In The News

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has raised alarm over the killing of two contracted workers delivering clean water to families in the Gaza Strip.

For Pacific Island countries, the Middle East crisis is not a distant geopolitical event. It is already showing up in higher fuel prices, electricity uncertainty and fears that communities sitting at the far end of global supply chains could be pushed into deeper economic insecurity

The United States and Iran must continue talks aimed at ending their weeks-long war, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday, underscoring that there is no military solution to the conflict.

Thirty-two years ago, a genocidal campaign was unleashed against Rwanda’s Tutsi minority, resulting in more than one million deaths. On Tuesday, the UN is holding commemorations to ensure that the genocide is never forgotten and never repeated.

In conflict zones where new technologies are making landmines more dangerous, deminers must innovate at the same pace to avoid being left behind, a leading UN mines expert has told UN News.

Clearing mines laid at sea is an “extremely challenging and very dangerous” mission, with tidal currents just one of myriad other risk factors to consider before attempting to make a stretch of water safe

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for accountability after a peacekeeper was killed in Lebanon on Sunday amid hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Just hours after war broke out in the Middle East last month, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned the Security Council that the fighting risked “igniting a chain of events that no one can control in the most volatile region of the world.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the escalating Gulf war is “out of control”, urging all sides to step back from the brink and allow diplomacy to prevail, as he announced the appointment of a senior envoy to spearhead peace efforts.

The war in the Middle East is well into its fourth week and the humanitarian emergency it has sparked continues to be the focus of international attention, along with the energy crisis caused by attacks on shipping in key Strait of Hormuz and other oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf region.

More than four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, “the violence is worse than ever” and far from abating, the head of UN political and peacebuilding affairs said on Monday in a briefing to the Security Council.

The crisis in the Middle East continues, with strikes and counter-strikes reported across the region, driving civilian casualties, displacement and rising humanitarian needs. Energy assets in Gulf States continue to be hit, with serious long-term damaged reportedly sustained at Qatar's Ras Laffan gas hub.

Ongoing strikes across the Middle East stemming from the US-Israeli bombing of Iran and subsequent counterstrikes in the Gulf by Tehran continue to drive humanitarian needs, civilian casualties and mass displacement.

The crisis in the Middle East continues, with ongoing strikes and rising humanitarian needs.

The crisis in the Middle East continues, with strikes and counterstrikes reported across the region as the humanitarian toll rises

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Thursday he was appalled by the devastating impact on civilians of increasing drone attacks in Sudan, amid reports that more than 200 civilians have been killed by drones since 4 March alone, in the Kordofan region and White Nile state.

Toxic “black rain” linked to strikes on oil depots, mass displacement and continuing disruption to aid supply chains are upending lives across the Middle East and beyond after 10 days of war in the region, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.

Crises in the region on both Afghanistan’s longest borders are undermining the country’s stability, a senior UN official warned the Security Council on Monday as concerns over Middle East crisis grow amid clashes with Pakistan and a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Lebanon has been “dragged back into a state of turmoil and violence”, the UN’s top envoy in the country warned on Saturday, after the latest round of regional strikes triggered a fast‑escalating crisis along the Blue Line. What had been fragile but real momentum, she said, has now collapsed in a matter of days.

As US, Israeli and Iranian strikes continued for a fifth day, a top Human Rights Council probe warned on Wednesday that Iranian prisoners including detained protesters face expedited death penalty proceedings.