The Secretary-General today co-chaired a conference of international and regional organizations in Cairo, to discuss coordination on Libya. Concerned about the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation, he said that the United Nations has completed an inter-agency needs assessment in the east of Libya, with similar work planned for the west.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
In Doha, the Secretary-General today told the first meeting of the International Contact Group on Libya that the international community had acted swiftly and decisively in the past seven weeks. But, even the most optimistic observers foresee a protracted period of instability before sustainable peace can be restored. In the meantime, the humanitarian situation continues to worsen.
The Secretary-General continues to closely monitor the situation in Côte d’Ivoire. He spoke yesterday by telephone with President Alassane Ouattara and he underlined the expectation that, with Laurent Gbagbo now in the hands of the President’s forces, any further bloodshed will be avoided.
The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Alain Le Roy, briefed the Security Council on today’s developments in Côte d’Ivoire, in closed consultations this morning. He told reporters afterwards that he could confirm that former President Laurent Gbagbo and his wife are in the Golf Hotel, in the custody of President Alassane Ouattara’s forces. The UN mission (UNOCI) is providing protection and security.
In an effort to coordinate the international response on Libya, the Secretary-General will chair a meeting of concerned international and regional organizations to be held at the League of Arab States Headquarters in Cairo on Thursday, 14 April 2011.
This morning, the Secretary-General held a meeting at breakfast in Washington, D.C., with members of the United States House Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Chairman, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and ranking member, Representative Russ Carnahan. He discussed the situation in Côte d’Ivoire, Libya and other trouble spots and told the Committee that the United Nations does each day what no country can do alone.
The Security Council is holding a high-level debate on Haiti today, chaired by the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón. At that meeting, the Secretary-General said that he was encouraged that the second round of polling was peaceful and urged the next Government to build on President Préval’s legacy of political tolerance and respect for human rights.
The UN mission in Côte d’Ivoire started an operation yesterday aimed at protecting civilians after forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo have intensified and escalated their use of heavy weapons against the civilian population in Abidjan. As the Secretary-General explained, in accordance with Security Council resolution 1975 (2011), he instructed the mission to take the necessary measures to prevent the use of heavy weapons against the civilian population, with the support of the French forces.
A UN aircraft crashed at 1300 hours GMT today on landing in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There were 29 passengers plus the air crew on board the aircraft, which originated from Kisangani. A crisis task force set up by MONUSCO, the Mission there, is working at the crash site and there are no exact figures on casualties at this point.
The operations centre of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in Mazar-i-Sharif has been attacked today following a demonstration, with several staff killed. Briefed on the incident, the Secretary-General called it “outrageous and cowardly” and condemned it in the strongest terms.