Peacekeeping

The Secretary-General welcomed the beginning of consultations between Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Bougainville government, following a referendum on Bougainville’s political future held in 2019.  The consultations mark an “important step” in the implementation of the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement.

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), acting without a vote today, approved a resolution endorsing the latest report of the 34-member Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations — including a raft of recommendations related to mandates, protection and peacekeeper conduct and safety — thereby forwarding them to the General Assembly for adoption.

Humanitarian officials in Somalia say a “double climate disaster”, marked by drought followed by torrential rains, has killed at least 25 people in two weeks.  Warning that 2.7 million people in the country are already food insecure, they note that the Humanitarian Response Plan is currently only 19 per cent funded.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

United Nations officials in the Central African Republic report that 300 peacekeepers have been deployed to Bakouma, one of several places where security concerns prevented the holding of elections in 2020.  They will protect the civilian population and help organize legislative elections later in May.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Zhang Jun (China):

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

Speakers began discussing the Secretary-General’s proposed $6.47 billion budget to cover the cost of a dozen United Nations peacekeeping missions in 2021/22, while stressing the need to break a four-year deadlock over issues that cut across operations, notably sexual exploitation and abuse, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened the second part of its resumed seventy-fifth session today.

The Elsie Initiative, a United Nations Trust Fund that supports deployment of uniformed women to peace operations, announced this morning its first five recipients — Liberia, Mexico, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone — during a high-level virtual event.  The Fund also launched its second programming round.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Alain Noudéhou of Benin as his new Deputy Special Representative for the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and Resident Coordinator in Mali.