United Nations

Registration for the upcoming December elections in Libya was closed, the country's election commission said on Tuesday when doubts grew as to whether Libya would be able to move towards normalization despite a month-long pause in the fighting. Commission chief Imad al-Sayeh told reporters in Tripoli that some 2.83 million people in the North African country had registered to vote and urged citizens abroad to register as of Wednesday. Libya, home to some 7 million people, has taken preliminary steps…

The first day of new UN-led talks between delegates from war-torn Libya failed to reach an agreement on a constitutional framework for holding elections as planned in December, the UN said. The UN support mission in Libya said that the participants in Wednesday's meeting held via video conference discussed four proposals, the content of which was not revealed. "A final decision on the constitutional basis" for legislative and presidential elections would be taken at the next meeting, UNSMIL said,…

Rebels killed six civilians and injured several others on Saturday in an attack on a village in the northeastern part of the volatile Central African Republic, according to the UN peacekeeping mission. "This morning at dawn, elements from 3R (Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation) launched a large-scale attack on C. African army positions in the village of Mann," said the spokesman for the UN's 12,000 strong MINUSCA mission. "Six civilians were killed and several were injured," he added. The village is about 550…

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will meet on Thursday to discuss the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) as regional tensions escalate. Earlier this week, Egypt and Sudan said Ethiopia had begun the second phase of filling the reservoir, an operation not yet confirmed by Addis Ababa. The Nile is 6,695 kilometers and is one of the world's longest rivers and a major supplier of water and hydropower in a largely dry region. Its more than 3 million square kilometers (1.16 million square…

The latest disagreements over reaching a compromise to hold elections in Libya in December threaten the roadmap on the way to finally ending a decade of chaos in the war-torn country, analysts say. Seventy-five delegates from the war-torn North African country aired their differences at crazy rallies in Geneva last week. But despite an extra day of unplanned talks, they remain divided over when to hold elections, what elections to hold and on what constitutional grounds - a blockade that threatens to…

Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah called on Libya's political dialogue forum to make concessions so that the December 24 elections continue as planned. In connection with the opening of the Supreme National Election Commission Press Center in the capital Tripoli, Dbeibah called on the forum to prioritize the nation's higher interests over personal and regional agendas. He stressed that the government would support the Commission by allocating financial resources and making the…

More than 400,000 people are now starving in Ethiopia's Tigray region, a UN official said on Friday, calling for immediate humanitarian action to help the millions affected by the brutal eight-month conflict. Fighting between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) resumed last month when rebels launched a major counter-offensive that saw them retake their regional capital, Mekele. This week, two key bridges that desperately needed help for the region were destroyed,…

Back-to-back droughts in southern Madagascar are driving 400,000 people to starvation and have already caused a number of deaths, the UN World Food Program said. Lola Castro, WFP's regional director for southern Africa, told a news conference on Friday that she witnessed "a very dramatic and desperate situation" during her recent visit to the Indian Ocean island nation of 26 million people. Hundreds of adults and children were "wasted" and hundreds of children were skin and bones and received…

The UN envoy to the Central African Republic on Wednesday accused the country's security forces and their Russian allies of several human rights violations. The Central African Republic's closer relationship with Moscow dates back to 2018, when Russia sent "instructors" to help train its besieged armed forces and supplied small arms and were relieved of the UN arms embargo. One of the world's poorest countries, the Central African Republic, has been chronically unstable since gaining independence from France in 1960.…

The Libyan interim government has reopened a major highway connecting the country's long-divided eastern and western cities, in the latest attempt to reunite the territories after years of civil war. The announcement comes three days before an international conference on Libya, which will host Germany and the United Nations in Berlin. "I am so pleased to be part of the opening of this essential lifeline that links the east of our country to its west," Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah…