With security conditions in Mali worsening at an alarming rate, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations today called on the Government and signatories to the historic 2015 peace agreement to uphold their commitments as he unveiled “ambitious” plans in the Security Council for a mobile task force able to adapt to changing power dynamics.

Peacekeepers are now patrolling the Central African Republic city of Alindao to protect civilians displaced by violence, including some 400 people who have sought shelter at the United Nations base after deadly clashes last week between the country’s armed forces and an armed group associated with the ex-Seleka coalition.

On 6 December 2019, the amendments specified with underline and strikethrough were enacted in the entries below on the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2368 (2017), and adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

On 14  January 2020, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2374 (2017) concerning Mali enacted the amendments specified with an underline in the entries below on its Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the travel ban set out in paragraphs 1 to 3 of Security Council resolution 2374 (2017), adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations and as renewed in paragraph 1 of resolution 2484 (2019).

The General Assembly today decided to increase the membership of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions — an expert body to examine United Nations budget proposals — from 16 to 21 members, thus achieving more equitable geographical representation, effective on 1 January 2021.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees launched a Refugee Response Plan for Sudan today in Khartoum, calling for $477 million to help more than 900,000 refugees and nearly a quarter million of their Sudanese hosts. 

With the United Nations marking its seventy-fifth anniversary in 2020, it is time for Member States to consider reforming the Security Council to make it more representative and more effective, delegates said today as the 15-member organ concluded its open debate on upholding the Organization’s Charter.

Hard-won gains in Colombia must be preserved and built upon, the Special Representative told the Security Council today, urging the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to fully implement their historic 2016 peace accord, amid resumed violence by illicit armed groups in the traditional epicentres of Cauca, Chocó and Nariño.

The United Nations is in touch with the Government of the Philippines, which is leading the response to the Taal volcano eruption in the Calabarzon region, some 70 kilometres south of Manila.  The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that 18,000 people have taken shelter in evacuation centres.

Following is text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message on the tenth anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, in New York today: