The Secretary-General deplores the heavy fighting between Ansarallah armed groups and Yemeni presidential guards throughout Sana’a, and calls on all sides to cease hostilities, exercise maximum restraint and take the steps needed to restore full authority to the legitimate Government institutions.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The Secretary-General, noting that 2015 is a year of action on sustainable development, told the Security Council that development that excludes part of the population can be socially corrosive, contribute to crime and create a sense of hopelessnesss and alienation - conditions that breed extremism.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warned that an upsurge in fighting in Libya since the start of the year across several towns and cities in the east has led to more displacement. An estimated 400,000 people remain displaced across the country.
The United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, called for the world to unite and condemn Boko Haram’s ‘new barbaric low’ of using young girls as suicide bombers, noting that over the past week there had been three attacks by girls who blew themselves up in crowded areas.
The Secretary-General condemns the shelling yesterday of a bus in Ukraine, reportedly resulting in the death of at least 11 civilians. He exhorts all sides to respect the ceasefire and return to the implementation of the Minsk agreements.
The United Nations Children’s Fund has delivered warm clothing, blankets, heating supplies, cash and vouchers to more than 900,000 children in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey as the harsh winter season continues, including 350,000 children in Syria, and more than 200,000 children in over 100 hard-to-reach and high altitude areas in Iraq.
In India today, the Secretary-General delivered the keynote address to the Indian Council for World Affairs, and spoke of the country’s role as a driver for peace in the region and the world, a champion of human rights and a leader on clean, sustainable development. He also called on India to renew its leadership on nuclear disarmament.
Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, Assistant Director-General at the World Health Organization, announced that the two Ebola vaccines that had underwent the first testing phase have an acceptable safety profile. The third testing phase, which consists of vaccinating healthy volunteers in affected areas, is about to begin.
At a memorial for fallen United Nations staff, the Secretary-General paid tribute to the 102 staff members who had died in the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti five years ago this month, and to the 100 United Nations personnel who died between October 2013 and November 2014 in the course of their duties, including in Afghanistan, Somalia and Sierra Leone.
The Secretary-General, outraged by the attack today against the French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, called the horrendous, unjustifiable and cold-blooded crime a direct assault on democracy, the media and freedom of expression. He urged the international community to stand in solidarity for freedom of expression and tolerance.