Security Council Awaits Sudan's
Response to Proposed Force for Darfur
Members of the Security Council
are still awaiting a response from Sudanese President Omar
al-Bashir to a letter sent by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
outlining a proposed UN/AU hybrid force for Darfur. UN Special
Envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, says relief workers on the
ground are facing problems of access and insecurity.
"I was Emergency Relief Coordinator in the past
and I know the humanitarian workers and I sense the deep
fatigue, deep sense of frustration in that community."
Nigerian Authorities Fight Corruption
Nigeria has been for many years notorious
for coups d'etat and
corruption. But in the last seven years, according to Nasir
el-Rufai, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria,
the country has been putting its house in order."Nigeria
has been run by military governments on and off more or
less since 1966, when the First Republic was overthrown
and, though the earlier military regimes were clean and
tried to do a good job, subsequent regimes more or less
institutionalized corruption as state policy."Mr.
el-Rufai says Nigerians are working around the clock to
ensure that the upcoming elections in April will be free,
fair and transparent.
UN Relief Officials Say It Is
Time
to Return to Somalia
Recent developments in Somalia,
including the defeat of the Islamists and the holding of
a reconciliation conference, have prompted the United Nations
humanitarian officials to call for a resumption of humanitarian
work in the country. The new Under-Secretary-General for
Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, says the critical situation
in southern and central Somalia is one of the priority areas
where he'd like to be more actively involved.
Transcript
PREVIOUS
EDITION
Real Audio Listen and Download MP3
UN Adviser on Sport Goes to Liberia
to Launch Sport for Peace Programme
The
UN Secretary-General's Special
Adviser on Sport for Development,
Adolf Ogi,
goes
to Liberia
this week to launch a five-week
nationwide Sport for Peace Programme. He says sport is an
essential tool to promote peace and national reconciliation.
"In sport you learn to win without
thinking you are the best. In sport you learn to lose without
thinking that's the end. In sport you learn to respect the
opponent, you learn to accept rules."
Situation Remains Volatile and
Unpredictable in Eastern Chad
The
UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has proposed that a force
be established to protect thousands of displaced people
in the volatile region of eastern Chad. Aid agencies say
it is increasingly diffcult to work in that region. Actress
Mia Farrow, who is UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, has just
returned from Chad and the Central African Republic.
"Eastern Chad is at this moment that I was there ominously
quiet. The only sounds of gunshots were from the army presence
there. People have either gone to or been placed in makeshift
camps. But the water is insufficient. The food is insufficient."
Former Sierra Leonean Child Soldier
Recalls His War Experiences
In a previous edition of UN and Africa Ishmael Beah talked
about how he became a child soldier after his family was
killed by rebel fighters of the Revolutionary United Front.
More...
Transcript
PILOT EDITION Real Audio
Tenth anniversary of the Rwandan
genocide: Why did the genocide happen? Why was the
UN unable to prevent the killings or stop the massacres?
What lessons have been learned? Transcript
