Latest News

The United Nations is sending four independent human rights experts to Lebanon and Israel to gather facts about abuses during the recent conflict there.

The Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today traveled to southern Lebanon to witness the impact of the war on a town badly damaged by bombing and to review the needs of the people as they rebuild their lives after nearly five weeks of conflict.

If the world hopes to achieve a set of internationally agreed development targets by 2015, it must begin by tackling hunger and extreme poverty, especially in sub-Saharan Africa the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.

Israeli forces withdrew from more areas in southern Lebanon today as United Nations troops took over their positions ahead of handing them over to Lebanese army units, while officers from the world body met Israeli commanders to map out plans for patrolling the waters off Lebanon after the blockade is lifted today.

Welcoming today’s lifting of the Israeli blockade against Lebanon, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said it was a victory for the intensive international efforts of recent days, as he met with Spanish officials on the last leg of two weeks of shuttle diplomacy to shore up the cessation of hostilities agreement that ended the recent conflict.

Calling attention to an “unprecedented scale of suffering” being endured by Palestinians, the head of the main United Nations agency helping them said preparations have been made to launch a rehabilitation programme but this can only happen once conditions are stabilized.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called for an end to killings in Gaza and deplored conditions facing Palestinians there while calling on both sides of the Middle East conflict to take steps that will foster lasting peace.

The strife-torn Darfur region has been hit by another wave of attacks on civilians, humanitarian workers and African Union (AU) staff members in the past few days, the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) reported today.

After meeting today with sexual violence victims in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland pledged to fight “the culture of impunity that has too long held sway in this country.”

Taking note that Mexico’s highest electoral authority has confirmed the results of the presidential election held in July, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today voiced hope that the country can now move forward towards inclusive economic development.