Security Council

“My childhood was robbed by the Revolutionary United Front for two years,” former child soldier Alhaji Babas Sawaneh — abducted and conscripted in Sierra Leone at the age of 10 years — told the Security Council today just before it unanimously adopted a resolution strongly condemning all violations of international law applicable to the recruitment and use of children by parties to armed conflict.

Despite significant and progressive gains made by African Union and French troops in the Central African Republic, the situation in the strife-torn country remained extremely grave, senior officials told the Security Council today, urging immediate action to prevent further bloodshed.

The Security Council today authorized a partial lifting of its arms embargo on Somalia until 25 October.

Determining that the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their means of delivery continued to constitute a threat to international peace and security, the Security Council today unanimously adopted a resolution extending for 13 months the mandate of the Panel of Experts that assists the Sanctions Committee on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The situation in the Central African Republic, issues of children and armed conflict, and events in Afghanistan would be among the Security Council’s top priorities in March, the Permanent Representative of Luxembourg said today at a Headquarters press conference.

The Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs provided an update to the Security Council on the situation in Ukraine today, as the 15-member body held its second meeting on the subject in three days.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Sylvie Lucas (Luxembourg):

Addressing an emergency meeting today, Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations called on the Security Council to do everything possible to prevent military intervention by the Russian Federation.

At its forty-third meeting, on 15 February 2014, the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict agreed, in connection with the examination of the third report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in the Philippines (document S/2013/419), to address the following message to all parties to the armed conflict in the Philippines mentioned in the report of the Secretary-General through a public statement by its Chair:

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Raimonda Murmokaitė ( Lithuania):