The Ukrainian military and pro-Russian rebels have agreed to a so-called “bread ceasefire’’ for the summer harvest, local media reported on Thursday.
Tag: United Nations
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Association seeks more support for refugees
The Commonwealth Scholars Fellows Alumni Association on Wednesday appealed to the government at all levels to give more support to refugees within their localities so as to enable them secure a future.
Dr. Biola Adimula, the Secretary General of the association, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that if refugees were accepted and welcomed, they will contribute socially and economically to their host communities.
Adimula, who is also a Lecturer, Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin also called on the private sectors to spur efforts in combating the refugee crisis globally.
She said that governments should ensure that “every refugee child gets education and every refugee family has somewhere safe to live as well as work or learn new skills to support their families.”
She explained that the displaced persons had emotions, ambitions, feelings and aspirations like every other human being so they rely on the rest of the world for support.
“It is time that we acknowledge the strength, courage and perseverance of refugees and the contributions they make to communities around the world.
“So the least we can do is to welcome refugees into our communities.
“Because if refugees are accepted and welcomed and have a chance to learn and grow, then they will contribute socially and economically to their receiving countries, and to your community.
“As international organisations continue their effort in stabilising displaced people and securing a future for them, we charge governmental organisations to intensify effort in fighting this battle,” she said.
Adimula, however, noted that there was need to consolidate existing efforts, saying “our efforts should not only be reactive, but also proactive in order to prevent scenarios that lead to displacements.
“While reaching out to displaced persons, governmental organisations and the international community should employ more proactive measures to minimise conflicts, thereby minimising displacement rates,” she said.
According to the United Nations report more than 65 million people globally are currently displaced by conflicts emanating from political instability, terrorism, ethnic conflicts and bad governance.
“It says each day thousands of people are made to feel unwelcome in their own countries.
“They are forced to escape from persecution and war and from natural disasters and even climate change.“And more than half of the populations of these displaced people are children and women who undergo high level suffering after experiencing a forceful shift from their homes to foreign lands.”
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Gunmen attack resort outside Mali’s capital, killing two – Official
Authorities say gunmen on Sunday attacked a luxury resort popular with Western expatriates just outside Mali’s capital, Bamako, killing two people.
Mali’s Security Minister Salif Traore who called teh attack a terrorist act, said that 36 guests were rescued.
Four gunmen arriving on motorbikes and a car stormed Le Campement Kangaba, near Dougourakoro, to the east of the capital Bamako, a resort that foreign residents visit for weekend breaks.
Malian security forces backed by French troops deployed to push them out.
Traore said: “At first we thought they were armed bandits but we know how armed bandits operate, they don’t hold territory, so now we think it is a terrorist attack.”
According to a Reuters witness, Malian security forces, UN peacekeeping mission vehicles and French military armored vehicles surrounded the resort.
A helicopter circled overhead.
In a later news conference, Traore said Malian forces fatally shot two of the attackers but the other two escaped and were being pursued.
The minister said an attacker had been wounded and fled, leaving a submachine gun and six bottles of explosives behind.
“We’re now in the process of combing the area to verify no one is hiding anywhere,” Traore said.
One of victims killed in the attack was a French-Gabonese citizen, while the other has not yet been identified, Traore said.
He said that both were killed by gunfire.
The minister said two hotel staff workers and two guests were also wounded by bullet.
Traore said eight policemen were wounded in the shootout with the attackers.
Security has gradually worsened across Mali since French forces pushed back Islamist and Tuareg rebel fighters in 2013 from swathes of the north they had occupied the previous year.
Initially concentrated in the desert north, attacks have increasingly struck the center and south, around Bamako.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and another militant group claimed responsibility for an attack on a Bamako hotel in 2015 in which 20 people were killed.
Traore said of the 36 people who escaped unharmed, there were 13 French citizens, 14 Malians, and also Spanish, Dutch, Egyptian and Kenyan nationals.
Daniel Okwogo, a Kenyan guest who witnessed the attack, said that about 30 minutes after his arrival he heard the gunshots.
“So … we took a cover, slipped under the bed and then the security team came and evacuated us,” Okwogo said.
Witness Boubacar Sangare was just outside the compound during the attack. “Westerners were fleeing the encampment while two plainclothes police exchanged fire with the assailants,” he said.
French troops and a 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping force have battled to stabilise Mali, a former French colony riven by ethnic conflict and plagued by dozens of armed groups.
A spokesman for French forces in Mali declined to comment.
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11m out-of-school children in North-East Nigeria – Brown
The UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Mr Gordon Brown, says there are about 11 million out-of-school children in northeast Nigeria due to the destructive activities of the Boko Haram terrorists.
Brown, former British Prime Minister and chair of the Commission on Financing Education Opportunity, told the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York that the commission was already intervening in the situation.
The UN envoy explained that the commission was giving more funds to help the Nigerian education system move forward.
According to him, the commission and Acting President Yemi Osinbajo are already discussing ways to secure global funds to address the education challenges confronting the northeast.
“We think there are probably around 11 million children that are not in school. We know that the Boko Haram attacks remained a huge problem and the terrain too.
“These have prevented girls, particularly, from going to school and we know that there have been many abductions.
“And they are still tragically many of the girls that were kidnapped from Chibok that have not returned,” Brown said.
The former British premier, however, said his commission wanted every child to be safe at school, adding there is a new proposal to attract resources to fund the project.
The UN education envoy lauded the 30 million dollars Nigeria’s Safe Schools Initiative launched in April 2014, describing it as a novel idea.
“We want every girl to be safe and boys also to be safe when they go to school but particularly girls.
“The Safe Schools Initiative is designed to help fortify the schools and also help the telecommunications between the schools and prevent the attacks.
“This is so people can get advanced warnings and to give people the security that there might be some better protection in case there was an attack.
“So the Safe School Initiative has been something that other countries adopted since Nigeria led the way.
“The Safe Schools Initiative is being implemented in different parts of the world but obviously we need more resources into the Nigerian system and that’s what this new proposal is about.”
Brown said ground-breaking International Finance Facility for Education could make it possible to fully finance universal education by 2020 and unlock Sustainable Development Goals.
The UN former British premier commended the UN and the international donors and partners for efforts to raise multilateral education aid to low-income countries from current 1.6 billion dollars to over four billion dollars a year by 2020.
“This up-front investment in education, modeled on the proposals of Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, to convert billions into trillions.
“It can ensure the delivery of our Sustainable Development Goal promises. Indeed, an International Finance Facility for Education will not only create more educational opportunity than ever before.
“It will multiply job prospects, slow population growth, reduce infant and maternal mortality and hasten a 70 per cent increase in GDP per head by 2050.
“And for the millions of children presently locked out of an education, it will be a jolt of hope,” Brown said.
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UN human rights office clarifies error on Nigeria
A spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday explained why a reference to Nigeria in the High Commissioner’s keynote speech to the Human Rights Council was deleted shortly after it was delivered in Geneva on Tuesday.
“Regrettably, because of a technical error with our databases, the reference to Nigeria in the original speech stated incorrectly that one visit by Special Procedures was accepted last year, and that the last previous visit before that was in 2007,” said the High Commissioner’s Spokesperson Rupert Colville.
“In fact, four mandate holders visited Nigeria last year, in two separate visits, and another visit had occurred two years earlier. We corrected the error as soon as it was brought to our attention, and a new version of the speech, without the incorrect reference to Nigeria, was posted on our website.”
In January 2016, there was a joint visit by three Special Rapporteurs (on the right to health; on contemporary forms of slavery; and on the sale of children, child pornography and child prostitution). This was followed in August 2016 by a separate visit by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons.
The February 2104 visit was by the Independent Expert on minority issues. The term ‘Special Procedures’ is applied to a category of independent UN human rights experts, numbering 57 in total. Most of them are Special Rapporteurs, but they also include some Working Groups and Independent Experts.
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UNICEF mourns Popular actor, Roger Moore
The death of the popular British actor, Roger Moore has been described as a great lost.
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director, Anthony Lake stated that the world has lost a great champions for Children.
Moore until his death was UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.In a statement made available Tuesday in Abuja, UNICEF stated that “with the passing of Sir Roger Moore, the world has lost one of its great champions for children – and the entire UNICEF family has lost a great friend.”
In his most famous roles as an actor, Sir Roger was the epitome of cool sophistication; but in his work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, he was a passionate – and highly persuasive – advocate for children. He once said that it was up to all of us to give children a more peaceful future. Together with Lady Kristina, he worked very hard to do so.
“All of us at UNICEF extend our deepest sympathies to the Moore family, and join his many friends and admirers from around the world in paying tribute to his life and mourning his loss. He will be deeply missed.”
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FG procures of arms for Aviation Security personnel
The Federal Government Friday disclosed that it has commenced the procurement of arms for Aviation Security (AVSEC) personnel.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika said this in Abuja during the graduation ceremony of 35 AVSEC personnel who underwent Counter Terrorism Training organised by the United Nations.
The 35 graduands who are master trainers would train aviation security experts in two training centres that will be established in Lagos and Zaria.
The training will afford them opportunity to deliver and sustain high standard of aviation security screening across Nigeria’s civil aviation infrastructure.
On why they need to carry arms, the minister gave an instance where Turkish airline passengers took to the tarmac to protest their luggage that was left in Istanbul.
On the carrying of arms by AVSEC personnel, Sirika said: “I wrote a memo to President Buhari and also informed members of the Council that I want to reorganise aviation security and make them arms bearing wing of Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
“The passengers took to the tarmac because we have a very weak and incapacitated Aviation security. AVSEC personnel’s mind and soul are strong enough but they have not been given the equipment that would support them to discharge their duties.
“They will be civil, very harmless, they won’t interfere with any process, they would be at the background but they would be fully ready and alert to respond to any emergency at the airport.
On the procurement of arms, Sirika said: “We have already commenced the process of procuring arms and we are putting structures in place.
“You know it is not just about giving arms to personnel and it’s use, the personnel has to be selected, has to be the right person, he has to have the right psychology and he must master the arts and signs of use of weapons, he has to understand that he is a civil Force and learn to use arms at the right. It is not an easy thing but we will get it done”
He also assured Nigerians, the UN, aviation communities and the world that the ministry would be alive to responsibilities.
Speaking in a pre-recorded tape, the Director of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre, Dr. Jehangir Khan said the training demonstrates the willingness and the continued effort of Nigeria to battle terrorism and protect the people of Nigeria.
On the essence of the training, he said: “it is designed to improve aviation security at all airports throughout Nigeria, through a more efficient security screening process for all passengers, in accordance with the international standards required by the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) and the European Union.
“The project will contribute directly to the Nigerian Government’s overall counter-terrorism strategy by helping to mitigate the threat posed to civil aviation by terrorist organizations and their operatives.
“It also contributes to the implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolution 2309 adopted on 22 September 2016, which calls on Member States to take all necessary efforts to improve and protect aviation security worldwide.”
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Kosovo holds parliamentary polls June 11
President Hashim Thaci said on Friday that Kosovo will hold early parliamentary elections on June 11, two days after Prime Minister Isa Mustafa’s cabinet fell.
The cabinet was voted out with 78 out of the 120 votes in the parliament.
That marked an end to the coalition of Mustafa’s Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and Thaci’s ca year ahead of the regular election date.
The no-confidence motion was launched by the opposition, but supported by the PDK.
The coalition had been at an impasse for months, unable to pass crucial regulation on matters such as a border agreement with Montenegro, minority rights and the armed forces.
The border agreement was a condition the European Union laid out to Kosovo in order to lift entry visa requirements for its citizens.
Kosovo has yet to regulate the status of minority Serb communities in the mostly Albanian Kosovo, part of a normalisation agreement the EU brokered between Pristina and Belgrade.
Serbia’s former province declared independence in 2008; nine years after NATO intervened against Serbia in order to stop a heavy-handed crackdown on ethnic Albanian rebels.
It has been recognised by more than 110 countries in the meantime, but has not gained a seat at thec, owing toc which has backed Serbia’s opposition to the move.
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UN urges Nigerians to provide support for rescued Chibok girls
The United Nations (UN) has appealed to Nigerians to fully embrace the 82 freed Chibok girls and provide all necessary support to ensure their reintegration into the society.
Mr Peter Lundberg, its Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator, made the appeal in a statement issued by Abiodun Banire, Public Information, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Nigeria.
Lundberg said the UN welcomed the release of the 82 Chibok girls in north-eastern Nigeria.
He noted that despite this encouraging news, insecurity continues to affect millions of people living in six states in north-eastern Nigeria amid a deepening humanitarian crisis.
“Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, where 8.5 million people are in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance and protection are the most directly affected by conflict and mass forced displacement.
“The United Nations and partners are committed to supporting the Government of Nigeria to providing much needed relief to these vulnerable people,” he said.
According to him, over 100 of these school girls are still unaccounted for.
“The United Nations urges the international community to continue supporting the Government of Nigeria in its efforts to ensure the release, rehabilitation and reintegration of all victims of Boko Haram,” he said.
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Economic Plan: UN commends FG
The United Nations on Tuesday commended the Federal Government for its Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) launched recently in Abuja.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Nigeria, Mr Edward Kallon, made the commendation in Abuja on Tuesday at the launch of UNDP 2016 Human Development Report (HDR).
Kallon expressed optimism that Nigeria had what was needed to surmount her challenges and pledged the support of the world body in this regard.
He said that plans with its several medium-term policies and programmes were capable of keeping Nigeria on a positive development trajectory.
According to him, this is because the ERGP focuses on restoring growth, investing in people and building a globally competitive economy.
The UNDP boss also expressed satisfaction on the feat recorded by Nigeria in the Human Development Index (HDI) where it garnered 13.1 percent increase between 2005 and 2015.
He called for tougher policies to enable the country to sustain gains made in human development.
Kallon said that insecurity and the drop in prices of export commodities which were major earners in sub-Saharan Africa were fast eroding the gains.
He said that Nigeria was faced with two major problems of economic recession and humanitarian crisis.
“We are all aware of the humanitarian crisis in the North-East of the country and the looming famine in that region although efforts by humanitarian development actors, under the leadership of government, have yielded significant results.
“Many challenges remain as an estimated 8.5 million people in that region are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
“And, some 50,000 children are at ‘IPC level 5’ of food insecurity. The need for action, especially for the children, couldn’t be more urgent,” he said.
The envoy advised the government to utilise the opportunity provided by the launch of the UN report to address the twin problems of economic recession and humanitarian crisis in the country.
According to him, the nation should utilise the opportunity provided by the report to promote policy dialogue at national and sub-national levels.
He called on Nigeria to as a matter of urgency find a lasting solution to the challenges in order to bring enduring development in the country.
“The report shows that between 2005 and 2015, Nigeria’s HDI increased from 0.466 to 0.527, a 13.1 percent increase.
“This is encouraging, but given the humanitarian challenges already alluded to, and economic recession witnessed in 2016, there is urgent need to design policies and programmes to ensure that upward trend in human development is not reversed.”