(UN News)* — Seventeen civilians, including women in labour and patients receiving care, were slaughtered inside a Catholic Church-run health centre in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) last week.
The UN described it as one of the most appalling attacks in a new wave of violence by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed extremist rebel group.
Four wards housing patients were set ablaze during the assault in Byambwe, a remote community about 60 kilometres west of Lubero in the restive North Kivu province, which has been plagued by fighting between a plethora of armed groups and national security forces for years.
(UN News)* — General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock warned on Thursday [] that repeated deadlock in the Security Council has become the “poster child” for wider global gridlock, undermining trust in multilateral institutions.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe | General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock chairs a meeting on the report of the International Criminal Court.
The UN was founded to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” Ms. Baerbock said, but the world body is struggling to meet that mandate when the Council isblocked by a veto from one of its five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the UK and the US).
(UN News)* — Nearly a year on from the fall of Assad, Syrians still lack many basic necessities as the transitional government works to shore up the economy and build social cohesion.
BANGKOK, Thailand, Nov 13 2025 (IPS)** –– The 183 Parties to the global health treaty, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will convene in Geneva from 17 – 22 November with one objective – to strengthen their efforts to arrest the No.1 preventable cause of disease and 7 million deaths annually – tobacco use.
Credit: Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control
The WHO FCTC is unique in that it serves to regulate a unique industry that produces and markets a uniquely harmful product.
10 November 2025 — In northern Ethiopia, Ayenew looks after his daughter with a disability, and Tarik faces life alone in darkness. Living in remote, forgotten villages, both have discovered a lifeline through the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) multi-purpose cash assistance.
In Adi-Goshu, a remote village caught between the Tigray and Amhara regions, the gunfire has stopped, but the suffering continues.
Alphonsine sits on the spot where her home once stood before the floods tore through her community in Rumonge. Photo: IOM 2025/Kenny B. Irakoze
Rumonge, Burundi, 10 November 2025 – In the dead of night, the waters of Lake Tanganyika broke into Alphonsine’s home, swallowing everything in their path. Within hours, floods triggered by El Niño had destroyed her house, her business, and the life she had built, along with those of thousands of others.
“We woke up completely submerged and surrounded by water,” recalls Alphonsine. “We ran for our lives. A few days later, our house was gone – completely destroyed and swept away as if it had never existed. We lost everything.”
(UN News)* —South Sudan is entering a period of rising instability marked by political polarisation, renewed armed clashes, and severe humanitarian strain, senior UN officials told the Security Council on Tuesday [].
A “breaking point is becoming visible” in the peace process, they cautioned, as core commitments under a landmark 2018 peace agreement stall or go into reverse.
(UN News)* — In war-torn Sudan, rape is likely being used as a weapon of war and simply being a woman there is “a strong predictor” of hunger, violence and death, the UN’s gender equality agency warned on Tuesday [].
“Women speaking to us from El Fasher, the heart of Sudan’s latest catastrophe, tell us that they’ve endured starvation…displacement, rape and bombardment,” Anna Mutavati, UN Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, told reporters in Geneva
“Pregnant women have given birth in the streets as the last remaining maternity hospitals were looted and destroyed.”
Organized crimethrives worldwide, affecting governance and political processes, and weakening the advancement of the rule of law. It encompasses, inter alia, illicit trafficking of firearms, drugs, protected species, cultural property, or falsified medical products and, among its most severe manifestations, human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants.
With all forms of organized crime shifting ever more to being dependent on or incorporating online aspects, including the use of virtual assets, its reach and capability of harm is increasing. PHOTO:eugenegg / Generated with AI
(UN News)* —The world is facing a cross-border “chain of violence” driven by small arms and light weapons, UN disarmament and law enforcement officials told the Security Council on Monday [].
UNICEF/Rich | Illicit trade of small arms and light weapons fuels armed violence, terrorism and organized crime in regions across the world.
They urged coordinated global action to stop the illicit flows that are driving conflict, organized crime and displacement – from Haiti to the Sahel.
Adedeji Ebo, deputy disarmament chief, highlighted that despite recent steps to strengthen arms control frameworks, “more than one billion firearms are in circulation globally,” sustaining conflict, terrorism and criminal networks across multiple regions.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 