UN humanitarians will return to Khartoum ‘as quickly as possible’: UN aid coordinator

UN humanitarians will return to Khartoum ‘as quickly as possible’: UN aid coordinator

Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Abdou Dieng, speaking from Port Sudan, told reporters in the briefing room in New York that senior leadership would be returning to the Sudanese capital, as soon as the situation allows. The needs are urgent, and widespread, he said, as the final few hours of a US-brokered 72-hour ceasefire neared, with…

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Afghanistan: Security Council condemns Taliban’s ban on women working for UN

Afghanistan: Security Council condemns Taliban’s ban on women working for UN

The resolution passed unanimously by the 15-member body in New York, calls for the “full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women and girls in Afghanistan”, and urges all countries and organisations with influence on the fundamentalist rulers of the country, “to promote an urgent reversal” of policies which have in effect erased women from public…

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WHO launches new pandemic prevention plan, as COVID deaths fall 95 per cent

WHO launches new pandemic prevention plan, as COVID deaths fall 95 per cent

The guidance provides a joined-up approach for responding to the threat or arrival of any respiratory pathogen such as flu or the range of coronaviruses, that have the ability to rapidly mutate into different variants. The new Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats Initiative, or PRET, incorporates the latest tools and approaches for shared learning and collective action established…

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‘Unprecedented insecurity’ in Haiti requires urgent action: new UN envoy

‘Unprecedented insecurity’ in Haiti requires urgent action: new UN envoy

Gang violence is expanding at an alarming rate in areas previously considered relatively safe in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and outside the city, with a shocking increase in criminality and abuses, and a police force that is unable to handle the situation.  At the same time, almost half the population, 5.2 million people, needs humanitarian aid,…

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Chernobyl: Survivors reflect on nuclear accident, Russian occupation

Chernobyl: Survivors reflect on nuclear accident, Russian occupation

Looking back on two of the most difficult periods since the plant opened in 1977, Chernobyl employees shared their personal stories with UN News on the International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day. Ground zero Evgeny Yashin was a 40-year-old chemist at the Chernobyl plant when the nuclear power reactor accident unfolded in April 1986, resulting in…

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New report shows 90 per cent of adolescent girls in low-income economies are offline

New report shows 90 per cent of adolescent girls in low-income economies are offline

“Closing the digital divide between girls and boys is about more than just having access to the internet and technology. It’s about empowering girls to become innovators, creators, and leaders,” said UNICEF Director of Education Robert Jenkins. “If we want to tackle gender gaps in the labour market, especially in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields (or STEM), we must start…

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Power struggle imperils Sudan’s future, ‘lights fuse that could detonate across borders’

Power struggle imperils Sudan’s future, ‘lights fuse that could detonate across borders’

António Guterres was addressing an emergency session of the UN Security Council in New York, and again demanded an end to the fighting between troops loyal to Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) leader Fatttah al-Burhan, and his deputy on the so-called Transitional Sovereign Council, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) leader, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo “Hemedti”. “It is incumbent…

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