Central America

As global humanitarian funding plummets due to extreme funding cuts by the United States, the United Nations on Thursday released US$110 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to scale up life-saving assistance in ten of the world's most underfunded and neglected crises in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In total, more than 307 million people around the world are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

The United Nations and its partner agencies in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras on Wednesday launched this year's humanitarian response plans to assist 2.2 million people in need, seeking a total of US$306 million. The three countries continue to face violence, food insecurity, extreme weather events and mixed movements of refugees and migrants, with more than 4.6 million people in need of humanitarian aid in 2025.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports that forced displacement around the world has reached historic highs, driven by conflict, persecution, human rights abuses, the climate crisis and other events disturbing public order. In a report released on Thursday, UNHCR said the number of forcibly displaced people continued to rise this year and now stands at 120 million.

International donor funding to alleviate hunger in the world's neediest countries plummeted in 2023, despite exacerbating global food insecurity reaching record highs, aid agencies warn. Humanitarian appeals for the 17 countries bearing the brunt of food insecurity suffered a staggering funding gap of 65 percent last year, up 23 percent from 2022, according to an analysis released this week by the humanitarian organization Action Against Hunger.

As the number of refugees and migrants crossing the Darién jungle this year reaches an unprecedented 500,000 – more than double the crossings last year – the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned Thursday of a deepening humanitarian emergency in the Americas and called for a comprehensive regional approach to address the serious protection risks and urgent humanitarian needs of people on the move.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warn that acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 18 hunger hotspots – comprising a total of 22 countries or territories including two regions – during the period from November 2023 to April 2024.

As the number of migrants and refugees crossing the Darién jungle between Panama and Colombia reaches record levels, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) are calling for a comprehensive, regional, and collaborative approach to address the serious protection risks and urgent humanitarian needs of people on the move in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For the first time, Burkina Faso tops the list of the world’s ten most neglected displacement crises, according to a new report from the humanitarian organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). Releasing the analysis today, the nongovernmental organization (NGO) warned that redirection of aid and attention towards Ukraine has increased neglect of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. 

Acute food insecurity is set to increase in magnitude and severity in 18 hunger hotspots comprising a total of 22 countries, a new UN early warning report has found. The analysis issued Monday by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) calls for urgent humanitarian action to save lives and livelihoods and prevent starvation and death in countries where acute hunger is at a high risk of worsening from June to November 2023.

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.