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The United Nations Human Rights Council today called for immediate international action to force Israel to allow fuel, food, medicine and other essential items to be sent to the Gaza Strip, to reopen the border crossings and to end its “grave violations” in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Warning that the continuing military build-up by Ethiopia and Eritrea in their border areas, where the two countries fought a deadly two-year war that ended in 2000, creates the risk of reigniting hostilities, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging the neighbouring States to urgently de-escalate the situation.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on donors to respond quickly and generously to a $3.8 billion United Nations humanitarian appeal, stressing that for the poorest of the poor, early funding means the difference between life and death.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today honoured the 17 United Nations staff members who lost their lives in last month’s terrorist attack in Algeria, telling a memorial ceremony in Geneva that their deaths were a “savage loss.”

Deeply troubled by the impasse in the work of the world’s only multilateral disarmament negotiating forum, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today renewed his call to countries to move forward in a spirit of compromise to improve the global security climate.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has launched projects in five West African countries, considered to be among the world’s poorest, to help increase agricultural output and create new markets for products.

Food rations to more than 2 million people in Darfur may have to be cut within weeks after a surge of bandit attacks this month against trucks carrying relief supplies to the war-wracked Sudanese region, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today.

The United Nations World Food Programme is purchasing most of its food from developing countries in a ‘win-win’ situation for both parties, according to the chief of the agency, which last year paid cash to poorer nations for a record 80 per cent of its food.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the agreement reached today between the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and armed groups in the country’s war-torn east as an “important step,” pledging the United Nations’ continuing support

Despite an improvement in the overall security situation throughout Timor-Leste, the country the United Nations helped shepherd to freedom in 2002 continues to face enormous challenges that will require long-term support, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a new report issued today.