30 March 2017 – The United Nations Mission in Colombia is set to register some 7,000 weapons this weekend, but the search for other caches of weapons hidden by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) continues, the Mission’s chief has said.

Jean Arnault, the head of the Mission, said yesterday: “As for registration, we are at 85 percent of the weapons in the camps. This weekend we will reach a figure of approximately 7,000 registered weapons. On these weapons there are concerns: many are new and are short and long weapons, high calibre. It is a record that covers the range of FARC-EP weapons.”

The weapons hand over has been in place since the beginning of the month and the UN hopes to possess 60 per cent of all FARC-EP arms by April 1. However, in a press conference on the topic yesterday, Mr. Arnault said accessing hidden and hard to reach caches could delay the process.

A further 1,000 weapons are set to be received from FARC-EP members participating in peace promotion or, pedagogia de paz, bringing the number of arms collected by the UN to 8,000.

It was also reported at the press conference that commitments made at the Cartagena meeting of the Follow up, Promotion and Implementation Commission (CSIVI) to make progress on preparation of registration zones and camps, security and legal guarantees and provision of health services would further accelerate the laydown of arms process.

In November last year, the Colombian Government and FARC-EP, the largest rebel group in the South American nation, signed a peace deal, ending a 50 year conflict.

30 March 2017 – The ongoing conflict in South Sudan is affecting food security in some of the country’s more &#8220stable&#8221 states, the head of United Nations peacekeeping operation there has said.

&#8220Dwindling provisions arriving in the town and skyrocketing food prices have meant that places like Aweil, which are generally peaceful, have suffered the effects of the conflict taking part in other parts of the country,&#8221 said David Shearer, the head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), during a visit to Aweil in the country’s north.

&#8220It is imperative that fighting stops, so the citizens of the world’s newest nation can live in peace and enjoy the benefits of independence,&#8221 he added.

The insecurity has directly affected the cost of goods in greater Aweil. Mr. Shearer heard from UN humanitarian agencies working in the region how many families had migrated north to Sudan because they could either not produce crops or could not afford the high price of staple foods in the market.

Those agencies have stepped in to provide emergency humanitarian aid in a region where the UN Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) says 52 per cent of people are &#8220food insecure.&#8221

The Governor of Aweil state, Ronald Ruay Deng, told Mr. Shearer that his administration was doing all it could to &#8220move our people from dependency on emergency food aid to a more resilient rural agricultural&#8221 model of production, including the piloting of a new community farming approach to feed the most vulnerable people.

David Shearer, head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), meeting residents of Kuajok, the capital of Gogrial state. Photo: UNMISS/Isaac Billy

Mr. Shearer also heard about the efforts under way to build peaceful understanding between communities, particularly pastoral communities who arrive on a seasonal basis from Sudan to share water and grazing land with the residents of greater Aweil.

UNMISS is facilitating improved inter-communal understanding through dialogue.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) today began to move food assistance to reach famine-hit and food-insecure people in South Sudan by using a newly opened humanitarian corridor announced by the Government of Sudan earlier this week.

&#8220This new route will allow WFP to regularly reach famine-affected people in South Sudan with food assistance and help to avert the consequences of starvation,&#8221 said WFP Sudan Representative and Country Director Matthew Hollingworth.

Today, the first convoy of 27 trucks carrying an initial 1,200 metric tons of sorghum started moving from El Obeid in central Sudan towards Bentiu in South Sudan. The convoys will take at least five days to complete the 500 kilometre journey.

In the next few weeks, WFP plans to deliver 11,000 metric tons of sorghum &#8211 including 1,000 metric tons donated by the Government of Sudan &#8211 in seven convoys of 30 to 40 trucks. This is enough food to feed 300,000 people for three months.

30 March 2017 – The world’s attention has moved away from Syria following the battle for Aleppo, despite the fact that the last few months have been “some of the worst” for civilians, the United Nations humanitarian chief today told the Security Council, reiterating calls for an end to the six year conflict.

“Violence continues to rear its ugly head in various parts of the country, even if it largely disappeared from the world’s TV screens since the evacuation of East Aleppo,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien told the Council.

“The last months have been some of the worst yet for civilians inside Syria,” he added. “For Syria, that is saying something.”

Today’s humanitarian discussions in the Security Council come as political discussions are underway in Geneva, assisted by UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura. The latest discussions started on 23 March and will last through the week.

In today’s comments, Mr. O’Brien reiterated the importance of the intra-Syrian talks saying he “cannot emphasize enough how high the stakes are,” and voicing support for Mr. de Mistura.

Civilians threatened in Raqqa and Ghouta

As the conflict enters its seventh year, hundreds of civilians are believed to have been killed in the past weeks alone, with tens of thousands displaced and continued attacks on medical facilities and schools.

Mr. O’Brien expressed deep concern about the safety and protection of more than 400,000 civilians threatened by military operations in Raqqa governorate, which includes the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh).

As the fighting moves closer to Raqqa city, “concerns about the fate of civilians will only grow,” Mr. O’Brien said.

“I urge all parties to do everything in their power to protect and spare civilians from the effects of the hostilities as required, not just requested, under international humanitarian law.”

The UN and partners have been prepositioning stocks to enable a rapid response “access permitting.”

In addition, Mr. O’Brien also said he was extremely worried about the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in the besieged parts of eastern Ghouta in Rural Damascus, where some 400,000 people are trapped by Government forces.

The tightening of the siege has started a time bomb for the people of eastern Ghouta

No UN humanitarian convoy was allowed access since October 2016 to eastern Ghouta, with some areas cut off since June prior.

In the past 10 days, Government forces have also reportedly prevented commercial trucks from entering, hiking up prices of staples and cutting informal trade.

“This tightening of the siege has started a time bomb for the people of eastern Ghouta,” Mr. O’Brien said, calling for immediate access.

Delivery of humanitarian aid has been difficult throughout the country, the senior UN official lamented. He said that despite hopes that 2017 would lead to greater entry to besieged and hard-to-reach areas, “the bottom line is, however, that with a quarter of the year gone, our current levels of access are no better than this time last year.”

His comments come just days before an international pledging conference is due to be held in Brussels on 5 April. Entitled “Supporting the future of Syria and the region”, the conference is co-chaired by the UN.

Mr. O’Brien thanked donors for going “above and beyond” this year, but stressed the critical needs in Syria and the neighbouring countries.

The UN and its humanitarian partners have released the 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan for Syria which outlines requirements of some $3.4 billion to undertake a comprehensive humanitarian response in Syria, including saving lives, enhancing protection and building people’s resilience.

AUDIO: The UN Refugee Agency, wants more countries to fulfill their pledges on resettling those fleeing the conflict in Syria, which is now in its seventh year.

Urging Governments to make good on promises of homes

Meanwhile, new figures show that fewer Syrian refugees were resettled in the past year than originally planned, even as the total number of people fleeing the violence surpasses five million.

“Despite the call during that meeting in Geneva on 30 March 2016 to resettle and facilitate pathways for 500,000 refugees, to date 250,000 places have been made available,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. His remarks reference the High-level Meeting on Syria, held in March 2016, where participating Governments agreed to resettle 10 per cent of all Syrian refugees by 2018.

UNHCR, the agency that Mr. Grandi heads, said that while 250,000 locations have been pledged, some have not yet been made available for the people who need them.

Mr. Grandi called on Governments to make good on their promises to find new homes for the most vulnerable refugees: “We still have a long road to travel in expanding resettlement and the number and range of complementary pathways available for refugees.”

30 March 2017 – On what he called a “visit of solidarity” with Iraq, Secretary-General António Guterres today welcomed the commitment of the country’s leaders to civilian protection and national dialogue, and pledged the ongoing support of the United Nations as the Government seeks to bolster aid delivery to needy populations and rebuild Iraq institutions.

“This is a visit of solidarity with the Iraqi people; solidarity with Iraqi Government and institutions; solidarity in what I believe is an historic moment for Iraq,” the Secretary-General said during a press encounter in Baghdad, with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

Noting that Iraq is in the final stages of its fight against terrorism, Mr. Guterres said the UN is “strongly hopeful” that the liberation of Mosul form the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/D’aesh) will soon be complete.

“At the same time, I was extremely encouraged by the commitment expressed by the Prime Minister, both in relation to the protection of civilians, in the conduct of the operations and the full respect of international humanitarian law,” said the UN chief.

He said he was also encouraged by the Iraqi leader’s commitment to a national dialogue and an effective process of reconciliation. This, he said, would allow after the liberation of Mosul for Iraq to progressively create the conditions for, “a normal life of a State; a State in which all communities can feel they belong; a State in which all communities respect each other and reconciliation becomes something natural.”

Secretary-General António Guterres receives a bouquet of flowers on his arrival in Erbil, Iraq. UN Photo

Mr. Guterres went on to express the total support of the UN to the Iraqi Government’s efforts in humanitarian aid to the populations that have been affected by terrorism. At the same time, he appealed to the international community to support Iraq both in relation to the relief to the victims but also in relation to the stabilization, reconstruction and build-up of national institutions.

As for his talks with the Prime Minister, the Secretary-General said the two felt it was important that the Da’esh is held accountable for the crimes committed by the terrorist group.

“Those crimes need to be well known, need to be punished,” he said, stressing that it is important that the international community is fully of the terrible sacrifices of all the populations of Iraq –Sunni and Shia, Muslims and Christians ¬– that were victims of the cruelty of Da’esh. “This is something that needs to be known and that needs to find the adequate mechanism of effective accountability.”

The UN chief said the world’s young people must understand that “terrorism is not the way to express their anger […] even if in some moments they might be angry or anxious in relation to the events that take place.” Indeed, the fight against terrorism must be accompanied by the fight to tackle its root causes, and by making it very clear the horrendous nature of the crimes committed by organizations like Da’esh.

Finally, the Secretary-General expressed to the Prime Minister, his “total solidarity, and our total commitment to work together with your Government.” Iraq’s leaders have a very important task ahead with the full liberation of the country and with the full reconciliation of Iraqis “for a future of democracy and prosperity.”

While in Baghdad, he also met with the Iraqi President, Foreign Minister and Speaker of the Parliament, before heading later in the day to Erbil. Mr. Guterres has been in the region since Monday, when he began his visit in Jordan. Yesterday, he addressed the Summit of the League of Arab States.