UN News Today 17 June 2026 |

Home but not safe: Lebanon’s displaced children return to deadly risk of remnants of war: UNICEF

As communities across Lebanon endured further clashes between Hezbollah and Israel – despite the purported ceasefire – the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, highlighted the deadly threat posed by unexploded ordnance to families on the move.

In an online alert on Wednesday, the agency published several images showing canister-shaped munitions about the size of a child’s fist, dropped on the ground close to people’s homes.

Weapons clearance experts warn that many unexploded munitions look harmless, so curious children pick them up, often with terrible consequences.

It is more than 100 days since heavy fighting between Hezbollah and Israel began, linked to the US-Iran war. 

Highlighting the impact of the hostilities on Lebanon’s children, UNICEF’s Marcoluigi Corsi said that many have fled their homes multiple times, “witnessed violence first-hand, lost loved ones and seen their schools, communities and sense of safety shattered”.

“I did visit a child who had lost three brothers and the father, and staying only with her mom, brought to one of the hospitals UNICEF is collaborating with. And after (a) coma the first two questions that she asked me, ‘Where is humanity? Where is a sense of justice? You know, those are questions, tough questions coming from a 14-year-old child that you cannot answer.”

A total of 247 children have been killed and 992 injured since early March, at an average of 12 children killed or maimed every day.

But a whole generation of children has been affected, stressed UNICEF’s Mr. Corsi, as he issued an appeal for a “sustained” end to the fighting.

“Behind these staggering figures are lives cut short or forever changed, and families facing profound loss, trauma, and uncertainty,” he said. 

Afghanistan’s villages are emptying as opportunities vanish: OCHA

To Afghanistan, where many villages are emptying amid a lack of opportunities for families hit hard by years of drought and a lack of development.

According to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, around 22 million people – or 45 per cent of the population in Afghanistan – require humanitarian assistance today.

They include very remote villages in central Bamyan province, where residents began leaving about five years ago, when irrigation channels for snowmelt dried up.

With more, here’s OCHA worker Olga Cherevko in Kabul:

“The climate change and climate shocks that are impacting the area have made the water dry up and they no longer have a sustainable source to irrigate their land. And so those who could afford it went to other areas, went to the city, and they are no longer living in these villages. And unfortunately, many of those who stayed behind simply cannot leave because they do not have the means to do so.”  

There is only enough assistance to support a single functioning water well in the village where those who remain are “scraping by” and surviving on the bare minimum, Ms. Cherevko explained.

The OCHA worker also highlighted the specific concerns of women in villages who are asking for training so they can support themselves. 

The same women remain “extremely concerned about ongoing restrictions” preventing their participation in the public sphere, Ms. Cherevko noted, referring to discriminatory edicts issued by the Taliban. 

One of their chief concerns is that many of their daughters can no longer attend school, she told UN News.

13 hunger hotspots face worsening acute food insecurity: WFP, FAO

A staggering 13 hunger hotspots face worsening acute food insecurity between now and November, UN humanitarian agencies warned on Wednesday.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) the places of highest concern are Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, although Nigeria and Somalia have just been added to the list of countries in danger. 

In a joint alert, both agencies underscored that the risk of famine remains in Sudan, South Sudan and the Gaza Strip, in addition to Somalia. 

Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Haiti remain major hunger hotspots too, while Lebanon and Madagascar have also been added to the list.

In all, conflict is driving hunger in 12 of the 13 countries facing a hunger emergency.

Despite rising needs, funding for food assistance in emergencies has fallen by 59 per cent since 2022; meanwhile, additional shocks – including the Ebola outbreak in DR Congo and the spillover effects of the Middle East conflict – threaten to deepen the crisis for millions, FAO and WFP said.

Daniel Johnson, UN News