News

A United States resolution to extend the mandate of an expert panel which monitors sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was vetoed by Russia in the Security Council on Thursday.

Gaza’s health system is ‘barely surviving’ after more than five months of Israeli bombardment, the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and partners on Thursday appealed for $1.4 billion this year to support more than two million South Sudanese refugees in five African countries and local communities hosting them. 

Immediate and bold action is required to tackle the “cataclysmic” situation in Haiti, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said in a report issued on Thursday. 

“What you do makes me cry at night,” 13-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki told the 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil in a message that resonates today as the world grapples with climate change.

Insecurity in the volatile eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has worsened since the end of recent elections, UN Special Representative Bintou Keita told the Security Council on Wednesday. 

The UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine said on Wednesday that she was “shocked and appalled by the horrifying reports” of civilians, including small children, being killed and injured by Russian strikes.

While a third of humanity faces food insecurity, an equivalent of one billion meals go to waste every day, a new report by the UN environment agency (UNEP) revealed on Wednesday. One fifth of food is thrown away.

The intense Israeli bombardment of Gaza in response to Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel has included “direct hits” on 212 schools in the enclave, UN-partnered analysis indicated on Wednesday.

An alarming surge in armed violence in areas of Haiti is heightening the risk of a malnutrition crisis in the country, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday.

One in three migrant deaths happens while people flee conflict, the UN migration agency, IOM, said on Tuesday. More than two in three migrants whose deaths have been documented remain unidentified. 

Intense hostilities in Gaza continued on Tuesday between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces with a “double-digit number of children killed overnight” and ongoing aid delivery obstacles that are responsible for near-famine conditions, UN humanitarians said.

Israel’s ongoing restrictions and its new ban on aid deliveries by the largest United Nations agency on the ground in war-torn Gaza are already having a grave impact, the interim UN coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory warned.

Conflict in Yemen entered its 10th year on Monday, as UN humanitarians issued a warning that over half the country’s populations are in desperate need of aid. 

The UN Security Council is poised to convene an emergency meeting at 10am (New York time) on Monday to take up a fresh draft resolution in a bid to stop the war and humanitarian suffering in Gaza on the heels of a United States-proposed text that China and Russia vetoed on Friday.

With “starvation bearing down” on Gaza, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday repeated his call for a sustainable end to the conflict and the release of all remaining hostages – amid “unprecedented and ongoing devastation” in the occupied enclave.

Israeli authorities informed the United Nations on Sunday that it will no longer approve the passage of any UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, food convoys into northern Gaza.

The largest global environment movement is happening on Saturday, when the UN invites people around the world to shut the lights to remember the planetary crisis during Earth Hour as young partners find new ways to drive climate action.

A draft resolution from the United States was vetoed by the UN Security Council on Friday by Russia and China. The draft stated the "imperative" for “an immediate and sustained ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides”, facilitating “essential” aid delivery and supporting ongoing talks between Israel and Hamas militants to create a sustainable end to the hostilities, tied to the release of all hostages. Follow the full story here live.

Amid reports of ongoing bombardment across Gaza on Friday, UN humanitarians highlighted “shocking levels of disease and hunger” after visiting an overwhelmed hospital in the north of the enclave.

After thirteen years of conflict in Syria, a continuing political stalemate threatens to prolong the suffering of millions and hinder efforts to bring about peace, the UN Special Envoy for the country said on Thursday.

The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a landmark resolution on the promotion of “safe, secure and trustworthy” artificial intelligence (AI) systems that will also benefit sustainable development for all.

After several quarters of decline, international trade is poised for a rebound during the rest of 2024, according to the latest Global Trade Update from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The situation in the gang-ravaged capital of Haiti has gone from worrying to “extremely alarming” as conditions in Port-au-Prince continue to worsen amid growing hunger and serious shortages in hospitals to treat gunshot victims, said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator there on Thursday.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres doubled down on his call for a ceasefire in Gaza and peace in Ukraine on Thursday, taking aim at the “chaotic” global outlook and any country or armed group that thinks “it can do whatever it wants because there is no accountability”.

Some 70 million hectares of forest are affected by fires each year, causing huge environmental and economic damage. On the International Day of Forests, marked on 21 March, we look at how an innovative UN-led initiative in Indonesia is dramatically reducing forest fires, saving livelihoods and cutting harmful emissions.

Racism is “an evil infecting countries and societies around the world” the UN chief has said in his message marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination but it impacts communities differently.

Women in one of the poorest parts of rural Madagascar are growing their financial independence from men by cultivating village land and selling their produce.

Eleven months of brutal fighting is driving a hunger crisis in Sudan, with some areas likely to experience catastrophic levels of food insecurity by the lean season in May, the UN Security Council heard on Wednesday. 

Less than half of the UN aid convoys planned for Gaza’s hunger-ravaged north have made it so far this month, despite repeated appeals from the international community to ramp up relief to more than one million people on the brink of starvation, UN humanitarians said on Wednesday.