UN News Centre - Africa

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today that it is responding to a growing food security emergency causing malnutrition in children in both rural and urban areas of crisis-gripped South Sudan.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has commended the European Union (EU) Commission for its 50 million euro contribution to the multinational task force, created by Lake Chad Basin countries – Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria – and Benin to combat Boko Haram insurgents in the sub-region.

Preliminary United Nations investigations into the recent fighting in South Sudan reveal Government security forces carried out killings and rapes, and looted and destroyed properties, the UN human rights chief said today, calling on the Security Council to take stronger action.

United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien concluded today his three-day mission to crisis-torn South Sudan, voicing serious concern at the humanitarian situation in the country and in particular the violence against civilians, as well as attacks against aid workers, which is hampering efforts to respond to the needs of the people affected by the fighting.

The United Nations food relief agency today started a fundraising campaign, using a smartphone application, to provide school meals in a southern district of Malawi, where El Niño-induced drought has reduced crop yields.

United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien today called on all actors in South Sudan, including the international community supporting the country, to work together for a peace that will enable the nation and its people to realize their hopes for a better future.

The economy of Ghana has been losing some $2.6 billion annually – or 6.4 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) – due to child undernutrition, according to a new United Nations study launched today in the country’s capital, Accra.

Some 60,000 people have fled South Sudan&#39s recent violence in the capital city of Juba, bringing the overall number of South Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries since December 2013 to nearly 900,000, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

The United Nations in South Sudan today condemned unequivocally reports of widespread sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, of women and young girls, by soldiers and unidentified armed men, stressing that such acts constitute grave violations of international human rights law and may be regarded as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Voicing deep concern over the continuing pattern of extrajudicial executions in Kenya, United Nations human rights experts have called on the Government to halt police violence and ensure accountability for the perpetrators.

Despite an attack on a humanitarian convoy in which one of its staff members was injured, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is scaling up its response to provide assistance to thousands of conflict-affected children in Nigeria’s Borno state, which has borne the brunt of violence by Boko Haram insurgents.

The Security Council this evening requested Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to establish a United Nations police officers component in Burundi for an initial period of one year to monitor the security situation and to support the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) in monitoring rights violations and abuses in the crisis-gripped country.

The Security Council today extended for two weeks the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), allowing time for its membership to consider options on adapting the operation’s mandate amid renewed violence in the world’s youngest country.

Ahead of the six-year remembrance of a mass rape of more than 300 civilians residents of the Walikale region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by armed groups, the United Nations envoy on sexual violence in conflict has called on the international community to be relentless in seeking accountability for the crimes.

Five middle-distance runners from South Sudan, until recently living in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, have flown out of the capital city of Nairobi to take part in the first-ever Olympic refugee team for the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the United Nations refugee agency has said.

The United Nations has temporarily halted humanitarian assistance missions in north-eastern Nigeria’s restive Borno state after yesterday’s attack on a multi-agency aid convoy which had been delivering desperately needed relief aid in a remote area of the region, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The United Nations human rights office today expressed concern over the three-year prison sentences handed down last week to 30 members of the main opposition party in Gambia, including its leader Ousainou Darboe, following their participation in peaceful protests in mid-April.

While welcoming recent political developments recently observed in West Africa, the United Nations Security Council today stressed the need to increase military cooperation between the States in the region and Sahel to fight against the terrorist group Boko Haram.

Citing persisting instability in number of African countries – from South Sudan to Mali and Libya, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed that building peace and restoring institutions in post-conflict settings are long-term processes that must be rooted in a country’s historical, political, social, cultural and economic contexts.

Some 23 million people in southern Africa are in need of urgent support to be able to produce enough food to feed themselves and avoid being dependent on humanitarian assistance until mid-2018, the United Nations agricultural agency has warned.