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UNHCR asks Ethiopia for urgent access to 96,000 Eritreans cut off without food

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, appealed to Ethiopia on Tuesday for urgent access to 96,000 Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, saying the month-long conflict in Tigray had left them without vital supplies.

A ‘digital canyon’: 1.3 billion school-aged children can’t log on to internet at home

A staggering two-thirds of world’s school-aged children – 1.3 billion children aged 3-17 – do not have internet connection in their homes, preventing them from learning vital skills needed to compete in the modern economy, a new UN report has revealed. 

UN urges ‘global solidarity, shared responsibility’ against pandemics, marking World AIDS Day

The United Nations is commemorating World AIDS Day, on Tuesday, with a call for “global solidarity and shared responsibility” to overcome not only COVID-19, but also AIDS – another global pandemic that is still with us nearly 40 years after it emerged. 

UN appeals for $35 billion to help world’s ‘most vulnerable and fragile’ in 2021

A record 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection next year, a near- 40 per cent increase on 2020 which is “almost entirely from COVID-19”, the UN’s emergency relief chief said on Tuesday. 

FROM THE FIELD: Trafficked teenager advocates for women’s rights in Central America

A 19-year-old woman from Nicaragua in Central America has been telling the United Nations how she was traded as “currency” in a card game, and then trafficked and abused.

COVID-19 worsening gender-based violence, trafficking risk, for women and girls

With the COVID-19 pandemic heightening the dangers of gender-based violence and human trafficking, action on these two fronts is needed now more than ever, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Monday. 

FROM THE FIELD: Growing potatoes in the air: agricultural innovation in Rwanda

A Rwandan entrepreneur is pioneering the use of innovative farming technology that, he believes, is set to play a major role in feeding the growing population in his country, amid increasing pressure on arable land.

New COVID-19 infections fall globally for first time since September; WHO chief urges ‘extreme caution’

Last week saw the first global decline in newly reported cases of COVID-19 since September, the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday, advising that the news, while welcome, must be interpreted with “extreme caution”. 

UN human rights office worried by killings in Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua

Violence is escalating in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua, where meaningful and inclusive dialogue is urgently needed to address longstanding economic, social and political grievances, the UN human rights office said on Monday.  

UN refugee agency appeals for $147 million to support thousands of Ethiopians fleeing to Sudan

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has launched an appeal for $147 million to support as many as 100,000 people fleeing Ethiopia’s Tigray region into neighbouring Sudan, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Monday.