Humanitarian News

United Nations investigators have accused Russian authorities of violating basic human rights principles and causing untold suffering to Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians by subjecting them to appalling treatment. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine released its latest report to the UN Human Rights Council on Friday.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says malnutrition among children is spreading fast and reaching devastating and unprecedented levels in the Gaza Strip due to the wide-reaching impacts of Israel’s war and its ongoing blocking of aid deliveries. At least 31 people - including 27 children - have died of hunger and dehydration in recent weeks. Since October 7, more than 13,450 children have been killed in the tiny territory, according to Gaza officials.

Haitian leaders are rushing to meet a looming deadline to name members of a transitional council that will take power following the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Meanwhile, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that Haiti is on the brink of a devastating hunger crisis, with humanitarian operations at risk of grinding to a halt amid rampant violence as armed gangs tighten their grip on the capital, Port-au-Prince.

As the level of humanitarian support available to respond to the critical needs of people in northern Nigeria dramatically declines, a neglected humanitarian crisis persists in the northwest, with catastrophic levels of malnutrition and recurrent outbreaks of preventable diseases, according to the international humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, MSF). In a statement Monday, MSF warned that despite the severity of the crisis, the situation is largely being ignored by donors and aid agencies.

Syria is experiencing a wave of violence not seen since 2020, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria warned in a report released Monday. Across multiple fronts, parties to the conflict have attacked civilians and infrastructure in ways that likely amount to war crimes, while an unprecedented humanitarian crisis is plunging Syrians into deepening despair, the Commission said.

The United Nations says it remains deeply concerned about the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Haiti amid ongoing gang violence and sporadic clashes between heavily armed gangs and police forces in some parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince. At least 15,000 people have been displaced by the clashes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution Friday calling for a Ramadan cease-fire in Sudan, where the UN Secretary-General warned this week that the humanitarian crisis has reached "colossal proportions." The resolution also urged the warring parties to seek a sustainable resolution to the war in Sudan through dialogue and to remove any obstructions to the distribution of humanitarian aid.

Nearly 11 months of war in Sudan has shattered millions of lives and created one of the world's largest displacement crises. The humanitarian emergency also risks becoming the world's largest hunger crisis if the fighting does not stop, warned United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Cindy McCain on Wednesday as she concluded a visit to South Sudan, where she met families fleeing violence and an escalating hunger emergency in Sudan.

More than a dozen children in Gaza have starved to death and many more are at risk as malnutrition soars, infectious diseases spread and urgently needed life-saving humanitarian aid is blocked by Israeli authorities from entering the Palestinian enclave, UN aid agencies warn. The development is fueling widespread fears of famine in the northern Gaza Strip, as roads are the only way to transport the large quantities of food needed to stave off death.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warns the potential spillover of dozens of conflicts around the world is threatening global peace and causing human rights violations to surge in all regions. He says that widespread violations of international humanitarian and human rights law are generating devastating impact on millions of civilians, while displacement and humanitarian crises have already reached an unprecedented scale.

Haiti's government has declared a 72-hour state of emergency following a fierce battle between the country's police and powerful armed gangs over the weekend. Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry were unknown Monday, three days after he signed a bilateral agreement in Kenya to pave the way for a possible multinational force to help restore security in the troubled Caribbean nation.

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.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says it is deeply concerned about the escalating humanitarian crisis in Mozambique's northern Cabo Delgado province, as a recent upsurge in violence by non-state armed groups (NSAGs) continues to force thousands of people to flee to southern districts in search of safety. Since the latest outbreak of violence and attacks against civilians in early February, more than 70,000 women, children and men have been forcibly displaced.

The "carnage" in the Gaza Strip has left more than 30,000 dead and must end immediately, United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk told the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday, after nearly five months of continuous Israeli bombardment and mass displacement in the enclave. Meanwhile, Israel, which has the duty and legal obligation to ensure the provision of food and goods to the people of Gaza, continues to fail to provide or even facilitate the delivery of essential supplies for the survival of some 2.3 million people living in Gaza.

The United Nations, together with the Government of Haiti and other partner organizations, on Tuesday launched the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Haiti, which requires US$674 million. The HRP aims to provide food, shelter, health, education and protection services to 3.6 million Haitians over the next 12 months. More than 5.5 million people - including 3 million children - are in need of humanitarian assistance this year as the security situation in the Caribbean country deteriorates.

A report by the UN human rights office accuses both of Sudan’s warring parties of committing horrific violations and abuses against the country’s civilian population, “some of which may amount to war crimes and possibly other serious crimes under international law.” The UN report holds the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) responsible for the killings of at least 14,600 civilians and the forced displacement of more than 8 million people both inside Sudan and as refugees in five neighboring countries.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) today expressed grave concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation civilians face in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo). UNHCR said intensifying violence and conflict are taking a heavy toll on innocent civilians, including hundreds of thousands who are attempting to seek safety on the fringes of the conflict zones.

In a joint appeal Wednesday, the heads of UN humanitarian agencies and global non-governmental organizations (NGOs) urged world leaders to help prevent a further deterioration of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, mostly women and children. They also called on Israel to fulfill its legal obligation under international humanitarian and human rights law to provide food and medical supplies and facilitate relief efforts.

A new study by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warns that millions of Ukrainian refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) face an uncertain future as Ukraine enters its third year of war with Russia and its battle for survival risks becoming a protracted crisis.  Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is seeking to clarify the fate of 23,000 persons whose families have no news of them, either because they have been captured, killed, or because they lost contact after fleeing their homes.

United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) Martin Griffiths on Tuesday released US$100 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support underfunded humanitarian emergencies in seven countries in Africa, the Americas and the Middle East. The crises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Sudan and Syria top the list, receiving $20 million each.

Sudan is experiencing escalating rates of hunger and malnutrition as the consequences of conflict and displacement spread through the region. At least 25 million people in the region are affected by food insecurity, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today, while thousands of families are displaced and forced across the borders into Chad and South Sudan every week.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told the Munich Security Conference (MSC) Friday that the current global order is not working and that millions of ordinary people are paying “a terrible price.” Delivering an address at the opening session, Guterres said, as the world was facing existential challenges, the global community was more fragmented and divided than at any time during the past 75 years.

More than a dozen humanitarian organizations have called Wednesday for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and a massive increase in humanitarian assistance to avoid famine in the war-torn Gaza Strip. The United Nations, independent rights experts, human rights groups and humanitarian organizations have repeatedly warned that Israel is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza.

With an estimated 300 million people in need of humanitarian aid in 2024, the European Union (EU) has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the world's most vulnerable people. The European Commission (EC) announced on Monday that it had approved an initial annual humanitarian aid budget of more than €1.8 billion (US$1.93 billion) for this year, a slight increase of about €100 million compared to the previous year. In 2023, the European Union's (EU) initial humanitarian aid budget was €1.7 billion.

Amid the unimaginable suffering faced by Palestinians in Gaza, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Monday called for restraint in light of the Israeli military incursion into the city of Rafah. Warning of the risk of further atrocity crimes committed by Israeli forces in the Gaza war, the UN rights chief also urged Israel to comply with legally binding orders from the International Court of Justice and to respect the full range of international humanitarian law.

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.

As Sudan has entered its tenth month of conflict, United Nations agencies launched a US$4.1 billion appeal Wednesday to provide urgent aid for 14.7 million people inside Sudan and 2.7 million refugees and host communities in five neighboring countries. Due to the war, half of Sudan’s population – some 25 million people – needs humanitarian assistance and protection. More than 1.6 million people have fled across Sudan’s borders to the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

Israel's air and ground operations in the Gaza Strip since October 7 last year have killed more than 27,300 people, about 70 percent of them women and children, injured more than 66,000 and left at least 8,000 missing, most of them presumed dead. At the same time, the needs of more than two million people trapped in Gaza, already facing a humanitarian catastrophe, are at risk of becoming even more dire following the decision by 18 donor countries to suspend financial contributions to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is calling for immediate, unimpeded and safe access to conflict-hit areas of Sudan to provide food to millions of displaced people facing acute hunger, amid warnings that this “forgotten war” has potential implications for regional stability. The UN agency says more than nine months of conflict have taken an unimaginable toll on civilians. WFP calls the situation beyond dire, noting that almost 18 million people are facing acute hunger.

The United Nations and Ethiopia’s Federal Government - in a joint statement Thursday - have called for urgent funding, to respond to food insecurity across northern regions as an estimated 4 million people in Tigray, Afar, Amhara, and parts of the Oromia, Southern and Southwest regions are affected by devastating drought. While the situation in many of these areas is already alarming, there is still an opportunity to avert a serious humanitarian catastrophe, the UN and the Government stressed.

February 1 marks three years since Myanmar's military toppled the country's democratically elected government, setting off a bloody civil war that continues to tear apart the country of 57 million people.  Some 18.6 million people in Myanmar – one-third of the population – urgently need humanitarian assistance this year – compared to one million before the military takeover on February 1, 2021.

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 international humanitarian organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on Monday called attention to the plight of people fleeing the war in Sudan and to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, as more than 500,000 refugees and returnees have crossed into the neighboring country. Meanwhile, intercommunal violence is affecting the safe delivery of humanitarian aid in the disputed Abyei region following deadly attacks on Saturday and Sunday.

The 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan for Mali was launched this week in Bamako, the capital of the country. The United Nations, along with humanitarian partner organizations, will need over US$700 million to assist more than 4.1 million people across the Sahel country in 2024, UN officials announced on Thursday. An estimated 7.1 million people in Mali require humanitarian assistance this year, among them are some 3.8 million children.

In a landmark ruling, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday confirmed that Palestinians have a right to be protected from acts of genocide, ordering Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent actions that amount to genocide. Among the provisional measures, the Court also ordered Israel to allow the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid into the war-shattered enclave and to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services to Palestinians there.

As Haiti faces a worsening conflict involving heavily armed gangs, the number of people killed, injured or kidnapped has surged in 2023, according to a new United Nations report. The number of reported homicides last year increased by nearly 120 percent compared with 2022, with 4,789 victims reported during 2023. Haiti now has a homicide rate of 40.9 per 100,000 people, one of the highest in the world.

The international non-governmental organization (NGO) CARE has called Monday on the international community to pay attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan and increase funding. The war in Sudan, which entered its tenth month last week, continues to cause extreme suffering for millions across the country and in neighboring states, with women and children experiencing the conflict’s impacts most acutely.

Retaliatory attacks by Israeli security forces have killed more than 25,000 civilians in the Gaza Strip, including about 70 percent women and children, and injured more than 62,000 others. The carnage follows a large-scale attack on Israelis and foreign nationals by Palestinian armed groups on October 7 last year.  Meanwhile, heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea continue across much of Gaza, causing more and more civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction.

The 2020s have not been kind. The decade began with the COVID-19 pandemic and has since seen numerous climate disasters and brutal conflicts that have affected millions around the world. 2023 was particularly grim. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said Friday in a new report that it responded to the highest number of humanitarian emergencies in a decade last year.

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.

The United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) has called Wednesday on the international community to step-up funding efforts, and to not abandon millions of civilians who bear the brunt of the nine months conflict in Sudan. With nearly 25 million people requiring relief aid, a coordinated and continued humanitarian response is urgently needed to address the mounting needs of the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.

26 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Yemen have expressed grave concern Tuesday over the humanitarian impacts of the recent military escalation in Yemen and the Red Sea. While the humanitarian crisis in Yemen remains one of the largest in the world, the NGOs warn escalation will only worsen the situation for vulnerable civilians and hinder the ability of aid organizations to deliver critical services. 

The United Nations and humanitarian agencies have launched on Monday a combined US$ 4.2 billion appeal to donors to bring relief aid to some 10.8 million people in the war-affected communities in Ukraine but also to Ukrainian refugees and their host communities in the region throughout 2024.  A recent wave of Russian attacks underscores the devastating civilian cost of the war, while a bitter winter is ratcheting up the urgent need for life-saving humanitarian assistance.

This Sunday marks 100 days since the devastating war in the Gaza Strip began, killing tens of thousands of civilians – among them more than 10,000 children - and displacing millions of people, following the major attacks that Palestinian armed groups carried out against Israel on October 7 last year. United Nations officials say Palestinians in Gaza are in a state of desperation after three months of being militarily battered and left without sufficient supplies of food, water and medicine. 

The heads of more than a dozen United Nations agencies and international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have issued a rare joint statement Friday calling for action to address the crisis gripping the Central Sahel as exacerbating humanitarian and protection needs are threatening to reverse development gains. In 2024, some 17 million people – one fifth of the population - in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.

Angola is once again number one among the top ten forgotten humanitarian crises that received the least media attention last year, according to the international humanitarian organization CARE.  For the eighth time, CARE has published its "Breaking the Silence" report to draw attention to forgotten crises around the world which are most neglected. Zambia and Burundi follow this year on second and third place.