General News

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is not completely over until the last person with the disease is under treatment, according to a senior UN official in the region.

Over 6000 people have died from Ebola mainly in, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Mali has had a handful of cases.

The UN Coordinator for Ebola Virus Disease, David Nabarro, is currently in the country

Karim Djinko asked him how Mali is coping.

Duration: 3’35”

The authorities in Sudan have been urged to grant immediate access to the African Union-UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) to verify allegations of mass rapes in a village in the northern part of the Sudanese region.

UNAMID was deployed in July 2007 to protect civilians and support the peace process to resolve the conflict in Darfur.

Derrick Mbatha reports.

Duration:  3'17"

The year 2015 will be crucial for the world’s efforts to safeguard the planet, and secure a life of peace and dignity for all.

That’s the view of the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon who has released a key report which sets the stage for negotiations on future sustainable development goals.

Member States of the UN will use the Secretary-General’s Synthesis Report as part of the process for drawing up the Sustainable Development Goals or SDG’s.

Unpredictable weather could cost Rwanda’s agricultural sector $300 million a year by 2030, according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

The agency says that farmers in Rwanda are already losing about 40 per cent of their harvests due to erratic weather.

IFAD is working with the Rwandan government to help farmers cope with the challenges they are facing.

These challenges are amongst the issues that are being discussed at a major United Nations climate conference under way in Lima, Peru.

Over 270,000 women die every year globally of cervical cancer.

Many of those cases are caused by a virus called the Human Papillomavirus, HPV which can be treated.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced new guidelines to combat the cancer-causing virus concentrating on prevention through vaccination, screening and education.

Stephanie Castro spoke with Dr Marleen Temmerman, the Director of WHO’s Department of Reproductive Health and Research.

Sixty-four million dollars has been set as the target for a 72-hour fundraising campaign to help Syrian refugees.

On Monday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it was suspending the provision of food vouchers to nearly 1.7 million Syrian refugees due to a lack of funding.

Those people fled Syria over the past three years as a result of the ongoing conflict in the country.

Now people around the world are being asked to contribute one US dollar in order to pay for the reinstatement of the vouchers.

The world’s largest humanitarian crisis underway in Syria is “falling off the map” according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Daily life in the country is being described as “dire and tragic” as the three –year old conflict continues to claim people’s lives.

More than half of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance and over 400,000 children have been displaced.

Stephanie Castro spoke with Kumar Tiku, the Chief of Communications for UNICEF Syria, who is based in the capital Damascus.

People with disabilities are not looking for charity but want to ensure that their rights are fully recognised.

That’s according to Catalina Devandas who is set to start her three-year mandate as the UN Human Rights Council’s very first Special Rapporteur for people with disabilities.

Despite being born with spina bifida, Ms Devandas says her parents treated her “as just another girl” and it’s only by chance that she became so involved in disability rights.

The people of Liberia have been urged to remain vigilant in their efforts against the deadly Ebola outbreak.

The call came from Dr David Nabarro, the UN Coordinator for Ebola Virus Disease during a short visit to Liberia on Wednesday.

Ebola has killed about 6,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Dr. Nabarro spoke with Ratomir Petrovic before he continued his mission to Mali.

Duration: 4’50”

The international community is being urged by a senior UN official to unite different skills to build a world accessible to everybody, including persons with disabilities.

Daniela Bas, who works on social policy and development issues, said a lot has been achieved in promoting the rights of persons but more still needs to be done.