Ngiwa Indigenous activist Xananine Calvillo Ramirez at a protest in Santa Marta, Colombia, during the first Conference on the Transition away from Fossil Fuels, 27 April 2026. (Geneva Solutions/Michelle Langrand)

Civil society demands action from governments at first fossil fuel-free conference in Colombia A day before governments meet at the world’s first conference to end fossil fuels, activists and lawmakers gather to demand a greater say in decisions, as international climate negotiations remain stalled and risk sidelining action.

Countries frame energy transition as a security matter at Santa Marta fossil fuel exit conference. Nations in Santa Marta backed the need to leave fossil fuels behind as a matter of security and sovereignty, as the ripple effects of the Iran war upend energy markets.

Bringing you the latest from UN press briefings in Geneva.

‘DEAFENING SILENCE’. Twenty years ago, Hollywood stars from Angelina Jolie to George Clooney helped put the global spotlight on the suffering in Darfur, but today’s devastating civil war and its impact on children is being largely ignored, the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Tuesday.

What they said. Speaking from Port Sudan, Unicef’s Sudan representative Sheldon Yett, told reporters that history was repeating itself “in the darkest possible way” but described the situation today as far more complex, “and the silence is more deafening”, with children bearing the heaviest weight of the war.

“In Darfur, children are being killed and maimed, uprooted from their homes, and pushed into extreme hunger, disease, and trauma,” Yett said.

Warning alert. His comments came as Unicef issued a warning known as a “Child Alert”, last issued 20 years ago for Darfur, to raise the alarm about the catastrophic situation of children in the western Sudan region, where some five million children are facing extreme deprivation.

In numbers. Since April 2024, more than 1,500 grave violations against children had been verified in El Fasher, the agency said, including the killing and maiming of over 1,300 children, many by explosive weapons and drones, as well as sexual violence, abductions and recruitment and use by armed groups. In just the first 90 days of this year, at least 245 children were reportedly killed or injured.

With Unicef’s 2026 humanitarian appeal for Sudan only 16 per cent funded, Yett said the country’s children “need the world to act now”.

— Kasmira Jefford