Almost 18 months since the signing of the Mali peace agreement, the United Nations peacekeeping chief this afternoon called the Security Council’s attention to the absence of concrete progress in implementing the accord and the degrading security environment in the country.
Deploring continued loss of life due to migrant smuggling and human trafficking off the coast of Libya, the Security Council this morning extended its authorization for Member States to intercept vessels on the high seas suspected of being used for those illicit activities, for a further period of one year.
The recent signing up of additional parties to a road map for ending conflict in Darfur must be followed by action to consolidate peace and ensure delivery of aid to those displaced by long-term and recent fighting in the western region of Sudan, the head of United Nations peacekeeping told the Security Council today.
Warning that “Syria is bleeding and its citizens are dying” in increasing numbers and with increasing ferocity, the United Nations top humanitarian official urged the Security Council today to find common humanity and restore the cessation of hostilities to protect civilians, save lives and end the “unbridled horror”.
Ending attacks on medical workers, facilities and transports in conflict hotspots — including by several of its own permanent members — must remain an urgent priority for the Security Council, speakers emphasized today as the body convened to consider hospital bombings in embattled Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.
Despite yet another delay in Somalia’s planned elections — the first national polls held since 1969 — the country remained committed to advancing hard-won democratic progress and electing a new President on 30 November, the Security Council heard this morning as it was briefed by top officials from the United Nations, the African Union and the Somali Government.
As the United States and the Russian Federation traded accusations in the Security Council today of misconduct in their handling of the crisis in Syria over the past two weeks, the United Nations top official addressing the conflict urged them to salvage their recent cessation of hostilities agreement before all hope was lost.
Marking the twentieth anniversary of the opening for signature of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, the Security Council today called for the instrument’s early entry into force and for all States to refrain from and maintain their moratoriums on nuclear-weapon tests or any other nuclear explosions.
During a ministerial meeting on countering the ongoing danger posed by terrorism to civil aviation, the Security Council this morning called on all States to work with each other and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to continuously adapt measures to meet that “ever-evolving global threat”.
The international community’s collective failure to end the conflict in Syria should haunt the entire Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, as he provided a grim snapshot of the situation on the ground.
