Children

The Office for Disarmament Affairs and the UN Development Programme today launched the second phase of the Saving-Lives Entity trust fund, SALIENT 2.0. Established in 2020, the fund integrates small arms control and armed violence reduction into national development strategies as part of wider conflict prevention efforts.

In the wake of unprecedented violence against children in 2024, the Security Council heard today that the world is failing to protect them from the horrors of war — and that urgent action is needed to correct this course — during a day-long debate on children and armed conflict.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warns that the number of malnourished children in Gaza is rising at an alarming rate, with more than 5,100 children between 6 months and 5 years of age admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition in May alone.

In Haiti, the UN’s humanitarian country team is sounding the alarm about the need for enhanced preparedness ahead of the Atlantic hurricane season. Amid severe funding shortfalls, contingency stocks are at their lowest levels ever, as 5.7 million people face severe food insecurity.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns that a complete collapse of Internet and data services is paralysing aid operations across Gaza. This is reportedly not a routine outage — but a total failure of Gaza’s digital infrastructure — and most agencies are largely cut off from teams on the ground.

A new report released today by the International Labour Organization and the UN Children’s Fund shows early 138 million children were engaged in child labour in 2024, including 54 million in hazardous work likely to jeopardize their health, safety or development. This number is 20 million children less than in 2020.

In Sudan, five members of a UN humanitarian convoy were killed on 2 June and several more were injured during an attack in North Darfur. The joint World Food Programme-UNICEF convoy was made up of 15 trucks, and they had travelled over 1,800 kilometres from Port Sudan, and they were carrying nutrition supplies and food.

A new World Meteorological Organization report forecast global temperatures will continue at or near record levels in the next five years, increasing climate risks and impacts on societies, economies and sustainable development, with an 86 per cent chance that at least one year will be over 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

In Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that, yesterday and today, Israeli authorities granted access to Kerem Shalom so that UN teams could reach additional humanitarian supplies that crossed into the Strip on Monday and Tuesday.

In Syria, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that more than 670,000 people have been displaced since November 2024, while over 1 million people have returned to their areas of origin. Meanwhile, the UN and its partners continue to deliver aid across the country despite reduced funding.