UN Gazeti
Wednesday 05 December 2007
Issue No. 249
UN Observances
| 10 December |
Human Rights Day |
UN IN AFRICA
UN MISSION IN DRC CALLS REBEL FIGHTERS TO LAY DOWN THEIR ARMS
As fighting between Congolese Government forces and troops loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda intensifies in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations peacekeeping mission there has urged all illegal fighters to lay down their arms.
The mission made its call in a statement released following the start of a major offensive launched by the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC) against the dissident troops in the Mushake area, 40 kilometres northwest of Goma in eastern DRC
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SUDAN TO DOMINATE SECURITY COUNCIL DECEMBER PROCEEDINGS
With just weeks remaining before the hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force is due to take over from the existing AU operation in Darfur, the situation in Sudan is set to dominate the Security Council’s programme for December, its President for the month said yesterday.
Briefing reporters in New York, Ambassador Marcello Spatafora of Italy, which holds the Council’s rotating presidency for this month, said the Council will be focusing on Sudan over the next several days.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
WFP PROVIDES MEALS IN SOMALI CAPITAL FOR FIRST TIME IN 15 YEARS
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners have started providing meals to tens of thousands of people in the Somali capital of Mogadishu in a first since Somalia's 1993 emergency.
The effort, which began on 25 November, aims to provide meals in up to 10 districts with a target of up to 50,000 people each day.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNICEF ESTIMATES 1,000 CHILDREN REMAIN ACTIVE IN WARFARE IN DRC
As violence flared in the troubled North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on 3 December said an estimated 1,000 young people remain involved in fighting across the country.
The agency, which recently rescued some 200 Congolese children from rebel custody, also reported that fighting since Sunday between the Congolese Army (FARDC) and troops loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda has displaced an additional 30,000 to 40,000 people in North Kivu.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
WITNESS WHO FALSELY TESTIFIED AT RWANDAN GENOCIDE TRIAL JAILED
The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the 1994 Rwandan genocide on 3 December sentenced a former witness to nine months in prison for giving false testimony during the trial of the country’s former higher education minister.
The witness, identified only by the code name GAA, pleaded guilty to one count of contempt of court at a hearing this morning of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which sits in Arusha, Tanzania. He had already pleaded guilty to a separate count of giving false testimony under solemn declaration.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN HELPS LAUNCH NATIONWIDE ANTI-RAPE CAMPAIGN IN LIBERIA
The United Nations has teamed up with the Government of Liberia to launch a nationwide campaign to prevent and punish the crime of rape, one of the most serious challenges the West African nation is grappling with as it emerges from years of conflict.
“Rape is the most frequently committed serious crime in Liberia so we must find more effective ways to stop these crimes before more women and girls are hurt and abused,” said Alan Doss, outgoing Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UGANDA’S DEADLY EBOLA OUTBREAK CONFIRMED
Uganda’s Ministry of Health has confirmed an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus – with 16 reported dead – in the west of the landlocked country, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) announced on 30 November.
As of 28 November, there have been 51 suspected cases in Bundibugyo District, including three health care workers who were infected, with one fatality.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
TOP UN ENVOY MEETS WITH SOMALI PRESIDENT AND PRIME MINISTER
The top United Nations envoy for Somalia on 29 November discussed the ongoing crisis in the Horn of Africa nation with the country’s President and Prime Minister.
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah met with President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and recently-appointed Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein in the town of Baidoa in southern Somalia.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AROUND THE WORLD
AT UN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE, GROUP ON COOPERATIVE ACTION PLAN SET UP
The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali is off to an “encouraging start,” a senior UN official dealing with the issue has said, citing the decision by participating countries to establish a group that will determine the key elements of a long-term cooperative plan of action to address climate change.
The group, which will be open to all 192 countries of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), will present its decisions on the launch of negotiations on a post-2012 climate change regime to the ministers who will meet during the second week of the conference. The current regime, called the Kyoto Protocol, expires that year.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG CALLS FOR SIX-MONTH EXTENSION OF UN FORCE IN GOLAN HEIGHTS
The situation in the Golan Heights has been “generally quiet” recently, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a new report, which warns that the overall region remains tense and a United Nations force observing the ceasefire between Israel and Syria should stay on for another six months.
The UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has been in place since 1974, should have its mandate extended until at least 30 June next year, Mr. Ban writes in his latest report to the Security Council on the work of the Force. He notes that both Syria and Israel have already voiced their agreement.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT UNDERSCORES NECESSITY OF COOPERATION IN COUNTERING TERRORISM
The United Nations General Assembly President said yesterday that global cooperation is crucial in tackling terrorism, which he characterized as “one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.”
GA President Srgjan Kerim convened an informal meeting – also attended by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon – at UN Headquarters in New York.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNESCO CHIEF CONDEMNS BOMBING OF REBEL RADIO STATION IN SRI LANKA
The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) yesterday condemned a deadly attack on a radio station run by the rebel Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan army planes struck the Voice of Tigers radio station near Kilinochchi in the north of the country on the afternoon of 27 November, killing five of the station's staff and reportedly more than five other people, according to a news release from UNESCO.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
FIRST INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON PUBLIC WEATHER SERVICES HOSTED BY WMO
The United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has brought together more than 100 experts for the first international symposium on public weather services to discuss how to help protect communities from natural disasters and the adverse impact of climate change.
The three-day symposium, which started today in Geneva, is tasked with preparing a road map to help the national meteorological and hydrological services of countries deliver more useful, effective and relevant information about the weather to their customers.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
ON INTERNATIONAL DAY, SG CALLS FOR ERADICATING MODERN FORMS OF SLAVERY
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has marked the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery with a call for redoubling efforts to wipe out the contemporary forms of this abominable practice under which millions of people around the world continue to suffer.
“Millions of our fellow human beings continue to live as contemporary slaves, victims of abominable practices like human trafficking, forced labour and sexual exploitation,” Mr. Ban said his message for the Day, observed annually on 2 December.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
WORLD AIDS DAY MARKED WITH CALLS FOR RENEWED LEADERSHIP TO FIGHT EPIDEMIC
Marking the 20th annual World AIDS Day, top United Nations officials have called for renewed leadership to tackle the global HIV and AIDS epidemic which has already claimed over 25 million lives worldwide.
Calling AIDS “a disease unlike any other,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the need for strong leadership in a number of areas, saying that “without it, we will never get ahead of the epidemic.”
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 |
