World News

Ms. Boucly spoke to Khaled Mohamed from UN News as news emerged of fresh Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, and an UNRWA report that more children have been killed there in recent months than in four years of conflict worldwide. On Wednesday, the agency reported that at least one of its staffers had been killed and a further 22 injured when Israeli forces hit a food distribution centre in the eastern part of Rafah on the southern edge of the Strip. This interview has been edited for clarity and...

13 March 2024Peace and Security A Russian missile strike on a multi-storey apartment block in central Ukraine that left three dead and around 40 injured on Tuesday has been strongly condemned by the UN’s top aid official in Kyiv, Denise Brown. “I am appalled to know that families were just getting together to have dinner and spend a quiet evening at home, only to see their homes damaged and their loved ones injured,” said Ms. Brown, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, in a tweet...

The lack of goods and resources is worsening an already precarious economic situation, with water and basic services being “stretched to the limit”, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said. The UN Secretary-General called on all Haitian stakeholders to act responsibly and expressed appreciation to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and partners’ for facilitating a way forward to resolve Haiti’s political crisis through a just-signed agreement to, among other things, appoint an interim prime...

“Children are dying from hunger,” he said via videolink, as media reports indicate that at least 20 children have succumbed to starvation in the besieged and bombarded enclave, including most recently a 14-day-old baby. Calling for a plan to address this crisis, he said immediate needs would include using a military access road to northern Gaza for a minimum of 300 aid trucks every day. Hunger in the enclave has grown exponentially since the Israeli invasion began in October, triggered by...

Citing alarming examples in Aleppo, Grozny, Mariupol, Myanmar, Sudan and Gaza, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, said an “increasingly systematic, massive and arbitrary destruction of civilian housing and infrastructure” during too many conflicts around the world is in blatant violation of international human rights and humanitarian laws. “We have seen or are seeing such destruction in Aleppo, Grozny, Mariupol, Myanmar and now, in Gaza and parts of Sudan,”...

“The child deaths we feared are here,” Adele Khodr, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement issued on Sunday. At least 10 children have died from dehydration and malnutrition at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north in recent days, according to reports. Helplessness and despair Ms. Khodr warned that “there are likely more children fighting for their lives” in one of the few remaining hospitals in the enclave, and perhaps even more in the north who...

Droughts, partly caused by climate change and the resulting lack of water, have driven many communities to the brink as they have been unable to grow the crops they rely on for survival. Many are forced to rely on humanitarian aid. But now, the availability of electricity and water is reviving many villages, including Fenoaivo in the Anosy region, according to the WFP’s Avimaro Mikendremana. “The people of Fenoaivo have suffered greatly. In 2020, they experienced famine-like conditions...

The island nation is hosting the latest summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which comprises more than 30 countries. With the bloc meeting “to help foster solutions for the region and for the world”, Mr. Guterres highlighted the need for solidarity in the areas of peace and security, sustainable development, social cohesion and climate action. ‘Peace is possible’ “Latin America and the Caribbean have shown how uniting for peace is possible and makes a...

President Daniel Ortega and other high-level officials should be held accountable “as should Nicaragua, as a State that goes after its own people targeting university students, indigenous people, people of African descent, campesinos and members of the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations,” they said in a statement. The accusation comes in their latest report which details how the situation in the country has deteriorated over the past year. Long-term objective The report...

“Life is very difficult here,” hospital manager Dr. Haidar Al-Qudra told UN News. Currently, only 12 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are “partially functioning”, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with the rest destroyed by Israel’s near constant bombardment of the enclave. As the war in Gaza enters its fifth month, Israeli forces continue to raid healthcare facilities, with Al Amal Hospital among the latest to endure a weeks-long deadly siege. Israel claims Hamas is operating in...