UN News Centre

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the “biggest international challenge” since the Second World War, according to the United Nations and has been the focus of the work of the UN’s humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, throughout 2020.

An electrical engineer from Kuwait is being recognized by the United Nations for her success in raising the environmental importance and economic value of recycling in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

The United Nations Secretary-General has called on the security forces in Niger to “make every effort” to protect civilians as they take part in Sunday’s elections. 

On the eve of general elections in the Central African Republic (CAR), the United Nations Secretary-General has called on all stakeholders to ensure that the polls are held in a peaceful, inclusive and credible manner. 

Negotiating with warlords in Somalia and rebels in the South Sudanese bush, and salvaging food from the chaos of the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, was once routine for a retired staff member of the World Food Programme (WFP) from Myanmar.

The United Nations Secretary-General has strongly condemned Friday’s attacks that killed three Burundian peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR) and left another two wounded. 

A Kenyan entrepreneur is being lauded by the UN for developing a machine that recycles discarded plastic into paving stones for use in construction projects.

Addressing the UN Security Council on Monday, the UN envoy for the Middle East Peace Process urged Israelis, Palestinians, regional States and the broader international community to “take practical steps to enable the parties to re-engage” in the peace process. 

An international operation coordinated jointly by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the international police organization INTERPOL has disrupted trafficking networks that supply terrorist groups across West Africa and the Sahel, the UN agency reported on Monday. 

The United Nations is marking 2021 as the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables, spotlighting their vital role in human nutrition and food security, as well as urging efforts to improve sustainable production and reduce waste. 

With a week to go until elections are scheduled to take place in the Central African Republic (CAR), the UN is concerned about an escalation of armed attacks, amid reports that armed groups have taken control of towns near the capital, Bangui.

The UN chief on Friday welcomed the release of more than 300 schoolboys forcibly taken from their school in northwest Nigeria a week ago, although others reportedly remain missing.  

As governments move to secure COVID-19 vaccines for their populations, choosing these treatments should not be viewed as “some kind of nationalistic footrace”, with some countries winning and others losing, a senior official with the World Health Organization (WHO) told journalists on Friday. 

The end of the pandemic is in sight but we must not let our guard down, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, as he welcomed the news that the global vaccine partnership COVAX has lined up almost two billion doses of existing and candidate vaccines for use worldwide.

Driven by insecurity, the effects of COVID-19, an on-going economic crisis, and the impact of flooding on livelihoods, three UN agencies called on Friday for immediate humanitarian access to eastern South Sudan’s Pibor county, where people are facing catastrophic levels of hunger. 

Thailand’s decision to charge protestors with treason is deeply troubling, the UN Human Rights Office, OHCHR, said on Friday following the arrest of at least 35 activists, including a teenager, in recent weeks. 

UN independent human rights experts, on Thursday, called for an impartial and independent investigation into the killing of a 15-year-old child by Israeli security forces at a West Bank protest this month. 

Attacks by armed groups in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambezia and Niassa provinces have displaced more than 530,000 people, many of whom have been forced to move multiple times, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the Bundestag, the German parliament, on Friday, where he warned of a deficit of international cooperation and underscored that global challenges require global solutions. 

The UN marks International Migrants Day on Friday, highlighting their essential contribution to societies everywhere, and underlining migrants' central role in recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.