As cases of the coronavirus surge in Italy, Iran, South Korea, the U.S. and elsewhere, many scientists say it’s plain that the world is in the grips of a pandemic — a serious global outbreak. The World Health Organization has so far resisted describing the crisis as such, saying the word “pandemic” might spook the […]

The United Nations on Friday asked nine countries, including China, South Korea and France, to delay by three months the rotations of their UN peacekeeping forces due to the coronavirus outbreak. The request was made to the countries “to maintain operational strength and execute their mandated tasks,” diplomatic sources at the UN said. The nine […]

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), on Friday, said in Geneva that more than 20,000 migrants died in the Mediterranean since migration in the region started surging in 2014. According to IOM, the latest mass drowning occurred in early February, when a boat with at least 91 people on board went missing North of the […]

The United Nations on Wednesday disclosed that the process of eradicating gender-based violence in the world will require $264 billion. During a Ministerial press briefing on the 2020 International Women’s Day, the United Nations Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms. Comfort Lamptey said ending preventable maternal deaths, covering all unmet needs for family […]

The United Nations special envoy for Libya said on Monday he has resigned for health reasons days after his latest effort at peacemaking failed to achieve a breakthrough in the conflict. Ghassan Salame said on Twitter that he had “sought for two and a half years to unite Libyans, prevent foreign intervention and preserve the […]

Advertising spending on the US presidential primaries has surpassed an “unprecedented” $1 billion, half of which came from the coffers of billionaire Democratic White House hopeful Michael Bloomberg, a tracking firm said Friday. The former New York mayor, who was the ninth richest man in the world last year, has spent $539 million on television […]

The UN Security Council on Thursday declared that it would adopt humanitarian exemptions to the heavy economic sanctions imposed on North Korea to help the impoverished country fight the novel coronavirus, Germany’s ambassador to the UN said. “The coronavirus issue was discussed and the committee immediately had given permission to export the equipment” used to […]

There are now more new cases of the coronavirus reported each day outside China than inside the hardest-hit country, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. “Yesterday, the number of new cases reported outside China exceeded the number of new cases in China for the first time,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told diplomats in […]

Nearly three million people in Niger, over half of whom are children, are suffering at the hands of various natural and man-made crises and are in need of humanitarian aid, the United Nations said on Wednesday. In a statement, UNICEF cited “the risks posed by insecurity, malnutrition, recurrent disease epidemics and outbreaks, cyclical floods, droughts […]

Almost 8,000 people have fled into Nigeria from Cameroon in the past two weeks to escape clashes between the security forces and armed separatists, the UN refugee agency said Thursday. The latest arrivals are crossing the border into Taraba and Cross Rivers states in eastern and southern Nigeria, bringing the number of refugees to almost 60,000, the UN […]

The United Nations on Wednesday in New York launched a “Practical guidance for mediators to protect children in situations of armed conflict”.

A jihadist attack on a gendarme base in eastern Burkina Faso left two civilians dead along with nine assailants, the police said Wednesday. The attack took place in Tanwalbougou on Monday, it said in a statement, praising “the determination and professionalism” of the gendarmes in repelling the attack. The two civilians who were killed, along […]

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday said he supported the African Union (AU) taking a greater role in mediating the Libya crisis, acknowledging the bloc’s frustration at being sidelined so far. The AU leadership has complained at being overlooked in peace-making efforts related to Libya, which have been led primarily by the UN […]

Five French jihadists on death row in Iraq have appealed to the UN to pressure France into bringing them home, their lawyer said Thursday, adding they were suffering inhumane treatment Eleven French nationals were sentenced to death last year in Iraq and three others to life imprisonment after being convicted of membership of the Islamic […]

Sophisticated hackers infiltrated UN offices in Geneva and Vienna last year in an apparent espionage operation and their identity and the extent of the data they obtained is not clear. An internal confidential document from the United Nations, leaked to The New Humanitarian and seen by the Associated Press, says dozens of servers were compromised […]