The "inseparable" rescue team of Kit Huffer and his canine companion Baillie, have become the conference celebrity couple everyone wants to meet in Montreal this week. The Canadian search-and-rescue duo have been attending the UNISDR-organized Fifth Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas, which ended on Thursday with agreement over a historic Regional [...]

A commission that reviews implementation of a peace agreement for Darfur wrapped up its latest meeting in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, this week. Members of the Implementation Follow-up Commission (IFC) of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) discussed progress and challenges experienced since they last met in May 2016. Darfur has been on the [...]

  Mass destruction and killings linked to Turkey security operation Details have been released of widespread destruction and death in Turkey during Government security operations against Kurdish separatists. In its first report on violence in Turkey, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said on Friday that heavy weaponry destroyed housing in the south-east between July [...]

Listen to a bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, with Jocelyne Sambira and Dianne Penn. In today's programme: the people of Burundi are living in fear because of widespread repression, a UN Special Adviser warns the Security Council; and the Americas region adopts a "historic" regional action plan to reduce disaster risk [...]

  UNHCR assisting thousands of newly displaced in Yemen Renewed fighting across western and central Yemen has uprooted more than 62,000 people in recent weeks, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has reported. The majority of the people have fled Taizz governorate on Yemen's western coast. Most of them are in dire need of assistance and [...]

Better data can help in the fight against hunger and bring about sustainable development, the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Chief Statistician, Pietro Gennari, said on the margins of a meeting organized by the UN Statistical Commission (UNSD). The UNSD sets international standards for statistics in order for countries to share data and compare experiences. [...]

Afghanistan remains one of the most difficult places in the world to be a woman, although the country has taken steps to advance women's rights. That's what the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the country, Tadimichi Yamamoto, told members of the Security Council on Friday. The Government recently launched a plan that recognises [...]

When it comes to preserving crops and agricultural livelihoods, "silent disasters" often go un-reported and can be more numerous and more destructive than hurricanes or floods. That's the view of Anna Ricoy, a South American-based officer specializing in disaster risk, with the Food and Agriculture Organization. She was speaking after a High Level side event [...]

Schoolteachers have enough on their plate in the classroom, without being expected to be disaster risk managers too. That's the view of Jair Torres, a disaster risk reduction specialist with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He said governments and NGOs need to offer them support in the form of expertise, as part [...]

Security Council condemns terrorist attack on Afghan military hospital A terrorist attack on a military hospital in Afghanistan on Wednesday has been condemned in the strongest terms by the UN Security Council. Affiliates of the extremist group ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack in which more than 120 people were killed or injured. The Security [...]