UN Gazeti
Thursday 15 January 2009
Issue No. 02
UN Observances
UN IN KENYA
UN FUND ALLOCATES $5 MILLION TO HELP RISING NUMBER OF SOMALIS FLEEING TO KENYA
With Somali refugees continuing to flood into Kenya for relief from violence and drought, the United Nations emergency relief fund has targeted five million dollars to cover gaps in their nutritional needs, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced on Monday.
The grant from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) was issued following a request by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for additional funding in order to respond to the multiple needs of an estimated 230,000 Somalis are now sheltered in congested camps in Kenya’s Northeastern Province.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN IN AFRICA
SECURITY COUNCIL APPROVES 5,500 UN PEACEKEEPERS FOR CHAD, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
The Security Council yesterday unanimously approved the deployment of some 5,500 United Nations peacekeepers to replace European troops in strife-torn areas of Chad and Central African Republic (CAR) until 15 March 2010.
The UN Mission in CAR and Chad (MINURCAT) is scheduled to take over from the European Force on 15 March and the Council largely followed the suggestions made by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his latest report on the issue last month.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN COUNCIL DEMANDS ERITREA ENGAGE IN EFFORTS TO RESOLVE DISPUTE WITH DJIBOUTI
Urging Djibouti and Eritrea to peacefully resolve a border dispute that flared into fighting in June 2008, killing at least 35 people and leaving dozens wounded, the United Nations Security Council demanded yesterday that Eritrea pull its forces from the contested area and cooperate with diplomatic initiatives.
Through a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member body welcomed Djibouti’s withdrawal to its positions before the dispute, which centres on an un-demarcated border in an area known as Doumeira, and condemned Eritrea’s refusal to follow suit.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN-AFRICAN UNION FORCE THWARTS KIDNAPPING ATTEMPT OF WOMEN IN DARFUR
Troops from the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, tasked with protecting civilians and suppressing the bloody conflict in the region, have foiled an attempted abduction of several women who had strayed outside a makeshift camp in the war-torn western flank of Sudan.
A patrol from the hybrid force, known as UNAMID, was dispatched yesterday to the Hassa Hissa internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in West Darfur after being alerted that six women had been snatched while collecting firewood in nearby fields.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
AFRICAN FESTIVAL WILL EMBODY LINK BETWEEN CULTURE, PEACE, PROSPERITY
A star-studded preview at United Nations Headquarters for an upcoming festival of the arts of Africa and the African diaspora provided an occasion yesterday for officials of the world body to celebrate the importance of culture in addressing the current challenges of the continent.
“By promoting African art and culture, we can double our efforts for the emergence of a truly united Africa, where all communities live in peace, security, prosperity and freedom,” Ibrahim Gambari, Special Advisor to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said at the launch of the World Festival of Black Arts 2009 (FESMAN 2009) at UN Headquarters yesterday.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN OFFICIAL IN DRC URGES MILITIA GROUP TO END DEADLY FIGHTING IN THE EASTERN REGION
A senior United Nations official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) called on one of the major militia forces engaging in deadly violence in the eastern region of the country to put down its arms and work towards a lasting peace.
The Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for the DRC Ross Mountain made his remarks after visiting a camp in South Kivu province set up to help combatants of the Mai Mai militia join the process of Demobilization and Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR).
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN HEALTH AGENCY BACKS MASS YELLOW FEVER VACCINATION CAMPAIGN IN GUINEA
A large-scale yellow fever vaccination campaign has been slated for later this month in Guinea after the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed two men had contracted the deadly disease in the West African nation.
The WHO regional laboratory at the Institut Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal, established that the two men – both 40 years-old and from the central Guinean Faranah district located on the Niger River – had been infected with the deadly disease since exhibiting symptoms of jaundice and fever in early November.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UGANDAN REBELS KILLED OVER 500 IN EASTERN DR CONGO, REPORTS UN AGENCY
A notorious Ugandan rebel group has killed more than 500 people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and kidnapped over 400, including several over the past four days, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.
“We are increasingly concerned about the humanitarian situation and continuing attacks by the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), on the civilian population in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) Oriental Province,” UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
ETHIOPIAN TROOPS LEAVE SOMALIA PROMPTING UN CALL FOR CALM AND TIMELY PRESIDENTIAL POLL
As Ethiopian troops withdraw from Mogadishu two years after rolling in to support the embattled Government from a growing insurgency, the top United Nations envoy to Somalia on Tuesday urged local factions to ensure peace and stability in the war-ravaged country and to hasten the election of a new president.
Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah stressed that as Ethiopia had kept the promise it made in a letter to the UN Secretary-General in November to remove troops, “the ball is now in the court of the Somalis, particularly those who said they were only fighting against the Ethiopian forces, to stop the senseless killings and violence.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
OVER 2,000 LIVES NOW LOST TO ZIMBABWE’S WORST EVER CHOLERA OUTBREAK
The death toll in Zimbabwe’s worst ever cholera outbreak has now topped 2,000, with more than 100 deaths – and nearly 1,500 new cases – added just , the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) reported.
In all, there have been close to 40,000 cholera cases reported in Zimbabwe so far, according to WHO, which adds that virtually no part of the country has been spared in the epidemic, made worse by a near collapse of the health system and deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AROUND THE WORLD
SECRETARY GENERAL LAUNCHES MIDEAST CEASEFIRE MISSION AS REPORTED GAZA DEATH TOLL TOPS 1,000
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon began an intensive mission yesterday to try to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict, meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah of Jordan, as the reported death toll from Israel’s 19-day offensive against Hamas topped 1,000.
“My goal is an immediate end to the violence in Gaza – an end to Israel's military offensive and a halt to the rocket attacks by Hamas [cited by Israel as the reason for its attack]. It is intolerable that civilians bear the brunt of this conflict,” he told reporters after meeting Mr. Mubarak in Cairo, appealing to those who have influence with the parties to use all means to end the conflict and to find a durable solution.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
MORE ROCKETS FIRED INTO ISRAEL FROM LEBANON DESPITE UN CALLS FOR RESTRAINT
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported that several rockets were fired at Israel from Lebanese territory yesterday, with Israeli forces returning fire, despite calls for restraint from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and others after a similar incident last week.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the rockets fired from Lebanon, according to UNIFIL.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
ALL PARTIES TO CONFLICTS MUST BE HELD TO ACCOUNT IN PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS
Citing the “dreadful beginning” of 2009 for civilians caught up in armed conflict, the top United Nations humanitarian official told the Security Council yesterday that strict respect for international law by all parties to fighting was critical to end the suffering.
“Violations of international humanitarian law by one party to a conflict offer no justification for non-compliance by other parties,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said, as he opened a debate in which some 50 speakers took the floor and which culminated in a statement by the Council’s President condemning violations against civilians during conflict and revising Council guidelines for consideration of the topic to reflect current conditions.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
AT LEAST 34 UN STAFF MEMBERS KILLED IN ATTACKS WORLDWIDE IN 2008
A radio reporter in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a schoolteacher in Gaza, seven food aid truck drivers in Sudan and Somalia and ten peacekeepers in Darfur are among the 34 United Nations staff members killed by malicious acts in 2008, the world body’s Staff Union said on Tuesday.
Although the figure represents a slight decline from the previous year, “2008 was another harsh year for United Nations personnel around the world,” Staff Union President Stephen Kisambira said in a press release.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN SCHEME SLASHES SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS IN REFUGEE CAMPS
A series of measures taken by the United Nations refugee agency, including using community health workers to distribute condoms out of their homes, has dramatically reduced the incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among refugees in Bangladesh.
Using community health workers was in fact the “breakthrough” move in the programme, according to Zahid Jamal Khattak, a medical coordinator with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which began the initiative three years ago.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SAFETY CHECKLIST FOR SURGERY SLASHES COMPLICATIONS BY ONE-THIRD, FINDS UN STUDY
A simple list to be checked off during surgery – before anaesthesia, the first incision and the completion of an operation – has been shown to lower the incidence of death and complications by one-third, according to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), which developed the protocol.
Analysis of studies undertaken in participating hospitals in each of the six WHO regions worldwide shows that the rate of major complications after undergoing surgery in the operating rooms taking part in the study fell from 11 per cent in the baseline period to seven per cent after introduction of the checklist, the agency said.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
EFFECT OF CONFLICT ON GAZA’S CHILDREN ‘DEVASTATING,’ SAYS UN RIGHTS MONITORING BODY
The United Nations body monitoring a key global treaty enshrining the rights of children voiced its deep concern on Tuesday at the impact of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which has killed or injured hundreds of young people, and warned that the effects of recent events on an entire generation of children will be severe.
“The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child is deeply concerned at the devastating effects that the current military engagement in Gaza is having on children,” the 18-member body said in a statement issued in Geneva, where it is currently in session.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN HUMANITARIAN OFFICE MOVES TO SUPPORT VICTIMS HIT BY COSTA RICAN EARTHQUAKE
At least 13 people have died and 56 are still missing after a 6.1 magnitude earthquake shook Costa Rica last week, the United Nations humanitarian arm reported on Tuesday while announcing a field visit to assess makeshift shelters accommodating almost 2,000 victims of the disaster.
The earthquake – considered as “strong” on the Richter Scale – struck on Thursday just 30 kilometres north of San Jose, the national capital, and more than a thousand aftershocks have been felt since, directly affecting more than 2,400 people.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
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