UN News Today 02 November 2026 — UN News

We start in Afghanistan, where the UN aid teams that are there warn that vital health centres are being forced to scale back or close, because of funding cuts to humanitarian services. In an alert, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, said that remote communities like those in Badakhshan province in the country’s far northeast face long and dangerous journeys to reach care. Here’s OCHA spokesperson Olga Cherevko, who described what she saw at Kishim District Hospital: “We spoke to many medical staff who described the difficulties that they're facing every day, which of course include shortages of essential supplies and resources and a very worrying increase in malnutrition that they're noticing more and more…there are needs, particularly severe and extreme needs that are on the increase in many parts of the country.” Ms. Cherevko noted that the hospital lacked the resources needed to provide adequate support to patients who depend on them. “Often there is simply nowhere else left to turn,” she stressed. Afghanistan remains one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with nearly 22 million people needing assistance. Food is available but it is too expensive for millions of Afghans, the UN agency said in a recent update. As the people of Ukraine prepare for their fifth winter since the full-scale Russian invasion, the UN…