The number of refugees and migrants who have left Venezuela worldwide has now reached three million, the two main United Nations agencies advocating for them announced on Thursday, flagging the need to increase support for the countries which are hosting large numbers of displaced Venezuelans.
The reintegration of former members of the Colombian FARC-EP rebel movement, which signed an historic peace deal with the country’s government in 2016, remains a subject of serious concern, said the head of the UN Verification Mission set up to monitor the deal, on Wednesday.
With the help of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), Colombia is showing “extraordinary solidarity” towards Venezuelans displaced amid the country’s on-going economic and political crisis, said agency chief, Filippo Grandi on Tuesday.
On a visit to the Colombian border, UN refugee agency chief, Filippo Grandi, said the international community must do more to aid thousands of Venezuelans leaving the country each day. Mr. Grandi spoke to the UN Information Centre’s Edith Girval.
Conditions in Venezuela’s prisons are “beyond monstrous”, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday, before calling for an independent and transparent investigation into the death of a leading political opponent of the Government.
By unanimous agreement on Thursday, the Security Council extended the mandates of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the Organization’s Verification Mission in Colombia.
Amid a long series of challenges, the implementation of the peace process in Colombia is moving forward and has achieved important milestones in recent months, according to a new report by the United Nations Secretary-General presented to the Security Council on Thursday.
Celebrating the holding of the first session of a new Congress in Colombia, the United Nations has said that the inclusion of former rebels in the legislative body marked their transition “from weapons to politics”.
The United Nations emergency food relief agency has issued an urgent appeal for nearly $46 million to feed some 350,000 impoverished migrants who crossed the border from Venezuela into Colombia, as well as host communities with pre-existing vulnerabilities.
