Asia Pacific

A child at the Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan.
© UNICEF/Sayed Bidel

Afghanistan: Rapid decline in public health conditions, WHO warns

29 September 2021
Health

Healthcare provision is deteriorating fast in Afghanistan, the UN health agency warned on Wednesday, with cases of measles and diarrhoea shooting up, and polio becoming a “major risk”.

People in rural parts of Yemen are suffering from extreme hunger.
UNDP Yemen

Yemen: Endless suffering of children continues due to war, aid crisis 

27 September 2021
Peace and Security

The Yemen conflict killed or maimed 2,600 children as hostilities intensified in 2019 and 2020; that’s according to a new report of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed conflict in the country. 

People across ethnic and religious divides hold vigil in Yangon, Myanmar.
Unsplash/Zinko Hein

Human rights ‘catastrophe’ in Myanmar: UN calls for urgent action  

23 September 2021
Human Rights

Urgent action is needed to prevent the situation in Myanmar from escalating into a “full-blown conflict”, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned on Thursday.   

Conditions have 'worsened' in Myanmar following a military coup in February 2021, according to a UN human rights rapporteur.
Asian Development Bank

Myanmar: UN expert says current international efforts failing, urges ‘change of course’

22 September 2021
Human Rights

The UN independent rights expert on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, told the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday that conditions inside the country following the 1 February military coup have worsened, urging a “change of course” to prevent further human rights abuses and deaths.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (centre) speaks to hospital staff at the Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan National Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan.
WHO/Lindsay Mackenzie

Afghanistan’s healthcare system on brink of collapse, as hunger hits 95 per cent of families

22 September 2021
Humanitarian Aid

Afghanistan’s health system is on the brink of collapse, the head of the World Health Organisation, WHO, warned on Wednesday, while on the streets of Kabul, the hunger families are suffering is as acute in urban areas as the drought-stricken rural parts of the country. 

As schools slowly reopen in parts of Afghanistan, it is important to ensure that both girls and boys are able to return safely.
©UNICEF

Afghanistan: ‘Palpable’ fear of ‘brutal and systemic repression’ of women grows

21 September 2021
Women

Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last month, they have made some commitments to uphold human rights. However, their subsequent actions have “sadly contradicted” those promises, the UN rights chief told a side event of the General Assembly on Tuesday.

Girls play volleyball at a school in Herat, Afghanistan, in 2016.
UNAMA

UNICEF stresses Afghan girls must not be excluded from school

17 September 2021
Human Rights

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Friday welcomed the news that secondary schools are due to reopen in Afghanistan on Saturday, after months of closure due to COVID-19, but stressed that girls must not be kept from the classroom.

Food is distributed by WFP in Herat in western Afghanistan in August 2021.
© WFP

First humanitarian flight to Kabul marks 'turning point' in crisis: WFP 

14 September 2021
Humanitarian Aid

The return of humanitarian flights to Kabul since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is a turning point in the crisis, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday. 

Upwards of 30,000 people live in this displacement site on the outskirts of Herat.
IOM

$1 billion pledge a ‘quantum leap’ in commitment to Afghanistan: UN chief

13 September 2021
Humanitarian Aid

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday hailed significant international financial support pledged to the people of Afghanistan following a meeting in Geneva, which nearly doubled the initial $606 million flash appeal for the country.

Two Afghan women walk near an ancient mosque in western Herat province.
UNAMA

Support Afghans in their most perilous hour, urges UN’s Guterres

13 September 2021
Humanitarian Aid

The international community should urgently offer a “lifeline” to millions of vulnerable Afghans “who face perhaps their most perilous hour”, the UN Secretary-General said on Monday.