Africa

Independent UN human rights experts on Thursday called on authorities and political candidates standing in next month’s general election to foster an enabling civic space to ensure the vote goes ahead peacefully, and prevent violence.

The development of Africa was spotlighted at a key UN meeting on Wednesday, with attention focused on advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063.    

After a two-year hiatus, the voluntary repatriation of refugees from Angola to their homeland in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has begun again, after the programme was put on hold in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic led to long-term border closures.

An independent UN human rights expert on Monday hailed a decision by the African Court on Human and People’s Rights, to award reparations to the Ogiek indigenous peoples, for harm that they suffered due to “injustices and discrimination.”

A small, quiet village in Kenya has found a new purpose in the fishing industry through a successful marine coral conservation project, the first of its kind in the Marine Protected Areas of the western side of the Indian Ocean.

A group of independent UN human rights experts have condemned reports of escalating violence targeting foreign nationals in South Africa, and called for accountability against rising xenophobia, racism and hate speech aimed at migrants, refugees, asylum seekers - and even citizens perceived as outsiders - throughout the country.

Over 500,000 conflict-affected people in northeast Nigeria will be tossed “a lifeline,” thanks to a new UN humanitarian and development package, launched on Thursday.

Diseases transmitted from animals to people in Africa have jumped 63 per cent in last decade, compared with the previous ten year period, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) analysis released on Thursday.

“I recall the civil war in Liberia vividly,” says Elfreda Dennice Stewart, a United Nations Police (UNPOL) officer serving with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

As Mozambique looks to move on from its violent past, a UN-led programme is supporting efforts to reintegrate former combatants, and give them a chance to lead productive, peaceful lives in their communities.

Over the last 10 years, the number of people around the world who have been forced to flee their homes and become displaced in their own countries, has more than doubled. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the increase in internally displaced persons (IDPs) has been particularly stark, as Resident Coordinator Bruno Lemarquis, the senior UN official there, explains.

Preliminary findings of two Marburg virus cases have prompted Ghana to prepare for a potential outbreak of the disease. If confirmed, these would the first such infections recorded in the country, and only the second in West Africa. Marburg is a highly infectious viral haemorrhagic fever in the same family as the more well-known Ebola virus disease. 

Democratic and responsible governance is needed to counter ongoing insecurity in West Africa and the Sahel, the UN Special Representative for the subregion told the Security Council on Thursday. 

Following the killings of at least 23 Brazilians during police raids and checks, UN-appointed independent human rights experts called on Wednesday for urgent reforms against “racialized police brutality”.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday echoed strong condemnation from the Security Council and elsewhere, of the killing of two more UN peacekeepers in northern Mali.

The UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Friday expressed alarm over the killing of at least nine protesters by security forces in Sudan a day earlier, including a 15-year-old child.

The UN migration agency on Friday deplored the deaths of at least 20 migrants in the Libyan desert and renewed its call for stronger migrant protection along the Chad-Libya border. 

The southern ocean border of Kenya and Tanzania is dotted with thick hedges of mangroves – indispensable carbon sinks and spectacular ecosystems teeming with life – that appear to float dreamlike over creek beds and mudflats. These hardy trees and shrubs, and the communities that depend on them, are getting a major boost from UN-backed restoration plans that are also helping to reduce poverty and build economic resilience.

The resurgence of the M23 armed group has “broad repercussions” for the security, human rights and humanitarian situation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and for the wider region, the UN Special Representative there told the Security Council on Wednesday.

Leaders in Libya must resolve outstanding issues so that long-awaited presidential and parliamentary elections can finally be held, UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council on Monday.