Press releases
No end in sight to seven years of war in Syria: children with disabilities at risk of exclusion
12 March 2018 – With no end in sight to the war in Syria, children with disabilities risk being excluded and forgotten. The conflict in Syria continued unabated through 2017, killing the highest ever number of children – 50 per cent more than in 2016.
UNHCR and UNICEF chiefs, on joint visit to Lebanon, call for more action to protect and empower Syrian refugee women and girls as world marks International Women’s Day
8 March 2018 – With women and girls making up more than half of the registered Syrian refugee population in Lebanon, and with nearly 40 per cent of refugee households in the country headed by women, Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and Henrietta H. Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF, called for stronger action to protect and empower women refugees.
Usain Bolt To Play First Official Football Match At Old Trafford For Soccer Aid For Unicef
27th February 2018 – Olympic hero Usain Bolt and global popstar Robbie Williams today announced on social media that they will go head-to-head for the eagerly anticipated Soccer Aid for Unicef match, as part of a new look charity campaign for Unicef UK and ITV.
Statement from Deputy Executive Director: Government misses opportunity to reunite refugee families in the UK
22 February 2018 - Lily Caprani, Deputy Executive Director at Unicef UK, statement following today's Westminster Hall Debate, which offered a crucial opportunity for the government to announce a much needed change to its immigration rules.
Conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa take a brutal toll on children in a grim month of January
5th February 2018 - UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Geert Cappelaere, said: “In this dark month of January, conflicts and violence in the Middle East and North Africa have once again taken a devastating toll on children. They were killed in ongoing conflicts, suicide attacks, or frozen to death as they fled active warzones.
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Violence in Tanganyika and South Kivu fuels one of the world’s worst displacement crises for children
25 January 2018 - Democratic Republic of the Congo: Violence in Tanganyika and South Kivu fuels one of the world's worst displacement crises for children.
Statement by Unicef Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore following two-day visit to conflict-ravaged South Sudan
19 January 2018 – "I have just spent two days in South Sudan where I saw firsthand how four years of a man-made conflict have left children sick, hungry and on the brink of death."
3 Million Children Born Into War In Yemen
16 January 2018 – More than 3 million children were born in Yemen since the escalation in violence in March 2015 according to a Unicef report.
A bloody start to a new year in Syria: Over 30 children killed in the first two weeks of 2018
14 January 2018 – "At a time when most parents are filled with new year’s hope for their children’s future, mothers and fathers in Syria are left grieving for the children they have lost."
WHO, WFP and UNICEF: Yemen’s families cannot withstand another day of war, let alone another 1,000
29 December 2017 – "We have passed the grim milestone of 1,000 days of war in Yemen. As violence has escalated in recent days, children and families are yet again being killed in attacks and bombardments."
Children under attack at shocking scale in conflicts around the world, says Unicef
28 December 2017 – Children in conflict zones around the world have come under attack at a shocking scale throughout the year.
220,000 children threatened by mines and other explosive weapons in eastern Ukraine – UNICEF
21 December 2017 - Eastern Ukraine is now one of the most mine-contaminated places on earth, endangering 220,000 children who live, play and go to and from school in areas littered with landmines, unexploded ordnance and other deadly explosive remnants of war
UNICEF airlifts nearly 6 million doses of vaccines for children in Yemen amid intensifying violence and import restrictions
20 December 2017 – A UNICEF-chartered plane landed today in Sana’a and delivered nearly 6 million doses of essential vaccines to protect millions of children at risk of preventable diseases, including the current diphtheria outbreak that has reportedly infected over 300 people and killed 35. Most diphtheria cases and deaths are in children.
Deepening water crisis in Yemen amid severe fuel shortages
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.
Bangladesh moves to protect Rohingya children from diphtheria
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.
At least 400,000 severely malnourished children at risk of dying in DR Congo’s volatile Kasai region
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
UNICEF: Make the digital world safer for children
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.
Intense violence in Syria’s East Ghouta shutters schools, deprives children of medical care
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.
17 million babies under the age of 1 breathe toxic air, majority live in South Asia – UNICEF
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.