Over the past three days, frontline attacks have killed at least 11 civilians and wounded nearly 200 more, including five children, Ukrainian authorities said. The cities of Dnipro and Odessa were among the worst affected.
At the same time, in the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions, the attacks damaged residential buildings, civilian vehicles, healthcare and educational facilities, as well as railway and public transport infrastructure.
Humanitarian response threatened
In response, humanitarian organizations have quickly mobilized first aid, psychosocial support, hot meals, shelter materials and other emergency aid. However, aid workers themselves are increasingly being targeted.
On May 15, a marked vehicle of a Ukrainian NGO came under direct drone attack while delivering hot meals in a hard-to-reach frontline area in the Kherson region, seriously injuring one aid worker, who remains in critical condition. The driver was also injured in the attack.
In a separate incident on May 14, a drone collided with an armored vehicle operated by a local partner of World Central Kitchen in Kherson, damaging the vehicle but causing no injuries.
According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, in April, the city of Kherson recorded the highest number of civilian casualties in a single month since July 2025, with 26 people killed and more than 200 injured.
Children are the most affected by gang violence in Haiti
Children in Haiti face escalating violence as armed gangs increasingly recruit minors, kill and injure children, and use sexual violence to terrorize communities.
UN officials warned that the recruitment and use of children by gangs almost tripled in 2025 compared to the previous year, with children now estimated to make up between 30 and 50 percent of gang members.
Murders and injuries involving children also nearly doubled during the same period. Sexual violence against children is widespread and is used as a tactic to terrorize communities.
trapped in fear
During a visit to Haiti, UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Vanessa Frazier described on Monday that children live in “constant fear” amid displacement, intimidation and trauma caused by gang violence.
The UN stressed that children encountered during security operations should be treated primarily as victims and handed over to child protection services.
“Without protecting these children and supporting all children affected by violence, lasting stability in Haiti will not be possible,” Frazier added.
Officials are calling for greater investment in reintegration efforts, including education and community support, as many children affected by violence continue to express a desire to return to school and live safely.
The UN promotes the inclusion of digital identity documents for refugees and stateless people
UN representatives met on Monday in Côte d’Ivoire alongside government officials, civil society and identity experts to advance the inclusion of refugees and stateless people in national digital identification systems across Africa.
The ID4AFRICA2026 annual meeting built on new approaches from Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mali, Namibia and Uganda to make identification systems more inclusive, and was facilitated by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the World Bank.
Inclusion in key national digital identification systems is critical to UNHCR’s broader agenda of reducing long-term dependence on humanitarian assistance.
“Universality is the defining test of any digital public ecosystem,” said Patrick Eba, Deputy Director of UNHCR’s International Protection and Solutions Division. “If a system cannot recognize all habitual residents in a territory, it cannot fully serve everyone. And if it cannot serve everyone, it cannot be fully trusted.”
‘Build trust and prevent discrimination’
“We need early inclusion of refugees and people at risk of statelessness in foundational identification systems run by governments, along with strong legal, governance and data protection safeguards to build trust and prevent discrimination,” Mr Eba said.
Globally, an estimated 4.4 million people are stateless or of undetermined nationality, although the actual number is considered significantly higher.
Millions more refugees lack reliable identity credentials, limiting their access to services and self-sufficiency.