General News

UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic will continue to support authorities in their efforts to improve security despite the killing of a colleague; that’s according to Luis Carrilho, Police Commissioner at the UN mission in the country, known as MINUSCA.

The Cameroonian peacekeeper was killed on Sunday during a search operation for a suspected criminal in the capital, Bangui.

Nine other peacekeepers—one of them his brother—were injured.

A campaign to return girls to school in war-torn South Sudan is due to get underway, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The enrolment rate for girls has declined since the start of the conflict in December 2013, and many girls never make it past primary school.

That’s according to Phuong Nguyen, UNICEF’s chief education officer in the country.

She’s been speaking to Regina Gorle about the campaign, ahead of Girls Education Day this Friday.

Duration: 2’14”

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The political process in the Central African Republic (CAR) is moving forward despite ongoing tensions between rival communities, according to the UN’s top envoy in the country.

CAR has been mired in sectarian violence between Muslim and Christian militias for the past two years.

The insecurity has forced over 820,000 people to flee their homes; half have crossed into neighbouring countries as refugees.

The death sentence of an alternative medicine doctor in Iran has been called an “absolute outrage” by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Mohammad Ali Taheri, the founder of a spiritual movement and practitioner of alternative medicine, was charged by the Revolutionary Court for the crime of “corruption on earth”.

Monsoon flooding in Myanmar has killed nearly 70 people and affected more than 250,000, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

UN agencies and their partners have been assisting the country in responding to the disaster.

The UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) says despite blocked roads and dangerous river conditions, assessment teams have reached remote areas in the west of the country that have been most affected.

Comedy skits by renowned comedians in Latin America that highlight the risks children face using digital devices are central to a new campaign entitled ‘Stand Up Mobile’.

That’s according to Stefan Stefansson, Regional Chief of Partnerships for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Nearly 5,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured as a result of ongoing violence in the country in the first six months of the year, according to a UN report released Wednesday.

A new social contract between governments and their people is critical if the UN’s global development agenda is to deliver on its promise to end extreme poverty and inequality by 2030.

That’s according to Thomas Gass, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Terrorism and violent extremism in Iraq have increased the vulnerability of women and girls living there, according to a gender expert at the UN mission in the country.

Idah Muema, gender adviser at the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said women have been subjected to displacement, sexual violence, loss of freedom, and the deaths of loved ones, because of the violence.

Funding shortages have forced the UN health agency to suspend more than 180 frontline health operations in Iraq, it said Tuesday.

Almost three million people are now without access to urgently needed healthcare support after the closures last month, World Health Organization (WHO) said.

Mainly northern governorates are affected, along with some central areas too, and there could be worse to come unless fresh funding is found, WHO’s Tarik Jasarevic told Daniel Johnson.

Duration: 3’24”