UN plane in Djibouti

The Security Council has now returned from its five-country, ten-day mission to Africa. The meetings with government leaders, UN officials and members of civil society presented an opportunity to press on key issues, and to demonstrate the Council’s continuing commitment to Africa. The mission also allowed the Council to obtain a first-hand assessment of the political developments between Somali parties and the crises in Sudan's Darfur region and neighbouring Chad, and to help with efforts to promote peace and reconciliation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Côte d'Ivoire.

The UK led, jointly with South Africa, on the Somalia and Sudan legs of the mission, with France leading on Chad and the DRC, and Burkina Faso on Côte d’Ivoire.