UN (APP – Urdu Point / Pakistan Point News – 11 Mar, 2026) UN officials warned on Tuesday that Israeli-US strikes on oil depots in Tehran may have caused toxic pollution and “black rain”, raising health risks and legal concerns as well as upending lives around the world. middle The East and beyond after 10 days of war in the region.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani expressed concern about the environmental and health consequences of the Israeli and US strikes on oil depots in Tehran. The attacks reportedly released toxic pollutants into the air. Shamdasani said the situation raises serious questions about whether proportionality and precautionary obligations under international humanitarian law were met during the strikes.
The spokesman also stressed that the targeted sites “do not appear to be of exclusive military use.”
The spokesman for the United Nations World Health Organization, Christian Lindmeier, warned that the “black rain” and “acid rain” that fell on Tehran after the strikes “already poses a danger” to Iranians.
He added, “We are in contact with hospitals and authorities, and the Iranian authorities have issued an alert advising people to stay in their homes, in light of the attacks on oil depots in particular.”
The UN agency also monitors health risks caused by the “massive release” of toxic hydrocarbons, sulfur oxides and nitrogen compounds into the air.
Lindmeier said additional Iranian strikes on the country’s oil infrastructure have been reported Bahrain In Saudi Arabia, it also raised concerns about “broader regional exposure to pollution,” highlighting the long-term effects of pollutants, affecting respiratory health and water pollution.
Turning to Lebanon, more than 100,000 people have been displaced due to Israeli strikes and evacuation orders in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of people displaced by the conflict to nearly 700,000.
The representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the country, Carolina Lindholm Billing, spoke of a faster pace of displacement compared to the conflict with Israel in 2024.
“We see Cars “People were lined up along the street where people were sleeping,” she told reporters. “Most of them fled in a hurry without carrying almost anything. They are looking for safety in Beirut,” she told reporters. [the] The Mount Lebanon region, northern Lebanon, and parts of the Bekaa.”
The UNHCR official described her visit on Monday to a shelter in Beirut, where she met a woman in her 90s who said she lost 11 members of her family in 2024.
“I have now been displaced again, and I remain in the same place school It was converted into a shelter in 2024 and now again in 2026…stories like hers really illustrate the fear, uncertainty and recurring trauma that hundreds of thousands of people are facing right now.
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In other impacts across the region, UNHCR said large numbers of people had crossed back into Afghanistan from Iran.
According to the UN refugee agency, about 110,000 people have returned since the beginning of the year, and about 1,700 people have been returning daily since the start of the Middle East war.
While insecurity and dwindling economic prospects are driving Afghans out of Iran, they face greater instability and uncertainty when they return to their motherland.
Speaking of Islam In Afghanistan’s Herat province on the border with Iran, Tajuddin Oyewali, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative in Afghanistan, reported an increase in the numbers of returnees, and warned that the overall number of children being screened and treated for malnutrition whose supply chain has been disrupted by the war, was already delaying essential aid as well.
“Geopolitical tension is already disrupting procurement methods,” Oyewale said. “What this means is that the supplies we need to care for children and their mothers in the midst of this emergency will arrive late… A malnourished child will not receive the required nutritional supplements immediately, but with some level of delay and at a higher cost.”
Jan-Martin Bauer, Director of the Food and Nutrition Analysis Department at the United Nations World Food Programme, warned of the effects of the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandab Strait off the coast of the Horn of Africa.
“Two key points in the global supply chain are affected by restrictions and risks, and shipping lines are transforming their services,” he said.
The need for war risk insurance for shipments means an additional cost of “$2,000 to $4,000 per container in vulnerable areas,” Bauer explained.
“We also see that we need to go a long way around the Cape of Good Hope to reach some of our key geographical areas,” he added.
Power gave an example of the largest operation carried out by the World Food Program in Sudan, which is providing it with food aid food Purchased in Indiabrought via Salalah in Oman Oujda in Saudi Arabia to Port Sudan.
Today, shipments need to take a much longer route to transit through Tangier, adding about 25 days to shipping times.
“That’s an additional 9,000 kilometers (5,592 miles) of sailing… it’s like going coast to coast in the United States and back,” Bauer said.