Somalia's political transformation next Monday will be complete, according to Augustine Mahiga, the Secretary-General's Special Representative in Somalia. Somalia was considered a failed state when the government of Muhammad Siad Barre collapsed in 1991. The Transitional Federal Government, which comes to an end on 20 August, has been in power since 2004. Ambassador Mahiga describes [...]
The Syrian government and the armed opposition have been once again urged to stop fighting and start a dialogue. The call has come from Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye, the head of the UN Supervision Mission (UNSMIS) whose mandate ends in six days. Speaking in the Syrian capital, Damascus on Monday, Lieutenant General Gaye vowed to [...]
The killing of two prominent Somalis on Sunday has been strongly condemned by the top United Nations envoy in the country, Dr. Augustine Mahiga. Yusuf Ali Osman, also known as "Yusuf-Farey", worked as the Media Relations Director at the Ministry of Information, Posts and Telecommunications. He was a veteran Somali journalists and a past Director [...]
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent his sincere condolences to the people and Government of Iran following the earthquakes that struck that country on Saturday the 11th of August. The earthquakes reportedly caused damage to more than 100 villages leaving at least 250 people dead and more than 2,000 others injured. Charles Appel has more. [...]
UN Humanitarian Chief Valerie Amos is scheduled to travel to the Syria and Lebanon for three days from the 14th of August. During her visit to Syria, Ms. Amos is expected to discuss ways of urgently scaling up relief efforts and reducing the suffering of the people affected by the ongoing conflict. In Lebanon, Ms. [...]
The killing of a peacekeeper will not deter the joint United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) from protecting displaced people in the region. That's what the UNAMID spokesman in the troubled region of Sudan said on Monday following the killing of a peacekeeper from Bangladesh in the mission's community policing centre. Christopher Cycmanick says [...]
Women are crossing frontiers, breaking boundaries and charting a new path. That's what Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the First World Congress of Global Partnership for Young Women in Seoul, Republic of Korea on Monday. Women are also leading United Nations efforts in peacekeeping, development and human rights, Mr Ban added. Proof of that, he said, [...]
A new initiative, known as the Oceans Compact, was launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to strengthen the UN's work on ocean matters. The seas and oceans host some of the most vulnerable and important ecosystems on earth, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a gathering in Yeosu, the Republic of Korea. The event commemorates the 30th [...]
There's a popular saying: "One man's trash is another man's treasure." For waste pickers in Sri Lanka, collecting trash is not only profitable but also ecologically sound. These workers, who scour garbage dumps for items to resell, are being trained by the International Labour Organization (ILO) so that their work benefits the environment while [...]
Peacekeepers of the joint United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) continue to face challenges. On Sunday they lost a colleague. The peacekeeper from Bangladesh was killed early in the morning in the mission's community policing centre inside the Otash camp for internally displaced people in Nyala, South Darfur. Thirty-eight peacekeepers have been killed since UNAMID was [...]
A convoy of food and medical aid, organized by the Palestinian Authority to support Palestine refugees, arrived in Damascus on 8 August. The 17-truck convoy carried 360 tons of flour, rice, sugar, lentils, chickpeas, pasta and medicines, worth 650 thousand US dollars. The aid was donated by Palestinian companies, business people, and individuals during the [...]
