Latest News

In a small tent in the Angolan bush, four hours from the nearest major town, Helena Mazarro lived for almost two years. Food was tight in this remote corner in the summer of 1996, and Ms. Mazarro would fly off to Luanda, the capital, every two or three months and return a week later carrying a fraction of the food needed for the team of 15 humanitarian workers she was leading.

The Security Council today condemned the deadly series of terrorist blasts in Baghdad that have killed nearly 100 people and taken place on the sixth anniversary of the bombing of the United Nations offices in the Iraqi capital.

The top United Nations envoy to Liberia has stressed the need for greater awareness and behavioural changes to combat sexual exploitation and abuse in schools, and reiterated the world body’s commitment to help the West African nation in its efforts.

The total number of countries that have ratified the United Nations-backed Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) has inched closer to 150 after Liberia ratified the agreement this week.

The devastating tsunami which hit Indonesia so hard in December 2004 had two positive effects: it pushed the population to reflect and improve its mechanisms for managing catastrophes, and in the country’s Aceh province it led to the end of a conflict which had lasted 70 years.

Humanitarian work typically takes place in conflict zones, or following natural disasters, or in remote areas where food is scarce and the need for immediate assistance is high. Grain sacks are hauled and distributed, life-saving vaccinations are given, and temporary shelters are found.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced his deep distress at the news that two United Nations staff members were among those killed in today’s suicide bombing in Kabul, which reportedly killed at least seven people, just two days ahead of Afghanistan’s presidential and provincial council elections.

Shanghai has made strides in ‘greening’ itself ahead of the Expo 2010, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which also called on the Chinese city to continue efforts to decrease its reliance on coal.

The first of nearly 13,000 Somali refugees have been moved out of an overcrowded Kenyan camp by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency reported today.

The police component of the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping operation in Darfur has established a special investigations unit to monitor and report on crimes involving sexual and gender-based violence, a prevalent problem in the western Sudanese region.