Central African Republic

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) today released the third edition of its World Wildlife Crime Report, which says that wildlife trafficking has not been substantially reduced despite two decades of concerted action.

The Head of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) met Thursday at the UNIFIL base in Ibl el-Saqi with the mayors and religious authorities of south-eastern towns to discuss local needs and the UN’s humanitarian support to impacted communities, including to restore stability along the Blue Line.

The Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine today condemned the latest wave of deadly strikes across the country, including in the northern city of Chernihiv. According to Ukrainian authorities, the attacks killed and injured civilians, including children, and damaged homes and a hospital.

The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) caution that the threat from explosive ordnance has increased significantly in the country since 2020. The Mission says that they recorded more than 190 incidents since 2020, including 78 last year alone.

The Director of Coordination for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in a briefing yesterday to the Security Council, reported that at least 576,000 people in Gaza — one quarter of the population — are one step away from famine.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Edmond Mulet of Guatemala to lead the Independent Strategic Review of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) mandated by Security Council resolution 2709 (2023).

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN Mission there reports that after a brief lull in violence in the country, there were renewed and intense clashes on 25 February between the M23 armed group and the Congolese armed forces, west of the town of Sake in North Kivu.

The United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Central African Republic — a landlocked country replete with dirt roads unusable due to rains for two thirds of the year — needs adequate transport and logistics resources to fulfil its mandates to protect civilians and help extend State authority across the country, the Mission Chief told the Security Council today, as members called for tighter border control to stanch the flow of weapons to armed groups there.

The UN team in Costa Rica is presenting a “Preparedness and Response Plan for People in Transit” to partners this week, which aims to boost assistance to vulnerable refugees and migrants. Over 500,000 people entered Costa Rica from Panama in 2023 — more than double the number of those who did so in 2022.

On 1 February 2024, the Coordinator briefed the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2127 (2013) concerning the Central African Republic on the Panel’s midterm report submitted in pursuance of paragraph 7 of resolution 2693 (2023).