This is the News in Brief from the United Nations. 

UN chief expresses solidarity with Republic of Korea after deadly floods

UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed his “deep solidarity” with the people and government of the Republic of Korea on Wednesday, after deadly flooding and landslides.

At least nine people died as some of the heaviest rainfall in decades left parts of Seoul submerged, when the Han river burst its banks.

The UN World Meteorological Organization tweeted on Tuesday that 451 millimetres of rain – or 17.8 inches – had been recorded in the Seoul area in less than 48 hours, and that more was to come.

According to reports, the country has seen its longest monsoon in seven years.

Landslides also forced 1,500 people from their homes and Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun called for the provinces of Gyeonggi and Chungcheong to be declared disaster zones.

Mr. Guterres’s message came ahead of his scheduled two-day trip to the Republic of Korea, beginning Thursday.

“I want to express my deep solidarity with the government and the people of the country and offer my condolences to the families of all those who have perished in the floods,” he said.

Ukraine: UN ups aid appeal to cater for 2 million more in need of aid

To Ukraine, where the top UN aid official in the country has appealed for $4.3 billion in increased funding for those affected by the war.

Since the Russian invasion in February, local, national and international humanitarian organizations have helped more than 11 million people across the country.

But the reality is that more people need support, said UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine Denise Brown.

She said that at least 17.7 million people - over a quarter of Ukraine’s population – will need assistance in the months ahead.

That number is about two million more than had been estimated in April, said Ms. Brown, who warned that there were fears for this winter, “as more people will probably displace from areas where they cannot access gas, fuel or electricity to heat their homes”.

The new financial request – up from $2.25 billion three months ago to $4.3 billion now – is to make sure that aid workers have the funding and resources necessary to continue delivering critical assistance and protection services to people across Ukraine until December 2022.

10,000 Da’esh fighters estimated to operate on Syria-Iraq border

Around 10,000 Da’esh fighters are believed to operate in the border area between Syria and Iraq, the UN Security Council has heard.

In an update on the activities of the terror group, which is also known as ISIL, UN counter-terrorism chief Vladimir Voronkov maintained that it still posed a rising threat to international security, with between $25 to $50 million dollars in assets.

In addition to being present in Iraq and Syria, the group is also operational in Afghanistan, Somalia and Central, Southern and Western Africa.

Mr. Voronkov also noted that Da’esh fighters had also “significantly increased the use of unmanned aerial systems in the past year, including in northern Iraq”.

And he explained that in Afghanistan, although there has been a drop in the number of attacks claimed or attributed to the local Da’esh affiliate, they had expanded into northeast and eastern regions.

From Uganda, a Da’esh affiliate had “widened its area of operations into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN official said, adding that yet another affiliated group had “intensified small-scale attacks in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province”.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.