COVID-19 has added a layer of complexity to the highly volatile security situation in the Sahel, with terrorists capitalizing on the pandemic to undermine State authority and launch unrelenting attacks against national and international forces, the head of United Nations peacekeeping told the Security Council in a 5 June videoconference meeting.
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the extraordinary intersessional Summit of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, in New York today:
The Secretary-General welcomed the agreement between representatives of the Government of Venezuela and the Advisory Team of the National Assembly on responding to COVID-19. He encouraged parties to respect humanitarian principles in implementing the accord and to continue seeking common ground to overcome the protracted crisis.
The Security Council in a 29 May videoconference meeting decided unanimously to maintain current troop and police ceilings of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) until 3 June.
The Security Council decided, in a 29 May videoconference meeting, to reauthorize the deployment of African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) personnel for nine months, requiring them to support security in the lead-up to elections and to work towards the gradual hand-over of responsibility to Somali forces by 2021.
More than one in six young people have stopped working since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said today. The latest ILO analysis of coronavirus’s impact on the labour market notes that those youth who remain employed have seen their working hours cut by 23 per cent.
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for Africa Day, observed on 25 May:
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ opening remarks to the Africa Dialogue Series on COVID-19 and Silencing the Guns in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities, in New York today:
Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message on the launch of the United Nations Policy Brief on the Impact of COVID-19 on Africa, in New York today:
Global human development — which is the combined measure of the world’s education, health and living standards — is set to decline this year for the first time since 1990, when the concept was first developed, the United Nations Development Programme reported today, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a determining factor.
