UN News Centre - Africa

Following reports of increasing food shortage and hunger problem in Malawi coming from its communities and villages, the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) is carrying out a mass screening for malnutrition in children under five across 25 districts in Malawi, which accounts for 90 per cent of the country.

The Security Council today increased the United Nations peacekeeping force level in strife-torn South Sudan by over 1,000 to a ceiling of 15,000 troops and police, and extended its mandate for another six months, citing protection of civilians “by all necessary means” as its top priority.

The United Nations Security Council today extended for another five months its interim peacekeeping force in Abyei, a resource-rich area contested by Sudan and South Sudan, calling on both sides to swiftly resume regular meetings to resolve the oil-rich territory’s final status.

Warning of dire effects of climate change, abject poverty, fast population growth and a tormenting rise in violence and insecurity in Africa’s Sahel region, United Nations agencies and partners today launched the Sahel humanitarian appeal for 2016, which includes a regional plan that calls for $1.98 billion to provide vital assistance to millions of people in nine countries across the region.

The violent activities of armed groups such as Boko Haram and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have triggered a dire humanitarian and security crisis in Central Africa, the United Nations envoy on the region said today, telling the Security Council the challenges faced by the affected countries should not be underestimated and ongoing vigilance and international support is needed.

Voicing grave concern at terrorist safe havens in Libya and the humanitarian crisis caused by Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria, the United Nations Security Council today appealed for greater international security cooperation and more humanitarian aid to bring stability to sub-Saharan Africa.

Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have used summary executions,death threats and arbitrary arrests against the opposition, media and civil society since the start of the year and ahead of key elections, according to a United Nations report issued today.

The United Nations today stepped up its efforts to mitigate the effects of the worst drought to strike Ethiopia in 30 years, with an appeal from the heads of four UN humanitarian bodies for massive international funding now to pre-empt the high risk of death and large scale suffering later.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), working with the European Union has completed the deployment of 25 Fish-Aggregating Devices (FADs) – or ‘fish magnets’ – along Somalia’s 3,300 km coastline, aiming to boost the nation’s small-scale artisanal fisheries and tackle food insecurity and malnutrition to some extents by sustainable usage of the devices.

The top United Nations official in Libya has emphasized that the political agreement reached after wide consultations among Libyan parties and facilitated by the UN for more than a year, is the basis to end the North African country’s conflict.

Following the triple suicide attacks carried out on the island of Koulfoua on the Chadian side of Lake Chad yesterday, which left more than 30 dead and many more injured, the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon condemned the brutal attacks stating that these &#8220despicable acts demonstrate yet again the brutality of Boko Haram.&#8221

With Ethiopia battling its worst drought in 30 years due to the El Niño weather pattern, with 8.2 million people already in urgent need of food aid, the United Nations has sent an emergency health team to help support the Government’s response to a crisis that is expected to become even worse over the next eight months.

More than 4,000 people have fled to a remote region of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) due to recent fighting between local groups, known as the ‘Arrow Boys’ and the South Sudanese Army in the Western Equatoria region of South Sudan, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

With Ethiopia experiencing its worst drought in decades the United Nations is reporting deepening food insecurity and &#8220severe emaciation and unusual livestock deaths&#8221 as the Organization&#39s humanitarian wing has allocated $17 million in emergency funding to help the Government tackle climate challenges and ensure timely food relief.

Welcoming the adoption by the Security Council of a new resolution yesterday strongly condemning the ongoing killings and human rights violations in Burundi, a group of UN independent experts has expressed outrage at the situation and warned that the central African “is going towards an unacceptable path of atrocities.”

In the wake of more than two dozen attacks against aid workers and their facilities in the past months, the top United Nations relief official in Mali, Mbaranga Gasarabwe, today condemned the increasing violence against humanitarian organizations in the strife-torn country and warned that such attacks are violations of international law.

After new reports of sexual exploitation and abuse surfaced against troops of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR), the head of the operation, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, strongly condemned the alleged incidents and announced that multifunction team would be dispatched to the location to gather the facts.

The United Nations Security Council today called on all parties in Burundi to engage in peace talks, warning of further action against those who incite more violence in the Central African country, where a recent upsurge has threatened hard-won stability after decades of ethnic strife and could lead to “potentially devastating consequences” for the entire region if it persists.

Two Libyan humanitarian workers affiliated with aid agencies were released on 7 November after being held captive for five months, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the country, Ali Al-Za’tari, said today, welcoming their release.

The Security Council today strongly condemned the attack against a checkpoint of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), which followed an outbreak of violence in a camp for internally displace people in the town of Batangafo, during which one peacekeeper from Cameroon was killed.