Africa

People demonstrate in Bujumbura against a decision by Burundi’s ruling party to nominate President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a third term (April 2015).
Desire Nimubona/IRIN

As parties meet in Uganda, UN official urges consensual solution to Burundian crisis

28 December 2015
A top United Nations official today called on all actors in Burundi to find a consensual solution to the crisis facing their country, which has been facing an upsurge in violence that has prompted fears of a relapse into the decades of civil war that killed tens of thousands of people.
Special Representative and head of the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) Parfait Onanga-Anyanga (red tie) and members of the diplomatic corps visiting a storage site for voting materials at Bangui airport on 23 December 2015.
MINUSCA

Central African Republic polls now scheduled for 30 December, UN reports

24 December 2015
The presidential and legislative elections that had been scheduled to take place this Sunday in the Central African Republic (CAR) will now be held on 30 December 2015, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country reported today.
Libyan parties sign the Political Agreement in Skhirat, Morocco, 17 December 2015.
UNSMIL

As Libya marks 64th independence anniversary, UN envoy urges unity behind new Government

24 December 2015
A week after brokering an accord for a national unity government in strife-torn Libya, the top United Nations envoy for the country urged all Libyans to use today’s 64th independence anniversary to put their differences behind them and unite behind the new inclusive institutions.
Signing of the Libyan Political Agreement in Skhirat, Morocco, 17 December 2015.
UNSMIL

Hailing political accord, Security Council urges international aid against terrorist groups in Libya

23 December 2015
Welcoming the newly signed United Nations-brokered accord for a national unity government in Libya, the Security Council today urged the parties to implement its terms within the 30-day time limit, and called on the world community to provide all necessary aid to defeat terrorist groups.
A young boy from Burundi, forced to flee his home due to violence, looks at his new surroundings in the Nyarugusu refugee camp in Tanzania.
UNICEF/Rob Beechey

Burundi should allow in investigators, says UN adviser on preventing genocide

23 December 2015
The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, has called on the Government of Burundi to allow an independent team to investigate “seriously” whether external elements are involved in alleged atrocities in the central African nation, saying “it is key that impunity no longer prevails in Burundi.”
Voters in the PK5 area of the capital Bangui after casting ballots in the Central African Republic referendum from 13 to 14 December 2015 on a new draft constitution for the country.
UN Photo/Nektarios Markogiannis

Central African Republic: ICC Prosecutor warns against election-related violence, atrocity crimes

23 December 2015
As the Central African Republic (CAR) prepares for general elections, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said today that her Office will record any instance of violence and that anyone committing atrocity crimes will be held accountable.
President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Vagn Joensen.
UN Photo/Amanda Voisard

As UN tribunal on Rwandan genocide wraps up work, Security Council cites role in fight against impunity

22 December 2015
Adopting a new resolution today, the Security Council welcomed the completion of judicial work of the United Nations tribunal set up in the wake of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, following delivery of the court’s last judgment on 14 December and its impending closure, set for 31 December 2015.
WFP providing humanitarian assistance in Libya.
WFP

Libya’s dire humanitarian situation requires funding ‘on time and in volume,’ warns senior UN relief official

22 December 2015
World Food Programme (WFP) trucks have begun distributing 1,300 tons of food to Libyans in dire need of assistance, but with nine days left in the year, the United Nations aid plan for more than 2.4 million people for 2016 has received zero funding, the top UN humanitarian official in the strife-torn country said today.
A farmer takes a break in Swaziland.
FAO/Rodger Bosch

Impact of El Niño could be worst in 18 years in southern Africa, warns UN ‘special alert’

22 December 2015
Crop and livestock production prospects in southern Africa have been weakened by this year’s powerful El Niño, while the phenomenon is also impacting agricultural sectors in northern Australia, parts of Indonesia and a wide swathe of Central America and Brazil, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.
Girls use their new school supplies during a class in an informal learning centre in a UNICEF-supported safe space for children in the Dalori camp for internally displaced people, in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri in Borno State.
UNICEF/UNI193691/Andrew Esiebo

Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgency forces one million children from school – UNICEF

22 December 2015
Violence and attacks against civilian populations in northeastern Nigeria and its neighbouring countries have forced “a staggering” one million children out of school in a conflict that has dealt “a huge blow for education in the region,” the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported today.