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…