South Sudan

The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about the ongoing tensions and intensification of the fighting in eastern Ukraine.  He appeals to all parties to fully observe the ceasefire and allow for immediate humanitarian access.

The Secretary-General, in Addis Ababa for the African Union Summit, expressed profound solidarity, respect and deep sense of gratitude because African countries provide the majority of United Nations peacekeepers, are among the world’s most generous hosts of refugees and include some of the its fastest growing economies.

The African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the United Nations held a joint consultative meeting on South Sudan on 29 January on the margins of the African Union twenty-eighth Ordinary Summit of the Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa.

Marking the Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, the Secretary-General said it would be an error to think that the Holocaust was simply the result of the insanity of a group of criminal Nazis.  On the contrary, it was a culmination of millennia of hatred and discrimination targeting the Jews — what we now call anti-Semitism.

The Secretary-General has issued terms of reference for an impartial, independent mechanism to help investigate and prosecute those responsible for the most serious crimes committed in Syria since March 2011.

In a video message to the opening of the 2017 session of the Conference on Disarmament, the Secretary-General described disarmament as an integral element of a peaceful and prosperous world, spotlighting its potentially important role in ending existing conflicts and preventing the outbreak of new strife.

During its informal consultations on 18 January 2017, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2206 (2015) concerning South Sudan discussed the Chair’s report on his visit to South Sudan, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda in December 2016.

The Secretary-General told President of the Gambia Adama Barrow of his full support for his determination, and the Economic Community of West African States' historic decision, with the unanimous backing of the Security Council, to restore the rule of law in the Gambia so as to honour and respect the will of the country’s people.

A report published today by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the United Nations Human Rights Office details grave human rights abuses as well as serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Juba during and after the fighting that occurred between 8 and 12 July 2016.

This morning the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations briefed the Security Council on Darfur.  Although there been a decrease in armed conflict in Darfur, he said, civilians had remained exposed to significant sources of insecurity such as intercommunal conflict and criminality.