Press releases

NEW YORK, 26 January 2026 - “Carl Skau from WFP and I have just returned from Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where we spent the entire last week, and I am speaking to you with both hope and concern after this visit. “This was my fifth visit to the State of Palestine since the war began. For the first time in many months, there are signs that an imperfect, fragile but vital ceasefire is making a difference in the lives of over one million children.“

GAZA, 22 January 2026 – After more than two years of restrictions, UNICEF has been allowed to bring recreational kits to the Gaza Strip to support children’s learning, wellbeing, and resilience. Since Thursday 15 January, 5,168 recreational kits have entered the Strip, supporting more than 375,000 children - including 1,000 children with disabilities.

XAI XAI/GENEVA, 20 January 2026 – “In Mozambique today, flooding is not just destroying homes, schools, health centres and roads. It is turning unsafe water, disease outbreaks and malnutrition into a deadly threat for children.  

AMMAN, 11 January 2026 – “We are extremely concerned by continuing reports of children and adolescents being killed and injured amid the ongoing public unrest in Iran. Our thoughts are with the families of those who have been killed and injured, and we share their grief. 

AMMAN, 9 January 2026 – “For the children of Sudan, the world is 1,000 days late.“Since fighting erupted in April 2023, Sudan has become one of the largest and most devastating humanitarian crises in the world, pushing millions of children to the brink of survival. A profound protection crisis with widespread violations of international law by parties to the conflict, exacerbated by a lack of humanitarian access, has deepened with each of the 1,000 days of agony that have passed.

NEW YORK/MAPUTO, 5 December 2025 – Over 100,000 people, around two thirds of them children, have been displaced in northern Mozambique during the month of November, following attacks against civilians.

London, Thursday 4 December 2025: Today the Child Poverty Taskforce has revealed their strategy to tackle child poverty in the UK - UNICEF UK responds.

Wednesday 26 November 2025, London: Today the Government has announced a full scrap of the harmful two-child limit policy on Universal Credit from April 2026. 

Geneva/New York/Copenhagen, 24 November 2025 – Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and UNICEF today announced a new agreement that will make the R21/Matrix-M™ malaria vaccines significantly more accessible and affordable, paving the way to protect more children from one of the world’s deadliest diseases.

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.

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. 

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.  

ADDIS ABABA — An estimated 8.2 percent of the global population, or about 673 million people, experienced hunger in 2024, down from 8.5 percent in 2023 and 8.7 percent in 2022. However, progress was not consistent across the globe, as hunger continued to rise in most subregions of Africa and western Asia, according to this year’s The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI 2025) report published today by five specialized agencies of the United Nations.

New UK Government data released today shows 1.6 million children are locked out of financial support due to the number of siblings they have, and the vast majority (1.1 million children) are living in families with a child or baby under 5 years old. 

“This strategy is a very welcome and essential step toward closing the inequalities gap in early childhood and will give children the best start in life that they all deserve, particularly in its recognition that poverty and inequality must be addressed in the early years. The commitment to invest in and bring together local services through Best Start Family Hubs is vital and will go a long way to meeting the needs of families with babies and young children.