South Sudan

The protection of civilians site in South Sudan, next to the United Nations base in Melut in the Upper Nile region, has been successfully closed in South Sudan after internally displaced families expressed the desire and confidence to return to their former homes.

The United Nations refugee agency evacuated 74 refugees, mostly children and women, from Libya to Niger.  In the Central African Republic, voluntary repatriation of Sudanese refugees has begun; since Tuesday, 230 refugees have arrived in Sudan.  Agency-chartered flights will bring some 1,500 refugees home by the end of 2017.

After extending the mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) until 15 March 2018, the Security Council today endorsed a new initiative to revitalize the stalled peace plan for the strife-torn country.

Some 350,000 children remain in need of support across the Caribbean three months after hurricanes Irma and Maria barrelled through the region, UNICEF reported today.  More than 35 per cent of children in Dominica - particularly those in shelters - are yet to be enrolled in education activities, and many children and families in Antigua and Barbuda remain unable to return home.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan dispatched a patrol to Abier, Cuei-Cok and Abiriu, in the northwest of Lakes region, on 9 December following an attack by armed youth last week in which more than 60 people were killed and 70 injured.  During the patrol, the Mission interviewed witnesses, visited the wounded and cautioned against retaliatory attacks.

The number of people affected by dementia is set to triple in the next 30 years, from 50 million to 152 million by 2050, the World Health Organization reported. The $818 billion annual cost of dementia, equivalent to more than 1 per cent of global gross domestic product, is expected to reach $2 trillion by 2030.

The precarious security situation in South Sudan was a matter of grave concern, the Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations told the Security Council today, urging it to use all means necessary to demand a change of course from leaders and parties to the conflict.

United Nations humanitarian flights to Yemen resumed on 25 November, with two commercial vessels having arrived in Hodaidah carrying 35,020 metric tons of wheat and flour.  Three vessels carrying nearly 65,000 metric tons of food have been cleared by the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism and are awaiting permission from the Saudi Arabia-led coalition to enter the port.

Newly released data from the International Organization for Migration show that almost half of all identified child trafficking cases begin with the involvement of a family member.  According to the data, the extent of such involvement is up to four times higher than in cases of adult trafficking.

Despite assurances from the Government of South Sudan, violence and governmental restrictions continued to prevent peacekeepers and humanitarian workers from fulfilling their respective mandates to protect civilians and deliver aid to those badly in need of it, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations told the Security Council today.