A new agreement between the Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces in the country’s northeast is being viewed by the United Nations as a potentially significant step toward stabilising a region long shaped by conflict and competing authorities. Briefing members of the UN Security Council for the first time in his role as Deputy Special Envoy […]
Violence and intimidation against elected lawmakers are rising across the world, increasingly fuelled by online hostility and political polarisation, according to a new report presented at the United Nations. Martin Chungong, Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), warned that the growing hostility directed at parliamentarians could have serious consequences for democratic institutions if […]
“No one is safe when human rights are under attack,” Mr. Türk told the Human Rights Council, warning that the rules of war “are being shredded”. “Some States are becoming an extension of their ruler’s personal power,” he insisted. In his customary address to the UN’s top rights forum at the beginning of a new […]
Many of the victims were Alawite, a minority community in Syria, which the former ruling Assad family belonged to. Some community members are believed to have been killed in March by forces or individuals loyal to the country’s new leadership, the National Transitional Authority, which is headed by interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa. In response […]
The 19 July truce followed weeks of sectarian clashes, Israeli airstrikes and grave human rights violations in the southern governorate, also known as As-Sweida. As a result, more than 190,000 people have been displaced there and in neighbouring Dar’a and Rural Damascus governorates. The fighting also caused severe damage to infrastructure and to livelihoods. Electricity […]
The displacement is the latest consequence of a cascade of overlapping emergencies in the country – including armed violence, climate shocks, disease outbreaks and a severe funding shortfall. Since January, over 95,000 people have fled insecurity in Cabo Delgado and humanitarian access is becoming increasingly fragile. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of […]
Clashes intensified in the town of Mahas in the Hiraan region, Hirshabelle state, on 26 July forcing the entire population – over 28,000 people – to flee their homes. Another 38,000 people were displaced in the Gedo region, Jubaland state, between 23 and 26 July, some of whom crossed into Kenya. Security concerns have forced […]
Since 13 July, around 176,000 people have been displaced from Sweida, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Mostly migrating to neighbouring Dar’a and Rural Damascus governorates, civilians are fleeing violent clashes between Bedouin tribal fighters, Syrian caretaker government forces and Druze militias. Meanwhile in the north of the country, […]
Nearly 1.3 million people in the Caribbean country have fled their homes, with an additional 15,000 uprooted last week after armed attacks in the communes of Dessalines and Verrettes in the Artibonite department. Further, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its partners have screened more than 217,000 children for acute malnutrition in 2025. Some 21,500 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Briefing reporters in Geneva, UN human rights office, OHCHR, spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani highlighted “credible” reports of “widespread violations and abuses, including summary executions and arbitrary killings, kidnappings, destruction of private property and looting of homes” in the city of Sweida. “Among the reported perpetrators were members of the security forces and individuals affiliated with the […]
As of Thursday, nearly 2,000 families have been displaced from violence-affected areas in Sweida governate and are currently sheltering in a dozen collective sites. Many are unable to return home due to damage, looting or destruction of their homes. The health systems in Sweida and neighbouring Dar’a governorate remain under critical strain, operating without power […]
News reports estimate that the sectarian violence in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, south of the capital, has killed more than 200. Israel explained its attacks in the heart of the capital and on pro-government forces in Sweida as a defensive move in support of the Druze community, which has a significant presence within […]
In the past three months, a third of Gaza’s population (714,000 people) have been forced to move once again, separating families and dismantling local support systems. Women and girls are bearing a heavy burden, fearing for their lives on the streets – at delivery points, and in overcrowded, makeshift shelters that lack privacy and security […]
The violence erupted two days after a Druze merchant was abducted on the highway to Damascus. The incident marks the latest episode of sectarian bloodshed in Syria, where fears among minority groups have surged since Islamist rebels toppled former dictator Bashar al-Assad in December and installed a new caretaker Government, which is gaining increasing international […]
As armed clashes intensify and conditions worsen inside Myanmar, thousands continue to cross the border seeking safety in the overcrowded camps of Cox’s Bazar, where nearly one million Rohingya refugees already live in densely populated camps. “This is the largest movement of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh since 2017,” said Babar Baloch, spokesperson for the UN […]
In a statement late on Wednesday (local time), the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) expressed deep concern over continued reports of armed group mobilisation in densely populated areas, urging all parties to refrain from the use of force and inflammatory rhetoric. “The Mission strongly urges all parties to avoid any actions or political rhetoric […]
Since January, the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), recorded over 4,000 individuals deliberately killed – a 24 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2024. “The capital city was for all intents and purposes paralysed by gangs and isolated due to the ongoing suspension of international commercial flights into the international […]