As members of the UN Security Council negotiate the renewal of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) ahead of a 31 August deadline, the mission’s future role and capacity are under intense debate. UNIFIL has long been a stabilising presence in southern Lebanon, working alongside the Lebanese armed forces,...
Briefing the Security Council for the last time as head of the UN Verification Mission, Special Representative Carlos Ruiz Massieu said the peace agreement provided a roadmap for addressing the root causes of conflict. “The Final Peace Agreement of 2016 set out the path to be followed: a holistic and...
Their paintings and drawings range from a portrait of an esteemed Palestinian poet and family members killed in conflict, to a sky blackened by thick smoke – and a child crying in front of his mother’s corpse. The poignant images are currently on display at UNRWA’s Remal School in Gaza...
Special Representative María Isabel Salvador told ambassadors in the Security Council that a “deliberate and coordinated” campaign is being waged by organized crime groups to expand territorial control and paralyse the capital, Port-au-Prince. Recent gang attacks have targeted previously unaffected areas such as Delmas and Pétion-Ville, while the storming...
More than 500,000 people are reported to have been newly displaced since 18 March, many of them uprooted multiple times due to ongoing military operations across the Gaza Strip. Conditions on the ground are deteriorating rapidly, with critical shortages in basic supplies and growing malnutrition, especially among children. “Tents are...
As the war enters its third year, UN humanitarians warn that immediate action is essential. “This is a manmade crisis, driven by conflict – not by drought or floods or earthquakes and because of the obstruction of access to humanitarian assistance by parties to the conflict,” Shaun Hugues, Regional Emergency...
Briefing ambassadors, Izumi Nakamitsu, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, welcomed steps taken by the country’s new authorities to engage with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and work toward full compliance with international law. “Syria has started to take its steps towards this objective,” she said,...
New food security assessments indicate that 4.4 million people – nearly a quarter of the population – could face “crisis” levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or higher) between April and June 2025, marking a sharp increase from 3.4 million people currently experiencing acute hunger. “Worsening drought, erratic rainfall...
Valentine Rugwabiza condemned the incident early last week, calling on Central African authorities to thoroughly investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice. Bordering South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the region – larger than Switzerland – has been a hotspot of conflict due to its strategic importance, intercommunal...
The World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Thursday that food supplies are running dangerously low, as water and electricity outages exacerbate the crisis. The seizure and closure of Goma’s airport by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels has further interfered with aid delivery, while the blocking of roads and lake transport restrictions have...
“We are deeply alarmed at the heightened risk of an attack by the M23 armed group on Goma, the capital of North Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo…Any such attack on Goma risks catastrophic impacts on hundreds of thousands of civilians, putting them at heightened exposure to human...
Business leaders have been meeting at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) conference being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which is focusing on drought, land degradation and restoration issues. According to the UN, droughts have surged by nearly 30 per cent in frequency and intensity since 2000, threatening agriculture...