UN News Centre - Africa

A &#39Solidarity Summit&#39 for refugees hosted by Uganda has raised some $358 million in pledges, the United Nations announced today.

Calling for immediate humanitarian action amid rising malnutrition, thirst and disease, the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) warned today that millions of lives are at risk in four countries stretching from Africa to the Middle East.

More than 5.6 million children are at increased risk of contracting waterborne diseases, such as cholera and diarrhoeal infections, as the rainy season begins in conflict-affected areas of countries around Lake Chad, the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) warned today.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the deployment by the so-called Group of Five (G5) &#8211 Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger &#8211 of a joint force to tackle the threat of terrorism and organized crime in the Sahel region.

The United Nations today opened an international investigation into alleged killings, mutilations and destruction of entire villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo&#39s (DRC) restive Kasai provinces.

With Uganda hosting almost one million South Sudanese refugees &#8220as sisters and brothers and sharing with them their land and everything they have,&#8221 United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today urged the international community to show solidarity with those that had fled their homes, as well as with the Ugandan Government and people.

While famine has eased in South Sudan, the situation across the crisis-torn country remains dire, as the number of people struggling to find food each day has grown from 4.9 million in February to six million today &#8211 the highest level of food insecurity the young nation has ever experienced, according to the United Nations.

The United Nations Security Council today welcomed the deployment by the so-called Group of Five (G5) &#8211 Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger &#8211 of a joint force to tackle the threat of terrorism, as well as the serious challenges posed by transnational organized crime in Africa&#39s restive Sahel region.

Large numbers of Nigerian refugees hosted in Cameroon are returning to northeast Nigeria, into a situation the United Nations refugee chief calls &#8220dangerously unprepared to receive them.&#8221

Deliberate actions by the Government and opposition armed forces as well as other actors to advance their political goals continue to severely undermine efforts to get the country back on the path to peace and development, the top United Nations peacekeeping official has warned.

A United Nations-appointed panel of experts investigating human rights violations in Burundi today released the latest findings of their probe, noting that their initial fears concerning the scope and gravity of these abuses since April 2015 have been confirmed.

The United Nations must move towards a more institutionalized approach for the joint planning, mandating, financing and supporting of African Union (AU) peace-support operations, the Secretary-General&#39s Chef de Cabinet told the Security Council today.

The United Nations envoy for Somalia today strongly condemned last night&#39s attack on a pizza restaurant and an adjacent hotel in Mogadishu that reportedly killed at least 19 people.

Actions against severe human rights abuses meted out to Eritrean citizens must not be delayed, a United Nations rights expert has warned in a new report to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.

The African Union (AU) and the United Nations are proposing 44 per cent and 30 per cent reductions in their troop and police presence in Sudan&#39s Darfur region as a step towards an eventual exit, a senior UN peacekeeping official told the Security Council.

The United Nations envoy for Central Africa today expressed his concern that the withdrawal of troops from the regional force by some contributing countries would create a security vacuum that may be exploited by an armed group.

As refugees fleeing violence and communal tensions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to arrive in neighbouring Angola, the United Nations refugee agency has appealed for more resources to cope with the influx and to provide those coming with the support they urgently need.

The United Nations envoy for the Central African Republic today warned against increasing attacks on civilians and peacekeeping personnel while stressing the need to reenergize the political process to achieve sustainable peace in the conflict-torn country.

Condemning yesterday&#39s attacks against the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) in the city of Kidal, Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated the Organization&#39s support to help implement the peace agreement in the West African country.

An estimated 40,000 children are trapped in extremely dangerous conditions in Raqqa as fighting intensifies in and around the Syrian city, the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) reported today, warning that &#8220many are caught in the crossfire.&#8221