Guinea-Bissau

In Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, the first monsoon rains are affecting hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees.  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is rushing more aid, including thousands of tents to give emergency shelter, for some 60,000 refugees in areas at risk of landslides and flooding.

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

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced today that Chile had just acceded to the international conventions on statelessness.  The Office commended the country’s commitment to promote the fundamental right to nationality.

The Security Council today decided to extend until 28 February 2019 the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea‑Bissau (UNIOGBIS), also deciding to review the sanctions imposed on that country and pledging to take additional measures if its crisis continued to worsen.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Mansour Ayyad Sh. A. Alotaibi (Kuwait):

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the United Nations human rights office released their annual report on the impact of armed conflict on civilians, finding that 10,453 civilians had lost their lives or suffered injuries in 2017.  While down 9 per cent from 2016, casualties were caused mainly by suicide bombings.

The political situation in Guinea-Bissau was evolving swiftly, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council today, as he outlined the latest developments in that country, including those that had obstructed the full implementation of the Conakry Agreement.

Civilian returns to Iraq’s newly accessible areas continue to increase since the conclusion of major counter‑Daesh military operations late last year; 3.2 million previously displaced people have now returned home, surpassing the total number of displaced in the country for the first time since the crisis began four years ago.

Following is the joint statement of the African Union and the United Nations on the situation in Guinea-Bissau:

On 20 December 2017, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2048 (2012) removed the name below from the 2048 Committee Sanctions List.