This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Ukraine: UN atomic energy experts head to stricken nuclear power station

A team of UN atomic energy experts set out on Monday for Zaporizhzhya’s nuclear power station in Ukraine, after weeks of rising tensions between Ukrainian and Russian forces, who have accused each other of shelling the plant.

In a tweet, Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, said that he would lead the agency’s Support & Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya, which is under Russian control.

“The day has come…to protect the safety and security” of the plant,” which is Europe’s largest, Mr. Grossi wrote on Twitter, alongside a photograph of himself and 13 other IAEA staff, preparing for their mission.

Once the IAEA team arrives in Zaporizhzya “later this week”, Mr. Grossi said that priorities included carrying out damage assessments and evaluating whether safety and security systems at Zaporizhzhya remained functional.

Other urgent tasks also include checking on the welfare of the Ukrainian staff still running the plant, which houses six of the country’s 15 nuclear reactors.

Yemen to benefit from Black Sea food exports

In a related development, the UN-led initiative to secure shipments of grain and other foodstuffs from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports said that around 1.25 million metric tonnes have now been successfully shipped.

The update on Sunday from the Joint Coordination Centre, which involves Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye and the UN, reported that 62 inbound and 52 outbound voyages had been approved since the agreement was signed on 27 July in Istanbul.

Three commercial vessels were authorized to move on Monday from Ukrainian ports, carrying more than 70,000 tonnes of foodstuffs.

One of the ships, the Karteria, was due to depart for Türkiye, with 37,500 metric tons of wheat purchased by the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

“It will be milled to flour in Türkiye and it will then be loaded onto a new ship that will head to Yemen,” the Joint Coordination Centre said.

Ethiopia: Outrage over civilian casualties at Tigray playground

To Ethiopia, where top rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council have condemned a deadly attack on a children’s playground in Tigray.

The development comes after renewed fighting last week between the government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, breaking a four-month humanitarian truce. 

Media reports indicated that at least seven people including three children were killed in the airstrike in Mekelle, the capital Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, last Friday.

Such fighting “only worsens the hardships on civilians…and risks a violent escalation”, warned the International Commission of Human Rights Experts for Ethiopia.

The panel of experts was established by the Human Rights Council in December 2021 at the request of Member States who’d expressed alarm at spreading violence in Tigray and beyond – and the dire humanitarian crisis that has resulted from a lack of aid access.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.