Kenya

The United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia condemned the murder of Wilman Asprilla Allim and Ansel Montoya Ibarra, two Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) political party members who were participating in electoral activities in Peque municipality.  The Mission urges all the competent institutions to investigate and prosecute those responsible for this crime.

Some 4,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar and crossed the border into Bangladesh in the last 48 hours.  The newly arrived refugees say thousands more people are waiting on Myanmar’s coast to make the crossing.  United Nations agencies and their partners are providing food and other supplies.

It will take more than 100 years to end child marriage in West and Central Africa at current rates of reduction, UNICEF reported today.  The new projections, released during a high-level meeting on ending child marriage in Dakar, Senegal, this week, aim to bring the spotlight on the region where girls face the highest risk of marrying in childhood.

Following is the joint statement of the African Union and the United Nations on the forthcoming presidential election in Kenya, issued today in Addis Ababa and New York:

The World Food Programme (WFP) announced today that it would cut food rations by 30 per cent for the 420,000 refugees living in Dadaab and Kakuma camps in northern Kenya due to insufficient funding.  WFP urgently needs $28.5 million to adequately cover the food assistance needs for the refugees over the next six months.

The United Nations Environment Programme is launching a campaign to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Montreal Protocol and its success in protecting Earth against ozone depletion.  The “Ozone Heroes” campaign seeks to raise awareness of collective efforts to tackle climate change and the depletion of the ozone layer.

Irina Bokova, Director-General of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), condemned the killing of Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh, shot outside her home on Tuesday.  Ms. Lankesh, editor and publisher of a Kannada-language weekly, was an outspoken critic of right-wing extremism.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and its partners have begun relocating more than 33,000 Congolese refugees from over-crowded reception centres in northern Angola to a newly established settlement in Lóvua, some 100 kilometres further inland, where they will all receive a plot of land on which to build shelters and grow food.

The Government and the United Nations held an event in Mogadishu to celebrate Somalia’s polio-free status of the last three years.  The World Health Organization applauded Somalia’s efforts to ward off the highly infectious virus while urging continued caution and vigilance.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres: