The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) today released a report on the human rights situation there over the 10 months since the Taliban takeover, citing 2,106 civilian casualties between mid-August 2021 and mid-June 2022 despite an overall notable reduction in armed violence.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has funded a renovation of a radio station in Bentiu. The network, which previously reached 35 kilometres, has been upgraded to cover a 200-kilometre radius. The station will help people better understand the peace agreement and how it is being implemented.

In Botswana, the United Nations team led by Resident Coordinator Zia Choudhury reports that the country is set to become the first in Africa to achieve the “95-95-95” AIDS targets set out by the United Nations General Assembly, eight years before the 2030 target.

The Special Representative for the Secretary-General in Colombia told the Security Council that, in a mostly peaceful election, Colombians elected their new President, Gustavo Petro. The electoral outcomes also included the largest ever share of women, close to 30 per cent of lawmakers.

In Afghanistan, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed an agreement to provide funds for housing and infrastructure in Khost and Paktika Province.  The programme will assist families impacted by the earthquake there.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations today addressed the 2022 Ocean Conference opening ceremony, along with the leaders of the two co-hosting nations, Portugal and Kenya, warning that the world’s failure to care for the ocean will have ripple effects across the entire 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development.

Ahead of the Group of Seven (G7) ministerial meeting on global food security, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today appealed for $1.2 billion to meet urgent needs of 8 million children at risk of death from severe wasting.

In Yemen, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that aid agencies remain concerned that the humanitarian crisis there will deteriorate sharply in the coming months largely due to economic problems, including a weaker currency and higher prices due to the Ukraine war.

The United Nations Children’s Fund is providing emergency relief in Bangladesh to people stranded by recent floods — including 1.6 million children — and is dispatching, among other things, 400,000 water purification tablets for 80,000 households and emergency medical supplies for district health facilities.

A newly released World Health Organization report finds that nearly a billion people worldwide live with a mental disorder.  It identifies public health crises, inequality, war and climate change as major health threats, and shows that depression and anxiety spiked more than 25 per cent in 2020.