UN News Centre

The United Nations Security Council is today in Chad, as part of a four-country visit &#8220to shine a spotlight&#8221 on the ongoing humanitarian challenges in the Lake Chad Basin region and draw international attention to the plight of about 11 million people.

Hundreds of thousands of people in South Sudan will starve unless relief workers gain access to needy populations and more funding is raised, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator today warned after meeting malnourished children who fled the raging conflict in the country.

Access to good and safe support is of great importance for people with disabilities, as it helps them become independent and gain human rights, a United Nations independent expert said today, urging Member States to take legal, policy and financial actions to ensure their adequate support.

The United Nations-facilitated intra-Syrian talks are “moving in the right direction,” the UN Special Envoy for Syria said today, wrapping up the latest round of discussions in Geneva with counter-terrorism added to the agenda and plans to resume in late March.

Hands-free gardening for a greener future, video gamers using their skills to help achieve the United Nations-led Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – these were just a few of the innovative and forward-looking ideas in the spotlight at the world body’s first ever ‘playable’ policy conference, held in the German city of Bonn.

To meet the emergency needs of over a million Somalis affected by drought, the United Nations migration agency is appealing to international donors for $24.6 million in funding.

Some 15,000 children have over the previous week fled the western section of Iraq’s Mosul city where fighting between the Government forces and terrorists is intensifying by the day, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported.

The top United Nations official in South Sudan is calling on the country’s political leadership to support its own people in the wake of a famine affecting some 100,000 people, and calling for local authorities to provide humanitarian access to those most in need.

With nearly 274,000 people displaced, Yemen’s Taiz is now among the crisis-torn country’s top five hosting governorates for such populations, a United Nations report has found.

The United Nations focal point for ending conflict-related sexual violence is in Iraq where she today met with survivors of rape and other abuse by the Islamic State (ISIL).

With the fate of the world&#39s wildlife soon to be in the hands of the next generation, the United Nations is observing this year&#39s World Wildlife Day with a call to harness the power of young people&#39s voices in conservation efforts.

The United Nations humanitarian chief today urged international support for the estimated 2.7 million people in parts of Kenya who urgently need food and water following the onset of a severe drought.

The slow pace of transitional justice in Sri Lanka and the lack of a comprehensive strategy to address accountability for past crimes risk derailing the momentum towards lasting peace, reconciliation and stability, a United Nations report said today.

In the wake of a high-profile conviction of a mastermind who murdered and dismembered a woman with albinism, a United Nations independent expert is calling for additional oversight of traditional healers who use body parts in witchcraft rituals and so-called medicines.

Bringing together a diverse array of partners to communicate the Sustainable Development Goals was a key focus on day two of the Global Festival of Ideas for Sustainable Development, a ‘playable’ United Nations conference under way in Bonn, Germany, that aims to chart new ways of thinking on addressing some of the world’s most complex development challenges.

Deeply concerned about increased tensions in the vicinity of Guerguerat in the buffer strip in southern Western Sahara between the Moroccan berm and the Mauritanian border, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today called on Morocco and Frente Polisario to &#8220take all necessary steps&#8221 to avoid escalation.

The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the recent spate of violence in the south-central Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), calling on the Government to &#8220immediately dispatch a credible and impartial investigation.&#8221

As details on the destruction of and damage to Iraq’s rich and diverse cultural heritage emerge, the United Nations cultural agency has appealed to the international community to help protect and revive the country’s archaeological, religious and cultural sites for future generations.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has asked Member States to inform him by 6 March if they intend to make voluntary financial contributions to the implementation of the new UN plan to counter cholera in Haiti, his spokesman said today.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the National Episcopal Conference of Congo, known as CENCO have called for an immediate end to the spate of violent attacks against Catholic facilities in several parts of the country.