UN Gazeti
Wednesday 16 January 2008
Issue No. 251
UN Observances
| 27 January 2007 |
International Day of Commemoration Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust |
UN IN KENYA
UN DISPATCHES MORE AID AS KENYA CRISIS CONTINUES
United Nations agencies are bolstering their assistance to Kenyans in the aftermath of the deadly wave of violence which erupted after last month’s disputed elections, claiming more than 500 lives and displacing hundreds of thousands.
Roads were closed from early this morning as riot police lined the perimeter of the Parliament building in downtown Nairobi, the capital. The UN Department of Safety and Security (DSS) said that there have been no confirmed security incidents, but advised caution ahead of rallies called for by the opposition scheduled to take place today and tomorrow.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
POLITICAL UNREST SPARKS FOOD INSECURITY, LIVELIHOOD LOSSES
Most of the people who fled political violence in Kenya's Rift Valley Province, the country's breadbasket, are farmers and their displacement during harvest season is expected to undermine national food security, humanitarian officials said.
According to Augusta Abate, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) assistant representative for Kenya, 75 percent of the estimated 300,000 people displaced from the Rift Valley have become destitute.
For more information, http://www.irinnews.org
UN CONTINUES TO ASSIST VICTIMS OF POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE
13 January 2008 – As the death toll from deadly wave of post-election violence in Kenya continues to climb, the United Nations is continuing its relief efforts ahead of three days of nationwide rallies next week called for by the opposition.
The Kenya Red Cross Society announced that it has revised the death toll up from the official number of 486 to 575, and said that this figure is expected to rise further as more bodies are discovered
For more information, http://www.unicnairobi.org
UN FOOD AID REACHES NAIROBI SLUMS HIT HARDEST BY POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE
Tens of thousands of people in the Nairobi slums – some of the largest in Africa – most affected by last week’s post-election violence in Kenya began receiving assistance from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) yesterday.
yesterday’s distribution, starting in the vast Kibera shantytown and continuing in the three other slums of Mathare, Dandora and Korogocho marks the first time WFP food is being handed out in the slums in a general food distribution.
For more information, http://www.unicnairobi.org
UN IN AFRICA
SUDAN MILITARY LEADERS AND UN-AU DARFUR FORCE DISCUSS DEPLOYMENT
Sudan’s top military officer and his counterpart from the new United Nations-African Union (AU) hybrid mission, known as UNAMID, met yesterday to discuss issues pertaining to the deployment of the joint peacekeeping force which seeks to end the violence in the war-ravaged Darfur region.
In the talks between UNAMID General Martin Luther Agwai and Lieutenant General Ismat, Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces, the Government “expressed its commitment to facilitate the deployment of UNAMID and to avoid misunderstandings in the future, by keeping the channels of communication open through regular meetings,” UN spokesperson Michele Montas said at a press briefing in New York.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SECURITY COUNCIL EXTENDS UN OPERATION IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE
The Security Council yesterday renewed the mandate of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) and French forces supporting it until 30 July so the world body can support the holding of free, open, fair and transparent elections.
In a unanimously adopted resolution, the Council said it will review by 30 July the mandates of UNOCI and the French force, as well as UN troop levels, “in light of the progress achieved in the implementation of the key steps of the peace process.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN SEEKS ADDITIONAL FUNDS TO FEED MALAWIANS
Over 1 million Malawians are threatened by food shortages over the next three months as weather forecasts predict an enhanced likelihood of flooding in the southern African country, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned.
“Consequently, women and children under five will become more exposed to malnutrition and infections as well as to abuse and exploitation,” UNICEF said in its latest update on the situation, highlighting its efforts to step up feeding for severely malnourished children and pregnant and lactating women, and prevent cholera and other water-borne diseases.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG TO APPOINT INDEPENDENT PANEL TO LOOK INTO ALGIERS ATTACK
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday announced his decision to appoint an independent panel to investigate last month’s deadly terrorist attack in Algeria which claimed the lives of 17 United Nations staff members.
The panel – which will seek Algerian authorities’ full cooperation – will be tasked with establishing the facts concerning the 11 December bombing in the capital, Algiers. It will also take up strategic issues vital to providing and bolstering security for UN staff worldwide.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN PROVIDES $600,000 TO FEED CONFLICT-AFFECTED IN SOMALI REGION
The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has allocated nearly $600,000 to provide Ethiopians in the country’s strife-torn Somali region with food aid.
The funds will be used by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to help Ethiopian authorities deliver WFP food to the Somali region, where conflict between Government forces and the Ogaden National Liberation Front has intensified this year.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN STEPS UP RELIEF EFFORTS FOR TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FLOOD VICTIMS
The United Nations is stepping up relief operations in central Mozambique as a sharp rise in floodwaters along the Zambezi River in the past 48 hours uproots yet more people to join the tens of thousands already displaced.
“The number of people displaced is fast reaching a critical mass,” the representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Leila Pakkala, said on Monday. “Urgent action is crucial to prevent outbreaks of diseases, which are of great concern at the onset of a crisis, especially among children.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS ATTACK ON UN CONVOY IN DARFUR
The Security Council on Friday condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the attack by Sudanese army elements on a supply convoy of the new joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur (UNAMID) and voiced its readiness to act against any party impeding its deployment.
“The Security Council stresses that any attack or threat against UNAMID is unacceptable and demands that there will be no recurrence of attacks on UNAMID,” the 15-member body said in a presidential statement read out by Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi of Libya, which holds the rotating presidency for January.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
NEW UN ENVOY MEETS WITH DR CONGO PRESIDENT, OFFICIALS
Alan Doss, the new United Nations envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has met with the country’s President and other officials on issues of peace, security and development in the strife-torn nation.
Mr. Doss, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN peacekeeping operation in the DRC, known as MONUC, met yesterday with President Joseph Kabila in the capital Kinshasa, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters in New York.
UN AROUND THE WORLD
SG URGES DIALOGUE TO HALT VIOLENCE IN SRI LANKA
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the attacks which occurred in Sri Lanka today, killing and injuring dozens – including children – and coinciding with the formal end of a truce between the Government and Tamil rebels.
“The only way to stop further violence in Sri Lanka is through dialogue,” Mr. Ban said in a statement issued by his spokesperson.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
ATTACKS IN IRAQ DECREASE BUT LITTLE PROGRESS ON POLITICAL FRONT
Although attacks in Iraq have decreased, insecurity continues to severely limit the activities of the United Nations mission there, while the political situation has not improved as much as had been hoped, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a new report.
“Indiscriminate and targeted violence continued to claim civilian victims,” Mr. Ban tells the Security Council in his latest report on the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), covering the three months ending in December.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
NO AGREEMENT REACHED ON KOSOVO’S FUTURE STATUS
The Security Council today discussed the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Kosovo – a Serbian province where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs and other minorities by nine to one – with no agreement being reached over its future status.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Joachim Rücker told reporters after today’s meeting that he briefed the 15-member body about the most recent report to the Council on the mission, known as UNMIK.
For more information please contact http://www.un.org/news
UN, AU ENVOYS MEET WITH KEY DARFUR REBEL ALLIANCE
A key rebel alliance today told the United Nations and African Union (AU) Special Envoys for Darfur that it is ready to work with the newly-deployed hybrid peacekeeping force, known as UNAMID.
The Envoys, Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim, held a four-hour meeting in an undisclosed location in the north-west of the war-ravaged Sudanese region with the United Resistance Front (URF), a grouping of several of Darfur’s splintering movements.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
CLIMATE CHANGE, GLOBAL ECONOMY AMONG TOP PRIORITIES FOR 2008
Climate change and the world economy are among the top development priorities for this year, the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced today in New York.
Kemal Dervis, UNDP Administrator, began his press briefing by expressing sadness that 2007 drew to a close with the terrorist attack on the UN in Algeria, which claimed the lives of 17 of the world body’s staff.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
BALI TO HOST UN MEETING ON STAMPING OUT CORRUPTION
Over 1,000 people from more than 100 nations – including Government officials, business leaders, law enforcement personnel, journalists, entertainers and civil society representatives – will convene in Bali, Indonesia, later this month for a United Nations conference on curbing corruption.
The five-day meeting of the Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption will be opened on 28 January by the country’s President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
PERU TAKES CHILE TO UN WORLD COURT OVER MARITIME DISPUTE
Peru today asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, to adjudicate a maritime boundary dispute with Chile.
In its application Peru claims that the maritime zones between Chile and Peru have never been delimited by agreement or otherwise, and accordingly delimitation should be determined by the ICJ in accordance with customary international law.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
GENDER ISSUES IN UN PEACEKEEPING FOCUS OF NEW YORK GATHERING
Gender advisers and focal points from all United Nations peacekeeping missions are meeting at the world body’s Headquarters in New York on issues related to the specific needs of men and women in post-conflict situations.
Addressing participants yesterday, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno noted the progress made in integrating gender issues more systematically in peacekeeping.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG LEAVES MADRID AFTER UN ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATIONS FORUM
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today wrapped up his visit to Madrid, where he opened a United Nations Alliance of Civilizations forum with a call to translate into action lofty pledges of tolerance and cross-cultural friendship to combat extremism and terrorism.
Before taking off for New York, Mr. Ban met with the UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, former Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio, and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AGENCY SEEKS $22 MILLION TO FEED CYCLONE-HIT BANGLADESHIS
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has appealed for $22 million to continue feeding more than 2 million Bangladeshis affected by Cyclone Sidr which tore through the South Asian nation late last year.
In the aftermath of the 15 November storm, WFP has been providing relief assistance to over 2.2 million Bangladeshis through a $52 million emergency operation. The agency needs the additional $22 million to meet the immediate food needs of vulnerable people in the cyclone-affected areas.
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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