John Marks, interim UNICEF Representative in Ukraine, issued a renewed appeal for schools to be protected as war rages on. “During the first week of the new academic year, educational facilities in areas including Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Kyiv, Lviv and Sumy were reportedly damaged in attacks,” he said. “Evacuations across...
This year’s International Day for Clean air and Blue Skies, celebrated annually on 7 September, is focused on the theme ‘Invest in #CleanAirNow’ and highlights the economic, environmental and health benefits of investing in clean air. The Day was established in 2019 after the UN General Assembly noted how detrimental...
“Since mid-April 2023, the conflict in Sudan has spread to 14 out of the 18 states impacting the entire country and the region, leaving eight million Sudanese internally displaced as a result of the conflict, with two million – over two million – forced to flee to neighbouring countries,” said...
The Fifth Global Conference on Climate and SDG Synergy, held from 5-6 September in Rio de Janeiro, was convened as commitments on both fronts remain far off track. Moment of truth In opening remarks on Thursday, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed stressed the need for countries to act now. “We...
The destruction has prompted the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to rush humanitarian relief items from its stockpiles in the country to help those in need. Over 18 million people in Bangladesh have been affected by these severe monsoon conditions, with more than 1.2 million families trapped as flash floods submerge vast...
UN agencies and partners in the Strip will continue to vaccinate “as many Gazan children as possible” during the agreed humanitarian pauses, before moving to the north of the war-shattered enclave, UNRWA added. Thousands of families visited health centers to get their doses from UN medical teams, UNRWA reported. In...
The campaign moved to southern areas of the Gaza Strip following the successful completion of the first phase in the centre of the enclave, thanks largely to pauses in the fighting. UNRWA along with partners provided the first dose of polio vaccine to children under 10 years old at the...
Since last October, the UN agency has raised nearly US$150 million from UNRWA Spain, UNRWA USA, foundations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), corporations and individuals. Some even doubled or tripled their donations, said Karim Amer, the agency’s Director of Partnerships, who spoke to UN News ahead of the International Day of Charity,...
The updated Global Report on Food Crises reveals that nearly two million people are now grappling with the most critical level of food insecurity, classified as Phase 5 on the global IPC scale, which tracks acute hunger. This level represents an “extreme lack of food and exhaustion of coping capacities,”...
“Almost everybody on Earth, basically nine out of 10 people breathe air that is essentially unfit for purpose,” said Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific Officer at WMO. “This means that it is air that exceeds the [UN World Health Organization] WHO guideline limits and contains a high level of pollutants with low...
The UN chief underlined the global body’s support for this partnership in remarks to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit. Leaders from some 50 African countries are expected to attend the Summit, which has been held every three years since 2000. Debt hampers development Mr. Guterres noted that they were...
It’s been nearly 11 months since war erupted in the enclave following Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel. Today more than nine in 10 people have been forcibly displaced by the fighting, leaving them vulnerable to hunger, malnutrition and sickness. “So far, we’ve been able to vaccinate 187,000 children and as...