UN supports response as Cyclone Remal batters communities in Bangladesh, India
At least 16 people are reported to have been killed as the region was hit by Cyclone Remal on Sunday evening, local time, bringing gales of over 110 kilometres per hour (about 70 miles per hour), torrential rain and storm…
UN supports Papua New Guinea following deadly landslide
Six bodies have been recovered so far and the number is expected to increase, the UN Country Team (UNCT) said on Tuesday. The total affected population, including those in need of possible evacuation and relocation, has been estimated at 7,849…
UN hub reaches remote Pacific islanders: A UN Resident Coordinator blog
“They do not want to leave their ancestral places, even if they go under,” said Jaap van Hierden. © Eunie Kim Jaap van Hierden, UN Resident Coordinator in Micronesia. Appointed by the Secretary-General as the first UN Resident Coordinator for the…
Papua New Guinea landslide: 670 feared dead, says UN migration agency
In a media interview, Mr. Aktoprak said that the community in Yambali village, situated at the foot of a mountain in the remote Enga Province, is buried under between six to eight metres of soil. 150 houses are believed to…
Myanmar: UN rights office warns of growing crisis in Rakhine state
Fierce battles have intensified between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group, displacing tens of thousands of people in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships in recent days. An estimated 45,000 Rohingya have reportedly fled to an area…
Climate crisis fuels deadly floods, worsening hunger in Afghanistan
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that as erratic weather on the back of the worsening climate crisis “becomes the norm”, things will only get worse. This month’s unusually high rainfall followed a dry winter, rendering the ground too…
UN rights office urges Sri Lanka to reveal fate of the disappeared
The call accompanies the launch of a key report by OHCHR, highlighting also the need for the Government to acknowledge the involvement of State security forces and to issue a public apology. From the 1970s to 2009, Sri Lanka witnessed…
India’s LGBTQIA+ community notches legal wins but still faces societal hurdles to acceptance, equal rights
UNAIDS, the main advocate for coordinated global action on the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and the UN Development Progarmme (UNDP) offices in India have been important partners in this effort. On this International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), celebrated annually…
Japan: Safeguarding a mother tongue and mother nature
Even though both Nami and Tomoyuki were born on Okinoerabu Island (currently home to only 12,000 inhabitants), neither learned to speak Shimamuni – a local variety of the Kunigami language – fluently as children. Kunigami was added to UNESCO’s Atlas…
UN teams dispatch aid as deadly flash floods hit northern Afghanistan
Flash floods in the area have reportedly killed at least 300 people, including 51 children, with many more injured, with these figures expected to increase as additional reports come in, according to UN agencies. UN chief António Guterres expressed his…