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The UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, underlined the need to protect civilians and healthcare facilities in the Gaza Strip in a renewed appeal on Wednesday. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has once again called for a global ban on lethal autonomous weapon systems – machines capable of taking human lives without human oversight – describing them as “politically unacceptable” and “morally repugnant.”

In a remote village clinic in the Bamyan Province in Afghanistan last week, a group of teenage girls were given potentially life-saving reproductive health advice, excited by the small kit of menstrual supplies they had been given.

The ceasefire between the United States and Houthi rebels in Yemen provides an opportunity to revitalize the peace process in the Middle Eastern country, the UN Security Council heard on Wednesday. 

More than 40,000 Sudanese have fled to eastern Chad in the past month to escape intensifying violence in Darfur.

No aid has entered Gaza for more than 10 weeks and every single one of the 2.1 million people there faces famine conditions, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said on Tuesday in a briefing to the Security Council in New York.

Women’s organisations operating in crisis settings are being pushed to the brink by widespread funding cuts. In a report published on Tuesday, UN Women – the UN agency for gender equality – warned that 47 per cent of these groups may be forced to close within the next six months.

The Security Council is set to meet this afternoon at 3 PM in New York to discuss the deepening crisis in Gaza, where humanitarians warn of “a critical risk of famine” and aid shipments have been blocked for over 70 days. UN relief chief Tom Fletcher is expected to brief ambassadors. Follow live for key updates from UN Headquarters and reports from the region. App users can follow coverage here.

The UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk has voiced concern over the recent deportation of large numbers of non-nationals from the United States, particularly to third countries. 

The future of peacekeeping took centre stage on Tuesday in Berlin as UN chief António Guterres urged Member States to do more to support the global body’s Blue Helmets and stave off the worst impacts of deep funding cuts.

A record 83.4 million people have been forced from their homes around the world, fuelled by an increase in disasters and conflict, the UN migration agency, IOM, said on Tuesday.

In the aid desert of Gaza, malnourished children are dying while survivors can expect a lifetime of dire health problems, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.