The more peace becomes enduring, the less protection civilians need: that’s been one of the key measures by which the UN mission chief in South Sudan – who left the UN’s top job in the country last Thursday - David Shearer, has judged his four-plus years in charge of the 20,000-strong peacekeeping force, UNMISS.
An intimate encounter with the “kissing bug” might sound cute, but Chagas disease – to give it its official name - is a nightmare for the millions who are infected every year, says UNITAID.
By 2030, two billion people are expected to rely on so-called “assistive” technology aids in their daily lives to eat, see, hear and even get dressed, according to UN patent experts at WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Horrific events have been unfolding in northern Mozambique in recent days, where thousands of people have fled gunmen who’ve attacked the town of Palma, located in Cabo Delgado province, reportedly killing dozens.
According to UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), youngsters have been separated from their parents, and every single one desperately needs help.
UNICEF’s head of communications in Mozambique, Daniel Timme, spoke to UN News’s Daniel Johnson from an aid hub in the provincial capital, Pemba.
The gigantic cargo ship that ran aground and blocked the Suez Canal last week is afloat once again after a Herculean salvage operation, but the damage to global trade will take months to fix.
That’s the assessment of maritime expert Jan Hoffman at UN trade and development agency UNCTAD, who also explains why the cost of sending freight around the world has increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here he is, talking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.
Nearly 700,000 people have fled “a cocktail of crisis” in the Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique, where a three-year brutal insurgency has intensified amid grinding poverty, natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite having some of the largest reserves of natural gas in Africa, Cabo Delgado is among the poorest regions in the country, and is plagued by lack of basic services and high unemployment.
Reasonable progress has been made so far drawing down the UN’s former peacekeeping mission in Darfur, UNAMID, and cooperation on the part of the Sudanese Government has been “excellent”.
That’s according to the head of the UN Department of Operational Support, Atul Khare, who recently returned from a visit to Sudan, where despite the presence of a new political mission, UNITAMS, the transitional Government is ready to assume full responsibility for civilian protection across the restive region.
At least 15 people have died in a massive fire at a refugee camp in southern Bangladesh, home mainly to Rohingyas who fled neighbouring Myanmar, and 400 are still missing.
That’s the latest on Tuesday from UN teams and refugee volunteers on the ground at Cox’s Bazaar, who need to rebuild quickly ahead of the upcoming monsoon, as UN Children’s Fund spokesperson James Elder, tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson.
When COVID-19 locked down Cambodia last year, people with HIV were afraid that they would lose lifesaving access to regular supplies of anti-retroviral drugs.
Fortunately, that never happened, thanks to a successful new medicines distribution scheme - and a little bit of help from social media platforms too - as UNAIDS country director Vladanka Andreeva told UN News’s Daniel Johnson.
Ten years into the Syria crisis, humanitarian needs are deepening for millions of people, especially women, children, and the elderly, caught up in fighting through no fault of their own.
According to humanitarians, over 13 million people across the war-ravaged country are in desperate need of assistance.
UN News Arabic's Shirin Yaseen, spoke with Muhannad Hadi, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, on what the United Nations is doing and the urgent priorities now.
