A UN tribunal has ordered the reinstatement of Swedish official Anders Kompass who was suspended for leaking a report to France about child abuse by French peacekeepers in the Central African Republic. The ruling of the internal tribunal was delivered on Tuesday and Kompass “has thus resumed his service”, a spokesperson for the UN human […]
The conflict in Yemen has cost the lives of at least 646 civilians since a Saudi-led coalition began air raids against Houthi rebels who control much of the country, the UN said on Tuesday. Some 131 children were among those killed since the start of the coalition air campaign on March 26, the office […]
French President Francois Hollande is promising tough punishment for any soldier found guilty of sexually assaulting children in Central African Republic. Speaking to reporters Thursday in western France, Hollande said any sanctions should correspond to the gravity of the crime and “set an example.” Authorities in France are investigating allegations that French soldiers […]
A man died after being injured in clashes between two groups of university students in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Wednesday, the interior ministry said in a statement. Violence erupted between students supporting the ruling National Congress Party and another group from Darfur who criticised recent elections won by President Omar al-Bashir, an eyewitness said. […]
Armed insurgents exchanged fire with soldiers in Mali on Wednesday, plunging peace negotiations into disarray in the first clash this year between government forces and the main Tuareg rebel alliance. A Malian army colonel said fighters from the Tuareg-led Co-ordination for the Movements of Azawad (CMA) had ambushed military positions in Lere, a central town […]
Burundi has unexpectedly closed its national university in the wake of political protests against the nomination of incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a third term. Reports say the university in Bujumbura shut its doors on Thursday and sent home the students living in residence halls on campus. At least five people have died […]
More than half the population of rural areas worldwide do not have access to basic health care, with four in five rural Africans lacking services, the UN said Monday. In the first report of its kind, the UN’s International Labour Organisation found that the rural-urban divide was omnipresent from the richest countries down to the […]
Sudan’s government on Sunday accused peacekeepers in Darfur of killing seven civilians, disputing the UN-African Union mission’s version of events in which it said its forces had repelled two attacks by gunmen. The UN-AU Mission in Darfur (Unamid) had said 40 gunmen fired on a patrol in South Darfur’s Kass area on Thursday, before the […]
Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe took an early lead in the first results from Saturday’s presidential vote released on Monday. Results from six of 42 voting districts showed Gnassingbe with 64 percent, ahead of 33 percent for his nearest rival, Jean-Pierre Fabre, the head of the election commission said. The rest of the votes were shared […]
European Union leaders are due to hold an emergency summit on ways to stem the number of people risking the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, the BBC reports. Draft proposals for the meeting include offering 5,000 places for resettlement for migrants “qualifying for protection” under a pilot project. More than 800 people drowned off Libya’s […]
The UN children’s agency mourned on Tuesday four staff members killed in what UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned as a “barbaric attack” in Somalia. Two of those killed in Monday’s bombing in the north-eastern town of Garowe came from Kenya, the other two from Afghanistan and Uganda. Unicef named the two Kenyans as Woki Munyui, […]
At least five people were killed Tuesday when a car bomb exploded outside a busy restaurant in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. A VOA reporter on the scene says two women were among those who died in the blast. A doctor with the city’s ambulance service, Dr. Abdulkadir Abdirahman Aden, tells VOA’s Somali Service that another […]
Militant group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack Monday on a United Nations bus in northern Somalia that killed at least seven people and wounded several others. Garowe, SomaliaGarowe, Somalia The U.N. Children’s Fund said four of its staff members were killed and another four were in serious condition after the blast […]
Heavyweight international powers will pressure South Sudan’s leaders to end civil war, diplomats said Thursday, with the African Union, United Nations, United States and China to kickstart stalled peace talks. Over a year of talks mediated by East Africa’s eight-country IGAD bloc have failed to make headway, with the last attempt breaking down last […]
The UN gave a third of the world’s countries a passing grade on Thursday for efforts to provide universal basic education, but said most governments had failed on a pledge made 15 years ago. In 2000, 164 countries agreed at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (Unesco) World Education Forum to […]
North Korea has accused Mexico of illegally holding one of its ships, after it ran aground last year. It said the Mu Du Bong was a legitimate commercial ship and its detention a “rampant violation” of sovereignty. But a UN expert says the ship belongs to North Korea’s Ocean Maritime Management, which is […]
Shelling and sporadic clashes struck a Palestinian refugee camp under attack by Islamic extremists in the Syrian capital on Monday, a situation that a UN official described as “beyond inhumane”. Hatem al-Dimashqi, an activist based in an area just south of Damascus, said the Yarmouk camp was under attack on Monday. Both al-Dimashqi and the […]
Rebels in Sudan’s South Kordofan said on Sunday they had captured a lorry carrying ballot boxes to polling stations for nationwide elections due next week, vowing to disrupt voting in the conflict-hit region. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North “ambushed and captured a vehicle loaded fully with ballot boxes” on Saturday on the road linking the […]
The United Nations’ Chief, Turkey Prime Minister and other world leaders on Saturday congratulated the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, over his election victory on March 28. This is contained in a statement by the Director Media and Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Organisation, Mallam Garba Shehu, on Saturday in Abuja. The statement said the UN Secretary […]