Attack on Niger villagers leaves 100 dead, UN chief urges justice for victims
A deadly attack on two villages in Niger’s Tillaberi region by suspected extremists must be investigated and those responsible brought to justice, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said.
Mr. Guterres’s appeal comes after an attack on Sunday by unidentified gunmen on Tchombangou and Zaroumbareye. It is believed to have left 100 dead and dozens more injured.
According to reports, the attackers arrived on around 100 motorbikes before splitting up and carrying out their assault.
In a statement, Mr. Guterres expressed his condolences to the victims’ families, calling also for the Nigerien authorities to spare no effort in bringing the perpetrators to justice, while enhancing the protection of civilians.
Killing of Pakistan miners must be met with every effort to find perpetrators
The UN Secretary-General has also strongly condemned the killing of at least 11 coal miners in the Balochistan province of Pakistan on Sunday.
In a statement, Mr. Guterres extended his sincere condolences to the families of the miners and the people and Government of Pakistan, which he trusted would do “everything possible to bring the perpetrators of this terrorist act to justice”.
According to official reports, gunmen killed the minority Hazara Shia Muslim coal miners after abducting them in the southwestern province.
They were taken from near the Mach coalfield, about 30 miles east of the provincial capital, Quetta, and responsibility for the attack was reportedly claimed by ISIL militants.
Guterres leads tributes to ‘legendary’ UN official Sir Brian Urquhart
One of the UN’s earliest workers and behind-the-scenes fixers, Sir Brian Urquhart, has died at the age of 101.
Leading tributes to Sir Brian, who joined the Organization when it was created in 1945, Secretary-General António Guterres said that his imprint on the United Nations “was as profound as that of anyone” in its 70-year history.
From the Congo to the Middle East, Sir Brian had been at the “centre of formative global events” and had “set the standard” for international civil servants with “dedicated and impartial service”, the UN chief said, on news of his passing.
Until his retirement in 1986, Sir Brian advised five UN Secretaries-General, directed 13 peacekeeping operations and instituted peacekeeping as one of the core tenets of the Organization.
In his memoir about the UN, Sir Brian wrote that “we were all optimists…who believed in the possibility of organizing a peaceful and just world”.
He also recalled some lighter moments during the Organization’s earliest days, including an episode that preceded a key meeting at the Palace of Nations in Geneva in 1946, when the first UN chief Trygve Lie of Norway got stuck in a lift with a former Mayor of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia.
“The conference started late,” Sir Brian explained.
Daniel Johnson, UN News.
