Press releases

19 December, 2017 – Recent restrictions on imports of fuel to Yemen have sparked critical shortages and price hikes across the country, severely impacting access to safe water and other vital services for children including health care and sanitation. The cuts are the latest challenge to containing Yemen’s acute watery diarrhea and cholera outbreak. Yemen has for decades struggled with extreme water scarcity.

12 December 2017 — The Government of Bangladesh, with the support of UNICEF, the World Health Organization and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, today launched  a vaccination campaign against diphtheria and other preventable diseases for all Rohingya children aged 6 weeks to 6 years living in 12 camps and temporary settlements near the Myanmar border.

12 December 2017 - At least 400,000 children under five in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and could die in 2018 if they are not urgently reached with lifesaving health and nutrition interventions

11 December 2017 – Despite children’s massive online presence – 1 in 3 internet users worldwide is a child – too little is done to protect them from the perils of the digital world and to increase their access to safe online content, UNICEF said in its annual flagship report released today. 

10 December 2017 – Continuing violence across East Ghouta, some 10km outside the Syrian capital, Damascus, has reportedly led to the closure of most schools in the area over the past month and stranded scores of children in need of medical evacuation.

6 December 2017 – Almost 17 million babies under the age of one live in areas where air pollution is at least six times higher than international limits, causing them to breathe toxic air and potentially putting their brain development at risk, according to a new UNICEF paper released today.

20 November 2017 – Today, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador David Beckham made a surprise visit to Kentish Town C of E Primary School in London to celebrate World Children’s Day.

20 November 2017 - Despite global progress, 1 in 12 children worldwide live in countries where their prospects today are worse than those of their parents, according to a UNICEF analysis conducted for World Children’s Day.

20 November 2017 - Children in the UK feel more disenfranchised than their peers worldwide and are less likely to trust those in power to make good decisions for children, according to new research published by UNICEF to mark World Children’s Day.

10 November 2017 – An increase in the number of suspected measles cases among the newly arrived Rohingya and their host communities in southern Bangladesh has prompted the Government and UN partners to step up immunization efforts in overcrowded camps and makeshift shelters close to the border with Myanmar.

3 November 2017 – Preliminary data from a nutrition assessment conducted last week at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, shows a 7.5 per cent prevalence of life-threatening severe acute malnutrition – a rate double that seen among Rohingya child refugees in May 2017, UNICEF said today.

31 October 2017 - “In the past 48 hours, we have received shocking reports and photos of more attacks on children and education facilities in the besieged area of Eastern Ghouta in Rural Damascus.

26 October 2017 – The coming winter is the latest threat to children affected by crises in the Middle East.

26 October 2017 – The projected expansion in Africa’s child population will necessitate an increase of more than 11 million skilled education and health personnel by 2030, if it is to keep pace with the continent’s unprecedented demographic transition, UNICEF said today.

24 October 2017 – In a month’s time, children from around the world will be taking over key roles in media, politics, business, sport and entertainment to voice their support for millions of their peers who are unschooled, unprotected and uprooted, UNICEF said today.

24th October 2017 - easyJet, the UK’s leading airline, has announced that its passengers have raised over £10m for UNICEF through its summer and winter onboard collections. The milestone figure is announced to coincide with World Polio Day

23 October 2017 – Unless progress is seriously accelerated, it will take over 100 years to end child marriage in West and Central Africa, with far-reaching, life-altering consequences for millions of child brides and crippling impact on the region’s prosperity, UNICEF said today.

 23 October 2017 - Nearly two months since Rohingya families began fleeing en masse to Bangladesh, thousands of children and women are still without basic lifesaving services, UNICEF said today.

20 October 2017 - Desperate living conditions and waterborne diseases are threatening more than 320,000 Rohingya refugee children who have fled to southern Bangladesh since late August, including some 10,000 who crossed from Myanmar over the past few days, UNICEF said today.

19 October 2017 - Every day in 2016, 15,000 children died before their fifth birthday, 46 per cent of them – or 7,000 babies – died in the first 28 days of life, according to a new UN report.