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UN backs Danish general as new chief of Yemen mission

The UN Security Council on Wednesday endorsed the appointment of former Danish general Michael Lollesgaard to head the UN observer mission in war-wracked Yemen, diplomats said.

UN backs Danish general as new chief of Yemen mission
Michael Lollesgaard. Photo: Mathias Løvgreen Bojesen/Scanpix 2016

Lollesgaard will replace Patrick Cammaert, the Dutch general who had been tapped a little over a month ago to lead the mission deployed in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had told the council in a letter sent Monday that he planned to appoint Lollesgaard and gave the council 48 hours to raise objections.

No objections were raised before the Wednesday deadline, diplomats said.

Earlier this month, the council approved the deployment for six months of up to 75 monitors to Yemen to shore up a fragile ceasefire and oversee a pullback of forces from Hodeida.

The port of Hodeida is the entry point for the bulk of Yemen's supplies of imported goods and humanitarian aid, providing a lifeline to millions on the brink of starvation.

UN envoy Martin Griffiths is due to brief the council behind closed doors on Thursday on his efforts to push the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and Huthi rebels to abide by a ceasefire deal reached in Sweden last month.

Griffiths told Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday that the deadline for a prisoner swap and a pullback of forces from Hodeida had slipped.

Lollesgaard commanded the UN peacekeeping force in Mali (MINUSMA) from 2015 to 2016, and then became Denmark's military representative to NATO and the European Union in 2017. 

READ ALSO: The Local interviews Denmark Invictus Games team member

UN

‘The war must end now’: UN Sec-Gen meets Swedish PM in Stockholm

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres met Sweden's Prime Minister in Stockholm on Wednesday, ahead of the conference marking the 50th anniversary of the city's historic environment summit .

'The war must end now': UN Sec-Gen meets Swedish PM in Stockholm

After a bilateral meeting with Magdalena Andersson on the security situation in Europe, Guterres warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to a global food crisis that would hurt some of the world’s most vulnerable people. 

“It is causing immense suffering, destruction and devastation of the country. But it also inflames a three-dimensional global crisis in food, energy and finance that is pummelling the most vulnerable people, countries and economies,” the Portuguese diplomat told a joint press conference with Andersson. 

He stressed the need for “quick and decisive action to ensure a steady flow of food and energy,” including “lifting export restrictions, allocating surpluses and reserves to vulnerable populations and addressing food price increases to calm market volatility.”

Between the two, Russia and Ukraine produce around 30 percent of the global wheat supply.

Guterres was in Stockholm to take part in the Stockholm 50+ conference, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. 

The conference, which was held on the suggestion of the Swedish government in 1972 was the first UN meeting to discuss human impacts on the global environment, and led to the establishment of the UN Environment Program (UNEP). 

At the joint press conference, Andersson said that discussions continued between Sweden and Turkey over the country’s continuing opposition to Sweden’s application to join the Nato security alliance. 

“We have held discussions with Turkey and I’m looking forward to continuing the constructive meetings with Turkey in the near future,” she said, while refusing to go into detail on Turkey’s demands. 

“We are going to take the demands which have been made of Sweden directly with them, and the same goes for any misunderstandings which have arisen,” she said. 

At the press conference, Guterres condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “a violation of its territorial integrity and a violation of the UN Charter”.

“The war must end now,” he said. 

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