UN News Centre - Africa

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned an armed attack on a convoy near the town of Arbinda, in the north of Burkina Faso, on Wednesday, which has reportedly led to the death of some 80 people. 

Blue helmets from Thailand working with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) are not only doing their bit to repair and rehabilitate critical infrastructure but are also helping support the mission’s COVID-19 response and training local communities about growing their own food.

The vaccination against Ebola of high-risk populations began on Monday in Côte d’Ivoire following the discovery of an outbreak in the country three days ago. The swift response came after vaccines manufactured by Merck, which the World Health Organization (WHO) helped to secure to fight a four-month long outbreak in neighbouring Guinea, were quickly sent to the country. 

A case of Ebola virus has been confirmed in Côte d’Ivoire for the first time since 1994, the country’s Ministry of Health has confirmed. The World Health Organization (WHO) is coordinating the delivery of vaccines to the country.

Rival armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are carrying out horrific sexual attacks against women and girls, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Friday.

Nearly 30,000 children in sub-Saharan Africa are believed to have died from cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO). 

A young peace campaigner from Cameroon who turned his back on the violence prevalent in his hometown and became a youth civil society activist, has been telling the United Nations about how he is helping other young people to reject conflict, and take a greater role in building peace in the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting Guinea following a confirmed death from Marburg virus disease, the first known case in the country and West Africa, the UN agency reported on Wednesday. 

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said on Tuesday that it is “deeply concerned” over the abduction of a senior Government staff member, who disappeared last week after being taken away by unidentified armed men.

UN agencies continue to sound the alarm over the growing “humanitarian catastrophe” in northern Ethiopia, sparked by the conflict in the Tigray region, now in its ninth month. 

A ceasefire in Tigray on humanitarian grounds is needed now more than ever if a massive aid operation across frontlines is to succeed, the UN’s emergency relief chief said on Friday.

Rapidly spreading violence in Mali is threatening the State’s very survival, the UN independent expert on the human rights situation in the country said on Friday. 

An “alarming” 80 per cent increase in sexual violence in Somalia, as documented in two recent reports by the Secretary-General, has been described as “appalling” by two UN Special Representatives.

The new UN Emergency Relief Coordinator ended a six-day mission to Ethiopia with a fresh push to get badly needed food and other supplies into the embattled Tigray region.  

The continued recruitment and presence of mercenaries in Libya is impeding “progress in the peace process” and an obstacle to upcoming elections, independent UN human rights experts said on Friday, calling for their “long overdue” departure.  

A teenage girl who was sold for sex for the price of a few beers as a twelve-year-old, has told the United Nations how she was trafficked between Burundi and Tanzania in East Africa.

After a near-halt of COVID-19 vaccine shipments in Africa, delivers have ramped up in recent months, the UN health agency said on Thursday. 

Practically all peacekeepers and staff have now left the hybrid UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), in line with its drawdown plan, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Tuesday. 

At least half a million children under five in drought-afflicted southern Madagascar are on the verge of acute malnourishment, two UN agencies warned on Monday. 

Rising violent attacks by jihadist groups in Burkina Faso are forcing record-breaking numbers of people to flee both inside the country and across international borders, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Friday.