This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Ukraine crisis: unprecedented outflow of traumatized people, say UN teams

UN humanitarians have described as “unprecedented” the continuing outflow of children and families fleeing “relentless shelling” from the Russian military action in Ukraine.

A week since Russia’s self-styled special operation began, “500,000 children have already been forced to flee their homes,” said the UN Children’s Fund, on Friday.

The psychological toll that the barrage of shelling and sirens has had on countless families fleeing the country is clear.

Here’s Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams from the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, speaking from Moldova’s border with Ukraine:

“One family that I spoke to, it was a mother with her three children in the car and their two dogs. They were all very shaken up. The youngest child, she was a young girl of I would guess around eight or nine, was visibly shaken.”

Deeper within Ukraine, “many cities have faced relentless shelling”, according to UN humanitarian coordinating office OCHA, while UN aid teams continue to push for safe access to get critical supplies in – and the most vulnerable people out.

Human Rights Council votes to set up Ukraine probe

In the Human Rights Council, Member States have voted to set up a top-level probe into rights violations in Ukraine as Russia’s military offensive continues.

Capping discussions spanning two days in Geneva, two-thirds of the Council voted to set up a Commission of Inquiry on Friday; two Member States voted against and 13 abstained.

Ukraine, which had called for the vote on a resolution condemning “Russian aggression,” said that the probe was the “only way to ensure that such [a] blatant dereliction of human rights values…will never repeat itself in any place of the world.”

Opposing the resolution, Russia’s Evgeny Ustinov alleged that “thousands of people “have been killed and maimed by the authorities” in eastern Ukraine.

UN refugee agency appeals for $205 million to help Ethiopia

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has appealed for $205 million to deliver life-saving assistance and protection to over 1.6 million people displaced by the conflict in northern Ethiopia.

Sixteen months of conflict in northern Ethiopia between central government and separatist forces has created a huge humanitarian crisis, said spokesperson Shabia Mantoo.

Civilians, including refugees and internally displaced people, have been forced to leave their homes, Ms. Mantoo said, citing widespread reports of gender-based violence, human rights abuses and critical levels of food insecurity.

To date, more than two million Ethiopians have been displaced within the country, and almost 60,000 have fled across the border into Sudan.

Several camps and settlements hosting Eritrean refugees have also been attacked or destroyed, further displacing tens of thousands within Ethiopia, UNHCR warned.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.