Latest News

Nelson Mandela was an “extraordinary global advocate for dignity and equality” who anyone in public service should seek to emulate, Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message marking the International Day that honours the iconic anti-apartheid campaigner, and South Africa’s first democratically-elected President. 

In today’s Daily Brief: the DR Congo Ebola outbreak is officially declared an international Public Health Emergency; UN Youth Envoy briefs Security Council; an ‘exciting and potentially defining’ moment for Sudan, says UN adviser; more cooperation’s needed to secure arrest of war crimes fugitives; and politicizing the migrant ‘crisis’ in Hungary

In today’s Daily Brief: achieving zero hunger an “immense challenge”, with numbers of hungry rising; 20 million children are missing out on potentially life-saving vaccines, the killing of health workers in DR Congo shows the need for a stronger Ebola response; a UN expert calls for an end to violations against children in Mali; and better training is needed to cut global youth unemployment.

After nearly a decade of progress, the number of people who suffer from hunger has slowly increased over the past three years, with about one in every nine people globally suffering from hunger today, the United Nations said in a new report released on Monday.

Health workers have started a massive measles vaccination campaign in north-east Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a region that’s in the grip of the second deadliest Ebola virus outbreak on record. 

This Tuesday’s UN top stories are: high-level discussions on the progress made towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals; falling behind on universal education dream; the UN list of essential medicines updated; life-threatening floods in Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh; and human rights in Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The UN health agency, WHO, announced on Tuesday that dozens of new drugs have been added to the list of essential medicines that every country should have, including new cancer treatments that can be swallowed rather than injected.

Heavy flooding and landslides in the Rohingya refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, has left thousands of children and families in an increasingly dire situation with critical infrastructure damaged or destroyed, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday, while scaling up relief efforts to those vulnerable children.

This Monday, we cover: a record high number of civilian casualties in Kashmir this year; a new UN study showing that more people die due to homicide than war; how neo-Nazis target children online to expand their ranks; and condemnation by the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, over detention conditions for migrants in the USA.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday, found former Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda guilty “beyond reasonable doubt”, of 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, in the volatile Ituri district of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), between 2002 and 2003.