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More funding is needed to support Small Island Developing States (SIDS) on the frontlines of climate change, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Saturday in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

The UN Security Council has underscored the need to protect civilians in Gaza after more than 100 Palestinians were killed on Thursday, and several hundred others injured, while waiting for food at an aid convoy.

An initiative to rapidly develop villages in some of the most drought-prone and poorest rural areas of southern Madagascar could help people to avoid the danger of famine, according to people benefiting from a collaboration with the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP).

Repeated warnings from humanitarians over desperate food insecurity and imminent famine in Gaza came into focus on Friday amid reports from the enclave’s authorities that a tenth child had died from malnutrition and dehydration.

The UN Environment Assembly adopted a ministerial declaration as it wrapped up on Friday in the Kenyan capital, together with 17 resolutions and decisions aimed at redefining the way humankind interacts with nature.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has voiced deep concern over the escalating humanitarian crisis in the restive Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique following a recent surge in violence and attacks by armed groups. 

February saw more extreme heat and unusually high temperatures in both hemispheres, the UN weather agency (WMO) said on Friday.

The UN Secretary-General said on Thursday he was “appalled by the tragic human toll of the conflict in Gaza” where more than 30,000 people have now reportedly been killed and over 70,000 injured.

UN News has learned that out of desperation, some Gazans have resorted to selling wild plants with little nutritional value, in the markets of their devastated enclave. In this special report, Ziad Taleb spoke to some of the young people trying to make a living, despite the ever-present dangers.

Leaders attending a major UN environmental conference in Nairobi must drive forward solutions to combat climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday. 

The world urgently needs 44 million teachers by 2030 in order to make the Sustainable Development Goals a reality, a new report from UNESCO, the UN agency championing education, announced this week. 

The “carnage” in Gaza has left more than 30,000 dead and must end immediately, UN rights chief Volker Türk told the Human Rights Council on Thursday, after almost five months of constant Israeli bombardment and mass displacement in the enclave, prompted by Hamas-led attacks. 

The UN aviation agency on Wednesday announced that air traffic levels are operating at around two per cent above their high in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic grounded much of the world’s population in lockdown.

Humanitarians are hoping that donors will robustly support a $674 million appeal for Haiti, where armed gangs continue to terrorize the population, a senior UN official said on Wednesday during a briefing to journalists in New York. 

More than 7,000 tonnes of wheat donated by war-ravaged Ukraine will help to feed one million conflict-affected people in Sudan for a month, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday. 

All parties to the Gaza conflict have been responsible for “clear violations of international humanitarian law including possible war crimes”, according to the UN’s top human rights official, Volker Türk.

Fallout from conflict in the Middle East and ongoing fighting in Syria are having a devastating impact on civilians inside the country, UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen told the Security Council on Tuesday. 

Well over half a million Gazans are “one step away from famine”, say UN humanitarians, ahead of a Security Council meeting due to start at 3:00 PM in New York on food security in the stricken enclave. The deputy head of UN aid coordination told ambassadors that famine is "almost inevitable" unless aid can be scaled up. Follow our live coverage here.

People caught up in humanitarian emergencies are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), UN agencies and partners warned on Tuesday. 

The mobile phone industry has pledged over $9 billion towards the goal of connecting the world, said the chief of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on Monday, addressing the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

UN relief agencies operating in war-torn Gaza voiced deep frustration on Tuesday over continuing aid access restrictions placed on them by the Israeli military, after ambulances carrying patients away from a stricken hospital at the weekend were stopped for several hours while health workers were searched and detained.

Very little humanitarian aid has entered besieged Gaza this month, with a 50 per cent reduction compared to January, the head of the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday. 

The latest meeting of the “world’s parliament on the environment” opened in Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday with a clear call for stronger global action to address the “triple planetary crisis” of  climate change, nature loss and pollution. 

Communities in some of the most climate-change-affected areas in southern Madagascar are finding ways to thrive in increasingly challenging environments by becoming more resilient and adapting to unpredictable weather patterns.

Every two years, all 193 UN Member States have an opportunity to collectively address critical environmental issues facing the planet. This moment is the United Nations Environment Assembly, or UNEA, the sixth edition of which will be held from 26 February to 1 March, in Nairobi, Kenya.

When the Russian occupation of Bucha in the early days of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ended in March 2022, widespread destruction was revealed, and a UN commission concluded that war crimes had been committed against the civilian population. Two years on, life is returning to the town on Kyiv’s outskirts, and nearby Irpin, which have been restored with UN support.

The top UN aid official in Ukraine deplored new attacks on the cities of Odesa and Dnipro on Friday, as the full-scale Russian invasion of the country enters a third year. 

Researchers have been deployed to the Middle East and requests issued to meet with Israel officials, said the head of an independent team reviewing the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, briefing reporters at UN Headquarters on Thursday.

The UN agency serving Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has reached breaking point due to Israeli calls for its abolition and the associated funding freeze, just when it is needed most, said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.

Attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea coupled with wider geopolitical and climate-related crises, are upending international trade, inflating costs and causing major delays, the UN’s trade and development body said on Thursday.