UN Gazeti
Wednesday 14 November 2007
Issue No. 247
UN Observances
| 16 November |
International Day for Tolerance |
| 20 November |
Universal Children’s Day |
| 25 November |
International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women. |
UN IN KENYA
MALNUTRITION RATES IN KENYAN REFUGEE CAMPS LOWEST IN YEARS
Three United Nations agencies have praised the international community for its support to help turn around a devastating malnutrition crisis in northern Kenya’s Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps.
The gains made in Dadaab and Kakuma are the result of a package of measures including a more regular supply of culturally acceptable foods, as well as firewood, and the provision of energy-saving cooking stoves and soap to ensure that refugees are not compelled to sell a portion of their food to buy these basic items.
For more information, visit:www.wfp.org
SOMALI PRESIDENT ARRIVES IN KENYA FOR TALKS WITH UN ENVOY
The senior United Nations envoy to Somalia is holding talks in Nairobi with the country’s President and other political leaders as UN staff report that worsening humanitarian conditions inside the capital, Mogadishu.
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf arrived in the Kenyan capital on 8 November for the talks with the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, and other UN officials, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters on 9 November.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN IN AFRICA
SECURITY COUNCIL CALLS ON ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA TO RESOLVE BOUNDARY DISPUTE
The Security Council yesterday urged Ethiopia and Eritrea to implement without delay a 2002 ruling on the delimitation of their common border, stressing the need for the two African neighbours to settle their disagreements peacefully.
In a statement read out by Ambassador Marty Natalegawa of Indonesia, which holds the rotating Council presidency this month, the 15-member body urged the parties to take concrete steps to implement immediately and without preconditions the delimitation decision of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, as well as the Algiers Agreements which ended the war between the two countries.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SUDANESE OUTBREAK OF RIFT VALLEY FEVER
The United Nations agricultural agency has sent a senior animal health expert to Sudan to advise the country’s Government on prevention and control measures to deal with a deadly outbreak of the viral haemorrhagic disease known as Rift Valley Fever (RVF).
At least 84 deaths in Sudan have been attributed to RVF and the number of infected people is also on the rise, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), which has tracked the outbreak to three states on the eastern side of the African country: White Nile, Sinnar and Gezira.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
NIGERIAN ANTI-CORRUPTION DRIVE SETS A WELCOME EXAMPLE, SAYS UNODC CHIEF
The head of the United Nations anti-crime agency yesterday praised the efforts of Nigeria to bring about what he called a “climate change” in attitudes and actions about corruption in a country that has long suffered from the ruinous effects of the practice.
Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) welcomed a series of recent initiatives by Nigerian authorities to combat corruption, but urged them to do more to crack down, particularly on cyber-crime.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN MISSION HAILS CONVICTION OF KILLER OF TWO UN OBSERVERS IN DRC
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) yesterday welcomed the conviction and sentencing of a former rebel militia member over the murder of two UN observers in the northeast of the country in 2003.
Agenonga Ufoyuru, alias Kwisha, was sentenced to life in jail by a military tribunal in the eastern city of Bunia, according to a statement issued by the mission, known as MONUC.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG LAUDS DR CONGO-RWANDA AGREEMENT ON THREATS TO PEACE
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 12 November commended the Governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda for reaching agreement on a common approach to end threats to peace and stability in the two countries and the region.
“The agreement between them on a common approach and immediate, concrete steps to carry it out marks a significant breakthrough,” Mr. Ban said through his spokesperson.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN PEACEKEEPING MISSION IN SOMALIA NOT REALISTIC OR VIABLE, SAYS SG
Deploying a United Nations peacekeeping operation to Somalia is not realistic or viable given the war-wracked African country’s security situation, the intensifying insurgency and the lack of progress towards any political reconciliation, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says.
In his latest report on the situation in Somalia, Mr. Ban writes that conditions are so dire that it has not even been possible to send a technical assessment mission to the country.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
WFP CHIEF TO VISIT WEST AFRICA TO SPOTLIGHT 'SILENT EMERGENCIES'
The Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) will visit West Africa next week to spotlight the “silent emergencies” gripping the region, the agency announced on 8 November.
“WFP is working in partnership throughout West Africa to address chronic malnutrition and climatic shock, and to ensure food security,” said Josette Sheeran, who will travel from 12 to 16 November to Mali and Senegal.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AROUND THE WORLD
SG CALLS ON PEOPLE OF FAITH FOR SUPPORT IN CLIMATE CHANGE BATTLE
People of faith can help inspire millions of others worldwide to take better care of the planet, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday, calling for a concerted global effort against climate change.
In a message delivered on his behalf to the annual United Nations Orthodox Prayer Service in New York, Mr. Ban said slowing or even reversing the existing trends of global warming is “the defining challenge of our ages.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
DIALOGUE ONLY WAY FORWARD IN RESOLVING MYANMAR CRISIS
The United Nations Special Envoy to Myanmar today urged the South-East Asian nation to immediately begin talks between the Government and the opposition, stressing that dialogue was the only way forward to address the country’s ongoing crisis.
“In today’s world, no country can afford to stay outside the irreversible trends towards stability, prosperity and democracy, and it is the responsibility of every government to listen to its people, respond to legitimate popular demands and respect in full the human rights of its citizens,” Ibrahim Gambari told the Security Council yesterday.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG ANNOUNCES PLAN TO APPOINT CANADIAN TO HEAD HARIRI INQUIRY
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has informed the Security Council of his plan to appoint a senior Canadian legal figure as the next head of the independent commission tasked with investigating the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri and many other killings in the Middle Eastern country.
Mr. Ban sent a letter to the Council detailing his intention to appoint Daniel Bellemare, who served until recently as Canada’s Deputy Attorney-General, as the Commissioner of the International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC), UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters yesterday.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN OFFICIAL URGES GREATER SUPPORT FOR GLOBAL REFUGEE OPERATIONS
A senior official with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today called on countries to increase their support for the agency’s efforts to protect nearly 33 million refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and asylum-seekers worldwide.
Erika Feller, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, particularly highlighted the needs of the more than 4.4 million Iraqis that have left their homes, which she described as “probably the biggest refugee problem we have at the current time.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
NEW UN ENVOY FOR IRAQ STARTS WORK IN BAGHDAD
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's new Special Representative for Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, has arrived in Baghdad where he immediately assumed his responsibilities as the top United Nations envoy in the country.
“I look forward to carrying out my responsibilities,” said Mr. de Mistura, whose mandate derives from Security Council resolution 1770, which extended and expanded the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI).
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SRGJAN KERIM URGES FRAMEWORK TO ADDRESS SECURITY COUNCIL REFORM
As the General Assembly on 12 November embarked on a wide-ranging debate on Security Council reform, the 192-member body’s president said he looked forward to hearing the proposals of Member States and urged them to adopt a framework that would foster concrete results.
“I wish to assure you of my determination to work with all of you in an open and transparent manner to establish the most appropriate process, based on the views of the entire membership,” Srgjan Kerim told the Assembly.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME RUSHES AID TO FLOOD-HIT TABASCO
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is rushing aid to 70,000 people affected by massive floods in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco.
A WFP truck convoy carrying enough ready-to-eat meals for those affected for over five days is on its way from WFP's emergency hub in El Salvador to Tabasco.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
For more information on the United Nations and its activities, please visit the main U.N website at www.un.org or the U.N Kenya website at www.un-kenya.org
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