Press releases
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell meets Pope Leo XIV to discuss the plight of the world’s children
ROME/NEW YORK, 6 October 2025 – UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican today to focus world attention on the plight of vulnerable children, especially those impacted by conflict, poverty and the global foreign aid funding and debt crises.
Shoeless, Starving, and Nowhere to Go: The Brutal Logic Imposed on Gaza’s Children
GAZA, 03 October 2025 – “Gaza City remains home to tens of thousands of children. Shoeless children push grandparents in wheelchairs around rubble. Amputee children struggle through the dust. Mothers carry children whose skin is bleeding from rashes. Children shudder at the relentless airstrikes. And children gaze skyward tracking the fire from helicopters and quadcopters.
UNICEF and Bukhman Philanthropies partner to launch landmark study on childhood in the digital age
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.
DR Congo: UNICEF delivers vaccines and life-saving support as Ebola outbreak hits Kasai
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).
Ten children killed in ten days in Port-au-Prince
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.
At least 11 children reportedly killed in attack on a mosque in Sudan’s North Darfur State
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.
Statement by UNICEF on the theft of lifesaving therapeutic food for thousands of children in Gaza
“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.
Children make more than half of all deaths in the aftermath of Afghanistan earthquake
KABUL, 12 September 2025 - “Afghanistan is once again reeling from tragedy and children are at the sharp end of an aggravating crisis. We must respond not only with urgency, but with a commitment to immediately reverse it.
Statement attributable to UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder, on the deadly risks for over 450,000 children in Gaza City as military attacks increase
AMMAN, 12 September 2025 – “The escalating military offensive in Gaza City is having devastating consequences for over 450,000 children, already traumatized and exhausted by nearly two years of unrelenting war. They are teetering on the edge of survival as both famine and deadly violence spread.
UNICEF statement on reported death of children after brutal attack on school in Rakhine State, Myanmar
NEW YORK/BANGKOK/YANGON, 12 September 2025 — UNICEF is extremely concerned by reports of an overnight attack on a boarding school in Kyauktaw Township, Rakhine State, Myanmar, that reportedly killed and injured children as they slept.
Devastating rate of child malnutrition in the Gaza Strip in August surpasses July record
NEW YORK, 11 September 2025 – Child malnutrition in the Gaza Strip continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate, with the latest evidence showing a record proportion of children screened were identified as acutely malnourished in August.
Obesity exceeds underweight for the first time among school-age children and adolescents globally – UNICEF
NEW YORK, 10 September 2025 – Obesity surpassed underweight as the more prevalent form of malnutrition this year, affecting 1 in 10 – or 188 million – school-aged children and adolescents, and placing them at risk of life-threatening disease, UNICEF warned in a new report today.
UNICEF Launches US$22 Million Appeal to Support over 212,000 Children Affected by Earthquakes in Eastern Afghanistan
JALALABAD, 10 September 2025 – Following a powerful 6.0+ magnitude earthquake that struck Afghanistan’s Kunar and Nangarhar provinces on 31 August and multiple severe aftershocks, UNICEF has launched a US$22 million humanitarian response plan to meet the critical needs of affected children and families.
“The unthinkable in Gaza City has already begun” summary from UNICEF Communication Manager Tess Ingram from Gaza at the UN noon briefing
AL MAWASI, GAZA, 04 September 2025 – “Gaza City, the last refuge for families in the northern Gaza Strip, is fast becoming a place where childhood cannot survive. It is a city of fear, flight and funerals.
Global funding cuts could force 6 million more children out of school in the coming year – UNICEF
3 September 2025 – As global education funding faces steep cuts, an estimated 6 million additional children could be out of school by the end of 2026, around one-third of them in humanitarian settings, UNICEF warned in a new analysis released today.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell remarks at the Security Council Open Debate on Haiti
NEW YORK, 28 August 2025 – “Good morning. Thank you, Ambassador Alfaro, and Ambassador for co-convening this briefing … and for the opportunity to address this Council today on the dire crisis facing children in Haiti.
Four children reportedly killed in wave of deadly attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine
GENEVA/KYIV, 28 August 2025 – “A wave of deadly attacks hit Kyiv during the early hours of this morning – reportedly killing four children, including a toddler. At least 10 children were reportedly injured. The children were at home in their beds, trying to sleep.
Latin America: Climate change could force at least 5.9 million more children, adolescents and youth into poverty by 2030
PANAMA CITY, 28 August 2025. At least 5.9 million more children, adolescents and youth will live in poverty by 2030 due to the impact of climate change warn the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in a new report titled The Impact of Climate Change on Child and Youth Poverty in Latin America.