Latest News

Current progress in identifying citizens of Côte d’Ivoire will allow further advances in the slow but steady consolidation of peace in the West African country, which has been divided since 2002 between the Government-held south and an opposition-dominated north, the top United Nations envoy to that country told the Security Council today.

The joint military operation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) against a Hutu militia fighting in the war-ravaged region does not involve United Nations blue helmets, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the country, Alan Doss, stressed today.

The top United Nations humanitarian official arrived in Jerusalem today to begin an assessment of the needs on the ground in the Gaza Strip following the three-week Israeli military offensive that came to a halt just a few days ago.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today, “with great optimism,” congratulated Barack Obama on his inauguration as the new President of the United States, stressing that America and the Organization share a number of common goals.

Hundreds more troops will arrive in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region within the next two months in an effort to boost protection of civilians, the African Union-United Nations mission there, known as UNAMID, said today.

A new film casting the work of the United Nations in the starring role has its world premiere today at the Organization’s Headquarters in New York.

The Secretary-General’s top adviser on children and armed conflict today welcomed United States President Barack Obama’s decision to suspend continuing trials at Guantánamo Bay, including those of Omar Khadr and Mohammed Jawad who are being charged with war crimes committed when they were under the age of 18.

Having just returned from Gaza, where he saw first-hand the suffering and destruction wrought by Israel’s three-week military offensive, including the still-smouldering ruins of a shelled United Nations compound, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged a “massive” international effort to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Nepalese authorities have begun slaughtering thousands of poultry and disposing of their carcasses in response to an outbreak of bird flu in the south-eastern region of the country, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro today encouraged representatives of the world organization of French-speaking countries to continue to play their key role in pursuing goals they have in common with the United Nations, ranging from democracy and human rights to peace and development.