ABUJA, November 28 (IPS) - On the morning of 17 November 2025, darkness cloaked Maga town in the Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area, Kebbi State, until gunfire shattered the silence. It was around 4 am when armed attackers stormed the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, firing into the air to terrify residents before heading to the staff quarters. There, they killed two, including Hassan Yakubu, the school’s Chief Security Officer and then abducted 26 female students.

Children and adolescents living with HIV continue to be left behind in access to early diagnosis, life-saving treatment and care, as shrinking funding threatens to reverse decades of progress, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday, ahead of World AIDS Day.

Myanmar’s planned late-December elections are unfolding in what UN rights officials describe as an atmosphere of fear, violence and deep political repression, with thousands detained and major parties excluded in a process that risks entrenching instability rather than restoring democracy.

Measles deaths have dropped by 88 per cent since 2000 – yet an estimated 95,000 people, mostly children, still died from the virus last year, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday.

The UN human rights office, OHCHR said on Friday that it was “appalled” by the “brazen killing” of two Palestinian men by Israeli border police in the West Bank, describing it as “an apparent summary execution.”

The United Nations has strongly condemned the military coup in Guinea-Bissau, warning that the overthrow of elected authorities just days after national elections represents a grave violation of constitutional order and democratic principles.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, November 27 (IPS) - Three years ago, Captain Ibrahim Traoré seized power in Burkina Faso with two promises that have proved hollow: to address the country’s deepening security crisis and restore civilian rule. Now he has postponed elections until 2029, dissolved the independent electoral commission and pulled the country out of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). Burkina Faso has become a military dictatorship.

UNITED NATIONS, November 27 (IPS) - The US sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) have intensified the rigid isolation of judges and officials of the Court based in The Hague, Netherlands.According to an interview with the French judge Nicolas Guillou, published in Le Monde, ICC judges are also being refused access to American websites and credit cards.

Soaring inflation, fragile job markets and shrinking access to healthcare and education are pushing millions of people in South and South-East Asia onto risky migration paths, the UN human rights office said on Thursday, as regional migration reaches historic highs.

The humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s El Fasher remains dire as mass displacement accelerates and aid access stays restricted, amid warnings of widespread trafficking, sexual violence and the recruitment of children.