Grain ATMs and hunger maps: AI innovations spotlighted at UN agency showcase in India

From biometric grain dispensers and smart warehouses to crisis-mapping platforms and humanitarian communication avatars, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) showcase at the Artificial Intelligence Impact Summit demonstrated how data and machine learning are being applied to strengthen food and nutrition systems at scale.  Among the most visible innovations is Annapurti – a “grain ATM” – that allows beneficiaries of public food programmes to authenticate with biometrics and collect […]

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World News in Brief: Conflict deepens hunger crisis in South Sudan, restrictions hinder aid delivery in Gaza, UN child rights envoy concludes first visit to Syria

About 60 per cent of the population – some 1.2 million people – is already acutely food insecure, according to WFP. Food assistance is being transported along river routes, but rising insecurity is hampering humanitarian operations and threatening to drive hunger to unprecedented levels. WFP teams are registering newly displaced families in Canal Pigi and other […]

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‘No corner of Sudan is safe’: UN officials warn of famine and atrocities as war intensifies

“Just over a month ago, Sudan reached a horrific milestone: 1,000 days of a brutal war that has nearly destroyed the third largest country in Africa,” Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs said.   It has been “1,000 days of staggering violence and unimaginable suffering” and “1,000 days of total impunity for the perpetrators of […]

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Security Council LIVE: Sudan in focus amid genocide warnings in Darfur

The UN Security Council meets this morning to discuss Sudan as the war nears its third year, with fighting intensifying across multiple regions and civilians facing deepening humanitarian catastrophe. Senior UN political and humanitarian officials are expected to brief ministers on a conflict marked by shifting front lines, advanced weaponry and widespread displacement. The meeting […]

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Sudan: ‘Hallmarks of genocide’ found in El Fasher, UN investigators detail mass killings and ethnic targeting

In a report released on Thursday, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said the evidence establishes that at least three underlying acts of genocide were committed: “killing members of a protected ethnic group; causing serious bodily and mental harm; and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction […]

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Fears of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank: UN rights report

The report covers the period from 1 November 2024 to 31 October 2025 and is based on monitoring conducted by OHCHR and information from governmental sources, other UN entities and non-governmental organizations.   “Intensified attacks, the methodical destruction of entire neighbourhoods and the denial of humanitarian assistance appeared to aim at a permanent demographic shift in Gaza,” it said.   “This, together with forcible transfers, which appear to […]

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Ramadan in Gaza: Deprivation, high prices and the hardships of displacement

Mr. Al-Assi lives with his family in a tent made of cloth and plastic sheeting next to the rubble of their home in the Al-Zarqa neighbourhood in the centre of Gaza City, where they used to live “happily” and eat good food, including special Ramadan sweets like Qatayef. “Everything has changed now,” he told UN […]

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Maternal deaths spike during war and instability, new report warns

The risk of a woman who lives in a country affected by conflict dying due to maternal causes is around five times higher for each pregnancy she undergoes compared to her peers in stable countries, according to new findings in the WHO report. In 2023 alone, an estimated 160,000 women died from preventable maternal causes in […]

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Sudan: Rights chief alarmed after at least 57 killed in drone attacks in two days

Volker Türk was alarmed by the reports, which said that at least 15 children were among the victims.  “These latest killings are yet another reminder of the devastating consequences on civilians of the escalating use of drone warfare in Sudan,” he said.  The attacks occurred between 15 and 16 February and in four states across Sudan, where the national army and a […]

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UN Libya envoy warns Security Council political deadlock threatens state unity

Briefing the Council in New York, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General said that despite active UN engagement, the Libyan House of Representatives (the national parliament) and the High Council of State (the country’s top advisory political body) have failed to make progress on the first steps of the agreed political roadmap, including establishing a […]

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