Middle East

Four days after ISIL terrorists launched apparently coordinated attacks on a large prison in northeast Syria in a bid to free fighters detained there, the UN Human Rights Office, OHCHR, described the still unfolding situation on Tuesday as “deeply troubling”.

Well below zero temperatures hitting Syria this week have turned camps for internally displaced people into disaster zones, the UN Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator warned on Monday. 

The UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, on Thursday urged Israeli to immediately halt all evictions and demolitions in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, after an entire family was forced out of their long-term home the previous day.  

Urgent action is required to prevent further deterioration of the economic, security and political situation across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the UN’s Middle East envoy, Tor Wennesland, told the Security Council on Wednesday. 

The UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, on Tuesday appealed for $1.6 billion to support its lifesaving work this year amid acute regional crises and chronic funding shortfalls. 

Escalating conflict in Yemen has seen an alarming number of air and drone strikes already this year, notably against civilians and non-military targets, the UN rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday.

The Secretary-General condemned on Monday the attacks on Abu Dhabi’s International Airport and the nearby Musaffah industrial area, which reportedly caused several civilian casualties and have been claimed by the Yemen-based Houthi rebel group, formally known as Ansar Allah. 

Taliban leaders in Afghanistan are institutionalizing large scale and systematic gender-based discrimination and violence against women and girls, independent UN human rights experts warned on Monday.

“A child being hurt is a child too many”, said the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative in Iraq on Friday, following a rocket attack against a school in Baghdad the previous night, which left a child and woman injured.

UN human rights officials have welcomed the “historic” conviction on Thursday by a German court of a former senior Syrian intelligence officer, for crimes against humanity. 

Seven years into the war in Yemen, UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg reaffirmed to the Security Council on Wednesday that no long-term solution can be found on the battlefield, urging the warring parties to “talk, even if they are not ready to put down their arms”.

Brenden Varma, a UN Public Information Officer based in New York, recently returned from a two-month mission in Iraq, where he helped to promote participation in national elections. His experience opened his eyes to the complexities of life in the country.

Hopes that the tourism industry would rebound from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been dented by the wildfire spread of the Omicron variant. In an exclusive interview with UN News, Zoritsa Urosevic, Executive Director of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), called for new ideas to restart the sector.

The UN is urging authorities in Lebanon to conduct a quick and thorough investigation into an attack earlier this week against peacekeepers maintaining security and stability in the south of the country. 

“Every day is a new adventure”, as part of the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) in Syria, according to a young staff member who helps aid workers check in, board and fly safely between the capital, Damascus, and her home city in the north, Qamishli.