"The United Nations and the European Commission are seeking $681-million to meet the needs of 30-million vulnerable people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said on Monday.
"Responding to an increasing number of violent attacks in many parts of the world over cartoon caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, the Secretary-General of the United Nations joined today with senior officials from the Islamic world and Europe in calling for calm and dialogue among communities of different faiths.
In a joint statement, Kofi Annan, along with the head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the European Union's (EU) senior representative for foreign and security policy, said there should be a "spirit of friendship and mutual respect" not only between countries but also between believers of different religions." [More]
"Reacting attacks sparked by a furor over controversial cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that while he shares the distress of offended Muslims, they must not respond with violence.
"The Secretary-General is alarmed by the threats and violence, including the attacks on embassies that have occurred in Syria and Lebanon and other countries over the past few days," his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement issued in New York.
Noting that Mr. Annan shares the distress felt by many Muslims at the publication of caricatures considered insulting to their religion, "he wishes to emphasize that such resentment cannot justify violence, least of all when directed at people who have no responsibility for, or control over, the publications in question." [Link]
"The senior United Nations envoy to Iraq today condemned a series of deadly explosions carried out in coordinated sequence in the vicinity of churches in Baghdad and Kirkuk.
The attacks, which caused the death and injury of many innocent Iraqis, constituted "a reprehensible act that can only exacerbate sectarian violence," Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, said in a statement issued in the Iraqi capital." [More]
No Time for Apathy on Sudan
By KOFI A. ANNAN, Secretary-General of the United Nations
"People in many parts of Darfur continue to be killed, raped and driven from their homes by the thousands. The number displaced has reached 2 million, while 3 million (half the total population of Darfur) are dependent on international relief for food and other basics. Many parts of Darfur are becoming too dangerous for relief workers to reach. The peace talks are far from reaching a conclusion. And fighting now threatens to spread into neighboring Chad, which has accused Sudan of arming rebels on its territory.
"In the face of deadly clashes between United Nations peacekeepers and armed rebel groups in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Secretary-General Kofi Annan today reaffirmed the UN's determination to work closely with the Congolese authorities in restoring peace in the region." [More]
UN News Service: "With both Sudanese Government and rebel troops violating the ceasefire agreement, the security situation in the Darfur provinces is volatile as banditry and looting are reported in the area, the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said today."
"With the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) reporting banditry, looting and ethnic fighting in Sudan's western Darfur region, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today voiced grave concern about the worsening situation in the area and called on all parties to respect their ceasefire agreement.
UNMIS has reported "banditry, looting, inter-tribal fighting, clashes allegedly between Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) rebels and tribes, attacks on civilians - destroying wells, which are essential to their livelihood, and forcing thousands more people to leave their homes in addition to the 2 million already displaced - and a further increase in the number of attacks and robberies committed against humanitarian workers," Mr. Annan said through his spokesman." [Read more]