UNICEF | DD News

May 29, 2026 4:08 PM

On average 11 children killed or injured every 24 hours in past week in Lebanon, says UN children’s agency

An average of 11 children have been killed or injured every 24 hours in Lebanon in the last week, as Israel expanded strikes across the country in spite of a ceasefire being in place. Heavy Israeli ⁠strikes hit towns and villages in southern Lebanon overnight on Wednesday and into Thursday, after Israel declared a new swathe of the area "a combat zone". On Thursday, an Israeli strike hit a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut amid a ceasefire that has failed to halt fighting between Is...

May 7, 2026 12:37 PM

Once the city of peace, Geneva sees the United Nations’ presence fade

When in 1937 the League of Nations vacated the 225-room Palais Wilson in Geneva, the global intergovernmental body created to preserve peace after World War One was on its last legs. It died soon afterwards with World War Two. This summer the League's successor, the United Nations, is set to abandon the same building as it and other global bodies in the Swiss city are increasingly sidelined by funding cuts and a U.S. government that is turning its back on multilateralism. Since 2025, over 3,00...

April 28, 2026 11:27 AM

UNICEF warns Afghanistan could lose up to 25,000 female health workers, teachers

Afghanistan is at risk of losing more than 25,000 female teachers and health workers by 2030 if the Taliban-led country's restrictions on girls' education and women's employment are not lifted, according to a new UNICEF report released on Monday. The Taliban has banned women from most public sector jobs and limited girls to receiving an education only until the age of 12. These restrictions, according to the report, have already affected at least 1 million girls - a figure that is expected to ...

March 18, 2026 1:24 PM

Around 4.9 million children under five died in 2024, says UN

About 4.9 million children died before reaching their fifth birthday in 2024, according to new United Nations estimates, a sign progress to reduce child mortality rates was stalling even before global aid budget cuts last year. Most of the deaths were preventable with better access to healthcare and low-cost interventions for challenges like complications from pre-term birth or diseases like malaria, said UNICEF, the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the U.N. population division, wh...

January 23, 2026 10:44 AM

UN agencies take responsibility for IS camps in Syria after Kurds retreat

The United Nations said on Thursday it was taking management responsibility for vast camps in Syria housing tens of thousands of women and children associated with Islamic State, after the rapid collapse of Kurdish-led forces who guarded them for years. Iraq, which has begun taking in detainees transferred from prisons in Syria as the Kurds retreat, said it would begin prosecuting them through its criminal justice system, and called on other countries to help take them in. More than 10,000 mem...

January 9, 2026 12:18 PM

Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat: India Steps Up Fight to End Child Marriage by 2030

India has steadily strengthened its legal, social and administrative response to child marriage, combining decades of reform with a renewed national mission to eliminate the practice by 2030. While child marriage is prohibited by law, the government recognises that deep-rooted social practices require sustained awareness, enforcement and community participation. According to the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019–21), 23 per cent of women aged 20–24 were married before the age of 18, a fi...

November 11, 2025 6:41 PM

UNICEF says Israel blocking one million syringes needed to vaccinate Gaza children

UNICEF said on Tuesday essential items including syringes to vaccinate children and bottles for baby formula are being denied entry into Gaza by Israel, preventing aid agencies from reaching those in need in the war-devastated territory. As UNICEF undertakes a mass children's vaccination campaign with a fragile ceasefire in place, it said it faces serious challenges getting 1.6 million syringes and solar-powered fridges to store vaccine vials into Gaza. The syringes have awaited customs clearan...

October 3, 2025 4:33 PM

Situation for mothers and babies in Gaza has ‘never been worse’, says UNICEF

Mothers and newborn babies in Gaza face dire conditions as Nasser hospital in the south of the enclave is overwhelmed with patients fleeing the north and medical resources running out, UNICEF said on Friday. "The situation for mothers and newborns in Gaza has never been worse. In Nasser hospital, we're seeing hospital corridors lined with women who've just given birth," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva via video link from Gaza. The World Health Organization said on Frid...

September 10, 2025 1:24 PM

Obesity overtakes being underweight among world’s young, says UNICEF

Globally, obesity is likely now more prevalent among school-aged children and adolescents than being underweight, according to a new report from UNICEF which blamed increasingly unhealthy food environments worldwide for the shift. The UN children's agency based its estimates on data from 2000-2022 compiled by academics in countries around the world, who first predicted in 2017 that this "tipping point" would be reached in the coming years. UNICEF used the data to project what has happened sinc...

June 20, 2025 4:00 PM

Gaza faces a man-made drought as water systems collapse, UNICEF says

Gaza is facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapse, the United Nations' children agency said on Friday. "Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva. "We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza," he added. UNICEF also reported a 50% increase in children aged six months to 5 years admitted for treatment of malnutrition f...