UN News Centre

Earlier today, the spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke about how the UN system is actively working to develop a package that would provide material assistance and support to those Haitians most directly affected by the outbreak of cholera in the Caribbean nation.

Alarmed by escalating airstrikes and ground fighting in Yemen and along the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border since, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon repeated his call on all the parties to the conflict to immediately cease all hostilities and for the Yemeni parties to return to the recently-ended direct talks facilitated by his envoy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today named Michael R. Bloomberg, former New York City mayor and philanthropist, as its Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs).

Appealing to donors to urgently help bolster the humanitarian response in Uganda following an influx of thousands of people fleeing violence in neighbouring South Sudan, the United and the Ugandan Government today announced that they will be forced to halve food rations or cash assistance in Uganda and put priority focus on those refugees most in need.

Speaking ahead of the 10th anniversary of the illegal dumping of toxic waste in Côte d’Ivoire, a group of United Nations experts today urged the Ivorian Government, all responsible States and the international community to use the opportunity to address the ongoing human rights impacts of the incident.

Expressing deep regret at the failure of Indian and Pakistani authorities to grant the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) access to Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-administered Kashmir respectively, the UN rights chief today voiced concern about recent allegations of serious violations and reiterated a request for access to the region.

The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the 13 August killing of at least 50 civilians in a village in the restive North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), by suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Patricia Espinosa as the new Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in May this year.

Ms. Espinosa recently spoke with the UN News Centre about her work and the challenges ahead.

Alarmed by preliminary findings on the 11 July attack on a hotel in Juba, South Sudan, in which one person was killed and several civilians were raped and beaten by men in uniform, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has decided to launch an independent special investigation to examine this and other incidents and evaluate the overall response by the UN mission there.

The top United Nations relief official released today $50 million for severely underfunded aid operations in six neglected emergencies around the world from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which supports urgent, life-saving humanitarian responses.

Most stillbirths and neonatal deaths are preventable with quality health care during pregnancy and childbirth, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) stressed today as it launched three new publications to help countries address and strengthen their classification, review, and investigation processes on these deaths, which are unrecorded or underreported.

Working with health ministries in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations health agency is coordinating one of the largest emergency vaccination campaigns ever attempted in Africa to protect more than 14 million people against yellow fever in an outbreak that has killed more than 400 people and sickened thousands of others.

The situation of civilians in Aleppo is “critical and demands immediate attention and response,” a United Nations-mandated human rights panel warned today, expressing grave concern for the safety of the war-raved city’s people, including some 100,000 children, and urging countries with influence to pressure the parties to the conflict in Syria to return to political negotiations.

A group of United Nations independent human rights experts today expressed deep concerns at what they see as “systematic harassment” of the Shia population and religious leaders, including stripping the citizenship of many, by authorities in Bahrain.

Reiterating his call on all warring parties in Yemen to immediately implement the cessation of hostilities, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the reported coalition airstrike yesterday on a hospital in the rural town of Hajjah that killed 11 people.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has congratulated the people of Zambia for the peaceful and orderly presidential, parliamentary and local elections, as well as the referendum on the Bill of Rights, held on 11 August.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein today said that the denial of visa to a human rights researcher in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a regrettable development.

The Security Council today authorized a 4,000-strong regional protection force within the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), “responsible for providing a secure environment in and around Juba,” the capital, which in early July was the scene of the latest eruption of deadly violence in the young country, exacerbating an already desperate humanitarian situation.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) supports more than 4 million people inside Syria with food assistance. Heading its operation there since December last year is Swiss national Jakob Kern.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has warned that wildfires could become more frequent and more destructive as global temperatures rise and drought conditions plague many regions of the world.