Security Council: Meetings Coverage

The Security Council this morning renewed the mandate of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) without major changes in its configuration or objectives for six months, until 15 April 2017.

Briefing the Security Council on the situation in Haiti, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in that country said the category-four Hurricane Matthew had made landfall in the nation on 4 October, causing death, wide-spread damage, flooding and displacement.

The top United Nations official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, warning of what he called an “extremely fragile” political situation in that country, this morning called on the Security Council to urge the parties to return to dialogue, guarantee the right to peaceful opposition and to end impunity for violence, encouraging regional organizations to engage more closely with the situation.

Reporting on what he called significant progress in the Central African Republic in emerging from civil strife, the United Nations top peacekeeping official this morning stressed that the international community must stand firmly by the Government to overcome “spoilers” and other serious challenges that remained.

Two draft texts — one from France and Spain, and the other from the Russian Federation — addressing the conflict in Syria failed to be adopted by the Security Council today amid heated debate on content and urgent calls for humanitarian intervention for the besieged city of Aleppo.

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.