Security Council

While improvements in Sierra Leone’s political climate were seen as inching the country towards eventual sustainable development, senior United Nations officials warned the Security Council today that the magnitude and political significance of youth unemployment posed a latent risk of instability in the West African nation struggling to consolidate peace and stimulate development.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) until 23 March 2011, realigning it to assist the Government in the transition to national leadership of the country’s recovery efforts, including by supporting the preparations for the conference to be held in Kabul later this year.

Condemning the continued flow of weapons that it said violated its arms embargoes on Somalia and Eritrea, the Security Council this afternoon extended for 12 months the mandate of the group monitoring those measures, expanding its mandate and giving it three additional experts.

Expressing grave concern over trafficking in small arms and light weapons, particularly in Central Africa, the Security Council today encouraged States in that subregion to join forces in order fully to implement measures to curb the illicit trade and to create mechanisms and regional networks for sharing information on the circulation and trafficking of weapons.

A new phase of relations had begun between Afghanistan and the global community, and the new Afghan Government was assuming greater responsibility for the country’s peace, security, and economic and electoral reform processes, speakers told the Security Council today as it considered extension and adjustment of the mandate to assist that country.

The Security Council today voted to permit an increase in the number of ad litem judges serving on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

The Security Council today set the date for an election to fill a vacancy on the International Court of Justice resulting from the resignation of Judge Shi Jiuyong.

The following Security Council press statement on Côte d’Ivoire was read out today by Council President Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet (Gabon):

Briefing the Security Council this morning, the head of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire expressed dismay over the current political impasse in that West African country and its ramifications for the electoral process.

The Security Council this morning decided to extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad for two months, as discussions on its future continued with the Chadian Government.