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Around 80,000 children in the southern African country of Mozambique have now been displaced by flooding after Friday’s cyclone added to the misery of almost a month of floods that destroyed the homes of at least 160,000 people, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today, adding that the next week will be critical in avoiding outbreaks of disease.

Humanitarian assistance is crucial to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of “utterly neglected” and “desperate” people affected by conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Chad, actress and Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Mia Farrow said today, upon returning from a visit to the area.

Information and communications technologies (ICT) are crucial in spurring “development, dignity and peace,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today told a gathering of technology experts, activists, corporate leaders and government officials.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the main United Nations judicial organ, today overwhelmingly acquitted Serbia of committing genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Balkan war of the 1990s, but found it guilty of failing to prevent genocide in the massacre of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims in the town of Srebrenica.

The United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries today expressed concern about the increasing involvement of private military and security companies in countries facing conflict, including their work protecting mining companies and the effect this has on local communities.

Expressing concern about the humanitarian and human rights implications of ongoing military operations in Myanmar’s southeastern Kayin State, a United Nations human rights expert has urged the country to grant aid groups immediate access to affected civilians.

Pirates off the coast of Somalia have hijacked a United Nations-chartered ship with its 12-member crew shortly after it unloaded 1,800 metric tonnes of food aid and equipment - the fourth such attack on UN supply vessels off the East African country in 20 months.

Child mortality in impoverished Ethiopia has fallen over the past 15 years and steady development progress is being made in other areas as well, the visiting head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said, while stressing that more work is needed to build on these successes.

A new study by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) shows that community-based interventions aimed at halting violence against women can yield significant results, the agency said today.

United Nations peacekeeping operations must continue to evolve in a period of sustained high demand, with the number of blue helmets deployed around the world the highest in its history at nearly 100,000 and still rising and an annual budget that has more than doubled over five years to $5.7 billion, the top UN peacekeeping official said today.