Month: June 2026

The Security Council meets this morning to discuss the situation in Central Africa, including efforts to combat the so-called Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), one of the region’s longest-running security threats, responsible for over 100,000 deaths, the UN estimates. Ambassadors have been briefed by the regional office (UNOCA) and its strategy for improving civilian protection, humanitarian access and cross-border cooperation.

In Ebola-stricken eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) a massive push for early testing and contact tracing is helping to contain the virus, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

The top UN aid official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is in Ituri province – the epicentre of the country’s Ebola outbreak – for a three-day assessment visit, as the confirmed case count reaches 515 across three eastern provinces.

The Security Council met on Monday amid a sharp escalation in hostilities across Ukraine, where UN officials warned that the war has reached its deadliest point since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Briefing members, Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for political affairs, said recent months had seen some of the most extensive aerial attacks of the conflict, while the humanitarian toll on civilians continued to mount on both sides of the front line.

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. 

The United Nations climate chief called on Monday for countries to step up action to implement existing commitments, warning that fossil fuel dependency is deepening economic instability and exposing vulnerable communities to worsening climate impacts. 

Plastic pollution is choking the ocean, but sustainable alternatives – including seaweed – remain held back by tariffs, fragmented regulations and the overwhelming market advantage enjoyed by fossil fuel-based plastics.