Category: United Nations

They include attacks in Odesa region on Wednesday that killed a 17-year-old boy, according to UN child rights agency UNICEF which called for an “end to attacks on civilian areas and the infrastructure children rely on.” 

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that attacks on the southeastern city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday had recommenced on Thursday. 

Aid deliveries 

“Teams delivered shelter materials to cover damaged homes and provided protection services to the affected residents,” OCHA said in a tweet, stressing that “the cold weather is worsening the needs, requiring urgent aid.” 

Russia continues to target energy infrastructure in Ukraine, knocking  out heat, electricity and water supply, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Tuesday. 

“Civilians are bearing the brunt of these attacks. They can only be described as cruel. They must stop,” he said. 

Nigeria: Looming food aid cuts put one million at risk 

More than a million people in northeast Nigeria could lose emergency food and nutrition assistance unless funding can be found “within weeks”, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Thursday. 

Nigeria is facing one of the worst hunger crises in recent times, with nearly 35 million people projected to face acute and severe food insecurity during the lean season. 

They include roughly 15,000 people in Borno state who risk falling into catastrophic hunger, which is one step away from famine. These are the worst levels of hunger recorded in a decade, WFP said.  

The crisis is unfolding amid renewed violence in the north which has devastated rural communities, displaced families and destroyed food reserves. 

‘Catastrophic’ consequences 

“Now is not the time to stop food assistance,” said David Stevenson, WFP’s Nigeria Country Director.  

He warned of “catastrophic humanitarian, security and economic consequences” for Nigeria’s most vulnerable people, who had been forced to flee their homes in search of food and shelter.   

WFP is urgently seeking $129 million to sustain its operations in the northeast over the next six months, warning that this work could shut down unless funds are received.   

People living in Turkana in northern Kenya are dealing with the impact of drought.

Kenya drought impacts over two million people 

More than two million people in Kenya are facing worsening food insecurity in the wake of the October to December 2025 rainy season – among the driest on record, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. 

The prolonged drought has led to rising malnutrition rates, increased risk of disease outbreaks and disrupted access to essential health services. 

Regional drought 

The impacts are also being felt in neighbouring Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda, where millions more people are at risk due to similar weather patterns and water shortages. 

In Kenya, 10 counties are currently experiencing drought conditions, one of which is in the “alarm” phase. Furthermore, another 13 counties in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) regions are showing signs of drought stress. 

While severe, the emergency was part of a known seasonal risk, WHO said.  The UN agency has supported the Kenyan authorities including by providing cholera kits, pneumonia kits and essential supplies, as well as pre-positioning equipment in high-risk counties before the drought intensified. 

WHO stressed the need to mobilize urgently to ensure both people and livestock have access to adequate food supply and safe water, and to prevent the situation from worsening. 

The baby girl – just three months old – was found frozen to death on Tuesday morning at her home in Gaza City, according to media reports. 

This brings the total number of cold weather deaths this season to nine, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told journalists in New York. 

In response, the UN aid coordination office OCHA, again called for urgent solutions “including allowing the entry of batteries, solar panels and other energy sources that are needed to set up communal heating spaces.”  

Thousands receive food aid 

Humanitarians continue to support Gaza’s population more than three months into the ceasefire and amid ongoing aid restrictions. 

Since the start of the year, more than 860,000 people have received food packages distributed through 50 distribution points, said Mr. Haq. 

“We also continue to provide some 1.6 million hot meals every day to people in need,” he added. 

Vaccines, medical evacuations 

UN partners working in the health sector have vaccinated 3,000 children under three in the first two days of a 10-day routine immunization campaign that began on Sunday.  

The aim is to further protect young lives from vaccine-preventable diseases.   

The World Health Organization (WHO) also facilitated another medical evacuation on Monday, transporting 21 patients and their companions to Jordan.  

However, more than 18,000 patients, including 4,000 children, are still waiting to be evacuated to receive medical care that is not available in Gaza.  

WHO called for more UN Member States to accept these patients and for the re-opening of the medical evacuation route to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.    

West Bank update  

In other developments: 

OCHA published its latest West Bank monthly update, which showed that 14 Palestinians were killed and 231 injured there in December. 

Israeli settlers also carried out 132 attacks during this period that resulted in casualties or property damage, while 246 Palestinians were displaced. 

Seven Israelis were wounded in the territory, though no fatalities were recorded.   

The report further documented record-high displacement and settler attacks in 2025. 

Ammunition, airstrikes and attacks 

There were 240 Palestinian fatalities, including 55 children, in the West Bank last year. Most deaths, 225, were at the hands of Israeli forces, and nine by settlers.  The remainder were by either of these groups. 

Three quarters of all fatalities (181) were caused by live ammunition and 17 per cent (41) occurred in air strikes.  Use of other weapons accounted for 18 deaths, or eight per cent. 

Last year, 3,982 Palestinians were injured, including nearly 700 children, and 37,135 were displaced.  Attacks by Israeli settlers numbered 1,828 resulting in casualties and/or property damage. 

During the same period, 17 Israelis were killed, including a child and six force members. Another 101 Israelis suffered injuries, with five children and 32 soldiers among them. 

Palestinian neighborhoods ‘systematically emptied’ 

Separately, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, warned that the pace of forced displacement of Palestinians in East Jerusalem is accelerating and historic neighbourhoods are being “systematically emptied”. 

Ajith Sunghay, head of OHCHR’s office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), highlighted demolitions and evictions in Silwan neighbourhood south of the Old City. 

Settlements have also expanded unlawfully in the heart of three of the most significant Palestinian urban centres: East Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem. 

Homes taken over 

“Evictions typically result in the transfer of Palestinian homes to Israeli settlers, further eroding Palestinian presence immediately adjacent to the Old City,” he told UN News. 

“Some homes are taken over by Israeli authorities to make way for settlement projects which currently include a tourist park with a cable car line that would connect West Jerusalem to the Old City.” 

A ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July 2024 found that Israel’s forced evictions and extensive house demolitions ran contrary to the prohibition of forcible transfer under the Fourth Geneva Convention. 

The ICJ – the UN’s principal judicial body – called on Israel to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. 

The head of aid coordination office, OCHA, in the country, Paola Emerson, told reporters in Geneva that more than half a million people have been impacted by the floods, triggered by heavy rains in the first weeks of the new year.

“The numbers keep rising as extensive flooding continues and dams keep releasing water to avoid bursting,” she said.

Mozambique’s Gaza province is most affected along with Maputo and Sofala provinces.

‘Melting’ houses

Speaking from Xai-Xai, Gaza’s capital city, Ms. Emerson stressed that 90 per cent of the country’s people live in adobe houses, which are earth-based structures “that basically melt after a few days’ rains”.

Health facilities, roads and critical infrastructure are also heavily impacted. Ms. Emerson said that some 5,000 kilometres of roads have been damaged across nine provinces, including the main road linking the capital Maputo to the rest of the country, which is currently inaccessible, resulting in major supply chain disruptions.

Meanwhile, dams continue to release water even as heavy rains subside.

“From just one dam, up to 10,000 cubic metres-worth of water were being discharged. That is approximately 25 times the amount of water that could be held in the press briefing room you are in today, every second,” Ms. Emerson told journalists, seated in a room with capacity for more than 100 people.

“You cannot imagine the strength of this water and the impact it has on people and the infrastructure.”

National emergency

The Government of Mozambique has declared a national emergency and has established an emergency operations centre in Gaza province. Xai-Xai, which is near the Limpopo River, has been inundated, prompting evacuations. Ms. Emerson said that authorities have issued alerts for downtown Xai-Xai, “including warnings of crocodile risks in flooded areas”.

“River levels are rising and are reaching urban areas or heavily populated areas,” she said. “The crocodiles that are in the Limpopo River…are able to get into urban or populated areas that are now submerged underwater.”

Also speaking from Xai-Xai, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF)’s Chief of Communication in Mozambique, Guy Taylor, warned that flooding is “turning unsafe water, disease outbreaks and malnutrition into a deadly threat for children”.

Lethal combination

The combination of waterborne diseases and malnutrition “can often prove lethal,” he said, stressing that even before the floods, four out of every 10 children in Mozambique experienced chronic malnutrition.

“This renewed disruption to food supplies, to health services and to care practices threatens to push the most vulnerable children into a dangerous spiral,” he insisted.

Mr. Taylor added that Mozambique is now entering into its annual cyclone season, creating the risk of a double crisis. “We can prevent disease, deaths and irreversible losses to children, but we need to act fast,” he said.

The UNICEF spokesperson described Mozambique as “a country of children and young people”, with an average age of 17.

“When floods and cyclones strike, as they have repeatedly and with increasing frequency over recent years, it’s the youngest and children who are hit hardest,” he concluded.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has reported that an estimated 318 million people worldwide now face crisis levels of hunger or worse, with hundreds of thousands already experiencing famine-like conditions.

It cautioned that deep funding shortfalls are forcing it to cut rations and scale back assistance at a time of surging needs.

Current forecasts put WFP’s funding at just under half of its required $13 billion budget for 2026, leaving the agency able to reach about 110 million people – a third of those in need.

Combatting hunger yields dividends

“Hunger drives displacement, conflict, and instability and these not only threaten lives, but disrupt the very markets that businesses depend on,” said Rania Dagash-Kamara, WFP Assistant Executive Director for Partnerships and Innovation.

“The world cannot build stable markets on a foundation of 318 million hungry people.”

Ms. Dagash-Kamara, who is attending the forum, said the private sector has a direct stake in addressing food insecurity, calling on companies to invest in supply chains, technology and innovation that can help stabilize fragile markets and protect workforces.

WFP is urging business leaders in Davos to keep hunger and food security among their top priorities, invest in supply chain systems that strengthen fragile markets, and support food-related technologies that improve efficiency and resilience.

Displaced families in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, receive food aid. (file photo)

Migration powers growth and development

The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) is also taking its case to the annual forum in Switzerland, calling on political and business leaders to rethink migration as a driver of growth rather than a burden.

“Migration is one of the most powerful drivers of development when managed responsibly,” said IOM Director General Amy Pope.

“Mobility can unlock economic potential, help communities thrive independently, and provide lasting solutions to displacement, while respecting national sovereignty and human rights.”

Partnerships and innovation

IOM said partnerships with private companies and foundations are already helping realise that approach.  

This includes using artificial intelligence to improve health screening and labour market policies, and programmes that support vocational training, entrepreneurship and durable solutions for displaced people.

At Davos, the agency is also highlighting the role of diaspora communities as investors and innovators.

“By using remittances and diaspora capital to support business creation and digital financial access, IOM aims to open new markets and create jobs, while helping communities become more self-reliant,” the agency said.

Other senior UN officials attending the forum include President of the General Assembly Annalena Baerbock; WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; Alexander De Croo, Administrator of the UN Development Programme; UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih; and Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Responding to the dramatic development, head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees Philippe Lazzarini described it as an “unprecedented attack” against the UN, whose premises are protected under international law.

The move represents “a new level of open and deliberate defiance of international law, including of the privileges and immunities of the United Nations, by the State of Israel”, the UNRWA Commissioner-General said on X.

The same thing could happen to any other organization or diplomatic mission “anywhere around the world”, Mr. Lazzarini warned. “This must be a wake-up call,” he stressed.   

Human rights chief’s ‘outrage’

Echoing those concerns, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed his “outrage” at the incident, which marks a sharp escalation of tensions between the Israeli authorities and UNRWA.

“It compounds what we’ve been seeing for a while; attacking aid groups and UN actors who are trying to help,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the High Commissioner.

On 14 January, Israeli forces entered an UNRWA health centre in East Jerusalem and ordered it to close. At the time of the incident, the agency said its workers were “terrified”. In the coming weeks, water and power supplies to UNRWA facilities are scheduled to be cut, including to buildings used for health care and education.

“This is a direct result of legislation passed by the Israeli parliament in December, which stepped up existing anti-UNRWA laws adopted in 2024,” Mr. Lazzarini said.

Previously, UNRWA premises have been targeted by arsonists amid a “large-scale disinformation campaign” against it by Israel, the agency’s Commissioner-General maintained.

This was despite a ruling last October by the UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice, which restated that Israel was obliged “to facilitate UNRWA’s operations, not hinder or prevent them. The court also stressed that Israel has no jurisdiction over East Jerusalem,” Mr. Lazzarini noted.

“What happens today to UNRWA will happen tomorrow to any other international organisation or diplomatic mission, whether in the Occupied Palestinian Territory or anywhere around the world,” he continued. “International law has come under increasing attack for too long and is risking irrelevancy in the absence of response by Member States.”

“The simple narrative is, children are dying and it’s going to get worse,” said Julien Harneis, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen. “My fear is that we won’t hear about it until the mortality and the morbidity significantly increases in this next year.”

The alert follows an attempt by forces affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council (STC) to expand their presence in the resource-rich and strategically important eastern governorates of Hadramout and Al Mahra, a move reportedly reversed earlier this month by Government-aligned forces backed by Saudi Arabia.

The latest crisis comes after well over a decade of fighting between Houthi-led forces – who control the capital, Sana’a – and the internationally recognized government in Aden, backed by a Saudi-led military coalition. 

Complex operating environment

“It’s an extraordinarily complicated situation,” Mr. Harneis told journalists in Geneva. “Just in the last month in Aden, we went through a situation where you have the Government of Yemen in charge, then over 48 hours, the Southern Transitional [Council] situation took over the whole of the Government of Yemen areas, including areas they’ve never been in.”

Just four weeks later, however, a delegation from the STC released a statement while in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, announcing that they had in fact “dissolved” their movement, allowing the Government in Yemen to retake the recently captured areas. “But at the same time, we’ve got demonstrations in Aden saying that, ‘No, we’re not [disbanded], we’re still there,’” Mr. Harneis explained.

Last week, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg told the Security Council that this latest political and security upheaval underscored how quickly stability could unravel without a credible, inclusive political process to bring a negotiated end to the debilitating war.

Securing a peaceful future for the people of Yemen and providing lifesaving help has also been complicated by the ongoing detention of UN staff and diplomatic workers, among others, by Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran and control Sana’a. 

Mr. Harneis described the torment for the families of the 69 staff members still being held: “It’s terrible for them; some families haven’t seen their loved ones in five years. They don’t know the conditions of their detention, they don’t know where they are, they don’t know if they’re going to be sentenced to death in the coming days.”

Millions going hungry

Latest UN data shows that more than 20 million Yemenis – about half the population – will face acute food insecurity next month, while tens of thousands could face famine-like conditions.

“We are expecting things to be much worse in 2026,” Mr. Harneis said.

A young boy is carried by his mother thorough a neighbourhood in Al Hawtah, Lahj Governate in Yemen.

The country’s health system is also collapsing. More than 450 facilities have already closed and thousands more are at risk of losing funding. Vaccination programmes are also under threat and only two-thirds of Yemen’s children are fully immunised, largely owing to a lack of access in the north.

“The way that economic and political decisions are playing out…food insecurity is only getting worse across all parts of the country”, the UN aid official maintained.

“We’re going to see a major change where the health system is not going to be supported in the way it has been in the past.”

Despite access restrictions, UN partners reached 3.4 million people with food assistance last year, along with emergency support during floods and disease outbreaks. 

The UN has been working in Yemen since the 1960s, helping to make development gains and protect the country’s most vulnerable people. “And then suddenly in the last couple of years this breakdown…inexplicably,” Mr. Harneis said. “That has a terrifying effect on the humanitarian workers.”

According to the latest UN-backed IPC Food Security Phase Classification report, around 874,000 people are facing crisis or emergency levels of acute food insecurity between November 2025 and March 2026. 

Certain districts and areas have been more severely affected, particularly parts of Baalbek and El Hermel, Akkar, Baabda, Zahle, Saida, Bint Jbeil, Marjayoun, El Nabatieh, Tyre, and refugee communities.

This is the first assessment to include people who arrived from Syria after December 2024, recognising shifting displacement patterns and new vulnerabilities. 

Assistance is essential 

Looking ahead, the situation is expected to worsen rapidly due to a combination of factors, including reduced food assistance, economic pressures, and rising living costs.

Between April and July 2026, food insecurity will rise to 961,000 people, nearly 18 per cent of the population, according to the IPC report. 

“People’s needs remain high, and predictable assistance will be essential to help people meet basic food needs and prevent further deterioration.” said Anne Valand, WFP representative and country director in Lebanon. 

Migrants freed from abusive detention sites in eastern Libya

The UN migration agency (IOM) has deployed emergency teams to eastern Libya to assist hundreds of migrants released from illegal detention sites where they were held in appalling conditions.

Libyan authorities last week closed an unlawful detention facility in Ajdabiya, leading to the release of 195 migrants and the recovery of 21 bodies from a nearby burial site. 

Initial investigations indicate the victims had been held captive and subjected to torture to extort ransom payments from their families.

Buried underground

In a separate operation in Kufra, security forces uncovered an underground detention site three metres below ground. 

A total of 221 migrants and refugees were freed, including women and children, among them a one-month-old baby. At least ten people were transferred to hospital for urgent treatment after being held for prolonged periods in grossly inhumane conditions.

“These shocking cases highlight the severe risks faced by migrants who fall prey to criminal networks operating along migration routes,” said Nicoletta Giordano, IOM’s Chief of Mission in Libya.

IOM teams are providing medical screenings, referring urgent cases to hospitals and distributing warm clothing to survivors. 

The agency welcomed efforts by Libyan authorities to rescue victims and launch investigations, while stressing the need to strengthen protection systems, dismantle trafficking networks and ensure accountability for perpetrators.

UNHCR responds to mounting crises despite funding shortfalls

Despite severe funding shortfalls, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, responded to a surge of complex emergencies and deepening long-running crises last year, according to its newly released 2025 Impact Report: Response to New Emergencies and Protracted Crises.

Throughout 2025, agency teams provided protection and assistance in some of the world’s most volatile settings. 

They supported people fleeing renewed violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo into Burundi and Uganda, assisted those escaping fresh fighting in and beyond South Sudan, and helped millions of Afghans returning or being forced back from Iran and Pakistan.

Protracted crises also worsened. Ongoing conflict in Sudan, intensified attacks on Ukraine and escalating violence in Colombia triggered repeated displacement, further eroding already fragile living conditions.

Positive response

“In 2025, displacement occurred amid protracted conflict, recurrent disasters, and new outbreaks of violence,” said Ayaki Ito, UNHCR’s Director of Emergency and Programme Support.

“In this environment, UNHCR teams continued to respond to the needs of people forced to flee, even as severe resource constraints limited our capacity.”

Emergency support included clean water for half a million people in Sudan, cash assistance for Afghan and Syrian returnees, and more than a million services for displaced people inside Ukraine and in neighbouring host countries.

UNHCR warned that humanitarian needs are set to rise further in 2026 as conflicts continue to drive displacement affecting nearly 52 million people.

You can find additional background on UNHCR’s emergency response work, here.
 

“The humanitarian situation and crisis in Gaza is far from being over,” Olga Cherevko from the UN aid coordination office OCHA said on Friday in an update to journalists in Jerusalem.

“For the Palestinians in Gaza, their lives continue to be defined by displacement, trauma, uncertainty, and deprivation.”

This has been further compounded by “severe recurrent storms that not only destroy people’s meagre belongings, but they’re also deadly – whether through crumbling buildings or by taking the lives of children who are highly susceptible to the cold”.

Repairing roads, clearing rubble

Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, humanitarians have brought in over 165,000 metric tonnes of assistance into Gaza. They also repaired roads, rehabilitated hospitals, cleared rubble, and re-opened aid distribution points.  

“We celebrated our gains and showed once again that when we’re enabled to do so, we deliver,” Ms. Cherevko said, adding that “the results speak for themselves.”

During the first two months of the truce alone, over 1.3 million people received food packages, and over 1.5 million hot meals were prepared and delivered to people in need across Gaza, thus improving food security.

Progress remains fragile

When torrential floods hit Gaza, putting thousands of families at risk, humanitarians worked with municipalities to find safer options. They also distributed tents, tarpaulins, mattresses and warm clothes.

“But while this progress is clear, it remains fragile and could be reversed overnight,” she said. “Because airstrikes, shelling, and armed clashes continue with civilian casualties being reported daily. Most of Gaza lies in ruins and the needs far outpace our efforts to meet them.”

Ms. Cherevko said that “due to various impediments and restrictions placed on organizations operating in Gaza and specific types of supplies that could enter, we could basically only apply Band-Aids to a wound that can only be closed with proper care.”

The harsh winter storms have also reversed gains made on the humanitarian front “because no amount of tents or tarpaulins can replace repairing people’s homes”.

Additionally, despite humanitarians re-opening or establishing dozens of health service points, less than 40 per cent of healthcare facilities in Gaza are operational, while educational supplies critical for children who have not gone to school for two consecutive years continue to be barred from entry.

She also pointed to delays at border crossings, limited humanitarian corridors, delays, and other impediments, as well as restrictions on the operations of UN entities and international NGOs which “are putting lives at risk.”

A ceasefire ‘is not a recovery plan’

Ms. Cherevko stressed that “emergency response and its transition to early recovery cannot wait for political solutions. And a ceasefire in itself is not a recovery plan.”

What humanitarians working in Gaza need “remains very simple,” she said, calling for parties to the conflict to respect the ceasefire, ensure civilians are protected and that humanitarian access remains predictable, sustained and unimpeded.

Furthermore, restrictions on both aid agencies and critical supplies must be lifted, early recovery must be funded and enabled, and donor support must continue.

“The choices that are made today, both by the parties to the conflict and the donors will shape whether the pause to this fighting will translate to a path to stability or becomes just another quiet before the next storm,” she said.
 

“Families have actually reverted to stuffing even soft toys to their windows to block some of the freezing cold,” said Munir Mammadzade, UNICEF Country Representative in Ukraine.

The alert follows another night of reported attacks against power infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia oblast in the south and Kharkiv oblast in the east which have left many residential areas without electricity and heating.

The deadly threat of cold caused by attacks on energy networks is becoming a “national-scale emergency…on top of the war”, Mr. Mammadzade told journalists in Geneva during a scheduled briefing.

Pointing to temperatures of -15°C (5°F) in Kyiv on Friday, the UNICEF official warned that next week could be even colder, while millions of families across the country live without heating, electricity and water supplies. 

“Children and families are in constant survival mode because of that,” he said.

Aid shift

While the humanitarian focus until now has been on frontline areas, the constant Russian strikes on urban infrastructure including residential areas have highlighted a far more complicated set of needs among people living in apartment blocks. 

These include Kyiv resident Svitlana “who is doing what she can to care for her three-year-old daughter, Adina”, on the 10^th floor of her building. “She told us that she had no heating or electricity for more than three days, and that was in the first week of disruption – we’re already on the second or almost third week – and many families continue to go without,” Mr. Mammadzade said.

Echoing those concerns from Kyiv, Jaime Wah from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) noted that although power has been restored “in a matter of days” following previous attacks on Kharkiv and Odesa, the situation appeared more difficult in the capital, where she rubbed her hands to keep warm while talking via video to journalists in Geneva. “In Kyiv, we’re facing a situation for sustained outages and also higher populations affected because of it,” she said.

Nearly four years since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, “children’s lives are still consumed by thoughts of survival and not childhood”, UNICEF’s Mr. Mammadzade warned, noting an 11 per cent increase in verified child casualties during 2025, compared to the previous year.

The agency helps vulnerable people in Ukrainian cities by supporting large communal tents where they can get warm and find games and toys to play with. 

Families seek warmth and support inside a mobile tent during a winter power outage in Kyiv, Ukraine.

“Svitlana can’t bathe Arina or prepare hot food, so she wraps her child in multiple layers and navigates 10 floors of the dark stairwell to reach a tent set up outside by Ukraine’s State Emergency Services,” explained Mr. Mammadzade. “There, they can warm up, get hot food, charge devices and speak with a psychologist – or simply sit in the warmth.”  

The UN Children’s Fund warns that children are especially vulnerable to the physical and mental impact of living in the dark and coping with freezing temperatures which it says can intensify fear and stress “and can lead to, or exacerbate respiratory and other health conditions”.  

“The youngest are the most vulnerable,” Mr. Mammadzade explained. “Newborns and infants lose body heat rapidly and are at heightened risk of hypothermia and respiratory illness, conditions that can quickly become life-threatening without adequate warmth and medical care.”