UN News Centre - Africa

The UN’s human rights chief has been weighing in on recent killings committed by State authorities, or by rogue members of State military forces, emphasizing that all Governments must strictly abide by international law and hold those who serve, accountable for any violations.

With Djibouti’s health system under enormous strain from the COVID-19 pandemic, young migrants in the country are using 3D-printers to make face shields, and ease the shortfall inside medical facilities in the Horn of Africa country.

Urgent resources are needed to support countries in southern Africa and the Great Lakes region which are hosting more than 900,000 refugees and asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and partners said in a $621 million appeal launched on Friday. 

Positive developments in South Sudan have “moved the country further along the road to sustainable peace”, the top UN official there told Security Council members on Wednesday.

After more than a year of battling an Ebola virus outbreak that killed more than 2,200 people, UN officials are “cautiously optimistic” that the epidemic in the northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will soon be history as the country gears up to face the emerging threat of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). 

After serving more than two years as the UN’s Special Representative in charge of finding a way to a lasting peace in war-torn Libya, Ghassan Salamé - who also heads up the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) - handed in his resignation on Monday, citing failing health caused by the immense stress of the job.  

Lack of political consensus on national priorities could threaten further progress in Somalia which is preparing to hold its first “one-person, one-vote” election in 50 years, UN Special Representative James Swan told the Security Council on Monday. 

The second round of the United Nations-facilitated talks to end fighting in Libya concluded on Sunday in Geneva with “seriousness of purpose and goodwill” in Geneva on Sunday, the UN said today.  

The United Nations and the African Union (AU) should do more to ensure all Africans see their futures in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)and the goals of Africa’s Agenda 2063, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said on Tuesday in Zimbabwe.

Meeting in Zimbabwe with young leaders from across the African continent,UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed on Monday encouraged the lively gathering to “use your youth power, for it’s your future to define”, telling them to use technology effectively to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Along with climate shocks, conflict and acute food insecurity, the East Africa region now faces a hunger threat from desert locusts, top UN relief officials warned on Tuesday, saying action now, will avert a major food crisis later.  

Alongside the human population, Africa’s animals are suffering greatly from the effects of climate change, which United Nations Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed saw first-hand on Sunday in Zimbabwe.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed on Saturday the establishment of the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU) in South Sudan. 

Four senior UN officials issued a joint statement on Friday deploring the continued human rights abuses committed against civilians, including women and children, in the south-west and north-west regions of Cameroon.

One year after the signing of a peace deal in the Central African Republic (CAR), State authority is being extended throughout the country, violence against civilians has decreased, and an inclusive Government remains in place, the UN Security Council heard on Thursday. 

The people of South Sudan have been “deliberately starved” in different parts of the country for ethnic and political reasons, and sexual violence against women and men as a weapon of war is ongoing, UN investigators said on Thursday. 

Malnutrition, disease, floods, droughts and displacement in Niger have put nearly three million people, more than half of them children, in need of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF said on Wednesday, calling for increased attention to their plight.

Talks to end fighting in Libya have resumed in Geneva, where UN negotiator Ghassan Salamé said that ongoing clashes must end for there to be a chance for progress. 

The United Nations Secretary-General has extended his deepest condolences to the families of those killed in an attack on a village in north-west Cameroon.

Four countries in Africa have licensed an Ebola vaccine to “cement hard-fought progress” in keeping their people safe from the deadly disease, the UN health agency said on Friday.