Despite revamped policies to protect Colombian children from recruitment as into armed forces, efforts in that regard remained insufficient, experts said today at a Headquarters press conference to launch a new report on the issue.

Mine action entailed improving the livelihoods of the affected people, not just removing landmines, United Nations experts said at Headquarters today as they marked the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, has expressed his outrage at the suicide attack at Mogadishu’s National Theatre during a celebratory ceremony today, which reportedly killed at least six people and injured scores more. He said this tragic event should not derail the progress being made in Somalia.

Today’s suicide bombing in Mogadishu, which killed six people, injured scores of others and seemed to be an attempt on the life of Somalia’s Prime Minister, showed that the Horn of Africa country still faced serious threats despite recent progress, the Chargé d’affaires at its Permanent Mission to the United Nations said this afternoon.

This morning, the President of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General and the Joint Special Envoy on Syria, Kofi Annan, spoke to the General Assembly, with the Secretary-General saying that there can be no higher priority at this moment than stopping the bloodshed in Syria. The Security Council also issued a presidential statement, in which it called on the Syrian Government to implement urgently and visibly its commitments under the Envoy’s six-point proposal.

The Prime Minister of the Central African Republic made an impassioned plea today for the international community to help his Government successfully launch and maintain a new institutional framework for the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants, saying it was crucial to the country’s efforts to reform the security sector and jump-start development.

The Government of Syria was firmly committed to the success of the United Nations-supported plan to end the crisis in the country and would meet the deadline for pulling back heavy weaponry, but some countries were subverting the plan through their interventionist intentions and continued support for the armed opposition, the country’s Permanent Representative said today.

Africa and Asia would lead urban population growth over the next four decades as the number of people on those continents soared to 4.5 billion by 2050, according to a United Nations report released at Headquarters today.

The Secretary-General is alarmed by reports of continued violence and human rights violations in Syria, resulting in increased refugee flows. Informed by Turkey last Thursday of the arrival of thousands of new Syrian refugees, the United Nations swiftly mobilized emergency assistance to help the newly arrived.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Martin Kobler, told the Security Council today that violence in Syria could potentially affect the fragile balance of power in Iraq and increase communal tensions there. Iraqi leaders were encouraged to find common ground to break the political impasse.