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More than 200,000 people have now been forced to flee the Somali capital Mogadishu since fighting broke out between the Government and opposition groups in early May, in the biggest exodus from the troubled city since Ethiopian forces intervened in the Horn of Africa nation in 2007, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today highlighted a new effort to strengthen United Nations peacekeeping at a time when the demand for the Organization’s services is at an all-time high and the global economic crisis threatens to further limit its ability to respond effectively.

Two United Nations agencies have called on the leaders attending this week’s meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations not to forget the needs of the world’s hungry, whose number is expected to top 1 billion this year, and to take action to ensure food security.

More than one decade after the Balkan wars concluded, Kosovars uprooted by fighting then continue to face serious challenges in returning home and local integration, a United Nations human rights expert said today.

The Security Council today extended the terms of the judges serving on the United Nations war crimes tribunals set up to deal with the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, so they can complete remaining cases by the deadline set for the courts’ work.

United Nations agencies plan to use hundreds of thousands of post offices around the world as part of a new campaign to raise awareness about HIV prevention at a time when more than 7,400 new infections occur every day.

West Africa’s progress in consolidating stability and security is being jeopardized by coups and organized crime, the top United Nations envoy to the region warned today.

The United Nations envoy tasked with mediating talks between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in the dispute over the latter’s name is in the region for discussions with representatives of both countries.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today that he has chosen the second most senior official in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to be the UN’s top envoy in Iraq.

The top United Nations human rights official in Nepal has raised concerns with the country’s defence ministry about the proposed promotion of an army officer who commanded a battalion responsible for acts of torture, arbitrary detention and other human rights violations.