UN Interviews

Poverty and lack of education are pushing boys into joining armed groups and forcing girls to marry way before they should, warns Virginia Gamba, UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.  

Her latest report documents more than 27,000 instances of grave violations against children caught up in war, including use in conflict, killing and maiming, and rape and sexual violence. 

It also reveals a worrisome rise in attacks against schools, with nearly half carried out by government forces.

Ms. Gamba recently spoke to UN News’s Felipe De Carvalho about the main drivers of child recruitment and the unique challenges that conflict poses to children and education systems. 

Amid ongoing Israeli reprisals in the Occupied Palestinian Territory following Hamas’s massive attack against Israel at the weekend, more than 73,000 people in Gaza have now sought shelter in UN schools there. 

That’s the latest from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which expects the number of new arrivals to increase, while the violence continues to escalate. 

With more, here’s UNWRA’s chief of communications Tamara Alrifai, whose been speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson from Amman. 

Aftershocks continue to be felt from the deadly earthquake that pummeled parts of western Afghanistan on Saturday, a senior official with the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Monday.

Roughly 1,300 people were killed in the disaster, which struck just west of the city of Herat, affecting eight villages. Those injured or otherwise impacted are estimated to be in the tens of thousands.

Dr. Alaa Abouzeid, WHO Health Emergency Team Lead in Afghanistan, said some people who were treated for mild injuries are now living in tents because they have nowhere else to go.

UN News’s Abdelmonem Makki spoke to Dr. Abouzeid who was in the capital, Kabul. He outlined the magnitude of the emergency and how the UN and partners are responding to the immense needs.

Needs are immense among people who fled Karabakh for Armenia, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) reports.

The UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency has rushed to support women and girls, helping them to maintain their dignity amidst the chaos of displacement.

More than 2,000 pregnant women are among the refugees and UNFPA is also making sure that hospitals and health facilities can assist them, especially with some 230 women set to deliver next month.

UN News’s Dianne Penn spoke to Emmanuel Roussier, Humanitarian Coordinator for UNFPA’s Emergency Response in Armenia, about its work there.

In one week, more than 100,000 people arrived in Armenia from Karabakh, including around 30,000 children. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is among humanitarian agencies mobilized to help the refugees.

UNICEF Representative in Armenia Christine Weigand said children arrive there very tired, hungry and in a state of shock. Their immediate needs are very much linked to health issues. 

Speaking to UN News’s Anton Uspensky, she explained that in the long run, assistance will be provided to support children’s integration into the educational system. They will also receive psychological support to help them overcome the shock and trauma.

Lebanon’s refugee population is especially vulnerable to misinformation and disinformation campaigns, making navigating the country’s multi-layered humanitarian crises increasingly challenging.

That's according to Imran Riza, UN Resident Coordinator in Lebanon, who has overseen the UN humanitarian mission in Lebanon since September last year. 

He told UN News’ Khaled Mohamed that progress has “regressed incredibly” in the last four years, emphasising the need for increased international support for refugee populations in areas such as health, education, and social protection.

Misinformation poses a significant risk to UN peacekeeping. If left unchecked, it damages how the mission is perceived, creates confusion about its role, and puts lives of ‘blue helmets’ in danger.

MONUSCO, the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was recently a target of fake news, according to Bintou Keita, head of the operation.

She told UN News’ Jerome Bernard what motivates those spreading malicious information, and how the mission is combatting it.

But she began, by addressing the DRC president’s call at the UN General Debate for the mission to speed up its withdrawal from the country.

The UN Security Council took a historic step on Monday by authorizing the deployment of a multinational security mission to help the Haitian police combat rampant gang violence.

Kenya has offered to lead the force, which is not a UN operation, and other countries have signalled their participation.

Ahead of the Council vote, UN News’s Cristina Silveiro spoke to Ambassador Bob Rae of Canada, Chair of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti.

He said the mission “is not going to be a walk in the park” and began by explaining the force’s relationship with the UN Office in Haiti, BINUH. 

After around 100,000 refugees left the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in the past few days, there is now a “hidden humanitarian emergency” unfolding across Armenia.

That’s according to Joe Lowry a Spokesperson with the UN migration agency IOM based in Vienna, who has been on the ground in Armenia as part of the UN relief operation.

He told UN News's Vibhu Mishra that many have lived through a “nightmare” and UN humanitarians are already focusing on the need to support the Armenian Government with providing mental health services for new arrivals.

Amy Pope took office as the chief of UN migration agency IOM on 1 October, becoming the first woman to lead the organisation.

In her very first week on the job, she sat down with UN News’s Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer to talk about a comprehensive view of migration and its causes.

She insisted on the urgent need for more regular pathways for people whose lives are uprooted because of poverty, gang violence or climate change. She’s also advocating for a new narrative around the issue, arguing that in an ageing world, “ultimately, countries will be competing for migrants”.