United Nations

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.

The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) reported mass displacement in Swedia, Syria after five days of sectarian violence between Bedouin tribal fighters, government forces and Druze militias. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned the Israeli strike on Thursday that hit the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip. 

The Security Council met on Thursday afternoon for an emergency session on Syria after deadly violence in the south and a wave of Israeli airstrikes that reportedly hit military sites and key locations in Damascus. Khaled Khiari, a senior UN political affairs official briefed ambassadors, warning that renewed bloodshed could derail prospects for a credible, inclusive political transition and widen regional fault lines. UN News App users can follow here.

A group of Indigenous youth from the United States, some as young as seven, visited the United Nations Headquarters in New York this week for the first time. 

Pakistan’s monsoon emergency deepened on Thursday as authorities declared disaster zones across parts of eastern Punjab state after lethal cloudbursts and flash floods killed dozens in a single day.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk has deplored deadly attacks in Sudan’s Kordofan region this week, his office said in a statement on Thursday.

As years of war in Ukraine have left millions without unreliable heating and limited means to pay rising utility costs, the UN and humanitarian partners launched this Thursday a $277 million appeal to support the most vulnerable people during the coming winter.  

From makeshift furniture in Gaza to metro classrooms in Ukraine and solar-powered tablets in Sudan, the UN is working to bring education to millions of crisis-affected children.

In the midst of the Women’s Euro football championship in Switzerland, 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. 

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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).  

More than 450 civilians were killed in recent “horrific attacks” in Sudan’s North Kordofan state which the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has condemned in the strongest possible terms. 

New evacuation orders in Gaza issued by the Israeli military have uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinians, amid ongoing bombardment, aid agencies have warned.