28 October 2014 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged countries that have imposed travel bans or closed their borders in response to the Ebola outbreak of the need to convey a sense of urgency without inciting panic, saying “the only way to stop Ebola is to stop it at its source.” Mr. Ban spoke to reporters alongside African Union Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, where they had discussed how the three organizations and their partners can help efforts to stop the Ebola epidemic unfolding in West Africa.…
Author: UN News
28 October 2014 – The United Nations is “better placed to deliver better results,” declared Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, as a new office facility was inaugurated today at the UN Economic Commission for Africa compound in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Speaking during the inauguration ceremony, Mr. Ban hailed the opening of the facility as “a milestone for the United Nations and for its already close partnership with Ethiopia and with people across Africa.” He stressed that “being together under one roof means common services, economies of scale and the harmonization of our operations.” With the addition of the new facility, the Economic…
27 October 2014 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today congratulated the Tunisian people on the legislative elections held in the North African country on 26 October, welcoming the polls as a “crucial step for the country’s future” and a “decisive milestone in the transition to democracy.” “Just as this moment comes with a great deal of hope, there remain a number of crucial tasks ahead for the next Government,” Mr. Ban added in a statement issued by his spokesperson. “The United Nations stands ready to support Tunisia in this respect.” The Secretary-General visited Tunisia in mid-October, meeting with President…
23 October 2014 – An estimated 2.8 million Iraqis lack food assistance while another 800,000 are in urgent need of emergency shelter, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned today as it launched an appeal for greater financial support to bolster its operations on the ground. In recent months, Iraq has been increasingly riven by conflict, terrorism and a swelling refugee crisis contributing to the Middle Eastern country’s deteriorating humanitarian situation. Neill Wright, OCHA’s acting Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, cautioned that the needs of some 5.2 million affected Iraqis had now become “immense” and urged…
24 October 2014 – The simmering conflict in Ukraine continues to take lives and exacerbate already precarious humanitarian conditions in the country’s Eastern regions, two senior United Nations officials told the Security Council today, as they warned that the situation risks turning into a “protracted low-intensity conflict.” In his briefing to the Council, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Oscar Fernández-Taranco, noted that despite a tenuous ceasefire, the results of efforts to end the continuing conflict between Government forces and separatists from Ukraine’s East remain “mixed” ahead of the country’s imminent parliamentary elections scheduled to be held for 26 October and…
23 October 2014 – Some 20 nations with coastlines on the North Atlantic, and Mediterranean and Black Seas are set to participate in a United Nations-supervised tsunami warning exercise to improve their ability to respond to an alert and enhance regional coordination in the event of a disaster. In a press statement released today, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – the body coordinating the warning test since its first implementation in 2005 – reported that four tsunami simulations will be carried out between 28 and 30 October in an effort to assess the overall reactivity of countries…
25 October 2014 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Security Council have strongly condemned two terrorist attacks that targeted military checkpoints in the Sinai Peninsula. The attacks took place yesterday in Sheikh Zuweid and al-Arish in North Sinai, killing at least 31 members of the Egyptian security forces and injuring dozens more, noted a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson. “The Secretary-General extends his deep condolences to the families of the victims and the Government of Egypt, and hopes for the quick and full recovery of the wounded,” it stated. The 15-member Security Council issued a statement to…
24 October 2014 – The United Nations human rights office has voiced concern about the continued enforced disappearance of students in the Mexican town of Iguala and urged local authorities to step up their efforts in finding them. Speaking to reporters in Geneva earlier today, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), welcomed the work done by Mexican authorities in tracking the 43 missing students but added that their “mechanisms have not yet been successful” in resolving the disappearance. According to media reports, the students were last seen on 26 September as they…
24 October 2014 – The United Nations human rights office expressed “deep concern” today at reports of threats and intimidation directed against Libya’s national human rights institution, the National Council for Civil Liberties and Human Rights (NCCLHR), based in Tripoli. Speaking to reporters in Geneva Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that according to reports, a number of worrying incidents occurred on 13 and 14 October. “A staff member received a threatening phone call from someone claiming to represent brigades affiliated with Operation Libya Dawn. The staff member left Tripoli immediately,”…
23 October 2014 – As the international community mobilizes on all fronts to combat the unfolding Ebola outbreak, the primary emphasis must continue to be on stopping the transmission of the virus within Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three hardest-hit countries, United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) experts said today. Reporting on the outcome of the third meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which wrapped up yesterday in Geneva, the experts stressed that focusing on the countries at the epicentre of the outbreak, including through reinforcing high-quality exit screening procedures…
21 October 2014 – The United Nations Mission in South sudan (UNMISS) has opened new sites for about 28,000 internally displaced persons adjacent to its bases in three state capitals to improve living conditions of civilians who have been uprooted by the recent conflict, a senior UN official said in Juba today. Speaking to the press today Derk Segaar, head of UN Resident’s Coordinators Office Relief, Reintegration and Protection (RRP), said the new sites have been constructed in Juba, Malakal and Bor. Overall, UNMISS is protecting more than 100,000 civilians on its bases throughout the country. “When we first opened…
20 October 2014 – The UN envoy for Somalia condemned today an attack on African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces in Hiiraan region and called for calm as rival clans caused insecurity in the area, which is near the centre of the East African country. “I condemn yesterday’s attack on AMISOM troops near the village of Deefow in Hiiraan region. They were in the area to calm the situation and promote reconciliation,” declared Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia, Nicholas Kay, in a press statement. According to the UN, armed men and rioters blocked and attacked AMISOM troops…
20 October 2014 – With Iraq soon expecting heavy winter rains and sub-zero temperatures, efforts to provide hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons in the Middle Eastern country with the necessary protections are already being implemented, an official with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has declared, adding that while much is being done, a more comprehensive approach would be required. Neill Wright, OCHA’s acting Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, confirmed today that with winter closing in, an estimated 800,000 people remain in “urgent need” of shelter assistance and at least 940,000 lack essential household…
20 October 2014 – Women and young people must play a central role in establishing a long-term peace for Africa’s Great Lakes Region amid the area’s renewed efforts to overcome a past scarred by conflict, a top UN official said today. Following his visit last week to Burundi, where he met with the country’s President, Pierre Nkurunziza, as well as key political figures and other civil society stakeholders, Said Djinnit, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region, expressed his commitment to ensuring a regional peace through the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework, and by working with…
19 October 2014 – Top United Nations officials are today calling on Government of Iraq to impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty after a new UN report found an alarming rise in executions carried out by the country since capital punishment was restored in 2005. Equally troubling, warn the officials, is that the report details how executions in Iraq are often carried out in batches on one occasion last year, up to 34 individuals were executed in a single day and that overall, many convictions are based on questionable evidence and systemic failures in the administration…
19 October 2014 – The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said today that he “regrets and condemns” the decision of the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to order his top official in the country to leave within 48 hours, and the serious intimidation aimed at other human rights staff in there. “Not only has my highly experienced and respected representative in DRC, Scott Campbell, been told to leave, but two other staff working in his team have been seriously threatened in recent days. This is unacceptable,” decalred Mr. Zeid in a…
18 October 2014 – The United Nations and Governments of countries at the forefront of efforts to turn back the unfolding Ebola outbreak in West Africa have agreed to ensure that the UN system adopts a coordinated approach to global support being mobilized for national-level crisis response plans. Wrapping up a four-day meeting in Accra, Ghana on strengthening the international community’s support to efforts by Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to tackle the Ebola crisis, top-level officials from the UN system and partner organizations reaffirmed the need to move rapidly and in a coordinated, precise manner to defeat the disease.…
18 October 2014 – In the wake of an overnight attack by suspected Ugandan-based rebels near the eastern Democratic Repulic of the Congo town Beni – the second deadly assault in 48 hours – the United Nations envoy in the country is calling for ‘decisive joint military actions’ by the Congolese army and UN peacekeeping troops to end the group’s reign of terror. In a statement, Martin Kobler, head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), uregd “decisive joint military actions of FARDC [Congolese army] and MONUSCO to start as soon as possible in order to relieve…
14 October 2014 – The United Nations Security Council today adopted a resolution renewing the mandate for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) in the Caribbean nation, urging political stakeholders in the country to fully commit to the democratic process and calling on international donors to strengthen their efforts in helping the Government. In a resolution unanimously adopted this morning, the Security Council decided on the renewal of the MINUSTAH presence in Haiti for another year, until 15 October 2015, with the intention of further renewal, and reduced the Mission’s military presence in the country to 2,370 troops, down…
17 October 2014 – Welcoming the scheduled resumption on 19 October of the inter-Malian negotiation process in Algiers, the United Nations Security Council today called on all parties in mali “to engage in good faith and in the spirit of compromise” in the talks towards the ultimate end of agreeing a “comprehensive and inclusive” peace deal. The Council’s call on the Malian parties to fully respect a months-old ceasefire and to swiftly engage in relevant agreed confidence-building measures come as UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric announced earlier today that the head of UN Peacekeeping Operations, Hervé Ladsous, is currently in the…