UN News Centre - Africa

Despite the continent-wide approach taken by African countries to combat COVID-19, the pandemic has set back their development aspirations, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

Worsening conflict, combined with a precarious humanitarian situation, has forced more than 300,000 people to flee their homes and villages in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, leaving them completely reliant on humanitarian assistance, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has said. 

After six months of lockdown, the Namibian government ended travel restrictions and curfews on Friday, in light of a drop in new COVID-19 cases. But Namibia’s economy, which depends heavily on wildlife tourism, has taken a major hit during the period, and the future of the country’s wildlife reserves, otherwise known as conservancies, is far from certain.

A young couple who hail from very different backgrounds, has demonstrated that even during a global pandemic, true love always finds a way.

UN-appointed investigators have issued fresh warnings about ongoing rights violations and impunity in Burundi, since the death of former President Pierre Nkurunziza, who ran for a third term in 2015, in a move deemed by opposition to be unconstitutional.

Although the transitional government in South Sudan continues to function, with state governors now appointed, among other developments, progress on the 2018 peace agreement “limps along”, the top UN official in the country told a virtual meeting of the Security Council on Wednesday. 

Ebola is spreading in a western province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), raising fears that the disease could reach neighbouring Republic of Congo and even the capital, Kinshasa, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.   

New data from UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has revealed worsening nutritional situation for children in Burkina Faso, with more than 535,000 children under the age of five suffering from acute malnutrition – an unprecedented level. 

The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) is dismissing as a “complete fabrication” an Algerian news report claiming that a UN tribunal has rejected a complaint by a group of political activists. 

The top UN official in Libya urged the Security Council on Wednesday to press for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and a return to negotiations, following the call from rival political leaders for a ceasefire on 21 August.

The UN and its partners are supporting the Sudanese Government as it responds to recent severe flooding, which has killed 90 people and affected 380,000 others, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said on Tuesday.

A peace agreement between Sudanese authorities and key armed movements from Darfur could provide a path to national unity, the head of the joint UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) said on Monday. Secretary-General António Guterres later described it as an "historic achievement" towards lasting peace.

More than 360,000 internally displaced persons in Chad’s Lake province are facing a “double” crisis, exposed to security and environmental risks, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reported, highlighting the need to strengthen resilience of affected communities.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has condemned death threats made against Congolese Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege and called for his protection.

The UN’s expert on human rights in the Central African Republic (CAR) issued a series of recommendations on Wednesday to ensure that citizens – after years of civil unrest – can freely decide the future of their country during presidential elections on 27 December.

The West African nation of Togo has eliminated human African trypanosomiasis or “sleeping sickness” as a public health problem, becoming the first in the continent to achieve the milestone, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has said. 

UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to reduce its food and cash assistance for refugees in Eastern Africa by up to 30 per cent, the agency has said, voicing fears that the reductions could worsen in the coming months unless urgent additional funding is received in time. 

The wild poliovirus has been eradicated in Africa, health officials announced on Tuesday, calling it a “momentous milestone” for the continent. 

Lack of investigation into the killing of a journalist three years ago in South Sudan is indicative of a wider climate of hostility towards journalists in the country, an independent UN human rights expert has said. 

A group of independent UN rights experts have raised alarm over “grave and unnecessary” risks faced by imprisoned human rights defenders in Egypt due to lengthy pre-trial detention.