Press releases

"Twenty-five years ago, Graça Machel released her report to the United Nations, ‘The impact of war on children’, which urged the international community to take concrete action to protect children from the scourge of war and called on the United Nations and the global community to act to protect children.

25 August 2021 – The UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) is pleased to announce the appointment of Jon Sparkes as Executive Director (Chief Executive) of the charity, to take effect in early 2022. Steven Waugh, Chief Financial Officer, will continue as Interim Executive Director until then.

24 August 2021 – A child's first day of school—a landmark moment for the youngest students and their parents around the world—has been delayed due to COVID-19 for an estimated 140 million young minds, UNICEF said in a new analysis released as summer break comes to end in many parts of the world.

23 August 2021- Nearly 9 out of 10 children in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region live in areas of high or extremely high water stress with serious consequences on their health, nutrition, cognitive development and future livelihoods.

LONDON, 23 August 2021 – “Today, around 10 million children across Afghanistan need humanitarian assistance to survive. An estimated 1 million children are projected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition over the course of this year and could die without treatment."

22 August 2021 - “Child casualties continue to increase with the escalation of violence in northwest Syria. On Friday, four children from the same family were killed while they were asleep in their home in Idlib governorate. In another attack, two siblings were injured in western Aleppo."

21 August 2021- In response to the powerful earthquake that struck Haiti last week, the first UNICEF shipment of 9.7 tonnes of medical, water and hygiene supplies has arrived in Port Au Prince, Haiti.

LONDON, 20 August 2021 – Young people living in the Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau are the most at risk of the impacts of climate change, threatening their health, education, and protection, and exposing them to deadly diseases, according to a UNICEF report launched today.

18 August 2021 - Remarks by UNICEF Afghanistan Representative on the situation of children in Afghanistan and UNICEF’s presence

NIAMEY/DAKAR/GENEVA/NEW YORK, 18 August 2021 - UNICEF is deeply shocked and outraged by the terrible attacks against children and families by unidentified armed groups in the village of Darey-dey, in the rural commune of Banibangou, Tillabery region, in western Niger that took place on 16 August 2021.

17 August 2021 – UNICEF estimates that about 1.2 million people, including 540,000 children, have been affected by the powerful earthquake that hit Haiti on Saturday.

16 August 2021 - Statement by Yukie Mokuo, UNICEF representative in Lebanon as three children are affected by explosion in Akkar

15 August 2021 – “This latest tragedy comes 11 years after another major earthquake hit southwest of Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and causing incalculable suffering and destruction."

14 August 2021 - A 7.2 magnitude earthquake shook Haiti early this morning. It was felt in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, but the epicenter was detected in the southern parts of the country. Serious damage, injuries and casualties are reported in in the Grande Anse, Sud and Sud-Est departments. 

AMMAN, 10 August 2021-  “An ongoing escalation of violence in Syria, especially in the north, has killed and injured at least 45 children since the beginning of July.“A few days ago, an attack killed four children from the same family in Al-Qastoun town in Hama, north of Syria. The attack hit a residential area killing and injuring scores of civilians. “Parties to the conflict should protect children at all times.

KABUL, Afghanistan, 09 August 2021 – "UNICEF is shocked by the rapid escalation of grave violations against children in Afghanistan. In the last 72 hours, 20 children have been killed and 130 children have been injured in Kandahar province; 2 children were killed and 3 were injured in Khost province; and in Paktia province, 5 children were killed and 3 were injured..."

UNICEF is extremely concerned about the escalation of violence against children in Afghanistan, and is outraged by a report that a 12-year-old boy from Shirin Tagab district, Kohsayyad village, in Faryab province, suffered a brutal flogging by a member of an anti-government element.

One year after the devastating explosions in Beirut, a UNICEF survey shows the needs of affected children and families remain acute, magnified by a collapsing economy, political instability and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Having secured access to up to 400 million doses of the J&J COVID-19 vaccine, the African Union (AU), African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) and UNICEF are partnering to ensure the seamless procurement and delivery of vaccines to AU Member States. This partnership will help ramp up efforts to mitigate the impact of the pandemic as less than 2 per cent of people on the continent are fully vaccinated so far.