The low voter turnout for Iraq’s recent national elections was a “strong signal” to the country’s ruling political elites that they must work harder to ease sectarian divides and promote democratic accountability over nepotism and patronage, the United Nations envoy to the country said on Wednesday.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned Tuesday’s attacks by a gunman in the Belgian city of Liège, which left two police officers and a civilian dead.

The United Nations top political affairs official on Tuesday stressed the need to breathe life back into ongoing efforts to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, now in its fifth year, which has killed and injured thousands of civilians, plunging the country into a humanitarian crisis.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Mali on Tuesday, to honour the service and sacrifice of peacekeepers around the world, and mark the official International Day of UN Peacekeepers.