Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, in a joint statement with the African Union Chairperson, expressed alarm at the widening divisions in Burundi and the threat of many more lives lost and a deep regional crisis. They pledged to work closely and to mobilize all means to prevent a further deterioration of the situation.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The Secretary-General, meeting with Saudi King Salman, urged cooperation with the special envoys on Syria and Yemen. He expressed hope that the next Vienna meeting on Syria would devise a clear set of next steps and on Yemen, that extreme care would be taken not to harm civilians and that talks would take place this month.
The Secretary-General, in his address to the Summit of Arab and South American countries, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, plans to highlight the transition made by Latin American nations sought by so many people across the Arab world. He will stress the role of community, civil society and human rights groups to that end.
The Secretary-General condemns the killing of at least seven people, including a United Nations staff member, in a bar in the Kanyosha neighborhoud of Bujumbura on 7 November. Preliminary reports suggest that the attack was conducted by people wearing police uniform. He urges the Government to conduct a swift investigation.
The Secretary-General is alarmed by the ongoing escalation of violence in Burundi. He underlined the responsibility of authorities to protect the civilian population, regardless of political affiliation, and to ensure that the widespread impunity for heinous acts is brought to an immediate end.
This morning, the Special Representative for Libya, Bernardino León, told the Security Council that, after a year of negotiations between the Libyan parties during United Nations-facilitated talks, Libya’s leaders now have an opportunity to reach a political settlement that spares further bloodshed and destruction.
The Secretary-General announced this morning the appointment of Martin Kobler of Germany as his Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) to succeed Bernardino León of Spain. The leadership transition will take place in the coming days.
The Secretary-General, urging the General Assembly to draw larger lessons from the allegations against John Ashe, President of its sixty-eighth session, described a number of specific steps, including an internal audit and establishment of an internal task force, to address, head-on, the important issues being raised.
The Secretary-General supported last Friday’s Syrian peace talks in Vienna while his Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, spent the last two days in Damascus discussing with the Syrian Government the conference’s outcomes and the importance of early confidence-building steps to maintain the spirit of the talks.
The Secretary-General and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees condemned the attack yesterday on Camp Hurriya, near the Baghdad International Airport that had left at least 26 residents dead and many more injured, and called on the Iraqi Government to bring the perpetrators to justice.