The United Nations would send humanitarian aid teams to the Libyan capital as early as next weekend as part of an agreement signed with Libyan authorities this week with the aim of ensuring safe passage to relief workers and much-needed civilian aid, particularly into areas heavily affected by fighting, the Organization’s senior humanitarian official said at Headquarters today.

The Secretary-General travelled to Chernobyl, along with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and saw first-hand the situation there, 25 years after the nuclear crisis, becoming the first Secretary-General to visit Chernobyl. He said the recent Fukushima Daiichi power accident, together with the Chernobyl disaster, have provided a strong message and we have to learn lessons from these tragedies.

The UN mission in Cote d’Ivoire, UNOCI, has deplored the ongoing fighting in the Yopougon and Abobo neighbourhoods of Abidjan, saying the clashes could threaten efforts to bring back peace. Yesterday, UNOCI started joint patrols with the Republican Forces of Côte d’Ivoire to restore law and order in Abidjan.

Over the long weekend, the Secretary-General condemned the violence against peaceful demonstrators in Syria. He reminded the Syrian authorities of their obligation to respect international human rights, including the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, as well as the freedom of the press, and reiterated that there should be an independent, transparent and effective investigation into the killings.

While immense progress had been made in the fight against malaria over the last five years, the goal of near-zero deaths from the highly preventable and treatable disease by 2015 still faced many hurdles, Ray Chambers, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria, said today.

We put out the advisory report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts concerning accountability in Sri Lanka yesterday afternoon. The Secretary-General expressed his appreciation to the advisory Panel of Experts and is carefully reviewing the report’s conclusions and recommendations.

In Côte d’Ivoire, OCHA says that thousands of people face enormous humanitarian needs. Their vulnerability is aggravated by a lingering lack of security in certain places, as well as by the difficulty in obtaining access to essential health, education and sanitation services. The United Nations has deployed an evaluation and coordination team to Abidjan and the western part of the country since 19 April, to identify the needs of the most vulnerable people.

Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe provided the Security Council with an update on Syria in an open meeting yesterday afternoon, saying that the anti-Government demonstrations that had started in mid-March have gradually, but steadily, increased in geographic scope and participation and the Syrian authorities have reacted with a mix of reform measures and increasingly violent repression.

The Secretary-General was appalled by the bombing in Marrakech, which killed and injured Moroccans and foreign nationals. He reiterated his firm rejection of the use of indiscriminate violence against innocent civilians. In their own statement to the press, the members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in Marrakech.

The Secretary-General this morning said that the death of Osama bin Laden is a watershed moment in our common global fight against terrorism. He noted that the General Assembly has adopted a global counter-terrorism strategy and that we will continue to work together with Member States to completely eradicate global terrorism.