Press releases

KABUL, Afghanistan, 09 August 2021 – "UNICEF is shocked by the rapid escalation of grave violations against children in Afghanistan. In the last 72 hours, 20 children have been killed and 130 children have been injured in Kandahar province; 2 children were killed and 3 were injured in Khost province; and in Paktia province, 5 children were killed and 3 were injured..."

UNICEF is extremely concerned about the escalation of violence against children in Afghanistan, and is outraged by a report that a 12-year-old boy from Shirin Tagab district, Kohsayyad village, in Faryab province, suffered a brutal flogging by a member of an anti-government element.

One year after the devastating explosions in Beirut, a UNICEF survey shows the needs of affected children and families remain acute, magnified by a collapsing economy, political instability and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Having secured access to up to 400 million doses of the J&J COVID-19 vaccine, the African Union (AU), African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) and UNICEF are partnering to ensure the seamless procurement and delivery of vaccines to AU Member States. This partnership will help ramp up efforts to mitigate the impact of the pandemic as less than 2 per cent of people on the continent are fully vaccinated so far.

As UNICEF reaches areas of Tigray that were inaccessible in past months due to insecurity, our worst fears about the health and wellbeing of children in that conflicted region of northern Ethiopia are being confirmed.UNICEF estimates that over 100,000 children in Tigray could suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in the next 12 months – a tenfold increase compared to the average annual caseload.

“Sharing COVID-19 vaccines now is crucial to ending the pandemic and the UK Government’s plan to donate 9 million vaccines in the coming weeks is a welcome step. At a time when the delay in global vaccine supply is impacting millions of people around the world this is the action needed to end this pandemic, for everyone everywhere.

“A total of 2,401 health workers helped to vaccinate the eligible population with the second dose from 20 to 26 July across the country, arguably the fastest vaccination campaign to be executed during a pandemic. The precision with which Bhutan conducted mass vaccination campaigns within a week is an extraordinary achievement.

23 July 2021 – More than four million people are at immediate risk of losing access to safe water in Lebanon.

22 July 2021 - UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador David Beckham to attend Soccer Aid for UNICEF 2021 and announces the Children's Investment Fun Foundation (CIFF) will match public donations, fundraising and the value of tickets - up to £6.3 million

As the official COVID-19 death toll around the world passed 4 million earlier this month, UNICEF is increasingly concerned for children left without one or both parents

15 July 2021 - Joint statement by United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, Imran Riza, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, Muhannad Hadi, and UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Ted Chaiban.

“UNICEF confirms that only this morning, three children were killed in two separate attacks in the area. The attacks have taken place in the de-escalation zone despite the ceasefire from March last year.

Haiti was the only country in the Americas without a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. On the 14th July 500,000 doses of vaccine donated by the U.S government through COVAX landed in Port-Au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti

23 million children missed out on basic vaccines through routine immunization services in 2020 – 3.7 million more than in 2019 - according to official data published today by WHO and UNICEF.

13th July 2021 - Statement from (UNICEF UK) Director of Advocacy, Joanna Rea.

13 July 2021 - UNICEF and Sinopharm sign a long-term agreement for the supply of the BBIBP-CorV inactivated virus vaccine against COVID-19 on behalf of the COVAX Facility.

13 July 2021 - A new UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank and OECD report documents education responses to COVID-19 in 142 countries

There was a dramatic worsening of world hunger in 2020, the United Nations said today – much of it likely related to the fallout of COVID-19. While the pandemic’s impact has yet to be fully mapped, a multi-agency report estimates that around a tenth of the global population – up to 811 million people – were undernourished last year. The number suggests it will take a tremendous effort for the world to honour its pledge to end hunger by 2030.

12 July 2021 - Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore and UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay calling for the re-opening of schools ahead of the Global Education meetings on 13th July 2021