Lieut. Gen. Ricard Costa Neves, center, the force commander of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, May 2020. He is one of a succession of Brazilians to have led the UN operations there militarily. The authors reflect on Brazil’s long, extensive role in the UN but lament President Bolsonaro’s hostility toward it now. KEVIN JORDAN/MONUSCO
Public elementary school 29, in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn, N.Y., displays photos of its students who graduated in June in a virtual ceremony. The UN secretary-general is pushing schools globally to reopen, when local transmission of Covid-19 is managed. JOHN PENNEY
Carlos Moisés Guillén Alfaro, un piloto de 46 años de El Salvador, fue el primer personal de mantenimiento de la paz de la ONU en morir por Covid-19, según funcionarios de la ONU. Pero su certificado de defunción no menciona la causa de la muerte, y otras preguntas importantes sobre su tratamiento médico en Malí, donde se encontraba, prevalecen de su familia.
At a clinic at La Fossette Health Center in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, nurses vaccinate babies, among other health care services. The pandemic could further erode Haiti’s stability, experts say, given its precarious economic and political state. DANIEL LANARI/USAID
Carlos Moisés Guillén Alfaro, a 46-year-old pilot from El Salvador, was the first UN peacekeeper to die from Covid-19, according to UN officials. But his death certificate cites no cause of death, and other major questions about his medical treatment in Mali, where he was based, prevail from his family. Here, he’s on an earlier flight near the Comalapa air base in El Salvador. PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE GUILLÉN FAMILY
Maj. Gen. Cheryl Pearce of Australia has been the force commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus since 2018. The authors argue that powerful Western nations need to let the UN Secretariat choose the leaders of peacekeeping posts rather than exert their own preferences. LOEY FELIPE/UN PHOTO
While Secretary-General António Guterres held a virtual press briefing on June 25, his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, above, moderated. Guterres spoke about the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Charter and the relentless devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic. MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, at UN headquarters after King was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. With them is Ralph Bunche, a UN official who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. Bunche, an American, marched with the Kings in civil rights protests in Alabama in 1965. YUTAKA NAGATA/UN PHOTO
Protesters in Washington Square Park, Manhattan, one of dozens of such gatherings throughout New York City in the last week responding to the murder of George Floyd, the African-American, on May. 25. The UN kept its distance from the protests. ISABELLA PENNEY
Starting in June, a summary of the most important news on the United Nations’ work in New York City and across the world will be highlighted weekly. The news will be drawn from the UN spokesperson’s media briefings, which are held daily during the workweek, as well as our original reporting and other sources.
Clashes between Arab and African ethnic groups erupted in West Darfur late last year, reportedly leaving at least 65 people dead and thousands homeless, like the woman above. The author, a refugee from the region, pleads for the continuing presence of international peacekeepers amid Security Council plans for their withdrawal from Sudan.
