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The top United Nations humanitarian official in the Central African Republic (CAR) condemned today the surge in violence against aid workers in the country and appealed to all belligerents to allow them to do their jobs safely, particularly in the wake of a recent attack against a UN food convoy on a major supply route killed its driver.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has launched an emergency plan to safeguard cultural heritage sites in Yemen, including the ancient city of Sana'a, with its historical mosques and monuments that have been damaged in the conflict that has killed nearly 1,700 people since March.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) today condemned the bombing that killed at least 19 civilians and injured at least another 28 in the Almar district of Faryab province.

The restoration of water supplies to the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo has come as a welcome relief to residents whose taps have run dry in recent weeks due to the fighting and frequent power cuts, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today, as it stepped up efforts to assist the local population.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Major General Arthur David Gawn, of New Zealand, as Head of Mission and Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO).

Following last week’s unprecedented visit by United States President Barak Obama to a prison in Oklahoma, United Nations independent human rights experts today called on the US Government to facilitate their respective requests to carry out an official visit to the country to advance criminal justice reform.

The top United Nations humanitarian official is heading to South Sudan where a new cholera outbreak has claimed nearly 40 lives, more than 2.2 million people have been uprooted from their homes by conflict and nearly 8 million others are expected to face food shortages during the rainy reason.

Weeks after elections in Nigeria, violence and attacks continue to drive population movements within and outside the country, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) warned today, reporting a “steady flow” of Nigerian refugees now seeking safety some 100 kilometres inside the Cameroon border.

In “a major breakthrough,” the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced that its first ship since conflict erupted in Yemen in March berthed today in the port of Aden after repeated attempts to reach huge numbers of increasingly desperate people and as intense fighting continues to take a serious toll on civilians.

From January to June 2015, the globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces was the hottest for such period on record, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported today, citing new highs across the planet in June, with heatwaves across South Asia, Europe and pockets of the United States.