UN officials strongly condemned attack on Camp Liberty, an Iranian exile camp in Iraq, and called on the Government to assist and protect camp residents in need. According to media reports two people were killed and dozens injured in a mortar attack to the camp, which is located near western Baghdad. The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq, Martin Kobler and the country representative for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Claire Bourgeois, said they are “deeply concerned that today's tragic violence has occurred despite their repeated requests to the Government of Iraq to provide Camp Liberty and its residents with protective measures, including T-Walls.”

United Nations News Centre - UN officials strongly condemn attack on Iranian exile camp in Iraq: "More than 3,000 residents, most of them members of a group known as the People's Mojahedeen of Iran, are temporarily housed in Camp Liberty – a transit facility also know as Camp Hurriya – while UNHCR carries out a process to determine their refugee status." CLICK LINK TO READ MORE

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Congo: AFRICAN economies are rising steadily, but in the Democratic Republic of Congo life for many is as bad as ever. Armed men rape and plunder with impunity. Rebel groups terrorise vast stretches of land rich in minerals and agricultural potential. Millions have died as a result. And for years the outside world has done little more than shrug. Its main effort—a 14-year-old UN peacekeeping mission—has failed to end “Africa’s world war”, which started as an ethnic conflict sparked by the genocide next door in Rwanda before descending into murderous anarchy farther afield. Now things are changing. The Rwandan government backed Congolese rebels until recently but, shamed by their cruelty and by international outrage, it has abandoned them. That presents an opportunity too good to waste, so the UN Security Council is trying a new tack (see article), deploying 3,000 troops to fight at least some of the rebels. Soldiers from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi wearing UN insignia will take on the irregulars who sow mayhem in Congo’s east.

The United Nations in Congo: Art of darkness | The Economist: "This is the first time that the UN will send its own troops into battle. In the past the Security Council has authorised the use of “all necessary force” but has delegated the fighting to posses from willing nations." CLICK LINK TO READ MORE

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U.N. Security Council boosts peacekeeping force in Abyei: U.N. Security Council approved an extra 1,126 troops for a U.N. peacekeeping force in the flashpoint Abyei region, claimed by Sudan and South Sudan and a base for several armed groups. The 15-member council extended for six months the mandate of the mission, known as UNISFA, and boosted to 5,326 the number of troops, provided by Ethiopia, in the province, prized for fertile land and oil reserves. "The presence of armed groups inside the Safe Demilitarised Zone remains a considerable security concern," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council in a report that requested the increase in peacekeepers. South Sudan split from its northern neighbour in 2011 under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war. Like South Sudan, Abyei was meant to have an independence referendum, agreed under the 2005 deal, but Sudan and South Sudan have been unable to agree which tribal members should participate.

U.N. Security Council boosts peacekeeping force in Abyei - World Updates | The Star Online: "U.N. peacekeepers have been administering Abyei since Sudan seized it in May 2011 following an attack on a convoy of peacekeepers and Sudanese soldiers which the United Nations blamed on southern forces. Khartoum later withdrew its forces under a U.N. peace plan." CLICK LINK TO READ MORE

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