News headlines in 2021, page 2

Once used as a prison by the ISIL terror network in Iraq, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency and partners have converted a former grim detention centre into a sunny space for youth.

The UN health agency chief expressed optimism during a press briefing on Wednesday that 2022 maybe the year the world ends the acute stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The UN refugee agency called on Wednesday for the immediate, life-saving disembarkation of a group of Rohingya refugees in distress at sea off the coast of Indonesia. 

Pandemic-related travel restrictions may have put a dent on international migration figures in 2021, but the number of people forced to leave their homes, due to conflict and persecution, rose to record highs.

Together, let’s make recovery “for people, planet and prosperity” our resolution for 2022, the UN chief said in his message for the New Year.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) condemned on Tuesday the reported killing of at least 35 people, including four children and two humanitarian workers, in the Kayah state, in Myanmar. 

At least 31 people lost their lives in three separate shipwrecks over the course of four days last week in the Aegean Sea, and an unknown number are still missing, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.  

The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said on Tuesday that a recent military escalation in the country is “among the worst” in years and increasingly putting civilians in crosshairs. 

Long-running conflicts continued in Syria and Yemen this year, whilst fresh unrest caused serious instability in Myanmar, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Sudan. United Nations "Blue Helmet" peacekeepers suffered losses and injuries, particularly those serving in the peacekeeping missions in Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR). Nevertheless, the UN reaffirmed its commitment to protect those caught up in the fighting.

UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR) have ousted scores of militants from the embattled town of Boyo, in the south of the country.