UN News Centre - Africa

The UN Secretary-General on Wednesday said he was “delighted” to learn that “a demonstrable effort to make peace” in Ethiopia is finally underway, according to information relayed to him by the African Union High Representative for the Horn of Africa. 

Authorities in Sudan must immediately halt unnecessary and disproportionate use of force against protesters, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday, calling for those responsible for abuses to be brought to justice. 

Nearly 20 years after the UN Security Council referred the Darfur situation in Sudan to the International Criminal Court (ICC), victims and survivors of atrocities are still seeking justice and accountability, Prosecutor Karim Khan told ambassadors on Tuesday. 

More than $138 million is needed to assist rural communities affected by extended drought in the Horn of Africa, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday, launching a comprehensive response plan for the region. 

Aid and food distribution operations in northern Ethiopia are about “to grind to a halt” amid ongoing fighting, bloodshed and a lack of funding that is making humanitarian access impossible, the UN World Food Programme, WFP, said on Friday.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) called on Friday for concerted international action to end armed conflict in Africa’s central Sahel region, which has forced more than 2.5 million people to flee their homes in the last decade.

After a six-week surge, Africa’s fourth pandemic wave, which has been mainly driven by the Omicron variant, is flattening, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

With the crisis escalating in Sudan, there have been 15 reports of attacks on healthcare workers and health facilities since last November, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. 

A decade after civil conflict erupted in Mali, hopes for an early resolution to insurgency and strife have not materialized, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the country, El-Ghassim Wane, told the Security Council on Tuesday.  

Authorities in Tunisia are being urged to immediately release - or properly charge - former justice minister Noureddine Bhiri, and another man, who have been detained under suspected terrorism offences, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday.

The Secretary-General, António Guterres, strongly condemned on Monday the “appalling” attacks perpetrated over the weekend in Nigeria’s Zamfara State in which scores of civilians were killed.  

After a recent wave of attempts and coups d'état in Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan and Guinea, The UN Special Representative for the region told the Security Council on Monday this resurgence, particularly in West Africa, “is often the consequence of political practices that are completely out of step with the aspirations of the populations.” 

The Secretary-General, António Guterres, said on Monday he was deeply saddened by reports that more than 50 civilians were killed and injured in an airstrike in northern Ethiopia, last Friday. 

The Ethiopian Government on Friday freed several high-profile political detainees, a move UN Secretary-General António Guterres hailed as a “significant confidence-building step”. 

“Refugees are not and should never be a target”, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Thursday, following reports of a deadly airstrike on the Mai Aini refugee camp in Tigray, northern Ethiopia.

Supporting innovations in the food system in Rwanda is the goal of a UN-backed initiative launched in the capital, Kigali, on Wednesday. 

The United Nations’ Secretary-General condemned on Monday the continued violence targeting protestors in Sudan, following the 25 October military takeover.

Three Tanzanian peacekeepers  serving on the United Nations’ mission in Central African Republic (MINUSCA) were injured on Thursday, when their vehicle struck an unidentified explosive device.  

Reported killings and injuries during peaceful demonstrations in Sudan is a cause for deep concern, said the UN human rights office on Friday (OHCHR).

The UN chief condemned on Wednesday the looting and attacks against United Nations facilities, equipment and supplies gifted to the Sudanese authorities for civilian in El Fasher, Darfur.