UN News Today 10 February 2026 |

Deep concern over renewed fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region

UN human rights chief Volker Türk appealed on Tuesday to all parties involved in renewed heavy fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, to step back and help prevent a deepening crisis in the country’s war-weary north and beyond.

In a statement, he said that the situation remained “highly volatile” and could deteriorate further, following clashes between the Ethiopian army and regional forces.

The development comes against a backdrop of deadly conflict in Tigray from 2020 to 2022 between Government troops and separatist Tigray forces that uprooted two million people. One million remain internally displaced.

According to the Office of the High Commissioner, clashes intensified on 26 January, particularly in Tselemti and Laelay Tselemti, in the region’s northwest, close to the Amhara border. 

The use of drones has been reported, said Mr. Türk’s spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani: 

“Yes, we are seeing the use of drones and heavy artillery during these confrontations. We have a lot of reports. It is very difficult to verify them. So, I can’t get into detail on the exact impact of these attacks. But they’re clearly taking place and we are trying to get information as we can, given the security situation and access restrictions.”

Meanwhile, in Tigray’s south and southeast near the border of the Afar region, clashes between regional rival forces have continued, the High Commissioner noted.

“Both sides must step back from the brink and work to resolve their differences through political means,” he insisted. 

In Sudan, sick and starving children are ‘wasting away’

Relentless violence, famine and disease are killing children in Sudan in places where they were not previously considered at risk, UN aid agencies warned on Tuesday.

The alert comes as heavy fighting between former allies the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces nears the three-year mark.

According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in parts of North Darfur more than half of all children are acutely malnourished.

With more details, here’s UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires:

“These children are not just hungry. Nearly half of all children in At Tine had been sick in the previous two weeks. Fever, diarrhoea, respiratory infections, low vaccination coverage, unsafe water and a collapsing health system are turning treatable illnesses into death sentences for already malnourished children.”

In a related warning, the UN World Health Organization, WHO, said that Sudan’s health system has been “ravaged” by attacks…damage to equipment and supplies, a shortage of health workers and funding.

Crypto is in – but Least Developed Countries are missing out

Trade news now, and new data from UN economists UNCTAD indicating that Least Developed Countries – or LDCs for short – are missing out on much-needed growth from the world’s booming digital services sector.

The finding is important because services that are available online – such as consulting, e-learning, telemedicine and even cryptocurrencies – are the fastest growing part of global trade, accounting for 62 per cent of services sold in 2023…

…But not so for LDCs, which accounted for just 0.16 per cent of global trade in digital services in 2024, the lowest share since data collection began in 2010.

Junior Davis is UNCTAD’s Director ad interim for Africa. Here he is describing the problem in many LDCs on the African continent:

“Everybody’s trading online. People are getting into cryptocurrencies. So, you feel as if there is real dynamism and growth and depth in the digitally-driven services segments of the services sector. That’s the feeling you kind of get, that’s the vibe you kind of get. But what the data shows actually is that the digital divide is actually widening and that the proportion of exports, LDCs and the services sector can deliver as a share of the global services market is actually diminishing over time.”

The UNCTAD Director warned that emerging economies are becoming “more marginalized, less integrated (and) less competitive”. Reversing this trend is possible by investing in classic infrastructure projects that allow digital services to flourish, such as water, energy, telecoms, electricity access and workforce skills, Mr. Davis said.

Daniel Johnson, UN News