Flooding

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan expressed deep concern on Thursday following its latest visit to the country, emphasizing that renewed violence, political tensions, shrinking civic space, entrenched corruption, and persistent impunity continue to endanger civilians and the country's political transition. The Commission warned that the window to prevent further deterioration is narrowing.

El Niño has become firmly established and will intensify in the coming months, significantly impacting rainfall and temperature patterns, as well as increasing the risk of floods, droughts, and extreme heat, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed on Thursday. New WMO forecasts show nearly a 100 percent likelihood that the phenomenon will persist through February 2027.

South Sudan is facing a rapidly worsening food security crisis demanding urgent donor attention, according to an advocacy note released Friday by the Food Security and Livelihoods Cluster (FSLC). The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis shows that 7.8 million people — more than half the population — are experiencing crisis-level hunger (IPC3) or worse. This includes 2.5 million people facing emergency levels (IPC4) and 73,000 people facing famine conditions (IPC5).

The Red Cross and Red Crescent (RCRC) Movement is warning that the situation in South Sudan is becoming increasingly dire, with armed conflict, violence, diseases and natural disasters wreaking havoc on the lives and livelihoods of millions of people across the country. According to the United Nations, the dire humanitarian situation in South Sudan has left 9.9 million people in need of life-saving assistance, while critical funding shortfalls are exacerbating the situation.

Addressing the United Nations Security Council on Friday, Tom Fletcher, the UN relief chief, described South Sudan as a nation in despair. Renewed fighting has forced more than 410,000 people to flee, including 110,000 to neighboring Ethiopia. Hostilities have continued to escalate across parts of Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity states, with airstrikes and armed clashes reported in the past week.

The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) in South Sudan, which coordinates aid agencies in the country, expressed deep concern on Monday regarding an order issued by South Sudan’s People’s Defense Forces on Friday. The order demanded that civilians, the UN peacekeeping mission, UN agencies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) vacate Akobo County in Jonglei State, in the country’s east, ahead of military operations.

The latest escalation in the protracted South Sudan crisis has seen intense clashes between the South Sudan People's Defense Forces (SSPDF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Army – In Opposition (SPLA-IO), displacing over 280,000 civilians across Jonglei State. Violence has escalated since late December 2025, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Just ten days after Tropical Cyclone Fytia unleashed heavy rains and flooding across the island nation, Madagascar was struck again — this time by the far more powerful Tropical Cyclone Gezani. On Tuesday evening, Gezani made landfall along Madagascar’s northeastern coast, directly hitting Toamasina, the country’s second-largest city and principal port.

Due to a series of attacks on a WFP river convoy and escalating violence impacting humanitarian organizations across South Sudan, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended operations in Baliet County in Upper Nile State. Separately, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that an airstrike attributed to government forces struck one of its hospitals in Jonglei State, while another facility was looted.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that the humanitarian situation in South Sudan's Jonglei State is deteriorating rapidly due to escalating conflict. This conflict is forcing people to flee their homes and shrinking access for aid workers. Since the end of December, renewed clashes in Jonglei have displaced more than 250,000 people, according to local authorities.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that more than 600,000 people have been affected by recent floods in Mozambique. The catastrophic flooding has caused massive disruption to lives and livelihoods across the country, increasing the risk of disease and exposing urban areas to crocodiles.

Amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, renewed conflict and airstrikes in Jonglei State have forced over 100,000 people to flee, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The majority of those displaced are women, children, and older people. The insecurity has also led several humanitarian organizations to relocate their staff, disrupting essential activities.

Catastrophic flooding and landslides have already killed more than 1,600 people and impacted nearly 11 million more across South and Southeast Asia. With more than 1,200 people reported missing, the death toll is expected to rise. Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia are among the hardest-hit countries, facing record-breaking rainfall, storm surges, and widespread inundation.

United Nations agencies warn that South Sudan continues to face a severe food and nutrition crisis which threatens to worsen unless urgent humanitarian action is mounted. According to the latest food security report, over half of South Sudan's population — around 7.56 million people — will experience crisis-level or worse hunger during the lean season from April to July 2026 while, in the coming months, tens of thousands are at risk of famine.

The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan has issued a blunt warning about the worsening political crisis in the country, urging the African Union and the UN Security Council to act swiftly before South Sudan descends into all-out war again. In a statement released Monday, the Commission highlighted ongoing armed violence, human rights violations, and the displacement of civilians, all of which have worsened the already dire humanitarian situation in South Sudan.

Monsoon rains continue to batter Pakistan, particularly in the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), leading to widespread flooding and devastation since late June. According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), 922 people have died, including 504 in KP and 244 in Punjab, and over 1,000 have been injured. More than 2.4 million people have been displaced, and 7,850 houses have been damaged, with nearly 2,000 completely destroyed.

Severe flooding continues to wreak havoc in South Sudan, affecting nearly 270,000 people in 12 counties across four states: Jonglei, Unity, Upper Nile, and Central Equatoria, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday. These floods come at a time when the country is already facing an alarming humanitarian crisis, with 9.3 million people in need of assistance and 7.7 million experiencing acute hunger.

Over the last ten days, heavy rains and flash floods in areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwar, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir have killed 400 people and injured more than 190 others, according to authorities. While more than 20,000 people remain displaced due to the flooding, Pakistan’s Meteorological Department says that a new monsoon system is forecast, andd heavy rainfall is expected to continue in the coming days.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that it will be forced to halt all emergency food and nutrition aid for 1.3 million people – including hundreds of thousands of children – in north-east Nigeria by the end of July. Critical funding shortages following brutal cuts by leading donor countries are the reason for this suspension, which comes at a time when violence is escalating and hunger in the country has reached record levels.

Amid the worst malnutrition crisis to hit north-east Nigeria in five years, the United Nations relief chief and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has released $6 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to respond to the humanitarian crisis in the region. In a statement on Monday, Fletcher stressed the need to deliver food to those in urgent need and establish systems to mitigate the risk of future crises.

The United Nations and its humanitarian aid partners in South Sudan launched the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) on Monday, seeking US$1.7 billion to provide life-saving assistance to 5.4 million of the most vulnerable people across the country. In 2025, an estimated 9.3 million people - 69 percent of South Sudan's total population of 13.4 million - will require some form of humanitarian aid.

According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), 25.6 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo) continue to face crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity. In a joint statement on Thursday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that armed violence, ongoing conflict and soaring food prices are fueling acute food insecurity among displaced people and returnees.

Alarming new food security data from South Sudan shows that 57 percent of the population will be acutely food insecure by the 2025 lean season. Three United Nations agencies warned on Monday that those fleeing war in Sudan, as well as young children, face some of the highest levels of hunger and malnutrition in South Sudan, as economic pressures, climate extremes and the effects of the conflict in Sudan drive a worsening hunger crisis.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that catastrophic flooding continues in the West and Central Africa region, affecting some 7.1 million people across 16 countries. In an update on Monday, OCHA said that Chad, Niger, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are the most affected countries, accounting for 80 percent of the total number of people affected.

With hostilities in Myanmar escalating, sparked by a military coup in 2021, and millions of people plunged into a deepening humanitarian crisis, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday urged the country's neighbors to "leverage their influence" to achieve peace and a political solution. Meanwhile, an estimated 1 million people in Myanmar are also suffering from the effects of recent deadly floods.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that floods in the Sahel and other parts of West and Central Africa have reached catastrophic levels, affecting more than 5 million people in 16 countries so far this year. Chad, Niger and Nigeria are among the hardest hit, accounting for more than 80 percent of those impacted.

Persistent heavy rains and severe flooding have hit several countries in the Sahel, affecting millions of people and displacing hundreds of thousands, most recently in northeastern Nigeria. The extreme weather has also exacerbated existing humanitarian crises in Chad, Cameroon, Mali and Niger. Aid agencies are urgently calling for increased international support to reach the most vulnerable.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is warning that hundreds of thousands of people in South Sudan are at risk of going without life-saving assistance unless additional funding for the humanitarian response is received without delay. Some 9 million people - including 4.9 million children - in the country are in need of humanitarian aid, and the outlook for the coming months is worrying.

With the onset of the rainy season, severe flooding in Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria has significantly worsened the situation of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in affected areas, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). UNHCR spokesman William Spindler on Friday reminded government authorities of the importance of including displaced people in national response plans.

Numerous countries around the world have been hit by torrential rains, flash floods, river flooding, and other large-scale flooding events that have submerged vast areas of land, caused devastation, affected millions of people, displaced hundreds of thousands, and claimed hundreds of lives. Although the rainy season is still underway in many regions of the Northern Hemisphere, the magnitude of the ongoing natural disasters points to the effects of the climate crisis and the La Niña phenomenon.

The humanitarian crisis in Somalia has faded from the news this year, after a historic four-year drought ended in 2023 and famine was averted, bringing relief to millions of Somalis. But UN officials and humanitarian agencies warn that needs in the country remain critically high as a lack of humanitarian funding delays recovery from the drought.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that South Sudan is facing a "perfect storm" of ongoing violence, imminent flooding, economic crisis, underfunding of the humanitarian response, and an influx of new arrivals due to the war in neighboring Sudan. The warning comes as 9 million people in the country are in need of humanitarian assistance. Among those in need are 4.9 million children.

A leading United Nations official on Friday urged the international community to immediately scale up its support for children and families to avert a worsening humanitarian emergency across Ethiopia. Some 21.4 million people in the country are in need of humanitarian assistance this year, including 12 million children.

United Nations agencies are deeply concerned about the escalating humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), particularly in the Masisi territory in the eastern province of North Kivu. Fighting between the Congolese army and the M23 armed group has displaced at least 135,000 people in different areas of the territory in the past two weeks, adding to an already dire situation in North Kivu.

The United Nations, humanitarian partners and the Somali government have Tuesday released the 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) for Somalia, which seeks US$1.6 billion to help 5.2 million of the 6.9 million people in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance and protection this year. Although a historic multi-year drought ended in 2023 and Somalia successfully averted famine, humanitarian needs in the country remain high.

The United Nations reports that intense fighting in Myanmar’s northern Shan providence continues and has now extended to the north-west of the country. Within two weeks, some 90,000 people have been displaced in northern Shan and the region of Sagaing. In its latest situation report released Friday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said a combination of “active conflict, monsoon floods, and access barriers” is worsening the humanitarian situation facing vulnerable communities nationwide.

With nearly 1.2 million people in Somalia already affected by heavy rains and flooding and more expected, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has released US$25 million on Thursday to help people in the country brace against the impact of these disasters. OCHA reported Wednesday that torrential rains and floods have displaced some 335,000 men, women and children from their homes. 

Extreme weather events linked to the climate crisis, such as storms, floods, droughts and wildfires, have displaced 43.1 million children in 44 countries over a six-year period, according to a new United Nations report. The analysis by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), released Friday, finds that an average of 20,000 children were displaced every day between 2016 and 2021.

One week after Storm Daniel hit northeastern Libya, unleashing devastating flooding that swept away large swathes of entire cities, the human toll of the disaster continues to mount. According to the Libyan Red Crescent, the unprecedented flooding and other storm-related incidents have left some 11,470 people dead and more than 10,100 still missing.

Extreme rainfall from storm system Daniel has hit parts of the central and eastern Mediterranean in recent days, leading to devastating flooding and loss of life in Libya, the worst affected country. Several thousand are reported dead and some 10,000 people are reported missing in Libya's eastern city of Derna after severe flooding hit the north-east of the country. 

One year after historic floods devastated Pakistan and a national state of emergency was declared, millions of children continue to need humanitarian assistance and access to essential services, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned in a statement Friday.  Meanwhile, this season’s monsoon rains are worsening already challenging conditions for flood-affected communities, tragically claiming the lives of 212 people across the country, including 87 children.

The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine’s Khersonska oblast on Tuesday has left at least 40 towns and villages partially flooded, which will likely have grave consequences for hundreds of thousands of people in southern Ukraine. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has described the destruction as a “monumental humanitarian, economic and environmental catastrophe”, resulting directly from Russia’s invasion of the country. 

A toxic mix of conflict, severe drought and devastating floods has forced more than 1 million people in Somalia to flee their homes since the beginning of this year – a record rate of displacement for the country, reported the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on Wednesday.

Hunger and malnutrition are on the rise across the flood, drought, and conflict-affected areas of South Sudan, the United Nations (UN) warns. In a joint statement Thursday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that some communities are likely to face starvation if humanitarian assistance is not sustained and climate adaptation measures are not scaled-up.

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.