This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Ukraine: condemnation for deadly train station missile strike

In eastern Ukraine, a reported Russian missile attack on a railway station that’s killed dozens of civilians including children, has been immediately condemned by the UN.

In a statement, on Friday, Amin Awad, who represents the UN Secretary-General in Ukraine, said that many suffered terrible injuries at Kramatorsk railway station and that the number of fatalities was likely to rise.

“It was widely reported over the last two days that the station and surrounding area had been full of civilians attempting to flee intensifying hostilities,” Mr. Awad said in a statement, adding that he was “extremely disturbed” by reports that “children, women, the elderly and people with disabilities” were caught up in the attack.

Ceasefires needed urgently across Ukraine, say aid teams

As conflict shifts to Ukraine’s eastern oblasts, UN humanitarians appealed for local ceasefires so that civilians could escape the violence, and to get lifesaving aid in.

Six weeks since the Russian invasion, thousands of civilians are believed to be still trapped in the southern port city of Mariupol, where they’ve faced weeks of heavy shelling.

But there is still no truce agreement between Russian and Ukrainian forces to let them escape safely.

Here’s Jens Laerke, from UN aid coordination office OCHA:

“It is a top priority to get the silencing of the guns in those cities, Mariupol being the worst-affected, those where citizens are trapped. To allow them to get to safety voluntarily, to a place of their choosing. And to allow aid to get in. So, this is an incremental process.”

Since the Russian invasion began on 24 February, more than 4.3 million people have fled Ukraine, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

More than 100 attacks on healthcare have also been verified, killing 73 and injuring 51.

Skyrocketing food prices, warns FAO

The war in Ukraine has also added to fears of skyrocketing global food prices, as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that its Food Price Index had made a “giant leap” to its highest level ever, since opening in 1990.

FAO said the export disruptions since the Russian invasion of Ukraine had led to a near 20 per cent jump in cereal prices.

To soften the impact on nations that import most of their food needs from both countries, 80 FAO Members have appealed for the creation of a $25 billion fund to help them in the short term.

Sahel and West Africa face worst food and nutrition crisis in a decade

Finally to the Sahel and West Africa, where the number of hungry people has quadrupled in the last three years, to reach 41 million.

Issuing the alert, the UN World Food Programme, WFP, said that the figure rose even higher, to 43 million, if the Central African Republic was included in the food insecurity estimate.

The problem is not limited to rural areas, as 16 million people living in urban spaces are at risk of acute food insecurity.

And WFP also warned that some six million children are undernourished in the Sahel.

There are many reasons for the unprecedented food emergency in the Sahel and West Africa region, from conflict and displacement to climate shocks and inflation, made worse by the Ukraine crisis.

According to WFP, prices have already increased between 30 and 50 per cent in many places, and even doubled in markets, since the Russian invasion.

Farmers are already deeply concerned about the next harvest, after poor returns last year, because of drought.

WFP warned that they don’t have enough food to cover their needs and that conflicts are escalating, and more than six million people have had to leave their homes in the Sahel.

To provide lifesaving help for the next six months, WFP urgently needs $777 million.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.