During a visit to UN Headquarters in November, Mbaranga Gasarabwe, the UN Deputy Special Representative in Mali, explained to Conor Lennon from UN News that the current situation in Mali is very different, and more difficult, than it was when she first started working there.
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Living conditions in Battal, a small village near Gao, are harsh with few essential services. (March 2019)
Security in Mali has become critical, with unprecedented incidents of communal violence and increasingly more deadly terror attacks, reported a UN human rights expert on Monday, following a 10-day visit to the country.
Violent attacks by extremists “almost every day” in the Sahel nations of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have displaced nearly one million people and caused emergency levels of malnutrition, UN humanitarians have said.
Tuesday’s top stories: Global need for eye care is set to increase ‘dramatically’; work and reforms of the UN ‘at risk’; progress on Mali security; South Sudan peace accord anniversary; Rights chief Bachelet urges rollback on Australia migration policies; and an interview with Maha Mamo, living proof of why statelessness needs to end worldwide.
Some progress has been made towards restoring peace and stability in Mali as outlined in a fragile 2015 peace deal, yet sustainable peace developments are not happening fast enough, the Security Council heard on Tuesday.
The UN Secretary-General has strongly condemned two separate attacks on Sunday against the organization’s Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) which left one peacekeeper dead and four others injured.
The United Nations condemned on Wednesday, with “the utmost energy”, simultaneous terrorist attacks on military camps in central Mali, close to the border with Burkina Faso, that left dozens dead and scores missing.
A 2015 peace deal for Mali has led to a “progressive return of trust between parties”, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday evening.
A recap of Friday’s main stories: Desertification solutions can ease other world woes; Dorian death toll expected to rise; UN moves to ease communal tensions in Mali; Yemen funding crisis threatens reproductive health nationwide; special report on countering terror in Cameroon.
