South Sudan sits at a critical crossroad, with swift action needed to quell chronic intercommunal clashes, ramp up assistance to ever more communities in need, and advance progress towards a durable peace, senior UN officials told the Security Council on Monday.
Progress on the 2018 peace agreement for South Sudan has been “extremely slow”, UN human rights experts said on Wednesday, calling for urgent action to save lives.
A group of former combatants with the FARC rebel group in Colombia have been reflecting on five years of peace and community building in a locality called Tierra Grata, which translates as “pleasant land”
The UN Mission in Colombia was the target of an attack on Thursday, when three vehicles that were part of a joint expedition travelling through a remote area, were approached by armed individuals, although nobody was ultimately injured during the incident.
Five years after an historic Peace Agreement was reached in Colombia, the process continues to show the benefits of ending the conflict through negotiation and keeping victims at the heart of the discussion moving forward.
The United Nations has recorded the deaths of 255 people in 66 massacres in Colombia this year, as well as the killing of 120 human rights defenders, the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on Tuesday.
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Colombia is set to begin formal negotiations on 27 October in Havana, Cuba, with the country’s second-largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army or ELN, the UN has confirmed.
The announcement comes after two years of exploratory negotiations between the left-wing rebel group and the Government.
It also follows the rejection in a vote by the Colombia people of a landmark peace agreement signed between the FARC movement, the country’s oldest and largest rebel group.
The people of South Sudan “are suffering”; that’s according to Ellen Løj, the head of the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
Ms Løj was speaking ahead of Tuesday’s Security Council meeting, during which the mandate of UNMISS was extended through next July.
The country, which only gained its independence in 2011, has been plagued by conflict for nearly two years now; during which time thousands have been killed, and millions displaced from their homes.
The peace process in Mali is “back on track” said the head of the country’s UN mission – MINUSMA - on Tuesday.
But Mongi Hamdi, told a Security Council meeting that regular violations of the ceasefire in recent months meant the path to peace was littered with obstacles.
A peace agreement between the government, armed militant groups supporting it, and a rebel coalition in the north, was signed on June 20 this year.