Tag: UN Africa News

Cases on the continent fell by 1.7 per cent this week to nearly 282,000, largely due to a sharp decline in South Africa, home to the bulk of reported infections.  “Many countries are still at peak risk & #Africa’s unprecedented third wave surged up faster & higher than ever before. The Eid celebrations which we marked this week may also… Read More

Marburg, a highly infectious disease that causes haemorrhagic fever, is transmitted to humans by fruit bats.  The virus is in the same family as Ebola.  .@WHO & partners are supporting #Guinea’s Ministry of Health to investigate the source of the #Marburg outbreak, trace contacts, & inform the local community about how to protect themselves. About 150 contacts have been identified… Read More

Rida Faraj Fraitis, is Chief of Staff for the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity (GNU), the UN-backed administration that since March, has been leading a new unified Libyan push towards ending years of civil conflict and division. Up until this year, the oil-rich nation was split between the former Government of National Accord based in… Read More

A recent escalation in fighting in Afar and other neighbouring regions, has been disastrous for children, said Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in a statement on Monday.  Displaced people killed  UNICEF was extremely alarmed by the reported killing last Thursday of over 200 people, including more than 100 children, in attacks on displaced families sheltering… Read More

At the end of an 11-day official visit, Alioune Tine recounted stories of increasing extrajudicial executions, civilian kidnappings and gang rapes, saying that the “serious and continuing deterioration of the security situation has exceeded a critical threshold”.  “A weakened and powerless State is having difficulty assuming its proper role of protecting civilian populations in the face of armed groups that are swarming throughout the country”, he said.   ‘Leap of faith’  The UN expert said that… Read More

Speaking in Geneva, Martin Griffiths highlighted the urgency of the situation for all those affected in the northern Ethiopian region, after eight months of fighting between Government forces and those loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Earlier this week, the UN senior official warned that 200,000 people had been displaced by fighting in neighbouring Amhara region, along with… Read More

“We need to change the circumstances that have led to the slow movement of aid – we need the conflict to stop”, Martin Griffiths, who also heads the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said on Tuesday evening. More than 5.2 million people across Tigray, amounting to more than 90 per cent of the region’s population, now require life-saving assistance, according to OCHA.  … Read More

Hundreds of thousands of people, young and old, were forced to flee their homes over recent years following civil war and widespread insecurity in the eastern African country. Thirty young men and women in the city of Wau, have recently undertaken vocational training on installing solar power systems supported by the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM). Read more here… Read More

Incessant heavy rains, followed by floods, landslides, and strong winds have led to farmland, dwellings, roads, markets and a wide range of businesses, disappearing under water. The lives of people across the entire sub-region including in Tanzania, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which also border Lake Tanganyika, have been disrupted, but Burundi is one of the least… Read More

Some one thousand victims of human trafficking have been identified in Burundi since 2017, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM). Elisabeth (not her real name) is one of the lucky ones. She survived the ordeal and received assistance from IOM to return home to Burundi. She told her story for the first time to IOM staff, ahead of World… Read More