• Air bridge vaccination operation begins in Ebola-hit DR Congo 
• India’s citizenship act ‘fundamentally discriminatory’, says UN rights office 
• 40th anniversary of smallpox eradication marked on Friday 

Supporting Mauritania’s efforts to protect its eastern border from jihadists and other destabilizing elements is just one aspect of the UN’s work in this “quiet” corner of North Africa.

That’s according to UN Resident Coordinator for Mauritania, Anthony Ohemeng-Boamah, who spoke to Dianne Penn about UN assistance there, and the need to “clear the air” over negative reports about slavery and gender equality.

• South Sudan: Famine warning after catastrophic flooding 
• More than 5,000 Somalis have opted to return home from wartorn Yemen
• ‘Alpinism’ added to list of cultural treasures needing urgent protection 

Every day, 33,000 girls under the age of 18 are married, often against their will and one in three women will face sexual violence.  Ending these scourges is the aim of the 16 Days Against Violence campaign, led by the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, which ended on Tuesday 10 December, Human Rights Day.  Here’s the agency’s Executive Director Dr Natalia Kanem, speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson in Geneva.