(South Sudan) Escalating violence, political stalemate and humanitarian constraints are pushing South Sudan’s civilians to the brink once again, while funding cuts weaken the UN mission tasked with protecting them. Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council on Tuesday, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said instability had risen sharply in recent weeks, driven by political deadlock among signatories to the 2018 Revitalised Peace Agreement and a dangerous escalation in armed confrontations. Fighting has intensified most dramatically in Jonglei state, where clashes between Government forces and opposition elements displaced more than 280,000 people, according to government sources. Reports of aerial bombardments, inflammatory rhetoric and severe restrictions on humanitarian access have raised fears of a return to the widespread violence seen in 2013 and 2016. Communities, Mr. Lacroix said, are once again “on the move,” fleeing areas where fighting has erupted and basic services have collapsed. – Violence surges in South Sudan leaving civilians at risk and peacekeepers stretched thin | UN News
(Sudan) Relentless violence, famine and disease are fuelling a rising death toll among children in Sudan, while attacks on healthcare and a lack of aid access hamper efforts to help them, UN aid agencies warned on Tuesday. As heavy fighting continues between former allies the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and their allies, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that in parts of North Darfur more than half of all children are acutely malnourished. The warning follows the release of new data from the IPC, a UN-backed global food security monitoring system, from three localities there – Um Baru and Kernoi and At Tine – indicating “catastrophic” malnutrition rates. “Extreme hunger and malnutrition come for children first, the youngest, the smallest, the most vulnerable,” said UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires. “In Sudan, it’s spreading… These are children between six months and five years old, and they are running out of time.” – In Sudan, sick and starving children ‘wasting away’ | UN News
(Ethiopia’s Tigray) UN human rights chief Volker Türk appealed on Tuesday to all parties involved in renewed heavy fighting in Ethiopia’s ‘precarious’ Tigray region to step back, warning of the potential for a deepening crisis in the country’s war-weary north and beyond. “The situation remains highly volatile and we fear it will further deteriorate, worsening the region’s already precarious human rights and humanitarian situation,” Mr. Türk said, following clashes in recent days between the Ethiopian army and regional forces. The development comes against a backdrop of deadly conflict in Tigray from 2020 to 2022 between Government troops and separatist Tigray forces, following rising tensions between national and regional authorities. That conflict – in which Eritrean soldiers reportedly participated – is believed to have killed tens of thousands and uprooted more than two million civilians, of whom one million remain internally displaced today. – Ethiopia: Türk fears new crisis in Tigray amid renewed fighting | UN News
(UN/Europe) The President of the United Nations General Assembly appealed on Tuesday for Europe to protect the international rules-based system, defend the truth in the face of fake news and other falsehoods, and support UN reform. In a key address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Annalena Baerbock repeated her call to uphold multilateralism amid “trying times” globally. She noted that just 40 days into 2026, the world has already seen crises around Venezuela, Iran and Greenland, on top of continuing devastation in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere. – General Assembly President urges Europeans to ‘stand up’ for the UN | UN News
(Fish Fraud) Fish fraud is widespread in markets, grocers and restaurants around the world, but a growing number of innovative tools are turning the tide, according to a new report published on Tuesday by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). While there is no official estimate of how prevalent fraud is in the $195 billion global fisheries and aquaculture sector, empirical studies suggest that 20 per cent of the trade may be subject to some type of fraud, according to FAO. – Fresh report warns fish fraud extends to one fifth of global catch | UN News
