The Security Council, acting through its special procedure amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, decided today in a videoconference to extend until 12 March 2022 the mandate of the Panel of Experts tasked with assisting the committee overseeing sanctions concerning Sudan.
The International Organization for Migration is calling today for urgent action by the European Union and its member States to end pushbacks, collective expulsions and the use of violence against migrants and refugees at the regional bloc’s external land and maritime borders.
The United Nations team in Indonesia is supporting efforts to vaccinate 80 per cent of the population, over 216 million people, against COVID-19. Work has begun to bring the country into the COVAX facility, and the World Health Organization helped finalize a vaccine introduction road map and guidelines.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the European Union have launched a programme to protect migrant children in Central America and Southern Africa. It will work with Governments and civil society groups to provide care alternatives to immigration detention.
United Nations personnel in the Central African Republic say they have stepped up security patrols following the arrest of former Séléka commander Mahamat Said Abdel Kani. Mr. Kani, who is suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity, was surrendered to the International Criminal Court on 24 January.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says the number of people displaced by violence in Africa’s Sahel region has reached 2 million. Officials warn that needs continue to surge, with multiple crises converging and the humanitarian response dangerously overstretched.
The United Nations Resident Coordinator’s team in Brazil is supporting the state of Amazonas in tackling latest surge of COVID-19. The United Nations Children’s Fund delivered 250 hygiene kits and food baskets, while the International Organization for Migration is working to mitigate transmission in indigenous and riverside communities.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:
Deeply concerned by the deteriorating human rights situation in Uganda ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections on 14 January, the United Nations Human Rights Office calls on authorities there to protect the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and take steps to prevent electoral violence.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, refer to the decisions respectively made by the African Union Peace and Security Council in communiqué PSC/PR/COMM. (CMLXVIII) of 30 November and the United Nations Security Council in resolution 2559 (2020) of 22 December, to terminate the mandate of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID).
