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…
With an investigation now complete, the United Nations representative in Malawi, Maria Jose Torres, is calling on the government to promptly prosecute 12 people connected to the death of an albino man earlier this year. The dismembered body of 22-year-old MacDonald Masambuka was found in April after he went missing in…
Burundi has again pushed back at the findings of a United Nations human rights investigation released Wednesday that found grave violations continue in the small African nation, including summary deaths, torture, sexual violence and arbitrary arrest. Government spokesman Willy Nyamitwe, a senior advisor to President Pierre Nkurunziza and member of his…
In Zimbabwe, it has been more than three years since human rights activist Itai Dzamara was abducted at gunpoint. The next year it was his brother, Patson, who went missing. The difference between the two is that Patson came back but Itai never has. Their stories are achingly familiar to…
Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations and the first black African to lead the UN, has died in Switzerland. The Kofi Annan Foundation announced the 80-year-old Ghanaian died on Saturday after a short illness, with his wife, Nane, and three children by his side. “Kofi Annan…
Former president of Chile Michelle Bachelet has officially been appointed as the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, following a vote Friday at the UN General Assembly in New York. The Bachelet announcement was warmly received by UN Secretary General António Guterres, who called her “a pioneer, a…
The much-awaited Global Compact for Migration is one step closer to adoption, as the United Nations finalized the text on Friday. Plans for that adoption are set for December at a conference in Morocco. The Global Compact initiative was approved in 2016 during the Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and…
A report issued Tuesday by the United Nations human rights agency documents grisly attacks on South Sudanese civilians that appeared to be the work of government forces and groups aligned with them. The 14-page report, which records incidents in southern Unity state in April and May of this year, lists…
The United Nations said Thursday that it stands ready to support efforts to help resolve tensions between farmers and nomadic herders in areas of West and Central Africa, which in recent days have led to the deaths of some 200 people in Nigeria. The news comes as Nigerian authorities announced…