UN News Today 10 August 2026 |

Ukraine war: humanitarian warehouses hit, disruption to frontline relief 

Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine has left civilians vulnerable to repeated deadly attacks and humanitarian workers and key facilities being targeted and destroyed.

The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, told UN News that attacks in Odesa particularly but also in Kharkiv city and the wider region had destroyed residential buildings and cut power and water supplies recently.

From UNICEF Ukraine, here’s spokesperson Toby Fricker:

“UNICEF is working with our partners on the ground in all areas, as we always do, to support immediately after attacks, providing…psychological first aid and psychologists speaking with families with children whose homes have been destroyed or damaged or who live very close in the area and that fear and the shock of an attack that you really can’t imagine unless you’re there.”

Following last week’s strikes on a UN World Health Organization warehouse in Dnipro, the agency reported that it had been hit three times in total before being destroyed. 

WHO teams managed to move roughly one third of the 300 pallets to another location in the eastern city before the last strike.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, there have been 3,149 attacks on healthcare and 240 deaths, according to WHO. The agency’s global portal shows a total of 72 warehouse attacks since 2022.

Ebola outbreak situation still deeply worrying, says top UN health official

The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, has now claimed close to 2,000 lives, with twice that number infected.

That’s the latest worrying update from the UN World Health Organization, WHO, which said on Monday that two in three victims are dying at home, far from treatment centres.

Reporting back after visiting the epicentre of the outbreak in Bunia in Ituri province, WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Mohamed Janabi, called for greater support to help the response.

There is currently no vaccine for Ebola Bundibugyo disease, but patients have shown that they can recover if they are diagnosed in time.

D.r Janabi said that rural villages lack the lifesaving services they need, to keep people sick with Ebola – and other diseases – alive:

“We have to look outside Ebola. What the people are saying is, the ordinary services should also continue. So, our next approach, for example, we want to increase 400 beds, but we have discussed, we are going to increase 400 beds for Ebola and 100 beds for other services.”

The WHO senior official highlighted how successful the Ebola response has been in the border town of Aru, where there have been no new cases of infection for two weeks. 

Part of the reason for this is that Aru has built treatment centres so that sick people do not have to travel to seek help – and risk spreading the disease.

The authorities in Aru have also worked hard to increase awareness about the dangers of the Ebola virus, Dr. Janabi continued.

Lack of accountability into security abuses in Afghanistan: UNAMA 

To Afghanistan, where the UN mission there on Monday urged the de facto authorities to do more to improve accountability for alleged misconduct by security forces.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), reported that Taliban personnel had made arrests and investigated cased of reported misconduct. 

However, “many complaints reportedly remain unresolved,” UNAMA said, adding that there is a “fear of reprisals (and) a lack of trust in de facto authority institutions”.

The Mission also highlighted barriers to transparency and accountability – “particularly for women who are subjected to multiple restrictions in their daily lives”, that discourage reporting of alleged misconduct. 

After seizing power in August 2021, Afghanistan’s de facto authorities suspended the constitution, favouring instead a strict interpretation of Sharia law.

This has resulted in “a blanket annulment of all former [existing] laws” UNAMA said. 

This includes ones that govern police powers and the use of force, the Penal Code – which criminalized murder, rape and other serious crimes – and legislation banning torture, the UN mission said.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.