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The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) today said it is deeply concerned by the spate of abductions, hostage-taking and summary executions carried out in recent days against passengers travelling in civilian vehicles.

Droughts linked to El Niño and civil conflicts have pushed the number of countries currently in need of external food assistance up to 37 from 34 in March, a new report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has found.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, taking note of the release of the report on the verification of the electoral process in Haiti, has underlined that Haiti can “ill afford” a prolonged period of transitional governance.

As the United Nations’ role in countries affected by complex conflicts has grown in scale and scope throughout the years, UN Police (UNPOL) have increasingly become the central pillar of the Organization’s peace operations, working both to reinforce the provision of security and also to build or re-build a basic system of policing in countries, and as such, require a new operating model with enhanced capacities, an external review team has found.

The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the most recent failed ballistic missile launches by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on 31 May and 27 and 28 April, reiterating that the Government should refrain from further actions in violation of the relevant Council’s resolutions.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed his sadness over the death today of Mohamed Abdelaziz, who had led the Polisario Front independence movement in the Western Sahara as its leader since 1976.

Two United Nations human rights experts today urged immediate protection for thousands of civilians caught up in offensives by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) in the Aleppo region of northern Syria.

In two separate incidents that took place yesterday in the Gao area of Mali’s restive north, terrorists attacked an outpost of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSMA), as well as the services of a local provider for the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), the most recent in a string of deadly attacks against the UN in the country.

Award-winning movie star Michelle Yeoh and two baby pandas have kicked off the Pandas for the Global Goals campaign, which urges the public to get involved in the fun of naming the cubs, as well as in the serious work of realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted last year by the United Nations Member States.

Some 4.6 million people in Burundi are food insecure, with more than 500,000 of them requiring urgent emergency food assistance, the United Nations food relief agency has said, warning that food stocks are stretched as a result of the fragile socio-economic context in the country.