Monthly Archives: July 2025

Deep dive into the International Seabed Authority: Why it matters now

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At a time when the international community seeks to regulate the rich tapestry of the planet’s ocean floors while countries and corporations speed towards deep-sea mining opportunities, here’s what you need to know about ISA and why it matters now:

What does it do?

ISA manages the mineral resources of the seabed beyond national jurisdiction, which covers 54 per cent of the world’s oceans, for “the shared benefit of all humankind”.

Created by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1994, ISA is aims to ensure that all economic activities in the deep seabed, including mining, are regulated and responsibly managed.

Mandated to ensure the effective protection of the marine environment from harmful effects that may arise from deep-seabed-related activities, its work also contributes to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Seabeds contain rich fauna and an array of rare earth minerals.

Why it matters now?

As the world’s only international body that focuses on the deep-sea area beyond national borders, ISA aims to address pressing concerns, from plastic waste littering oceans to the race to secure rare earth minerals to quench the world’s insatiable thirst for lithium batteries and a range of tech items.

What kind of rare earth minerals are on the ocean floor? Copper, cobalt, gold, lanthanum, neodymium, nickel, silver, yttrium and zinc to name a few.

Right now, countries can pursue deep-sea mining within their own territorial waters or “exclusive economic zones”. But, under international law, the deep seabed belongs to no single country or corporation, ISA Secretary-General Leticia Carvalho wrote in a recent op-ed.

“It is our common heritage,” she said.

An active volcano on the ocean floor.

What’s the draft mining code?

Right now, nations are looking for ever more sources of rare earth minerals to meet demand for renewable energy technologies and such items as mobile phones and computers. The deep-sea contains a plethora of supplies. That’s where the draft mining code comes in.

During its 30th session, ISA members are working on a draft code that would protect the marine environment and build a foundation for ensuring that any activities in the deep-sea area are conducted responsibly and in line with environmental sustainability principles as well as benefitting all of humanity.

A food container seen resting at 4,947m on the slopes of an underwater canyon near the North Marianas Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Tackling the ‘missing plastics paradox’

Plastic pollution is another part of the problem. To address this and other pressing issues, ISA members adopted a global research agenda in July 2020, serving as an action plan for marine scientific research with six strategic priorities that include advancing knowledge of deep-sea ecosystems, promoting data sharing and providing insights into the scientific landscape of plastics in the deep-sea.

This latter growing global challenge has potential consequences for the sustainable use of oceans. In 2019, the plastics industry produced over 450 million tonnes of plastic, a figure expected to rise in the coming decades and is likely to increase pressure on marine environments and species. Yet, a portion of plastics entering the oceans remains unaccounted for, a phenomenon known as the “missing plastics paradox”.

Some researchers suggest that the deep sea may act as a sink for plastic debris, where their prolonged persistence could pose risks to these environments.

Acorn worms were one of the many types of fauna observed in the deep-sea around the North Marianas Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The world’s new deep-sea biobank

ISA has also just begun filling its new biobank, launched in June on the margins of the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France. The Deep-Sea Biobank Initiative (DBI) aims to enhance access to deep-sea biological samples and genetic data collected from the international seabed area.

Designed to promote deep-sea research and inclusive scientific collaboration, particularly for developing States, the initiative will establish a global repository of biological samples and develop standard operating procedures to enhance data quality, sharing and use by stakeholders.

“The DBI is ISA’s response to a growing need to advance research, share data, build capacity and facilitate access to deep-sea knowledge, particularly for developing States,” said the authority’s chief Carvalho. “We aim to create standardised and equitable pathways for scientific collaboration, empowering countries and institutions to explore, understand and protect the ocean’s most remote ecosystems.”

The International Seabed Authority has emerged as a central institution of global ocean architecture, charting a course towards responsible and sustainable use.

‘DeepData’ diving

The wealth of data and information ISA has collected has been critical to shaping environmental management plans. Every data byte collected through deep-sea exploration adds critical new information about life in the ocean and assists with decision making.

In launching the DeepData database in 2019, ISA made publicly available for the first time the biggest and most complete global repository of environmental data and information on the deep-sea area.

Exactly how much data has been collected? As of May 2023, DeepData contained over 10 terabytes, roughly equivalent to 6.9 million Instagram uploads. Widely used around the world, it had about 2.4 million hits from visitors in 2022 alone and more than 160 citations in scientific publications.

Learn more about ISA here.

  • The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has 170 members
  • ISA is an autonomous intergovernmental organization established by the UN
  • Members meet annually to address pressing issues
  • The 30th session concludes with the ISA assembly meeting from 21 to 25 July in Kingston, Jamaica

SECURITY COUNCIL LIVE: High-level debate on peaceful settlements of dispute

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The UN Security Council meets today for a high-level open debate on Promoting International Peace and Security through Multilateralism and Peaceful Settlement of Disputes, chaired by Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar. UN Secretary-General António Guterres is expected to brief as over 80 Member States join discussions on strengthening diplomacy and mechanisms for conflict prevention. UN News, in coordination with UN Meetings Coverage, brings you live updates. UN News App users can follow here.

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UN’s Guterres declares fossil fuel era fading; presses nations for new climate plans before COP30 summit

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In a special address at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Guterres cited surging clean energy investment and plunging solar and wind costs that now outcompete fossil fuels.

“The energy transition is unstoppable, but the transition is not yet fast enough or fair enough,” he said.

The speech, A Moment of Opportunity: Supercharging the Clean Energy Age – a follow‑up to last year’s Moment of Truth – was delivered alongside a new UN technical report drawing on global energy and finance bodies.

“Just follow the money,” Mr. Guterres said, noting that $2 trillion flowed into clean energy last year, $800 billion more than fossil fuels and up almost 70 per cent in a decade.

Key points from the address

  • Point of no return – The world has irreversibly shifted towards renewables, with fossil fuels entering their decline
  • Clean energy surge – $2 trillion invested in clean energy last year, $800 billion more than fossil fuels
  • Cost revolution – Solar now 41 per cent cheaper and offshore wind 53 per cent cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives.
  • Global challenge – Calls on G20 nations to align new national climate plans with the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement
  • Energy security – Renewables ensure “real energy sovereignty”
  • Six opportunity areas – Climate plan ambition, modern grids, sustainable demand, just transition, trade reform, and finance for emerging markets.

A shift in possibility

He noted new data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) showing solar, once four times costlier, is now 41 per cent cheaper than fossil fuels.

Similarly, offshore wind is 53 per cent cheaper, with more than 90 per cent of new renewables worldwide beating the cheapest new fossil alternative.

“This is not just a shift in power. It is a shift in possibility,” he said.

Renewables nearly match fossil fuels in global installed power capacity, and “almost all the new power capacity built” last year came from renewables, he said, noting that every continent added more clean power than fossil fuels.

Clean energy is unstoppable

Mr. Guterres underscored that a clean energy future “is no longer a promise, it is a fact”. No government, no industry and no special interest can stop it.

“Of course, the fossil fuel lobby will try, and we know the lengths to which they will go. But, I have never been more confident that they will fail because we have passed the point of no return.”

He urged countries to lock ambition into the next round of national climate plans, or NDCs, due within months. Mr. Guterres called on the G20 countries, which are responsible for 80 per cent of emissions, to submit new plans aligned with the 1.5°C limit and present them at a high‑level event in September.

Targets, he added, must “double energy efficiency and triple renewables capacity by 2030” while accelerating “the transition away from fossil fuels”.

Real energy sovereignty

The Secretary-General also highlighted the geopolitical risks of fossil fuel dependence.

“The greatest threat to energy security today is fossil fuels,” he said, citing price shocks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“There are no price spikes for sunlight, no embargoes on wind. Renewables mean real energy security, real energy sovereignty and real freedom from fossil-fuel volatility.”

Six opportunity areas

Mr. Guterres mapped six “opportunity areas” to speed the transition: ambitious NDCs, modern grids and storage, meeting soaring demand sustainably, a just transition for workers and communities, trade reforms to broaden clean‑tech supply chains, and mobilising finance to emerging markets.

Financing, however, is the choke point. Africa, home to 60 per cent of the world’s best solar resources, received just 2 per cent of global clean energy investment last year, he said.

Only one in five clean energy dollars over the past decade went to emerging and developing economies outside China. Flows must rise more than five-fold by 2030 to keep the 1.5-degree limit alive and deliver universal access.

Mr. Guterres urged reform of global finance, stronger multilateral development banks and debt relief, including debt‑for‑climate swaps.

“The fossil fuel age is flailing and failing. We are in the dawn of a new energy era,” he said in closing.

“That world is within reach, but it won’t happen on its own. Not fast enough. Not fair enough. It is up to us. This is our moment of opportunity.”

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Food lifeline fading for millions in South Sudan hit by conflict and climate shocks

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Earlier this month, the UN agency began airdropping emergency food assistance in Upper Nile state after surging conflict forced families from their homes and pushed communities to the brink of famine.

Nationwide, the picture is just as alarming, with half the country’s population – more than 7.7 million people – officially classified as food insecure by UN partner the IPC platform. This includes more than 83,000 face “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity.

“The scale of suffering here does not make headlines but millions of mothers, fathers, and children are spending each day fighting hunger to survive,” said WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau, following a visit to South Sudan last week. 

The worst-hit areas include Upper Nile state, where fighting has displaced thousands and relief access is restricted. Two counties are at risk of tipping into famine: Nasir and Ulang.

South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, gained independence in 2011. This gave way to a brutal and devastating civil war which ended in 2018 thanks to a peace agreement between political rivals which has largely held.

However, recent political tensions and increased violent attacks – especially in Upper Nile state – threaten to unravel the peace agreement and return the nation to conflict.

The humanitarian emergency crisis has been exacerbated by the war in neighbouring Sudan. 

Since April 2023, nearly 1.2 million people have crossed the border into South Sudan, many of them hungry, traumatised, and without support. WFP says that 2.3 million children across the country are now at risk of malnutrition.

Crucial, yet fragile gains

Despite these challenges, the UN agency has delivered emergency food aid to more than two million people this year. In Uror County, Jonglei state, where access has been consistent, all known pockets of catastrophic hunger have been eliminated. Additionally, 10 counties where conflict has eased have seen improved harvests and better food security, as people were able to return to their land.

To reach those in the hardest-hit and most remote areas, WFP has carried out airdrops delivering 430 metric tons of food to 40,000 people in Greater Upper Nile. River convoys have resumed as the most efficient way to transport aid in a country with limited infrastructure. These included a 16 July shipment of 1,380 metric tons of food and relief supplies. WFP’s humanitarian air service also continues flights to seven Upper Nile destinations.

At the same time, a cholera outbreak in Upper Nile has placed additional pressure on the humanitarian response. Since March, WFP’s logistics cluster has airlifted 109 metric tons of cholera-related supplies to affected areas in Upper Nile and Unity states.

However, the UN agency says it can currently support only 2.5 million people – and often with just half-rations. Without an urgent injection of $274 million, deeper cuts to aid will begin as soon as September.

“WFP has the tools and capacity to deliver,” said Mr. Skau. “But without funding – and without peace – our hands are tied.” 

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Deadly floods show need for faster, wider warnings, UN agency says

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The UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday that more intense downpours and glacier outburst floods are becoming increasingly frequent, with deadly consequences for communities caught off guard.

“Flash floods are not new, but their frequency and intensity are increasing in many regions due to rapid urbanization, land-use change and a changing climate,” said Stefan Uhlenbrook, WMO Director of Hydrology, Water and Cryosphere.

Each additional degree Celsius of warming enables the air to hold about 7 per cent more water vapour.

“This is increasing the risk of more extreme rainfall events. At the same time, glacier-related flood hazards are increasing due to enhanced ice melting in a warmer climate,” he added.

Thousands of lives lost every year

Floods and flash floods claim thousands of lives each year and cause billions of dollars in damage. In 2020, severe flooding across South Asia killed more than 6,500 people and caused $105 billion in economic losses.

Two years later, catastrophic floods in Pakistan left over 1,700 people dead, 33 million affected and losses exceeding $40 billion, reversing years of development gains.

This year, the onslaught has continued. In July alone, South Asia, East Asia and the United States have seen a string of deadly events, from monsoon rains to glacial lake bursts and sudden flash floods.

Each year, extreme weather and climate events take a massive toll on lives and economies worldwide.

Asia reels from monsoon onslaught

In India and Pakistan, heavy monsoon rains have severed transport links, washed away homes and triggered landslides. Pakistan declared a state of emergency in its worst-hit areas, deploying military helicopters for rescue missions after forecasters warned of exceptional flood risk along the upper Jhelum River.

The Republic of Korea suffered record-breaking downpours between 16-20 July, with rainfall exceeding 115 mm per hour in some locations. At least 18 people were killed and more than 13,000 were evacuated.

In southern China, authorities issued flash flood and landslide alerts on 21 July, just a day after Typhoon Wipha battered Hong Kong, underscoring the compound risks of sequential storms.

Texas flash flood strikes overnight

Overnight 3 into 4 July, a sudden deluge turned Texas Hill Country into a disaster zone, killing more than 100 people and leaving dozens missing. In a few hours, 10-18 inches (25–46 cm) of rain swamped the Guadalupe River basin, sending the river surging 26 feet (8 metres) in just 45 minutes.

1-day precipitation totals from NASA’s IMERG multi-satellite precipitation product show heavy rainfall over central Texas on July 4, 2025.

Many of the victims were young girls at a summer camp, caught unaware as floodwaters tore through sleeping quarters around 4 AM. Although the US National Weather Service issued warnings ahead of time, local sirens were lacking and the final alerts came when most were asleep.

Glacier outburst floods surge

Not all floods this month were caused by rain.

In Nepal’s Rasuwa district, a sudden outburst from a supraglacial lake – formed on a glacier’s surface – swept away hydropower plants, a major bridge and trade routes on 7 July. At least 11 people were killed and more than a dozen are reported missing.

Scientists at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a WMO partner, say glacial-origin floods in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region are occurring far more often than two decades ago, when one might strike every five to 10 years.

In May and June 2025 alone, three glacial outburst floods hit Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan, with two more in Nepal on 7 July. If warming continues, the risk of such floods could triple by the century’s end.

Aftermath of a flood that swept through a high-altitude village in Nepal.

Closing the warning gap

The WMO is stepping up efforts to improve flood forecasting through its global initiative and real-time guidance platform, now used in over 70 countries.

The system integrates satellite data, radar and high-resolution weather models to flag threats hours in advance and is being expanded into a country-led, globally interoperable framework.

A 2022 World Bank study estimated that 1.81 billion people – nearly a quarter of the world’s population – are directly exposed to 1-in-100-year flood events, with 89 per cent living in low- and middle-income countries.

The UN’s Early Warnings for All initiative aims to ensure that everyone, everywhere, is protected by early warning systems by 2027.

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Gaza: UN staff now fainting from hunger, exhaustion; WHO worker detained

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“Doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians, among them UNRWA staff, are hungry…fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties,” said Juliette Touma, Director of Communications with the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA. 

Speaking from Amman, she stressed that seeking food “has become as deadly as the bombardments.”

The development comes as the UN human rights office, OHCHR, announced on Tuesday that more than 1,000 Palestinians have now been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food in Gaza since the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started operating on 27 May. 

“As of 21 July, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food,” said OHCHR spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan; “766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organizations’ aid convoys.” 

Mr. Al-Kheetan noted that the finding came from “multiple reliable sources on the ground, including medical teams, humanitarian and human rights organizations. It is still being verified in line with our strict methodology.”

The Foundation’s hubs are supported by the US and Israeli authorities and started operating in southern Gaza on 27 May, bypassing the UN and other established NGOs. 

Aid relief is not a job for mercenaries

“The so-called GHF distribution scheme is a sadistic death-trap,” UNRWA’s Ms. Touma said. “Snipers open fire randomly on crowds, as if they’re given a licence to kill.” 

Quoting a statement by UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini, Ms. Touma called the scheme a “massive hunt of people in total impunity.”

“This cannot be our new norm. Humanitarian assistance is not the job of mercenaries,” she added.

The UNRWA spokesperson insisted that the UN and its humanitarian partners have the expertise, experience and available resources to provide safe, dignified and at-scale assistance. 

“We have proven it time and again during the last ceasefire,” she said.

Living conditions in the Strip have reached a new low as prices for basic commodities have increased by around 4,000 per cent. For Gaza’s inhabitants who have lost their homes and been displaced multiple times, they have no income and find themselves completely deprived of essentials.

A child waits for food in Gaza.

$200 for a bag of flour

Ms. Touma highlighted the testimony of a colleague on the ground who had to walk for hours to buy a bag of lentils and some flour, paying almost $200 for it. 

On Monday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that a quarter of Gaza’s population faces famine-like conditions. Almost 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and need treatment as soon as possible.

Vital everyday items such as diapers are scarce and costly, at about $3 each. Mothers have resorted to using plastic bags instead, while one father “said that he had to cut one of his last shirts to give his daughter sanitary pads,” Ms. Touma said.

“We at UNRWA have stocks of hygiene supplies, including diapers for babies and for adults waiting outside the gates of Gaza,” Ms. Touma stressed, insisting that the agency has 6,000 trucks loaded with food, medicines and hygiene supplies waiting in Egypt and in Jordan to be allowed into the enclave.

Urgent ceasefire call

She reiterated the UN’s calls for “a deal that would bring a ceasefire, that would release the hostages, that would bring in a standard flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza under the management of the United Nations, including UNRWA.”

Humanitarian operations in the enclave are being pushed into an “ever-shrinking space”, said World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Tarik Jašarević.

Briefing journalists in Geneva, he condemned three attacks on Monday on a building housing WHO staff in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, as well as the “mistreatment of those sheltering there and the destruction of its main warehouse.”

“Staff and their families, including children, were exposed to grave danger and traumatized after airstrikes caused a fire and significant damage,” Mr. Jašarević said, adding that Israeli military entered the premises, “forcing women and children to evacuate on foot” towards the coastal shelter of Al Mawasi amid active conflict. 

Screened at gunpoint

The WHO spokesperson said that staff and family members were “handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot and screened at gunpoint.” Two staff and two family members were detained and while three were later released, one WHO staff member remains in detention for reasons unknown to the organization.

Mr. Jašarević called for the release of the detained staff member and insisted that “no one should be held without charges and without due process.”

The latest evacuation order for the area has impacted several WHO premises and compromised its presence on the ground, “crippling efforts to sustain a collapsing health system,” Mr. Jašarević added, and “pushing survival further out of reach for more than two million people.” 

The Israeli military operation in Deir Al-Balah on Monday also caused an explosion and fire inside WHO’s main warehouse, which is located within the evacuation zone in the central Gazan city – “part of a pattern of systematic destruction of health facilities,” the agency’s spokesperson said.

According to Gaza’s health authorities, since the start of the war in October 2023 some 1,500 health workers have been killed in the Strip. Some 94 per cent of all health facilities have been damaged and half of Gaza’s hospitals are “not functional at all,” Mr. Jašarević said. 

“The chance to prevent loss of lives and reverse immense damage to the health system slips further out of reach every day,” he stressed.

Visa denials 

Spotlighting further challenges to the humanitarian operation in Gaza, the WHO spokesperson pointed to an increase in the denial of visas by the Israeli authorities for emergency medical teams seeking to enter the Strip since the breakdown of the latest ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on 18 March. 

He said that 58 international staff for the emergency medical teams, including surgeons and critical medical specialists, have been denied access.

UNRWA’s Ms. Touma highlighted the fact that ever since the agency’s Commissioner-General was denied entry to Gaza in March 2024, he has not been allowed back into the Strip. He has also not received a visa from Israel to enter the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, for more than a year. 

The UNRWA spokesperson also deplored the lack of access for international media to the enclave. 

“It certainly is time, if not long overdue, for international media to go into Gaza precisely to look into the facts and to help with reporting first-hand information on the horrors that people in Gaza are living through,” she said. 

People dying from lack of aid every day in Gaza: WFP official

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Ross Smith, director of emergency preparedness and response, briefed journalists in New York in the wake of a deadly incident on Sunday in which dozens of civilians were killed and injured while waiting to access food as a WFP convoy was entering northern Gaza.

“Yesterday’s incident is one of the greatest tragedies we’ve seen for our operations in Gaza and elsewhere while we’re trying to work,” he said, speaking from Rome.

“And it’s completely avoidable, and it’s an absolute tragedy,” he added.

Famine conditions and malnutrition

Gaza’s population stands at roughly 2.1 million and earlier this year, food security experts warned that one in five people faces starvation.

Mr. Smith said WFP assessments show that a quarter of the population is facing famine-like conditions. Almost 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and need treatment as soon as possible.

Pointing to reports, he said “people are dying from lack of humanitarian assistance every day, and we are seeing this escalate day by day.” 

He stressed that food assistance, and humanitarian assistance more broadly, are “the only solution at the moment” for Gaza.

Minimum operating conditions

Mr. Smith said humanitarians have a set of minimum operating conditions that need to be in place for them to work effectively.

These include crossing points into Gaza, “proper routing” inside the enclave so that teams can move independently, and the entry of more than 100 trucks of aid a day.

“We also need to have no armed actors near food distribution points, near our convoys, and near the movement of those convoys from one place to another,” he continued, while underscoring the need to reach people where they are and not in otherwise predetermined locations.

“And I would say above all that we have had agreements in principle on these things, but we have not had adherence to these in practice in Gaza itself. And this is really where the breakdown is, and it’s where we see incidents like (yesterday) take place,” he said.

Ceasefire now

Mr. Smith also highlighted the critical need for a ceasefire “so that we can move effectively.”

In response to a journalist’s question, he said WFP moved more than 200 trucks of assistance per day into Gaza during the ceasefire earlier this year. Since mid-May, it has been able to move less than 10 per cent of what is needed.

He said the UN agency has enough stocks pre-positioned outside Gaza to supply the entire population for two months “if we can get a ceasefire and if we can move.” 

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World News in Brief: Houthi-Israel tensions, Sudan cholera cases rise, deadly attacks in Ukraine

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These strikes occurred while the UN Mission to support the Hudaydah Agreement – established in 2018 to support the ceasefire between the Government of Yemen and the Houthis – was patrolling at locations to the northern parts of the Port. 

The Secretary-General also expressed deep concern about the continuing missile and drone strikes conducted by the Houthis against Israel. 

Risk of further escalation

Concerned about the risk of further escalation, the UN recalled that international law, together with international humanitarian law, must be respected by all parties at all times, including the obligations to respect and protect civilian infrastructure. 

“The Secretary-General remains profoundly concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region,” said Mr. Dujarric. 

As the UN Chief reiterated his call for “all involved to cease all military actions and exercise maximum restraint,” he also renewed his call for the immediate and unconditional release of all UN and other personnel arbitrarily detained by the Houthi authorities. 

Sudan: Crisis worsens as cholera and floods drive needs higher  

The humanitarian crisis in Sudan continues to deepen as cholera spreads, flooding displaces communities, and thousands of people return to areas with little to no support, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In the locality of Tawiola, in North Darfur State, over 1,300 confirmed cases of cholera in just one week were reported on Sunday by an association of Sudanese doctors. 

While local and international partners have set up cholera treatment centres, the current capacity is far from sufficient to cope with the rising caseload.  

As Tawila hosts several hundred thousand displaced people, partners on the ground have been struggling to keep pace with the growing needs, notably as such needs are set to increase as the upcoming rainy season sets in. 

Vulnerable returnees 

Across Sudan, people returning to their communities face serious challenges, including the lack of essential services and the threat posed by explosive remnants of war. 

In White Nile State, some residents have begun returning after being displaced for a year. Yet, an assessment by OCHA and its partners last week found that health, water, sanitation and hygiene support is urgently needed, even more so ahead of the rainy season.

Similarly, in eastern Sudan, OCHA warns that many families returning to Kassala State are struggling to cope with the impact of heavy rains and flooding, as heavy rains destroyed more than 280 homes in the village of Tirik earlier in July. 

Additionally, as insecurity continues to impede the work of humanitarians, challenges faced by returnee families often lead them to return to displacement sites, undermining the sustainability of return efforts. 

In this context, OCHA called for increased international support to meet soaring needs across Sudan. 

Ukraine: At least 20 civilians reportedly killed in recent attacks  

In Ukraine, attacks over the weekend and into Monday reportedly killed over 20 civilians and injured more than 100 others, including several children, according to authorities.

The strikes affected the capital Kyiv, as well as western and front-line regions, damaging homes, schools, and a health facility.

In Kyiv, a kindergarten, metro stations, shops and residential buildings were hit. 

The Ivano-Frakivsk region in western Ukraine which hosts many displaced people and had previously been less affected by hostilities, suffered the largest attack since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022.  

Frontline regions  

Meanwhile, in areas near the frontlines in the Donetsk, Dnipro and Kherson regions, hostilities caused civilian casualties and further damage to schools, a health facility, and apartment buildings. Odesa, Kharkiv, Sumy and other regions also reported that homes and shops were destroyed.  

With support from UN agencies, and coordinating with local authorities and first respondents, humanitarian organizations on the ground continue to provide shelter materials, non-food items, legal aid, psychosocial support and assistance for children across the country.  

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Syria: Ongoing violence fuelling mass displacement in Sweida

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More than 93,000 Syrians have been displaced across Sweida, neighbouring Dar’a governorate and Rural Damascus due to escalating violence in the city,  UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said at Monday’s daily press briefing in New York.

Most displaced people in Sweida are staying with local communities or in one of 15 reception centres, while around 30 collective shelters have opened in Dar’a.

Infrastructure and services are suffering in the area. Some hospitals and health centres in Sweida are out of service, water infrastructure has been critically damaged, significant cuts to electricity have been reported, and access to food is disrupted.

Initial aid delivery

On Sunday, the first aid convoy deployed by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent reached Sweida and the Salkhad district within the city, where most displaced people are seeking safety.  

The convoy of 32 trucks carried food, water, medical supplies and fuel provided by the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other partners.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher welcomed this initial delivery on social media, saying it was a “desperately needed first step, but much more relief is needed.”  

Mr. Dujarric stressed that as the UN engages with relevant parties to facilitate humanitarian access and ensure the protection of civilians, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is working with authorities to facilitate a direct visit to Sweida to deliver assistance when security conditions allow.  

Mr. Fletcher echoed this sentiment, saying OCHA teams “are mobilised to move as much as we can.”

“We continue to urge all parties to protect people who have been caught up in the violence, including by allowing them to move freely to seek safety and medical assistance,” concluded Mr. Dujarric.

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Gaza: Guterres condemns killing of people seeking food as humanitarian conditions deteriorate

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Stéphane Dujarric was speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York a day after dozens of Palestinians were killed seeking food aid.

He said the Secretary-General deplored the growing reports of both children and adults suffering from malnutrition and strongly condemned the ongoing violence, including the shooting, killing and injuring of people attempting to get food.

Not a target

“Civilians must be protected and respected, and they must never be targeted,” said Mr. Dujarric, noting that the population in Gaza remains gravely undersupplied with the basic necessities of life.

He stressed that “Israel has the obligation to allow and facilitate by all the means at its disposal the humanitarian relief provided by the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations.” 

Mr. Dujarric said the Secretary-General noted that the recent intensification of hostilities comes as the humanitarian system in Gaza is being impeded, undermined and endangered.

New evacuation orders

He pointed to a new evacuation order issued for parts of Deir Al-Balah, which is pushing people into more desperate conditions and sparking further displacement, while restricting the UN’s ability to deliver aid.

He reported that two UN guesthouses in Deir Al-Balah were struck, despite the parties being informed about their locations. 

“They suffered damage,” he said, responding a reporter’s question. “The UN staff inside was, to say the least, rattled.”

Mr. Dujarric underscored that the UN intends to remain in Deir Al-Balah.

 Ceasefire now

The Secretary-General reiterated his urgent call for the protection of civilians, including humanitarian personnel, and for the provision of essential resources to ensure their survival.

He once again called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

Mr. Dujarric said the UN stands ready to significantly scale up its humanitarian operations in Gaza, adding “the time for a ceasefire is now.” 

People dying from malnutrition 

Amid the ongoing shelling, displacement and destruction in Gaza, humanitarians continue to receive reports of severely malnourished people arriving at medical points and hospitals in extremely poor health. 

More than a dozen people, including children, have reportedly died from hunger in the last 24 hours, according to the Gaza health agencies. 

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recalled that roughly 88 per cent of Gaza is now under displacement orders or within displacement zones. 

Shelter and fuel 

Gaza’s population is some 2.1 million and about 1.35 million need shelter and household items.  However, no shelter supplies have been allowed to enter for more than four months.   

The dire fuel crisis also continues, with humanitarians continuing to warn that the limited quantities that have been allowed to enter in recent days are hardly sufficient. 

Traditional aid systems critical: UN official 

Meanwhile the new UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ramiz Alakbarov, has met with the Prime Minister of the State of Palestine, Mohammad Mustafa, in Ramallah.  

At a press conference, Dr. Alakbarov called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the unconditional release of the hostages, and the lifting of all restrictions on access to people in Gaza.         

He said to address immediate needs, humanitarian organizations must be able to use the traditional systems of aid delivery. 

He noted that these systems are currently undermined by violence, including armed looting and recurrent shootings at civilians seeking aid. which he said must be independently investigated.   

Dreams amid the rubble: Gaza’s women speak of homes, loss and hungry children

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In Gaza City, families living in tents reveal a shared, grim reality.

Many have been forced to flee the fighting dozens of times. Most find themselves homeless and hungry while facing an uncertain future.

Khadija Manoun and her daughter in the space she uses as a kitchen inside a destroyed building.

Khadija Manoun: Kitchen of life’s leftovers

Khadija Manoun said she and her family have moved more than 20 times, from Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip to a destroyed building in western Gaza, in search of shelter. She had owned a new fully furnished house, which she had built with a bank loan.

“I furnished my house well, with tiles and electrical appliances,” she said. “It had only been three years since I had the house. Then the war came and everything was lost.”

Today, everything has changed, Ms. Manoun said. Her spacious, fully equipped kitchen is now just a corner in the rubble, where a solitary soap dish borrowed from a neighbour sits. Metal utensils have been replaced with plastic tea containers to serve 10 people.

The bathroom was reduced to a corner covered with pieces of cloth that had been blankets. Her dressing room is now home to tattered suitcases.

“This is now my closet where I put everything,” she said. “I had a bedroom that had cost me 10,000 shekels.”

Her family sleeps on simple mattresses. Clean drinking water is a luxury that Khadija chases after, running between trucks, often returning with empty containers.

Amid all this, she sometimes reminisces, scrolling through photos on her mobile phone of her old home and the meals they used to eat.

Badriya Barrawi, a displaced person in Gaza, is living among the ruins of destroyed buildings.

Badriya Barawi: Exhausted by hunger

In her modest tent on the beach west of Gaza City, Badriya Barawi, from Beit Lahia, sits, arranging what remains of her life. Tears stream from her eyes.

“Have mercy on us,” she said. “We are fed up and exhausted, mentally and physically. We can’t bear it any longer. How long will this life go on?”

She says her children are crying from the heat and hunger.

“We haven’t had bread for three days. This morning, I fed the children hummus, but is that enough for their stomachs?” said Ms. Barawi, who suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes.

She said she collapses daily from a lack of food.

Hiyam Zayed is displaced from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Hiyam Zayed: Trampled garden of dreams

In a nearby tent, Hiyam Zayed and her eight daughters eat lentil soup without bread. Describing her former home, she said there were six rooms and a garden.

“I was happy in my home,” she said. “My daughters and I used to have fun there. They played on the roof or inside the rooms. We had a beautiful garden in front of the house, and we grew plants and ate its produce and raised chickens. My daughters were very happy. We fed them the best food and dressed them in the best clothes.”

She also said she used to have a washing machine, a fully equipped kitchen and a refrigerator “full of goodies”.

Now, everything is gone.

“No food, no washing machine, no feelings: we’ve become depressed,” she added.

“My daughters wear the worst clothes. I can’t find a way to bathe them. I used to turn on the water tap at home and water would run for drinking or bathing. Now, we live in a tent in the sand. I light a fire to cook after I used to have gas. I borrow cooking utensils.”

“How are we to blame for what happened, and who bears responsibility?” Ms. Zayed asked. “What is my fault and my children’s fault when we are displaced from one place to another and they die of hunger?”

Hiyam’s daughters eating a lunch of lentil soup, without bread, where they live, inside a destroyed building.

Mass displacement

According to UN reports, more than two million Palestinians –the population of Gaza – live in about 15 per cent of the Strip’s area after the war caused widespread destruction of infrastructure and homes.

International organizations have warned that the continuation of the conflict threatens to have “catastrophic consequences” in the near term.

That includes a serious impact on children’s mental and physical health, the spread of disease and the disintegration of social structures.

This amid the absence of any clear path towards a political or humanitarian solution.

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Salvaging SDGs still possible, but countries must act now: Guterres

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Addressing ministers at UN Headquarters in New York, he called for urgent action to rescue lagging Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) amid war, inequality and fiscal strain.

“Transformation is not only necessary – it is possible,” he declared, highlighting landmark commitments adopted in recent months: the Pandemic Agreement at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, pledges to expand marine protected areas at the third UN Ocean Conference in Nice, and the new vision for global finance agreed in Sevilla at the fourth International Financing for Development Conference.

“These are not isolated wins, they are signs of momentum and signs that multilateralism can deliver.”

The remarks opened the ministerial segment of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), the UN’s central platform for reviewing the 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs.

Get back on track

Mr. Guterres warned that the world remains far off track to meet the 2030 targets.

“Only 35 per cent of SDG targets are on track or making moderate progress. Nearly half are moving too slowly. And 18 per cent are going backwards,” he said.

He urged governments to act with urgency and ambition.

“The Sustainable Development Goals are not a dream. They are a plan – a plan to keep our promises to the most vulnerable people, to each other, and to future generations.”

Citing gains since 2015, including expanded social protection, declining child marriage and growing women’s representation, he said the SDGs remain “within reach” if world leaders channel resources and political will.

The Secretary-General also linked development and peace, noting ongoing violence in Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine and elsewhere.

“At every step, we know sustainable peace requires sustainable development,” he said, calling for immediate ceasefires and renewed commitment to diplomacy.

ECOSOC President Bob Rae addresses the ministerial segment of the HLPF.

Double down on multilateralism

Bob Rae, President of the Economic and Social Council, echoed the Secretary‑General’s call, warning that global disruption – from climate change to economic disarray – requires deeper solidarity.

“The SDGs are not optional ideals, but rather essential commitments,” he said.

“Now is not the time for us to abandon our ideals…it is now actually the time to double down on our multilateral obligations to one another.”

Mr. Rae cautioned that shrinking national budgets and rising nationalist politics are undermining progress but insisted that “multilateralism delivers real, tangible benefits for people at every level of society.”

He called for closer partnerships with civil society, local governments, and the private sector, stressing that SDGs must be “integrated into budgets and policies around the world, not as at odds, but as the core of how governments should serve their people.”

Match ambition and delivery

Philémon Yang, President of the General Assembly, emphasized aligning political commitments with concrete action.

He praised the Compromiso de Sevilla and last year’s Pact for the Future, which aim to reform global financial systems, scale up climate finance, and strengthen international tax cooperation.

“The gap between ambition and delivery can only be closed through solidarity, resources and political will,” he said.

“The deadlines for the 2030 Agenda are fast approaching,” he warned. “Whether we like it or not. And while progress is lagging, we have the tools and ambition to deliver.”

Accountability and partnership

The HLPF, established at the landmark Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012, serves as the primary UN platform for monitoring SDG progress, including through Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs).

This year’s forum, convened under the auspices of the ECOSOC, runs until 23 July with a focus on five goals: health, gender equality, decent work, life below water, and global partnerships.

More than 150 countries have presented VNRs – with 36 reporting this year – showcasing national efforts and challenges in implementing the 2030 Agenda.

Mr. Guterres praised the reviews as “acts of accountability” and “templates for other countries to follow and learn from.”

With just five years left to meet the global goals, he urged ministers to “transform these sparks of transformation into a blaze of progress – for all countries.”

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Droughts are causing record devastation worldwide, UN-backed report reveals

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This is according to a new report from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the U.S. National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and the International Drought Resilience Alliance on the global impacts of droughts from 2023 to 2025.

“Drought is a silent killer. It creeps in, drains resources, and devastates lives in slow motion. Its scars run deep,” said UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw.

“This is not a dry spell,” stressed Dr. Mark Svoboda, report co-author and NDMC Director. “This is a slow-moving global catastrophe, the worst I’ve ever seen. This report underscores the need for systematic monitoring of how drought affects lives, livelihoods, and the health of the ecosystems that we all depend on.” 

Record devastation in Africa

According to the report, as 90 million people face acute hunger across Eastern and Southern Africa, some areas in the region have been experiencing the worst drought ever recorded.

In Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, maize and wheat crops have suffered repeated failures. In Zimbabwe in particular, the 2024 corn crop was down 70 per cent year on year, maize prices doubled, and 9,000 cattle died of thirst and starvation.

Some 43,000 people in Somalia died in 2022 alone due to drought-linked hunger. The crisis continued through 2025, with a quarter of the population facing crisis-level food insecurity at the beginning of the year.

As a result of drought, Zambia is suffering one of the world’s worst energy crises: in April, the Zambezi River plummeted to 20 per cent of its long-term average, and the country’s largest hydroelectric plant, the Kariba Dam, fell to 7 per cent generation capacity, causing electricity blackouts of up to 21 hours a day. This has led to the shuttering of hospitals, bakeries, and factories, further compounding the devastation.

Worldwide impacts

But the effects of drought extend beyond Africa. For example, by September 2023 in Spain, two years of drought and record heat caused a 50 per cent drop in the olive crop, doubling olive oil prices nationwide.

In Türkiye, drought-accelerated groundwater depletion has triggered sinkholes, endangering communities and their infrastructure while reducing aquifer storage capacity.

In the Amazon Basin, record-low river levels in 2023 and 2024 led to mass deaths of fish and endangered dolphins, disrupted drinking water supplies and created transport challenges for hundreds of thousands. Ongoing deforestation and fires also threaten to shift the Amazon from a carbon sink to a carbon source.

Declining water levels in the Panama Canal slashed transit by more than one-third, leading to major global trade disruptions. Among the spillover effects were declines in American soybean exports and shortages and rising prices reported in UK grocery stores.

Call for cooperation and solutions

The report listed several recommendations to help combat this crisis, including stronger early warning systems, real-time drought and drought impact monitoring, and nature-based solutions such as watershed restoration and indigenous crop use.

It also called for more resilient infrastructure – including off-grid energy and alternative water supply systems – and global cooperation, particularly regarding transboundary river basins and trade routes. 

Effective partnerships can stop the next pandemic

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Dr. Ibrahim Abubakar, a professor of infectious diseases at University College London,  issued this warning at a recent meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in New York.

It is not a question of if but when, and Dr. Abubakar believes the answer is sooner than anyone wants in part because the global healthcare system remains drastically  siloed.

This is a problem because, intrinsically, a pandemic cannot be stopped by one country alone.

“Infectious diseases will not respect borders. Therefore, health systems to ensure equity, dignity and universal access must also be agile to implement policies across borders,” Dr. Abubakar said.

Rather, stopping pandemics — and promoting broader global development — requires robust partnerships and consistent investment in multilateral systems as a practice, not just an ideal.

“If we are to meet the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda, we must reimagine cooperation, not as a transactional action but as a dynamic, inclusive and future-ready partnership,” said Lok Bahadur Thapa, vice president of ECOSOC.

A goal to unite all goals 

The High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development is convening at UN Headquarters in New York to discuss progress – or lack thereof – towards the globally agreed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The first 16 SDGs deal with specific aspects of development — such as poverty, gender equality and climate change — but the 17th puts forward a path to achieve the others. And this path lies in embracing global partnerships between State governments, civil society organizations, communities and the private sector.

However, with an annual financing gap for the SDGs which exceeds $4 trillion, the partnerships of today are not sufficient to realize the goals for tomorrow.

“We must forge truly transformative partnerships that break traditional silos: governments, civil society, the private sector and multilateral institutions all have roles to play in an inclusive coalition for sustainable development,” Dima Al-Khatib, director of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) said at an HLPF event.

Prioritize prevention, not reaction

Right now, the current health system, which includes pandemic preparedness, is oriented towards halting health emergencies once they emerge as opposed to proactively preventing them, according to Dr. Abubakar.

Member States recently adopted a pandemic prevention treaty which endeavours to do just this — limit the likelihood of future pandemics.

But for many, this emphasis on prevention extends beyond pandemics to issues like rehabilitation services and primary care, both of which experts say are critical investments not only in human well-being but also in peace and security.

Moreover, these types of preventative medicine are cheaper than reactive medicine, according to Mandeep Dhaliwal, the Director of Health at the UN Development Programme (UNDP).  

“It’s important to invest in prevention as much as it is in treatment, and it is more cost-effective because … you’re turning off the tap,” Ms. Dhaliwal said.

However, convincing investors to support preventive care can be difficult because, when done correctly, tangible results are not necessarily visible.

Health is in every system

Nevertheless, investing in preventive medicine like primary care and the socioeconomic determinants of health — such as climate and nutrition — can help ensure that health systems are holistically supporting people before a crisis begins.

“Health is not a silo… the factors that influence health are often outside the health sector,” Ms. Dhaliwal said, citing the example of air pollution which is a climate problem that inherently influences health.  

This sort of holistic investment requires robust partnerships which work to ensure that every initiative — no matter how seemingly distanced — considers health implications.

“We have too often treated [health] as a downstream issue, something that improves only if other systems are working. But we now understand that health and well-being is not simply the result of good developments. It’s the starting point,” said Tony Ott, a professor of agricultural sciences at the Pennsylvania State University.

The weak link in the health system

Migrants and displaced people tend to be among those least likely to have access to preventive medicine and often those most impacted by the social determinants of health.

“Migration and displacement, whether it’s driven by conflict, climate change or economic factors, are defining factors in terms of our health,” he said.  

By the end of 2024, 123.2 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide, a decade-high number which proves that in the 10 years since the SDGs were adopted, the world has regressed in relation to displacements.

For Dr. Abubakar, these displaced people — and the millions more voluntary migrants — embody why the health system simply cannot continue to silo itself and must instead embrace cross-border partnerships.

“Health systems must ensure access to essential services regardless of immigration status … Any community without access is that weak link that may mean we are all not protected,” Dr. Abubakar said, referring to the next pandemic.

Communities at the centre

The idea of partnerships as foundational to achieving the SDGs is logical for many people. After all, the goals are universal in nature and demand global collaboration.

But this collaboration, especially for health, must do more than just engage experts — it must engage the people who seek out healthcare. Dr. Abubakar said that all health policies must be culturally appropriate to local contexts, something which can only happen if communities are placed at the centre of healthcare.

“The new future that I see would embrace global partnership, including countries irrespective of income level, public and private sector, academic and civil society. And within this framework, communities must be at the centre… not just as recipients but as co-creators of solutions.”
 

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Terror and chaos for Gaza’s people now entering the ‘death phase’

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In an alert, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, relayed desperate testimonies from its colleagues who are also struggling to survive in the war-torn enclave.

“We’re in the death phase,” one UNRWA worker said. “Everything around people at the moment is death, whether it’s bombs or strikes, children wasting away in front of their eyes from malnourishment, from dehydration, and dying.”

Doctors and nurses who continue to work in the UN agency’s clinics and medical centres “are watching children disappear and die in front of their eyes, and there’s absolutely nothing that they can do about it,” the worker continued.  

Civilians ‘faced sniper and tank-fire’

The development comes after desperate Gazans seeking aid came under fire at the weekend “from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire”, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

In a detailed statement after the incident on Sunday 20 July, it explained that a 25-truck lorry convoy crossed the Zikim border point in northern Gaza “destined for starving communities”. 

Shortly after passing the final checkpoint after the Zikim crossing point, the convoy encountered large crowds of civilians waiting to access food supplies. This was when the shooting began, leaving “countless” Gazans dead, WFP said, echoing reports by the health authorities.

Condemning the incident, WFP noted that the victims “were simply trying to access food to feed themselves and their families on the brink of starvation”.

The UN agency said furthermore that the violence had happened “despite assurances from Israeli authorities that humanitarian operational conditions would improve; including that armed forces will not be present nor engage at any stage along humanitarian convoy routes.”

Without such fundamental guarantees, it will not be possible to continue providing life-saving support across the Gaza Strip, WPF said, its reaction coming a day after a reported 36 people seeking aid were reportedly killed close to a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation hub run by the Israeli and US in the south of the Strip. 

Deir Al-Balah evacuation shock

In central Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah, meanwhile, 50,000 to 80,000 people have been impacted by a mass displacement order issued by the Israeli military – the first since war erupted on 7 October 2023.

“The new order cuts through Deir Al-Balah all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, further splintering the Strip,” OCHA said. “It will limit the ability of the UN and our partners to move safely and effectively within Gaza, choking humanitarian access when it is needed most.”

UN staff remain in Deir Al-Balah across “dozens of premises” whose coordinates have been shared with the warring parties. “These locations – as with all civilian sites – must be protected, regardless of displacement orders,” OCHA insisted, as  Israeli tanks reportedly moved into southern and eastern areas of the city.

According to reports, this may be where some of the remaining hostages seized in Hamas-led terror attacks on 7 October 2023 in Israel may still be held.

Gaza cut in two

The latest evacuation order means that almost 88 per cent of Gaza is impacted by displacement orders or falls within Israeli-militarized zones. Some 2.1 million civilians who have been uprooted multiple times are now squeezed into the little remaining space, where essential services have collapsed.

“There’s nowhere for [Gazans] to escape. They are trapped,” said UNRWA Senior Emergency Officer Louise Wateridge. “They cannot leave the Gaza Strip. They’re trying to keep their children alive. They’re trying to keep themselves alive.”

In comments to UN News, the veteran humanitarian explained that no food is available and only very limited water, explaining why so many desperate Gazans risk their lives to fetch aid from the few distribution centres and arrival points still operational.

“Children are malnourished, they’re dehydrated, they are dying in front of their [parents’] eyes,” Ms. Wateridge continued. “The bombs and the strikes are continuing; there’s no way to run, there’s nowhere to hide. There’s no way to escape there.” 

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Doha agreement brings DR Congo government and M23 rebels a step closer to peace

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In a statement released on 19 July, MONUSCO said that the Declaration of Principles, signed in Doha under the mediation of Qatar, “reflects the parties’ resolve to prioritise peaceful means, establish a ceasefire, and set up a joint mechanism to define its practical implementation.”

“This important declaration marks a shift towards easing tensions and protecting civilians seriously affected by the conflict,” declared Mr. Bruno Lemarquis, Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in the DRC and Acting Head of MONUSCO. “We commend the commitments made and call for their timely and good-faith implementation.”

These commitments include measures to facilitate the voluntary, safe, and dignified return of internally displaced persons and refugees to their places or countries of origin, and the encouragement of inclusive dialogue, seen as vital to addressing the root causes of the conflict and achieving lasting peace.

Earlier this year, the M23 launched an offensive in North and South Kivu provinces, capturing cities and villages, including provincial capitals Goma and Bukavu. Thousands of civilians were killed, hundreds of thousands more were displaced, and serious human rights violations were committed.

The Declaration of Principles comes less than a month after a peace agreement signed by Congo and Rwanda, long accused by the Congolese Government of supporting the M23.

The Mission’s statement highlighted the Declaration’s emphasis on civilian protection and support for the ceasefire, with assistance from MONUSCO and other partners, and reaffirmed its readiness to support the cessation of hostilities, particularly through the establishment of a credible and jointly agreed verification mechanism.

MONUSCO’s statement concluded by urging all parties to honour their commitments, act in good faith throughout the process, and prioritise human rights, security, and the aspirations of the Congolese people in all decisions. 

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Desks become beds as Haitian school shelters people displaced by violence

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The classrooms at Anténor Firmin school in Hinche in central Haiti are no longer studiously quiet.

Once a place of learning, it now echoes with the sounds of babies crying, water containers clanking, and voices murmuring through the night.

Over 700 people displaced by violence are crammed into the crumbling compound, sleeping on floors where children once solved math problems.

Among them is Edens Désir, a former teacher, who continues to believe that education should be the key to a more prosperous and peaceful future for this beleaguered Caribbean Island nation.

Edens Désir teaches a class at Anténor Firmin school.

A trained accountant and former secondary-school teacher, his life was upended by the violent clashes that erupted in March 2025 in Saut-d’Eau and Mirebalais, two small towns south of Hinche.

Like 6,000 others, he fled massacres, rape, arson, and looting.

“Everything I built, little by little, was destroyed,” he said. “I walked away with nothing.”

Warring gangs have long controlled most of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, some 30 miles (48 km) away.

It is only recently that their sphere of influence has moved to more the more rural areas of Centre department where, Hinche and Saut-d’Eau are located.

Edens Désir, found refuge in the school where he once studied, a place now stripped of its purpose. Desks have become beds. Classrooms have turned into shelters. Families lie packed into rooms never meant to house them.

A classroom at Anténor Firmin school in Hinche now serves as both a shelter and an informal learning space for displaced children.

Even in these crowded rooms, he found a way to start over. Not for himself, but for the children around him. With a whiteboard, a marker, and quiet determination, he has brought a sense of purpose to lives that have been thrown off course.

“Ever since I was a kid, I loved teaching,” he explained. “It’s what matters most to me. I’d rather be in front of a class than sitting around doing nothing. For these kids, school is the only real chance they’ve got.”

Living in limbo

Once on the verge of expanding a small business, Mr. Désir now lives in limbo. “That plan is gone. Violence made sure of it. My only option now is to leave and try to start over somewhere else. But as long as I’m here, I will keep sharing what I know.”

These days, he takes life one day at a time. “I can’t make plans anymore,” he said. “Each day, I just figure things out as they come. Each night, I wonder if there will be food tomorrow.”

Clean water is scarce. Long queues stretch at distribution points, where women and children wait patiently, balancing heavy containers.

Hygiene conditions are dire. With few latrines and showers available, hundreds are left without privacy or sanitation. The health risks are growing, especially for the most vulnerable.

Food is just as uncertain. “There are nights I go to sleep without eating,” he says. “But I keep teaching because the kids are here.”

IOM staff and a civil protection agent asses the needs of displaced people

Delivering aid to the displaced is no easy task. The main road between Port-au-Prince and Hinche remains blocked by insecurity, cutting off supply routes and isolating entire communities.

Despite the hurdles, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reached over 800 families across 17 displacement sites, providing emergency items such as shelter kits, blankets, kitchen sets, and jerrycans.

IOM teams continue working directly with displaced families, host communities, and local authorities to assess needs and provide relief.

Site committees and civil protection teams are being trained to better manage the shelters. The most fragile sites are being relocated to safer areas and mental health support is offered to those affected by the violence.

Protect the vulnerable

These efforts aim to protect the most vulnerable, especially children, from a crisis they did not choose but are now forced to navigate.

Edens Désir believes that knowledge is the best defence against dehumanization. When violence tears everything apart, forcing children into displacement, splitting families, and cutting off access to education, teaching becomes an act of resistance.

Even when the days feel heavy, he keeps showing up for the children who still believe in him.

“If we want things to change, we need people who grow into better citizens,” he said. “I don’t know if what I’m doing is enough to make that happen, but it gives me purpose. It breaks my heart to know that one day I’ll have to leave them behind and look for a better future.”

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Humanitarians report more deaths, displacement and desperation in Gaza

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“Every day brings more preventable deaths, displacement and desperation,” the agency said in a humanitarian update.

On Friday, Israeli authorities issued another displacement order, this time for parts of North Gaza.

OCHA said it continues to receive deeply troubling reports of malnourished children and adults being admitted to hospitals with insufficient resources available to treat them.

Fuel crisis deepens

The energy crisis in Gaza is also deepening, despite the resumption of limited fuel imports as the quantities that are entering – while critical for continuity – “remain at lower levels than what we were previously able to extract from dwindling internal reserves, which have now been fully depleted”.

The situation has forced solid waste collection to be paused in recent days, and additional wells have had to shut down, particularly in Deir Al-Balah.

“While specific health services, including dialysis, have reduced or shut down, others could go on for a few more days before they too will have to go dark,” OCHA warned.

“With every day that passes, people have less clean water and healthcare and more sewage flooding ground floors.”

Since the limited entry of fuel entry supplies resumed on 9 July, the UN has managed to send just over 600,000 litres of diesel to Kerem Shalom. On Thursday,

it was able to send 35,000 litres of much-needed benzene for the first time.

OCHA said these volumes are limited because Israel has allowed only 14 trucks over the past week. 

The agency stressed that to maintain lifesaving operations, hundreds of thousands of litres of fuel are needed every day. The limited fuel currently entering is primarily allocated to health, water and communications services as well as to power vehicles.

Humanitarian movements curtailed

Humanitarian movements inside Gaza also continue to be restricted.

On Thursday, seven out of 13 attempts to coordinate the movement of aid workers and supplies with the Israeli authorities were facilitated.

Teams were able to retrieve some fuel, collect some water, relocate generators, provide supplies related to hygiene and sanitation and transfer much-needed medical supplies.

The six remaining attempts were either outright denied or approved initially, but then faced obstacles on the ground.

End international media ban

Meanwhile, the head of the UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA called on Friday for the ban on international media entering Gaza to be lifted.

“650 days of atrocities against civilians with no international media allowed in,” Philippe Lazzarini wrote in social media post, adding that over 200 Palestinian journalists have been killed during this time.

“Media ban fuels dis-information campaigns questioning first-hand data and accounts from eyewitnesses and international humanitarian organizations,” he said.

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World News in Brief: Violence in Haiti, rising insecurity in DR Congo, expert panel on nuclear war

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Displaced Haitians are dispersed among the 250 active displacement sites across the country, most of which are informal. Just over a fifth of these sites are managed by humanitarian organizations, meaning that many are living in precarious conditions.  

In June alone, more than 200 alerts were reported across displacement sites, over 80 per cent of which were related to essential needs such as lack of water, food, shelter or healthcare.

OCHA noted that nearly 1.3 million people are now internally displaced in Haiti, the highest number ever recorded in the country due to violence.

Constrained UN response

The UN and partners have supported more than 113,000 displaced Haitians this year, providing essential services such as water, shelter, sanitation and healthcare.

The humanitarian response is severely constrained by limited funding and persistent insecurity, hampering humanitarian access to the most affected areas and delaying the delivery of aid. 

Despite the challenges, the agency continues to work closely with Haitian authorities and humanitarian partners to coordinate relief efforts and mobilise additional resources to support displaced communities. 

DR Congo: Ongoing violence in the east drives displacement, impedes aid delivery

Ongoing violence in North and South Kivu provinces in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to claim the lives of civilians and to trigger new displacement. 

In North Kivu, UN partners on the ground in Rutshuru and Lubero territories reported that fighting between M23 and other armed groups was ongoing until Tuesday, resulting in eight civilian deaths and 42,500 displaced people as of earlier this week. 

Since early July, heavy clashes between M23 and other armed groups in South Kivu have also persisted, as local partners said the fighting has displaced at least 37,000 people from their homes. 

Aid access restrictions 

The surge in violence is making it harder for humanitarians to deliver assistance to vulnerable communities. 

While partners and teams on the ground are doing their best to maintain services for those affected, access restrictions and severe funding shortages pose significant obstacles. 

A humanitarian convoy coordinated by OCHA along the road between the provincial capital Bukavu and the city of Uvira, primarily planned for this Friday, has been postponed due to a lack of security guarantees on that route. 

Many UN partners on the ground are forced to scale back their operations, disrupting essential services for those in need. 

OCHA called on the international community to take urgent action to address these severe funding gaps and avert a humanitarian tragedy. 

New panel to examine the effects of a nuclear war

The UN Secretary-General has appointed an independent scientific panel of 21 experts to examine the physical and societal consequences of a nuclear war on a local, regional and planetary scale in the days, weeks and decades following such an event.

The creation of the panel, mandated by a General Assembly resolution, comes at a time when nuclear guardrails are being eroded and “the risk of nuclear war is higher than at any point since the depths of the Cold War,” UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Friday during the daily media briefing from Headquarters in New York. 

The panelists will seek input from a wide range of stakeholders – including international and regional organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), civil society and affected communities. 

Members will hold their first meeting in September and will submit a final report to the General Assembly in 2027. 

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UN80 initiative should be ‘inclusive and transparent’, recognises General Assembly

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The text, introduced by Russia and adopted without a vote, “welcomes the efforts of the Secretary‑General to strengthen the United Nations in order to keep pace with a changing world” and calls on UN entities and specialised agencies to align their reform efforts “as appropriate”.

In the resolution, the 193-member Assembly “recognises the central role of Member States in the reform process, which should be inclusive and transparent”.

It also “looks forward to receiving, in accordance with established procedures” the Secretary‑General’s proposals under the initiative, “taking into account the necessity to have clearly defined objectives and an evidence-based approach, and aiming at strengthening the impact of the United Nations and enhancing its agility, responsiveness and resilience while addressing the issue of duplicative efforts and ensuring effective and efficient mandate delivery across all three pillars of the work of the United Nations.”

Launched by the Secretary-General in March, the UN80 Initiative centres on three priorities: enhancing operational efficiency, assessing how mandates – or key tasks – from Member States are implemented and exploring structural reforms across the UN system.

Mixed reactions on timing

Several delegations voiced backing for the reform effort, but questioned the timing of the resolution.

Speaking for the European Union, Denmark said the process was “premature and unnecessarily rushed”, noting that limited time for consultations “did not allow for the constructive engagement such an initiative requires”.

Australia, on behalf of the CANZ group (Canada, Australia and New Zealand), echoed that view, warning that an early resolution “risks limiting both the scope and ambition of the forthcoming proposals”.

Switzerland, speaking for a group including Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, also stressed that reform should be “ambitious and strategic”, building on existing assets while ensuring long‑term efficiencies.

Japan emphasised its “commitment to multilateralism” and said the initiative responds to the urgency of revitalising the UN.

“The success of the UN80 initiative relies on our shared and complementary responsibilities,” its delegate said.

Member States in the driving seat

Exercising its right of reply, Russia rejected claims that the text was rushed, saying it had “conducted several rounds of consultations” and “took into account the red lines specified by delegations, which came out in the silence procedure”.

The silence procedure sets out a window of time for delegations to express objections to a draft resolution or decision before it is formally acted upon.

The Russian delegate said the resolution puts Member States “into the driving force of this process” while recognising the Secretary‑General’s prerogative as chief administrative officer under the UN Charter.

“We seek success in the UN’s adaptation to current and future challenges,” the Russian delegate said, calling the resolution’s adoption “a very important step” to ensure universal support for the initiative.

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