PANA
New York, US – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Sunday in New York discussed ways to further strengthen the relationship between the two organisations.
UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky, who briefed reporters after the closed-door meeting, said the Secretary-General thanked Ms. Dlamini-Zuma for the AU’s continued support to the work of the UN in Africa, in particular, to the offices based in Addis Ababa.
Mr. Nesirky said the UN and AU chiefs met ahead of the high-level UN General Assembly debate which is due to start at the UN headquarters Tuesday.
He also said the two officials discussed issues of common interest in the Central African Republic (CAR), where a half-million people are estimated to be in dire need, made worse by fresh fighting in the northwest.
“Mr. Ban and Ms. Dlamini-Zuma also discussed the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where some 80,000 people have been driven from their homes in a new outbreak of violence in the eastern part of the country,” he said.
The spokesperson said the discussions also focused on Mali, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan and South Sudan, as well as the situation in Western Sahara.
