This year’s International Day for Clean air and Blue Skies, celebrated annually on 7 September, is focused on the theme ‘Invest in #CleanAirNow’ and highlights the economic, environmental and health benefits of investing in clean air. The Day was established in 2019 after the UN General Assembly noted how detrimental...
Pakistan announced in October that it would begin deporting “undocumented” foreign nationals starting on 1 November, affecting thousands of Afghans who have found refuge in the country. WFP said most families crossing the border are arriving hungry, desperate and in need of immediate support. The UN agency continues to supply...
Migrants come ashore from the Chucunaque River after crossing the Darién jungle. A rising number of migrants are attempting the dangerous journey across the Darién jungle spanning the Colombia-Panama border. For Etzaida Rios, 35, the impact of providing hope and help runs deep. She works as a Community Officer with...
According to news reports, Pakistani security forces began detaining and deporting dozens of Afghans under the new policy this week after a Government deadline for them to leave ran out. The majority of undocumented refugees who have settled in Pakistan over decades are from neighbouring Afghanistan, and following the Taliban...
Despite progress in clearing debris, the city still wears a haunting emptiness that is slowly returning to community life, thanks to support from the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM). Emel and her family were lucky to survive. Yet, their survival came at the heavy cost of losing everything they...
Describing the Sustainable Development Goals as “the promise of development and the conferral of dignity on our people,” the Prime Minister of Barbados questioned whether the world’s actions since the adoption eight years ago of the 2030 Agenda will be sufficient to attain the 17 targets on poverty, gender equality,...
UN Secretary-General António Guterres echoed that message, warning that record temperatures and extreme weather were “causing havoc” around the world. The global response has fallen “far short”, Mr. Guterres insisted, just as latest UN data indicates that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are only 15 per cent on track at...
In a statement, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned that the “disastrous, senseless war in Sudan, born out of a wanton drive for power, has resulted in thousands of deaths, the destruction of family homes, schools, hospitals and other essential services, massive displacement, as well as sexual violence,...
The International Organization for Migration (IOM); the UN refugee agency, UNCHR; and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also called for coordinated search and rescue mechanisms. The tragedy occurred between Thursday 3 August and Friday 4 August, and to date, only four survivors have been rescued – all by a merchant...
UNICEF estimates that 76 per cent of children under 18 in the region – 460 million – are exposed to extreme high temperatures where 83 or more days in a year exceed 35° Celsius. July was the hottest month ever recorded globally, raising further concerns about a future where children, including those living...
“The lives of those in need should never be reduced to the tactics of geopolitical games,” Csaba Kőrösi, President of the 77th session of the General Assembly, said. “Humanitarian action must always be guided by the principles of impartiality, neutrality and independence. As such, effective humanitarian assistance can never be...
The UN’s top humanitarian official in the country Matthias Schmale informed that severe hunger affects 4.3 million people in Nigeria’s Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. The number of children under five at risk of life-threatening severe acute malnutrition has doubled in one year to reach 700,000. Describing the situation in...