Antibiotics, malaria treatments, painkillers, opioids. More than 250 tonnes of medical products were seized over six years in Central Africa. Behind those numbers is an illicit market that thrives not simply despite the region’s fragile health systems, but in part because of them.

6 October 2026

The Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is robbing children of their loved ones – with some succumbing to the deadly disease themselves, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on Tuesday.

6 October 2026

The UN Secretary-General appealed on Tuesday for an end to the United States-Iran war and the toll it has taken on global trade, as he began an official visit to Pakistan.

6 October 2026

The death of a lab worker in Russia’s Siberia region has sparked concerns over a possible plague case, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, adding that it was following the situation closely.  

6 October 2026

Djibouti is facing “overlapping emergencies” as refugees fleeing the conflict in Yemen arrive on its shores while migrants continue to travel in the opposite direction, the UN migration agency (IOM) warned on Tuesday. 

6 October 2026

“Your mind follows the thread, one by one, row by row. You know? It’s like meditation. I don’t like machines.”

5 October 2026

The World Food Programme (WFP) has strongly condemned a deadly airstrike on two clearly marked aid trucks in South Kordofan, Sudan, this past weekend.

5 October 2026

Representatives from governments, civil society and academia meeting in Muscat, Oman on Monday called for urgent action to address a global housing crisis affecting nearly 3.4 billion people.

5 October 2026

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has made public four arrest warrants against senior Taliban figures, accusing them of persecuting women and girls in Afghanistan, which amounts to a crime against humanity.

5 October 2026

Pregnancy and childbirth have become a “new fault line in the global climate crisis” as extreme heat worsens, the head of the UN climate action body (UNFCCC) warned on Monday, calling for maternal and newborn health to be built into countries’ climate plans. 

5 October 2026