In Bangladesh, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Oxfam have installed the largest human waste treatment facility ever built in a refugee settlement, in Cox’s Bazar, which is home to nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
At least 34 United Nations and associated personnel were killed in malicious attacks while on duty in 2018, according to the annual report of the UN Staff Union’s Standing Committee for the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service. It is among the lowest casualty rates of the last five years.
Following a sea tragedy on Tuesday off Djibouti’s Red Sea coast, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that 16 survivors have been recovered, as well as the remains of 43 victims. IOM staff have been helping the Djibouti authorities patrolling the shorelines in search of other survivors.
The United Nations is concerned about reported violence and use of force by security forces during recent demonstrations in Douala, and condemns incidents of violence at Cameroon’s embassies in Paris and Berlin. It is also concerned about the reported arrest of Maurice Kamto, leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement.
A two-day event on women, peace and security began in Addis Ababa today in preparation for the 2019 United Nations peacekeeping ministerial conference set for New York in March. President Sahle Work Zewde of Ethiopia and Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, Special Representative to the African Union, addressed the gathering.
The United High Commissioner for Human Rights today condemned this week’s protests in Venezuela and called for effective investigations into the violence that has led to several deaths and injuries. She urged all sides to conduct immediate talks to defuse the increasingly incendiary atmosphere.
Fourteen new cases of Ebola were reported in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the largest one-day increase since the beginning of the outbreak on 1 August 2018, United Nations humanitarian affairs officials reported yesterday. Nine of the new cases were detected near Butembo, a city of a million inhabitants.
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) is continuing its operations in Bambari in Ouaka prefecture. It has established new check posts and resumed patrolling in Muslim neighbourhoods, in addition to conducting robust patrols in the other areas of town.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights today expressed concern after the approval in first reading of a bill to amend Guatemala’s National Reconciliation Law. If adopted, the amendment would result in a generalized amnesty for all cases of grave human rights violations committed during the internal armed conflict.
Some 170 people either died or went missing in two separate shipwrecks on the Mediterranean Sea, according to UNHCR. NGO sources said that some 53 people died on the Alborán Sea in the western Mediterranean, while Italy’s navy reported 117 out of 120 people dead or missing in an additional shipwreck on the central Mediterranean.