UN Security Council - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

Kenya’s mission to Haiti: how the 1,000-strong force is preparing for planned intervention

KENYA has temporarily halted controversial plans to send a specially trained contingent of 1,000 police officers to Haiti, where armed gang violence recently took a turn for the worse. After a visit to Nairobi in early March where he signed terms for Kenya’s deployment, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry was forced to resign as gangs took control of the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince. In the absence of a government in Haiti, plans to deploy Kenyan troops are on hold. Oscar Gakuo Mwangi, who studies radicalisation and counter-terrorism in Kenya, takes a look at Kenya’s preparedness to take on Haiti’s urban gangs.…

Mar

2024

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

US urges UN Security Council action to get aid into Sudan from Chad

NEWS

THE United States warned that it would push the U.N. Security Council to take action to get aid to starving people in Sudan, possibly by authorizing cross-border deliveries from Chad, if the Sudanese armed forces do not restore full access. Ahead of the first anniversary of the conflict in Sudan, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the warring parties had both undermined aid operations and ignored a Security Council call for an immediate cessation of hostilities. "The situation in Sudan remains catastrophic and it is only getting worse," she told reporters. "People are starving." War erupted in Sudan on April 15, 2023,…

Mar

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

UN Security Council demands ceasefire amid Israeli airstrikes

WORLD

THE United Nations Security Council demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas as Israeli forces carried out new airstrikes in Gaza and laid siege to two hospitals. After vetoing three earlier draft council resolutions on the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel's main ally, the United States, abstained in the vote following global pressure for a ceasefire to ease fears of famine after nearly six months of war. Hamas welcomed the resolution, which also demanded the unconditional release of all hostages seized by the militant group in its deadly October 7 raid on southern Israel.…

Mar

2024

By KHALID ABDELAZIZ

Sudan’s army claims control of national broadcast building

NEWS

SUDAN'S army said it had taken control of the state broadcast headquarters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in what would be its most significant advance against its paramilitary rival in nearly 11 months of war. The broadcast building lies in Omdurman, a city across the River Nile from Khartoum that forms part of Sudan's wider capital and has seen heavy fighting around military bases, bridges and supply routes. Battles have continued despite a call by the United Nations Security Council for a truce to allow desperately needed humanitarian aid into Sudan during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on…

Mar

2024

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

As UN urges Sudan truce, Russia and China cite Gaza

NEWS

THE United Nations Security Council called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Sudan, prompting China to remind it not to forget about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia to accuse the United States of double standards. Russia abstained, while the remaining 14 council members voted in favour of the British-drafted resolution that called for an immediate cessation of hostilities during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins early next week. War erupted in Sudan on April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The U.N. says nearly 25 million people - half…

Mar

2024

By DAVID MILIBAND, INGER ASHING, JAN EGELAND, CHARLOTTE SLENTE, MICHELLE NUNN and STEPHEN OMOLLO

Sudan’s collapse is a test for the international community. We are failing it.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

IN the deafening silence of global indifference, the war in Sudan recently entered its 10-month mark. Since April 2023, close to 8 million people have fled their homes, of whom more than 1.6 million have sought refuge in Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic – countries already grappling with immense difficulties. Close to 25 million people need humanitarian assistance, including around 5 million people on the brink of famine and nearly 7 million severely undernourished children. Mass graves conceal evidence of widespread, systematic, and targeted mass atrocities that could be repeated at any moment as the…

Mar

2024

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

US pushes for UN Security Council action to end war in Sudan

NEWS

THE United States pushed for the United Nations Security Council to take action to help end a nearly year-long conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The United States says the warring parties have committed war crimes and the RSF and allied militias have also committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. The U.N. says that nearly 25 million people - half Sudan's population - need aid and some 8 million have fled their homes and hunger is rising. "It is clear that this is an urgent matter of peace and security that demands greater attention from the…

Feb

2024

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

MSF slams US on Gaza at UN, says children as young as 5 want to die

BUSINESS

THE head of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) told the United Nations Security Council that medical teams in the Gaza Strip have come up with a new acronym: WCNSF - wounded child, no surviving family. "Children who do survive this war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries but the invisible ones too," MSF International Secretary General Christopher Lockyear told the 15-member council. "There is a repeated displacement, constant fear and witnessing family members literally dismembered before their eyes," he said. "These psychological injuries have led children as young as five to tell us that they…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

UN sanctions six Congo rebels as fighting in east escalates

NEWS

THE United Nations Security Council sanctioned six people from five armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as violent clashes escalated in the region between the Congolese army and Rwandan-backed M23 Tutsi-led rebels. The fighting, in a war that has lasted decades, has increased the risk of an all-out conflict between Congo and Rwanda that could suck in neighbours and regional forces including South Africa, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi. "The United States firmly supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC and lasting peace for all Congolese people. Rwanda and the DRC must walk back from the…

Feb

2024

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

US pushes for UN to support temporary Gaza ceasefire, oppose Rafah assault

WORLD

THE United States has proposed a rival draft United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and opposing a major ground offensive by its ally Israel in Rafah, according to the text seen by Reuters. The move comes after the U.S. signalled it would veto on Tuesday an Algerian-drafted resolution — demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire — over concerns it could jeopardize talks between the U.S., Egypt, Israel and Qatar that seek to broker a pause in the war and the release of hostages held by Hamas. Until now, Washington has been averse to the word ceasefire in any U.N.…