With Lebanon still reeling from Israel’s devastating airstrikes on 8 April, UN humanitarians reported new fears of attacks on ambulances and looming food shortages in the south of the country on Friday.
With Lebanon still reeling from Israel’s devastating airstrikes on 8 April, UN humanitarians reported new fears of attacks on ambulances and looming food shortages in the south of the country on Friday.
Fighting continues across parts of the Middle East, with renewed exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Humanitarian needs are deepening, with rising civilian casualties, mounting displacement and growing strain on services. Diplomatic efforts continue with high stakes negotiations due to start Saturday between the US and Iran over the faltering ceasefire deal. Lebanon is an active war zone and the Strait of Hormuz is still effectively closed. Stay with us for live updates. App users can follow coverage here.
As Sudan approaches the third anniversary of a brutal civil war, millions remain displaced and hungry while the health system lies in ruins, with no end to the violence in sight, UN agencies said on Friday.
After a 10-day journey around the far side of the Moon, the four astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission are set to splash down in the Pacific Ocean late on Friday.n.
With a US-Iran ceasefire offering a fragile glimmer of hope after weeks of conflict, violence continues to reverberate across the Middle East. Massive airstrikes in Lebanon have caused heavy civilian casualties and widespread destruction, drawing strong UN condemnation. As humanitarian needs deepen and diplomatic efforts intensify, the situation remains highly volatile. Stay with us for live updates. App users can follow coverage here.
Despite successful legislative elections in Kosovo late last year, a “delicate equilibrium” persists as deep divisions remain over the future of the United Nations presence in the region.
The scale and speed of destruction from the wave of airstrikes in Lebanon which began just hours after the US-Iran ceasefire announcement, has left the country’s already strained health system struggling to cope, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The announcement of a shaky two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran, will it is hoped, lead to the opening of the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which one fifth of the world’s oil and gas passes.
The United Nations has strongly condemned airstrikes by the Israeli military across Lebanon on Wednesday which have resulted in significant casualties and destruction.
After nearly 40 days of intense hostilities across the Middle East – marked by rising civilian casualties and widespread damage to critical infrastructure – a two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran has been announced. While the UN Secretary-General has welcomed the move as a step toward a broader peace, reports of continued Israeli strikes and mass casualties across Lebanon underscore the fragility of the situation. Stay with us for live updates. App users can follow coverage here.
Over 180 people are feared dead or missing in the latest shipwrecks on the Mediterranean, according to the UN migration agency, IOM.
Hostilities continue across the Middle East, with ongoing strikes, rising civilian impacts and mounting pressure on critical infrastructure and humanitarian services. On the diplomatic track in New York, China and Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution put forward by Gulf States to ensure safety and security of ships in the Strait of Hormuz - find full coverage here. Meanwhile, displacement remains high, aid access is constrained. Human rights chief Volker Türk says President Trump’s threat to annihilate Iranian civilisation is “sickening”. Stay with us for live updates from across the UN system. App users can follow coverage here.
Thirty-two years ago, a genocidal campaign was unleashed against Rwanda’s Tutsi minority, resulting in more than one million deaths. On Tuesday, the UN is holding commemorations to ensure that the genocide is never forgotten and never repeated.
The UN Security Council has failed to adopt a resolution aiming to boost security in the Strait of Hormuz as the critical shipping corridor remains largely closed to global trade and the transport of humanitarian aid, with war continuing to rage across the region.
The UN is significantly scaling up its presence in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, to expand life-saving operations as the conflict between rival militaries approaches its third year.
Strikes and counter-strikes continue across the Middle East, with dozens of casualties reported over the weekend in Lebanon following Israeli strikes targeting the south and the capital, Beirut. Meanwhile, humanitarian needs are rising, critical infrastructure remains under strain, and the wider economic and global impacts of the crisis continue to mount. Stay with us for live updates from across the UN system. App users can follow coverage here.
Reports of yet another projectile strike near the Bushehr nuclear power plant prompted Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to register his deep concern on Saturday.
As violence forces tens of thousands to flee Sudan’s South Kordofan state, doctors in a key maternity hospital are facing impossible choices – with too few supplies, too many patients, and lives slipping away.
In conflict zones where new technologies are making landmines more dangerous, deminers must innovate at the same pace to avoid being left behind, a leading UN mines expert has told UN News.
South Sudan is evolving into a catastrophic human rights and humanitarian crisis, UN Human Rights Council-appointed independent experts warned on Thursday.
Deadly new strikes reported across the Middle East overnight and Thursday rattled energy markets and pushed crude oil prices up to $107 in early trading. Hopes dwindled of a quick end to the conflict as President Trump spoke of another "two to three weeks" of attacks, alongside "ongoing" discussions with Tehran. Civilians across the region continue to suffer misery and displacement. The UN chief told reporters at UN Headquarters the conflict ‘is already being felt everywhere,” and “the spiral of destruction must stop”. Follow live coverage from the Security Council here. App users can follow coverage here.
The ongoing crisis in the Middle East is exposing a central vulnerability in the global economy: the dependence on fossil fuels flowing through regions affected by conflict, a situation which is strengthening the UN’s case for a faster transition to cheaper, more resilient renewable power.
The Middle East crisis has lurched into its second month, prompting UN Secretary-General António Guterres to issue a stark warning on Thursday morning that the world is “on the edge of a wider war” with catastrophic global implications.
Although the situation on the ground is challenging, investigations are underway into the killing of three UN peacekeepers over two consecutive days with an update expected “as soon as possible,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Wednesday.
The war in the Middle East and the near halt to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz has amplified the energy crunch facing developing nations in Africa and South Asia that rely heavily on imported liquid gas, food and fertilizers.
The killing of three UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon in the past two days has highlighted the grave dangers for the 10,000 military personnel who make up the bulk of UNIFIL, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon – and for the communities caught up in intense clashes between the Israeli military and Hezbollah fighters.
The UN’s top humanitarian official warned the Security Council on Tuesday that Lebanon is facing one of its most dangerous moments in years, with escalating violence, mass displacement and deepening human suffering pushing the country to “breaking point”.
Some 20,000 seafarers remain stranded on ships in the Strait of Hormuz as the war in the Middle East continues, a situation which has been described as unprecedented in the post-Second World War era.
The trauma of mass displacement and disruption to aid shipments throughout the world are among the devastating impacts of the war raging in the Middle East, UN agencies said on Tuesday.
More than a month since war erupted in the Middle East, UN agencies confirmed on Tuesday that huge numbers of people have returned to Syria from Lebanon "exhausted, traumatized and with very, very few belongings". Meanwhile, the UN International Maritime Organization said that another vessel has been attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, increasing concerns of further delays in transporting lifesaving aid. The Security Council meets at 10am in New York in emergency session on Lebanon. Stay with us for live updates. App users can follow coverage here
Further attacks have been reported across the Middle East as the war enters a second month, with two more Indonesian peacekeepers killed in Southern Lebanon on Monday, following the death of a fellow ‘blue helmet’ a day earlier. On the diplomatic front, the UN has announced a taskforce to restore the flow of fertilizer and aid through the Strait of Hormuz, while the UN's atomic watchdog confirms an attack on a heavy water facility at Khondab in Iran. Stay with us for live updates on this and UN agencies. App users can follow coverage here.
Clearing mines laid at sea can be an “extremely challenging and very dangerous” undertaking according to a UN mines expert.
A night of drone attacks reportedly killed two people and injured 12 in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, as a maternity hospital and three educational facilities were also damaged.
The United Nations has condemned two consecutive days of deadly attacks on peacekeepers serving with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), amid rising hostilities between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants.
Asking the softly spoken, veteran humanitarian worker Philippe Lazzarini how he feels as he comes to the end of his second term as the head of the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, is perhaps an unfair question.
Fears are mounting for civilians caught up in Sudan’s deadly war between rival militaries as attacks intensify and humanitarian access shrinks, following a deadly airstrike on a funeral gathering in West Kordofan.
Further attacks have been reported across the Middle East as the war enters a second month, with one UN peacekeeper killed in Lebanon on Sunday and another seriously injured. On the diplomatic front, the UN has announced a taskforce to restore the flow of fertilizer and aid through the Strait of Hormuz, while the UN's atomic watchdog confirms an attack on a heavy water facility at Khondab in Iran. Stay with us for live updates on this and UN agencies. App users can follow coverage here.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for accountability after a peacekeeper was killed in Lebanon on Sunday amid hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
Just hours after war broke out in the Middle East last month, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned the Security Council that the fighting risked “igniting a chain of events that no one can control in the most volatile region of the world.”
Almost one month since Israeli and US airstrikes on Iran began, sparking a wider regional war, UN agencies and partners on Friday highlighted the terror among civilians fleeing bombardment, with “no safe space” to go.
The war in the Middle East continues, with attacks causing further terror and suffering, deepening the humanitarian crisis across the region. In Geneva, diplomats at the Human Rights Council have been discussing the school strike in Iran’s Minab that killed more than 100 children. Stay with us for live updates on this and from UN agencies providing relief. App users can follow coverage here.
More than four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the “danger is only increasing”, particularly from attack drones, a top UN human rights official warned on Thursday.
The security and political situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) remains “extremely tense”, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Thursday.
Hospitals are just the latest vital public services to be hit in Cuba, more than a month since Washington took measures to block oil supplies from entering the Caribbean nation.
The intensifying conflict in the Persian Gulf “has triggered one of the most rapid and severe disruptions to global commodity flows in recent times,” the Chief Economist with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the escalating Gulf war is “out of control”, urging all sides to step back from the brink and allow diplomacy to prevail, as he announced the appointment of a senior envoy to spearhead peace efforts.
The number of children and young people out of school worldwide has climbed for the seventh consecutive year, reaching 273 million, according to a new report from the UN education agency, UNESCO.
It’s day 26 of war in the Middle East. The UN chief says with the conflict now totally out of control, diplomacy must prevail. Ongoing strikes in Israel and Iran have included intensifying Israeli attacks against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, while some US troops are heading to the region, the Pentagon has confirmed. Meanwhile, Iran has told the UN maritime agency that the Strait of Hormuz remains open to “non-hostile” ships not associated with the US and Israel. UN News app users can follow coverage here.
It’s day 26 of war in the Middle East. Ongoing strikes in Israel and Iran have included intensifying Israeli attacks against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, while some 2,000 US troops are reportedly about to mobilize to the region. Meanwhile, Iran has told the UN maritime agency that the Strait of Hormuz remains open to “non-hostile” ships not associated with the US and Israel. In Geneva, a rare urgent debate on the crisis is also getting under way at the Human Rights Council. Stay with us for live updates from across the UN system. UN News app users can follow coverage here.
As tensions escalate in the Middle East, the international community must not lose sight of the situation in Gaza, an official with US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace across the shattered enclave said on Tuesday in his first appearance in the UN Security Council.