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The latest maritime catastrophe to claim the lives of refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea is yet another indication of the need for a “robust” rescue-at-sea mechanism aimed at preventing future tragedies, the head of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) declared today.

The United Nations Security Council has condemned “in the strongest terms” the recent series of terrorist attacks against the embassies of the Republic of Korea and Morocco in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

The top United Nations official in Somalia condemned yesterday a terrorist attack against the Ministry of Culture and Higher Education in Mogadishu city that resulted in the death and injuries of civilians, members of the security forces and Government workers.

A second meeting of Libyan political parties and activists, facilitated by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), concluded its deliberations today in Algiers by reiterating the commitment to political dialogue as the only option to resolve the crisis in Libya.

The United Nations announced today that the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Syria will proceed with a series of in-depth, separate consultations with Syrian stakeholders and regional and international actors to take stock of their views on reopening peace talks based on the 2012 so-called Geneva Communiqué.

The United Nations Deputy Special Representative for South Sudan visited Malakal today, meeting with local officials and community leaders of some 26,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) who are being sheltered by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Despite huge challenges in getting access, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has managed to deliver much-needed humanitarian supplies to Qamishli in north-east Syria, a spokesperson for the agency said today.

The outsourcing of national security to private firms creates risks for human rights and accountability, the United Nations working group on the use of mercenaries confirmed today as it welcomed the sentencing of four former Blackwater Worldwide personnel for the 2007 killing of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians.

With human trafficking now a global criminal enterprise generating billions of dollars every year, United Nations officials stressed today during a high-level event at the UN Crime Congress in Doha, Qatar, that victims of the crime need broad based assistance for their recovery.

Those who use rape as a weapon of war are becoming increasingly “brutal and ruthless,” the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence in Conflict said today, warning against a lax attitude that would allow emerging armed groups to gain further ground and continue committing such atrocious crimes.