Humanitarian Aid

After returning to Nigeria from Cameroon, families wait to receive emergency food items, mattresses and shelter materials in Banki, in north-east Nigeria. (file)
UNHCR/Rahima Gambo

With ‘little hope’ of a quick return to stability in Lake Chad Basin, UN and partners launch aid appeal

31 January 2018
Africa

With more than a quarter of a million people affected by the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin region, the United Nations refugee agency and its humanitarian partners launched on Wednesday an inter-agency funding appeal for $157 million.

A destroyed classroom at Gerver Secondary School in Ninewa Governorate, Iraq. Much of the school was damaged when the area was occupied by militants in 2015. UNICEF/UNI199916/Jemelikova

Conflicts and disasters forcing 59 million young people into illiteracy – UNICEF study

31 January 2018

Nearly three in ten young people between the ages of 15 and 24 living in conflict- or disaster-affected countries are illiterate, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Wednesday, calling for greater investments in the education, particularly for the most disadvantaged children and youth.

Ursula Mueller, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, addresses the Security Council.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías

Relentless fighting in Syria continues to exact terrible toll on civilians, says UN deputy aid chief

30 January 2018
Middle East

Hostilities in Syria continues to drive hundreds of thousands from their homes and the number of displaced in the seemingly unending conflict continues to rise along with the suffering of affected communities, the United Nations deputy humanitarian chief said Tuesday, calling on all parties to ensure the safety and protection of civilians caught up in the violence.

Four-year-old Faylow is one of the 160,000 children treated for severe malnutrition by UNICEF in Somalia in 2017.
UNICEF Somalia-Makundi

Somali leaders, international partners and UN determined to make Somalia famine resistant

30 January 2018
Africa

One year after Somalia declared drought as a national emergency, famine has so far been averted due to collective and unprecedented humanitarian action, and on Tuesday, the country marked a turning point towards ending the cycle of recurring crises, with the launch of a Government-led, United Nations-supported humanitarian response plan.

Congolese refugees at a transit centre in Uganda near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (File)
UNHCR/L. Beck

Thousands flee violence in eastern DR Congo, seek shelter in nearby countries – UN refugee agency

30 January 2018
Africa

Surging violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is driving thousands of Congolese into neighbouring Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda, the United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday.

From 21-24 February 2016, UNRWA distributed 19,160 thermal blankets to approximately 5,700 Palestinian refugee and other civilian families from the besieged and hard to reach Syrian communities of Yarmouk, Yalda, Babila and Beit Saham.
UNRWA

Amid funding crunch, UN agency seeks $800 million in lifesaving aid for Palestine refugees

30 January 2018
Middle East

Facing an acute funding shortage, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees is seeking more than $800 million for its emergency programmes for Syria and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

A 9-year-old boy and his brother, 6, wait for their turn to fill the empty jerry cans from a local water well in eastern Aleppo, in Syria.
UNICEF/Zayat

Millions of children in crisis zones face 'bleak future,' UNICEF warns, launching emergency appeal

30 January 2018

Children are the most vulnerable when conflict or disaster causes the collapse of essential services such as healthcare and unless the international community takes urgent action to protect and provide life-saving assistance to them, “they face an increasingly bleak future,” the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned Tuesday, launching a $3.6 billion emergency appeal.

Children sit under a mosquito net strung up between trees in Aburoc village, South Sudan. The area is the refuge for the thousands of people displaced by conflict. (file)
UNICEF/Hatcher-Moore

UN agency launches appeal to fund aid efforts in crisis-struck South Sudan

30 January 2018
Africa

Amid worsening humanitarian situation in South Sudan and the number of persons in need of assistance continues to grow, the United Nations migration agency today launched a $103.7 million appeal to sustain critical and life-saving aid programmes.

UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie talks with Syrian children at the Za’atari camp in Jordan.
UNHCR/Ivor Prickett

Peace in Syria must be built on dignity, human rights for all Syrians, UNHCR envoy Angelina Jolie

29 January 2018
Middle East
With nearly 5.5 million war-weary Syrian refugees sheltering in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, Angelina Jolie, the United Nations refugee agency’s envoy, visited on Sunday Jordan’s Za’atari camp, carrying the message that peace in Syria must be built on human rights.
A mother, displaced with her family, feeds her 18-month-old daughter at a shelter in a village rural Damascus. (file)
WFP/Abeer Etefa

Hunger continues to intensify in conflict zones, UN agencies report to Security Council

29 January 2018
Global

Food insecurity – or lack of access to enough food – continues to worsen in places torn by conflict, United Nations agencies reported Monday, listing Yemen, South Sudan and Syria among the countries most affected by acute hunger.