This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Condemnation for killing of journalist reporting on Myanmar refugees

The killing of journalist Sai Win Aung in Myanmar has been condemned by the UN’s Cultural, Scientific and Education organization, UNESCO.

It said that the reporter - who was also known as A Sai K - died on 25 December, while covering the plight of refugees in the southeastern state of Kayin, for the Federal News Journal.

He was fatally shot in an artillery attack by the Myanmar armed forces, UNESCO said, citing reports, making him the second journalist to be killed in Myanmar last month.

Appealing for a full investigation into Mr Aung’s death, UNESCO head Audrey Azoulay said that media workers like Sai Win Aung risked their lives to keep the public informed – and that they deserved to be protected in line with international humanitarian law.

Harsh winter fuels ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, harsh winter conditions are aggravating the severe crisis facing millions across the country.

That’s the warning from UN aid coordination office OCHA, which said that heavy snowfall and rain have already disrupted flights to and from Kabul airport – just as forecasts have indicated further snow in coming days.

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan was bad even before the Taliban takeover last August.

But it has been made worse by the subsequent suspension of aid to the country and the freezing of Afghanistan’s assets by many countries and international organisations.

According to UN humanitarians, more than 24 million Afghans are expected to need assistance this year and more than nine in 10 of them are likely to be acutely food insecure by March.

Syria: Grim start to 2022 as two children killed in ongoing attacks

To northwest Syria now, where two children have been killed and five others injured in violence linked to the long-running conflict, since the start of the year.

The news, reported on Tuesday by UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, came as it condemned an attack on a water station in Arshani village outside Idlib, which cut the supply to more than 240,000 people.

“Children and services catering to them must never come under attack,” UNICEF said in a statement.

In an earlier declaration, the UN’s deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Mark Cutts, tweeted that in northwest Syria, airstrikes “were continuing” and that more civilians were being killed in Idlib.

The northwest region is the last opposition-held enclave in Syria, and home to 2.8 million people who’ve been displaced by nearly 11 years of war.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.