Nicholas Haysom, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for South Sudan, warned that a political standoff between President Salva Kiir and former First Vice President Riek Machar – the two principal signatories to the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement – has now degenerated into direct military confrontation. Volatility is mounting amid...
The finding comes in its latest brief on violence against civilians, which also reveals a similar rise in incidents of conflict-related sexual violence (CSRV). Sources include victims and eyewitness accounts, as well as reports from secondary sources identified during field missions, service providers and protection partners. Killings, abductions and other horrors...
“It has now been a month and a half since any supplies were last allowed through the crossings into Gaza,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at the daily media briefing in New York. OCHA said about 70 per cent of the Gaza Strip is currently under displacement orders or in...
The situation is especially dire for returnees fleeing violence in Sudan, who now account for nearly half of those experiencing catastrophic hunger levels. The influx of over 1.1 million displaced people into already fragile communities has overwhelmed resources and relief efforts, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP). With...
“Such actions undermine efforts to build a new Syria at peace with itself and the region, and destabilize Syria at a sensitive time,” Geir Pedersen said on Thursday in a statement. He called on Israel to cease these attacks which could amount to serious violations of international law, to respect...
“All the dark clouds of a perfect storm have descended upon the people of the world’s newest country – and one of the poorest,” Mr. Guterres told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York. After finally gaining independence from neighbouring Sudan in July 2011, civil war broke out in South...
The arrest of First Vice President and main opposition leader Riek Machar, alongside mounting military clashes and reported attacks on civilian populations, signals a severe unravelling of the peace process and a direct threat to millions, rights investigators said. Speaking later on Thursday, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Secretary-General António...
More than two dozen members of the South Sudanese military, including an injured General, were also reportedly killed when the UN mission (UNMISS) helicopter came under fire in Nasir, Upper Nile State. According to news reports, the helicopter later landed safely. The extraction was being carried out at the request...
Escalating fighting between M23 rebels and Congolese troops has caused thousands of people to flee, with many heading towards the provincial capital, Bukavu – where UN humanitarian agencies in the east are now located following the fall of Goma. Local aid partners report that a bombing on Thursday resulted in...
Signed in 2018 to end years of conflict, the Revitalized Peace Agreement, initially set a three-year timeline for elections and the formation of a democratic government. The transition has been extended four times, with key political, security, and governance benchmarks remaining unfulfilled. Under the latest extension, announced by the authorities...
In an update covering July to September last year, the UN Mission in South Sudan – or UNMISS – expressed concern about the steep increase in abductions and combat-related sexual violence, compared with the same period last year. UNMISS’s human rights division said that 299 non-combatants were killed between July...
Tragically, the year also saw the highest death toll of migrants in transit. “These challenges are made worse by the rising tide of mis- and disinformation and hate speech which sows division and distorts the valuable contributions migrants are making each and every day,” said Secretary-General António Guterres. The potential...