Meetings Coverage

Commending peacekeepers’ recent efforts to quell violence and help national armed forces defeat the 23 March Movement insurgency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the commander of the United Nations Mission there said today that this year it must be more agile and active in the strife-torn eastern part of the country.

Deploring in the strongest terms recent events in Ramadi and Fallujah in Iraq’s Anbar Province, the Security Council today condemned the attacks by Al-Qaida affiliate, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, in an attempt to destabilize the country and the region.

The situation in the Central African Republic had “greatly deteriorated” following a spate of attacks on 5 December that had triggered further unrest in the strife-torn country, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, urging those in positions of influence — including the 15-member organ — to do more towards ending the violence.

Against a backdrop of imminent or impending wars, civil and sectarian bloodshed and strife between and within States, chemical warfare in Syria, grinding poverty and malnutrition, gender violence and deadly climate change impacts, the year ahead was “pivotal” for the 193-nation organ, General Assembly President John Ashe (Antigua and Barbuda) said at the opening of its sixty-eighth session.

Concluding the main segment of its sixty-eighth session today, the 193-member General Assembly adopted a $5.53 billion budget to finance United Nations activities over the next two years, including its judicial, humanitarian and peacekeeping operations worldwide.

After heated negotiations that stretched beyond Christmas Day, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) concluded the main part of the sixty-eighth session today, recommending a $5.53 billion budget for the 2014-2015 biennium.

Responding to the rapidly deteriorating security and humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, the Security Council today unanimously adopted a resolution which, among others, called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and overall increased force levels of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.

The General Assembly today adopted 41 draft resolutions and two draft decisions on a plethora of issues relating to sustainable development, macroeconomic policy, globalization, and countries in special situations, while postponing action on one text pending determination of the budgetary implications of its implementation.

Passionate revolutionary, apostle of peace, champion of human rights, nation builder and beacon of freedom were among the terms of endearment bestowed on former South African President Nelson Mandela during a special meeting of the General Assembly today to pay tribute to his life and memory.

The Security Council today expressed growing concern about the serious threats posed by drug trafficking and related transnational organized crime to international peace and stability in West Africa and the Sahel region.