The Security Council called today upon the newly elected President of Somalia to pay urgent attention to the immediate risk of famine, take active steps to prevent it and address the consequences of the severe drought confronting the country.
With transparent constitutional referendum, credible legislative elections in December 2016 and improved security paving the way for a successful transition to sustainable peace in Côte d’Ivoire, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country was on track to leave after 14 years, its chief told the Security Council this afternoon.
Despite some important advances in Libya, not nearly enough progress had been made in implementing the political accord forged last year, the United Nations top envoy to the country told the Security Council today, stressing that terrorism remained a threat, living conditions were poor and armed groups continued to abuse human rights with impunity.
The Security Council today extended the mandate of the Panel of Experts charged with monitoring sanctions in Darfur until 12 March 2018, underscoring the need for it to have full access to the region and insisting that the Government of Sudan remove all restrictions imposed on its work.
While Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) was on the defensive militarily in Iraq and Syria, its fighters, fleeing beyond those borders, were expanding their attacks to Europe and Africa, the United Nations political affairs chief warned in the Security Council today, urging action to combat the rise of terrorism.
The recent dangerous uptick in fighting seen in eastern Ukraine had left hundreds of thousands of civilians at risk of losing all access to water, heat and electricity, a particularly worrying development given the current plummeting winter temperatures, the Security Council heard this afternoon.
With the campaign to oust Da’esh fighters from Iraq “nearly won”, the country’s international partners must remain engaged because any abrupt scale-down in support would risk grave consequences both within and beyond the nation’s borders, the top-ranking United Nations official there cautioned in the Security Council today.
Despite repeated delays and instances of malpractice, the election of a new Parliament marked a milestone in Somalia’s post-conflict transformation, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in that country told the Security Council today.
The Security Council extended the arms embargo and other sanctions imposed on the Central African Republic today, also renewing the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the relevant Sanctions Committee, adding new provisions, and for the first time, distinguishing sexual violence as a separate asset-freeze listing criterion.
Heavy fighting in Yemen — notably around Sana’a, Taiz and the border with Saudi Arabia — was all the more tragic because a viable peace proposal was within reach of both parties to the conflict there, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy told the Security Council today, while pressing both sides to demonstrate the political courage needed to stop the nearly two-year-long war.
