Ambassadors of the United Nations Security Council are in West Africa, visiting in Côte d’Ivoire before paying a critical visit to Guinea-Bissau ahead of the nation’s delayed elections. They’re expected to meet with President José Mário Vaz, Prime Minister Aristides Gomes, political party leaders and the country’s electoral commission, among…
A new report presented to the United Nations Security Council on Monday details the threat that Islamic State continues to present to the African continent, from Libya and Somalia across the Sahel and into West Africa. These fighters – whether in small clusters of a few dozen in the mountains…
A group of United Nations experts called on the Malawi government on Friday to act quickly to prevent people with albinism from attacks and killings linked to cultural superstitions, especially as the May elections approach. Malawi has seen 150 such cases since 2014, with an uptick in recent weeks that…
More than 60 million people were affected by extreme weather and natural hazards last year, including floods in Nigeria and drought in Kenya, according to an analysis of 281 events. Flooding continues to impact the most people – more than half the total, although earthquake and tsunami accounted for the…
A United Nations human rights expert has welcomed Angola’s leadership in decriminalizing same-sex relations, and urged other countries to follow the example in establishing human rights. “All other countries that still criminalize homosexuality and other forms of sexual orientation and gender identity, without exception, must observe these processes of decriminalization…
The roughly 1.2 billion people who live on the African continent contribute the least to the world’s e-waste problem, but in countries like Liberia and Ghana they deal with the trash left behind from the world’s digital and technological advances. All told, an estimated 48.5 million tons of e-waste was…
The nation of Burundi hasn’t commanded much international attention since May, when President Pierre Nkurunziza successfully pushed through a referendum that would allow him to remain in power through 2034. Yet the human rights situation there remains dire, according to the World Report 2019 released Thursday by the Human Rights…
Rebeca Gyumi of Tanzania was honored Tuesday for her human rights work, during an awards ceremony for the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights. Gyumi is the founder and executive director of the Msichana Initiative, a Tanzanian organization with a mission to empower girls through education and…
Mauritania has become the latest country to succeed in clearing its territory of land mines, completing a task that’s been decades in the making. The anti-personnel mines were left behind during the 1978-1979 conflict in Western Sahara. Their presence was identified in three regions of Mauritania covering about 68 square…
Investigative reporting from an international team of journalists has raised new questions about who’s responsible for the deaths of two United Nations experts killed in Democratic Republic of Congo in March 2017. The report was jointly conducted by Foreign Policy in the United States, French media outlets Radio France International…
The United Nations human rights office said Tuesday it is increasingly concerned over the violence in Cameroon, and said it stands ready to help the West African nation deal with its crisis. “We continue to receive reports of abductions and killings by armed groups, as well as extrajudicial killings by…
A police officer from Ghana has been named the United Nations Female Police Officer of the Year, in a ceremony held in New York by the UN’s peacekeeping department. Phyllis Ama Tebuah Osei, who is serving with United Nations Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), was chosen for her work in Jubaland….
The UN agency for migration has a new director general, with António Vitorino of Portugal taking the helm this month as former United States diplomat William Lacy Swing steps down after two five-year terms. The 61-year-old Vitorino is a former European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, and was Portugal’s…
Horst Kohler, the United Nations Special Envoy on Western Sahara, has invited the Polisario Front to a first round of talks with Morocco in December in Geneva, according to Sahara Press Service. The official media outlet aligned with Western Sahara independence said the Polisario Front received its invitation on Friday…
Funeral services for Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, are set to begin at 9 a.m. Thursday in the auditorium of the Accra International Conference Center, where visitors have gathered for two days to pay their final respects. The 80-year-old Annan died on August 18 in Switzerland following…