UN News Centre - Africa

The Security Council welcomed the political and security progress in Somalia during a mission to the capital, Mogadishu, on 19 May, where representatives of the 15-member body met with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, regional leaders, Somali civil society and women&#39s groups.

Security and humanitarian conditions are deteriorating in southeast Niger, where hundreds of thousands of people settled after fleeing Boko Haram insurgents, the United Nations refugee agency warned today.

The top United Nations official in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has expressed deep concern about the increasing political tensions in some parts of the Central African country, urging both the majority and opposition sides to reawaken their patriotism.

The Security Council today, by recorded vote, adopted a resolution extending for one year the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), emphasizing “the urgent need for the mission to return to full functionality.”

With just six weeks left before the start of the main cropping season in Ethiopia, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called today for urgent funding to help farmers sow their fields and prevent drought-hit areas of the country from falling deeper into hunger and food insecurity.

The United Nations human rights office said today it has received “worrying information” about ongoing armed clashes in Mozambique between national security forces and members of Renamo, the former rebel group which became the main opposition party at the end of the 16-year civil war in 1992.

A United Nations human rights expert today warned that the atrocities faced by persons with albinism in Malawi render them “an endangered people group facing a risk of systemic extinction over time if nothing is done.”

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the appointment by South Sudan President Salva Kiir of the ministers of the Transitional Government of National Unity, urging the parties to complete the establishment of all transition institutions.

The United Nations Security Council today renewed the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire for a final period, extending it until the end of June next year, and also decided to terminate all arms, travel and financial sanctions against the country, with immediate effect.

The United Nations has strongly condemned an attack that took place on 25 April against the compound of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) in Bentiu, where a rocket-propelled grenade landed inside the perimeter of the compound and partly damaged one of the containers located in the humanitarian hub.

The United Nations human rights chief today condemned the increasing number of attacks against high-level officials in Burundi and called for proper investigations to be carried out.

The most senior United Nations official in Libya today said he is deep concerned by recent incursions by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) into Libya’s oil crescent region and by attacks carried on oil fields.

The United Nations Security Council today extended until 31 July the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), determining that the situation in the country constitutes a threat to international peace and security.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has learned of the arrival in Djibouti today of the Foreign Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, and the announcement of the release of four Djiboutian prisoners by the Eritrean authorities.

Briefing the Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and United Nations High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein today voiced concern about spiralling violence and rights violations in Burundi, and called for an inclusive political dialogue to peacefully resolve the 11-month crisis.

Dubbed by the press as “the man who mends women,” Dr. Mukwege has gained international recognition for his work and earned many prestigious distinctions, including the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 2008 and the Sakharov prize in 2014. At 59, he has also been shortlisted several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The United Nations health agency has dispatched a team of specialists to Guinea after 2 new cases of Ebola were confirmed yesterday, the first re-emergence of the deadly virus in the Western African country since its original outbreak was declared over on 29 December 2015.

While noting that the ceasefire between South Sudan’s warring factions has “largely held,” the United Nations Security Council today said it was deeply alarmed by ongoing violence in the country and set out specific steps for the parties to take towards full implementation of a seven-month–old peace deal, saying it would review their progress by the end of the month.

One year since Liberian authorities launched a “historic undertaking” to assume full responsibility of the country’s security by the end of next June, top United Nations officials today discussed what measures are needed to support the implantation of the plan.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned yesterday’s double suicide attacks in Maiduguri in Nigeria’s restive Borno state by suspected Boko Haram elements, which left 20 people dead and many injured.