United Nations

Nearly one million people are facing severe hunger in northern Mozambique, where hundreds of thousands have fled aggravated extremist violence, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said on Tuesday. Daesh-linked insurgents last month attacked Palma, a city in the northernmost province of Cabo Delgado next to major gas projects under development by companies including Total and Exxon. The World Food Program (WFP) said in a survey in Geneva that 950,000 people are now hungry in Mozambique. It appeals…

The UN warned Tanzania to accept asylum seekers fleeing Mozambique from terrorist attacks. UN law has received "worrying" reports that Tanzania has rejected more than 1,000 people seeking refuge from a Daesh-alleged attack on a city in northern Mozambique, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday. The March 24 attack on the city of Palma, next to the gas development worth $ 60 billion, sent the city's residents scattered in all directions, and some fled into dense…

France faced increasing calls from rights groups on Thursday to launch an investigation into an airstrike by its forces in Mali that a UN investigation said killed 19 civilians at a wedding party. UN investigators released a report on Tuesday on the January 3 strike, concluding that it had killed 19 civilians and three gunmen near the central Mali village of Bounti. France, which has more than 5,000 troops in Mali and neighboring West African countries to fight militants linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh,…

UN experts said they had received and continue to receive reports of "serious violations of human rights" by Russian mercenaries in the Central African Republic (CAR), where they have supported the militant government's military. "The experts have received, and continue to receive, reports of serious human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law, which can be attributed to the private military personnel working with CAR's armed forces and in some cases to the UN. peacekeepers,…

At least 19 civilians were killed in a French airstrike in central Mali in January, according to a UN report on Tuesday by Agence France-Presse (AFP), which added that the victims were protected under international law. On January 3, French warplanes crashed near the remote village of Bounti in circumstances that sparked controversy in the war-torn Sahel state. Residents of the village said the strike hit a wedding party and killed civilians. But the French military denied the allegations, saying it…

The UN and an Ethiopian rights agency said on Thursday that they had agreed to conduct a joint investigation into abuses in the fought Tigray region, where fighting continues as government troops chase the region's fleeing leaders. An investigation of all parties to the conflict is "part of the much-needed responsibility process" for the victims of the conflict, the government-established Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement. "With several…

The UN's new special envoy for Libya called on foreign forces and mercenaries on Wednesday to leave the conflict-torn country required in last year's ceasefire agreement. Speaking to the UN Security Council, Jan Kubis warned of "pitfalls" that could hinder or delay the December elections in order to provide a unified government for the nation after years of division. Kubis said the ceasefire agreement in October remains in force, but foreign forces and mercenaries have not provided and "there are reports of ongoing…

Libya's eastern administration on Tuesday officially handed over power to a new executive set to unite the war - torn country and steer it towards elections later this year. The Government of National Unity (GNU), elected through a UN-backed process, is the latest internationally supported bid to end a decade of chaos in the North African nation and unite rival administrations. Under the leadership of the caretaker Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, the GNU replaces both the Tripoli-based National Accord Government…

Mohammad Menfi, head of Libya's presidential council, called for reconciliation between the war - torn country's institutions on Monday and expressed his support for the executive branch. Menfi received Jan Kubis, the UN Special Envoy to Libya, at his office in Tripoli and Raisedon Zenenga, the coordinator of the UN Libya Support Mission (UNSMIL), according to a statement from the Presidential Council. Menfi pointed out that the new executive is dependent on the decisions taken in Geneva and said that…

Ethiopia's request for an inquiry into the humanitarian consequences of the conflict in the country's northern Tigray region was approved by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Michelle Bachelet, according to a UN spokeswoman on Wednesday. Tigray residents have told human rights groups and journalists about massacres, widespread sexual violence and indiscriminate killings of civilians by security forces in the region. Aid workers say, however, that Tigray's health system has…