Democratic Republic of the Congo

It will take more than 100 years to end child marriage in West and Central Africa at current rates of reduction, UNICEF reported today.  The new projections, released during a high-level meeting on ending child marriage in Dakar, Senegal, this week, aim to bring the spotlight on the region where girls face the highest risk of marrying in childhood.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message, delivered by Said Djinnit, his Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region, to the Regional Oversight Mechanism of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region, in Brazzaville today:

In strife-torn Sabratha, Libya, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and World Food Programme are delivering urgently humanitarian aid in and around the city.  Fierce fighting in recent weeks has left 3,000 Libyan families displaced and more than 10,000 refugees stranded.

The top United Nations official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo today urged international and regional stakeholders to help the country avert worsening instability by advancing progress on elections and other stalled components of the recent political agreement.

Concluding a visit to the Central African Republic, Adama Dieng, Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, told press in Bangui that those responsible for atrocities and those instrumental in inciting ethnic and religious hatred would be held responsible and would have to face justice.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President François Delattre (France):

In Bangladesh, aid workers and the Government continue scaling up operations and, as of 4 October, have given food assistance to 515,500 Rohingya refugees that have fled from Myanmar. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization and partners will launch the world’s second-largest cholera vaccination campaign in Cox’s Bazar.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

About the response to the cholera outbreak in Yemen, medicines procured by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for the treatment of 30,000 patients have been airlifted to Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, for transfer across the Red Sea to the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Tekeda Alemu (Ethiopia):