UN News Centre - Africa

As South Sudan prepares to mark its fifth anniversary of independence, United Nations officials today expressed concern over the continuing violence in parts of the country and the resulting forced displacement of people, both internally and throughout the neighbouring region.

The United Nations refugee agency today said that more than six thousand people from the Central African Republic (CAR) have fled into Chad and Cameroon to escape renewed tension and violent clashes since mid-June.

An inclusive and credible dialogue among Congolese stakeholders is the only realistic way to defuse political tensions, overcome the electoral impasse and prevent violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where public discontent is being fuelled by delays in the electoral process and shrinking democratic space, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson warned today.

Reauthorizing the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) until 31 May 2017, the United Nations Security Council today set out key objectives for the operation during its new mandate, including “to reduce the threat posed by Al-Shabaab and other armed opposition groups.”

The United Nations human rights office today condemned the killing of Kenyan human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josphat Mwenda, and their taxi driver, Joseph Muiruri, on 23 June, in a context of persistent allegations of extrajudicial killings by police forces.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) announced that floods across Ethiopia have severely impacted the recovery processes, particularly for livestock-dependent families, following more than 18 months of dry spells and poor rainfall induced by an El Niño drought phenomenon.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the recent killing in Bangui of a peacekeeper serving with the UN operation in the Central African Republic (CAR), his spokesman said today.

The United Nations Security Council has “condemned in the strongest terms” a recent deadly attack by Al-Shabaab on a hotel in the Somali capital of Mogadishu that killed several people, including a serving government minister.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Yacoub El Hillo of Sudan as his Deputy Special Representative in the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), succeeding Antonio Vigilante of Italy, who concluded his assignment on 15 June 2016.

The top United Nations relief official today released $13 million from a fund that supports rapid humanitarian responses – known as the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) – to provide life-saving assistance to 250,000 people in areas of north-east Nigeria that have just become accessible.

One of the strongest El Niño events ever recorded has placed the lives of 26.5 million children at risk of malnutrition, water shortages and disease in ten countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) has reported.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he is deeply concerned about the current escalation of violence between the Sudan&#39s People Liberation Army (SPLA) and armed groups, in Wau town and surrounding areas, in South Sudan.

The acting United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Libya, Dr. Syed Jaffar Hussain expressed deep concerns at recent attacks in Benghazi that put medical facilities at risk and urged all parties to take all feasible precautions to prevent casualties among patients and medical personnel.

Despite some recent political progress in South Sudan, a deteriorating food and nutrition situation, economic decline and sporadic violence are continuing to significantly impact the humanitarian needs within the country, the United Nations food relief agency cautioned today.

Evelyn Amony was abducted at age 11 from her village in northern Uganda and then forced to become the “wife” of Joseph Kony – one Africa’s most feared warlords, infamous for his casual brutality, and leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, the violent rebel group better known as the LRA.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today it is providing agricultural and livelihood assistance to affected host communities and displaced people in the Lake Chad Basin as a result of massive population displacements and insecurity that are putting livelihoods and food security at high risk.

The first-ever United Nations-sponsored regional forum for Action on Albinism in Africa will take place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 17 to 19 June to develop specific measures to tackle the attacks and discrimination faced by persons with albinism in several countries in the region.

The longer the political crisis continues in Guinea Bissau, the more likely the country could see setbacks to its development and economic gains, warned the head of the United Nations peacebuilding office there, urging the Security Council to pay greater attention to the situation.

The UN human rights office today urged the Libyan authorities to undertake an effective, thorough and impartial investigation to bring perpetrators of torture to justice, after 12 people were found dead last Friday.

Given the unchanged nature of the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, the mandate of the African Union-United Nations mission there should be extended for another year, without changes to its priorities or its authorized troop and police ceiling, the top UN peacekeeping official said today.