October 2022

The number of people displaced by gang-related violence in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, has tripled in the past five months, according to a report published this week by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The assessment, conducted between June and August 2022, identified over 113,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haiti. Of these, 96,000 men, women and children fled insecurity in the capital, due to inter-gang violence and social unrest.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is warning of surging needs for more than 3.4 million displaced people and their hosts communities in the face of recent destructive flooding in Africa’s Sahel region and beyond. In Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Cameroon above-average rain falls and flooding have killed hundreds, displaced thousands and affected millions.

An estimated 774 million children across the world – or one third of the world’s child population - are living with the dual impacts of poverty and high climate risk, according to a new report by the humanitarian organization Save the Children International. The countries with the highest proportion of children affected by this double burden are South Sudan (87%), Central African Republic (85%) and Mozambique (80%), the analysis released today says.

The United Nations (UN) estimates at least 23,000 people have been displaced by renewed violence between the Congolese army and fighters from the M23 armed group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North-Kivu province. The estimate includes some 2,500 men, women and children who have crossed into neighboring Uganda.

More than 2.5 million people in Nigeria are in need of humanitarian assistance and at increased risk of waterborne diseases, drowning and malnutrition due to the most severe flooding in the past decade, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned in a statement Friday. Over 1.5 million children are among those affected by the floods.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is urgently appealing to Myanmar’s neighboring countries to immediately stop forced returns of Myanmar nationals seeking safety from serious harm. Sending them back to the country is "placing countless lives at risk" and a violation of international law, the UN agency said in a statement released Thursday.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warns the "situation in Ethiopia is spiraling out of control."  Speaking today to reporters at the United Nations in New York, Mr. Guterres expressed his grave concern about the escalation of the fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, which is having a devastating impact on civilians in what is already a dire humanitarian situation. The UN chief also called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

The world is at risk of yet another year of record hunger as the global food crisis continues to drive yet more people into worsening levels of acute food insecurity, warns the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).  In a statement this week, to mark today’s World Food Day, the UN agency called for urgent action to address the root causes of the hunger crisis.

World hunger levels are reaching catastrophic proportions with 44 countries suffering with serious or alarming levels of hunger, according to the new 2022 Global Hunger Index (GHI), released Thursday. The report, which is jointly published by the international humanitarian organization Concern Worldwide and the German charity Welthungerhilfe, cites the Ukraine war as one of the reasons why nine nations, including Somalia where famine is imminent and Yemen, have alarming levels of hunger.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is alarmed by a surge of deadly intercommunal violence which has displaced nearly 30,000 people since July in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s western locality of Kwamouth. According to a media briefing Tuesday, clashes started over customary taxes on agricultural land use between the Teke and Yaka communities. More than 142 people have been reportedly killed, including some who were beheaded.

The United Nations and humanitarian partner agencies have called Thursday for the immediate opening of a humanitarian corridor in Haiti to allow fuel to be accessed at the country’s main fuel terminal. They are deeply concerned about the serious consequences of the blocking of the Varreux Terminal on the humanitarian situation, in particular the resurgence of cholera.

The United Nations (UN) has dramatically raised its humanitarian appeal Tuesday to help millions of people in Pakistan, where erratic rains and a combination of riverine, urban and flash floods have unleashed an unprecedented climate-related disaster since June 2022. The revised international funding appeal, jointly launched with the Pakistani government, is seeking $816 million for the coming months in the wake of the immensity of the calamity and growing needs.