside the presidential palace amid deadly violence that included ransacking Government…
29 October 2014 – The ongoing civil war in Syria and its spillover effects continue to inflict a devastating human and humanitarian toll on neighbouring Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan, a senior United Nations relief official said today, warning that rising numbers of displaced persons, increasing pressure on refugee hosting countries and dwindling international support left the UN “racing against the clock” to meet the needs on the ground. Describing the Syria crisis and its fallout as “the biggest humanitarian crisis we face today in the world,” John Ging, Operations Director for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs…
29 October 2014 – Learning from the experiences of the Eastern and South Africa region will be vital in global efforts to reform humanitarian action, a top United Nations humanitarian official said today in Pretoria, South Africa, at the opening of the regional consultation for Eastern and Southern Africa of the World Humanitarian Summit. “Humanitarian needs around the world are growing as a result of conflicts, natural disasters and other factors, said Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in her remarks at the regional consultation, which South Africa co-hosted with Ethiopia. “South Africa has the resources and capacity to be…
29 October 2014 – The United Nations stands ready to support the Government of South sudan in its renewed commitment to end the recruitment and use of children in the army, top UN officials declared today as the Organization launched a new initiative in the country. “It’s encouraging to see that the Government is taking steps to protect the country’s children and the United Nations will continue to support them,” said Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, in a message read during the launch of the Children, Not Soldiers campaign in South sudan. “Everyone…