Reporting “constructive” discussions on Cyprus, UN Secretary‑General António Guterres announced on Thursday that four previously agreed trust‑building measures have been realized, technical work continues on two others, and the parties have agreed to expand cooperation on youth, environment, culture and civil society.
A surge in sectarian violence in southern Syria and Israeli airstrikes reaching central Damascus have pushed the war‑scarred country into a volatile juncture, a senior UN official said on Thursday, warning that renewed violence could shatter prospects for peace and fuel wider regional instability.
Clashes between Bedouin tribal fighters, caretaker government forces and Druze militias stretched into their fourth day in Sweida on Wednesday while Israeli forces struck the Syrian capital, Damascus.
In violence-wracked Haiti, more than 5.7 million people are estimated to be food insecure, with many unable to meet their daily food needs.
Craters filled with muddy water pocket the landscape of the Kono district in Sierra Leone – the result of past diamond mining ventures which sparked a vicious local battle over resources.
In the midst of the Women’s Euro football championship in Geneva, Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, called on Member States and sports clubs around the world to address the vast gender gap which still exists in women’s sport.
Read the full story, “We need to value women in sport, UN rights chief says”, on globalissues.org →
Conditions in Gaza have reached an unspeakable level of devastation with children paying the highest price, top UN officials told the Security Council on Wednesday, warning of soaring child deaths, starvation and a shattered health system amid continuing bombardment and displacement.
The international community must support Afghanistan as it grapples with the staggering number of citizens returning from the region, a senior UN official has said.
In Gaza, illness, poverty, mass displacement and depleted services are leading to soaring stress levels and causing an increase in domestic violence, sexual exploitation and abuse, according to the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA).
The UN Security Council is meeting on the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where fresh Israeli evacuation orders have uprooted tens of thousands amid relentless bombardment claiming hundreds of civilian lives in recent weeks – many of them children. “Food is running out. Those seeking it risk being shot. People are dying trying to feed their families,” UN relief chief Tom Fletcher has just told ambassadors. Follow our real-time updates and key moments through our live UN Meetings Coverage page. UN News App users can join here.
