The forced relocation of the Palestinian Bedouin community in the West Bank is "unacceptable and it must stop", the UN Humanitarian Aid Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory has urged. Robert Piper issued a statement on Wednesday together with Scott Anderson, the Director of the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) Operations in the West Bank. [...]

Over 20 million people in South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen are going hungry and facing devastating levels of food insecurity, the UN chief said on Wednesday. António Guterres was speaking at a press conference aimed at drawing the world's attention to the scale of humanitarian crises unfolding in the four countries. He was joined [...]

Gaddafi regime trial "fell short of international standards" The trial of members of the former Libyan government under Muammar Gaddafi was flawed and "a "missed opportunity for justice", the UN's human rights chief has said. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein made his comments in a statement following a UN report into legal proceedings against 37 high-profile [...]

Listen to a bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, with Dianne Penn and Jocelyne Sambira. In today's programme: the Security Council held a debate about maintaining peace in Europe; and on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day, we'll hear about the dangers of "repressing" mother tongues.

Languages provide "strong emotional links," so repressing the use of mother languages is "playing with fire". That's according to Fernando Lopez Murcia, coordinator of the Spanish Language programme at the United Nations Headquarters. Speaking to Lucy Dean in the lead up to International Mother Language Day, marked on 21 February, he said endangered languages should [...]

Resolving existing conflicts in Europe and preventing tensions from escalating into new crises is essential to stability and cooperation on the continent and beyond, the UN Secretary-General said on Tuesday. Antรณnio Guterres was speaking in the Security Council during an open debate which looked at cooperation between the UN and regional bodies in responding to [...]

Famine looms in Yemen, Nigeria, South Sudan and Somalia: UNICEF Close to 1.4 million children are at "imminent risk of death" from severe acute malnutrition this year as famine looms in Yemen and in three African countries, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned. In northeast Nigeria, the number of children with severe acute malnutrition [...]

Methamphetamine, or "crystal meth", isn't as widely used as heroin in Afghanistan, where much of the world's opium crop is grown, but it has the "potential" to become more severe. That's according to Martin Raithelhuber, an expert on illicit synthetic drugs with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). He was one of [...]

Severe food shortages hit Africa's refugees hard, UN agencies warn Severe food shortages are affecting some two million refugees in 10 countries across Africa, two UN agency heads have warned. Ertharin Cousin, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, issued a joint statement on [...]

Listen to a bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, with Dianne Penn and Jocelyne Sambira. In today's programme: Security fears hamper aid efforts to address the famine in South Sudan; and why development and job opportunities are critical to stemming migration from rural areas.