Haiti

Some 4,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar and crossed the border into Bangladesh in the last 48 hours.  The newly arrived refugees say thousands more people are waiting on Myanmar’s coast to make the crossing.  United Nations agencies and their partners are providing food and other supplies.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) welcomed Myanmar’s commitment to implement recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, as the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported slower rates of refugees entering Bangladesh.

The Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, welcomed the full return of the Gaza crossings to the control of the Palestinian Authority.  He said the return was a landmark development in the implementation of the intra-Palestinian agreement, signed in Cairo on 12 October.

United Nations Secretary‑General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Susan D. Page of the United States as his Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH).

As the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) completed its mandate on 15 October, the Security Council welcomed the notable progress made by Haiti towards stability and democracy.

Irina Bokova, Executive Director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, condemned today the killing of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta yesterday.  She welcomed the Prime Minister’s pledge to ensure justice in the crime against the right of free expression.

With today marking one year since the start of the military campaign to retake Mosul from Da’esh, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq said that of the 1 million people who fled the city, some 673,000 are still displaced.  She noted that the number of people who fled exceeded the worst-case projections of aid workers.

The United Nations peacekeeping operation in Haiti would close on 15 October and be replaced the following day by a smaller successor mission to help the Government consolidate stability, implement institutional reforms and enhance the rule of law, human rights and governance, the United Nations top official in the country told the Security Council this morning.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Mamadou Diallo of Guinea as Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH).

With the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) making way for a new peacekeeping operation focusing on justice support, the onus lied on Haitians themselves to shape their future going forward, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative to the country said today.