Latest News

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) welcomed an agreement by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to move towards eliminating agricultural export subsidies, while noting that differences remain over other measures meant to create equitable global trading conditions, particularly for developing countries.

The number of refugees and migrants fleeing to Europe in 2015 has topped an unprecedented one million – at least 3,600 died or went missing in the crossings – the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) reported today, calling for much more to be done to receive and aid those uprooted by persecution, conflict and poverty.

Violence and attacks against civilian populations in northeastern Nigeria and its neighbouring countries have forced “a staggering” one million children out of school in a conflict that has dealt “a huge blow for education in the region,” the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported today.

The situation in Yemen has substantially deteriorated since the conflict broke out in early 2015, with a nine per cent increase in the internally displaced persons (IDPs), which have reached 2.5 million, according to a recent United Nations-backed report on the issue.

Hospitals, markets and bakeries have been hit, scores of civilians are killed and injured almost daily, and doctors themselves have become targets in escalating fighting and airstrikes in Syria, reportedly by the Government and its allies, a senior United Nations relief official reported today, voicing outrage.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced great concern today over yesterday’s firing of rockets from South Lebanon towards Israel, calling it “a serious violation” of the ceasefire, noted Israel’s retaliatory mortar attack, and urged maximum restraint.

At the end of the first year of its transformation decade, the Afghan National Unity Government is struggling to project national unity, security has deteriorated as it grapples with intensified fighting with much less international support, and the economy remains a matter of concern, the top United Nations official in the country warned today.

The United Nations refugee agency, together with two European partners, urged Hungary today to refrain from policies and practices that promote intolerance, fear and fuel xenophobia against refugees and migrants, including a campaign running through Christmas and into the New Year.

Two United Nations entities today announced a cooperation agreement to help Sudan manage its natural resources in a way that is compatible with combatting hunger and improving livelihoods while at the same time mitigating the effects of climate change.

The United Nations agency responsible for defending the freedom of the media today denounced the murder of a Syrian journalist from an organization reporting on human rights abuses in the area of the country controlled by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).