United Nations Radio

The outbreak of the Ebola disease in West Africa is not only a health crisis but also a threat to sustainable development in the region, according to the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). More than 6,000 people have died from the virus mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. ECOSOC on Friday held a [...]

Fighting in eastern Ukraine has resulted in the displacement of more than half a million people this year , according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Hundreds of thousands of others have fled to Russia and other neighbouring countries, as instability in Ukraine continues. Last month, the UN said killings of civilians in the country [...]

A potentially deadly new typhoon is set to make landfall in the Philippines on Saturday only 13 months after the last killer storm surge. The worst case scenario is that Typhoon Hagupit – known locally as Ruby – could affect 30 million people with gusts of up to 70 metres per second. In November 2013 [...]

The outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease has raised what have been described as "hard lessons" about the adequacy of health systems in West Africa. More than 6000 people have died after catching the virus, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Speaking to the Economic and Social Commission at the United Nations on Friday, [...]

Charges of crimes against humanity against Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta have been dropped by the International Criminal Court (ICC). President Kenyatta had been indicted in connection with post-election violence in the East African country in 2007-2008 in which 1200 people died and 600,000 were displaced. He always denied the charges. On Friday, the Prosecutor of [...]

A huge push is under way to get hundreds of thousands of children back to school in war-torn Central African Republic amid continuing uncertainty over the country's security situation. UN children's agency UNICEF, which is behind the campaign, says it's already seen 300,000 children return to class. They're being given all the materials they need [...]

A "global response" is needed to solve what's been described as a "global humanitarian crisis" following an increase in the number of migrants and asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean Sea. It's unclear exactly how many people make the often fatal journey, although it is known that 4000 people have died on the sea crossing this [...]

The United Nations doesn't just belong to the governments but also to the peoples of the world who need to be actively engaged in and caring about its work. That's the key message of a book written by Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from January 1997 [...]

Wages are still below pre-crisis levels in developed countries which are now on the cusp of damaging deflation, according to the International Labour Organization  (ILO). At the launch of its global salary review, ILO economists warned that the little progress there had been in the last two years was driven by emerging economies. China's been [...]

• Liberia has met targets for treating Ebola patients and for the safe burial of people who died from the disease. That’s according to the UN’s senior official on Ebola in the West African country. December 1st was the deadline set by the UN to isolate and treat 70 per cent of cases and to [...]

The Israeli authorities' resumption of house demolitions in the occupied West Bank is of serious concern to the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory. James Rawley said punitive demolitions are a form of collective penalty that punishes people for acts they did not commit. His remarks came just days after two UN experts [...]

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is not completely over until the last person with the disease is under treatment, according to a senior UN official in the region. Over 6000 people have died from Ebola mainly in, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Mali has had a handful of cases. The UN Coordinator for Ebola [...]

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Four people have been killed, a dozen injured, and houses burned in renewed violence in town in the Central African Republic (CAR). The UN Mission in the country, MINUSCA, reported clashes between Christian and Muslim villagers in downtown Bambari. Violence in Bambari in the past months has left dozens of people dead and thousands have [...]

The authorities in Sudan have been urged to grant immediate access to the African Union-UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) to verify allegations of mass rapes in a village in the northern part of the Sudanese region. UNAMID was deployed in July 2007 to protect civilians and support the peace process to resolve the conflict in [...]