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The UN’s top humanitarian official in Sudan has warned of an impending catastrophe in Darfur, with civilians facing relentless violence, sexual abuse and starvation.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday that millions in Somalia are at risk of worsening hunger and malnutrition as critical funding shortfalls force the agency to cut back on life-saving emergency food assistance.

For people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) exhausted by years of conflict, the United Nations envoy for the country said she understands their impatience but urges them “not to lose hope” as the Congolese government, the UN and the international community are “determined” to bring peace to the volatile region. 

In his first briefing to the UN Security Council on Friday as the newly designated Special Representative for Colombia, Miroslav Jenča reaffirmed the organization’s strong commitment to supporting the country’s nine-year-old peace process. 

UN human rights chief Volker Türk warned on Friday that the war in Ukraine “has entered an even more dangerous and deadly stage for civilians, under relentless bombardment of their schools, hospitals, and shelters.”

UN aid teams on Friday highlighted the disturbing situation in Gaza’s makeshift hospitals, where premature babies cry for scant oxygen and medics attempt to save child survivors targeted by airstrikes in their tents and quadcopter victims reportedly shot while fetching bread. 

Nearly 42,000 people in Gaza are living with life-changing injuries from the ongoing conflict – including more than 10,000 children – as the health system collapses under relentless strain, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday.

Rising violence by gangs in Haiti’s capital is restricting humanitarian access and pushing families deeper into hunger, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Thursday.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Thursday warned that civilians in Sudan’s El Fasher face the imminent risk of large-scale atrocities, as fighting intensifies around the regional capital of North Darfur, besieged for more than 500 days by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.

Thursday’s terrorist attack on a synagogue in Manchester, which left at least two worshippers dead on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, has been strongly condemned by the UN Secretary-General.

Hospitals are overwhelmed and families are sheltering in the open after a deadly 6.9 magnitude earthquake tore through northern Cebu in the Philippines, killing at least 70 people and displacing more than 20,000, according to local authorities and humanitarians on the ground.

When the gates of Syria’s notorious Sednaya prison opened soon after the fall of the Assad regime last December, graffiti scrawled on the walls offered a frightening glimpse into what was widely known as the “human slaughterhouse”. “First day, severe beating,” one prisoner wrote.