UN News Centre

A consecration ceremony of the Timbuktu mausoleums, last held in the 11th century, was celebrated today at the initiative of the local community, the final phase of the United Nations-backed cultural rebirth of the age-old Sahara city after the destruction wrought by radical Islamists in 2012.

The United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) reported today that it has identified seven new possible victims of sexual exploitation and abuse in the town of Bambari, just days after the UN revealed which countries&#39 troops have been accused of abusing minors.

Shelters, schools and health centres in Gaza, the West Bank and Jordan will benefit from $59 million donated by Saudi Arabia to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Near East under three agreements signed today.

The global Food Price Index, calculated by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on a monthly basis, fell in January, slipping 1.9 percent below its level in the last month of 2015, as prices of all the commodities it tracks dropped, sugar in particular.

A senior United Nations official has held talks with Somali leaders in Mogadishu, the capital, in a show of support for last month&#39s &#8220breakthrough&#8221 political achievement in selecting an electoral model to be used later this year in efforts to lead the Horn of Africa country out of decades of factional war.

In September 2002, Zeid was elected the first President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. At that time, the Court was only a plan on paper, and over the next three years he oversaw the election of the first 18 judges, mediated selection of the Court’s first president, and led efforts to name the Court’s first prosecutor – laying out a functioning institution, despite considerable budgetary pressures and criticism of the Court from several leading nations.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on the Government and all parties in Yemen as well as States in the region to commit to a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire to enable the rapid resumption of already delayed peace talks which the United Nations is facilitating.

Nearly a decade after the UN Human Rights Committee agreed that a Peruvian woman’s rights were violated for having been denied an abortion – and recommended that the Government compensate her – the UN human rights office announced today that Peru has said it will pay compensation for having refused her access to a legal medical procedure.

United Nations humanitarian agencies expressed concern today that an estimated 200,000 people are facing “sharply deteriorating conditions” in the besieged western side of Deir-Ez-Zor city in Syria, while the top UN relief official stressed that the world body continues to act “impartially, neutrally and independently” to reach people in need throughout the country.

Expressing concern over the impact on vital remittances from diaspora countries into Somalia caused by “necessary but less considered counter-terrorism regulations,” United Nations rights experts today warned the measures may “severely affect the human rights” of Somali people, while urging regulation-setting governments to guarantee the flow of such funds.

Strongly condemning the two stabbing attacks on two women, one of them fatal, in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a senior United Nations envoy on the Middle East today called upon Israeli and Palestinian authorities to ensure that the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice.

The United Nations in Libya has expressed regret over the decision of the country’s Presidency Council to postpone the formation of a national unity government for 48 hours beyond the deadline set by a UN-facilitated political agreement, emphasizing that all efforts to combat and eliminate these terrorist groups must be led by the Libyan State.

International tourism grew by 4.4 per cent last year to a record 1.184 billion as calculated by overnight visitors to international destinations, 50 million more than in 2014, and the sixth consecutive year of above-average growth, UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported today.

Millions of lives can be saved by ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed at the World Future Energy Summit taking place in the United Arab Emirates.

With 14 million people facing hunger in southern Africa as the El Niño weather pattern, the worst in over three decades, exacerbates drought, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that it faces critical funding challenges in scaling up food and cash-based aid.

Highlighting that people around the world are living at an age of &#8220mega-crises,&#8221 United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the launch of a new report on finding solutions to the growing gap between the increasing numbers of people in need of assistance and sufficient resources to provide relief.

Everyone involved in energy—governments, the private sector, investors and financial institutions, cities, and people everywhere&#8211has understood that we can no longer burn our way to global prosperity, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared today at a debate hosted by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the Financial Times.

Following a briefing on Monday on the situation in Mali by UN peacekeeping chief Hervé Ladsous, the Security Council has stressed that all parties signatory to June’s peace agreement bear the primary responsibility for achieving lasting peace in the country.

As United Nations officials gave on-site accounts of the “horrible and terrible” situation in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya, from 400 critically ill people facing death without immediate medical care to a kilo of rice costing $300, the first emergency evacuation took place today – a five-year-old girl rushed through pro-Government roadblocks for urgent surgery in Damascus.

Strongly condemning the recent attacks against a major power plant in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi, the top United Nations humanitarian official in the country said today he is “deeply shocked by these actions that directly affect civilian life,” and warned that such “ignoble” attacks may amount to war crimes.