Although global forced displacement remains alarmingly high, it decreased last year for the first time in a decade. At the end of 2025, one in every 70 people—1.4 percent of the world’s population—was forcibly displaced due to conflict, violence, human rights violations, or events that seriously disturbed public order. The total number of displaced people decreased to 117.8 million in 2025, down from over 123 million people in 2024.
Human rights and humanitarian aid are closely intertwined. In humanitarian crises around the world the most basic human rights are threatened: the right to live, the right to health. More often than not human rights violations are the cause of a crisis or at the center of it. Humanitarian organizations also must respect the rights of people in need and must pay attention to them in the provision of emergency relief.
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 United Nations urged all countries on Tuesday to boost their early warning systems after confirming the onset of El Niño, warning that the climate phenomenon will bring above-average temperatures "nearly everywhere" and fuel more extreme weather. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), there is an 80 percent probability that El Niño conditions will emerge between June and August, with a 90 percent chance thereafter.
In a joint statement, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that conflict, climate change, and soaring costs in South Sudan are causing some of the highest levels of hunger in the world. The warning comes as the heads of the three United Nations agencies wrapped up a three-day visit to the country.
Somalia is showing resilience to persistent security, human rights and socio-economic challenges, but needs continued international support as climate change and natural disasters exacerbate suffering, loss of livelihoods and rights violations, an independent United Nations expert said today. In her new report to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), Isha Dyfan highlighted the ongoing insecurity in the East African country.
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.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) launched their first joint anticipatory appeal on Thursday, seeking US$202 million to protect almost 9 million people in 22 high-risk countries from the potential impact of a strong El Niño weather pattern. El Niño conditions are predicted to heighten the risk of droughts, floods and storms in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that nearly 50,000 people in the Chocó region of western Colombia were under complete movement restrictions during the first week of May. OCHA said on Friday that civilians remain cut off from essential services due to the activities of non-state armed groups (NSAGs).
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.
Amid rising global humanitarian needs, the European Commission has announced on Wednesday that its initial annual humanitarian aid budget will grow to €1.7 billion in 2023, an increase of about €200 million compared to the previous year. In 2022, the European Union's (EU) initial humanitarian aid budget was €1.5 billion.
Amid new daily heat records worldwide, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned Thursday that the Earth is becoming hotter and more dangerous for everyone, killing nearly half a million people a year, and he blamed fossil fuels for driving global warming. Guterres also issued a global call to action focused on caring for the most vulnerable exposed to extreme heat.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) sounded the alarm on Friday as ongoing conflict, displacement, economic deterioration and recurrent extreme weather events in the Sahel push millions of people towards emergency levels of hunger. While humanitarian needs are at historic highs, the resources to mount an effective response for life-saving operations at scale are not keeping pace.
El Niño conditions have developed in the tropical Pacific for the first time in seven years, setting the stage for a likely surge in global temperatures and disruptive weather and climate patterns this year and in 2024. The naturally occurring major climate phenomenon may aggravate current humanitarian crises around the world and may lead to new emergencies related to the ongoing climate crisis.
The lives of more than 35 million people in the Sahel region are being affected by a complex and interdependent pattern of crises, exacerbated by deteriorating security, political instability, and the effects of climate change, leaving them in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection. UN agencies warn that lives will be at risk if aid organizations are not given the resources they need to respond to these crises and help the region's most vulnerable people.
The United Nations and humanitarian partner organizations have today launched the 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) for South Sudan, targeting 6 million children, women, and men with the most acute needs. In the forthcoming year, 9 million people in the country - a slight decrease from 2023 - are projected to be in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. Among those requiring humanitarian aid will be 4.9 million children.
The Sahel region is experiencing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with over 26 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in 2026. At the same time, it is one of the most overlooked regions. The main drivers of the region's unprecedented humanitarian needs are armed conflict, deteriorating security, political instability, and widespread poverty, particularly in the Central Sahel region, which includes Burkina Faso, Mali, and western Niger, as well as the Lake Chad Basin, which covers parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.
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.
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 International Rescue Committee (IRC) released its annual Emergency Watchlist on Wednesday, spotlighting the 20 countries most likely to face escalating humanitarian needs in the coming year. According to the dire ranking, the top five crises are Sudan, the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Myanmar, Syria and South Sudan, as war and climate change fuel new and ongoing humanitarian emergencies around the world.
