UN Gazeti
Wednesday 21 November 2007
Issue No. 248
UN Observances
| 25 November |
International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women |
| 29 November |
International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People |
| 30 November |
Launch for look out for children campaign |
UN IN AFRICA
FINAL REFUGEE GROUP MOVE FROM DJIBOUTI TO SOMALIA
The United Nations refugee agency yesterday began the final phase of its voluntary repatriation programme to help some 1,800 Somali refugees return from Djibouti to Somaliland by the end of this year.
A convoy of 13 trucks, hired by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is transporting 210 Somaliland refugees to the Djibouti-Somaliland border, a spokesperson for the agency announced in Geneva. Returnees will spend Tuesday night at a transit centre where they will receive a return package before continuing their journey Wednesday to their homes, according to the agency.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN TO EXTEND MISSION IN DRC FOR ANOTHER YEAR
Citing ongoing security challenges in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has recommended extending the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in the vast country for one more year, suggesting that a drawdown could commence following the holding of local elections.
In a new report to the Security Council, Mr. Ban paints a mixed picture of progress in the DRC, which has shown signs of good governance and stability but still faces long-standing security challenges in its volatile eastern region.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
ARMED BANDITS CONTINUE ATTACKS IN DARFUR, SAYS UN
Armed bandits continue to carry out attacks on vehicles across Darfur, especially in the south of the war-torn and impoverished Sudanese region, the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) reported yesterday.
An estimated 30 bandits stopped commercial trucks on the weekend on a South Darfur road about 70 kilometres southeast of Nyala, the provincial capital, and exchanged fire with five soldiers from the Popular Defence Forces (PDF) who were escorting the convoy.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AGENCIES CONTINUE RELIEF EFFORTS IN TOGO FOLLOWING DEADLY FLOODS
Three months after Togo endured its worst floods in three decades, United Nations humanitarian agencies are continuing their relief efforts in the West African country as receding flood waters allow aid workers to reach areas previously cut off.
UN agencies have been able to access some 60,000 people in recent weeks and provide them with enough food for the next two months, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters on 19 November.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN OFFICIAL MOURNS PASSING OF PROMINENT RELIEF WORKER IN SOMALIA
The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Somalia on 19 November paid tribute to the memory of Madina Mohamud Elmi, a prominent relief worker who was killed in crossfire on 16 November.
“Somalia has lost one of its heroines,” Eric Laroche said.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
WFP HAILS FRANCE FOR SAFELY ESCORTING FIRST RELIEF FOOD SHIPS TO SOMALIA
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed the safe arrival on 19 November of the first two ships carrying WFP food assistance to be escorted by a French naval vessel to Somalia, and urged other countries to step forward to help protect humanitarian assistance from pirate attacks.
“This operation comes at a critical time for the Somali people who have been devastated by some of the worst conflict and drought seen in years,” said WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, adding that she was very grateful to the Government of France and the French Navy for providing naval escorts to ships carrying WFP food to Somalia.
For more information, visit: www.wfp.org
TESTS CONTINUING AFTER MYSTERY DISEASE OUTBREAK IN ANGOLA – WHO
The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) says it is still investigating the possible origin of an outbreak of a mystery illness that has forced at least 370 people to seek hospital treatment in Angola.
The symptoms include extreme drowsiness and loss of muscle control, WHO said in a statement issued yesterday, and although most patients recover slowly over a number of days many are still unable to walk without assistance. Children suffer the most extreme symptoms.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AROUND THE WORLD
UN LAUNCHES INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF SANITATION TO ADDRESS GLOBAL CRISIS
The United Nations today officially launched the International Year of Sanitation to accelerate progress for 2.6 billion people world wide who are without proper sanitation facilities. Every year inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene contribute to the deaths of 1.5 million children.
“Access to sanitation is deeply connected to virtually all the Millennium Development Goals, in particular those involving the environment, education, gender equality and the reduction of child mortality and poverty,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. “An estimated 42,000 people die every week from diseases related to low water quality and an absence of adequate sanitation. This situation is unacceptable.”
For more information, contact: Victor Chinyama, UNICEF Media
Email: vchinyama@unicef.org
SG CALLS FOR SECURITY COUNCIL WORKING GROUP ON PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS
Deploring the “dreadful toll” that civilians continue to pay in armed conflicts around the world, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday called on the Security Council to establish a working group dedicated to improving protection for civilians in such situations.
Mr. Ban told a Council debate on the protection of civilians that it was time for United Nations Member States to translate their promises from the 2005 World Summit on the “responsibility to protect” from word into deed.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
AUTHOR AND FORMER CHILD SOLDIER ISHMAEL BEAH SIGNS ON AS UNICEF ADVOCATE
Author and former child soldier Ishmael Beah was appointed ysterday as a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Advocate for Children Affected by War, the agency announced as it marked the 18th anniversary of the landmark Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“Ishmael Beah speaks on behalf of young people around the world whose childhoods have been scarred by violence, deprivation, and other violations of their rights,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman, calling the new Advocate “an eloquent symbol of hope for young victims of violence, as well as those working to demobilize and rehabilitate children caught up in armed conflict.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNHCR PLEDGES $11 MILLION TO BOOST HEALTH SERVICES FOR IRAQI REFUGEES IN JORDAN
Aiming to improve medical services and facilities for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees living in Jordan, the United Nations refugee agency today pledged $11 million to help the country care for them.
Under a funding agreement signed in Amman yesterday, the money will help the Ministry of Health enhance public medical services and primary health centres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a news release.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
EMPOWERING WOMEN KEY TO ACHIEVING UN MILLENNIUM GOALS – MIGIRO
Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro warned on 19 November that the pledges to slash poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy by 2015, made by world leaders at the United Nations seven years ago, are at risk unless countries pay greater attention to empowering women and achieving gender equality.
Addressing an international conference in Jerusalem on women’s leadership for sustainable development, Ms. Migiro highlighted the “deep and unbreakable” connection between women and development, particularly in reaching the set of global anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG URGES CLIMATE CHANGE BREAKTHROUGH IN BALI AFTER DIRE REPORT RELEASED
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has challenged the world's policymakers to start devising a comprehensive deal for tackling climate change at next month's summit in Bali, Indonesia, after a United Nations report released on 19 November found that global warming is unequivocal and could cause irreversible damage to the planet.
Launching the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which brings together hundreds of scientific experts, Mr. Ban said that slowing and even reversing the effects of climate change “is the defining challenge of our age.”
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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