Afghanistan’s most recent floods killed about 350 people, including dozens of children, and damaged more than 7,800 homes leaving over 5,000 families displaced. UNICEF has since provided safe water, hygiene kits with soap, toothbrushes and more to communities in Afghanistan. The children’s fund also organised hygiene sessions to teach civilians about handwashing and safe water storage…
With more than 160 refugees actively working the fields through the initiative, and another 110 expected to join soon, the impact resonates far beyond just sustenance for them and their families. It also benefits other refugees and host communities to whom they sell some of the produce. Led by the indomitable Maman Antho, a former…
Addressing the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Director General Rafael Grossi indicated no progress had been made in resolving outstanding issues. He mentioned that Iran is still not implementing provisions of the nuclear safeguards agreement, and that withdrawal of designations for several IAEA inspectors are yet to be reversed. “These…
The city of Rafah on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt had been home to well over a million forcibly displaced by nearly eight months of daily bombardment by the Israeli military, in response to Hamas-led terror attack in southern Israel on 7 October. “Thousands of families now shelter in damaged and destroyed facilities in Khan…
Member countries of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), on the final day of the seventy-seventh World Health Assembly, adopted important amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR), including defining a “pandemic emergency” as well as pledging improved access to medical products and financing. These steps will help ensure comprehensive, robust systems are in place…
What exactly is a dignity kit? On the heels of Menstrual Hygiene Day, marked annually on 28 May, here are five fast facts: 1. What’s a dignity kit? Responding to emergencies, UN agencies act fast to reach people in need, including the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA. Part…
Right now, the UN observes 218 international days (and counting)! The tradition started long before the UN’s inception in 1945, but it didn’t take long for the Organization and its growing membership to embrace designated days as a powerful advocacy tool. Check out this classic video from 2017 on the occasion of the International Day of Happiness,…
Matthew Hollingsworth, WFP Country Director in Palestine, warned that with limited access to the south “we will no doubt see what we saw happen in the north in the first months of the war”. Mr. Hollingsworth recently spent 10 days in Gaza. Speaking from Jerusalem, he told journalists in New York that people in the…
Only three field hospitals are operating in Rafah in southern Gaza, one of which is only functioning partially, and all of these facilities are overwhelmed and undersupplied, OCHA said, with the seven-month-long war severely impacting civilians and the infrastructure they depend on for healthcare. The UN humanitarian aid agency said the Malnutrition Stabilisation Centre in…
Allegations of responsibility point to both armed groups and State actors. “While armed groups are presumed responsible for the vast majority of incidents and victims and should be held accountable, I am also deeply disturbed that security and defence forces and their auxiliaries, the Volontaires pour la défense de la patrie, allegedly carried out wanton…
