Latest News

War, conflict or persecution forced most of the 137,000 desperate people who made the perilous journey to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe during the first six months of 2015, making this primarily a refugee crisis, a new report from the United Nations refugee agency said today.

Describing a pattern of vicious and indiscriminate attacks by Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria that stretched back years, the United Nations human rights chief today urged the international community to help the subregion begin to repair the damage, and specifically appealed to Nigerian authorities to ease abortion restrictions for women and girls who had been sexually enslaved, raped and forced into so-called "marriages” by Boko Haram fighters.

During a high-level commemorative event in New York, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today paid tribute to the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, perpetrated 20 years ago, and which, he said, “will forever weigh on the collective conscience of the international community.”

Two United Nations agencies have unveiled a series of new guidelines aimed at addressing the health risks posed by the increasing number and intensity of climate change-related heatwaves affecting the planet, as warm weather alerts spread across Europe following soaring temperatures that killed hundreds of people in India and Pakistan last month.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today reported that Ebola had resurfaced in Liberia after a teenager who died earlier this week tested positive for the disease in the West African country that had been declared free of Ebola transmission just two months ago.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today it will scale up its emergency operation in eastern Ukraine to provide 500,000 conflict-affected people in the region with food assistance until the end of the year.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed today's announcement that Cuba and the United States will reopen their embassies in Havana and Washington, D.C.

Reiterating that there can be no military solution to the crisis in Libya, the United Nations Security Council today urged the parties to the conflict to agree on a Government of National Accord and sign the proposal presented by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) “in the coming days.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned today's deadly attack in North Sinai.

Several senior United Nations officials today strongly urged Southeast Asian countries to back a “people-centred” approach to migration by, among others, expanding avenues for safe and legal migration, while stepping up law enforcement to put a stop to human trafficking.