World News in Brief: Aid for Syria, children under attack in Mozambique, rights-based climate action

This article is published in association with United Nations.

Nearly 16 million people in Syria need urgent humanitarian health support, the UN warned on Tuesday, as aid deliveries continue amid escalating needs, deadly explosive hazards and a severe funding shortfall.

Despite limited resources, the UN and partners are reaching some 2.5 million people each month across the country. In May alone, more than one million people received assistance, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Cross-border aid has significantly increased this year. Since January, 1,185 humanitarian trucks have crossed from Türkiye into Syria – six times the number recorded during the same period last year. The uptick reflects growing needs and intensified delivery efforts.

Syria’s health system, however, remains under severe strain. Fewer than 60 per cent of hospitals and less than half of primary health centres are fully functional. Essential medicines are in short supply, treatment costs are beyond the reach of many families and overcrowded shelters continue to heighten the risk of disease outbreaks.

Meanwhile, explosive remnants of war and unexploded ordnance pose a deadly and ongoing threat to civilians. Since 8 December, 2024, more than 1,000 casualties have been reported – over 400 of them fatal and nearly 600 resulting in injuries – children accounting for over a third of the victims.

“The humanitarian community is calling for urgent support to expand risk education, professional clearance operations and assistance for survivors,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at the regular news briefing in New York.

Funding shortfalls are compounding the crisis. The Syria Humanitarian Response Plan requires $2 billion by the end of June to support 8 million of the most vulnerable people. To date, it has received just $236 million – less than 12 per cent of the total needed.

© UNICEF/Eduardo Mendes

Northern Mozambique has been mired in what has been described as a “triple crisis” – violence and insecurity, climate shocks, and post-electoral unrest. (file photo)

Children targeted by armed groups in northern Mozambique

Children also continue to bear the brunt of a worsening crisis in Mozambique, where over 1.3 million people have been displaced by violence, extreme weather shocks and post-electoral unrest.

These crises have also left 5.2 million in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

The situation is particularly dire in the northern Cabo Delgado province, which has witnessed a spike in reports of abduction, forced recruitment and use of children by non-state armed groups.

According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), at least three girls aged 12, 14 and 17 were killed in an attack last month, and eight other children abducted – highlighting the grave risks facing children in the conflict.

The agency expressed deep concern over such gross violations of children’s rights, stressing that “every child has the right to live in safety, free from violence and fear.”

UNICEF is working with partner agencies to assist impacted children and their families, support the safe return and reintegration of children abducted by non-state armed groups, and provide access to vital services such as health, protection, and education.

UN rights chief calls for bold climate action grounded in human rights

The UN’s top rights official warned on Tuesday that humanity’s survival is inseparable from the health of the planet.

Speaking at Oxford University, Volker Türk highlighted the need for a new kind of politics to tackle the climate crisis and rising global inequality, urging strong leadership to push for urgent, just and rights-based solutions.

“Not only have we created a false separation from nature, we are deluded enough to believe we can make nature bend to our will,” Mr. Türk said, criticizing the continued exploitation of fragile ecosystems.

The High Commissioner linked environmental degradation with systemic injustice, stating that the world’s richest one per cent are responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest two-thirds. He stressed that those least responsible for the climate crisis are often the ones suffering its worst impacts.

He also expressed concern over the lack of adequate climate finance and called for reforms to international financial systems, noting growing support for a proposed fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty that would aim to end the expansion of new oil, coal and gas projects.

“Our rights call for all people, now and in the future, to live in safety, security and opportunity, on a healthy planet,” he said.

Mr. Türk concluded by urging governments, institutions and individuals to join a global movement for change, grounded in human rights, to address the climate emergency and build a more sustainable and equitable future.