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UN peacekeepers saving lives but need stronger political support and resources, top official urges

·September 10, 2024·2 min read

Addressing the Security Council, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, told ambassadors that UN operations “can only ever be as strong” as the collective support of nations. “As geopolitical tensions have mounted, including here in this Council, and amid shifting global and regional dynamics, peacekeeping operations are increasingly unable to...

Challenges to democracy compound instability in West Africa: Top envoy

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·January 15, 2024·2 min read

Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council, Leonardo Santos Simão, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, said that while some nations have made significant democratic strides, others have been subject to military takeovers, posing wider threats to regional stability. The presidential election in Liberia and the peaceful transfer of power was...

Myanmar overtakes Afghanistan as world’s top opium producer

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·December 12, 2023·2 min read

The southeast Asian country’s opium output has surpassed that of Afghanistan, where the Taliban imposed a ban on its production in April last year – leading to a 95 per cent fall in cultivation, UNODC said. The area under opium cultivation this year is estimated to be 47,100 hectares, up...

Somali-born champion of refugee education wins top UNHCR award

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·November 28, 2023·2 min read

Abdullahi Mire grew up in the sprawling Dadaab refugee complex in northeastern Kenya with its population today of more than 240,000 registered refugees, mostly from Somalia. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) coordinates operations there together with partners, relying also on the support of the Kenyan Government and host communities. The...

Five judges elected to United Nations’ top court

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·November 9, 2023·2 min read

In parallel and independent voting conducted by secret ballot, the Assembly and the Council re-elected one judge who is currently serving, Hilary Charlesworth of Australia. Another justice currently on the bench, Kirill Gevorgian of Russia, was not successful in securing another term. Four new justices were elected: Bogdan-Lucian Aurescu...

Security Council meets over Israel-Gaza: ‘Very real risk’ of conflict expanding warns top envoy

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·October 19, 2023·10 min read

Mr. Wennesland told the Security Council that he “watched in horror and in real time” as reports of mass casualties emerged from Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday. “The circumstances of this catastrophe and responsibility remains and still needs to be clarified. And we will need a fact-based, full...

World News in Brief: West Bank violence, top aid official visits Hroza, Advisory Group on local governments

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·October 7, 2023·2 min read

“I condemn today’s attack by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property in the town of Huwwara in occupied West Bank,” the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, said in a statement. Huwara is located on the main road connecting the northern city of...

AI reveals world’s top 3 universal concerns

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·October 6, 2023·3 min read

“It is important that we understand the issues of concern to Member States not only at the global level, but also regionally, noting the differences in priority and emphasis,” said Joachim Harris, Chief of the Digital and Promotion team in the UN’s Department of Global Communications. His team data crunched...

Global leaders discuss healthier future for all: Top 5 fast facts

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·September 20, 2023·7 min read

Without health, the world is badly hobbled in its race to realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Goals; the recently opened 78th session of the UN General Assembly aims to change that. On the docket is a fresh global strategy to prevent, prepare, and respond to future...

Top UN aid official in Ukraine deplores latest wave of ‘massive Russian attacks’

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·August 24, 2023·2 min read

Denise Brown issued a statement deploring this “new wave of massive Russian attacks”, and appealed for the violence to end. “Grain storage facilities, vital for the Ukrainian farmers and global food security, have been hit in the Danube area,” she said. “A school in the Sumy region was damaged, and teachers were...

Top UN aid official in Ukraine condemns latest wave of indiscriminate attacks

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·August 15, 2023·1 min read

Denise Brown issued a statement deploring the “indiscriminate” attacks impacting civilians and civilian infrastructure. She stressed that people in the south, including in the Kherson and Odesa regions, had endured “a particularly harsh weekend” after reports that strikes left many civilians, including children, killed and injured. An entire family, including...

Syria still mired in division, top UN envoy tells Security Council

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·July 25, 2023·2 min read

“I hope they will soon, because if not, it will be another missed opportunity to help the Syrian conflict to come to a negotiated end, at a time when the impact of the crisis is deepening,” Geir Pedersen said, briefing the Security Council. While there had been positive humanitarian gestures...