UN News
- Suffering in Sudan continues to grow in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis amid brutal mass killings, abductions and rape, top UN officials warned the Security Council on Monday, calling for action to end the four-year-long war. UN News app users can follow our coverage here.
- For millions of children in Sudan, the classroom remains out of reach as the country’s civil war continues to disrupt their education. To help tackle this huge problem, the UN global education fund on Monday announced a $22 million initiative to help 200,000 youngsters return to learning.
- The disruption of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, Black Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait has worsened hunger crises and must immediately end, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said.
- Conflicts can expose civilians and detainees to grave abuses; the challenge is not only to document these crimes, but also to ensure all survivors are recognised, protected and able to access justice and care.
- As the deadliest Ebola outbreak in DR Congo’s history continued spreading on Friday, UN responders renewed their urgent appeal for immediate international support, with existing funding for lifesaving work critically low.
- The global funding crisis for humanitarian work is taking a growing toll on the most vulnerable children in Somalia, where some aid programmes and facilities have been forced to shut down.
- The UN has launched a new initiative to protect victims of terrorist attacks from online harm and re-traumatisation, drawing on harrowing survivor accounts, from the Nova Music Festival in Israel to an attack on a FIFA World Cup final viewing party in Uganda.
- For Ari, a six-year-old boy with learning difficulties in Jamaica, artificial intelligence (AI) opened the door to something many children take for granted: reading a book in his own language. Thousands of miles away, gold miners in Ethiopia are being screened more quickly for tuberculosis, while communities around the world are breathing cleaner air thanks to faster detection of methane leaks.
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will receive 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine from the UN’s international vaccine coordination group (ICG) to protect frontline communities against the Ebola virus disease.
- Children, who are particularly vulnerable to the disease, account for half of the 46 suspected mpox cases identified in Guinea-Bissau – with 16 of them under the age of four.
- Ten days after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia, an estimated 1.2 million people need humanitarian assistance, while some communities have still received little or no aid, UN agencies said on Thursday.
- Russian ballistic missile strikes killed 17 people and injured more than 40 in and around the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday, local authorities reported.
- The under-reported humanitarian crisis in South Sudan risks deepening with the real possibility of further atrocity crimes unless renewed fighting stops, a UN-backed probe said on Thursday.
- Ninety-four cent of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents need shelter as Israeli gunfire and strikes continue inside the enclave, UN agencies and peacekeepers warned on Thursday.
- Intensifying fighting in Sudan has displaced at least another 200,000 people since late 2025, while destructive seasonal floods are compounding the massive humanitarian emergency there, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.
- In the wake of President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia’s re-election for a second five-year term, UN human rights chief has raised concerns over the reported arrests and detention of political opponents in the country.
- The UN is warning that aid workers face a deadly and evolving threat, with armed drones reshaping battlefields worldwide – putting humanitarian teams increasingly in the line of fire.
- The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday responded to a new round of US sanctions targeting its president and a senior prosecutor, calling them “a flagrant attack” against the court.
- What if the infrastructure needed to fight climate change could also help repair the land beneath it?
- Reports of new illegal Israeli outposts in the occupied West Bank raised alarms at UN Headquarters on Wednesday while the UN rights office called on Israel to condemn its national security minister’s words that incite “violence amounting to atrocity crimes” against Palestinians.
- Ninety-four cent of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents need shelter as Israeli gunfire and strikes continue inside the enclave, UN agencies and peacekeepers warned on Thursday.
- Reports of new illegal Israeli outposts in the occupied West Bank raised alarms at UN Headquarters on Wednesday while the UN rights office called on Israel to condemn its national security minister’s words that incite “violence amounting to atrocity crimes” against Palestinians.
- Amid ongoing deadly hostilities in Gaza, the enclave’s farmers face the increasingly difficult challenge of finding safe land to grow their crops.
- Around 860,000 people displaced by the conflict in southern Lebanon have returned, but the displacement and humanitarian crisis are “far from over,” the UN warned on Tuesday.
- Humanitarian workers have reached Palestinian families who had been trapped for days by Israeli settlers in Qusra village in the northern West Bank, the UN said on Monday, as officials warned that the standoff must not become "the new normal."
- Communities in Syria are clearing rubble and rebuilding neighbourhoods and livelihoods torn down in the more than a decade of conflict and crisis in the country.
- Authorities in Iran intercepted 3,663 kilogrammes of methamphetamines headed for Europe and the Persian Gulf in the first quarter of 2026, according to the UN’s drugs and crime fighting agency (UNODC).
- Humanitarians continue to provide life-saving assistance to people across the Occupied Palestinian Territory despite facing obstacles such as checkpoints, instability and access restrictions, the United Nations said on Friday.
- In the occupied West Bank, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, appealed on Thursday to Israeli authorities to help Palestinian families trapped in their homes by settlers for days, amid an intensifying campaign to seize their land.
- As tensions triggered by the US-Iran war continue to ripple across the Middle East, the Security Council held an open debate Thursday on Yemen, where escalating deadly military clashes are worsening an already fragile humanitarian situation amid fears that recent Houthi missile strikes on Saudi Arabia and commercial vessels could threaten the 2022 truce between Houthi militia and the internationally-recognised Government. UN News app users can follow our live coverage here.
- UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Thursday condemned an amendment adopted by Türkiye’s parliament that would allow judges to give life sentences to child offenders convicted of serious crimes.
- New satellite assessments show the destruction of buildings in Gaza has climbed by nearly 10 per cent since October’s faltering ceasefire between Hamas and Israeli forces aim to end the two-year war, which reduced cities to rubble and displaced more than one million people, UN agencies said on Thursday.
- A strike on a merchant ship off the southern coast of Yemen that reportedly killed several seafarers on Tuesday threatens to reignite deep concerns about global trade, amid the ongoing Iran-US war that has choked shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
- The Security Council held an open debate on Tuesday which is expected to address escalating Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinians and their property continue. UN News app users can follow here.
- Israeli forces fired 455 projectiles into south Lebanon and breached Lebanese airspace 97 times between Friday and Sunday, the UN's peacekeeping mission in the country reported Monday – among the heaviest fire seen in months.
- More than 2,500 years after Homer’s epic was first told, Christopher Nolan's blockbuster retelling of The Odyssey has brought the journey back to big screens worldwide. But, behind the sweeping plot is another character facing an odyssey of its own: the Mediterranean Sea.
- At least 300 children in Gaza have been reportedly killed in as many days since a ceasefire agreement supposedly came into effect last October to suspend military operations between Hamas fighters and the Israel Defense Forces, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.
- The UN rights chief expressed alarm on Wednesday over the sharp increase in executions and death sentences in Iran since the US-Israeli bombing campaign began in late February, warning that capital punishment is being used to intimidate the population and suppress dissent.
- Afghanistan’s dire hunger crisis now affects 14 million people including babies fed on little more than weak tea and bread by their despairing and impoverished parents.
- Disruption in the Strait of Hormuz has exposed the vulnerability of global trade to a single maritime chokepoint, with early data showing sharp falls in exports of energy, fertilizers and industrial products.
- Russian ballistic missile strikes killed 17 people and injured more than 40 in and around the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday, local authorities reported.
- As amber heat-health alerts spread across England this summer, a new study has found that the warnings are being received – but not changing behaviour.
- Civilian casualties in Ukraine reached their highest monthly level in July, with more people killed and injured than at any time since March 2022, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country, HRMMU, said in an update on Thursday.
- Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine has left civilians vulnerable to repeated deadly attacks and humanitarian workers and key facilities being targeted and destroyed.
- In a new twist on panda diplomacy, UN Geneva welcomed five young peacocks to the Palace of Nations on Friday, a gift of India that preserves a tradition of keeping the stately birds in the grounds, that predates both the global body and its ill-fated predecessor, the League of Nations.
- More than 2,500 years after Homer’s epic was first told, Christopher Nolan's blockbuster retelling of The Odyssey has brought the journey back to big screens worldwide. But, behind the sweeping plot is another character facing an odyssey of its own: the Mediterranean Sea.
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned on Wednesday the deadliest Russian strikes on Kyiv this year, which killed 17 people and caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure overnight.
- Russian forces hammered Ukraine with ballistic missiles and long-range drones overnight on Tuesday, killing at least 17 civilians – mainly around Kyiv – and injuring another 44, the UN human rights office in Ukraine reported.
- As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, with both sides stepping up airstrikes and drone attacks in recent weeks deep inside each other's territory, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) appealed on Tuesday for greater protection for the war’s youngest victims.
- In classrooms, maternity wards, hospital corridors and local communities across Ukraine, people are rebuilding their lives despite the ongoing war.
- Aid workers and first responders raced to help people across Ukraine after a wave of deadly Russian missile and drone strikes overnight as concerns mounted over military activity near nuclear power plants on Thursday.
- The United Nations Secretary-General said on Wednesday that he plans to convene fresh talks on Cyprus to resolve the decades-long division on the Mediterranean island, stressing that the moment calls for rebuilding trust between its two communities.
- The UN Security Council met on Monday at Ukraine’s request, following recent large-scale Russian attacks on Kyiv and elsewhere. At least one civilian was killed and more than a dozen wounded in an overnight strike on the capital on 19 July that also damaged homes and civilian infrastructure. Ukrainian authorities described it as one of the largest and most intense attacks since the invasion began. Follow live updates below.
- When 10-year-old Ukrainian gymnast Sasha Paskal stepped onto the stage in New York's Times Square this week, she carried a message far bigger than her performance.
- The amount of land burned by wildfires across Europe has increased by 57 per cent in four years, according to new data from the World Health Organization (WHO) in Europe.
- Russian attacks and drone strikes killed at least two children and injured dozens more across Ukraine over recent days while severely damaging three critical aid warehouses, UN agencies reported on Monday.
- United Nations agencies have deplored a fresh Russian assault on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv which left at least one person dead and a dozen injured.
- As Europe battles a deadly record-breaking heatwave, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued new guidance on Thursday to help countries face scorching temperatures now and in the future.
- Civilian casualties in Ukraine soared during the first half of 2026 amid escalating Russian attacks and intensifying use of deadly weapons, the UN human rights monitoring mission in the country, HRMMU, said on Tuesday.
- A UN independent human rights expert has urged political leaders in the United Kingdom to support implementation of a Supreme Court ruling on the legal definition of sex, warning that opposition to updated equality guidance risks weakening protections for women and girls.
- Ten days after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia, an estimated 1.2 million people need humanitarian assistance, while some communities have still received little or no aid, UN agencies said on Thursday.
- The UN is scaling up humanitarian assistance in western Colombia as needs continue to grow following last week’s devastating 7.4-magnitude earthquake, according to the latest update released on Tuesday.
- In one of the cities hardest hit by the earthquake that struck Colombia, hundreds of people are still waiting for news of missing relatives, friends and neighbours.
- The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday upheld the safety of childhood vaccines in response to a new directive from the White House to overhaul the recommended inoculation schedule.
- The UN on Wednesday continued scaling up assistance to areas affected by the deadly earthquake that hit Colombia two days earlier.
- As earthquake rescue efforts across western Colombia continued on Tuesday, UN agencies said that they stood ready to help “with everything we've got”, in coordination with national authorities.
- The UN offered its support to Colombia on Monday after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck the west of the country, killing at least 111 people and injuring at least 87, including several children, while leaving others trapped under the rubble and causing landslides and serious damage to homes and infrastructure.
- Gangs in Haiti continue to terrorise communities with the “wanton, intentional infliction of incredible pain” on people who often are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Independent UN human rights experts on Thursday condemned a fresh round of US sanctions against Cuba, calling them an attempt to force change on “a sovereign State through threats and coercion.”
- An independent UN human rights expert has welcomed ongoing proceedings in the United States to extradite “manosphere” bloggers Andrew and Tristan Tate to the United Kingdom, calling the case an important step towards accountability for serious allegations of violence against women and girls.
- Sofia* was 27, raising her seven-year-old son alone in Venezuela, and running out of options. For years she had distributed personal hygiene products door to door, but as her customers’ finances collapsed, so did her income.
- One month after twin earthquakes rocked Venezuela, thousands of women and girls continue to face difficulty in accessing essential healthcare and protection services, a senior official with the UN reproductive and sexual health agency UNFPA said on Friday.
- The UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Wednesday condemned new threats from Nicaragua’s co-president Daniel Ortega to hinder civil rights and prevent dissenting individuals and groups from participating in elections.
- Haiti’s future success depends on “security, political engagement, and humanitarian action reinforcing each other,” the UN’s most senior official in Haiti has told the UN Security Council which met in New York on Monday to discuss the way forward for the embattled Caribbean island nation.
- When a 12-story apartment building pancaked in La Guaira, Venezuela, following two powerful earthquakes late last month, panic ensued to save people injured or trapped under the rubble.
- For millions of Haitians, daily life has become a struggle to stay safe, find enough food and simply move around their own neighbourhood.
- Thousands of people remain displaced three weeks after the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela and the possible formation of a strong El Niño climate pattern could worsen their already dire situation, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned on Thursday.
- How do you tackle corruption in a country grappling with insecurity, weak institutions and widespread impunity? In Haiti, the Government and the United Nations are betting on the country's youth.
- As Colombia awaits the inauguration of its newly elected president, pockets of insecurity remain a challenge for a nation that has overcome decades of conflict, the head of the UN verification team there told the Security Council on Wednesday.
- The United Nations upheld the critical role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday in the global fight to end impunity for grave crimes amid calls for it to be abolished.
- Independent UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts on Tuesday condemned the execution of at least 16 people in Singapore for drug-related offences this year and urged the country to end its “continued and unlawful use of capital punishment.”
- Five years after the Taliban seized power, women and girls in Afghanistan have been systematically stripped of their rights, UN agencies said on Wednesday. De facto authorities have issued more than 100 decrees curbing education, work and freedom of movement – restrictions now compounded by deep cuts to aid on the ground.
- Myanmar's military has carried out a sustained campaign of deliberate attacks on civilians – including airstrikes on homes, schools and camps for displaced people, alongside arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence – according to Human Rights Council-appointed investigators.
- Five years into Taliban rule, Afghans still have almost no way of knowing whether soldiers, police and morality officers who abuse their power ever face consequences – and that secrecy is corroding trust in the State, the UN said Monday.
- Afghans returning from neighbouring countries are facing growing risks of human trafficking and exploitation as overlapping humanitarian and economic crises leave many struggling to survive, the UN warned on Thursday.
- A job advert can hide a criminal network, and a single click can lead to a nightmare. Hundreds of thousands of people are trafficked every year on the promise of legitimate work abroad, only to be held captive and forced into online scam operations.
- A woman is stopped for buying groceries alone. The shopkeeper who served her is slapped and hauled in for questioning. A teacher is turned away from her own classroom for wearing the wrong cloak.
- Flash floods have killed at least 26 people across eastern Afghanistan, including 23 in the mountainous province of Nuristan, where homes, markets and roads were swept away and search teams continued looking for people reported missing.
- It looks like a regular coffee shop, albeit set up in an old red bus. Stairs lead up to a serving hatch, with a menu of drink options. A selection of jaunty coffee-related messages like “My one and only love: Americano” and “Miss you a latte,” adorn the side of the bus.
- There is growing concern for at least 500 people believed to have been aboard two boats that reportedly capsized off Myanmar’s coast in recent days.
- Some 3.7 million children under five in Afghanistan are at heightened risk of malnutrition due to food insecurity, poor diets and inadequate access to basic services as the peak season for life-threatening wasting looms.
- From local communities to the global stage, a diverse group of young leaders from Thailand is helping shape conversations on public policy, climate action, inclusion, indigenous rights, disability access and youth wellbeing.
- The Southwest Pacific is facing mounting climate risks as its vast ocean expanse becomes hotter, more acidic and more dangerous for coastal communities, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a report published on Tuesday.
- Afghanistan faces one of the world’s biggest displacement crises amid poverty, drought and earthquakes, UN agencies warned on Monday.
- As European transport officials scramble to deal with melting train tracks and buckling roads amid a crushing heatwave, a UN report released Tuesday warns of more extreme weather in the decades ahead for Europe, Central Asia and North America.
- A drop in humanitarian assistance is worsening the suffering of millions of people in Myanmar after five years of conflict-related violence, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said in a report published on Monday.
- Imagine being one of a family of nine and sitting down to a meal of potato peelings and other scraps, boiled up into a soup. This is the harsh reality for many of Afghanistan’s most vulnerable families, forced on them by climate change and drought, widespread malnutrition and increasing restrictions on women, since the Taliban overran Kabul in 2021.
- As countries grapple with energy price shocks, supply disruptions and the growing impacts of climate change, energy security has become a pressing concern.
- A powerful earthquake struck the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on Monday morning just as millions of children were returning to school after the summer break.
- As the Security Council met on Afghanistan, senior officials and civil society representatives delivered a clear warning Monday: despite relative security under the Taliban, worsening humanitarian conditions, restrictions on women and growing economic pressures are creating a fragile and uncertain future.
- For millions of children in Sudan, the classroom remains out of reach as the country’s civil war continues to disrupt their education. To help tackle this huge problem, the UN global education fund on Monday announced a $22 million initiative to help 200,000 youngsters return to learning.
- Suffering in Sudan continues to grow in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis amid brutal mass killings, abductions and rape, top UN officials warned the Security Council on Monday, calling for action to end the four-year-long war. UN News app users can follow our coverage here.
- As the deadliest Ebola outbreak in DR Congo’s history continued spreading on Friday, UN responders renewed their urgent appeal for immediate international support, with existing funding for lifesaving work critically low.
- The global funding crisis for humanitarian work is taking a growing toll on the most vulnerable children in Somalia, where some aid programmes and facilities have been forced to shut down.
- The under-reported humanitarian crisis in South Sudan risks deepening with the real possibility of further atrocity crimes unless renewed fighting stops, a UN-backed probe said on Thursday.
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will receive 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine from the UN’s international vaccine coordination group (ICG) to protect frontline communities against the Ebola virus disease.
- Children, who are particularly vulnerable to the disease, account for half of the 46 suspected mpox cases identified in Guinea-Bissau – with 16 of them under the age of four.
- Intensifying fighting in Sudan has displaced at least another 200,000 people since late 2025, while destructive seasonal floods are compounding the massive humanitarian emergency there, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.
- In the wake of President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia’s re-election for a second five-year term, UN human rights chief has raised concerns over the reported arrests and detention of political opponents in the country.
- From the frontlines of the deadliest-ever Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN World Health Organization (WHO) shared details on Tuesday of a massive push for community engagement, a day after yet another ambulance attack.
- As Libya faces a political impasse delaying long-planned elections alongside clashes and drone strikes that left a major oil refinery ablaze, the Security Council heard the latest updates, with an activist warning that the collision of extreme heat, water scarcity and environmental shocks with political division, armed insecurity and struggling institutions clearly makes the situation a peace and security issue. UN News app users can follow our live coverage here.
- The Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is now the deadliest the country has ever faced, the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.
- Demobilised former combatants are actively joining the fight against Ebola by participating in public information campaigns in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
- Sudanese women about to give birth are losing their babies and sometimes their own lives because of a lack of specialist healthcare support, amid the ongoing war, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
- The Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – the fastest-growing on record and on track to become the deadliest – is killing one person every 30 minutes.
- Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are tracking a growing share of people exposed to Ebola, but the epidemic in the country's restive east continues to outpace their ability to find and isolate the sick, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
- Cholera is spreading rapidly across West and Central Africa, with active outbreaks now in six countries and millions of children at growing risk, UN children’s agency UNICEF has said.
- The United Nations has once again urged warring parties in Sudan to protect civilians as the fighting continues to take a heavy toll on the population.
- Local officials in the DR Congo (DRC) reported on Tuesday that deaths from the Ebola virus disease have surpassed 2,000, with half of that number in the last 20 days.
- The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has condemned recent armed group attacks in Warrap state which reportedly left more than 60 civilians dead and 50 others injured.
- As the deadliest Ebola outbreak in DR Congo’s history continued spreading on Friday, UN responders renewed their urgent appeal for immediate international support, with existing funding for lifesaving work critically low.
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will receive 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine from the UN’s international vaccine coordination group (ICG) to protect frontline communities against the Ebola virus disease.
- Children, who are particularly vulnerable to the disease, account for half of the 46 suspected mpox cases identified in Guinea-Bissau – with 16 of them under the age of four.
- From the frontlines of the deadliest-ever Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN World Health Organization (WHO) shared details on Tuesday of a massive push for community engagement, a day after yet another ambulance attack.
- The Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is now the deadliest the country has ever faced, the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.
- Demobilised former combatants are actively joining the fight against Ebola by participating in public information campaigns in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
- Authorities in Iran intercepted 3,663 kilogrammes of methamphetamines headed for Europe and the Persian Gulf in the first quarter of 2026, according to the UN’s drugs and crime fighting agency (UNODC).
- Across the world, healthcare has suffered more than 10,000 attacks in the past eight years, including during the brutal conflict in Ukraine and efforts to contain the current Ebola outbreak spreading rapidly in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
- The Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – the fastest-growing on record and on track to become the deadliest – is killing one person every 30 minutes.
- Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are tracking a growing share of people exposed to Ebola, but the epidemic in the country's restive east continues to outpace their ability to find and isolate the sick, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
- The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday upheld the safety of childhood vaccines in response to a new directive from the White House to overhaul the recommended inoculation schedule.
- Cholera is spreading rapidly across West and Central Africa, with active outbreaks now in six countries and millions of children at growing risk, UN children’s agency UNICEF has said.
- Local officials in the DR Congo (DRC) reported on Tuesday that deaths from the Ebola virus disease have surpassed 2,000, with half of that number in the last 20 days.
- More than 1,900 people have died in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ebola outbreak – and most of them never made it to a treatment centre. Between 60 and 70 per cent of deaths are happening in communities far from care, a gap that is now central to the World Health Organization's response.
- More than 300 children have died in the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN said on Friday, as health experts urged trials of the only vaccine against the disease to halt further spread of the rare Bundibugyo species.
- Agencies are on high alert amid reports that the rapidly spreading Ebola Bundibugyo virus species in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has infected 19 internally displaced people, killed five of them, according to the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR).
- Results may be months away, but efforts are advancing towards enhanced treatment and the world’s first vaccine for the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday as deaths and cases rise in the largest ever outbreak on record in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
- New UN-partnered centres will serve eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as confirmed Ebola cases continued to climb sharply over the weekend in the largest-ever outbreak of the highly contagious disease in the country.
- Breastfeeding rates are rising worldwide, but millions of mothers and families still lack the services and protection they need to feed their babies safely, the UN has warned.
- Wildfires are often associated with the destruction they leave behind, but the smoke they produce can pose a serious health threat far beyond the fire zone, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
- For Ari, a six-year-old boy with learning difficulties in Jamaica, artificial intelligence (AI) opened the door to something many children take for granted: reading a book in his own language. Thousands of miles away, gold miners in Ethiopia are being screened more quickly for tuberculosis, while communities around the world are breathing cleaner air thanks to faster detection of methane leaks.
- As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly transforms everything from how we learn, to the job market, children are adopting the technology more than three times faster than adults – exposing them to unique opportunities and risks.
- More than eight in 10 young people aged 15 to 24 worldwide are now online, and in low-income countries they outpace the rest of the population nearly two to one.
- In a new twist on panda diplomacy, UN Geneva welcomed five young peacocks to the Palace of Nations on Friday, a gift of India that preserves a tradition of keeping the stately birds in the grounds, that predates both the global body and its ill-fated predecessor, the League of Nations.
- A country long known as a meeting point of civilizations, Syria stands once again at a crossroads.
- Syria has an opportunity not only to recover from conflict but to build “a future that is more stable, more inclusive and more prosperous for all Syrians”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in Damascus on Saturday as he began a landmark visit to the country.
- Amar Bendjama, Permanent Representative of Algeria to the UN, was elected on Thursday to serve as the next president of the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
- The United Nations has overhauled a decades-old “Kafkaesque financial rule” that requires it to return unspent funds to Member States – even when those funds had never been deposited in the first place.
- Secretary-General António Guterres and General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock reaffirmed the principles outlined in the UN Charter and called for a renewed commitment to multilateralism at a General Assembly meeting on Friday marking the Charter’s 81st anniversary.
- Criminal networks are moving faster, reaching further and blurring the lines between threats. Into this shifting landscape steps Monica Juma, taking on one of the UN’s most demanding security and justice portfolios.
- From peacekeepers to math teachers, 136 UN personnel who lost their lives in the line of duty in 2025 were commemorated on Monday morning in an annual service hosted by the Secretary-General.
- A closely watched Security Council election delivered a mix of continuity and change on Wednesday, as Austria, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago, Zimbabwe – and first-time member Kyrgyzstan, secured seats around the iconic horseshoe table.
- Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman was elected President of the UN General Assembly’s 81st session on Tuesday after defeating Andreas Kakouris of Cyprus in a closely contested vote, positioning himself to steer the world body through a pivotal year marked by intensifying global crises, UN reform efforts and major leadership transitions.
- Peacekeepers are serving in a dangerous era of mounting global tensions and tight resources. UN chief António Guterres is now calling for greater political backing and reliable financial support for ‘blue helmets’ who put themselves in harm’s way.
- UN chief António Guterres has outlined further progress in the wide-ranging UN80 Initiative, a major reform and restructuring project aimed at making the global body more effective, agile and better equipped to respond to global challenges.
- The UN Charter is facing one of its gravest tests in decades, Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Tuesday, warning that wars, arms races, climate shocks and the erosion of international law are placing intense pressure on the multilateral system established to prevent a third world war.
- A landmark gathering of more than 57,000 participants – the largest in the history of the World Urban Forum – closed on Friday in Baku with an urgent call to rethink how the world houses its people, as a new roadmap urges governments, cities and communities to act collectively on a crisis affecting billions.
- From AI-powered transit systems to digital twins and flood-proof parks, cities are embracing technology at an unprecedented scale. But as innovation accelerates, experts warn that inclusion, trust and security will determine who truly benefits.
- The UN Secretary-General on Wednesday underscored the need to effectively re-open the Strait of Hormuz and expand UN Security Council membership to curb the impunity of veto-wielding “superpowers”.
- From Thailand to Jordan, from Brazil to Germany, new approaches to housing are quietly taking shape. Residents of informal settlements once facing eviction are rebuilding their communities with State support. Refugees and host communities are reclaiming neglected spaces, turning them greener and safer. In Brazil, favelas are being upgraded rather than torn down, while in Germany, rent controls are helping to steady the market.
- Conflicts can expose civilians and detainees to grave abuses; the challenge is not only to document these crimes, but also to ensure all survivors are recognised, protected and able to access justice and care.
- In the wake of President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia’s re-election for a second five-year term, UN human rights chief has raised concerns over the reported arrests and detention of political opponents in the country.
- The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday responded to a new round of US sanctions targeting its president and a senior prosecutor, calling them “a flagrant attack” against the court.
- Independent UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts on Tuesday condemned the execution of at least 16 people in Singapore for drug-related offences this year and urged the country to end its “continued and unlawful use of capital punishment.”
- Authorities in Iran intercepted 3,663 kilogrammes of methamphetamines headed for Europe and the Persian Gulf in the first quarter of 2026, according to the UN’s drugs and crime fighting agency (UNODC).
- Five years into Taliban rule, Afghans still have almost no way of knowing whether soldiers, police and morality officers who abuse their power ever face consequences – and that secrecy is corroding trust in the State, the UN said Monday.
- Sofia* was 27, raising her seven-year-old son alone in Venezuela, and running out of options. For years she had distributed personal hygiene products door to door, but as her customers’ finances collapsed, so did her income.
- Afghans returning from neighbouring countries are facing growing risks of human trafficking and exploitation as overlapping humanitarian and economic crises leave many struggling to survive, the UN warned on Thursday.
- A job advert can hide a criminal network, and a single click can lead to a nightmare. Hundreds of thousands of people are trafficked every year on the promise of legitimate work abroad, only to be held captive and forced into online scam operations.
- Member States of the International Criminal Court dismissed its Prosecutor Karim Khan following disciplinary proceedings related to widely reported sexual misconduct allegations at an emergency session at UN Headquarters in New York on Friday.
- When conflict erupts, disasters strike or political crises unfold, courts are among the few institutions expected to keep functioning – ensuring the essential rule of law is maintained.
- Independent UN human rights experts on Tuesday condemned the M23 armed group’s “reign of terror” over territory it controls in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), calling for an end to the Rwanda-backed group’s sexual torture and violence against civilians.
- The UN General Assembly closed its first ever High-level Meeting on road safety on Tuesday by adopting a sweeping new declaration aimed at halving road deaths by 2030 – over the sole objection of the United States.
- For millions of Haitians, daily life has become a struggle to stay safe, find enough food and simply move around their own neighbourhood.
- It looks like a regular coffee shop, albeit set up in an old red bus. Stairs lead up to a serving hatch, with a menu of drink options. A selection of jaunty coffee-related messages like “My one and only love: Americano” and “Miss you a latte,” adorn the side of the bus.
- How do you tackle corruption in a country grappling with insecurity, weak institutions and widespread impunity? In Haiti, the Government and the United Nations are betting on the country's youth.
- Jihadist groups are no longer content with launching attacks in West Africa and the Sahel: they administer territories, control trade routes, exploit new technologies and are gradually pushing their influence all the way to the Gulf of Guinea.
- The United Nations upheld the critical role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday in the global fight to end impunity for grave crimes amid calls for it to be abolished.
- When people think of the world’s deadliest threats, armed conflicts usually come to mind first. Yet every year, organized crime quietly claims a comparable number of lives.
- More people are using drugs than ever before, while synthetic substances are reshaping illicit markets and exposing vulnerable communities to greater health risks, according to the UN World Drug Report 2026, released on Friday.
- For Ari, a six-year-old boy with learning difficulties in Jamaica, artificial intelligence (AI) opened the door to something many children take for granted: reading a book in his own language. Thousands of miles away, gold miners in Ethiopia are being screened more quickly for tuberculosis, while communities around the world are breathing cleaner air thanks to faster detection of methane leaks.
- The under-reported humanitarian crisis in South Sudan risks deepening with the real possibility of further atrocity crimes unless renewed fighting stops, a UN-backed probe said on Thursday.
- In the wake of President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia’s re-election for a second five-year term, UN human rights chief has raised concerns over the reported arrests and detention of political opponents in the country.
- The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday responded to a new round of US sanctions targeting its president and a senior prosecutor, calling them “a flagrant attack” against the court.
- Reports of new illegal Israeli outposts in the occupied West Bank raised alarms at UN Headquarters on Wednesday while the UN rights office called on Israel to condemn its national security minister’s words that incite “violence amounting to atrocity crimes” against Palestinians.
- Independent UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts on Tuesday condemned the execution of at least 16 people in Singapore for drug-related offences this year and urged the country to end its “continued and unlawful use of capital punishment.”
- UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Thursday condemned an amendment adopted by Türkiye’s parliament that would allow judges to give life sentences to child offenders convicted of serious crimes.
- Civilian casualties in Ukraine reached their highest monthly level in July, with more people killed and injured than at any time since March 2022, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country, HRMMU, said in an update on Thursday.
- Five years after the Taliban seized power, women and girls in Afghanistan have been systematically stripped of their rights, UN agencies said on Wednesday. De facto authorities have issued more than 100 decrees curbing education, work and freedom of movement – restrictions now compounded by deep cuts to aid on the ground.
- Myanmar's military has carried out a sustained campaign of deliberate attacks on civilians – including airstrikes on homes, schools and camps for displaced people, alongside arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence – according to Human Rights Council-appointed investigators.
- As climate change reshapes Indigenous territories across Brazil, a new generation is turning to culture and digital platforms to defend their lands and their future.
- Gangs in Haiti continue to terrorise communities with the “wanton, intentional infliction of incredible pain” on people who often are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Independent UN human rights experts on Thursday condemned a fresh round of US sanctions against Cuba, calling them an attempt to force change on “a sovereign State through threats and coercion.”
- An independent UN human rights expert has welcomed ongoing proceedings in the United States to extradite “manosphere” bloggers Andrew and Tristan Tate to the United Kingdom, calling the case an important step towards accountability for serious allegations of violence against women and girls.
- Concluding his first official visit to Cambodia, UN independent human rights expert Tom Andrews said he was encouraged by the government’s cooperation but remained concerned about key human rights issues such as the lack of freedom of expression.
- The UN rights chief expressed alarm on Wednesday over the sharp increase in executions and death sentences in Iran since the US-Israeli bombing campaign began in late February, warning that capital punishment is being used to intimidate the population and suppress dissent.
- World News in Brief: Rohingya refugees, Bahá’ís in Iran, disarmament in the Central African RepublicIndependent UN experts on Wednesday called for urgent action to support Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh after reports indicated two boats carrying more than 500 passengers may have capsized off the coast of Myanmar in mid-July.
- A woman is stopped for buying groceries alone. The shopkeeper who served her is slapped and hauled in for questioning. A teacher is turned away from her own classroom for wearing the wrong cloak.
- UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk expressed concern about ongoing displacement and destruction caused by Israeli strikes against Lebanon as he concluded a two-day visit to the country on Monday.
- As fighting intensifies in the Middle East, the United Nations on Friday warned against further escalation in the US-Iran war and the risks to global shipping amid the fight over control of the Strait of Hormuz.
- For millions of children in Sudan, the classroom remains out of reach as the country’s civil war continues to disrupt their education. To help tackle this huge problem, the UN global education fund on Monday announced a $22 million initiative to help 200,000 youngsters return to learning.
- As the deadliest Ebola outbreak in DR Congo’s history continued spreading on Friday, UN responders renewed their urgent appeal for immediate international support, with existing funding for lifesaving work critically low.
- The global funding crisis for humanitarian work is taking a growing toll on the most vulnerable children in Somalia, where some aid programmes and facilities have been forced to shut down.
- Ten days after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia, an estimated 1.2 million people need humanitarian assistance, while some communities have still received little or no aid, UN agencies said on Thursday.
- The UN is warning that aid workers face a deadly and evolving threat, with armed drones reshaping battlefields worldwide – putting humanitarian teams increasingly in the line of fire.
- Intensifying fighting in Sudan has displaced at least another 200,000 people since late 2025, while destructive seasonal floods are compounding the massive humanitarian emergency there, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.
- The UN is scaling up humanitarian assistance in western Colombia as needs continue to grow following last week’s devastating 7.4-magnitude earthquake, according to the latest update released on Tuesday.
- Around 860,000 people displaced by the conflict in southern Lebanon have returned, but the displacement and humanitarian crisis are “far from over,” the UN warned on Tuesday.
- From the frontlines of the deadliest-ever Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN World Health Organization (WHO) shared details on Tuesday of a massive push for community engagement, a day after yet another ambulance attack.
- Humanitarian workers have reached Palestinian families who had been trapped for days by Israeli settlers in Qusra village in the northern West Bank, the UN said on Monday, as officials warned that the standoff must not become "the new normal."
- Sudanese women about to give birth are losing their babies and sometimes their own lives because of a lack of specialist healthcare support, amid the ongoing war, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
- Humanitarians continue to provide life-saving assistance to people across the Occupied Palestinian Territory despite facing obstacles such as checkpoints, instability and access restrictions, the United Nations said on Friday.
- The Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – the fastest-growing on record and on track to become the deadliest – is killing one person every 30 minutes.
- Five years since the Taliban seized power in Kabul, life for some Afghans has improved while many others suffer growing hardship.
- In one of the cities hardest hit by the earthquake that struck Colombia, hundreds of people are still waiting for news of missing relatives, friends and neighbours.
- The United Nations has once again urged warring parties in Sudan to protect civilians as the fighting continues to take a heavy toll on the population.
- Cholera is spreading rapidly across West and Central Africa, with active outbreaks now in six countries and millions of children at growing risk, UN children’s agency UNICEF has said.
- The UN on Wednesday continued scaling up assistance to areas affected by the deadly earthquake that hit Colombia two days earlier.
- As earthquake rescue efforts across western Colombia continued on Tuesday, UN agencies said that they stood ready to help “with everything we've got”, in coordination with national authorities.
- Ongoing conflict, displacement and funding shortages continue to deepen needs in Sudan, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Monday, underscoring the need for greater civilian protection.
- For millions of children in Sudan, the classroom remains out of reach as the country’s civil war continues to disrupt their education. To help tackle this huge problem, the UN global education fund on Monday announced a $22 million initiative to help 200,000 youngsters return to learning.
- A single New York Times article on a disaster generated an additional $500,000 in official aid. That’s just one of the findings on the critical role a free press plays in saving lives, according to a new UN report released on Tuesday.
- Five years since the Taliban seized power in Kabul, life for some Afghans has improved while many others suffer growing hardship.
- As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly transforms everything from how we learn, to the job market, children are adopting the technology more than three times faster than adults – exposing them to unique opportunities and risks.
- More than eight in 10 young people aged 15 to 24 worldwide are now online, and in low-income countries they outpace the rest of the population nearly two to one.
- Sarah Tekhlu was ready to give up on university. An Eritrean refugee, she had already been displaced once from Khartoum to Madani, then again to Port Sudan, as war tore through the country around her. Higher education, she had decided, was a luxury she could no longer afford to want.
- As climate change reshapes Indigenous territories across Brazil, a new generation is turning to culture and digital platforms to defend their lands and their future.
- More than 1,000 days of war in Sudan have left millions of children out of school, displaced or exposed to grave violations, the UN Deputy Secretary-General said on Friday, calling for renewed action to end the conflict.
- From the peaks of Mount Olympus in Greece to the shores of the “D-Day” beaches in France, 25 cultural or natural landmarks from across the globe have been newly inscribed on the World Heritage List, updated annually by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
- Armed conflict, insecurity and environmental pressures are threatening ancient cities, historic castles and one of the world's greatest wildlife migrations.
- When Samantha Richards and Angela Hifume walked into the Hall of Flags at United Nations Headquarters last week, they carried more than a folder of paper. They carried the voices of hundreds of street-connected children who had never expected anyone to listen.
- Choosing a path for the future has never been easy, but for young people today, such rapid technological change as artificial intelligence (AI) is making it increasingly difficult to predict which skills will remain relevant in the years ahead.
- Nia Jetter spent two decades building spacecraft and robots. Now she is trying to make sure the artificial intelligence revolution doesn't leave anyone behind.
- The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) urged international lenders to expand debt-for-education swaps, warning in a Friday report that many developing countries are spending more on debt servicing than on schooling their children.
- A new international coalition launched in Geneva on Tuesday is setting out to make sure children's safety and rights are not an afterthought as artificial intelligence reshapes how they learn, play and grow up.
- Can artificial intelligence benefit all of humanity – safely, fairly and without causing “catastrophic harm”? That is the question at the heart of a major UN summit opening in Geneva on Monday.
- Fresh scientific evidence and options for harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) were unveiled Wednesday following the launch of the first global, independent scientific assessment of opportunities, risks and impacts by a pioneering UN expert panel.
- Millions of children across the globe are already using artificial intelligence to learn, solve problems and even seek advice about personal worries, while safeguards are failing to keep pace with the technology's rapid adoption.
- Conflict, displacement and climate shocks are disrupting education for an estimated 258 million school-aged children and adolescents worldwide, raising fears that millions risk losing not only years of schooling but future opportunities altogether, according to a new report released Tuesday.
- UN cultural agency UNESCO has launched a global consultation process to inform its Draft Guidance on Fair Compensation for News, particularly as online platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly rely on journalistic content.
- As heatwaves are turning deadlier, fires and disasters are razing cities — and rising seas are erasing territories — one environmental crisis remains dangerously overlooked: the degradation of the land beneath our feet.
- Communities in Syria are clearing rubble and rebuilding neighbourhoods and livelihoods torn down in the more than a decade of conflict and crisis in the country.
- In the occupied West Bank, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, appealed on Thursday to Israeli authorities to help Palestinian families trapped in their homes by settlers for days, amid an intensifying campaign to seize their land.
- A strike on a merchant ship off the southern coast of Yemen that reportedly killed several seafarers on Tuesday threatens to reignite deep concerns about global trade, amid the ongoing Iran-US war that has choked shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
- As earthquake rescue efforts across western Colombia continued on Tuesday, UN agencies said that they stood ready to help “with everything we've got”, in coordination with national authorities.
- Frustrated by skyrocketing youth unemployment, among other issues, tens of thousands of Gen Z activists took to the streets of Nepal last year, demanding a stake in the country’s economic growth. The protest worked and the prime minister resigned.
- The cost of key foods edged up last month as searing heatwaves and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty impacted energy prices around the world.
- Disruption in the Strait of Hormuz has exposed the vulnerability of global trade to a single maritime chokepoint, with early data showing sharp falls in exports of energy, fertilizers and industrial products.
- A country long known as a meeting point of civilizations, Syria stands once again at a crossroads.
- Why are critical minerals suddenly at the centre of global politics?
- The world's shift to clean energy is driving huge demand for critical minerals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper.
- The Security Council met Wednesday in New York to debate critical minerals — the lithium, cobalt and copper powering the clean energy transition. Demand is set to triple by 2030. The question: will this mineral wealth build peace and prosperity, or fund conflict and corruption? Follow live updates throughout the day below and go here for full coverage from across the UN.
- UN Member States reaffirmed their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by adopting a declaration on Wednesday that they will implement reforms to help close the $4 trillion SDG financing gap.
- Protection for refugees has been enshrined in international law for more than seven decades, but how much support is there today for those fleeing conflict and persecution?
- In a world of “parallel realities” where stark inequalities seemingly divide people and challenge the promise of multilateralism, the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to bring people together and help them achieve a better reality.
- The UN General Assembly overwhelming voted to debate United States sanctions against Cuba in a meeting on Tuesday, at Havana’s request, to discuss the decades-long embargo amid warnings of increasing suffering on the Caribbean island.
- UN chief António Guterres appealed on Monday for far-reaching, worldwide controls on Artificial Intelligence, as increasingly powerful AI chips that are designed for civilian use shift to the battlefield, where “killer robots” are already the norm.
- Search and rescue operations continued in Venezuela on Tuesday as thousands of displaced survivors struggled to find shelter and humanitarians issued an alert over the spread of infectious disease.
- The deadly Venezuela quakes have deepened hardship for families who already needed support and left others without homes, income or regular access to food.
- Emergency response teams pressed on with their lifesaving mission in Venezuela on Monday as countless local responders and families continued their search for missing relatives “against impossible odds”, five days since the double earthquake disaster.
- An independent UN human rights expert has welcomed ongoing proceedings in the United States to extradite “manosphere” bloggers Andrew and Tristan Tate to the United Kingdom, calling the case an important step towards accountability for serious allegations of violence against women and girls.
- In El Obeid, women and girls now face an impossible choice over something as basic as a bucket of water: risk a drone strike by collecting it in daylight, or risk rape by waiting until dark.
- One month after twin earthquakes rocked Venezuela, thousands of women and girls continue to face difficulty in accessing essential healthcare and protection services, a senior official with the UN reproductive and sexual health agency UNFPA said on Friday.
- When a 12-story apartment building pancaked in La Guaira, Venezuela, following two powerful earthquakes late last month, panic ensued to save people injured or trapped under the rubble.
- Thousands of people in some of Yemen's most conflict-affected communities are receiving lifesaving health care closer to home, thanks to funding from the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) through the Yemen Humanitarian Fund.
- A UN independent human rights expert has urged political leaders in the United Kingdom to support implementation of a Supreme Court ruling on the legal definition of sex, warning that opposition to updated equality guidance risks weakening protections for women and girls.
- At least one million women and girls have lost access to critical humanitarian support since January 2025 as unprecedented aid cuts push women's organizations in crisis zones to the brink of collapse, the UN’s gender equality agency, UN Women, said on Friday.
- A Senegalese surgeon who has dedicated his career to restoring the health and dignity of women living with obstetric fistula, and a Burundian foundation supporting vulnerable women and children, have been named the winners of the 2026 United Nations Population Award.
- Ongoing fighting in the Sudanese city of El Obeid continues to endanger civilians and damage infrastructure, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
- As artificial intelligence reshapes how people work, communicate and access information, UN Women warned on Monday that the technology is reproducing old gender stereotypes, which amplify online abuse and leave women out of the decisions that will define the digital future.
- In the heart of the Central African Republic (CAR), a nation long marked by conflict, Nina Mireille Yankinon stands as a symbol of resilience, leadership, and hope, dedicating her life to helping communities torn apart by war.
- Gender equality agency UN Women is “gravely concerned” by the arrest of at least 30 women in Herat city last weekend in Afghanistan for allegedly violating dress requirements imposed by Taliban authorities.
- Women and girls in Lebanon are paying an increasingly devastating price as violence and displacement continue despite a ceasefire, the UN reproductive health agency (UNFPA) warned on Tuesday.
- Nearly 10,000 cases of conflict-related sexual violence were recorded worldwide last year – more than double the previous year's figure – as rape, sexual slavery and abduction were deployed as weapons of war across Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Caribbean.
- Thirteen-year-old Mona still remembers the moment the second airstrike hit.
- Afghanistan’s deepening malnutrition crisis is pushing mothers and children to the brink, the UN World Food Programme has warned, as mass returns from neighbouring countries and severe funding shortfalls overwhelm already strained humanitarian operations.
- Many women in eastern Chad are being forced to give birth in overcrowded clinics with limited medicine, minimal equipment and severe shortages of anesthesia, as a worsening humanitarian crisis overwhelms the country’s fragile healthcare system, the UN reproductive health agency, UNFPA, warned on Tuesday.
- Reports of online violence against women journalists have doubled since 2020, with serious impacts on their health and well-being, according to a study published ahead of World Press Freedom Day marked annually on 3 May.
- Restrictions on girls’ education and women’s employment in Afghanistan could leave the country with a deficit of over 25,000 female teachers and health workers by 2030, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday.
- On a red running track in eastern Uganda, coach Zuena Cheptoek is doing more than training runners. For many girls in the Sebei subregion, she is also a confidante, a mentor and first line of protection against female genital mutilation, child marriage and abuse.
- The Security Council is currently hearing top UN officials brief on the latest updates about war-torn Sudan as escalating conflict, drone strikes against civilians, displacement, hunger and flooding affects millions and UN agencies strive to deliver lifesaving aid. UN News app users can follow our live coverage here.
- The UN has launched a new initiative to protect victims of terrorist attacks from online harm and re-traumatisation, drawing on harrowing survivor accounts, from the Nova Music Festival in Israel to an attack on a FIFA World Cup final viewing party in Uganda.
- The global funding crisis for humanitarian work is taking a growing toll on the most vulnerable children in Somalia, where some aid programmes and facilities have been forced to shut down.
- The under-reported humanitarian crisis in South Sudan risks deepening with the real possibility of further atrocity crimes unless renewed fighting stops, a UN-backed probe said on Thursday.
- Ninety-four cent of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents need shelter as Israeli gunfire and strikes continue inside the enclave, UN agencies and peacekeepers warned on Thursday.
- Russian ballistic missile strikes killed 17 people and injured more than 40 in and around the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday, local authorities reported.
- Intensifying fighting in Sudan has displaced at least another 200,000 people since late 2025, while destructive seasonal floods are compounding the massive humanitarian emergency there, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.
- As Libya faces a political impasse delaying long-planned elections alongside clashes and drone strikes that left a major oil refinery ablaze, the Security Council heard the latest updates, with an activist warning that the collision of extreme heat, water scarcity and environmental shocks with political division, armed insecurity and struggling institutions clearly makes the situation a peace and security issue. UN News app users can follow our live coverage here.
- Amid ongoing deadly hostilities in Gaza, the enclave’s farmers face the increasingly difficult challenge of finding safe land to grow their crops.
- Around 860,000 people displaced by the conflict in southern Lebanon have returned, but the displacement and humanitarian crisis are “far from over,” the UN warned on Tuesday.
- Escalating conflict in Yemen is killing and injuring a growing number of civilians, the UN human rights chief warned on Monday, as Houthi rebels also strike Saudi Arabia and Red Sea shipping linked to the wider Iran–US confrontation.
- Humanitarian workers have reached Palestinian families who had been trapped for days by Israeli settlers in Qusra village in the northern West Bank, the UN said on Monday, as officials warned that the standoff must not become "the new normal."
- Communities in Syria are clearing rubble and rebuilding neighbourhoods and livelihoods torn down in the more than a decade of conflict and crisis in the country.
- Demobilised former combatants are actively joining the fight against Ebola by participating in public information campaigns in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
- Humanitarians continue to provide life-saving assistance to people across the Occupied Palestinian Territory despite facing obstacles such as checkpoints, instability and access restrictions, the United Nations said on Friday.
- Sudanese women about to give birth are losing their babies and sometimes their own lives because of a lack of specialist healthcare support, amid the ongoing war, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
- Across the world, healthcare has suffered more than 10,000 attacks in the past eight years, including during the brutal conflict in Ukraine and efforts to contain the current Ebola outbreak spreading rapidly in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
- In the occupied West Bank, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, appealed on Thursday to Israeli authorities to help Palestinian families trapped in their homes by settlers for days, amid an intensifying campaign to seize their land.
- As tensions triggered by the US-Iran war continue to ripple across the Middle East, the Security Council held an open debate Thursday on Yemen, where escalating deadly military clashes are worsening an already fragile humanitarian situation amid fears that recent Houthi missile strikes on Saudi Arabia and commercial vessels could threaten the 2022 truce between Houthi militia and the internationally-recognised Government. UN News app users can follow our live coverage here.
- Civilian casualties in Ukraine reached their highest monthly level in July, with more people killed and injured than at any time since March 2022, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country, HRMMU, said in an update on Thursday.
- Severe weather, war, economic pressure and shifting policies reshaped migration journeys across multiple regions in the first four months of 2026, driving a surge in deaths, according to new data released on Wednesday by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
- A job advert can hide a criminal network, and a single click can lead to a nightmare. Hundreds of thousands of people are trafficked every year on the promise of legitimate work abroad, only to be held captive and forced into online scam operations.
- As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has launched a global campaign urging governments, organizations and individuals to renew their commitment to protecting people forced to flee war, violence and persecution.
- The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) reports that 144 migrants attempting to reach Europe are dead or missing due to a series of “tragic maritime incidents” off the coast of Mauritania last week.
- The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has appealed for calm in Pakistan-Administered Kashmir amid unrest ahead of regional elections.
- There is growing concern for at least 500 people believed to have been aboard two boats that reportedly capsized off Myanmar’s coast in recent days.
- Protection for refugees has been enshrined in international law for more than seven decades, but how much support is there today for those fleeing conflict and persecution?
- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has called on the international community to strengthen support for the nearly 42 million people worldwide who have fled their home countries to escape conflict, violence or persecution.
- When 19-year-old Stephane Kulimushi looks around the basketball court in Kampala where he trains young refugees, he sees more than players.
- As millions of people continue to flee their countries due to war or persecution, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, called on Tuesday for an urgent expansion of refugee resettlement programmes, warning that available places continue to fall short of global needs.
- Haiti has opened its first State-supported safe house for survivors of sexual violence with support from the UN, marking a significant step in responding to the growing crisis affecting women and girls.
- Global forced displacement has decreased for the first time in a decade, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) reported on Thursday, though the figure remains unacceptably high and tens of millions of people are still trapped in prolonged exile with little prospect of rebuilding their lives.
- Escalating gang violence across Haiti has pushed displacement to record levels, deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis and leaving nearly 1.5 million people without a stable place to live, according to new figures released Friday by the UN migration agency, IOM.
- The UN and its partners are continuing efforts to contain Ebola outbreaks in both the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, while warning that insecurity and misinformation remain major obstacles to the response.
- As the world approaches nine years since the mass displacement of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar into Bangladesh, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has appealed to the international community not to abandon the 1.2 million refugees living in the country, most of them in camps in Cox’s Bazar.
- The UN has expressed deep concern over escalating hostilities in Lebanon following intensified Israeli airstrikes in southern Beirut and across southern parts of the country.
- On 23 February 2022, in her home city of Kharkiv, Dr Inna Soldatenko finished work, collected her daughter from school, cooked dinner and prepared a lecture for her students. The next morning, she awoke to explosions.
- A symbolic team of famous footballers with first hand experience of life as a refugee was announced on Tuesday by UNHCR, just weeks ahead of the world’s biggest sporting event – the FIFA Men’s World Cup.
- What do more than half of all doctors in Australia, over 40 per cent of Nobel laureates from the United States, and most of the workforce in some Gulf States have in common?
- Civilians who have fled the war in Sudan and sought shelter in neighbouring Egypt could potentially face a new battle – the loss of critical services that ensure their survival, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has warned.
- In northern Kenya, a herder scans the sky for rain that hasn't come. The grass his animals need is thinning by the day.
- Global hunger declined for a third consecutive year in 2025 showing that progress is possible, but gains remain fragile and far too slow to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the 2030 deadline.
- UN Member States reaffirmed their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by adopting a declaration on Wednesday that they will implement reforms to help close the $4 trillion SDG financing gap.
- Humanitarians in the Gaza Strip continue to face significant challenges in reaching communities located near the so-called “Yellow Line” in northern Rafah, the UN aid coordination office OCHA said on Tuesday.
- In a world of “parallel realities” where stark inequalities seemingly divide people and challenge the promise of multilateralism, the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to bring people together and help them achieve a better reality.
- From local communities to the global stage, a diverse group of young leaders from Thailand is helping shape conversations on public policy, climate action, inclusion, indigenous rights, disability access and youth wellbeing.
- Fertility rates are falling worldwide not because young people are rejecting marriage, children or family life but because many are facing economic and housing constraints.
- Who is legally responsible when Artificial Intelligence causes harm? The issue took centre stage on Tuesday – day two of the first ever UN summit on AI governance, where leading experts warned of mounting evidence of human rights violations linked to the revolutionary technology.
- With fewer than five years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a new UN report says sustained investment and international cooperation have improved billions of lives, but warns that governments must urgently accelerate action if the goals are to be met by their 2030 deadline.
- A UN vehicle standards forum has approved the first global regulations for fully autonomous driving systems (ADS), marking a major step towards the safe deployment of self-driving vehicles.
- The way societies talk about ageing can shape everything from public policy to people's own expectations of later life, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said on Wednesday in a new report that calls for shifting away from narratives that portray older persons as a burden.
- Young people working on promoting peace in some of the world’s most fragile and polarised places say financial support remains essential, but money alone will not sustain their efforts to organize youth to participate in peacebuilding.
- With the World Cup just days away, 16 greats of the game have been appointed Football for the Goals (FFTG) Champions, using their profiles to raise awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and advocate for a better future for people and the planet.
- Disruptions to global energy supplies and trade corridors are driving up the cost of food, transport and essential goods worldwide, slowing economic growth and increasing pressure on vulnerable households and debt-strapped developing countries.
- It can be annoying when the wifi signal is cut, but what about if everything digital we rely on were to crash suddenly – from satellites to life-support systems in hospitals?
- Indonesia is expecting a “strengthened multilateral system that delivers real impact on the ground,” as one of the key outcomes of the ongoing reform of the United Nations, that’s according to the country’s outgoing Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Multilateral Cooperation, Tri Tharyat.
- With spending on advertising topping $1 trillion a year worldwide, the United Nations on Wednesday highlighted the untapped power of major brands to shape the future of artificial intelligence (AI), warning that a failure to act could deepen a global information integrity crisis.
- As we confront increasingly complex and interconnected crises – from climate change to the AI revolution – the leadership and voices of young people have never been more vital, says the UN.
- Six-time Trinidad and Tobago archery champion, Anthurium Lewis, has told UN News how sport helped her overcome age barriers in environmental advocacy and how in the future it can contribute to reaching globally agreed poverty and sustainability goals.
- The world of football met the world of diplomacy this week as Brazilian World Cup legend Zico touched down at UN Headquarters in New York.
