The “deplorable, avoidable and completely man-made catastrophe” in Yemen continued to worsen and ravage the lives of millions of people facing famine, the world’s largest ever single-year cholera outbreak, daily deprivation and injustice, the United Nations humanitarian affairs chief told the Security Council today.
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on World Humanitarian Day, to be observed in New York on 19 August:
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta (Egypt):
On 4 August 2017, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1533 (2004) concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo held an open briefing with interested Member States on the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The meeting was held in pursuance of paragraph 31 of resolution 2360 (2017), by which the Security Council encouraged the Chair to hold regular briefings for all interested Member States. As the first open briefing of the Committee since its establishment, the meeting marked the importance that the Committee holds to reducing the impact that the illegal exploitation of natural resources has on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:
Tremendous challenges were facing the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the dynamics of the conflict ever-changing, an illicit trade in artisanal gold funding increasingly fragmented but heavily networked armed groups and human rights violations at significant levels, the Chair of the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1533 (2004) told the Security Council today.
Filippo Grandi paid his first official visit to Sudan as High Commissioner this week, with refugees continuing to flee the brutal conflict in South Sudan. Sudan has hosted more than 416,000 South Sudanese since 2013, including some 170,000 new arrivals in 2017, as well as refugees from Eritrea, Syria, Yemen and Chad.
Welcoming Kosovo’s recent free and fair elections, the head of the United Nations mission there stressed today the need to form a new government without delay, resume dialogue with Serbia, and quell the rise in inflammatory nationalist rhetoric.
Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Horst Köhler, former President of the Federal Republic of Germany, as his Personal Envoy for Western Sahara.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:
