This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Ukraine war linked to ‘massive malnutrition crisis’ affecting millions in other emergencies

The war in Ukraine has increased the risk of a “massive malnutrition crisis” for millions of children in other emergencies because of its already huge impact on global food prices, the UN said on Thursday.

Six weeks since Russia invaded its neighbour, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said that imports have been disrupted to the Middle East and North Africa – where more than 90 per cent of food has to be shipped in.

Prices have also risen for essentials, including wheat, cooking oil and fuel and if this situation continues, “it will severely impact children, especially in Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Syria and Yemen”, UNICEF said.

Adele Khodr, who’s UNICEF’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, warned that families are unable to cope with “unprecedented” food price hikes, caused by “ongoing conflicts, political instability, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine”.

According to UNICEF, less than four in 10 young children in the Middle East and North Africa get the diets they need to grow and develop properly.

Meanwhile, inside Ukraine, new satellite images have confirmed that the destruction of cities besieged by Russian forces is ongoing.

According to high definition photographs provided by the UNOSAT service, damage to Mariupol “increased by about six per cent” between 26 March and 3 April.

Much of this increase was in the coastal harbour and steel mill areas, UNOSAT said in its latest update.

Satellite footage from Bucha, where hundreds of Ukrainian civilians have been found killed following the withdrawal of Russian troops, shows that just over a quarter of the city has been badly damaged.

DR Congo violence against children must stop, demands UNICEF chief

To eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC now, where armed groups have continued to terrorise families, forcing thousands to flee for their lives.

In an alert on Thursday, UN Children’s Fund UNICEF said that conditions are dire and deteriorating at Rhoe refugee camp in Ituri province, where people are “effectively trapped on a remote hill”.

The camp is home to more than 60,000 people and more than half are children.

Many arrived last November after being driven from another camp in the town of Drodro, that was attacked by men wielding machetes.

This, UNICEF explained, was just one of the latest bouts of violence that have plagued eastern DRC for decades and displaced around five million people.

In an appeal for help to end the insecurity, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell warned that there have already been outbreaks of respiratory illnesses, diarrhoea and malaria.

“Every effort should be made to strengthen service delivery for people sheltering at the Rhoe camp and to protect them from violence,” she said.

Digital innovation quadrupled from 2000 - 2020: WIPO report

A wave of “digitalization” across all parts of the economy has transformed traditional industry in the last 20 years – but it has also increased the risk of inequality, the UN said on Thursday.

In a new report on global innovation, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said that digital innovation quadrupled from the year 2000 to 2020.

And in the last five years for which data is available (2016 to 2020) digital innovation patents grew an impressive 172 per cent faster than all other filings.

The sector covers artificial intelligence - or AI – predictive technologies, highly sophisticated automation and big data, all creations “that can spur economic growth” when used alongside people, and not instead of them.

WIPO said that while these new digital innovations may help poorer countries to develop more quickly, “others may miss out” because they lack both the capital required to invest in the technology, and the highly-skilled workforce that is also required.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.