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As the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) resumed this morning evacuations from besieged neighbourhoods in eastern Aleppo, the United Nations reported that it has received authorization to send 20 international and national staff to the city to play a critical role in the monitoring and the response.

Millions of children throughout the Middle East are in danger as bitter cold temperatures and winter weather bear down on the region, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today, as it warned the agency faces a $38 million funding gap as it races to provide assistance.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the terrorist attack in Berlin last night and expressed his deepest sympathy and condolences to the families “of the victims of this horrific act,” as well as to the German Government and people.

In the wake of the multiple droughts that hit the Horn of Africa over the past year, countries in the region will face rise in hunger and further decline of local livelihoods in the coming months, while also dealing with the growing number of refugees, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reported today.

Stressing that the killing of “about three” people, which the President of the Philippines admitted to personally committing while serving as the Mayor of the city of Davao clearly constituted murder, the United Nations human rights chief called on the judicial authorities in the country to uphold the rule of law and investigate the self-professed crimes.

Every day, for the past three years, just over a dozen migrants have died on average, or one person every two hours, according to William Lacy Swing, Director-General of the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM), in a message to mark the International Migrants Day, 18 December.

Following are brief summaries of some of today’s news stories from around the UN system. Click on the links provided for more detailed coverage.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the killing of a peacekeeper from South Africa deployed with the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) in North Kivu earlier today.

Amid growing tensions and increasing despair among South Sudan’s population, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today warned that the international community’s failure to act now could put the country on a trajectory towards mass atrocities.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today commended decisions by a bloc of West African countries to take all necessary actions to enforce the outcome of the presidential election in Gambia, guarantee the protection of President-elect Adama Barrow, and attend the new leader’s inauguration ceremony on 19 January 2017.