UN News Today 29 June 2026 |

Venezuela quake: Families continue searching despite impossible odds

Emergency response teams pressed on with their lifesaving mission in Venezuela on Monday, as local responders and families continued their search for missing relatives against what humanitarians say are “impossible odds”, five days since the double earthquake disaster.

The UN World Food Programme, WFP, described seeing destruction “all around” in La Guaira, roughly 40 minutes north of the capital Caracas. 

“Many people have lost their lives. There are thousands of injured, and hundreds of buildings destroyed or severely damaged,” said the agency’s Country Director in Venezuela, Stephanie Hochstetter. 

Here’s resident Mireya Quesada Sojo, whose family is still missing in La Guaira:

“At first, we started digging with our bare hands, trying to recover our family members. We know they are no longer alive, but we just have to be able to see them again, even if it’s sad. So, we are asking for assistance to see if we can dig them out. People have come to help and we are deeply grateful.” 

The confirmed death toll is at least 1,450 people but that number is likely far short of the actual figure, as tens of thousands more are still believed to be missing. 

Since the very first hours of the crisis, the UN has helped coordinate the international response from 27 countries, involving more than 2,200 rescuers and 140 search dogs.  

In addition, WFP has enough supplies to feed more than 10,000 families for two months.

According to the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, about 1.8 million people need humanitarian assistance including 680,000 youngsters.

DR Congo widespread abuses in spotlight at Human Rights Council 

To the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Human Rights Council investigators have described extremely serious abuse in the country’s violently unstable east, including against children.

In an update, the Commission of Inquiry on North Kivu and South Kivu said it had received testimonies of conflict-related sexual violence, sexual slavery, forced recruitment into armed gangs and multiple other serious rights violations.

The commission’s update forms part of its ongoing mandate from the Human Rights Council to establish the facts and causes of violations in eastern DR Congo. This includes potential war crimes linked to the latest escalation involving M23 fighters who control Goma, a major trading city on the border with Rwanda.

Arnauld Akodjenou, chair of the independent investigation, noted that the dangers local populations face today with have been made worse by the continuing and deadly spread of Ebola Bundibugyo virus.

In a call for a thorough investigation of all abuses and accountability, Mr. Akodjenou insisted that all parties in the resource-rich region had an obligation to allow humanitarian workers safe and rapid access to people in need of help, including women, children and those with disabilities.

No victim or witness of abuse should face intimidation or reprisals or indeed retaliations for engaging with the UN including independent investigators, the commission chief stressed.

Gaza: Another child killed despite ceasefire, reports UNICEF

Finally to Gaza, where a teenage girl has been reportedly killed by shrapnel despite a ceasefire agreement between Hamas fighters and the Israeli military.

In a call for the protection of the enclave’s youngsters, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said that they remain trapped in an endless cycle of displacement, hunger, fear, disease and death.

Here’s UNICEF spokesperson Louise Wateridge, speaking to UN News:

“Once again, we’re witnessing another deadly weekend in the Gaza Strip with reports of a 13-year-old girl killed in southern Gaza by shrapnel. A single day in this reality would be considered inhumane, but children have been living this day after day, month after month for more than 2.5 years. And it’s at the point that even our reporting cannot keep up with the suffering because every time we report of children killed or injured, there’s a new horror within hours. And this is even during a so-called ceasefire period.”

The situation remains dire across Gaza where Palestinians are crammed into just 40 per cent of enclave’s territory.

Children continue to be bitten by rats while they sleep, Ms. Wateridge said, in an appeal for homes to be reconstructed.

But “no humanitarian response can substitute safety for children who need this violence to stop,” the UNICEF worker insisted, calling for “aid to flow” and for lifesaving services to be restored. 

Daniel Johnson, UN News