Attacks on civilian populations have been reported in South Sudan.
This article is published in association with United Nations.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Tuesday condemned accounts of “gruesome killings” of civilians in South Sudan, the destruction and poisoning of key water sources and fresh waves of mass displacement.
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In an appeal for an immediate ceasefire, he said that over the past 17 days, more than 160 civilians have been killed.
This includes at least 139 on 1 March by fighters from the Bul Nuer ethnic group in the northern Ruweng administrative area.
Civilians ‘lured’ to their deaths
On 21 February, the High Commissioner alleged that forces of the Juba government killed 21 civilians in Pankor village in eastern Jonglei state.
“The soldiers lured them into gathering at one place, promising to give them food aid then opened fire on them,” he said, noting that some of these acts may amount to war crimes.
Since December, both government and opposition forces and their allied militias in South Sudan have launched attacks on communities in seven states, including Jonglei, where more than 280,000 people have fled their homes.
Ukraine war: Civilians killed and injured as strikes hit Kharkiv and Donetsk
Large-scale missile and drone attacks across Ukraine in recent days have killed and injured civilians and damaged vital infrastructure, the UN said on Tuesday.
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Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists that strikes between last Thursday and Monday affected multiple regions, with Kharkiv city among the hardest hit. Apartment blocks, a school and other civilian facilities were damaged, leaving several people dead or wounded, including children.
Civilian casualties in Donetsk
In the Donetsk region, authorities also reported civilian casualties in Ukraine-controlled areas, particularly around Kramatorsk.
Mr. Dujarric said attacks had damaged ambulances, fire trucks, homes and energy and railway infrastructure in several regions.
He stressed that the conflict must not be overlooked as other crises unfold. “While new conflicts are starting…we also need to remember that other conflicts are continuing and should not be forgotten,” he said.
Humanitarian agencies are providing emergency aid and recently delivered supplies to about 1,000 residents in frontline communities in Donetsk.
Gazans still forced to live hand-to-mouth, warns WFP
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday warned that Palestinians are still going hungry because of a lack of aid entering the shattered enclave.
Last Tuesday, Israeli authorities re-opened the key Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza because of the outbreak of war with Iran, but humanitarian aid remains very limited, WFP insists.
Speaking from Jerusalem, WFP’s country director in Palestine, Shaun Hughes, described chronic restrictions on aid deliveries, “which keeps humanitarian assistance at a hand-to-mouth level, and that’s why the food security situation – although it has improved in the four or five months since the ceasefire came into effect in October – is extremely precarious,” he continued.
“And, as we saw last week, it can be reversed very quickly.”
Half rations for just two weeks
The UN agency currently has around two weeks’ worth of half rations available for roughly 1.5 million people in Gaza after being forced to reduce full rations earlier this year.
“We’d like to get [rations] back up to 75 per cent, but with the level of food that we’re getting in at the moment, that seems unlikely,” Mr. Hughes said.
The veteran aid worker noted that despite a ceasefire agreement between Hamas fighters and Israel, “it doesn’t feel like [one]…because the attacks are continuing along the line of control” held by the Israeli forces, which runs across the enclave.
Last week, workers at a WFP warehouse took shelter when small arms fire passed through the walls of the building where they were offloading trucks, Mr. Hughes said.
Listen to the full interview with UN News here:
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Regional conflicts may push yet more Afghans back home
Escalating conflicts in the Middle East could drive increased returns of Afghans from neighbouring countries under difficult conditions, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, warned on Tuesday.
Although the border with Iran currently appears “deceptively calm”, tensions are rising, and movements could increase in the coming weeks.
Around 110,000 Afghans have returned from Iran since the start of the year, including roughly 1,700 a day since the recent escalation of regional hostilities.
Over the past two years, more than five million Afghans have returned from neighbouring countries, including nearly 1.9 million from Iran in 2025 alone.
Many families have faced repeated displacement, said UNHCR’s representative in Afghanistan, Arafat Jamal.
“First forced to flee Afghanistan, later displaced again inside Iran due to conflict, and now returning once more to Afghanistan. And upon return in Afghanistan, the triply displaced enter a spiral of precarity and uncertaint,” he told journalists in Geneva.
Heightened risks for children
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that increasing returns could heighten risks for children, explaining that families arriving at border crossings, such as Islam Qala, are often distressed after difficult journeys amid huge uncertainty.
Nearly three million Afghans returned from neighbouring countries in 2025, around 60 per cent of them families with children.
“Today, I heard directly from people arriving across the border who described nearly impossible journeys, full of uncertainty about what lies ahead. Many are in urgent need of medical support and visibly lost, seeking some basic information about what to do next with their lives,” UNICEF representative in Afghanistan, Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale, reported.
Children separated from caregivers face heightened risks, including violence and exploitation. At the peak of returns last year, UNICEF supported more than 8,000 unaccompanied and separated children from Iran and Pakistan.
Humanitarian agencies are preparing to scale up assistance at border points and in areas of return, including health care, vaccinations, nutrition screening, safe water and child protection services.
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