TOP UN OFFICIALS REVIEW MALARIA CONTROL EFFORTS IN UGANDA

Two senior United Nations officials are currently in Uganda to review the country's progress in controlling malaria, which every year kills an estimated 1 million people, most of them children in Africa.

The Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Malaria, Ray Chambers, and the Director-General of the World Health Organization (<"http://www.who.int/en/">WHO), Margaret Chan, are also hoping to gain a better understanding of the remaining challenges in tackling the disease.

The two officials arrived in Uganda from Tanzania, where they met on Monday with President Jakaya Kikwete.

In addition to Government leaders, Mr. Chambers and Dr. Chan are also holding talks with local <"http://www.who.int/topics/malaria/en/index.html">malaria experts and visiting urban and rural health centres focused on fighting the disease. They are joined on the trip by the President of the Global Health Programme at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"Their long-term objective is to end malaria deaths," UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters in New York. "That can be achieved by meeting the Secretary-General's goal of providing all endemic African countries with malaria control interventions by the end of 2010."

Last September government, business and civil society leaders launched a global campaign to reduce malaria deaths to near zero by 2015, with an initial commitment of nearly $3 billion.

The Global Malaria Action Plan aims to cuts deaths and illness by 2010 to half their 2000 levels by scaling up access to insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor spraying and treatment, and achieve the near-zero goal through sustained universal coverage. Ultimately it seeks to eradicate the disease completely with new tools and strategies.

Halting the incidence of malaria is one of the many health-related targets that make up the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the pledges world leaders made to try to slash poverty, hunger, preventable illness and a host of other socio-economic ills by 2015.

TOP UN ENVOY HAILS JOINT UGANDAN, CONGOLESE OPERATION AGAINST REBELS

TOP UN ENVOY HAILS JOINT UGANDAN, CONGOLESE OPERATION AGAINST REBELS
New York, Mar 16 2009 1:00PM

As Ugandan troops began withdrawing from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after a three-month joint operation to flush out a notorious rebel group, the United Nations' top envoy in the country praised the cooperative effort, the world body's mission there said today.

Marking the end of Operation Lightening and Thunder, meant to rout the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Alan Doss, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative and head of the UN peacekeeping mission (MONUC), warned, however, that the group remained a threat.

"Operations in the current phase are finished but there are more bands [of LRA] still here. There is work to be done above all in the matter of the protection of the civilian population," Mr. Doss said at a ceremony yesterday attended by diplomats, ministers and military of the two countries.

Brutal attacks since last September by the LRA, notorious for abducting children as soldiers and sex slaves, have killed some 900 Congolese and displaced another 150,000.

While UN agencies and their partners are working – with the authorities, military forces in the area and MONUC – to expand humanitarian aid and step up efforts to protect the local population, they are facing several constraints, according to the Organization's humanitarian coordinator, John Holmes.

These include the huge 40,000 square kilometre area where the LRA is hiding, their dispersal into several groups, the difficult terrain and isolated location, chronic lack of infrastructure, and the threat still posed by the rebels, including on major roads.

At yesterday's ceremony, authorities of the DRC armed forces (FARDC) asked MONUC to continue its support in further efforts to clear out the pockets of LRA that remained.

"The Governments of the DRC and Uganda have very generously recognized the support of MONUC to the FARDC during this first phase," Mr. Doss responded.

"Now, it's necessary to turn toward the future and the next operations," he said.
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SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS DEADLY ATTACK ON AFRICAN UNION BASE IN SOMALIA

SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS DEADLY ATTACK ON AFRICAN UNION BASE IN SOMALIA
New York, Feb 25 2009 5:00PM
The United Nations today condemned in the strongest terms the suicide attack on the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) base in Mogadishu, which caused the deaths of 11 Burundian peacekeepers and injured 17 others on Sunday.

"The members of the Security Council express their condolences to the families of the victims, to the people and the Government of Burundi, and to the African Union," Ambassador Yukio Takasu of Japan, which holds the Council Presidency for the month, said in a press statement.

"The members of the Council reiterate their condemnation of all acts of violence and incitement to violence against AMISOM" following reports of further attacks yesterday, he added.

The 15-member body reiterated its commitment to supporting a strengthened AMISOM, which it said played a vital role in helping to bring peace and security to Somalia, and commended the Governments of Uganda and Burundi for their contributions.

In its statement, the Council applauded the ongoing political process in Somalia that led to the expansion of Parliament and the election of a new president, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, who has made taken steps to "strengthen the political process and improve security."

Mr. Takasu said that "the members of the Security Council call on all Somalis to reject violence and extremism, to embrace peaceful means of resolving conflicts, and to support the government towards this goal," stressing the body's "determination to combat all forms of terrorism."
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