UN News - Global perspective Human storiesUN News - Global perspective Human storiesSouth Sudan is evolving into a catastrophic human rights and humanitarian crisis, UN Human Rights Council-appointed independent experts warned on Thursday.
The Middle East crisis has lurched into its second month, prompting UN Secretary-General António Guterres to issue a stark warning on Thursday morning that the world is “on the edge of a wider war” with catastrophic global implications.
The ongoing crisis in the Middle East is exposing a central vulnerability in the global economy: the dependence on fossil fuels flowing through regions affected by conflict, a situation which is strengthening the UN’s case for a faster transition to cheaper, more resilient renewable power.
Deadly new strikes reported across the Middle East overnight and Thursday rattled energy markets and pushed crude oil prices up to $107 in early trading. Hopes dwindled of a quick end to the conflict as President Trump spoke of another "two to three weeks" of attacks, alongside "ongoing" discussions with Tehran. Civilians across the region continue to suffer misery and displacement. The UN chief told reporters at UN Headquarters the conflict ‘is already being felt everywhere,” and “the spiral of destruction must stop”. Follow live coverage from the Security Council here. App users can follow coverage here.
The Secretary-General’s commitment towards women leadership in the United Nations was recognized at a pivotal moment marked by global uncertainty, economic volatility and increasing pressure on hard-won rights.
Although the situation on the ground is challenging, investigations are underway into the killing of three UN peacekeepers over two consecutive days with an update expected “as soon as possible,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Wednesday.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has facilitated the delivery of some 106 metric tonnes of lifesaving nutrition supplies to the Gaza Strip – the first shipment via a mechanism to deliver aid by sea, in line with a UN Security Council resolution and amid the ongoing war in the Middle East.
From Iran to multiple nations in the Gulf and the wider Middle East, around 3,000 people have reportedly been arrested in the first month of the ongoing war across the region, sparking alarm over free speech restrictions and state repression.
The war in the Middle East and the near halt to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz has amplified the energy crunch facing developing nations in Africa and South Asia that rely heavily on imported liquid gas, food and fertilizers.
The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday adopted a landmark resolution to strengthen how UN mandates - the decisions taken by Member States that guide the Organisation’s work - are created, implemented and reviewed across the system.
The UN’s top humanitarian official warned the Security Council on Tuesday that Lebanon is facing one of its most dangerous moments in years, with escalating violence, mass displacement and deepening human suffering pushing the country to “breaking point”.
The killing of three UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon in the past two days has highlighted the grave dangers for the 10,000 military personnel who make up the bulk of UNIFIL, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon – and for the communities caught up in intense clashes between the Israeli military and Hezbollah fighters.
The trauma of mass displacement and disruption to aid shipments throughout the world are among the devastating impacts of the war raging in the Middle East, UN agencies said on Tuesday.
Some 20,000 seafarers remain stranded on ships in the Strait of Hormuz as the war in the Middle East continues, a situation which has been described as unprecedented in the post-Second World War era.
More than a month since war erupted in the Middle East, UN agencies confirmed on Tuesday that huge numbers of people have returned to Syria from Lebanon "exhausted, traumatized and with very, very few belongings". Meanwhile, the UN International Maritime Organization said that another vessel has been attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, increasing concerns of further delays in transporting lifesaving aid. The Security Council met in New York in emergency session on Lebanon. Stay with us for live updates. App users can follow coverage here
Fears are mounting for civilians caught up in Sudan’s deadly war between rival militaries as attacks intensify and humanitarian access shrinks, following a deadly airstrike on a funeral gathering in West Kordofan.
Asking the softly spoken, veteran humanitarian worker Philippe Lazzarini how he feels as he comes to the end of his second term as the head of the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, is perhaps an unfair question.
The United Nations has condemned two consecutive days of deadly attacks on peacekeepers serving with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), amid rising hostilities between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants.
A night of drone attacks reportedly killed two people and injured 12 in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, as a maternity hospital and three educational facilities were also damaged.
Developing countries are being priced out of the affordable finance they desperately need for sustainable development, with sovereign credit ratings often overstating risk and overlooking long-term economic potential, the UN said on Monday.
Clearing mines laid at sea is an “extremely challenging and very dangerous” mission, with tidal currents just one of myriad other risk factors to consider before attempting to make a stretch of water safe, a leading UN mines expert tells us.
Further attacks have been reported across the Middle East as the war enters a second month, with two more Indonesian peacekeepers killed in Southern Lebanon on Monday, following the death of a fellow ‘blue helmet’ a day earlier. On the diplomatic front, the UN has announced a taskforce to restore the flow of fertilizer and aid through the Strait of Hormuz, while the UN's atomic watchdog confirms an attack on a heavy water facility at Khondab in Iran. Stay with us for live updates on this and UN agencies. App users can follow coverage here.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for accountability after a peacekeeper was killed in Lebanon on Sunday amid hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
Just hours after war broke out in the Middle East last month, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned the Security Council that the fighting risked “igniting a chain of events that no one can control in the most volatile region of the world.”
An Ethiopian man describes how he was tortured by human traffickers as he went in search of his nephew on a now infamous migration route from the Horn of Africa through Yemen to Saudi Arabia.
More than 1,700 people were killed and nearly 200,000 more displaced in the July 2025 massacres in Sweida, Syria, UN human rights investigators said on Friday in a report that called for greater action towards accountability.
A “new wave of global instability is hitting Myanmar at the worst possible moment,” a UN official in the country warned on Friday, as increases in fuel, food, and fertilizer prices due to the ongoing Middle East conflict push vulnerable families closer to hunger one year after a devastating earthquake.
Almost one month since Israeli and US airstrikes on Iran began, sparking a wider regional war, UN agencies and partners on Friday highlighted the terror among civilians fleeing bombardment, with “no safe space” to go.
The war in the Middle East continues, with attacks causing further terror and suffering, deepening the humanitarian crisis across the region. The UN announced the launch of a task force to meet the immense needs. In Geneva, diplomats at the Human Rights Council have been discussing the school strike in Iran’s Minab that killed more than 100 children. Stay with us for live updates on this and from UN agencies providing relief. App users can follow coverage here.
The intensifying conflict in the Persian Gulf “has triggered one of the most rapid and severe disruptions to global commodity flows in recent times,” the Chief Economist with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday.