UN News Centre - Africa

Fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has forced at least 11,000 people to flee to neighbouring Uganda since Sunday night, representing the largest refugee influx in a single day for more than a year, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday. 

A year-long conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia has reached “disastrous proportions”, the UN political chief told the Security Council on Monday, warning of “grave uncertainty” surrounding the future of the country and stability of the whole Horn of Africa region.  

The UN chief has joined the whole UN system in Sierra Leone in mourning the victims of an fuel tanker collision on Friday night in the capital Freetown, that reportedly left at least 98 people dead, and many more injured.

More than a million people in Burkina Faso have been displaced from their homes, victims of ongoing conflict and poverty. Nevertheless, following a recent visit to the central and northern regions of the country, Barbara Manzi, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Burkina Faso, says she met a resilient people keen to find their own solutions, to a better future.

The Members of the United Nations Security Council expressed “deep concern” about the expansion and intensification of military clashes in northern Ethiopia. 

International calls for the restoration of democratic government in Sudan continued on Friday, as the Human Rights Council met in special session in Geneva to discuss the recent military coup. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged authorities in the Central African Republic (CAR) to spare no effort in investigating the “unacceptable attack” earlier this week by the presidential guard against a vehicle from the UN mission in the country, MINUSCA. 

All parties involved in the escalating conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray must stop fighting immediately, or else risk pushing the region’s catastrophic humanitarian situation “over the edge”, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said on Wednesday.

Ten unarmed Egyptian peacekeepers from the UN Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) were shot and wounded on Monday.  

“Pockets of famine” have now been reported in Southern Madagascar, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.

Multiple mediation efforts are underway in Sudan one week after the military seized power, UN Special Representative for the country, Volker Perthes, told journalists in New York on Monday. 

With mass civil protests against this week’s military coup planned for Saturday in Sudan, the UN Secretary-General has a simple message: “I urge the military to show restraint, and not to create any more victims.” 

The UN Special Representative for Mali told the Security Council on Friday that despite collective efforts, “the reality is that the security situation has deteriorated and the crisis is deepening”, across the northwest African nation. 

The deputy UN chief on Thursday emphasized the “vital importance” of peace and security in Africa, thanking ambassadors in the Security Council for helping the UN shine a spotlight on the issue, and how all Member States can work with the African Union and other regional and sub-regional groups, to make lives more secure across the continent.

The Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations told the Security Council on Wednesday that he was encouraged by a thaw in relations between South Sudan and Sudan, now that both have established national committees on the question of Abyei, the disputed oil-rich border territory claimed by both countries.  

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday renewed his call for the immediate release of all those detained in the military coup in Sudan, as the Security Council meets behind closed doors in New York to discuss the crisis. 

UN Secretary-General, António Guterres on Monday condemned the “ongoing military coup” in Sudan, saying Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and all other officials, “must be released immediately.” In a statement, he called for the "immediate reconstitution" of the Government, which is due to guide Sudan through to democratic elections.

A UN humanitarian aid flight destined for the capital of the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, was forced to return to Addis Ababa due to airstrikes on Friday, raising “serious concerns” for the safety of staff working on the ground, said the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, in a statement.

More than one million people in southern Madagascar are struggling to get enough to eat, due to what could become the first famine caused by climate change, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). 

The suffering of survivors of sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by World Health Organization staff during the tenth Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is going to be “the catalyst for a profound transformation” of WHO’s culture.