The Security Council today decided to renew the mandate of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) for six months, while calling on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and prevent any ceasefire breaches in the “area of separation” where no military activity of any kind is permitted.
Providing his final briefing on the Syrian political process to the Security Council today, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General appealed to the Council to finally unite in efforts to end what he called the “dirty, brutal, horrific war”.
The Sahel is awash with challenges — from food insecurity and terrorist-related security threats to the negative impacts of climate change — but it has the potential to change for the better through an ongoing focus on sustainable development, speakers in the Security Council agreed today.
On 20 December 2018, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2374 (2017) concerning Mali approved the addition of the entries specified below to its Sanctions List of individuals subject to the travel ban set out in paragraphs 1 to 3 of Security Council resolution 2374 (2017) and renewed by paragraph 1 of resolution 2432 (2018) and adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.
The members of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2374 (2017) concerning Mali (“the Committee”), while welcoming the recent positive steps achieved in the implementation of the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali (“the Agreement”), expressed their deep frustration that parties have too long stalled the implementation of the Agreement, in spite of significant international support and assistance, further expressed a significant sense of impatience with parties over the persistent delays in the full implementation of key provisions of the Agreement, stressed the absolute urgency for the Government of Mali and the Plateforme and Coordination armed groups to take unprecedented steps to fully and expeditiously deliver on remaining obligations under the Agreement, and further stressed that all parties to the Agreement share the primary responsibility to make steadfast progress in its implementation.
Once limited to transiting cocaine, heroin and other illicit drugs to destinations abroad, West and Central African countries have now become both users and producers of those substances, the United Nations anti-crime chief told the Security Council today, noting that the region accounted for 87 per cent of all pharmaceutical opioids seizures identified in his office’s latest report.
Confirming the existence of tunnels dug under the “Blue Line” separating Lebanon and Israel, the head of United Nations peacekeeping told the Security Council today that they represent a violation of Council resolution 1701 (2006).
At its seventy-sixth meeting, on 18 December 2018, the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, in connection with the examination of the second report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in South Sudan (document S/2018/865) agreed to convey the following messages through a public statement by the Chair of the Working Group.
A window for peace has finally opened in South Sudan, with more political progress made in the last four months than over the last four years, the head of United Nations peacekeeping said today, telling the Security Council that the fragile situation in the country will continue to require international support.
The Security Council today encouraged the Peacebuilding Commission to present it with concise and targeted recommendations on efforts to sustain peace in specific situations, ahead of reviews of mandates of United Nations operations.
