News

On World Humanitarian Day, marked annually on 19 August, aid workers Ahmad Alragheb, based in Syria, and Veronica Houser, stationed in Afghanistan, talk about the crucial humanitarian effort in these countries, and the challenges they and their colleagues face.

Allow human rights and humanitarian organizations to continue their work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), UN agencies and other partners have urged Israel.

Positive momentum on the landmark Black Sea Grain Initiative to help vulnerable people access food reflects “a victory for diplomacy” for those caught in a cost-of-living crisis as well as for Ukraine’s hard-working farmers, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters on Thursday in Lviv, Ukraine.

On the eve of World Humanitarian Day, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, called on Thursday for joint action to address the aid crisis in the country and end attacks against civilians and humanitarian workers.

Secretary-General António Guterres arrived on Wednesday to Lviv, the largest city in Western Ukraine.

The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, Imran Riza, on Wednesday concluded a four-day mission to the northeast, where he visited camps hosting thousands of displaced persons. 

Following heavy widespread rains in Yemen, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) remains on high alert as the threat of desert locust emergence looms, the UN agency said on Wednesday.

The first vessel transporting Ukrainian wheat grain to support humanitarian operations run by the World Food Programme (WFP) has left the port of Yuzhny, also known as Pivdennyi, the UN agency reported on Tuesday. 

Although $4.4 billion is required to fund humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, $1.8 billion has been received so far, or roughly 40 per cent, a senior UN official told journalists in New York on Monday, warning of the dire consequences as winter approaches. 

The intergovernmental conference to draft the first-ever treaty on the ocean’s biological diversity opened its fifth and likely final session on Monday.

The Security Council has a joint responsibility to help Yemen take the “necessary and decisive steps towards peace,” the country’s UN Special Envoy told the ambassadors on Monday.

A year on from the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the senior UN official in the country, Resident Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov, describes his fears for girls’ lives, and calls for women to play a full role in reviving the Afghan economy.

One year on from a devastating earthquake which struck Haiti, communities are rebuilding their lives, and aiming to be better prepared when future disasters strike.

On 14 August 2021 a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, destroying, or rendering uninhabitable tens of thousands of houses across three departments in the south of Haiti, including Plaisimond Milaure’s home. For the last year, she’s been living in a tent outside the city of Les Cayes, supported by UN agencies. One year on, she is ready to return.

A UN-chartered vessel should soon arrive at the Ukrainian port of Yuzhny, also known as Pivdennyi, to collect wheat that will help feed millions of hungry people in the Horn of Africa, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Friday.

On the island nation of Fiji, young people are working in solidarity with their elders, benefiting from their knowledge and experience to protect the fragile ecosystem.

International Youth Day celebrates “the power of partnerships across generations,” the UN chief said in his message for the day.

The United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA) warned on Friday that at nearly $34 billion, the funding shortfall for aid operations is the biggest it’s ever been.

A tiny Caribbean Island known as 'the flower of the ocean' was decimated by Hurricane Iota in 2020. Although the loss of human life was minimal, the impact on precious ecosystems deeply changed the perspective of its inhabitants. Two years later, they’re still working to restore their environmental treasures and preparing for whatever curveballs climate change might throw at them next.

Despite an unprecedented scale-up in assistance in Afghanistan over the past year, immense needs still exist and the future looks bleak, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said on Thursday.  

A new UN-backed humanitarian logistics hub and training centre in Barbados aims to strengthen emergency preparedness and response across the Caribbean, the World Food Programme (WFP) said in announcing the news on Thursday. 

A devastating drought in Somalia has reached unprecedented levels, leaving one million people within the country currently registered as displaced, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Thursday.

The number of young people globally who can’t find a job this year is set to reach 73 million – that’s a full six million more than before COVID-19 – the UN labour agency said on Thursday.

From Ethiopia to Chad and Palestine, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN’s fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, is helping millions of boys and girls affected by conflict around the world to pursue their dreams.

Under the Black Sea Initiative so far, 12 vessels have been “authorized to depart the Ukrainian ports,” the acting UN coordinator for the grain deal told UN journalists in New York on Wednesday. 

UN experts on Wednesday denounced the decision by Belarus to withdraw from an international agreement that upholds people’s right to access information, as well as justice, in environmental matters. 

The UN trade and development body, UNCTAD, has called for action to curb cryptocurrencies in developing nations, in three policy briefs published on Wednesday. 

UN agencies appealed on Tuesday for $73 million over the next six months to provide food rations to more than 750,000 people seeking refuge in Ethiopia.

In a visit to Mongolia on Tuesday, Secretary-General António Guterres underscored the UN’s full solidarity for the country, which he described as “a symbol of peace in a troubled world”. 

Amidst extreme heat, drought and wildfires, many parts of the world had just experienced one of three warmest Julys on record, the UN weather agency said on Tuesday.