The United Nations says it’s ready to ramp up the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza after a ceasefire agreement and urged the removal of major security and political obstacles so it can reach all those in need.

The head of a major international aid organization says Taliban officials in Kandahar have agreed to consider allowing women to resume work at the agency in the Afghan province.

The head of a major international aid agency says key Taliban officials told him they are close to finalizing guidelines that will allow Afghan women to resume working for nongovernmental organizations.

In speech after speech, world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly are spotlighting Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Somalia’s president has called for assistance from Turkey to combat the effects of severe drought that is threatening the Horn of Africa.

The war in Ukraine has abruptly drawn millions of dollars away from longer-running humanitarian crises.

Corruption allegations in Yemen aid operations were also a factor. “The shortfall in humanitarian aid will be measured in lives lost,” he said. Other major pledges came from Germany ($241 million), the United Arab Emirates ($230 million), the United Kingdom ($123.23 million) and the European Union ( $116.2 million). Wealthy countries, such as the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, cut back drastically on aid to Yemen last year. Several speakers at the conference called for the Houthis to stop their offensive on the central province of Marib and their increasing cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia.

(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)AMMAN An international aid group said Friday that about 661,000 people in 19 countries have been displaced by armed conflict in the two months since the U.N. secretary-general called for a global cease-fire to help fight the coronavirus pandemic. The U.N. Security Council "has not in any way supported the secretary generals call for a global coronavirus cease-fire, Egeland told The Associated Press, blaming what he said was squabbling among council members. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a global cease-fire appeal on March 23 and renewed his appeal Thursday, saying the pandemic is the greatest test the world has faced since the U.N. was established 75 years ago. In Yemen, some 24,000 people were displaced between March 23 and May 15, the report said. A total of 148,000 people were displaced in Yemen, Chad, Niger, Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Syria, Somalia and Myanmar during that period.