Africa

The civilian death toll in Sudan has surged dramatically, with at least 275 people killed between 31 January and 5 February, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, reported on Friday.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Friday expressed profound concerns at the ongoing violent escalation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) caused by the ongoing Rwanda-backed M23 offensive. “If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country’s borders,” he told a Special Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Some 230 million girls in more than 90 countries – predominantly in Africa and Asia – have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) and can suffer lifelong physical, emotional and psychological scars, an issue that the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency has been tackling with the support of the international community including the United States.

South Kordofan and Blue Nile states in Sudan are on the brink of catastrophe as violence continues to escalate at an alarming rate, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country said on Thursday in a statement. 

Now is the time to end the crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN Secretary-General said on Thursday in a briefing to journalists in New York. 

Rwanda-backed M23 rebels continued to consolidate their hold over North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Wednesday, despite declaring a ceasefire two days earlier and pledging not to continue south, according to the UN’s Deputy Special Representative for Protection and Operations in the country.

As South Sudan enters its extended transitional period this month, the UN’s top envoy to the country has warned that the clock is ticking to accomplish the commitments under a key 2018 peace accord, ahead of a new deadline set for February 2027.

The current phase of fighting erupted in late January in the mineral-rich eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between government forces and the armed M23 group.

Regional conflicts, murderous militias, the exploitation of natural resources, innocent civilians forced to flee their homes; these recent developments in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are just the latest in the central African nation’s troubled history.

The UN’s top humanitarian official in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday called for Goma airport to be urgently reopened, warning its continued closure is paralyzing relief operations.