Press releases
Unicef NEXTGen London Doubles Fundraising Total to £2m
15 March 2018 – Today, Unicef Next Generation London, an innovative fundraising group based in the capital, announces it has raised more than £2 million for Unicef, supporting their vital work for the children of Syria.
Toxic air pollution in the UK putting children’s lives at risk
15 March 2018 - The joint Select Committees report on improving air quality has found that current air pollution levels in the UK are threatening to cause a children’s health crisis.
Sir Mo Farah Becomes First England Player to Sign for Soccer Aid For Unicef And Will Finally Go Head-To-Head With Usain Bolt At Old Trafford In June
15th March 2018 – Sir Mo Farah has today announced he will play for England in this year’s eagerly anticipated Soccer Aid for Unicef match on ITV.
No end in sight to seven years of war in Syria: children with disabilities at risk of exclusion
12 March 2018 – With no end in sight to the war in Syria, children with disabilities risk being excluded and forgotten. The conflict in Syria continued unabated through 2017, killing the highest ever number of children – 50 per cent more than in 2016.
UNHCR and UNICEF chiefs, on joint visit to Lebanon, call for more action to protect and empower Syrian refugee women and girls as world marks International Women’s Day
8 March 2018 – With women and girls making up more than half of the registered Syrian refugee population in Lebanon, and with nearly 40 per cent of refugee households in the country headed by women, Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and Henrietta H. Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF, called for stronger action to protect and empower women refugees.
Over half a billion ‘uncounted’ children live in countries unable to measure SDG progress
7 MARCH 2018 – Latest data on development progress for children shows over half a billion more live in countries where the SDGs are quickly falling out of reach.
Statement on the attack against humanitarian workers in northeast Nigeria
2 March 2018 - Statement by Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa
UNICEF statement: The situation for children in Syria
2 March 2018 - Last Saturday, the world gave children in Syria a small glimmer of hope, a ray of light in a place that has become so very dark over the past years.
Statement on attack against humanitarian workers in the Central African Republic
“All of us at UNICEF are deeply saddened and shocked by the killing of our colleague, along with five other education workers, who were attacked on February 25 while travelling in the northwestern region of the Central African Republic, near Markounda, a remote area near the Chadian border.
Nearly two-thirds of the population in South Sudan at risk of rising hunger
More than 7 million people in South Sudan – almost two-thirds of the population – could become severely food insecure in the coming months without sustained humanitarian assistance and access, three United Nations agencies warned today.
Usain Bolt To Play First Official Football Match At Old Trafford For Soccer Aid For Unicef
27th February 2018 – Olympic hero Usain Bolt and global popstar Robbie Williams today announced on social media that they will go head-to-head for the eagerly anticipated Soccer Aid for Unicef match, as part of a new look charity campaign for Unicef UK and ITV.
Cyclone season and threat of violence loom over 720,000 Rohingya children in Myanmar and Bangladesh
23 February 2018 – Urgent efforts are needed to help more than 720,000 Rohingya children who are threatened either by the approaching cyclone season in Bangladesh or by ongoing violence and denial of their basic rights in Myanmar, UNICEF said today.
Statement from Deputy Executive Director: Government misses opportunity to reunite refugee families in the UK
22 February 2018 - Lily Caprani, Deputy Executive Director at Unicef UK, statement following today's Westminster Hall Debate, which offered a crucial opportunity for the government to announce a much needed change to its immigration rules.
Conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa take a brutal toll on children in a grim month of January
5th February 2018 - UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Geert Cappelaere, said: “In this dark month of January, conflicts and violence in the Middle East and North Africa have once again taken a devastating toll on children. They were killed in ongoing conflicts, suicide attacks, or frozen to death as they fled active warzones.
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Violence in Tanganyika and South Kivu fuels one of the world’s worst displacement crises for children
25 January 2018 - Democratic Republic of the Congo: Violence in Tanganyika and South Kivu fuels one of the world's worst displacement crises for children.
Statement by Unicef Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore following two-day visit to conflict-ravaged South Sudan
19 January 2018 – "I have just spent two days in South Sudan where I saw firsthand how four years of a man-made conflict have left children sick, hungry and on the brink of death."
3 Million Children Born Into War In Yemen
16 January 2018 – More than 3 million children were born in Yemen since the escalation in violence in March 2015 according to a Unicef report.
A bloody start to a new year in Syria: Over 30 children killed in the first two weeks of 2018
14 January 2018 – "At a time when most parents are filled with new year’s hope for their children’s future, mothers and fathers in Syria are left grieving for the children they have lost."
WHO, WFP and UNICEF: Yemen’s families cannot withstand another day of war, let alone another 1,000
29 December 2017 – "We have passed the grim milestone of 1,000 days of war in Yemen. As violence has escalated in recent days, children and families are yet again being killed in attacks and bombardments."