UN News Centre

The United Nations refugee agency announced today that it managed to deliver humanitarian aid to non-Government-controlled areas in eastern Ukriane for the first time in several weeks, including to Horvlika and other nearby areas north of Donetsk, which experienced heavy fighting in August.

The number of “exhausted and desperate” women and children making their way from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq through the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia seeking refuge in Europe has tripled in the past three months, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today.

The detection of a new case of Ebola in Sierra Leone over the weekend after the West African country had marked almost three weeks of zero cases has prompted the use of an experimental vaccine to fight the disease, according to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO).

A ground-breaking air quality measuring device expected to cost up to 100 times less than existing solutions has the potential to “revolutionize” air quality measurement in developing countries and help prevent deaths from air pollution that claim 7 million lives each year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The UN human rights office said today it is alarmed by the steep increase in the number of civilian casualties in Yemen’s Taiz governorate in recent weeks, as well as by the “untenable” humanitarian situation which is being made worse by the blockage of supply routes into Taiz city by local “popular committees” affiliated with the Houthis.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and the injuries to scores of people as a result of deadly explosions in Tianjin, China.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon conducted today an urgent video conference with the heads of United Nations peacekeeping operations, Force Commanders, and Police Commissioners following a series of revelations alleging abuse by UN ‘blue helmets’ in the field, including, most recently, in the Central African Republic.

As the battle against cholera outbreak continues in South Sudan, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners are boosting assistance to help children and the most vulnerable prevent and reduce the spread of further cases.

The head of United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) called today on the international community to continue supporting Syrian refugees displaced in neighboring countries, appealing to the world “not to forget” the crisis and to provide the agency the means to meet their needs.

The acting head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq has strongly condemned today’s truck bomb attack on a market in east Baghdad, which initial reports say killed at least 45 people and for which the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has claimed responsibility.

The deadly Ebola outbreak which ravaged West Africa for more than a year has demonstrated the increasing importance of emergency preparedness both in Africa and across the world, said two senior United Nations health officials who noted that if the current intense focus on case detection and contact tracing is maintained, the virus could be “soundly defeated” by year’s end.

Responding to the recurring food shortages created by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun cash distributions to some 60,000 people – mostly internally displaced – in Government-controlled areas of the Lugansk and Donetsk region.

The United Nations relief arm has launched a call for millions of people around the world to drastically change their social media feeds and share captivating tale of humanitarian heroism ahead of this year&#39s World Humanitarian Day.

The latest round of the United Nations-facilitated Libyan political dialogue has concluded in Geneva, with the different parties emphasizing the need to set aside partisan agendas and uphold the country’s higher national interests.

A new study carried out by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has revealed that the infant mortality rate in the Gaza Strip has risen for the first time in 50 years, with the agency’s health director citing the ongoing blockade as possibly contributing to the trend.

The international community must step up its funding of relief efforts in Yemen and help in delivering critical aid to civilians amid the country&#39s protracted civil conflict, the top United Nations humanitarian official has declared.

The United Nations Security Council today called on all of Guinea-Bissau’s political leadership to resume dialogue in order to work together in the governance of the country as it emerges from previous periods of instability.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), senior Afghan Government officials and representatives from the international donor community have gathered today in Kabul for the first of three meetings aimed at examining the role of UN entities in the country.

The capacity of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) to fulfil its mandate rests on “persistent engagement” with the authorities, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the Mission, Martin Kobler, told the Security Council today.

The United Nations Security Council has extended the mandate of the Organization’s interim peacekeeping force in Abyei – a resource-rich area contested by Sudan and South Sudan – as part of ongoing efforts to maintain peace and protect civilians in the disputed territory.