Peacekeepers are serving in a dangerous era of mounting global tensions and tight resources. UN chief Antonio Guterres is now calling for greater political backing and reliable financial support for ‘blue helmets’ who put themselves in harm’s way.
Peacekeepers are serving in a dangerous era of mounting global tensions and tight resources. UN chief Antonio Guterres is now calling for greater political backing and reliable financial support for ‘blue helmets’ who put themselves in harm’s way.
The United Nations on Thursday warned of a dangerous escalation in the war in Ukraine after a wave of large-scale Russian strikes and threats of further attacks, with Secretary-General António Guterres saying “the death spiral must stop.”
The UN has expressed deep concern over escalating hostilities in Lebanon following intensified Israeli airstrikes in southern Beirut and across southern parts of the country.
The UN Security Council is meeting in emergency session on Ukraine, with Secretary-General António Guterres telling ambassadors following what Kyiv describes as the most devastating attack on its capital to date, that “the time for peace is now.” In the early hours of 23-24 May, Russia launched a massive barrage of missiles and drones against multiple Ukrainian cities. Moscow has since threatened further sustained strikes. Sharp divisions among Council members are expected, with European nations demanding an immediate ceasefire while Russia insists its strikes target only military infrastructure.
The UN Charter is facing one of its gravest tests in decades, Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Tuesday, warning that wars, arms races, climate shocks and the erosion of international law are placing intense pressure on the multilateral system established to prevent a third world war.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has deplored a Russian attack on a warehouse in Dnipro, Ukraine that destroyed “a significant quantity” of food aid destined for thousands in frontline areas.
The United Nations is raising alarm over continued drone attacks in Sudan’s Darfur region after multiple strikes reportedly killed civilians and intensified fears for communities already trapped by the brutal conflict between rival militaries.
The Security Council is meeting for a high-level debate on strengthening the UN-centred international system amid mounting pressure on multilateralism and deepening geopolitical divisions. Discussions are expected to focus on defending the UN Charter, reforming global governance and restoring confidence in the Security Council’s ability to respond to international crises.
The overnight Russian attack on Ukraine, which centred on the capital, Kyiv, reportedly involved some 90 missiles, including a powerful hypersonic ballistic missile and 60 drones. The senior UN official in the country called for an end to civilian harm.
On 23 February 2022, in her home city of Kharkiv, Dr Inna Soldatenko finished work, collected her daughter from school, cooked dinner and prepared a lecture for her students. The next morning, she awoke to explosions.
After four weeks of negotiations at UN Headquarters in New York, the 11th Review Conference of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) ended on Friday without consensus on a final declaration.
The United Nations voiced alarm on Friday over reports of an overnight attack on a vocational school and dormitory in the town of Starobilsk in Ukraine’s Luhansk region which killed and injured multiple civilians, including children.
Dire conditions in Gaza marked by continuing violence, rodent infestations and the spread of infectious disease are being made worse by blockages of essential medical supplies, UN agencies warned on Friday.
The Security Council is meeting at the request of Russia which on Friday accused Ukraine of targeting a student dormitory overnight in the occupied Luhansk region, reportedly killing six people – including children – and injuring dozens. Kyiv has denied targeting the civilian building, saying it had struck a Russian military drone command headquarters, according to news reports. Follow live coverage below and for full meetings coverage of the council, click here.
The Security Council is discussing the stalled progress in Gaza as the fragile ceasefire there limps on, and deteriorating conditions across the West Bank amid continued civilian casualties and mounting humanitarian needs. Discussions are likely to focus on who governs Gaza, and how - with no disarmament in sight, together with efforts to support recovery.
As Gaza’s fragile ceasefire frays and humanitarian conditions deteriorate, a senior UN envoy warned the Security Council on Thursday that delays in implementing the Council-backed transition plan for the enclave will only increase suffering and undermine recovery.
As gangs continue to “terrorise” communities in Haiti, children are the ones paying the highest price, the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict warned on Thursday.
Before heading to strike sites in war-torn Lebanon, rescue workers and paramedics often say goodbye to one another – a ritual captured in widely shared videos reflecting the growing dangers faced by aid workers since hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel erupted on 2 March.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday strongly condemned Israel’s decision to establish military facilities at a seized UNRWA compound in occupied East Jerusalem, calling the move “wholly unacceptable”.
The UN Secretary-General on Wednesday underscored the need to effectively re-open the Strait of Hormuz and expand UN Security Council membership to curb the impunity of veto-wielding “superpowers”.
The Representative of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, in Ukraine has strongly condemned the deadly and destructive Russian missile and drone strikes in Dnipro on Tuesday night.
The deadly Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda does not represent a global pandemic emergency, although the risk is high at a regional and national level, the UN health agency chief said on Wednesday.
The Security Council is meeting in New York for its annual open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict amid mounting concern over rising civilian casualties, attacks on humanitarian workers and widespread destruction of homes and critical infrastructure in wars around the world. The UN's top humanitarian for crisis response told ambassadors one civilian was killed every 14 minutes last year. Follow live below from our Meetings Coverage team.
Around 30,000 people have had to flee their homes in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas following a new wave of violent attacks and atrocities perpetrated by armed gangs over the past ten days.
The UN Security Council is meeting in emergency session in New York to discuss the situation in the Middle East following reports of a drone strike near the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in the United Arab Emirates. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi briefed members as concerns grow over nuclear safety and security in the region. Follow our live coverage below for updates and for coverage of all key meetings at UN Headquarters, go here.
The war in Ukraine, now well into its fifth year, “is becoming deadlier by the day”, a senior UN official warned in a briefing to the Security Council on Tuesday.
A fast-spreading Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has health workers rushing to stop transmission while the roll out of any potential vaccine is months away, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
The fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran may have eased fears of a wider regional war, but persistent instability around the Strait of Hormuz continues to disrupt global trade, drive up energy costs and fuel a growing jobs and cost-of-living crisis.
The head of the UN atomic watchdog on Monday underscored the need to safeguard nuclear security in wartime, a day after a drone strike near a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Civilians, including humanitarians, continue to face great danger across war-torn Ukraine amid ongoing hostilities, according to the UN humanitarian relief coordination office there, OCHA.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has reduced the scale of violence in the Gaza Strip but killings and destruction continue, while forced displacement in the occupied West Bank has reached a rate “unseen in decades”, a senior official with the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Monday in Geneva.
A day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the new Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo an international emergency, top global disease transmission experts stressed that the chances of another global pandemic similar to the 2019 coronavirus emergency are increasing all the time.
The widespread availability of new technology, such as militarised drones and artificial intelligence, means that the current threat of nuclear terrorism is higher than it has ever been.
The Secretary-General is alarmed that a clearly marked United Nations vehicle was struck twice in Kherson city in Ukraine on 14 May, his spokesperson said in a statement.
The UN Security Council meets Friday morning in New York to discuss the evolving situation in Syria, as the country navigates a fragile transition after years of conflict and the fall of the Assad regime. Deputy Special Envoy Claudio Cordone and UN relief chief Tom Fletcher are expected to brief members on political and humanitarian developments. Follow our live coverage for updates from the chamber as they happen.
At least six million people in Somalia are going days without enough food, UN aid teams warned on Friday, highlighting that nearly two million of this number are young children “at high risk of illness or death”.
The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People meets Friday at the UN Headquarters to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the Nakba. Senior UN officials, including General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock and Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari, are expected to address the meeting. The event will also feature testimonies from Palestinian families and a tribute to historian of Palestine and the Nakba, Walid Khalidi. Follow our live updates from the meeting as it happens.
The UN Security Council meets Friday morning in New York to discuss the evolving situation in Syria, as the country navigates a fragile transition after years of conflict and the fall of the Assad regime. Deputy Special Envoy Claudio Cordone and UN relief chief Tom Fletcher are expected to brief members on political and humanitarian developments. Follow our live coverage for updates from the chamber as they happen.
Civilians across Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon continue to face mounting hardship as conflict, displacement and ongoing military operations deepen humanitarian needs and strain already limited aid efforts, according to the latest updates from UN agencies.
Nearly 20 million people across Sudan are facing acute hunger and more than 800,000 children risk severe malnutrition this year, UN agencies warned on Friday, as civil war, mass displacement and collapsing food and health systems deepen one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and push parts of the country closer to famine.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth, has reacted strongly to Russian military strikes on a civilian area of Kyiv on Thursday.
Nearly six million people in Somalia – almost a third of the population analysed – are projected to face acute hunger between April and June, with 1.9 million expected to experience emergency levels, UN-backed food security experts warned on Thursday.
Eighty years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, artist Sandy Walker believes art still has the power to cut through abstraction and confront people with the human reality of nuclear violence. Inspired by the writings of Hiroshima survivor Tamiki Hara, Walker’s work seeks to transform historical catastrophe into intimate acts of memory, grief and attention.
A feasibility study is underway to examine whether Gaza’s war debris could be recycled to reclaim coastal land and build artificial islands, as part of reconstruction.
More than 1,600 conflict-related detainees in Yemen will be released under a UN-brokered agreement reached after months of negotiations in Jordan, marking the largest prisoner release deal since the country’s civil war began and offering a rare sign of progress in stalled peace efforts.
Mounting waste and limited access to sanitation sites are deepening health risks for families across Gaza, as humanitarian workers warn that overcrowded dumping areas and worsening living conditions threaten vulnerable communities.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Wednesday that escalating drone activity and nearby explosions involving suspected Hezbollah drones and Israeli forces are endangering its personnel and threatening already fragile stability in southern Lebanon.
Africa’s rising influence is being constrained by outdated global institutions, unfair borrowing costs and cascading global crises, UN Secretary‑General António Guterres warned in Addis Ababa, as the United Nations and African Union reaffirmed their strategic partnership.
More than 26.5 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are facing acute hunger, according to a new analysis from UN-backed food security experts published Tuesday.
Many women in eastern Chad are being forced to give birth in overcrowded clinics with limited medicine, minimal equipment and severe shortages of anesthesia, as a worsening humanitarian crisis overwhelms the country’s fragile healthcare system, the UN reproductive health agency, UNFPA, warned on Tuesday.