UN News Centre - Africa

Briefing the Security Council on the situation in West Africa and the Sahel region, a senior United Nations official cited a “rising tide of democracy” throughout the continent, noting that a number of countries had recently held elections which largely complied with electoral norms and standards, upholding their status a model in the region and beyond.

Armed fighting over land, water and other natural resources in Sudan&#39s Darfur region continues to put civilians at risk, the top United Nations peacekeeping official told the Security Council today, calling for long-term solutions that would allow 2.6 million displaced people to return or resettle.

Briefing the Security Council today, senior United Nations officials underlined the significant challenges and deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Lake Chad Basin region, including in particular those posed by the militant group, Boko Haram, and urged for sustained support to national and regional security, political and humanitarian action.

A new partnership between the United Nations rural poverty agency and officials in Mauritania could boost finances and nutrition for nearly 300,000 farmers in the southern part of the country.

A United Nations-supported mass vaccination campaign is set to start tomorrow to protect more than 4.7 million children against a measles outbreak in conflict-affected states in north-eastern Nigeria.

Addressing the Security Council, the head of United Nations peacekeeping operations today urged the international community to push for a swift endorsement of the so-called 31 December political accord in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and to put in place a transitional government of national unity.

More than one million Somali refugees who have been displaced from their homes for decades are becoming despondent as they continue to be unable to return home and donor support is growing fatigued, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

The Security Council has denounced the terrorist attack in Egypt yesterday that reportedly killed nine policemen and injured more than 13 people.

The Security Council has strongly condemned the ambush by unknown attackers late last week against a convoy of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) in Bokayai, in the northwest part of the country, in which one Bangladeshi peacekeeper was killed.

The United Nations Security Council today welcomed a comprehensive political agreement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and called on all stakeholders to continue to exercise flexibility and compromise in their discussions to swiftly resolve all pending issues, particularly those related to the holding of elections in the country within 2017.

A $310 million humanitarian response plan, backed by the United Nations, has been launched to provide life-saving assistance to 1.2 million people in Cameroon’s northern and eastern regions.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) today condemned a deadly ambush on a convoy in the south-eastern part of the country which killed two blue helmets from Morocco and wounded two others.

Expressing concern at escalating tensions and threat of renewed conflict following developments in central Libya, the United Nations envoy for the country urged all parties to work together on reconciliation and to refrain from any rhetoric that could inflame the situation.

Just a few weeks ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) began distributing much-needed anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to patients living with HIV in Libya, following the country’s collapse in medical services and inability to provide life-saving drugs.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the signing today in Kinshasa, by the opposition and the Majorité présidentielle, of a political agreement on the holding of elections in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and transitional arrangements leading up to the polls.

In December, the United Nations food aid agency has delivered food or cash to more than a million people in conflict-affected zones in northeast Nigeria, meaning that over half of those in need of urgent humanitarian assistance have now been reached.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called Adam Barrow, the President-elect of Gambia, to congratulate him on his electoral victory and to reiterate the commitment of the United Nations to support a peaceful, timely, and orderly transfer of power.

The United Nations relief wing today voiced deep concern at the resurgence of attacks against humanitarian workers in crisis-gripped Central African Republic (CAR).

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the inauguration of the new Federal Parliament of Somalia on 27 December and warmly congratulated the people of Somalia on this historic achievement in their quest for universal suffrage by 2020.

The United Nations and other members of the international community have voiced grave concern over recent decisions by Somalia’s National Leadership Forum (NLF) that contravenes the African country’s constitutional electoral processes.