Peace and Security

A child flies a kite on a street in the Gaza Strip where an Israeli airstrike took place.
© UNRWA/Mohamed Hinnawi

Israel-Palestine: Waste no opportunity for ‘serious’ political negotiation, envoy urges

30 August 2021
Middle East

The top UN envoy for the Middle East peace process told the UN Security Council on Monday that three months after the deadly escalation in violence between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip, the situation there remains tense.

Many Afghan families were displaced when the Taliban advanced on Kabul.
© UNHCR/Yama Noori

UN health agency secures life-saving medical supplies to Afghanistan

30 August 2021

Lifesaving medical supplies reached Afghanistan by air on Monday, the first UN shipment to arrive since the Taliban takeover more than a week ago, as UN human rights experts called on the country's new rulers to live up to their promise to fully protect the rights of women and girls in the country.

Craters and boreholes dot the former Soviet Union nuclear test site Semipalatinsk in what is today Kazakhstan. (File)
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)

Reaffirm commitment to ban nuclear tests, UN chief says in message for International Day

28 August 2021

Countries which have not yet ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) are urged by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to do so without delay.

Early morning in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Unsplash/ Mohammad Rahmani

UN condemns 'abhorrent' terrorist attack at Kabul airport

27 August 2021
Asia Pacific

The UN Security Council on Friday underlined the importance of combatting terrorism in Afghanistan following the deadly attack at the airport in the capital, Kabul. 

 

A woman brings her child to a clinic in Wajirat in Southern Tigray in Ethiopia to be checked for malnutrition.
© UNICEF/Christine Nesbitt

Catastrophe ‘unfolding before our eyes’ in Ethiopia’s Tigray region – UN chief

26 August 2021
Africa

A military confrontation that started 10 months ago in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region is spreading, with serious political, economic and humanitarian implications for the country and the broader region, the Secretary-General warned the Security Council on Thursday.

A view of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
Photo UNAMA/Fardin Waezi

Afghanistan: UN chief condemns terrorist blasts near Kabul airport

26 August 2021
Middle East

Secretary-General António Guterres condemned on Thursday the terror attacks around Kabul airport in Afghanistan and expressed his support for both the injured and the families of those who have been killed. 

Children stand outside the tent where they live in a remote desert camp in southern rural Homs, Syria.
© UNICEF/Abdulaziz Aldroubi

Pioneering report continues to help children survive conflict

26 August 2021
Global

The UN has verified 266,000 cases of grave violations against children in more than 30 conflict situations across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America over the past 16 years, two top UN officials said on Thursday – marking 25 years since the Organization released a groundbreaking report on the issue.

A father and his daughter in a camp for displaced people, two of 18 million people in Afghanistan who are in need of humanitarian aid, .
© UNICEF Afghanistan

UN migration agency launches $24 million appeal for Afghanistan

26 August 2021
Asia Pacific

In response to the growing humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Thursday launched a $24 million urgent appeal to assist hundreds of thousands of people displaced within the country over the past two months.

Grain is loaded for distribution at a World Food Programme warehouse in Kabul in May 2021.
© WFP/Arete/Andrew Quilty

Amidst turmoil, displacement and plunging economy, Afghanistan’s future ‘very difficult…to see’

25 August 2021
Asia Pacific

A crisis of incredible proportions is unfolding in Afghanistan as conflict, combined with drought and COVID-19, is pushing Afghans into a humanitarian catastrophe, the UN food relief agency said on Wednesday.

Voters in Iraq go to the polls on 10 October 2021.
© UNICEF/Wathiq Khuzaie

Iraq: Clock ticks on all-important elections, commitment to credibility needed

25 August 2021
Middle East

With just 46 days until Iraq goes to the polls, the UN Assistance Mission for the country (UNAMI) is stepping up its communications to inform voters about their conduct, Special Representative Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert told the Security Council on Wednesday, stressing that it is up to the political parties themselves to refrain from attempts to distort the results.