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The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk has deplored deadly attacks in Sudan’s Kordofan region this week, his office said in a statement on Thursday.

From makeshift furniture in Gaza to metro classrooms in Ukraine and solar-powered tablets in Sudan, the UN is working to bring education to millions of crisis-affected children.

As years of war in Ukraine have left millions without unreliable heating and limited means to pay rising utility costs, the UN and humanitarian partners launched this Thursday a $277 million appeal to support the most vulnerable people during the coming winter.  

Conditions in Gaza have reached an unspeakable level of devastation with children paying the highest price, top UN officials told the Security Council on Wednesday, warning of soaring child deaths, starvation and a shattered health system amid continuing bombardment and displacement.

In the midst of the Women’s Euro football championship in Switzerland, Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, called on Member States and sports clubs around the world to address the vast gender gap which still exists in women’s sport. 

Craters filled with muddy water pocket the landscape of the Kono district in Sierra Leone – the result of past diamond mining ventures which sparked a vicious local battle over resources.

In violence-wracked Haiti, more than 5.7 million people are estimated to be food insecure, with many unable to meet their daily food needs.

Clashes between Bedouin tribal fighters, caretaker government forces and Druze militias stretched into their fourth day in Sweida on Wednesday while Israeli forces struck the Syrian capital, Damascus. 

In Gaza, illness, poverty, mass displacement and depleted services are leading to soaring stress levels and causing an increase in domestic violence, sexual exploitation and abuse, according to the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA).  

The UN Security Council is meeting on the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where fresh Israeli evacuation orders have uprooted tens of thousands amid relentless bombardment claiming hundreds of civilian lives in recent weeks – many of them children. “Food is running out. Those seeking it risk being shot. People are dying trying to feed their families,” UN relief chief Tom Fletcher has just told ambassadors. Follow our real-time updates and key moments through our live UN Meetings Coverage page. UN News App users can join here.

The international community must support Afghanistan as it grapples with the staggering number of citizens returning from the region, a senior UN official has said.  

New evacuation orders in Gaza issued by the Israeli military have uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinians, amid ongoing bombardment, aid agencies have warned.