UN News Centre

Two hundred and seven child soldiers have been released by armed groups in South Sudan, part of a series of planned discharges that should see nearly 1,000 children return home over the coming months.

Those who committed the most serious crimes in Syria must be identified, and criminal case files must be built as the basis for prosecutions, the head of a United Nations body assisting these efforts said Wednesday.

With an estimated $220 billion of the global harvest lost to plant pests each year, the agency charged with fighting this scourge has adopted new standards and measures to safeguard  internationally traded  agricultural and forestry products.

The United Nations Secretary-General is calling on political leaders in Mali to ensure those responsible for a deadly assault on peacekeepers serving in the north are brought to justice.

In an address to an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Saturday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres cautioned against the crisis in Syria “spiraling out of control."

The United Nations Secretary-General has called on the international community to avoid actions which could escalate the crisis in Syria and deepen the suffering of its people.

Meeting residents of the world’s largest camp for Somali refugees ­– sprawling Dadaab, located in north-eastern Kenya ­­– the top United Nations official for Somalia expressed his solidarity with their situation and highlighted the gradual progress made in their home country.

“‘Mama Winnie’ – as she was affectionately known – was a towering figure in the struggle against apartheid,” said  Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday, during a tribute held at United Nations Headquarters in honour of the late Winfred ‘Winnie’ Nomzamo Madikizela-Mandela.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday urged the world to reflect on the suffering of those who perished, as well as survived, the Rwandan genocide, and resolve to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again.

While a moderate upturn in the world economy led to more development financing in 2017, a new United Nations report out Friday revealed that the vast majority of investment is still short-term oriented, putting global commitments to create sustainable economies at risk.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday again called for the creation of an independent panel that could determine who used chemical weapons in Syria, as the absence of such a body increases the risks of a military escalation in a country already riven by “confrontations and proxy wars.”

The first-ever international conference to help the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) opened at the United Nations Office at Geneva on Friday amid dire warnings of a growing humanitarian crisis in the vast African country.

The United Nations refugee agency and the Government of Bangladesh on Friday signed a cooperation agreement on the safe, dignified return of Rohingya refugees to their homes in Myanmar, “once conditions there are conducive.”

Young people are prime targets of extremist recruiters but they can also play leadership roles in fighting terrorism and creating greater opportunities for all, said speakers at a United Nations forum on Thursday called ‘Investing in Youth to Counter Terrorism.’

The United Nations migration agency and its partners are set to begin a second round of an oral cholera vaccination campaign in Malakal and Wau, South Sudan, after the initial round reached more than 60,400 people in March of this year.

Armed conflict in Afghanistan killed 763 civilians and injured 1,495 in the first three months of this year, the United Nations mission there said Thursday.

With some 1.3 million drivers, passengers and pedestrians dying each year on the world’s roads, the United Nations took a major step to address this tragedy by launching on Thursday a trust fund to spur action that could save lives and prevent the loss of opportunity associated with road accidents.

The United Nations and its partners are urgently requesting $111 million in humanitarian funding to assist millions of people in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), including children whose growth has been stunted because they are not getting enough to eat.

In 2017, about 58,000 Afghan refugees voluntarily returned to their country after decades aboard only to be met with protection risks and “significant” barriers to long-term reintegration into society, two United Nations agencies working in the Asian country reported on Thursday.

United Nations experts have urged Viet Nam not to crackdown on civil society or stifle dissent, after the authorities jailed several human rights defenders for “conducting activities to overthrow the people’s government” – a charge that carries the possibility of the death sentence or life imprisonment.