South Sudan: 4.5 Million Children in Desperate Need of Support, UNICEF Says

Ahead of South Sudan’s milestone anniversary on Friday, July 9, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has found a record 4.5 million youngsters, or two-thirds of children in the country, are in desperate need of support. Ten years after South Sudan achieved independence, more children there are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance than ever before, UNICEF […]

Migrant Children are Increasing Sharply, in Mexico, UNICEF Says

The number of migrant children in Mexico is increasing sharply, jumping from 380 to nearly 3,500 since the beginning of the year. This implies a nine-fold rise. UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is concerned. In February 2020, the authorities in Mexico were reminded by UNICEF of the need to protect the rights of migrant children who enter […]

Civilians are Widely Abused in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region – UNICEF  

Nearly six months since conflict erupted, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says disturbing reports have continued to emerge of widespread abuse of civilians in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. UNICEF’s spokesperson James Elder, after returning from a visit the northern Ethiopian region said,“there is no clear end in sight” to the conflict. Last December, the UN announced […]

Countries Spending More on Debt than Social Services, UNICEF Says

One in eight countries are currently spending more on debt than on social services, according to a new report from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The Fund is accordingly calling for debt service relief and restructuring to enable countries to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 and the Looming Debt Crisis notes that in 2019, 25 mostly poverty-stricken countries spent a higher proportion of government expenditures on debt services than they did on education, […]

UNFPA, UNICEF Chiefs Scale-up Battle against Female Genital Mutilation

Ahead of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, UNFPA Executive Director, Dr. Natalia Kanem, and her UNICEF counterpart, Henrietta Fore, are scaling-up momentum against the menace.  Over the next decade as COVID-19 shutters schools and disrupts programmes that help protect girls from this harmful practice, two million additional cases of female genital […]

UNICEF, WFP Tackle Governments to Reopen Schools, Say 370 Million Children at Risk

In most countries where schools are yet to reopen because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are growing concerns that girls are facing an added risk of forced transactional sex or early marriage. It is currently being argued that the longer children are out of school, the greater the risk that they will drop out of education […]

UNICEF: 800,000 Children in North-East are Suffering Acute Malnutrition, 300,000 at Death Risk 

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says 800,000 children will suffer acute malnutrition in the North-East axis of Nigeria this year. In a recent statement, UNICEF said around 300,000 children of the total projection is at imminent risk of death. The disturbing news is coming as Ogun State Government, in partnership with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, […]

Nigeria Will Record over 26 Million Out-of-School Children by December Ending, Slum2School Says

By the turn of this 2020, the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria is expected to hit over 26 million. Slum2School, a volunteer-driven development organisation that is transforming the society by empowering underserved children in slums and remote communities with quality education says in 2019, the number of out-of-school children in the country stood at […]

Why Obong of Calabar Wants Ayade Out Of Office

There are some underlining reasons why the Obong of Calabar, Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi Otu V, is moving against Governor Ben Ayade. The Efik monarch declared that the administration of Governor Ayade has failed the people of Cross River State. Before now, the result of a study indicated that there is significant relationship between income […]

EndSARS Protest: Looting Shows Nigerians Are Seriously Hungry

The ongoing looting of food items by hoodlums across Nigeria masquerading as EndSARS protesters tends to mirror the depth of hunger in the country. In the 2020 Global Hunger Index, Nigeria ranks 98th out of the 107 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2020 GHI scores. With a score of 29.2, Nigeria has a level of hunger that is serious The […]