Middle East

UNAMI

Credible elections can help propel Iraq towards ‘safe and prosperous future’ 

11 May 2021
Peace and Security

A trusted electoral process with “free and wide-ranging participation” can steer Iraq towards a “safe and prosperous future”, the country’s UN envoy told the Security Council on Tuesday. 

© UNICEF/Lindsay Mackenzie

ISIL crimes against Yazidis constitute genocide, UN investigation team finds

10 May 2021
Peace and Security

A UN team investigating ISIL atrocities in Iraq has established “clear and convincing evidence” of genocide against the Yazidi religious minority, the Security Council heard on Monday. 

© UNICEF/Delil Souleiman

Revived peace process, lasting calm, and a new constitution needed in Syria 

28 April 2021
Peace and Security

In addition to the challenges that all Syrians have faced during a 10-year conflict, women have experienced sexual and gender-based violence, early and forced marriage and trafficking, the country’s UN envoy told the Security Council on Wednesday. 

UNICEF

Syria receives first COVID-19 vaccines, for most vulnerable

22 April 2021
Humanitarian Aid

More than 250,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Syria on Thursday from the UN-backed COVAX initiative, to inoculate the country’s frontline health workers.   

© UNICEF/Khuder Al-Issa

Syria’s decade of ‘death, destruction, displacement, disease, dread and despair’

29 March 2021
Peace and Security

Now is not the moment to reduce humanitarian aid to Syria, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council on Monday, stressing that after 10 years of conflict, more support was needed to avoid further “dramatic and widespread” deterioration. 

© UNOCHA/Giles Clarke

‘Yemen can’t wait’, UN and partners warn in seeking $3.85 billion for humanitarian response

17 March 2021
Humanitarian Aid

The UN and its humanitarian partners are seeking $3.85 billion to reach 16 million people in Yemen this year, or nearly 80 per cent of the population, as the country descends deeper into crisis. 

UNOCHA/Giles Clarke

UN envoy warns of ‘dramatic’ deterioration in Yemen conflict

16 March 2021
Peace and Security

The UN’s top official in Yemen has warned of a “dramatic” deterioration in the country’s ongoing conflict, telling the Security Council on Tuesday that fighting has expanded on several fronts amid the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. 

UNICEF/Ali Haj Suleiman

Syria: Grim 10-year anniversary of ‘unimaginable violence and indignities’ 

15 March 2021
Peace and Security

As the Syrian war reaches its grim decade-long milestone, the UN envoy for the country told the Security Council on Monday that it will “go down as one of the darkest chapters in recent history” referring to the Syrian people as among “the greatest victims of this century”. 

Mohammad Abou Kerech

First Person: Poetry and the pain of loss and leaving; a voice from Syria

14 March 2021
Culture and Education

A young Syrian woman has told the United Nations how poetry helped her to convey the emotions of all the children who have been caught up in the decade-long civil war in her country.

© UNICEF/Khaled Akacha

Syria war: Average of one child injured or killed every eight hours over past 10 years - UNICEF 

12 March 2021
Peace and Security

The grim ten-year anniversary of the war in Syria has left 90 percent of the country’s children in need of help, as a triple crisis of violence, economic misery and the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed families to the brink of despair, UNICEF reported on Friday.