This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Niger needs all our help as bulwark against terrorism, urges UN's Guterres

As part of his tour of West Africa, UN chief António Guterres has visited Niger, where he said on Tuesday that the country needs the full support of the international community to keep terrorist groups at bay.

The UN Secretary-General was speaking in Ouallam in western Niger, where he expressed his solidarity with communities targeted by deadly attacks in January that left at least 100 dead and displaced many more.

But it’s not just military and financial assistance that Niger needs, Mr. Guterres said, as he highlighted the climate shocks and drought that have created dire humanitarian needs in the country.

The best way to fight terrorism is to give people hope, the UN chief continued, to show them “that they have a future, where people can have access to schools, hospitals and work”.

Mariupol steel works convoy: UN humanitarians aid arrivals after harrowing journey

In Ukraine, UN humanitarians have begun to help the first evacuees arriving from Mariupol’s heavily damaged Azovstal steel works, more than two months since Russia’s invasion began.

Early reports indicate that the evacuees started to arrive later than expected on Tuesday at a reception centre in Zaporizhzhia, more than 200 miles north of Mariupol.

It comes after more than 100 civilians were allowed to leave the steel works complex at the weekend.

From the UN World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Dorit Nizan, Incident Manager for Ukraine, reported that many other civilians from towns and villages on the outskirts of western Mariupol had already arrived at Zaporizhzhia reception centre:

“We are already receiving people, mainly mothers and children from Mariupol and its vicinity. So, these people continue coming and I don’t know if you can see in the background, but cars are coming with volunteers from the region here, Zaporizhzhia, that are driving them from the contact line.”

Before the Russian invasion on 24 February, Mariupol’s population numbered around 500,000. Today, around 100,000 are believed to remain in the battered city, the WHO official said.

UN’s Bachelet hails courage of journalists on World Press Freedom Day

For this year’s World Press Freedom Day, on Tuesday, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet has paid tribute to courageous journalists who continue to risk their lives for their work.

Many reporters have “little choice but to work amidst ever-increasing harassment, intimidation, surveillance and risk to their lives and livelihoods”, Ms. Bachelet insisted, at a ceremony in Geneva:

“They do so for the sake of all of us. So that we have access to free, accurate and independent information. So that we can live in just and peaceful societies. Their work helps build the foundation for some of the fundamental human rights we should all enjoy: freedom of opinion, information and expression.”

It is crucial that journalists continue to expose atrocities, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights noted, her comments following her condemnation of deadly communal violence in Sudan’s Darfur, and reported summary executions of civilians in Bucha in Ukraine.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.