Studies

Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday reiterated that the needs in flood-ravaged Pakistan are enormous and called for urgent financial support, as he wrapped up a two-day trip aimed at raising awareness of the climate-driven disaster with flights over some of the hardest hit areas. The UN chief landed in Sindh province before flying over some […]

International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies, marked on 7 September, takes place in a world where almost all the air we breathe is polluted, and some seven million people die from air pollution every year. Ahead of the Day, UN News spoke to two experts about the scale of the problem, and the […]

As UN relief chief Martin Griffiths warned of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe on Monday, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it is delivering more food aid to Somalia than ever before. WFP noted that, despite so far reaching an unprecedented 3.7 million people with relief and over 300,000 with nutrition support, famine is an […]

Hazards such as earthquakes, floods, heatwaves, and wildfires, can be prevented from becoming life-threatening disasters, according to the authors of a UN report launched on Wednesday. From record-breaking heatwaves in British Columbia, to wildfires in the Mediterranean, floods in Nigeria, and droughts in Taiwan; the period between 2021 and 2022 saw record-breaking catastrophic disasters in […]

Myanmar is believed to be experiencing one of the highest rates of mangrove loss in the world. When a company bought land containing a mangrove forest in the country’s Tanintharyi region, with plans to convert it into prawn farms, the local community fought back. The villagers had previously been unable to stop the purchase of […]

Six months after the Russian invasion, Ukraine is the scene of the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since the Second World War. Almost a third of those displaced by the conflict come from the region around the country’s second largest city of Kharkiv, in the east. Helping those in need is dangerous work. Before dawn […]

The trial of senior Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb – the first prosecution to get underway at the request of the UN Security Council – represents “a glimmer of hope for justice in Darfur,” Sudan, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor on the case told the chamber on Tuesday. Briefing from Khartoum, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan […]

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for countries to improve access to two lifesaving Ebola medicines, in its first guidelines on the viral disease, published on Friday. The recommendation follows review and analysis of clinical trials for the monoclonal antibodies mAb114 (known as Ansuvimab or Ebanga) and REGN-EB3 (Inmazeb), which have demonstrated clear benefits […]

A year on from the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the senior UN official in the country, Resident Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov, describes his fears for girls’ lives, and calls for women to play a full role in reviving the Afghan economy. “Shortly before the Taliban takeover in 2021, I visited an orphanage in Kunduz, a city […]

On 14 August 2021, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, destroying, or rendering uninhabitable tens of thousands of houses across three departments in the south of Haiti, including Plaisimond Milaure’s home. Since then, she’s been living in a tent outside the city of Les Cayes, supported by UN agencies. One year on, she is ready […]