Climate Change

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.

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.

Violence against children in the central Sahel region increased sharply in the last quarter of 2023, surging by 70 percent compared to the previous three months, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Wednesday. The UN agency said that in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, cases of recruitment and use of children by armed groups, as well as killings and maiming, jumped by more than 130 percent between the two reporting periods.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that ongoing armed violence in Somalia's Hiraan and Gedo regions has displaced more than 100,000 people over the past two months. The recent escalation of clashes has severely impacted parts of Hirshabelle State in the center, as well as Jubaland State in the south, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation.

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) warns that the severe drought in Somalia is putting millions of lives at risk, while humanitarian aid remains severely limited due to dwindling funds. On Monday, the Somali government declared a nationwide drought emergency. The drought is particularly severe in the eastern and northern regions but is spreading to central and southern Somalia as well.

With half a million people one step away from famine in north-eastern Nigeria, UN humanitarian agencies have sounded the alarm bell on Wednesday at a briefing in Geneva asking for urgently needed funding to provide life-saving operations. 700,000 children under the age of five years are at risk of life-threatening severe acute malnutrition, a number which has doubled compared to last year.

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.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Friday warned of a further deterioration in the human rights situation in South Sudan, following a sharp increase in hostilities, arbitrary arrests and hate speech in the country since February. The warning comes as South Sudan faces one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises, and one of the worst prospects since independence in 2011.

The Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad, Violette Kakyomya, warned on Monday that the country is facing multiples humanitarian crises and called for urgent support.  The conflict in Sudan is having a strong impact on neighboring Chad, with nearly 490,000 Sudanese refugees – mostly women and children – having crossed the border into the eastern part of the Sahel country to seek safety. In total, there are currently one million refugees living in Chad. 

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 humanitarian crisis in Yemen is spiraling out of control, with a staggering number of people facing hunger, including extreme conditions, and the United Nations’ ability to deliver aid severely hampered by ongoing conflict, funding shortages, and arbitrary detentions. This was the stark warning delivered on Monday by UN relief chief Tom Fletcher during a briefing to the UN Security Council.

Children from displaced families are dying of starvation in parts of Yemen, according to the United Nations, as extreme hunger and malnutrition take hold. Over 17 million people in Yemen are acutely food insecure, a figure expected to surpass 18 million by February 2026 amid a critical crisis in humanitarian funding.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that clan violence in the Luuq district of Somalia's Jubaland state has displaced at least 30,000 people from their homes since July. According to an OCHA situation report released on Wednesday, the security situation remains volatile despite ongoing peace negotiations, limiting access to people in uurgent need of humanitarian assistance.

The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has allocated $5.9 million to support the rapid response to urgent humanitarian needs in Burkina Faso, particularly those of displaced people. This allocation comes amid the ongoing global funding crisis, and Burkina Faso being one of the most neglected displacement crises worldwide driven by insecurity and climate-related factors, such as drought and flooding.

The National Liberation Army (ELN), the largest remaining non-state armed group (NSAG) in Colombia, has announced a unilateral ceasefire for the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays as a "gesture of peace". In an official statement on Sunday, the ELN said the ceasefire would begin at midnight on December 23 and end at midnight on January 3.

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.

Armed groups, including one linked to the Armed Forces of the Central African Republic (CAR), have committed grave human rights violations in the Haut Oubangui region in the south-east of the country, mainly against Muslim communities and Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers, according to a new UN report. Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in CAR remains critical as the population continues to face insecurity, while the ongoing war in Sudan exacerbates the situation.

Hunger levels in many of the world's poorest countries will remain high for another 136 years if the lack of progress in feeding the world continues, according to a new report released Thursday. While global progress in reducing hunger has stagnated, the 2024 Global Hunger Index (GHI) reveals that hunger is at severe or alarming levels in 42 countries.