Amid intensified settlement building and the increased use of war tactics by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the number of casualties and injuries in the West Bank are now the highest on record, said the head of the UN human rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on Wednesday. Ajith Sunghay, told Anton Uspensky of UN News that “whatever happens in Gaza has a massive impact on the West Bank” while violations of Palestinians’ rights have intensified at the hands of “emboldened”...

Despite the risk of new strikes in Rafah, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners continue to establish field hospitals and get services back online at the shattered Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis.  Dr. Ahmed Dahir, Team Lead with the WHO office in Gaza, told UN News’s Khaled Mohamed that conditions have reached an “unprecedented emergency level”. Dr. Dahir is currently in Rafah and has been describing the “crucial steps” being taken to prepare for any large-scale Israeli...

Kenya remains on high alert as Tropical Cyclone Hidaya threatens to dump more torrential rains on East African countries, which recently emerged from three years of historic drought.  The heavy rains have caused deadly flooding and landslides that have killed nearly 400 people across the region since March.  The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Kenya, Stephen Jackson, has been calling for a “push on resilience” as extreme weather events intensify due to climate change.  UN News’s...

More than a year of fighting between Sudan’s rival militaries has the country’s people on the verge of famine and uprooted huge numbers caught up in the crossfire. Now, there’s a new threat - unexploded weapons littering Sudan’s towns and cities, where people have received little training about the very real dangers of these lethal devices. Mohammad Sediq Rashid, Chief of the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in the country, tells UN News’s Nancy Sarkis this deadly kind of warfare is new to...

After more than a year of brutal fighting between rival militaries across Sudan, the last Government-held stronghold in Darfur of El Fasher is in danger of slipping into famine unless rebel fighters end their siege. That’s according to the UN’s Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator Toby Harward who told UN News that if the fighting for control continues it will trigger revenge attacks across Darfur and a slide into the atrocities that unfolded there two decades ago. Abdelmonem Makki began by asking...

Since the 1950s, 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced, seven billion tonnes of which have become potentially toxic waste. If no action is taken, plastic pollution could triple by 2060.  It’s in our oceans, our rivers and overall plastic pollution represents “a huge problem” says Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, Executive Secretary of the international negotiating committee secretariat (INC) focused on curbing the scourge, which met earlier this week on the road to what it is hoped will be an...

More than two years since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine, the harrowing human cost of the conflict couldn’t be clearer, with thousands killed and many of the injured requiring triple or quadruple amputations, mine action experts said on Wednesday. The wider economic cost of the ongoing fighting in one of the world’s main cereal and commodity-producing regions is enormous too, currently valued at many billions of dollars, amid rising food and fuel prices. With more,...

Left behind in a now-abandoned school in Khan Younis is the evidence of the haste in which Gazan civilians fled the shelter in fear of Israeli bombardment.   Louise Wateridge, Communications Officer with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said people had to evacuate within hours – some leaving behind half-eaten meals, toothbrushes, and even clothes.  She said the ongoing war continues to leave families in fear, children without education, and infrastructural...

Digital technologies and algorithm-driven software, especially social media, present high risks of privacy invasion, cyberbullying and distraction from learning to young girls – that’s according to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) 2024 Global Education Monitor (GEM) report released on Thursday. The report highlighted global progress in girls' access to and attainment in education over the past two decades but called attention to increased social media usage...

Some heads of top “Ivy League” universities across the United States have been pushed out due to political pressure as educators crack down on students protesting Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, shining a spotlight on the right to free speech around the world. That’s what Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, has told UN News’s Khaled Mohammed, stressing that the Gaza crisis is also becoming a crisis of free speech...

The UN and partners are duty bound to work towards an early recovery on behalf of Gazans, even though that is “intrinsically tied to progress on the political front and the two-State solution”. That’s according to Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag who told UN News in an exclusive interview following the announcement of a new aid mechanism for the enclave that “we cannot ask civilians to wait”. She told Ezzat El-Ferri that reconstruction will have to be...

Sabreen al-Sakani: one name among the more than 34,000 people killed in Gaza since 7 October. Sabreen was 30 weeks pregnant when she died after sustaining terrible head injuries in an Israeli airstrike in the south of the enclave.  Thankfully, her baby daughter lived after being delivered by emergency Caesarean section, at a hospital in Rafah last weekend. With more on this story - and the latest on the war in Gaza that was sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel – UN News’s...

Sudan’s food security crisis is a matter of deep concern with a very real risk there could be famine there, the Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Office of Emergencies and Resilience has told UN News. Rein Paulsen has been in the war-ravaged country with an interagency team planning how best to scale up the aid response to the food security crisis. FAO is supporting vulnerable farms to boost crop production and is implementing famine prevention strategies, including...

Millions of women and girls saw no progress in their reproductive rights simply because of who they are or where they were born, according to the new 2024 State of World Population report, released on Wednesday by UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency. Agency chief Dr. Natalia Kanem spoke in depth to UN News about her main priorities, noting that women and girls are often the most vulnerable in conflict zones such as Gaza and Ukraine. She told Nathalie Minard that “the ability...

Millions of women and girls saw no progress in their reproductive rights simply because of who they are or where they were born, according to the new 2024 State of World Population report, released on Wednesday by UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency. Agency chief Dr. Natalia Kanem spoke in depth to UN News about her main priorities, noting that women and girls are often the most vulnerable in conflict zones such as Gaza and Ukraine. She told Nathalie Minard that “the ability...

The gangs which now control up to 90 per cent of Haiti’s capital must be persuaded to end their campaign of violence which has left the children of the Port-au-Prince region without safety, schooling and sufficient food to eat, the UN’s top envoy for Children and Armed Conflict has told UN News.   “One of my biggest fears is that the youngest of the young in Haiti might also become victims of trafficking, particularly girls, for sexual purposes,” Special Representative Victoria Gamba, said,...

Even before the war erupted in Sudan on 15 April last year, the country’s economy was already faltering, heavily reliant on international aid.  Now, the situation is rapidly deteriorating. Over 25 million Sudanese are in dire need, the healthcare system is in ruins, schools work in only one state, famine is looming.  Justin Brady, head of the UN aid coordination office OCHA in Sudan, told Anton Uspensky of UN News, how his team was continuing to keep aid flowing to around 14 million people...

Technological advances have transformed space exploration, making it more accessible but also more commercially driven, a senior official with the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) has been telling UN News, ahead of the international day that marks the first manned space flight by Yuri Gagarin in 1961.  Thanks to private capital, missions to study the Moon have surged, accompanied by a significant rise in space launches over the past decade.  But these developments raise questions...

A vehicle filled with UNICEF humanitarians was hit by live fire earlier this week while waiting to enter northern Gaza. UN News on Thursday spoke with one of them, Tess Ingram, who said there’s a similar incident almost every day, "not always to us, but to the children as well."  Restrictions to aid access by Israel have increased, so civilians have limited access to the care they need, the UNICEF spokesperson said, telling Ezzat El-Ferri that children in the enclave are experiencing repeated...

At least 38 migrants, including women and children, lost their lives in a shipwreck off the coast of Djibouti on Monday and although 22 people were saved by local fishermen, six others remain missing and are presumed dead. UN migration agency, IOM, which is assisting survivors with treatment and other support, told UN News this was far from an isolated tragedy. Much more needs to be done to avoid such tragedies impacting those in search of new opportunities said IOM’s Yvonne Ndege, who gave...

In what is a “hand to mouth” aid operation hampered by Israeli restrictions, the UN has no ability to pre-position aid if hundreds of thousands of Gazans are forced to leave Rafah ahead of Israel’s planning invasion, said the humanitarian coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory on Sunday. Jamie McGoldrick was speaking in-depth to UN News’s Arabic team chief, Reem Abaza, who said until the spread of famine in the north could be averted, there was no way the UN could get aid in place...

The decades-long occupation compounded by Israel’s economic blockade and current military campaign in Gaza, highlights the importance of meticulously documenting alleged rights abuses, according to the head of the UN rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ajith Sunghay. He says its crucial for informed decision-making and to counter disinformation: “We do not want to leave any stone unturned in order to bring the world's attention to the problems in Gaza,” he explains in an...

Children in Haiti are “terrorised and traumatised” by the gang violence which continues across the country’s capital, killing people and forcing them to flee their homes. That’s according to the UNICEF representative in the Caribbean island country, Bruno Maes. Armed gangs reportedly now control 80 to 90 per cent of Port-au-Prince, and over 360,000 people – the majority of them children – have been displaced. Mr. Maes said there is a growing sense of desperation and a lack of hope among...

An award-winning Palestinian photojournalist said he has lost trust in the world but maintains hope in its people. Motaz Azaiza has garnered global recognition for his arresting coverage of the current hostilities in Gaza, earning him millions of followers on Instagram.  He has been travelling the world to raise awareness and was at UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday to meet senior officials. UN News’s Abdelmonem Makki sat down with Mr. Azaiza and asked him about his work and what his...