UN News Centre - Africa

Many African elephants continued to face serious threats to their survival in 2015 from the illegal trade in ivory and unacceptably high levels of poaching, although the sharp upward trends in poaching since 2006 have started to level off, according to the Secretariat of the United Nations-backed treaty regulating wildlife trade.

The United Nations refugee agency today appealed to donors for an additional $115.4 million to fund the voluntary return and reintegration of Somali refugees from Kenya&#39s Dadaab refugee camp.

Recent fighting in South Sudan has forced 37,491 people to flee to Uganda in the past three weeks, averaging more than 4,000 a day in the past week, the United Nations refugee agency warned today.

The United Nations chief and his envoy for Somalia have denounced today&#39s terrorist attack in the vicinity of Mogadishu International Airport that killed at least a dozen people.

Mangroves are rare and vital ecosystems that help to protect coastlines and mitigate the effects of climate change, but their survival is being jeopardized, the United Nations cultural agency said today, calling for greater preservation efforts as the international community marks the first ever International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem.

Underlining the need for the sustainable industrialization of Africa, the United Nations General Assembly today unanimously adopted a resolution proclaiming the period 2016-2025 as the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, along with the Multidimensional Intigrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), condemned the recent clashes in Kidal between forces of The Platform Movement and those of the Coordination of movements of Azawad (CMA), both of which are signatories to the country&#39s peace agreement.

In a cross-border humanitarian operation, a total of 31 metric tonnes of food and some non-food items have been distributed to about 15,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Banki, located in Nigeria&#39s restive Borno state, near the border with Cameroon, the United Nations relief wing announced today.

Following a request from the main international organization working to achieve a world free of chemical weapons, the United Nations Security Council today adopted a resolution authorizing the transfer of such weapons out of Libya for their safe, timely destruction.

Some 26,500 South Sudanese, mostly women and children, have crossed into Uganda since fighting between rival forces erupted in and around the capital, Juba, on 7 July, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.

Wrapping up a visit to southern Africa, the United Nations deputy humanitarian chief today called for urgent action to assist millions of people across the region where local coping capacities have been impacted by the worst El Niño-induced drought in 35 years.

Concluding a six-day visit to Somalia, a United Nations child rights envoy has called for better protection of children caught up in armed conflict, urging the country&#39s authorities to treat former child soldiers as victims in need of protection rather than as criminals.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Fabrizio Hochschild of Chile as his new Deputy Special Representative for the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today signed a new partnership agreement with the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) that will further strengthen the collaboration between the two organizations in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Concluding a four-day mission to Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra&#39ad Al Hussein, today commended the country&#39s efforts to strengthen human rights but cautioned that some of these advances may be under threat, especially what he saw as repression against opposition parties in the coming elections.

A United Nations human rights expert today urged the Government of South Sudan to immediately release Alfred Taban, a prominent journalist and chief editor of the daily English newspaper, Juba Monitor.

Ahead of a meeting with the United Nations Security Council tomorrow on South Sudan, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the body to impose an immediate arms embargo, enact additional targeted sanctions on leaders and commanders blocking implementation of the peace deal, and to fortify the UN mission in the country, which has seen a resurgence of deadly violence in recent days.

Countries in West Africa and the Sahel must expand intelligence gathering capacities to counter militant threats, such as those posed by Boko Haram, the head of the United Nations operation for that region said today.

Strongly condemning the escalating violence in and around the South Sudanese capital of Juba that began on 7 July, the United Nations Security Council today joined Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in calling for an end to the fighting, while separately demanding that President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Reik Machar do their utmost to control their respective forces.

The Central African Republic’s (CAR) considerable progress over the past two years risks being reversed unless national authorities demonstrated commitment to inclusive and transparent governance, and to addressing the root causes of the crisis afflicting the country, the United Nations peacekeeping chief warned today.