News

The world must do more to stop the dramatic decline in ocean health, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Sunday, urging young people gathered in Carcavelos, Portugal, for a UN Youth and Innovation Forum to step up because his generation’s leaders had moved far too slow.

Sargassum seaweed has blighted many of the beaches on Barbados for several years. Joshua Forte, a local entrepreneur, is convinced that it can be turned into a valuable commodity, and turned into highly effective, organic compost.

The United Nations has underlined its support for the men and women working at sea, whose immeasurable contributions help to keep global trade moving.

Since the 1980s, a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) convention to deal with pollution issues affecting the wider Caribbean region. Since then, the climate crisis has been added to the risks facing the region. Christopher Corbin, the acting coordinator for the UNEP Cartagena Convention Secretariat, told UN News that the focus of the Convention is shifting from policy to local action.

Emergency lifesaving aid relief continued to flow into quake-hit eastern Afghanistan on Friday, as UN humanitarians and partners rushed to help the most vulnerable communities.

Investing in the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, is also “investing in stability” for the entire Middle East region, the UN chief told a pledging conference on Thursday.

Because of the global hunger crisis, every single minute, one child is pushed into life-threatening, severe malnutrition.

The island nation of Cabo Verde is facing record levels of food insecurity due to drought, the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine, affecting some 181,000 people, or 32 per cent of the country, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Thursday. 

Hunger is tightening its grip on more than 20 million Ethiopians who are facing conflict in the north, drought in the south and dwindling food and nutrition support beginning next month, the UN food relief agency warned on Thursday.

The UN and partners have rushed to support Afghanistan following a devastating earthquake that hit two provinces in the east of the country early on Wednesday morning. 

The Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov who auctioned off his gold medal to raise money for child refugees on Monday, has told UN News that the record-breaking sale of $103.5 million proved that “sometimes humanity can come together, and show solidarity”.

Critical relief supplies for nearly 64,000 people have been delivered to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, two cities in the Government-controlled areas of the eastern Donetska oblast, or region, in Ukraine, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA reported on Tuesday. 

Global cooperation is critical to confront the surge in suffering due to conflict, climate disruption, hunger, the rising cost of living, and the COVID-19 pandemic. senior UN officials said on Tuesday at a meeting organized by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to strengthen delivery of humanitarian assistance. 

Scientific evidence shows that overexposure to UV radiation is the major cause of skin cancer. To help people protect themselves adequately, a consortium of UN agencies on Tuesday, launched an innovative new App that can help anyone, anywhere, determine the safe amount of time to stay outdoors, soaking up the rays. 

UN humanitarians issued an alert on Tuesday over the deteriorating situation for millions of mainly women and children in northeast Nigeria who continue to be affected by protracted armed conflict, just as the country enters the lean season.

The ocean holds the keys to an equitable and sustainable development path for all. This is the premise behind the UN Ocean Decade and it will be in the spotlight during several major international summits this year to promote ocean health, including the UN Ocean Conference, which is set to open soon in Lisbon, Portugal.

With humanitarian needs in Syria at their highest levels since the start of the civil war more than 11 years ago, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appealed on Monday for the Security Council to renew a resolution on delivering lifesaving aid to millions in northwest Syria, through cross-border operations from neighbouring Türkiye. 

With eight months remaining, the window of opportunity is closing for South Sudan to meet critical benchmarks required to complete its transition away from long-running civil conflict, the Special Representative for the country told the Security Council on Monday, pressing parties to the November 2018 peace deal, to implement their commitments in letter and spirit.

The Lebanese Government, the United Nations and partners on Monday announced a $3.2 billion appeal for the country to address ongoing impacts from the war in neighbouring Syria and the current economic crisis. 

The resolution of a civil conflict fuelled-displacement crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, that at its height forced more than 300,000 people to flee to neighbouring countries and beyond, is “a welcome bright spot amid a rising global trend of forced displacement”, said the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, on Monday.

The UN World Food Programme, WFP, said on Monday that it will have no choice but to make further food ration cuts soon for refugees.

Further food ration cuts are imminent for refugees as humanitarian needs multiply around the world while funding struggles to keep pace, the UN food relief agency warned on Monday, World Refugee Day. 

Sweltering conditions in Europe have come earlier than expected this year but the bad news is, they’re the shape of things to come.

In Burkina Faso, UN humanitarians on Friday appealed to the international community for help, after attacks by armed groups forced thousands to flee their homes in the east of the country.

The current global economic paradigm of infinite growth based on using up a finite amount of resources, such as fossil fuels, will only deliver a “permanent triple whammy of inflation, climate chaos and conflict”, the UN chief warned on Friday.

One-third of Sudan’s population, or 15 million people, are facing acute food insecurity, according to a new assessment released on Thursday by the World Food Programme (WFP). 

With livelihoods in tatters and hopes almost shattered, the Lebanese are “hanging on by a thread,” the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator said on Thursday, announcing the extension of the Emergency Response Plan (ERP) to address the rapidly deteriorating situation.

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday began distributing food vouchers to pregnant women in underserved districts of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, marking the start of the UN agency’s emergency response in the country, which is facing its gravest political and economic crisis since independence.

As the UN marks the International Day of Family Remittances on Thursday, there is concern that economic contraction and job losses in Russia - likely to now rise further as a result of sanctions imposed since the invasion of Ukraine - are already having an impact on remittance-dependent communities in Central Asia, according to experts with the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The “unprecedented” truce in Yemen has so far led to a reduction in fighting and other positive developments, but action is needed on its full implementation and to address rising humanitarian needs and insecurity, the UN Security Council heard on Tuesday.