This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. After fleeing her home in Macina, a small village in central Mali, where she was due to be forced into marriage against her will, 16-year-old Fatouma took shelter with her brother. Having failed the national high school exam twice, coupled with expensive school fees, […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. A car bomb attack at the National Police Academy in the Colombian capital Bogotá, which reportedly left at least nine dead and dozens injured, has been ‘strongly condemned’ by the United Nations. The UN Office in Colombia, described it as “an unacceptable criminal act […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Iraq issued a statement on Thursday rejecting allegations made earlier this week by a non-profit organization  there, alleging that personnel had carried out explosive hazard clearance inside two historic churches in Mosul “in a barbaric and […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. The reported use of “excessive force” against demonstrators across Sudan over food and fuel shortages that has led to the deaths of at least 24 people is “deeply worrying”, the UN’s top human rights official, Michelle Bachelet, said on Thursday. In a call for […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. A group of six independent United Nations rights experts called on Iran Wednesday to urgently provide Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Narges Mohammadi access to appropriate health care, and reiterated calls for their immediate release, as they continue a hunger strike in protest. “We urge the […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said on Wednesday that at least 890 villagers were reportedly killed in the western Democratic Republic of the Congo last month, following brutal inter-communal clashes. Human rights reports suggest that the apparent massacre took place between 16 and […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. With over 800 schools forced to close due to insecurity, and 2.3 million vulnerable people in need of assistance this year, a top UN official told the Security Council on Wednesday that the humanitarian situation in Mali “remains dire”. Bintou Keita, Assistant Secretary-General for […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Despite countless “headwinds” and “ills”, the United Nations has “made a real difference” in 2018 and will need to achieve even more in 2019, as the planet faces “a world of trouble”. That was the New Year message from UN Secretary-General António Guterres on […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. The Security Council unanimously voted on Wednesday in favour of deploying up to 75 observers to monitor a fragile ceasefire in Yemen’s port city of Hudaydah which went into effect late last month; a lifeline for millions of Yemenis on the verge of starvation. […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Many countries are failing to protect and promote the interests of all their people – despite pledging to do so in 2016 – the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday. In a special meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva to review progress on […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Revitalizing the United Nations to “strengthen a multilateral rule-based world order” tops a list of priorities the General Assembly President told UN Member States on Tuesday. Convinced that “revitalizing the UN and advancing multilateralism go hand-in-hand”, Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces said that […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Begging, scrubbing cars or selling themselves on the street for sex are a way of life for many children in Djibouti, according to a survey released by the International Organization Migration (IOM) on Tuesday. Conducted in Djibouti City, the country’s capital where most of […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Acknowledging “a long road ahead” on the United Nations ambitious agenda, Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed on Tuesday “the historic leadership of the state of Palestine” as the new Chair of the Group of 77’s (G77). “Palestine and its citizens have first-hand experience of some […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Following a deadly terrorist attack in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Tuesday, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, and the President of the UN General Assembly, María Fernanda Espinosa, condemned the act and said they stand in solidarity with the Kenyan […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Former President of Côte d’Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo has been cleared of crimes against humanity in Côte d’Ivoire by the International Criminal Court (ICC), it announced on Tuesday. The development relates to bloody clashes in the West African nation that claimed a reported 3,000 lives […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Conditions in a makeshift Syrian camp near the border with Jordan are “increasingly desperate” and “have become a matter of life and death”, United Nations officials warned on Tuesday, after at least eight children died there from extreme cold and a lack of medical […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Thousands of families in conflict-affected communities south of the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah in Yemen have received aid for the first time since last July, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Hervé Verhoosel confirmed that Tuhayat and Darayhimi had […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. With rising sea levels due to climate change already affecting coastal communities in Liberia, there are fears that densely populated parts of the capital Monrovia could be submerged, unless action is taken. It’s projected that a one-metre sea level rise could permanently inundate 95 […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. The Mayor of the historic port city of Gdansk in Poland, has died in hospital after being stabbed at a televised charity event on Sunday, prompting the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, to issue a statement on Monday praising him as “a deeply courageous, moral […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. With demonstrations expected to take place in various Guatemalan cities on Monday and Tuesday, the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, is urging the Guatemalan Government to guarantee freedom of expression and opinion, and the right to peaceful assembly and association. “Freedom of expression, […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Some Member States have fallen short of offering a better future to children who continue to die prematurely or fall victim to poverty, trafficking and slavery, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Monday. In her opening address to the 80th Session of the […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. The Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for the naming dispute between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Matthew Nimetz, has welcomed the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia parliament’s decision to ratify an agreement on a new name for the latter country, following a […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. In a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Iván Velásquez, the senior UN official in charge of the International Commission Against Impunity (CICIG) in Guatemela, has responded to the accusations made by the Government to justify its decision to expel the Commission from […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Half a capital city destroyed, 220,000 reported dead and 1 million residents displaced. This was the toll of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, which struck on 12 January, nine years ago. Staff at the UN Mission in Haiti were also affected, and there were 102 UN […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Increasing hostilities in the oil-rich city of Derna are becoming an increasing source of concern said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya on Friday, following an intensification in fighting which has resulted in “substantial civilian casualties”. “I am deeply concerned by the escalation of […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun’s desperate and ultimately successful bid for asylum in the face of alleged death-threats from her own family, provides a “glimpse into the precarious situation of millions of refugees worldwide” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on Friday. In a statement, […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Who would imagine that the smell of fresh bread wafting through a bakery could change the course of a young Syrian refugee’s life? But that is pretty much what happened to Mohamad Hamza Alemam, when the 23-year-old Syrian refugee sheltering in Germany, walked through […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. With millions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) demonstrating “their commitment to the political process”, the days ahead are “critical” to what has been an “historic election process”, the top UN official in the country told the Security Council on Friday. Leila […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. The human rights situation in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – DPRK – remains “extremely serious”, and along with international demands for denuclearization, this constitutes a “a critical test” for the year ahead, a senior UN-appointed expert said on Friday. Tomás Quintana was speaking in his […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. North-east Syria is seeing increasing numbers of civilian casualties and large-scale displacement amid intensifying efforts to defeat extremists from ISIL, otherwise known as Da’esh, in Deir-ez-Zor governorate, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday. Speaking to journalists in Geneva, spokesperson Andrej Mahecic warned […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. The agreement by the Government and armed groups in the Central African Republic to hold talks later this month (CAR) is “an important step to resolve the country’s crisis”, said the UN peacekeeping chief, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, on Thursday. “Now there is a path, it […]

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. After escaping from two years of captivity at the hands of Mai Mai rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Bertine Bahige was relieved to end up in a UN refugee agency (UNHCR) camp, in faraway Mozambique. He’d been forcibly taken from […]