Famine

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is warning that the United States' and Israel's war on Iran and the regional spillover across the Middle East could push global hunger to record levels. The ongoing conflict could cause the greatest disruption to lifesaving humanitarian work since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, WFP said on Tuesday.

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.

While the world's farmers produce more than enough food to feed the planet's 8 billion people, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said "hunger and malnutrition are a fact of life" for billions, as 2.8 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet.  In a message ahead of Wednesday's World Food Day, Guterres said 733 million people worldwide lack food because of "conflict, marginalization, climate change, poverty and economic downturns.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that the ongoing conflict and spreading disease outbreaks are having a devastating impact on children in Sudan. Separately, independent human rights investigators report that the civil war in Sudan is intensifying, marked by an increased use of heavy weaponry in populated areas and a sharp rise in sexual and gender-based violence. Countless civilians caught in the conflict face devastating consequences.

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.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is warning of a rapidly escalating global hunger crisis, as nearly 318 million people are currently facing crisis levels of hunger or worse. On Monday, WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain called for immediate action from world leaders to address the root causes of food insecurity and end man-made famines.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that disease outbreaks, malnutrition and non-communicable diseases are rising in war-torn Sudan, with devastating consequences for millions of people forced to flee their homes in the face of escalating violence. Since conflict erupted April 15, some 6 million people have become displaced inside Sudan or have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

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.

In what they call an "unprecedented emergency," United Nations agencies are warning that humanitarian operations throughout the Gaza Strip will cease within hours or days unless Israel reopens border crossings and allows critical fuel supplies into the Palestinian territory. Virtually no aid has entered Gaza in the past five days, and essentials such as fuel, food and water are in dangerously short supply.

Amid the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Sudan, the heads of over 50 human rights and humanitarian organizations have sounded the alarm and called for more aid, solidarity and attention to the Sudan Crisis. In an open letter published Wednesday, the leaders of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also urged the United Nations Security Council (UN SC) to act. Meanwhile, the UN SC heard briefings on the ongoing atrocities in the country and those responsible for committing them.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip is the worst it has been since the war began in October 2023. Atrocities continue on a massive scale, and the limited amount of aid entering Gaza falls far short of what is needed to support the more than two million starving civilians following 80 days of a total Israeli blockade of all commercial and humanitarian supplies.

The United Nations and its humanitarian partners issued the 2026 Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) on Wednesday, calling for US$2.16 billion to provide life-saving assistance to 12 million people across Yemen. In 2026, 22.3 million women, men, and children require humanitarian aid and protection as the country grapples with the region's most severe hunger emergency.

The United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) expressed serious concerns regarding the devastating cuts to food rations affecting over 700,000 refugees in Kenya's largest refugee camps on Wednesday. The cuts are a direct consequence of the withdrawal of essential humanitarian aid by the US and other donor governments, resulting in severe funding shortages that threaten the operations of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and its partner aid agencies.

The United Nations, alongside its humanitarian partners and the Nigerian government, is urgently appealing for US$516 million to respond to the most critical needs of 2.5 million people in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (BAY) states in north-east Nigeria this year. Women and children are particularly affected by the humanitarian crisis, accounting for eight out of ten people in immediate need.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told the UN Security Council Friday that two months into Israel’s war against Gaza “we are at a breaking point,” and urged members to push for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, but the United States used again its veto to prevent the council from demanding the urgent needed stop in the attacks. Meanwhile, UN leaders says the situation in the tiny enclave is apocalyptic and there is a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system.

The United Nations human rights office has condemned the increasing frequency of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) strikes on schools in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians have sought shelter, carried out "with apparent disregard for the high rate of civilian fatalities." The condemnation follows dozens of IDF attacks on schools-turned-shelters in July, and horrific early Saturday morning strikes that killed up to 100 people.

The latest food security report on Haiti - out this week - shows that a record 5.7 million people - more than half of all Haitians - are expected to experience acute hunger between now and June 2025, driven by relentless gang violence and ongoing economic collapse. Rising armed violence has also fueled massive displacement as armed gangs seek to expand their control, forcing more than one million people from their homes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a Grade 3 Emergency Appeal for the Greater Horn of Africa region on Friday. The United Nations organization is asking for USD 178 million (EUR 167 million) to carry out urgent, life-saving health work in 2023 to help the Greater Horn region. WHO’s Greater Horn of Africa region includes the seven affected countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.

More than ten months into the Gaza war, civilians are crammed into an ever-shrinking space without adequate access to water, food, sanitation or health care. They are repeatedly uprooted by evacuation orders, which also disrupt the aid centers that are supposed to assist them. More than 88 percent of Gaza has been placed under evacuation orders or declared a "no-go zone" by Israeli security forces, confining up to 1.9 million internally displaced people (IDPs) to about 11 percent of the tiny territory.