Press releases

18 December 2018 –One month old Joy Nowai, today became the world’s first child to be given a vaccine delivered commercially by drone in a remote island in the South Pacific country of Vanuatu.

18 December 2018 – UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom stars in Netflix series Tales by Light to highlight the plight of children living and working in slums in Bangladesh.

13 December 2018 – “Today millions of children across Yemen saw their dreams of peace inch closer to reality with the close of promising negotiations between the warring parties and an agreed ceasefire in the port city of Hudaydah.

13 December 2018 – Fifteen thousand children remain separated from their families or missing, five years after conflict first broke out in South Sudan.

13 December 2018 – With an estimated 4 million children born in Syria since the conflict started nearly eight years ago, half of the country’s children have grown up only knowing war, UNICEF said today. Reaching them wherever they are and meeting their immediate and future needs remains a priority.

13 December 2018: Nearly 30 million babies are born too soon, too small or become sick every year and need specialized care to survive, according to a new report by a global coalition that includes UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO).

11 December 2018 – Children now account for more than one third of the Ebola cases in affected regions of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UNICEF said today. The UN children’s agency also reported that one in ten Ebola cases is under five-years-old, while children who contract the Ebola virus are at higher risk of dying from the disease than adults.

10 December 2018 - UNICEF is calling attention to the plight of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced children in Iraq whose lives are threatened by freezing temperatures and floods that have affected large parts of the country.

10 December 2018 – Statement from UNICEF Director of Data, Research and Policy, Laurence Chandy: “Today’s adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is a historic achievement for migrant children and States alike.

10 December 2018 – The European Union has contributed over £542,000 to support UNICEF’s work to protect the rights of children affected by migration in Bangladesh.

7 December 2018 – As many as 20 million Yemenis are food insecure in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Already, 15.9 million people wake up hungry, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, which was released today by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and humanitarian partners.

7 December 2018 – Two thirds of respondents in a UNICEF poll of nearly 4,000 refugees and migrants – aged 14 to 24 – revealed that they were forced to leave their countries, while almost half did so alone. ‘A Right to be Heard: Listening to children and young people on the move’ provides alarming insights into the challenges and deprivations faced by young refugees and migrants as they make the journey in search of safety and a better life.

5 December 2018 – “The living conditions of millions of children in Yemen are a disgrace. There is no excuse for these dark realities in the 21st century. Wars, deep economic crises and decades of underdevelopment have not spared a single girl or boy in Yemen. The suffering of children is all man-made.

The Mayor has today launched a new initiative to help clean up toxic air and protect the health of young children at nurseries in some of the most polluted parts of London.  20 nurseries in pollution hot spots across the capital will receive new ‘air quality audits’, to help identify measures to reduce children’s exposure to toxic air pollution. Five nurseries will trial new air quality filtration systems to test their effectiveness at reducing indoor pollution.  

3 December 2018 - "In the past 12 days, more than 150 women and girls have sought assistance after suffering sexual violence, including rape, near Bentiu in South Sudan.

2 December 2018 – More than 100 children and young people from around the world gathered in Johannesburg this weekend to draft a global manifesto calling on world leaders to end violence in and around schools.

30 November 2018 – “More than 60,000 boys and girls are out of school because of the fighting in and around the port city of Hudaydah in Yemen. The violence has forced over a third of all schools there to close, with 15 located on the frontline and others badly damaged or being used as shelters for displaced families

30 November 2018: Five years after Bangui descended into bloodshed, life in the Central African Republic is even harsher and more dangerous for children. Despite the escalating crisis, international funding and attention are critically low.

29 November 2018: Reported measles cases spiked in 2017, as multiple countries experienced severe and protracted outbreaks of the disease. This is according to a new report published today by leading health organizations.

29 November 2018 - Some 360,000 adolescents are projected to die of AIDS-related diseases between 2018 and 2030. This means 76 adolescent deaths every day – without additional investment in HIV prevention, testing and treatment programmes, UNICEF said in a new report released today.