Press releases

DAKAR/ABUJA, 22 November 2025 – Scores of children and teachers were reportedly abducted from a secondary school in Niger State, Nigeria, in the early hours of Friday, just days after a separate attack in Kebbi State on Monday led to the abduction of 25 girls from a boarding school.

More than 1 in 5 children in low- and middle-income countries – or 417 million – are severely deprived in at least two vital areas critical for their health, development, and wellbeing, according to UNICEF’s flagship report issued on World Children’s Day today. Record numbers of children are living in poverty across the UK. The UK saw a 34% increase in relative child income poverty between 2013 and 2023. The UK has the highest increase in relative child income poverty of the 37 high-income countries reviewed.

PANAMA CITY, 17 November 2025 – Three weeks after Hurricane Melissa hit the Caribbean, nearly 477,000 children are experiencing significant disruptions to their schooling due to damaged or temporarily closed schools across Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica.

Joanna Rea, Director of Advocacy for the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) said: “Cutting the UK’s pledge to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria jeopardises vital partnerships that protect children from preventable diseases.

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom visits Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, where funding cuts are putting half a million children’s futures at risk

“It’s brilliant to see our UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Sir David Beckham, receive his knighthood today, which is so deserved.”

JUBA, South Sudan, 4 November 2025 – The United Nations today warns that South Sudan continues to face a severe food and nutrition crisis, which is threatening to deteriorate further unless urgent humanitarian action is mounted.

ROME/NEW YORK/GENEVA, 4 November 2025 – The latest analysis of food insecurity and malnutrition in Sudan shows stark contrasts along conflict lines, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF warned today. In areas where violence has subsided – allowing humanitarian access and market recovery – food security has begun to improve. But in conflict-hit locations that have been largely cut off from humanitarian assistance or under siege, famine has now taken hold.

JUBA/NEW YORK, 27 October 2025 – UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Liam Neeson visited South Sudan last week to see the impacts of economic shocks, climate change, poverty, and insecurity on children’s lives, especially girls, against a backdrop of severe global cuts to official development assistance.

PANAMA CITY, 26 October 2025 - As Hurricane Melissa is moving slowly across the Caribbean Sea, the winds, torrential rains, and flash flooding have put at least 1.6 million children at risk, according to UNICEF estimates.

AMMAN, 26 October 2025 – “Two weeks ago, the start of the latest ceasefire in the Gaza Strip delivered long-awaited relief for families, where it offers a vital chance for the survival, safety and dignity of children.

N'DJAMENA/NEW YORK 24 October 2025 – "Thank you for joining us.  I speak to you a day after leaving Darfur, following a mission that also took me to Khartoum."What I saw was alarming. Sudan is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. The conflict is escalating, and children are paying the highest price.

GENEVA/NEW YORK/ROME/PORT SUDAN, 23 October 2025 – Four United Nations agencies today called for urgent international attention on the crisis in Sudan, to address the immense suffering and growing dangers to the population. Over 900 days of brutal fighting, widespread violations of human rights, famine, and the breakdown of life-sustaining services have pushed millions to the brink of survival, particularly women and children.

London, UK, October 10 2025 - UNICEF UK Ambassador Arlo Parks joined pupils at Moreland School in Islington for a Dove Self-Esteem Project workshop (DSEP) focused on building body confidence and self-esteem.

PORT-AU-PRINCE/NEW YORK, 9 October 2025 – The number of children displaced by violence in Haiti has almost doubled in the past year, with 680,000 now uprooted from their homes, according to a new UNICEF Child Alert report released today. Overall, more than 1.3 million people are displaced across the country as spiraling violence, collapsing services, and lack of humanitarian access push Haiti deeper into crisis. 

London, 30 September 2025 – Understanding how online and offline influences interact to shape adolescent development and wellbeing is at the heart of a new initiative announced today by UNICEF. The leading child rights organisation is partnering with Bukhman Philanthropies to support Navigating Childhood in the Digital Age — a four-year longitudinal study led by UNICEF’s Global Office of Research and Foresight.

KINSHASA, DR Congo, 24 September 2025 – Nearly 45,000 doses of the Ebola vaccine are on their way to Kasai province as UNICEF intensifies efforts alongside the government and partners to protect children and families from the latest outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Port-au-Prince, 23 September 2025 – “UNICEF is deeply shocked and concerned by the killing of ten children in ten days in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.  

NEW YORK/AMMAN/PORT SUDAN, 22 September 2025 – “The drone attack on a mosque at the Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced people in Al Fasher, North Darfur, during Fajr prayers three days ago is shocking and unconscionable. Initial reports indicate that at least 11 children, aged 6 to 15, were killed in the deadly attack, which hit not only the mosque, but also adjacent homes.

“Yesterday, armed individuals approached four trucks outside our compound in Gaza City that were getting ready to transport desperately needed Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for malnourished children enduring famine.