The World Health Organization (WHO) says it’s extremely concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Al-Hol camp in Syria’s Al-Hasakeh Governorate, where 11 infants are reported to have died due to cold, in the past two days alone.  Abdelmonem Makki spoke to WHO representative in Syria, Elizabeth Hoff, who said staff in the camp were “working round the clock”, to try and prevent further tragic loss of life, amidst desperate conditions.

• Syria: ‘Violence, displacement’ and cold kill 11 infants ‘in the past two days’
• Boom in Artificial Intelligence patents, points to ‘quantum leap’ in tech
• UN appeals for more than $162 million in aid to Ukraine

The first ever Arab woman director to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, has told UN News that she had ‘a duty’ to record the reality of the refugee crisis playing out on the streets of her native Lebanon. Nadine Labaki is the director of Capernaum, a harrowing drama seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy who decides to sue his own parents after years of abuse and neglect.

Yumbi in the western Democratic Republic of the Congo resembles a “ghost city” in the aftermath of a days-long massacre last month which left at least 535 victims. That’s according to Florence Marchal, spokesperson for the UN Mission in the country, MONUSCO.  Ms. Marchal spoke with  UN News's Pascal Sim regarding the brutal inter-ethnic killings  carried out between Banunu and Batende community members.

“We need to ensure a stronger protection environment” and “raise awareness” over the killings of girls and boys in Tanzania, believed to be linked to witchcraft rituals, said Álvaro Rodríguez, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in the country, strongly condemning the recent killing of ten children in the south of Njombe district.  Mr. Rodríguez spoke with Stella Vuzo from the UN Information Office in the capital Dar es Salaam.

In late January, David Sheff and Vicky Cornell joined a panel discussion on addiction organised by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).  Mr. Sheff’s memoir about his son’s addiction is now a Hollywood movie, and Ms. Cornell was married to Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, whose suicide she has attributed to prescription drugs that altered his mental state.  They told Conor Lennon from UN News that changes to the health care system play a key role in addressing the crisis.

• Probe call for Brazil dam collapse
• ‘World’s deadliest sea crossing’ claimed six lives a day in 2018: UN refugee agency
• 30 dead and 100 migrants missing in Djibouti boat tragedy

“If we look at what Lake Chad was and what it is today, we understand that climate change is real, and it needs to be addressed”, the newly-appointed UN Special Representative to the African Union (AU) has told UN News. Based in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa since the beginning of January, Ms. Tetteh told Cristina Silveiro what her priorities were for the year ahead.

• Nearly $4 billion needed to protect 41 million children from conflict and disaster
• 700 people detained in one day of Venezuela demonstrations, dozens children
• Palestine refugees more vulnerable now than in year 2000, warns UN agency chief

An important lesson for young people to learn from the Holocaust is that individuals “have more power than they realize” to make sure that history is not forgotten, according to Sara Bloomfield, Director of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day, Ms. Bloomfield said youth the world over had a responsibility to ask what role they can play.