Antonio Guterres - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

UN forum calls for more funding, steps towards slavery reparations

A United Nations forum on people of African descent opened with calls for extra funding to support its work and progress towards reparations for transatlantic slavery and its legacies in contemporary society. For over four centuries at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported thousands of kilometres (miles)by mainly European ships and merchants and sold into slavery. Those who survived the brutal voyage ended up toiling on plantations in the Americas, mostly in Brazil and the Caribbean, while others profited from their labour. In a video message at the opening of the third session of the Permanent Forum on…

Mar

2024

By NAFISA ELTAHIR

Only effective way to ramp up Gaza aid is by road, Guterres says

WORLD

THE only effective and efficient way to deliver heavy goods to meet Gaza's humanitarian needs is by road and includes an exponential increase in commercial deliveries, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. Speaking after meeting Egypt's president and foreign minister in Cairo, Guterres also warned of the impact the war in Gaza was having around the globe. "The daily assault on the human dignity of Palestinians is creating a crisis of credibility for the international community," he said. Guterres is visiting Egypt and Jordan as part of an annual Ramadan solidarity tour to Muslim countries and travelled on Saturday to Egypt's…

Mar

2024

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

UN chief, fearing spread of conflict, urges Ramadan truce in Sudan

NEWS

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the warring parties in Sudan to agree to halt hostilities during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a move the Security Council is also considering. "This cessation of hostilities must lead to a definitive silencing of the guns across the country, and set out a firm path towards lasting peace for the Sudanese people," Guterres told the 15-member Security Council. "There is now a serious risk that the conflict could ignite regional instability of dramatic proportions, from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea." The Security Council is negotiating a British-drafted resolution…

Feb

2024

By GABRIELLE TÉTRAULT-FARBER

Security Council ‘perhaps fatally’ undermined by Gaza, Ukraine deadlock, says UN chief

WORLD

UNITED Nations chief Antonio Guterres deplored the U.N. Security Council's deadlock over the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying divisions among its members had "perhaps fatally" undermined its authority. Speaking at the opening of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Guterres said the U.N. Security Council often found itself "unable to act on the most significant peace and security issues of our time". "The Council's lack of unity on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and on Israel's military operations in Gaza following the horrific terror attacks by Hamas on 7 October, has severely – perhaps fatally – undermined its…

Jan

2024

By The African Mirror

UN chief says parties to Gaza war ‘trampling’ on international law

WORLD

UNITED Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that parties to the conflict in Gaza were "trampling" on international law and urged them to implement an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Guterres said the warring parties were "ignoring international law, trampling on the Geneva Conventions, and even violating the United Nations Charter". "The world is standing by as civilians, mostly women and children, are killed, maimed, bombarded, forced from their homes and denied access to humanitarian aid," he said. "I repeat my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, and a process that leads to sustained peace…

Dec

2023

By ABBEY MAKOE

US attempt to help Taiwan to secede from China “doomed to fail” – Beijing

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

AT a time of great geopolitical flux – decried by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as a consequence of the “obsolete” global governance system – indications are that international peace efforts lag way behind a satiable appetite for conflict. The UN was founded in the aftermath of WW11 in 1945 in a noble effort to ensure no repeat of global conflict that had left nations in ruins. The UN Charter espouses the essence of a consensus-led international world order. The ethos of multilateralism has therefore formed a nucleus of the UN system, where debate and consensus triumph over bullying and…

Oct

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and ARI RABINOVITCH

Gaza reports record 24-hour death toll from Israeli bombing

WORLD

THE Palestinian health ministry said that Israeli air strikes had killed more than 700 Palestinians in Hamas-run Gaza overnight, the highest 24-hour death toll in Israel's declared two-week-old total siege of the narrow strip. United Nations agencies pleaded "on our knees" on Tuesday for emergency aid to be allowed unrestricted into Gaza, saying more than 20 times current deliveries were needed to support the Palestinian population after two weeks of Israeli bombardment. The Israeli military said it had hit over 400 Hamas militant targets and killed dozens of its fighters overnight, but that it would take time to destroy Gaza's ruling Islamist…

Jul

2023

By ANTHONY DEUTSCH

ICC investigating Darfur killings and rapes as violence surges in Sudan

NEWS

THE International Criminal Court has launched an investigation into a surge of hostilities in Sudan's Darfur region since mid-April, including reports of killings, rapes, arson, displacement and crimes affecting children, the top prosecutor told the United Nations. The regular army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been battling in the capital Khartoum and other areas of Sudan in a power struggle that exploded in mid-April. More than 3 million people have been uprooted, including more than 700,000 who have fled to neighbouring countries. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that Sudan, Africa's third largest country by land area, was on the…

May

2023

By The African Mirror

UN chief says it’s time to reform Security Council, Bretton Woods

WORLD

SAKURA MURAKAMI U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that it was time to reform both the Security Council and Bretton Woods to align with the "realities of today's world". Speaking at a press conference in Hiroshima, Japan, where the Group of Seven summit meeting had been held, Guterres said both institutions reflected the power relations of 1945 and needed to be updated. "The global financial architecture became outdated, dysfunctional and unfair," he said. "In the face of the economic shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it has failed to fulfil its core function as a global…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

SUDAN: UN chief calls for three-day ceasefire

NEWS

KHALID ABDELAZIZ and NAFISA ELTAHIR U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to Sudan's warring factions to observe a ceasefire over the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday to allow civilians to reach safe areas as rival forces battled for a sixth day. Thousands of civilians streamed out of the capital Khartoum as gunfire and explosions sounded. Large numbers also crossed into Chad to flee fighting in the western region of Darfur. The United States said it was sending more troops to the region in the event that it decided to evacuate its embassy in Khartoum. Guterres and senior officials from the U.S., Saudi…