News

Saido, a Somali refugee, started playing basketball when she entered the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. Basketball was, for her, a way to access community and confidence.  

Humanitarians must be able to reach families affected by the “deeply alarming” recent violence in Syria’s Sweida region who need food and other basics to survive, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday. 

Colourful blocks for stacking or perhaps an abacus for counting – these are the sorts of tactile objects one might expect to see in a kindergarten classroom. 

The UN has expressed deep alarm over a large-scale assault by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia on El Fasher, the government-held capital of Sudan’s North Darfur State, and the nearby Abu Shouk displacement camp, which has been under siege since April 2024. 

The UN organization which champions culture and education, UNESCO, has strongly condemned the targeted killing of six journalists in Palestine by an Israeli drone on 10 August.

UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg, briefing the Security Council on Tuesday, voiced concern over the latest clashes between Government forces and Houthi rebel militia. 

During her final briefing as resident and humanitarian coordinator for Haiti, Ulrika Richardson struggled to describe the realities of life in Haiti. 

The United Nations continues to draw attention to the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, where starvation and malnutrition are at the highest levels since hostilities began nearly three years ago. 

The transformation over two decades of the once thriving Syrian city of Sweida from tourist destination to a landscape marked by violence and loss has been detailed by the chief of a UN migration mission who recently visited the area.

UN-mandated independent investigators have uncovered “systematic torture” in Myanmar’s military-run detention facilities – including beatings, electric shocks, strangulations and gang rape – a pattern of atrocities which is intensifying across the country.

Public health conditions in Gaza are “catastrophic”, with hospitals operating far beyond capacity. Some life-saving medicines are totally out of stock, while deaths from malnutrition and disease are on the rise, the UN health agency warned on Tuesday.

Shipping is crucial to the global economy, with more than 100,000 vessels a day transporting some 80 per cent of world commerce, but it remains vulnerable to disruptions caused by geopolitical tensions and transnational crime.