In this feature, part of a series exploring the fight against trafficking in the Sahel, UN News focuses on the illegal arms trade that is fuelling conflict and terrorism. In the Sahel, home to 300 million people, it’s a buyer’s market for guns. Insurgency and banditry plague the region, rooted in, among other things, endemic…
Both share an emphasis on the rights and freedoms of all people. The exhibit Kahlil Gibran Returns to New York After 100 Years was on display at UN Headquarters in April 2023 to celebrate the Lebanese poet and artist. “The Universal Declaration stated that we are all born equal, and this is exactly what Gibran…
“We are concerned by the continued devastating impact of the fighting in Sudan on civilians,” Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told journalists in Geneva. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and military rival, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have been locked in vicious clashes since mid-April. Hundreds have been killed and some 1.2 million have been displaced. UN…
Speaking to journalists from Bilozerka, a town on the Dnipro River about 20 kilometres west of Kherson and five kilometres from the frontline, Ms. Brown, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, said that on Friday, the UN brought in a five-truck convoy to the affected areas, with desperately needed drinking water, food and equipment to help…
“Food diversion is absolutely unacceptable,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain, following a joint statement made by Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and USAID announcing their commitment to addressing deeply concerning revelations of aid diversion. “While we will temporarily halt food aid assistance in Ethiopia, nutrition assistance to children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, school meals…
OHCHR said that on 25 May, security forces stormed a peaceful meeting of Baha’is in Sana’a. Seventeen people, including five women, were taken to an unknown location, and all but one, are still being held incommunicado. The UN rights office urged the de facto Houthi authorities in Sana’a, to immediately release the detainees. Call for…
In a statement, the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (MINUSMA), El-Ghassim WANE, described the attack on the security patrol in Ber town, in the Timbuktu region, as a “cowardly act”. “This tragic loss is a stark reminder of the risks that our peacekeepers face while working tirelessly to bring stability and…
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told correspondents that the decision to send the unit home had been made by the Secretariat in New York, following consultations with the peacekeeping mission in CAR, MINUSCA. ‘Credible evidence’ “The decision comes after a preliminary investigation which found credible evidence that 11 members of the unit had allegedly engaged in…
“We need to focus on an emergency response right now”, he said, highlighting a three-step plan to provide humanitarian assistance to all Ukrainians impacted, who have faced more than one year of war following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. “We need to save people and get them to places where they are safe and…
Senior officials with the UN Investigative Team promoting accountability for ISIL crimes, UNITAD, presented some of their findings to Member States meeting at UN Headquarters in New York. For the past five years, UNITAD has been gathering evidence of crimes committed during ISIL’s self-proclaimed caliphate from June 2014 to December 2017, which could be used…
