United Nations

Independent UN human rights experts on Thursday condemned a fresh round of US sanctions against Cuba, calling them an attempt to force change on “a sovereign State through threats and coercion.”

Agencies are on high alert amid reports that the rapidly spreading Ebola Bundibugyo virus species in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has infected 19 internally displaced people, killed five of them, according to the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR).

Gangs in Haiti continue to terrorise communities with the “wanton, intentional infliction of incredible pain” on people who often are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Nearly eight million people in South Sudan – more than half the population – face crisis-level hunger, with famine risk now flagged in four counties, as the Security Council met this morning in New York. A cholera outbreak has killed more than 1,700 people, and some aid workers are being killed and abducted even as they try to reach those most at risk. Follow live coverage below.

At least 300 children in Gaza have been reportedly killed in as many days since a ceasefire agreement supposedly came into effect last October to suspend military operations between Hamas fighters and the Israel Defense Forces, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.

Eighty-one years ago on Thursday, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, reducing the city to ruins, killing tens of thousands of people and bringing the world “face to face with the catastrophic power of nuclear war”.

Concluding his first official visit to Cambodia, UN independent human rights expert Tom Andrews said he was encouraged by the government’s cooperation but remained concerned about key human rights issues such as the lack of freedom of expression. 

An independent UN human rights expert has welcomed ongoing proceedings in the United States to extradite “manosphere” bloggers Andrew and Tristan Tate to the United Kingdom, calling the case an important step towards accountability for serious allegations of violence against women and girls. 

Russian forces hammered Ukraine with ballistic missiles and long-range drones overnight on Tuesday, killing at least 17 civilians – mainly around Kyiv – and injuring another 44, the UN human rights office in Ukraine reported.

The UN rights chief expressed alarm on Wednesday over the sharp increase in executions and death sentences in Iran since the US-Israeli bombing campaign began in late February, warning that capital punishment is being used to intimidate the population and suppress dissent.

The Security Council met on Wednesday to examine the persistent threat posed by the terrorist group ISIL, also known as Dae’sh, to international peace and security. At a conference in June, the acting head of the UN counter-terrorism office stated that Al Qaeda, Da’esh, and their affiliates “remain adaptive and resilient”.  Moreover, they are using artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to expand their reach, recruit and mobilise resources. 

Nearly 50 million more people in highly vulnerable communities globally are set to be pushed into acute hunger because of the strengthening El Niño weather phenomenon, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday.

For millions across Africa and the developing world, the biodiversity crisis is not an abstract problem – it’s the soil that no longer yields bountiful harvests and the fish that no longer return to coastal waters.

Gaza remains unsafe for civilians as Israeli attacks continue, including on schools and canvas classrooms, despite the October Israel-Hamas ceasefire that ended two years of war, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Tuesday.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, with both sides stepping up airstrikes and drone attacks in recent weeks deep inside each other's territory, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) appealed on Tuesday for greater protection for the war’s youngest victims.

Disruption in the Strait of Hormuz has exposed the vulnerability of global trade to a single maritime chokepoint, with early data showing sharp falls in exports of energy, fertilizers and industrial products. 

Results may be months away, but efforts are advancing towards enhanced treatment and the world’s first vaccine for the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday as deaths and cases rise in the largest ever outbreak on record in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Afghanistan’s dire hunger crisis now affects 14 million people including babies fed on little more than weak tea and bread by their despairing and dirt-poor parents.

Drone strikes are posing deadly risks to civilians in Sudan and hampering humanitarian efforts to reach them as attacks continue to affect conflict-hit areas, the UN aid coordination office OCHA said on Monday.

Israeli forces reportedly killed more than two dozen Palestinians in Gaza and violated Lebanese airspace more than 100 times over the weekend despite ongoing ceasefire agreements, UN agencies and peacekeepers said on Monday.