This week we're bringing you a special programme looking at the growing threat posed by extremist violence in Africa. Between 2011 and early 2016, some 33,300 people in Africa lost their lives to violent extremism. According to a new ground-breaking report from the UN Development Programme (UNDP), factors driving the extremists include poverty, marginalization and [...]

Rohingya women have  "lived through real horrors:"  UNFPA Safe spaces for Rohingya women and girls seeking sanctuary in Myanmar, are already full to capacity. That's the first-hand account of Priya Marwah, Humanitarian Response Coordinator for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Bangladesh, who is helping create safe spaces for refugee survivors of gender-based violence. [...]

Listen to our daily bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, presented by Matt Wells and Dianne Penn. In today's programme: the youngest ever UN Messenger of Peace, Malala Yousafzai, tells us she's determined to continue her fight for girls education and empowerment; and we'll hear from another high-profile UN advocate, Goodwill Ambassador [...]

If girls are given the opportunity to explore their "full potential", there would be many fewer child marriages across South Sudan. That's the firm stance of Nyagoa Nyuon, who grew up in South Sudan and is the founder and Creative Director of the fashion label, House of Bany, based in Kenya. She is spearheading the [...]

Malala Yousafzai is continuing her fight for girls' education, rights and empowerment, in her role as the youngest-ever UN Messenger of Peace. She began speaking out for girls' education aged 11, and after surviving an assassination attempt by Taliban extremists in her native Pakistan in 2012, she co-founded the Malala Fund along with her father. [...]

Security Council: Mali mission chief calls for redoubling of peace efforts Parties to the peace agreement in Mali are being asked to redouble their efforts to achieve peace in the North-West African country. The appeal was made by Mahamat Saleh Annadif, head of the UN mission there, MINUSMA, who briefed the Security Council in New [...]

Listen to our daily bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, presented by Dianne Penn and Matt Wells. In today's programme: New guidelines set to confront the global health threat of child obesity; and: We hear about efforts to protect Rohingya refugee women in Bangladesh.

Failing to find a cure for HIV/AIDS in the next five years may see the world "losing control" of the virus, UNAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador Kenneth Cole said on Wednesday. The leading fashion designer has been speaking at the UN in Geneva, where he's been taking part in the Social Forum of the Human Rights Council, [...]

An estimated 41 million children under five years old are obese or overweight, UN health experts warned on Wednesday, at the launch of new guidelines to tackle what they have called a global epidemic. Faced with evidence indicating that the problem affects rich and poor countries alike, the World Health Organization WHO has released details on how trained [...]

UN migration agency launches US$120 million appeal for Rohingya refugees The UN migration agency, IOM, launched a US$120 million international appeal on Wednesday to support more than 500,000 Rohingya refugees who are now living "in dire conditions" in Bangladesh. The mainly-Muslim Rohingya, based in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state, have been fleeing attacks from government forces [...]