The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a Grade 3 Emergency Appeal for the Greater Horn of Africa region on Friday. The United Nations organization is asking for USD 178 million (EUR 167 million) to carry out urgent, life-saving health work in 2023 to help the Greater Horn region. WHOās Greater Horn of Africa region includes the seven affected countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.
Humanitarian News
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has expressed great alarm today as violent clashes between non-state armed groups and government forces drive hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo). In February alone, nearly 300,000 people fled across Rutshuru and Masisi territories in North Kivu Province, UNHCR said.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has expressed its profound concern over the new asylum bill introduced by the United Kingdom (UK) Government to the House of Commons. In a strong worded statement released Tuesday, the UN agency also said the bill would be a āclear breach of the Refugee Conventionā, if passed.
A ceasefire between the Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) rebel group and the Congolese army has come into effect today in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo). The truce in the eastern part of the country was agreed and announced on Friday after talks between the armed group and Angolan President and African Union mediator JoĆ£o LourenƧo.
A massive fire broke out Sunday in the middle of a refugee camp occupied by Myanmar Rohingya refugees in southeastern Bangladesh, leaving thousands homeless under the open sky. The number of casualties remains unknown although local officials said they managed to take many people away to safety while some refugees said they had missing family members.
Myanmarās military has created a perpetual human rights crisis through the continuous use of violence, including the killing, arbitrary arrest, torture and enforced disappearance of anti-coup opponents, a report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says. The report published Friday documents a litany of human rights abuses from 1 February 2022 to 31 January 2023, accompanied by a sharp rise in violence especially in the north-western and south-eastern parts of Myanmar.
Half of families in Sri Lanka are forced to reduce the amount they feed their children, according to a survey by the humanitarian organization Save the Children International, as the countryās economic downturn spirals further into a full-blown hunger crisis nearly a year after the government defaulted on its debt. The non-governmental organization (NGO) said today the government and international community must act now to prevent the countryās children from becoming a lost generation.
International donors have convened today in Geneva to jump-start funding for the humanitarian operation in Yemen. The high-level event was being hosted by the UN Secretary-General and the Governments of Sweden and Switzerland. Despite a six-month truce in 2022, widespread suffering persists in the country mainly due to the deteriorating economy and the collapse of basic services.
Fighting in the area of Laascaanood (Las Anod), in the breakaway Somaliland republic, has escalated, with medical sources now saying at least 105 people have been killed in three weeks of clashes. According to the United Nations, more than 245,000 Somalis have been forced to flee their homes so far due to the ongoing violence in Somalia's Sool region.
Hours before the first anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 141 of 193 United Nations member states have passed a resolution calling for an immediate Russian troop withdrawal and a ācomprehensive, just and lasting peaceā in Ukraine. Seven states voted Thursday against the resolution text at a special session of the UN General Assembly (UN-GA): Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Mali, Nicaragua, Syria and Russia. 32 countries abstained, including China, India, South Africa and Iran.
Only 47 percent of hunger funding needs through the United Nations humanitarian system are met, leaving a hunger funding gap of 53%, according to the international non-governmental organization (NGO) Action Against Hunger. Released Wednesday, the 2023 Hunger Funding Gap report also found that countries experiencing the worst hunger crises received less hunger funding than countries with lower rates of hunger.
The United Nations and humanitarian partner organizations in Malawi have launched a Flash Appeal Monday to assist 4 million people, including 56,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, who have been hardest-hit by cholera and are at highest-risk of the disease. Local health experts say if urgent action isn't taken to scale up the response, the number of cases could double in the next few months.
United Nations human rights experts have warned Thursday about catastrophic consequences for Myanmar Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh if life-saving food aid is slashed, and issued an urgent plea for donations to the Rohingya Refugee Response. The warning comes as the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced this week it will have to cut food assistance to Rohingya refugees for the first time since they fled Myanmar six years ago.
More than 60,000 Somalis, mainly women and children, have fled to Ethiopiaās Somali region in the past few weeks to escape violent clashes and insecurity in the city of Laascaanood (Laas Caanood), in Somaliaās Sool region, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports. More than half of them arrived earlier this week, UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado Mur said Friday at a news conference in Geneva.
The United Nations has launched an appeal for $1billion (ā¬ 936 million) in emergency aid to help victims in Turkey of last weekās catastrophic earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people. The UN said in a statement today that the funds would provide humanitarian relief for three months to 5.2 million people. A separate appeal for Syria has been already launched on Tuesday.
With the full-scale war in Ukraine about to enter its second year, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) today have jointly appealed for US$5.6 billion (ā¬ 5.24 billion) to ease the plight of millions of people affected. The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, launched the appeal Wednesday in Geneva.
The United Nations report that fighting continues between the Congolese army and the āMouvement du 23 marsā (M23) rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congoās North Kivu Province. A United Nations spokesman also said Monday that at least 32 civilians have been killed in two separate attacks by other rebel groups in neighboring Ituri province.
February 13 marks one week since devastating twin earthquakes struck the Turkish Syrian border region. With the death toll surpassing 36,000 and hundreds of thousands more homeless, the region remains in the grip of a growing humanitarian crisis. Rescue teams in southern Turkey have rescued survivors from the rubble Monday, more than a week after a series of powerful earthquakes struck the region. The rescues came as experts warned the window is closing for finding more people alive in what remains of collapsed buildings.
Extreme violence and gross human rights abuses, including mass incidents of murder, gang rape and sniper attacks, have sharply increased in CitĆ© Soleil on the outskirts of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, said a UN report published Friday, creating āa living nightmareā for thousands. The report comes as 5.2 million people ā nearly half of the Haitian population ā are in need of humanitarian aid, including 2.6 million children.
Somalia and the United Nations have appealed Wednesday for $2.6 billion (ā¬ 2.4 billion) to aid millions of Somalis facing hunger as the country remains gripped by a record-setting drought. Somalia has been struggling against famine-like conditions that aid groups say are forcing thousands of people to flee from the countryside into cities seeking help.
A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake has shocked wide parts of Turkey and Syria early Monday, destroying thousands of buildings and killing more than 2,700 people, with hundreds more believed to be trapped under the rubble. The epicenter of the pre-dawn earthquake was near Gaziantep, close to the Turkish-Syrian border. It was followed by a separate magnitude 7.5 earthquake about 100 kilometers north of the first one in the early afternoon.
East African head of states have renewed their call for an immediate ceasefire by all parties in the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo). The call came at an extra-ordinary summit in Burundiās capital Bujumbura on Saturday. The leaders of the East African Community (EAC) also demanded the withdrawal of all foreign armed troops.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker TĆ¼rk has on Friday urged an end to the āillogic of escalation that has been building up, to the detriment of the human rights of Palestinians and Israelisā. Record numbers of Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2022, which also saw the highest number of Israeli fatalities inside Israel and the West Bank in years.
United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has briefed member states today on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and on his recent visit to the country as part of an Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) mission, stressing that women are an essential, central component of the humanitarian operation in Afghanistan
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director, David Beasley, has appealed to the world to invest in the Syrian people and communities to get them on their feet and off food assistance. During a visit to Syria on Friday, Beasley said that 12 million people in the country do not know where their next meal is coming from, while an additional 2.9 million are at risk of sliding into hunger.
The United Nations and its humanitarian partners have launched Thursday a $502 million (ā¬462 million) appeal for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) to help 1.6 million of the most vulnerable people. The 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) estimates that 2.1 million Palestinians across the OPT need some form of humanitarian assistance this year. Among them are more than 1 million children.
The United Nations (UN) and the government of Haiti have reiterated their appeal Tuesday for an international force to quickly deploy to the Caribbean island nation to help subdue an unprecedented level of gang violence that has terrorized the population. The move comes as 5.2 million people ā nearly half of the Haitian population ā are in need of humanitarian aid, including 2.6 million children.
The third High Level Conference on the Lake Chad Region has concluded Tuesday with reaffirmed commitments from Lake Chad Basin countries and international partners for a coordinated, regional and sustainable response, supported by humanitarian and development organizations. More than US$500 million (ā¬458 million) in aid has been pledged to support joint actions at the local level.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has expressed deep concern about the escalation of brutal attacks on civilians in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, DR Congo). Attacks by non-state armed groups have killed hundreds of civilians and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in search of safety. In a press briefing today in Geneva, UNHCR also said that humanitarian actors and civilians should not be targeted in armed conflict and called on all warring parties to respect the civilian and humanitarian character of sites for displaced people.
Amid rising global humanitarian needs, the European Commission has announced on Wednesday that its initial annual humanitarian aid budget will grow to ā¬1.7 billion in 2023, an increase of about ā¬200 million compared to the previous year. In 2022, the European Union's (EU) initial humanitarian aid budget was ā¬1.5 billion.
Mass graves containing the bodies of 49 civilians have been discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, DRC), according to the United Nations (UN). The graves were found in two villages in Ituri province in the eastern part of the country by peacekeepers of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), a United Nations spokesperson in New York said on Wednesday.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has recorded an alarming rise in the death toll of Rohingya refugees while attempting dangerous sea journeys in the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal in 2022. UNHCR said Tuesday at least 348 people died or disappeared while fleeing Myanmar or Bangladesh by sea last year, making it one of the deadliest years since 2014.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has strongly condemned the attack by the Russian Armed Forces on a residential building in Dnipro on Saturday evening that has killed at least 45 people in one of the deadliest attacks in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion last February. In a statement released by his spokesperson Monday, the UN chief also said: āAttacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international humanitarian law. They must end immediately.ā
Five United Nations agencies have called for urgent action to protect the most vulnerable children in the 15 countries hardest hit by an unprecedented food and nutrition crisis. The appeal was published in a joined statement Thursday by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the United Nations Childrenās Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The ten most under-reported humanitarian crises in 2022 were all in Africa, according to new analysis by the international humanitarian organization CARE. The organizationās annual āBreaking the Silenceā report, that was released today, highlights forgotten crises which received the least media attention over the course of the year. The report is being published for the seventh time.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has unanimously decided Monday to extend the use of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing for the delivery of aid into north-west Syria for six months, as Russia did not veto the resolution. Humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) expressed relieve following the decision, which provides a lifeline to millions of Syrians residing in areas outside government control during winter.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has praised Germany's commitment to international refugee protection. According to the UN agency, Germany made its largest financial contribution ever to UNHCR's global work last year, contributing nearly $537 million (504 million euros), and remains the second largest donor country.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says it has been getting increasing amounts of aid to the war-torn Tigray region in northern Ethiopia. But in its latest situation report, released Thursday, OCHA warned malnutrition rates are critical and alarmingly high, and despite a November peace deal between Ethiopiaās federal and Tigrayan authorities, the access to provide relief aid remains difficult in some areas.
United Nations agency chiefs have urged the UN Security Council to renew a resolution guaranteeing cross-border aid access to north-west Syria, warning that without it, millions of people, especially those displaced for years and multiple times, will not have access to food and shelter. The appeal came in a written statement Monday signed by the heads of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, International Organization for Migration, UN Children's Fund, World Food Programme, World Health Organization, UN Refugee Agency, and UN Population Fund.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has announced the beginning of a bilateral ceasefire with five illegal armed groups: the National Liberation Army (EjĆ©rcito de LiberaciĆ³n Nacional, ELN), Segunda Marquetalia, Estado Mayor Central, the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC) and the Sierra Nevada group. The development came in an announcement in Bogota on New Year's Eve. The ceasefire will begin on Sunday, January 1, 2023 and last until June 30, 2023.
The European Union (EU) has firmly urged Rwanda to stop supporting the āMouvement du 23 marsā (M23) armed group in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, DR Congo). The call came Saturday as part of a statement by Josep Borrell, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on behalf of the EU.
An estimated 30,000 people have been reportedly displaced following violent clashes by armed groups in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area of South Sudan. Both the country's humanitarian community and the international community are calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says in a statement released today that on 24 December armed young men from Jonglei State attacked communities in parts of the Greater Pibor Area.
Leading international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have announced that they will suspend their humanitarian work in Afghanistan, at least temporarily. The move comes after the Taliban de facto authorities reportedly issued an order Saturday barring all female employees of national and international organizations from going to work with immediate effect.
The United Nations Childrenās Fund (UNICEF) says the number of children suffering dire drought conditions across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia has more than doubled in five months. According to a UNICEF statement Thursday, around 20.2 million children are now facing the threat of severe hunger, thirst and disease, compared to 10 million in July, as climate change, conflict, global inflation and grain shortages devastate the region.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has passed a landmark resolution on Myanmar Wednesday, demanding the military government immediately end violence in the Southeast Asian nation and release all arbitrarily detained prisoners, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint. The resolution was adopted with 12 votes in favor and three abstentions, from China, India, and the Russian Federation.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that acute hunger in Afghanistan is no longer seasonal but a grueling daily reality for millions of people. WFP said today that two-thirds of the countryās population - or 28.3 million - will require humanitarian assistance next year, up from 24.4 million men, women and children in 2022. According to the UN agency, malnutrition in Afghanistan has reached the highest levels since records have been kept.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says it is deeply dismayed that repeated calls to rescue and safely disembark people stranded on boats in the Andaman Sea and Strait of Malacca are not being heeded. UNHCR warned in a statement Friday that inaction from states to save lives is resulting in more human misery and tragedies, each and every passing day.
The humanitarian organization International Rescue Committee (IRC) has released its annual Emergency Watchlist Wednesday, highlighting the 20 countries most at risk of deteriorating humanitarian crises in 2023. This year, Somalia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan top the Watchlist, as East Africa faces the worst drought in decades and economic turmoil continues to compound needs in Afghanistan.
The latest acute food insecurity report (IPC report) on Somalia issued Tuesday finds famine in that country has been narrowly averted for now due to the response efforts of humanitarian organizations and local communities to the crisis. While famine has not been officially declared in Somalia, the United Nations (UN) says the underlying crisis however has not improved and even more appalling outcomes are only temporarily averted.