9 June 2015 – Smallholder farmers in Uganda have made impressive progress in grain harvest and storage, thanks to a World Food Programme (WFP) investment plan which aims at improving their agricultural practices and market access. “WFP is providing over 1,000 farmer groups with critical information, skills and modern tools which enable them to access the quality grain market,” Michael Dunford, WFP’s acting country representative, said yesterday in a news release. Agriculture and market support, he highlighted, are among WFP’s priorities in Uganda, complementing Government initiatives to improve grain harvest. However, inadequate storage and handling practices reduce the quality of…
Author: UN News
9 June 2015 – Deeply worried at the increasingly violent and threatening actions by a pro-government militia in Burundi, the United Nations human rights chief today urged the national authorities to take immediate and concrete measures to rein them in. “Every day, we receive 40 to 50 calls from frightened people all across the country pleading for protection or reporting abuses,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein stated in a press release. His office (OHCHR) has received accounts from 47 Burundian refugees who fled to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) about serious violations…
8 June 2015 – Ban appoints Senegalese national as Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Fatoumata Ndiaye of Senegal as Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Ms. Ndiaye is currently serving as UNICEF’s Director of the Office of Internal Audit and Investigations (OIAI). She previously served as Director, Internal Audit Division, Office of Internal Oversight Services at the United Nations Secretariat. Prior to her work at the United Nations, Ms. Ndiaye worked in the private sector, providing audit and management advisory services, including as Manager, Chief Management…
8 June 2015 – Amid “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations,” the human rights situation in Eritrea has degenerated into a climate of fear in which dissent is stifled and large swathes of the population are subjected to forced labour and imprisonment, a new United Nations report has found. The report by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea cites a raft of violations – some, it says, which may constitute crimes against humanity – of “a scope and scale seldom witnessed elsewhere,” according to a press release issued today. “With the end of the Commission’s…
6 June 2015 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the readiness of President Abd Rabou Mansour Hadi of Yemen to send a delegation to participate in United Nations-facilitated Yemeni-Yemeni consultations in Geneva, set to start on 14 June. According to a statement issued by a UN spokesperson, the Yemeni President’s decision was communicated to Mr. Ban’s Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who is in Riyadh. The UN chief had earlier called for a postponement in the consultations, which were originally set for 28 May, and has repeatedly urged all parties in Yemen to return to the negotiating…
6 June 2015 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed with relief the release of two United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) contractors who were abducted in Zalingei, Central Darfur, Sudan, on 29 January. “The Secretary-General is deeply gratified,” according to a statement issued by a spokesperson for the Organization, which added that Mr. Ban also commended the efforts made by UNAMID and expressed his appreciation to the Governments of Sudan and Russia in securing their safe release. “He is relieved that the contractors will be able to reunite with their families and loved ones after 128 days in captivity,”…
5 June 2015 – Nothing in Piera Zuccherin’s comfortable upbringing foretold her lifelong involvement as a volunteer. But today, she is one of the more than one billion people who volunteer globally. “In Italy, we’re mostly middle class,” Ms. Zuccherin, 41, told the UN News Centre, as she reminisced about her childhood years growing up in a small northern city near Venice. “The first opportunity to volunteer came when a college friend mentioned an organisation called Amnesty International, which worked on cases of human rights violations,” she said. It was the beginning of the 1990s, and Ms. Zuccherin, who had…
5 June 2015 – An armed group opened fire on a convoy transporting Eritrean asylum-seekers in eastern Sudan and kidnapped 14 of them, including six boys and one girl, the United Nations refugee agency reported today and urged the Sudanese Government to spare no effort in apprehending those responsible and bringing them to account. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the incident occurred on Thursday when an armed group in a pickup truck opened fire on a convoy organized by the Sudanese Commissioner for Refugees (COR), which was transporting 49 Eritrean asylum-seekers from Wad Sharifey…
5 June 2015 – The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) announced today that the next round of Libyan political dialogue sessions in Skhirat, Morocco, will commence on Monday, 8 June. “The Mission has received thousands of messages from Libyans gravely concerned about the deteriorating conditions in their country,” said a statement released by UNSMIL today. They are demanding the swift resumption of the dialogue talks and expressed hope that Libyan political actors would seize the opportunity and expedite the dialogue process in order to quickly conclude a political agreement that will bring an end to the conflict in…
4 June 2015 – The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) has welcomed the latest military operation by the country’s armed forces against members of an independent militia group following the collapse of political negotiations. The military operation – launched on 3 June by the national army (FARDC) against militants aligned with the Front de Résistance Patriotique de l’Ituri (FRPI) – is the latest attempt by the UN-backed Government forces to protect civilians and neutralize the threat posed to peace in the country. “This attack demonstrates the strong commitment of the Government of the…