Africa

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that volcanic activity on Vanuatu’s Ambae Island, which has a population of more than 10,000 people, has intensified in the last few weeks.  The Vanuatu Council of Ministers has called for the immediate compulsory evacuation of Ambae residents to the neighbouring island of Maewo.

The members of the United Nations Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council held their twelfth annual joint consultative meeting in New York on 19 July 2018.

The complex peace and security issues facing Africa are such that neither the United Nations, nor the African Union can address the challenges on their own, the Security Council was told today as it received its annual briefing on strengthening cooperation between the two organizations.

Recent developments in West Africa and the Sahel have been characterized by both volatility and democratic gains, the top United Nations official in the region told the Security Council today, warning that the latter “are not immune from reversal” and could be negatively impacted by the former.

United Nations Secretary‑General António Guterres today announced the appointment of Hanna S. Tetteh of Ghana as Director‑General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi.  She succeeds Sahle‑Work Zewde, who has been appointed as Special Representative to the African Union and Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the Security Council meeting on women, peace and security in the Sahel, in New York today:

There can be no peace, security or development without the involvement of women at all levels of decision‑making and peace processes, the Security Council heard today during a briefing from senior officials who just returned from a visit to the Sahel region, where women and girls pay a stark cost for conflict.

On 9 July, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, and the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, convened the second African Union-United Nations Annual Conference at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks to the thirty-first ordinary session of the African Union, as prepared for delivery, in Nouakchott, Mauritania, 1 July:

In Syria, intense air and ground‑based strikes continuing over the weekend in multiple areas in Dara’a Governorate have led to the largest displacement — an estimated 270,000 people — since the conflict began in 2011, according to our humanitarian colleagues.