Dr. Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, was speaking during a press briefing on emergencies in the occupied Palestinian territory and Lebanon, but also in war-ravaged Sudan and beyond. She also upheld the critical role of UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA in Gaza, and appealed for peace....
Under shelling and gunfire, Esraa cradled her newborn son. As the war in Sudan broke out in April 2023, she was trying to reach a health clinic for treatment for her baby, who had been struggling with infections and breathing difficulties. But with the roads blocked by fighting, the young...
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has identified 10 priority areas – such as livestock, soil and water, crops, diets and fisheries – where following the roadmap can help push the world closer to achieving ‘Zero Hunger’, the second of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) The aim: to...
International Youth Day is marked annually on 12 August and the 2023 edition spotlights green skills and the major role young people will play in driving the much-needed shift towards an environmentally sustainable and climate-friendly mindset. These include technical knowledge and skills that enable the effective use of green technologies...
The International Organization for Migration (IOM); the UN refugee agency, UNCHR; and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also called for coordinated search and rescue mechanisms. The tragedy occurred between Thursday 3 August and Friday 4 August, and to date, only four survivors have been rescued – all by a merchant...
Some 1.6 million people in Rakhine, Chin, Magway, Sagaing, and Kachin states are in dire need of assistance after Mocha’s 250 kilometre per hour wind gusts destroyed homes, farmland and livestock. Speaking from hard-hit Rakhine State capital Sittwe, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Myanmar, Titon Mitra, said that time was...
“We have the tools to drive down malaria, a package of interventions that includes vector control, preventive medicines, testing, and treatment,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). Adopting as its theme for the day – “Time to deliver zero malaria: invest, innovate, implement” – WHO’s...
“For indigenous peoples, the land, the forest, water, is life. We depend on the natural environment, and we care for our surroundings. Managing natural resources is a strong part of our way of life. For example, the way we use rotational farming, avoiding monocultures by planting several different many different...
Thousands searching for a better life meet their death crossing deserts, rivers and remote areas in the region. IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, documented 1,433 deaths last year – the highest number since its establishment in 2014. The Project is run by the UN agency’s Global Data Institute (GDI), which this...
Eight brutal years of conflict have left around 11 million children in need of humanitarian assistance and many of their families facing serious malnourishment. “The lives of millions of vulnerable children in Yemen remain at risk due to the almost unimaginable, unbearable, consequences of the crushing, unending war,” said Peter...
“One million species teeter on the brink of extinction, due to habitat destruction, fossil fuel pollution and the worsening climate crisis. We must end this war on nature,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned in his message for the Day. The scores of species of fauna and flora under threat from...
Adding her voice to the High Commissioner’s call for action, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed warned in a video message that the right to development has “yet to be realized by billions of people” who were “hurting (while) the planet is burning. The world cannot wait.” Marking the 35th anniversary of...