UN News Centre - Africa

In Madagascar, child sex abuse is “widespread and tolerated” in tourist hotspots, UN-appointed rights experts said on Thursday.

As the Sahel region “stares down a horrendous food crisis”, the UN emergency food relief chief warned on Wednesday that the number of people on the brink of starvation has “increased almost tenfold” over the past three years and “displacement by nearly 400 per cent”.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan on Wednesday strongly condemned the continued violence across the country, which is affecting the safety of civilians and humanitarian workers, constraining humanitarian access, and disrupting the delivery of aid and services to thousands of vulnerable people.

Somalia’s leaders must put aside their differences and urgently conclude a credible election process, the UN’s senior official in the country told the Security Council on Tuesday, noting that national elections are now more than a year behind schedule and women’s representation remains significantly off-track.

The UN together with humanitarian partners on Monday, launched the 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan for Mali, seeking $686 million from donors to help 5.3 million of the most vulnerable people in the country.

Mozambique may have been spared by Tropical Cyclone Batsirai, but it is still reeling from the devastating impacts of Tropical Storm Ana. Humanitarians are continuing to support the country’s recovery, and the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA is focusing on fortifying their services to support women and girls. 

Although internal conflict erupted within the world’s youngest country after independence in 2011, Radio Miraya, the news service launched by the UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan in 2005, has stuck fast to its original mandate of trying to bring the country together, becoming the most popular and trusted source of information in the country to this day.

UN human rights experts have warned of increased political violence and polarization between communities across the world’s youngest country, South Sudan, following a fact-finding visit there this week. 

Humanitarians are continuing to support Madagascar in the wake of Cyclone Batsirai which hammered the island nation this past weekend, the UN said on Thursday. 

Africa is on track to control the COVID-19 pandemic this year if current trends continue, but vigilance will remain key, the head of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional office said on Thursday. 

Uganda must pay the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) $325 million in reparations related to the brutal conflict between the two nations from 1998 to 2003, the UN’s highest court ruled on Wednesday. 

On the last day of a five-day trip to Ethiopia, the Deputy Secretary-General said the East African nation is in “a much better place” to resolve the conflict that erupted 15 months ago in Tigray. 

From survivors of rape to young women entrepreneurs, the UN Deputy Secretary-General has spent the week meeting some of those whose lives have been upended by conflict in Ethiopia, but also hearing stories of hope that point towards the “indispensable” value of a return to lasting peace across the African nation.

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) must ensure civilian protection in the wake of recent deadly raids on camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday. 

Dissolving the Tunisian body that deals with judicial independence, known as the High Judicial Council, is a “clear violation” of the country’s obligations under international human rights law, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned on Tuesday.

An estimated 13 million people are waking up severely hungry every day in the Horn of Africa, as the region grapples with a major drought caused by the driest conditions since 1981, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday.

The UN Secretary-General on Saturday said that Africa was “a source of hope” for the world, highlighting the examples of the African Continental Free Trade Area and the Decade of Financial and Economic Inclusion for African Women. 

For the last three years, a retired cook in northern Burkina Faso has been providing shelter for people displaced by armed attacks in the country, where the security situation continues to deteriorate.

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and partners are rushing life-saving aid to more than 20,000 refugees after they fled clashes in Ethiopia’s Benishangul Gumuz region, bordering Sudan and South Sudan.  

Insecurity in Burkina Faso, particularly in the region bordering Côte d’Ivoire, is pushing more people to seek safety both within and outside the country, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Friday.