UN News Today 17 September 2026 |

Yemen escalation forces 57,000 children from homes: UNICEF 

Renewed fighting in Yemen is deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis in the country where more than 12 million children depend on aid, after more than a decade of conflict.

The alert from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) comes as more than 57,000 children were uprooted by violence in the past two weeks; others have been killed, injured or reported missing amid fighting in several governorates. 

More than 100,000 people are believed to have been displaced in Yemen since the start of the month.

Here’s UNICEF spokesperson Joe English:

“These are children who have already lived through years of hunger and displacement and conflict and now they are being forced from their homes yet again. For many of them, this is not the first time, or even the second. More than 2,000 people have now crossed the Bab al-Mandab [Strait] to Djibouti and many of those are children and they’ve made that journey in extreme heat, often without enough water and they’re arriving exhausted and at real risk.”

Yemen Government forces, supported by a Saudi-led coalition, have been at war with Iran-backed Houthi opposition fighters since 2014, although fighting declined significantly following a UN-backed truce in 2022.

To help the most vulnerable, UNICEF is expanding its emergency response to reach up to 231,000 people. Teams have supported health facilities and distributed hygiene kits and water tanks in Taiz, along with additional water and hygiene supplies in Marib.

Nine health and nutrition mobile teams have also been redeployed to displacement sites and affected communities in Aden, Marib and Taiz. 

New data showing that rivers were about as dry as they have been for 35 years last year  is a clear sign that countries must take action to protect dwindling freshwater reserves, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday. 

In an update, the agency also said that for the fourth consecutive year, all major glaciers lost ice. 

“Water is often not where we need it”, or available when we need it, WMO stressed.

Speaking in Geneva, here’s WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo:

“Reserves have acted as the planet’s savings account, a buffer that absorbs bad years so that a single drought or a single dry season does not translate directly into a water crisis. One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it.”

Ms. Saulo highlighted that communities around the world are experiencing more water-related disasters which devastate livelihoods. 

Over the past five years, Asia and Africa accounted for at least half of all reported water-related extreme events and more than 80 per cent of associated deaths.

The WMO chief also stressed that strengthening El Niño conditions will increase the risk of drought in some areas – and flooding in others.

‘Entire’ human rights monitoring system risks crumbling: Türk

The protection of human rights is a core founding principle of the UN, but a key part of this mission is on the verge of collapse, because of funding cuts.

That’s the stark warning on Thursday from the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, who said that the “entire” treaty body mechanism is at risk of crumbling.

“Cuts in funds have forced a sharp reduction in staff”, increased delays in processing vulnerable individuals’ requests for help and the cancellation of committee sessions, Mr. Türk said. 

He also noted the declining participation by States in the treaty body system.

Ten treaty body committees are based in Geneva; they’re made up of independent experts who assess countries’ progress in implementing international accords or conventions, including on the elimination of racial discrimination and the promotion of children’s rights.

This is not the first time that the High Commissioner has warned about a serious lack of funding for human rights work.

His appeal to Member States to fulfil their international obligations comes ahead of the publication of a report on the treaty body system by UN Secretary-General António Guterres next week.

Daniel Johnson, UN News