April 2023

Millions of Sudanese face acute hunger, increased health risks, and death from recoverable injuries because UN agencies have been forced to suspend lifesaving activities in Sudan, where fighting has it made it too dangerous for them to operate in many regions. Clashes between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) continued for 15 consecutive days since 15 April, despite the announcement of an extension of the ceasefire for an additional 72 hours from the evening of 27 April.

The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution Thursday condemning the decision of the Taliban to ban Afghan women from working for the United Nations in Afghanistan, saying that it undermines human rights and humanitarian principles. The resolution also demands that Afghanistan's de facto leaders swiftly reverse their restrictions on women's access to education and work.

The newly appointed United Nations Special Representative for Haiti has said that the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the country demands that Haiti remains at the center of international attention and needs action now. In her first briefing to the UN Security Council Wednesday, Maria Isabel Salvador stressed that gang violence is expanding at an alarming rate in areas previously considered relatively safe in the capital, Port-au-Prince, as well as outside the city.

The United Nations is deeply worried about the impact of the fighting on the humanitarian situation in Sudan. After ten days of clashes, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there are acute shortages of food, water, medicines and fuel, and limited access to communications and electricity while the prices of essential items are skyrocketing. Meanwhile, thousands of Sudanese are fleeing the violence to South Sudan, Chad and Egypt as foreigners are evacuated to their home countries.

Extreme levels of violence in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador are shattering lives and compounding humanitarian needs, the international humanization organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) warned today. The non-governmental organization (NGO) says almost one in three people in North Central America are in urgent need of aid as the international community continues to overlook this crisis and is failing to provide adequate funding. 

Acute food insecurity is on track to reach a ten-year high in the Sahel and West Africa by June of this year - a new study shows - with a worrying expansion of food insecurity into coastal countries, and catastrophic levels of hunger hitting conflict-affected areas of Burkina Faso and Mali where humanitarian assistance is severely hindered by insecurity. 

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for an immediate halt to fighting in Sudan on Thursday and appealed for a three-day cease-fire to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to enable trapped civilians to seek safety and supplies. Clashes have entered their seventh day in Sudan on Friday. More than 413 people have been killed due to fighting in the capital Khartoum and several other states, including Darfur. Another 3,551 people have been injured.

The United Nations Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region has told the UN Security Council Wednesday that the fragile ceasefire between the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and the Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) rebels in North Kivu Province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo) seems to be holding. Meanwhile, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says the security situation in neighboring Ituri Province remains extremely concerning due to ongoing attacks against civilians. 

Battles raged in the streets of Khartoum for a fifth day Wednesday after the country's two warring factions failed to honor a cease-fire. Loud explosions and gunfire were heard in the Sudanese capital, and witnesses reported heavy fighting between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the center of the city.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have warned in a joined statement Friday that WFP will be forced to make additional cuts to already reduced food assistance to refugees in Chad in April and may have to completely suspend assistance by May without immediate and sustained funding. WFP is appealing for $142.7 million over the next six months to maintain its refugee support program. 

Nearly 900 of conflict-related detainees are being released by the warring parties in Yemen in an operation that began Friday, raising hopes for a broader political solution to the conflict. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is managing the implementation of the release operation, which includes flights between six airports in Yemen and Saudi Arabia over the period of three days, to repatriate the detainees.

The first three months of 2023 were the deadliest first quarter since 2017 for migrants crossing the central Mediterranean Sea in boats, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported Wednesday. The UN agency’s Missing Migrants Project documented 441 migrant deaths on the central Mediterranean route in this period; overall 26,358 dead or missing women, men, or children were recorded since 2014 in the Mediterranean on all routes.

The Myanmar Armed Forces have carried out deadly airstrikes which reportedly killed as many as 100 people in an opposition stronghold in the northwest on Tuesday. The air strike is one of the deadliest attacks on civilians since Myanmar's military seized power in a coup in February 2021. According to media reports, most of the injured and dead are women and children.

United States national Cindy McCain took over Wednesday as the new head of the World Food Programme (WFP). The new Executive Director said in her first statement that her priorities for the United Nations agency were increasing its resources, improving its effectiveness and scaling up partnerships and innovation.

Renewed violent clashes involving non-state armed groups are exacerbating the hunger and protection crises in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo), leaving 10 million people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the international humanitarian organizations Oxfam, CARE International and the Danish Refugee Council have warned in a joined statement Tuesday.

Taliban officials in Afghanistan have informed the United Nations (UN) they are banning women from working for the organization in Afghanistan, the world organization said Tuesday about the group’s latest edict restricting the rights and movements of women in that country. The UN said Wednesday that it "condemns in the strongest terms" the Taliban's decision, calling the ban unlawful and unacceptable.

More than 56,000 Congolese refugees are receiving only half the food rations they need, due to a dwindling of funding for food needs in five camps in Burundi, according the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The refugees, most of them fleeing conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), require food assistance to nourish their families.

The United Nations (UN) and humanitarian partners in Malawi are calling for $70.6 million to help more than a million people who were affected by Tropical Cyclone Freddy. In March 2023, one of the longest-lasting tropical storms on record hit Malawi, causing extensive damage, claiming the lives of hundreds of people, leaving more than 650,000 people homeless, and affecting some 2.3 million people.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that around 80 per cent of Haiti’s capital is under the control or influence of gangs.  In a report released Friday, OCHA warns the impact of armed violence on the population has reached unprecedented levels, with more than 5.2 million Haitian men, women and children - almost half the population - in need of humanitarian assistance.