Creating decent employment opportunities in rural areas is "crucial" to preventing people there from leaving because they feel they have no other job options, a phenomenon known as distress migration. That's according to Cristina Rapone, a rural employment and migration specialist from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Distress migration is migration caused [...]

The remaining 300 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces or FARC-EP rebels have arrived at the Agua Bonita transition site in central Colombia, to lay down their arms. That's according to the UN mission in the country, whose team of international unarmed observers is responsible for monitoring the ceasefire as well as the disarmament and [...]

With famine now declared in parts of South Sudan, it is "absolutely fundamental" that aid workers can reach people in need, a top official with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has stated. Luca Rossi, FAO senior advisor on resilience, said allowing humanitarian access to affected areas will ensure people get food as well [...]

The fighting must stop in South Sudan if at least 100,000 people are to be saved from famine, UN aid agencies said on Monday. The World Food Programme (WFP) – one of the organizations to launch the joint appeal – said that the current crisis is man-made, in reference to the ongoing civil war. WFP's [...]

Aid agencies in Iraq brace for impact of western Mosul military campaign In the western part of the Iraqi city of Mosul, food and fuel supplies are dwindling, markets and shops have closed, running water is scarce and electricity is either intermittent or cut off in many neighbourhoods. That's according to recent surveys by the [...]

  UN underlines support for Pakistan after series of deadly terrorist attacks The UN has underlined its support for Pakistan in the wake of a week of bloody terrorist attacks across the country. The latest incident occurred on Thursday when a suicide bomber killed scores of worshippers at a Sufi shrine in Sindh province, located [...]

  One million children affected by Ukraine conflict: UNICEF The number of children requiring humanitarian assistance as a result of the conflict in eastern Ukraine has nearly doubled since last year. That information comes from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) which says one million girls and boys are now affected. Fighting between government troops and [...]

The practice of enforced disappearance is not decreasing, it's "morphing", the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein made the remarks in a video message to a High-Level plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly, where he warned about "new and alarming patterns" that are emerging in the context of [...]

The number of whales hit by cargo ships annually is "in the hundreds", according to one expert in the field, taking part in a panel discussion at UN Headquarters on Thursday. Dr Howard Rosenbaum is the director of the Ocean Giants Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society. He says the negative impacts of ship noise [...]

East Africa drought pushing food prices up sharply Food prices in some East African markets have almost doubled in the past 12 months because of an ongoing drought, an economist with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned. In FAO's latest Food Price Monitoring and Analysis Bulletin, the agency reports that local prices [...]