The Security Council, acting unanimously today, extended for six months the mandate of its interim security force in Abyei, a contested region on the border of Sudan and South Sudan, as well as its tasks related to border monitoring.
Despite an overall decrease in violence against civilians in South Sudan, cases of conflict-related sexual violence more than doubled between January and March, a new report issued by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). It documented 63 cases during that period, up from 28 in the corresponding time period last year.
Senegal’s armed forces were approved today to receive funding from the Elsie Initiative Fund to assess barriers to the participation of women in United Nations peace operations. Senegal is the sixteenth largest troop-contributing country and has 987 personnel deployed as of February 2022, of whom 38, or 3.8 per cent, are women.
On 22 April, the Panel of Experts on South Sudan briefed the members of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2206 (2015) in connection with the Panel’s final report, which was submitted in pursuance of paragraph 17 of resolution 2577 (2021).
In Haiti, clashes resumed between gangs in Port-au-Prince, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. In the commune of Croix-des-Bouquets, violence has displaced more than 1,200 people. Dozens of houses were burned and a hospital in Marin was looted.
In Haiti, violent clashes between gangs in the capital have displaced several hundred people and preliminary data indicates at least 20 civilian deaths, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports. United Nations agencies are helping the Government to assess emergency needs in impacted areas.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) today strongly condemned the widespread sexual violence, as well as killings of civilians, and attacks on aid workers in Leer County. UNMISS has carried out 10 verification missions and says that 72 civilians were killed, and 64 cases of sexual violence have been recorded.
With the final status of Abyei still unresolved, an alarming recent flare-up of violence killing civilians and peacekeepers threatens the apparent calm between Sudan and South Sudan, speakers told the Council today, as that body also looked towards a possible future renewal of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) mandate.
Over 1 million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have received one or more doses of the world’s first malaria vaccine thanks to a pilot programme coordinated by the World Health Organization. The agency estimates that, if widely deployed, the vaccine could save the lives of an additional 40,000 to 80,000 children annually.
The World Food Programme (WFP) says its operational costs for West Africa are expected to expand by $136 million as a result of rising fuel and food prices. Some 43 million people are expected to face acute food insecurity by June. Before the Ukraine conflict WFP had already forced to cut rations in Nigeria, Central African Republic, Chad, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali and Niger.
