Tag: UN Africa News

The UN Mission in CAR (MINUSCA) welcomed the verdict of the Bangui Court of Appeal in the trial of 32 fighters from the mostly-Christian Anti-Balaka militia, accused of crimes committed in May, 2017, in Bangassou and other communities in the country’s southeast.  According to news reports, dozens of Muslims were slaughtered in the town during the massacre. Prison sentences ranged… Read More

“Progress has been made on many important issues and we have before us a significant number of points of convergence”, said the head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, UNSMIL. “Is this complete? Certainly not, and that is why we are still working on refining our basic draft and on bridging the gap on a few points of divergence…that… Read More

Agency chief Filippo Grandi this week concluded a visit to three affected countries—Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger—expressing alarm over the rapidly deteriorating situation.  The number of people forced to flee their homes in Burkina Faso rose 10-fold in 2019. That’s more than half a million people displaced inside the country. 90% of the people @FilippoGrandi saw were women and children.… Read More

Some 115,000 Chadians have reluctantly crossed back over the border, since fighting erupted in CAR in 2013, but many of these “returnees” are unable to access basic services and have to rely on humanitarian aid. The Djako settlement in the south of the country is made up of around 1,100 people including 900 women and children. Many complain of dilapidated… Read More

They were among more than 500 women and children abducted between April and August 2018 by the pro-Riek Machar Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO RM) and subjected to repeated rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage.   “This release is an encouraging and long-awaited development, in a context of prevailing insecurity and immense operational, logistical and resource constraints,” said Pramila Patten, Special… Read More

Zahra Mohammed Ahmed, pictured with her son and daughter in the Afar region of Ethiopia, is leading community efforts to end FGM. UNFPA “My flesh has been taken away, but I can never give away my heart”; those are the powerful words of resolve from Abida Dawud, one of three women survivors of female genital mutilation, or FGM, from Ethiopia, who have been speaking to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) about… Read More

Thirteen of the 15 Council members voted in favour of the resolution, with China and Russia abstaining.  The resolution prohibits the supply, sale or transfer of weapons, ammunition and military equipment to the country, including vehicles.    Items for the UN peacekeeping operation there, MINUSCA, and European and French forces deployed on training missions, are exempt.  Despite the signing of… Read More

Five months of detention In 2016, facing financial hardship, Mr. Ahmed decided to leave his home town in Sudan, and travel to Libya in search of a better life. However, as Libya became increasingly drawn into violent conflict, his aspirations turned to Erope, where he hoped to be able to find work, and to study. Like many of his fellow… Read More

They were among a group of 39 counterparts from across the region who participated in the African Girls Can Code camp held in Pretoria, South Africa, last April.  The coders were this week gifted with laptops during a short handover ceremony at UN House in the capital, Windhoek, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture.  “If young girls and women do not have the training and… Read More

“There are unscrupulous actors inside and outside Libya who cynically nod and wink towards efforts to promote peace and piously affirm their support for the UN”, Ghassan Salamé, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, told the Security Council. “Meanwhile, they continue to double down on a military solution, raising the frightening spectre… Read More