UN News Centre

Giving voice to people affected by conflict and crises in Africa’s Lake Chad Basin, a global United Nations-supported humanitarian conference in Oslo today generated more than $670 million in pledges that will help sustain critical relief operations over the next two years and beyond across four counties where millions are in need of aid.

An estimated 366 migrants died at sea during their Mediterranean journey to Europe in the first 53 days of 2017, down from 425 of the comparable period of last year, the United Nations migration agency said today.

Against the backdrop of health systems struggling to adapt to the growing needs of migrants around the world, health leaders from over forty countries, meeting at a United Nations consultation underscored the call for international collaboration to improve the health and well-being of migrants and their families.

United Nations human rights experts are calling for strong, urgent action by States to ensure that people around the world can enjoy the human right to live in environments free from contamination.

Condemning, in the strongest terms, the terrorist attack on 16 February in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, the United Nations Security Council underlined the need to bring the perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of such reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice.

A working group of the United Nations agency which coordinates telecommunication services throughout the world completed today a cycle of studies on key performance requirements of the next generation mobile networks (5G) for the International Mobile Telecommunications-2020 systems.

Amid renewed violence that has led to “successive gross violations” of international humanitarian law in two north-eastern provinces of the Central African Republic (CAR), the most senior United Nations relief official in the country has called for free and unhindered access to civilians impacted by the clashes between rival armed groups.

Wrapping up the opening of the intra-Syrian negotiations in Geneva this evening, United Nations Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura said he would hold bilateral meetings with participants on Friday to decide on a work plan, as Secretary-General António Guterres said he was encouraged the Syrian parties held face-to-face talks.

Ahead of a major donors conference in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, seeking to generate global action to tackle the complex crisis in Africa’s Lake Chad Basin, the top United Nations relief official highlighted that investing in support for the region will in turn help strengthen broader security around the world for all to benefit.

Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, the United Nations health agency today reported, estimating that it affects more than 300 million people worldwide – the majority of them women, young people and the elderly.

With military operations to retake western Mosul starting, United Nations humanitarian agencies in Iraq are rushing to prepare for the humanitarian impact of the fighting amid grave concerns that tens of thousands of families are at extreme risks.

Highlighting the complex and interlinked challenges confronting the global community that also compound the suffering of the most vulnerable, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for a boost in preventive diplomacy and mediation efforts, as well as for a strategy to address root causes of such conflicts in the world.

Speaking to the media in Munich, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres hailed the important role Germany has placed at a number of multilateral institutions, including the European Union and the United Nations.

The United Nations today condemned the deadly terrorist attack in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, for which the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) has claimed responsibility.

Marking the tenth anniversary of an historic treaty to keep people from suffering enforced disappearance or secret detentions, the United Nations today urged all Governments that have not done so to ratify it, as the world body honoured victims separated from their loved ones.

A senior United Nations human rights official today called for holding accountable those committing atrocity crimes in conflict-torn South Sudan.

Amid ongoing rebel activity in and around Bambari in strife-torn Central African Republic, the United Nations mission – known as MINUSCA – said today that it has reinforced its presence in the city with the arrival of additional troops, including a quick reaction unit and Special Forces.

As the volatile conflict in eastern Ukraine enters its fourth year, one million children are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance &#8211 nearly double the number this time last year, the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) reported today.

Despite progress in the realization of children’s rights, as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which entered into force on 2 September 1990, too many commitments remain unfulfilled. This is particularly true for children deprived of liberty, who often remain invisible and forgotten.

It should be winter on the Arctic pole &#8211 the northern most point in the world &#8211 but the equivalent of heatwaves have passed over the region this season melting the sea ice volume to a record low in January, the United Nations meteorological agency said.