This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

UN chief urges de-escalation as Ukraine tensions rise

With tensions continuing to mount over the Ukraine crisis, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday that he still believed that military conflict in Europe “will not happen” – although if it did, it would be “catastrophic”.

Addressing world leaders at the Munich Security Conference on Friday - amid an intense spike in shelling in eastern Ukraine by opposing sides and a concentration of Russian troops – Mr Guterres said that it was high time to “seriously de-escalate” the crisis. 

“There is no alternative to diplomacy”, the UN chief said, adding that “all issues, including the most intractable, must be addressed through diplomatic frameworks”.

All parties should be “extremely careful with their rhetoric”, the UN Secretary-General continued, after noting that the threat to global security today “is more complex and probably higher”, than during the Cold War.

During that era, Mr. Guterres explained that safeguards and safety checks existed to allow nations to prevent crises by using “back-channels”.

Today however, “many of those systems no longer exist and most of the people trained to use them are no longer here”, he insisted, adding that “miscommunication or miscalculation can make a minor incident between powers escalate out of control”.

WHO reveals African countries to produce mRNA vaccines in Africa

Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia will be the first African nations to receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines that have proved so crucial in the fight against COVID-19.

Announcing the news on Friday, the head of the UN health agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the coronavirus pandemic had showed that it was dangerous to rely on just a few companies to supply vaccines.

It makes much more sense to “significantly increase the capacity of all regions to manufacture the health products they need”, with equitable access for all, the goal, Tedros added.

The World Health Organization Director-General was speaking alongside the Presidents of the European Council, the European Commission, France and South Africa.

To ensure that all countries can produce their own vaccines and other health technologies, WHO plans to open a biomanufacturing training hub to train people from all interested countries in scientific and clinical research and production. 

Ethiopia fighting, forces thousands of refugees to flee camp attack

To Ethiopia now, where conflict in Afar region has forced thousands of Eritrean refugees to flee on foot, after attackers entered their camp.

In an alert on Friday, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said that unidentified assailants had targeted Barahle camp earlier this month, after fighting engulfed the area.

UNHCR spokesperson Boris Cheshirkov said that the agency is working with the authorities and partners to provide emergency aid to the victims, who shared harrowing testimonies:

“Refugees who trekked the long distance to the regional capital in Semera told UNHCR staff that armed men entered the camp on 3 February, stole their belongings and occupied their homes. According to their testimonies, at least five refugees were killed. Family members lost one another in the chaos of fleeing the camp.”

More than 4,000 refugees are now in Afar’s regional capital Semera and another 10,000 are reported to be living in Afdera town, 225 kilometers from Semera. Others are also believed to have fled towards the towns of Altefa and Dabure, further inland.

The attack is just the latest instance where Eritrean nationals living in Ethiopia have come under fire, since conflict erupted and spread from the northern region of Tigray in November 2020. 

Daniel Johnson, UN News.