UN News Centre - Africa

Despite “appalling conditions” in South Sudan, it is not too late to save more people from dying, the head of the United Nations agriculture agency said today, joining the World Food Programme (WFP) chief in a call to all parties enmeshed in the country’s conflict to end the violence and work together to ensure access to food and other life-saving support.

The head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan today urged the Security Council to unite behind a common strategy for advancing the political process and peace in the crisis-torn country.

Deteriorating security conditions have severely disrupted life-saving interventions for children in Greater Kasai in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in recent months, putting an estimated 400,000 children at risk of severe acute malnutrition, the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) has said.

With more than 100,000 people in Yemen believed to be at risk for cholera, the top United Nations humanitarian official in the country is appealing to Governments for urgent financial and political support

Two peacekeepers of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) were killed and another injured on Tuesday morning in an ambush in the northern Kidal region.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is deeply concerned about the military escalation at the Brak al-Shati air base in southern Libya and calls on all parties to exercise restraint and restore calm, the UN chief&#39s spokesman said today.

United Nations agencies are joining forces with governments in Southern Africa in a push to strengthen protections for persons with albinism, who often fall victim to a raft of abuses, including maiming, trafficking and even murder, linked to the belief that their parts have magical powers in witchcraft potions.

A United Nations report has documented human rights violations and abuses against civilians that may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity, in what used to be a peaceful multi-ethnic town in South Sudan.

The United Nations emergency food agency has started dispatching supplies by air and road to the Central African Republic (CAR), where violence erupted in March and has since claimed the lives of more than 120 people, it was announced today.

More than 30,000 Somali refugees have apparently returned to Somalia from Yemen, the United Nations refugee agency said, and an increasing number are seeking aid to return home.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has congratulated the people and Government of Algeria for the peaceful conduct of the 4 May parliamentary elections, for which he dispatched a group of electoral observers, his spokesperson said today.

A race against the clock has begun to contain an outbreak of Ebola in a remote northern area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has commended the Government of Côte d&#39Ivoire for restoring security following a mutiny over pay, his spokesperson said.

The humanitarian crisis in Somalia is worsening, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council, calling for more than $800 million in aid to offset the impact of a severe drought in a country that is already battling insecurity and poverty.

During his first working visit to Mali, United Nations peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix met today in the capital, Bamako, with President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and other senior Malian officials, whom he thanked for their constructive and sustained cooperation with the UN integrated mission in the country, known by the French acronym, MINUSMA.

The United Nations refugee agency today confirmed that for only the third time this year, its field teams were able to distribute humanitarian aid in the embattled district of Mokha, in Yemen&#39s Red Sea governorate of Taiz.

The United Nations human rights chief today expressed grave alarm over the spread of violence by armed groups against the civilian population in several parts of the Central African Republic in recent months, as well as attacks against UN peacekeepers in the country&#39s southeast.

The United Nations health agency is deploying technical experts to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) amid an outbreak of Ebola virus near its northern border with the Central Africa Republic, the agency’s regional director for Africa confirmed.

The United Nations refugees and food relief agencies today urged donors to step up support for people fleeing crisis-hit South Sudan as the $1.4 billion response plan remains 86 per cent unfunded.

Strongly condemning the latest attacks against civilians and the United Nations in Central African Republic (CAR), Secretary-General António Guterres today urged authorities to investigate and bring those responsible to justice.