UN News Centre - Africa

Given the history of intercommunal violence in Guinea, two high-level UN Officials voiced concern on Tuesday over the risk of “incitement to hostility, discrimination or violence” as the country gears up for elections on 18 October.

Planning for a drawdown of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is well underway, but much work still remains to be done to put the country firmly on the path to long-term stability and sustainable development, the Security Council heard today.

Thousands of children continue to suffer grievously as unrelenting violence persists across eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday, expressing deep concern.  

Helping to reshape the UN's approach to better serve the continent and merge the UN-led Sustainable Development Goals with Africa's own 2063 Agenda, are top priorities for the newly minted UN Special Adviser on Africa.

Starvation is being intentionally used as a war tactic in South Sudan’s brutal conflict, a UN-backed human rights panel said on Tuesday, releasing its latest report on the country. 

Luis Jose Faife, a UN refugee agency (UNHCR) worker from Mozambique, survived the devastation of Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which killed more than 600 people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, and displaced some 2.2. million people, in March 2019. Now COVID-19 is posing a new challenge to humanitarian workers, and they people they help.

Catastrophic flooding and rising food and health costs in Sudan, have driven up the number of people in need, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday. 

The UN Secretary-General has called for parties in the Central African Republic (CAR) to prioritize national dialogue and consensus-building ahead of elections scheduled to begin in December. 

Delegations from Libya’s warring sides meeting in Egypt have concluded two days of security and military talks in efforts towards a lasting ceasefire, the UN political mission for the country, UNSMIL, has reported. 

Torrential rains and flooding across South Sudan have created the threat of “catastrophic” levels of hunger and left hundreds of thousands homeless, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday. 

Every year, an estimated $88.6 billion, which is equivalent to 3.7% of Africa’s GDP, leaves the continent in the form of illicit capital, according to UN trade and development agency UNCTAD’s Economic Development in Africa Report 2020, launched on Monday.

Independent UN human rights experts have called on the Government of Nigeria to immediately release a singer sentenced to death over an allegedly blasphemous song he performed and shared on social media. 

Political developments in Sudan continue to move along a positive trajectory, while planning for a UN mission to assist the transitional government is progressing, the UN Security Council heard on Friday. 

The “indiscriminate consequences” of the COVID-19 pandemic have underscored the importance of multilateralism and how the world handles global challenges and contradictions, the President of Burundi told world leaders gathered virtually for the UN General Assembly. 

Central African Republic, like nearly every nation on the planet, has not been spared by the COVID-19 pandemic, with indictors predicting a contraction by up to 1.2 of the country’s economic growth, President Faustin Archange Touadera said on Thursday, calling on world leaders to unite against the virus. 

Somalia is working with its international partners to build a democratic, inclusive and prosperous country for its citizens, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as ‘Farmajo’, told the UN General Assembly on Thursday. 

Libya, as a country of transit for migrants, cannot surmount the associated challenges without international support, the country’s Head of State told world leaders gathered virtually for the UN General Assembly, rejecting “unilateral” reports on the situation of migrants. 

Humanitarians have stepped up assistance to communities “on the brink”, who have been affected by devastating flooding in Africa’s Sahel region, where several hundred thousand people have been displaced by seasonal rains.

Learning its lessons from the Ebola outbreak, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) took swift and decisive measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus, when the first cases were detected in March, the country’s President told world leaders, gathered virtually, at the UN General Assembly. 

An independent UN human rights expert has called on Mali’s coup leaders to release former government officials, who have been detained for more than a month.