Press releases

NEW YORK, 8 March 2024 – Over 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), according to a newly released UNICEF report. The updated global estimates show a 15 per cent increase in the total number of survivors – or 30 million more girls and women – compared to data released eight years ago.

Kyiv, 23 February 2024 – “UNICEF estimates that over the past two years of war, children in cities in Ukraine’s frontline areas have been forced to spend between 3,000 and 5,000 hours – equivalent to between four to seven months – sheltering underground.

21 February 2024 – In the less than five months that followed the brutal 7 October attacks and the ensuing escalation, tens of thousands of Palestinians – mostly women and children – have been killed and injured in the Gaza Strip. More than three quarters of the population have been forced from their homes, many multiple times, and face severe shortages of food, water, sanitation and healthcare – the basic necessities to survive.

19 February 2024 – A steep rise in malnutrition among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in the Gaza Strip poses grave threats to their health, according to a comprehensive new analysis released by the Global Nutrition Cluster.

KATHMANDU, Nepal, 11 February 2024 – 100 days after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Nepal on 3 November 2023, UNICEF is calling for continued support for 68,000 children and their families in the affected areas and appealing for US$14.7 million in funding to help rebuild the lives of the affected children.

Three hundred days of atrocities against the children of Sudan

GENEVA, 2 February 2023 – UNICEF estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip are unaccompanied or separated. Each one, a heartbreaking story of loss and grief.

NEW YORK, 30 January 2024 – The allegations of involvement of several UNRWA staff in the heinous attacks on Israel on 7 October are horrifying. As the Secretary-General has said, any UN employee involved in acts of terror will be held accountable. However, we must not prevent an entire organization from delivering on its mandate to serve people in desperate need.

PORT-AU-PRINCE/NEW YORK, January 29, 2024 –The surge in armed violence across Haiti has triggered a profound humanitarian crisis, with the number of internally displaced children soaring to 170,000.

PANAMA CITY/NEW YORK, 12 January 2024 – At least 770 child and adolescent homicides were recorded in Ecuador in 2023, a drastic increase of 640 percent from 104 cases in 2019, according to the latest estimates by the local Ministry of Interior.

ROME, GENEVA, NEW YORK, 15 January 2024 – As the risk of famine grows, and more people are exposed to deadly disease outbreaks, a fundamental step change in the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza is urgently needed, United Nations agencies warned today.

ROME, GENEVA, NEW YORK, 15 January 2024 – As the risk of famine grows, and more people are exposed to deadly disease outbreaks, a fundamental step change in the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza is urgently needed, United Nations agencies warned today.

GENEVA, 12 January 2024 – “After almost 100 days of violence, killing, bombardment and captivity for children in Gaza, all the suffering has been too much.

KATHMANDU, 4 November 2023 – “We are deeply saddened by the devastating impact of the 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Karnali and Lumbini provinces in western Nepal at 11:47 p.m. on Friday 3 November.

East Jerusalem, 4 November 2023 - Women, children and newborns in Gaza are disproportionately bearing the burden of the escalation of hostilities in the occupied Palestinian territory, both as casualties and in reduced access to health services, warn the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

New York, 17 October 2023 – “I am horrified by the reported deaths and injuries of children and women following an attack on the Al Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip this evening. While details are still emerging and bodies are still being counted, the scenes on the ground are devastating.

NEW YORK, 13 October 2023 – Hundreds of thousands of children and their families have started fleeing northern Gaza today ahead of imminent larger-scale attacks. It follows days of bombardments of Gaza after the brutal attacks of 7 October.  Nearly a week into the war, hundreds of children have been reportedly killed, and thousands more reportedly injured.