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Determining that the situation in South Sudan poses a continuing threat to regional peace and security, the United Nations Security Council today renewed, until 1 June, its sanctions regime imposed last year against those blocking peace in the war-torn country, including a travel ban and a freeze on their assets.

The United Nations mediator on the crisis in Syria said today that the next round of the peace talks will likely begin on Wednesday, 13 April, and is intended to be a concrete discussion leading to “a real beginning of a political transition.”

Following a day of fruitful discussions in workshops and informal meetings, the United Nations Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) High-level Symposium officially opened today in Brussels, Belgium, with senior UN officials urging delegations to ensure such cooperation is ‘a better fit’ for implementing the 2030 Agenda, including for vulnerable countries.

The United Nations food relief agency committed today to assisting 1.6 million people hit by droughts exacerbated by El Niño in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti and building resilience against future climatic shocks.

Violent extremism is an affront to the very purposes and principles of the United Nations, the Head of the world body’s Geneva headquarters said today, urging government delegations and experts gathered there to back the comprehensive approach needed to proactively address the drivers of the scourge, including through support of the Secretary-General’s action plan on the issue.

On the 22nd anniversary of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today highlighted the role hate speech plays in inciting division and violence, and urged the international community to “fight genocide ideology.”

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon marked World Health Day with a strong call for stepping up global efforts to halt the rise in diabetes and improve the lives of those living with this dangerous but preventable and treatable disease.

World cereal production in 2016 is set to reach 2,521 million tonnes, just 0.2 per cent below last year’s and the third-highest on record, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon continued his programme in California today, where he received an honorary doctorate from Loyola Marymount University, after addressing yesterday the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, where he gave the audience an overview of United Nations efforts to meet today’s global challenges, from humanitarian crises to climate change to sustainable development.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has condemned today’s large scale home demolitions by Israeli authorities in the Bedouin refugee community of Um al Khayr in the South Hebron Hills.