UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Sudan’s government has violated U.N. sanctions on the Darfur region by carrying out air strikes and using aircraft from Belarus and Russia despite pledging not to in the vast arid area in the country’s west, U.N. experts say.

The U.N. Security Council’s independent panel of experts – who monitor sanctions imposed on Darfur in 2005 – also said it was investigating whether Sudanese troops had violated the sanctions by using Iranian armored personnel carriers in Darfur.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – In a special report to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon toned down criticism of Rwanda over accusations that it supports rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but still warned against external support for the revolt.

A draft of Ban’s report seen by Reuters on Monday had applauded states who suspended aid to Rwanda after U.N. experts, who monitor compliance with sanctions and an arms embargo on Congo, accused Rwanda of supporting M23 rebels in eastern Congo.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – More than 40,000 people a week are fleeing war-torn Syria and the total number of refugees will likely pass 1 million in less than a month, a senior U.N. official told the Security Council on Wednesday.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said the U.N. agency as of Tuesday had registered 936,000 Syrians across the Middle East and North Africa, nearly 30 times as many people as April last year.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – More than 40,000 people a week are fleeing war-torn Syria and the total number of refugees will likely pass 1 million in less than a month, a senior U.N. official told the Security Council on Wednesday.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said the U.N. agency as of Tuesday had registered 936,000 Syrians across the Middle East and North Africa, nearly 30 times as many people as April last year.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A proposal to lift a U.N. arms embargo on the Somalian government for a year but leave in place restrictions on weapons like surface-to-air missiles has been floated among a deeply split 15-member U.N. Security Council, diplomats said on Wednesday.

The Somali government has requested that the 21-year-old arms embargo be lifted so it can strengthen its poorly equipped, ill-disciplined military – more a group of rival militias than a cohesive fighting force loyal to a single president – to battle al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist rebels.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon will urge the Security Council to approve a force to fight rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a draft report seen on Monday, which also applauded suspension of aid to Rwanda over claims it backs the insurgents.

In the draft of a special report to the 15-member council, Ban said a brigade of several thousand soldiers should be created within the existing U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo, known as MONUSCO, and be deployed initially for one year.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo’s resource-rich east is again on the brink of a major conflict, a senior U.N. official warned on Friday as he urged the U.N. Security Council to urgently approve plans for a peace enforcement unit to combat armed rebel groups.

Roger Meece, head of the U.N. mission in Congo known as MONUSCO, told the Security Council that the creation of a peace enforcement unit within the peacekeeping force – which would be a new move for the United Nations – was “an urgently needed and important response to the existing situation on the ground.”

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations said on Thursday it would not pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation claimed by cholera victims in impoverished Haiti, where an epidemic has killed thousands of people and been blamed on U.N. peacekeepers.

Cholera – an infection causing severe diarrhea that can lead to dehydration and death – has killed some 7,750 Haitians and sickened almost 620,000 since October 2010. It occurs in places with poor sanitation.