Timor-Leste

The new Permanent Representative of Timor-Leste to the United Nations, Dionísio da Costa Babo Soares, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Olufunmilayo Abosede Balogun-Alexander of Nigeria as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Timor-Leste, with the host Government’s approval. She takes up her post on 1 December.

A newly released World Health Organization report finds that nearly a billion people worldwide live with a mental disorder.  It identifies public health crises, inequality, war and climate change as major health threats, and shows that depression and anxiety spiked more than 25 per cent in 2020.

The United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) has, in what it calls a major breakthrough, brokered a peace accord between the Misseriya and Ngok Dinka communities, who agreed to dialogue to protect people, livestock and property, and to find a sustainable solution to the final status of Abyei.

Two peacekeepers died and four others were injured in Mali this morning, when their convoy hit an improvised explosive device north of Mopti while on its way to Timbuktu.  They were all from Egypt.  The attack is another reminder of the urgent need to continue and strengthen efforts to stabilize the centre of Mali.

Marking International Human Solidarity Day, the Secretary-General said that hunger is no longer about lack of food, but largely a man-made disaster, concentrated in countries affected by large-scale, protracted conflict.  He urged the international community to do everything in its power to tackle both hunger and conflict.

The new Permanent Representative of Timor-Leste to the United Nations, Karlito Nunes, paid a courtesy call on UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

The new Permanent Representative of Timor-Leste to the United Nations, Karlito Nunes, presented his credentials to the Secretariat today.

The United Nations and the Government of Timor-Leste have launched a $32 million joint appeal to provide food, shelter, water and sanitation to some 65,000 people impacted by flooding in April.  Nearly 34,000 homes were destroyed amid a strict COVID-19 lockdown in the capital, Dili, which has seen a surge in cases.   

Unrelenting drought in southern Madagascar is forcing hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of famine, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports.  At least 1.35 million people need emergency food and nutrition assistance.  Acute malnutrition in children under 5 has almost doubled over the last four months.