UN News Today 05 November 2025 |

In Gaza, a vaccination campaign for 44,000 children begins

Two years of war in Gaza have deprived tens of thousands of children of basic healthcare but it’s been announced that they will soon start receiving catch-up vaccines for a host of preventable diseases.

Led by UN agencies UNICEF, WHO, and UNRWA, the large-scale campaign for routine vaccinations will also carry out nutrition checks among communities in the shattered enclave.

The goal is to reach 44,000 at-risk children; many have never received a vaccination, or they missed out them because of the war.

The resulting gap has increased the risk of deadly but preventable disease outbreaks which it is feared will be prevalent once again when winter sets in fully.

The first vaccination round will take place from 9 to 18 November in 149 health centres, with mobile teams providing additional support to seek out the most vulnerable.

“After over two years of the violence, which cost more than 20,000 children in Gaza their lives, we finally have the opportunity to protect those who survived,” said UNICEF’s Jonathan Veitch.

The UN has pre-positioned vaccines, syringes, cooling technology and nutrition aid and trained over 450 specialists for the campaign.

South Sudan facing famine if conflict persists

To South Sudan, where aid teams warn that an already severe food and nutrition crisis could get worse without urgent humanitarian relief.

According to UN-backed hunger experts, more than half of the population – around 7.56 million people – will face “crisis or worse levels of hunger” during the April to July 2026 lean season.

In addition, more than two million children are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition over the same period, warned the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

The UN agency said that food insecurity is “widespread and deepening” in parts of South Sudan.

Fears are greatest for 28,000 people living in Luakpiny/Nasir and Fangak counties where hunger levels are described as catastrophic, in the latest report from Integrated Food Security Phase Classification experts.

They point out that the southern parts of Luakpiny/Nasir county are at a risk of famine if conflict persists and access restrictions remain, amid flooding and disease outbreaks.

Ending hunger depends on South Sudan’s fields being cultivated and markets reopening, UN agencies say.

World’s forests face ‘critical threat’

Decades of progress in protecting the planet’s carbon dioxide-busting forests are at risk as the climate crisis continues to accelerate, UN forestry experts said on Wednesday.

In a call to world leaders to boost protection of forests as they prepare for the UN’s COP-30 climate summit in Belem, Brazil, the Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) pointed out that carbon storage in forests has risen by 11 per cent since 1990.

It’s time for action to prevent wildfires, pests and our warming climate from causing irreparable damage to our forests, said the UNECE’s Paola Deda in Geneva:

“12.6 million hectares burned in a single year, comparable to an area of Greece and 73 million hectares, comparable to the area of Spain and Portugal together are affected by insects and diseases. If these trends continue, forests that have been a vital carbon sink could become a source of emissions, undermining global climate goals.”

The UN agency insists that the international community and especially leaders gathering in Belém next Monday, must recognize that forest protection is no longer an environmental issue, but a cornerstone of global carbon security.

Daniel Johnson, UN News