Despite military setbacks and loss of territory last year, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh) was a present and continuing threat, the senior United Nations official for counter‑terrorism told the Security Council today, as he presented the Secretary‑General’s sixth report on the international and regional threat posed by that group (document S/2018/80).

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today announced the appointment of Lisa Filipetto of Australia as Head of the United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS).

The Security Council, acting unanimously under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, today adopted a resolution extending for 13 months the mandate of the Panel of Experts appointed to monitor the arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze imposed on those impeding peace in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Following is the text of UN Secretary‑General António Guterres’ video message on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, observed on 11 February, aired in New York today:

Our humanitarian colleagues are concerned for the safety and protection of 2 million men, women and children living in Syria’s Idlib Governorate, where air strikes and shelling continue to be reported daily, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries, as well as the destruction of civilian infrastructure.

On 26 January 2018, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2127 (2013) concerning the Central African Republic held, under the Presidency of Côte d’Ivoire, an open briefing for all Member States on the final report of the Panel of Experts (document S/2017/1023) and on national implementation of sanctions measures by invited regional States.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today concluded substantive work of its 2018 regular session with the presentation of the body’s draft report, which will be finalized for adoption later this month.

The establishment of the Specialist Chambers in Kosovo had been a major achievement, and recent attempts to abrogate the 2015 law supporting its work were cause for grave concern, the senior United Nations official in the Balkans told the Security Council today, adding that the assassination of a Kosovo-Serb politician in January had shaken the region.

The Commission for Social Development, acting by consensus on the final day of its fifty‑sixth session, decided to forward four draft resolutions to the Economic and Social Council, including one aimed at further focusing the Commission’s working methods in future sessions.

As part of the Remember Slavery Programme and the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024), the United Nations Department of Public Information is screening the documentary film Familiar Faces/Unexpected Places — A Global African Diaspora on Thursday, 8 February, to mark Black History Month.