• Syria may sink if support lifeline is delayed, says IOM chief
• Gaza has become a graveyard and there’s no escape, warn UN aid teams
• As avian influenza infections continue to rise, UN health experts believe that the risk to humans from the H5N1 virus is ‘low’.

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria has not solved the country’s massive humanitarian emergency, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) insisted on Thursday, with some two million sheltering in the northwest unable to go back to villages and cities shattered by 14 years of war.

• Ukraine: more than 2,180 people killed and injured in last two months: OCHA
• Syria’s war has left villages, towns and cities “completely empty”: UNICEF
• Vanuatu earthquake emergency response ramps up

At a historic crossroads, less than two weeks after the collapse of the Assad regime, Syria is slowly “coming back from the brink” and its citizens must “find a way of moving forward together to build a future for the country”.

• UN negotiator leaves Damascus, describes ‘a lot of hope’ for a new Syria
• Winter rains and aid convoy obstacles worsen ordeal for one million Gazans
• 87 children among those arbitrarily detained in South Sudan: OHCHR, UNSMISS

• Syria: ‘key priority’ must be preserving evidence of crimes, say UN investigators
• Avian flu has been reported in 108 countries across five continents: UN health officials 
• Sudan: UN aid teams deliver emergency food relief to more than 800,000 people facing famine

A new series of reported Israeli airstrikes and clashes in multiple sites across Gaza at the weekend killed dozens of civilians and left others facing life-changing injuries, UN humanitarians said on Monday.

• Gaza death toll passes 45,000 as UNRWA school is hit in new strike
• Cyclone Chido: Humanitarians warn of scale of need in devastated areas
• Migrant workforces are key to global economy: ILO

The UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) isn’t only enhancing the role of geospatial technology for use by agencies across the Organization – it’s also helping safeguard the world’s precious cultural heritage in the midst of conflict.