This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

UN peacekeepers launch joint mission with DRC troops in Nord Kivu

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, the UN peacekeeping force there has begun a joint operation with the Congolese army in Nord Kivu.

Details from MONUSCO, the French acronym for the UN mission, indicate that the operation’s objective is to “neutralize” armed groups present in the area along the Beni-Semulike-Kamango-Nobil axis.

Protecting civilians remains a priority for the mission, which is also carrying out patrols along the same axis to improve security, allow people to move freely and help with the return of internally displaced people.

Pakistan floods: 9 million more risk being pushed into poverty, warns UNDP

An additional nine million people risk being pushed into poverty on top of the 33 million affected by last summer’s devastating floods in Pakistan, the UN development agency, UNDP said on Thursday.

Speaking ahead of next week’s International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan in Geneva, UNDP’s Knut Ostby said that although the disaster was unprecedented, it could happen to other countries on the front lines of climate change:

“The floods impacted more than 33 million people with nearly eight million displaced and more than 1,700 people killed. Unfortunately, there is still standing water in several areas, although the water has receded in many places, so many people cannot get back to their regular livelihoods.”

Eight million people are still homeless after the flooding and humanitarians are increasingly concerned that crops were lost from the last harvest and from the missed planting season, meaning that food costs are going up.

If prices keep rising, the number of people classified as food insecure could double, from seven, to 14.6 million, UNDP has warned.

Warm start to 2023 breaks records across Europe: WMO

Weather news now, and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has confirmed that the unusually warm end to the year in Europe, broke records in several countries on the continent, on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

According to the UN agency, temperatures soared above 20 degrees Celsius in many European countries, even in normally chilly Central Europe.

National and many local temperature records for December and January were also broken in several countries, from Spain to eastern parts of the continent, WMO said.

At Spain’s Bilbao airport, a reading of 25.1 degrees on 1 January smashed the previous all-time record established 12 months earlier, by 0.7 degrees.

WMO attributed the warm spell in Europe to a high-pressure zone over the Mediterranean region which encountered an Atlantic low-pressure system.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.