Africa

Following are UN Deputy Secretary‑General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the Strategic Consultative Meeting on the Sahel, in Nouakchott, Mauritania, today:

The new Permanent Observer of the African Union to the United Nations, Fatima Kyari Mohammed, presented her letter of appointment to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

The Global Report on Food Crises, published today, sounded an alarm regarding surging levels of acute hunger.  Some 124 million people in 51 countries were affected by acute food insecurity in 2017 — 11 million more than in 2016.

The environmental monitoring network in the Lake Chad Basin was inadequate, sparse, poorly funded and badly operated, a representative of the commission overseeing its management told the Security Council today, as delegates explored the causes of conflict and dire human suffering in the region.

Following is UN Deputy Secretary‑General Amina Mohammed’s briefing, as prepared for delivery, via videoconference to the Security Council on the activities of Boko Haram and the situation in the Lake Chad Basin, in New York today:

Since 11 March, the United Nations estimates that more than 50,000 people have left eastern Ghouta, Syria.  Amid visits from United Nations teams in recent days, most of the existing shelters do not have the capacity or infrastructure to accommodate the large number of people arriving in rural areas near Damascus.

The following statement by UN Secretary-General António Guterres was issued today:

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Ibrahim Thiaw of Mauritania as his Special Adviser for the Sahel.  He will support Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel, in ongoing efforts to advance the recalibration of the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel and the emerging Sahel Support Plan.

Ending a two-day mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock and Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag called on the international community to urgently tackle the crisis in the country, where over 13 million people need humanitarian aid.

The United Nations Children’s Fund expressed deep sadness over the killing of its colleague, along with five other education workers, on 25 February in the north-western region of the Central African Republic, near Markounda, a remote area close to the Chadian border.