Tag: UN

UN chief eyes reforms to peacekeeping operations

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Thursday for a “serious, broad-based reflection” on reforming the global body’s peacekeeping operations, highlighting persistent “limitations” to their success. Presenting his most recent policy brief, entitled the “New Agenda for Peace,” Guterres praised the work of UN peacekeeping missions as “saving millions of lives” and preserving ceasefires. However, the former Portuguese prime minister cited “longstanding unresolved conflicts, driven by complex domestic, geopolitical and transnational […]

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World must prepare for more intense heatwaves: UN

GENEVA, July 18, 2023 (AFP) – The world should get ready to face increasingly intense heatwaves, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, as countries across the Northern Hemisphere reeled from soaring temperatures. Health authorities have sounded the alarm from North America to Europe and Asia, urging people to stay hydrated and shelter from the burning sun, in a stark reminder of the effects of global warming. “These events will continue to grow in intensity, and […]

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Syria opens key aid corridor to rebel-held areas

By Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS Agence France-Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Syria will let humanitarian aid flow through its main border crossing into rebel-held areas, reopening a conduit that had closed after a Security Council stalemate, the country’s UN ambassador said Thursday. Damascus has made a “sovereign decision” to let aid move overland from Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa crossing in northwest Syria for six months starting Thursday, ambassador Bassam Sabbagh told reporters. He said […]

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Key aid route to rebel-held Syria closes as UN fails to extend authorization

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — A UN-brokered agreement that allows for the delivery of aid overland from Turkey into rebel-held areas of Syria expired on Monday after the Security Council failed to hold a vote to reauthorize it. The 15 members of the council had been trying for days to find a compromise to extend the deal, which since 2014 has allowed for food, water and medicine to be trucked to northwestern Syria without […]

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Escalation ‘not the answer,’ UN chief tells Israel

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The United Nations chief on Thursday accused Israel of using disproportionate force against Palestinian groups in a recent raid and warned against escalating the violence. A large-scale military operation by Israel in the occupied West Bank earlier this week killed 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier. “There was an excessive force used by Israeli forces,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters in New York. Israel has “legitimate concerns over its […]

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Climate change spells ‘terrifying’ future: UN rights chief

GENEVA, July 3, 2023 (AFP) – Climate change threatens to deliver a “truly terrifying” dystopian future of hunger and suffering, the United Nations’ human rights chief warned Monday. Volker Turk slammed world leaders for only thinking of the short term while dealing with the climate crisis. Turk told a UN Human Rights Council debate on the right to food that extreme weather events were wiping out crops, herds and ecosystems, making it impossible for communities […]

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UN warns not time to ‘take our eyes off’ South Sudan

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The conflict in Sudan, which has shown how quickly “hard-won peace gains” can unravel, should not distract attention from the risks facing neighboring South Sudan, the UN envoy to the country warned Tuesday. After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan descended into a civil war that left nearly 400,000 people dead and millions displaced between 2013 and 2018. A peace agreement signed in 2018 provided a power-sharing […]

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$1.5 bn pledged to curb Sudan’s slide into ‘death and destruction’: UN

By Robin MILLARD Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Donors at a UN conference on Monday pledged close to $1.5 billion to combat the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and help its neighbors host refugees fleeing the fighting. Sudan is descending into death and destruction at unprecedented speed, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned as he urged donors to step in and curb the unfolding catastrophe. The conference comes midway through a three-day ceasefire which appeared to […]

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UN chief urges ‘prevention’ in terror fight

UNITED NATIONS, United States, June 19, 2023 (AFP) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday that countries must tackle the “underlying conditions that can lead to terrorism,” such as poverty, to prevent such violence from spreading. “While we have made some significant gains over the years, terrorism and violent extremism continue to take root and grow,” he told a conference on the subject in New York. Guterres called on nations to “stand as one against […]

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Myanmar junta-backed media slams ‘rotten’ United Nations

YANGON, June 16, 2023 (AFP) – Myanmar state media condemned the United Nations as “rotten” on Friday, days after the UN special envoy for the country stepped down and the world body slammed curbs on aid for cyclone survivors. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power in February 2021, ending a brief democratic experiment and sparking clashes across the country with ethnic rebel groups and anti-coup fighters. The military has criticised attempts […]

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Record 110 million people now forcibly displaced: UN

By Robin MILLARD Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — A record 110 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes, the United Nations said Wednesday, branding the huge upsurge an “indictment” of the world. Russia’s war in Ukraine, refugees fleeing Afghanistan and the fighting in Sudan have pushed the total number of refugees forced to seek shelter abroad, and those displaced within their own countries, to an unprecedented level, said UNHCR, the UN […]

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6,000 Myanmar civilians killed in 20 months post coup: report

OSLO, June 13, 2023 (AFP) – More than 6,000 civilians were killed in Myanmar in the first 20 months after the February 2021 military coup, a report published Tuesday by the Peace Research Institute of Oslo said. “Our data shows that the human toll of the conflict is higher than previously reported, and while the junta is clearly the main killer, anti-junta forces also have large amounts of blood on their hands,” Stein Tonnesson, one […]

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