United States

At least 14 civilians were killed in an attack by suspected combatants of the ADF on Sunday night in Bulongo village, east of Beni, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported.  The Mission’s Force Intervention Brigade deployed to the area yesterday.

In Myanmar, at least 138 peaceful protestors, including 56 over the weekend, among them women and children, have been killed in violence since 1 February, the United Nations Human Rights Office reports.  The Secretary-General and his Special Envoy on the country, Christine Schraner Burgener, strongly condemn the violence.

On International Women’s Day, peacekeeping colleagues report that Bangladesh, for the first time, is deploying four justice government-provided personnel, all women, to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), later this month.

An open debate on conflict-induced starvation and hunger, along with renewed focus on the crisis in Yemen and the tenth anniversary of the conflict in Syria will mark the Security Council’s work programme in March, its President for the month said during a press conference today, as she held out the possibility of elevating the crises unfolding in Myanmar and Ethiopia on the agenda.

United Nations Children’s Fund Representative (UNICEF) in Nigeria Peter Hawkins calls on those responsible for the mass abduction of girls from a State-run school in Zamfara to release them immediately and for the Government to take steps to ensure their safe release and the safety of other schoolchildren in the country.

The new Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, presented her credentials to the Secretariat and paid a courtesy call on UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

Ten years into Syria’s crisis, humanitarian needs are deepening, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says, with an estimated 13.4 million people requiring protection and assistance, up more than 2 million people from 2020.  Nearly 60 per cent of the population is food insecure.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the event marking the United States rejoining the Paris Agreement, in New York and online today:

In north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Nations vaccination teams are supporting the Ebola response by rehabilitating treatment centres and boosting contact-tracing capacity, and today began a four-day mission to Guinea to assess the situation in Nzérékoré, where the first Ebola case was reported.

Humanitarian officials are seriously concerned about the rapidly deteriorating food security situation in southern and eastern Madagascar, where more than 1.3 million people face severe hunger.  The third drought in a row is compounding the effects of COVID-19 and the extremely limited access to essential services.