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…
Author: UN News
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…