UN News Today 6 August 2026 |

DR Congo Ebola outbreak: Agencies on high alert in displacement camps

The fast-spreading Ebola outbreak in DR Congo (DRC) continues to fuel deep concern among aid responders, as cases appear closer to camps for people who’ve been uprooted by violence.

Since the outbreak was declared in the east of the country on 15 May, there have been almost 4,000 confirmed cases of Ebola Bundibugyo disease and more than 1,800 deaths, according to latest Government figures.

Forty-eight health zones have been affected across five provinces with Ituri province the epicentre, accounting for nine in 10 confirmed cases and deaths. Transmission has also been confirmed in North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele and Tshopo.

All of the affected provinces host around 4.4 million displaced people, many having fled decades of violence in the resource-rich region.

No cases of Ebola have been reported among refugees or asylum-seekers, but 19 cases have been confirmed among internally displaced people, including five deaths, mainly in Ituri, says UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.

Gaza: 300 children killed in 300 days of Israeli-Hamas ‘ceasefire’

At least 300 young Gazans have been reportedly killed in as many days since a faltering ceasefire agreement came into effect last October to suspend military operations between Hamas fighters and Israel.

The alert from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday came amid reports of a new United States-led peace plan for the war-torn enclave – and a spike in Israeli airstrikes on alleged Hamas targets.

UNICEF spokesperson Louise Wateridge said that in the first three days of August, four children were reportedly killed across Gaza:

“Three hundred children gone in 300 days, despite an agreement to suspend military operations nearly 10 months ago…The world calls it a ceasefire but families in Gaza are still burying their children…For children surviving, the questions are painfully simple: when will the killings stop? When will food and medicine reach at the level needed? When will hospitals reopen? And when will clean water flow again?”

Deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel in October 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza have caused an ongoing humanitarian crisis on an epic scale.

In common with many other UN agencies and partners, UNICEF warned once again that across the Strip, children are acutely malnourished and easy targets for disease.

Babies also continue to be born premature or in a critical condition because of ongoing aid shortages, with too few incubators to help them and hospitals lacking equipment and medicine, Ms. Wateridge said. 

Strengthening El Niño set to worsen food insecurity in Guatemala

El Niño news now, and an estimated 3.2 million people in Guatemala could face acute hunger between now and September 2026 – in part because of the climate phenomenon.

The warning, from UN-backed global food insecurity experts IPC, covers Guatemala’s lean season, the likely impact of an intensifying El Niño and persistently high food prices. 

Just yesterday, the UN warned that around the world, El Niño will probably push nearly 50 million more people into acute hunger.

Central America is among the regions expected to be hardest-hit; while in Guatemala, of the more than three million at risk of acute hunger, around 200,000 face an even more uncertain situation. 

El Niño is expected to peak between September and December, but the effects will be felt throughout 2027 in many countries, as the weather system impacts future harvests.

Guatemalans are expected to see some improvement in their food security after October, thanks to end-of-year harvests, increased remittances from abroad and a greater number of seasonal jobs in farming, the IPC experts said.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.