Food Insecurity

The United Nations Security Council on Monday approved a one-year extension for a multinational police force to help Haiti's embattled national police subdue gangs in the violence-plagued Caribbean nation, and will now consider turning the mission into a full-fledged UN peacekeeping operation. Meanwhile, the number of people facing acute hunger has risen to 5.4 million, according to the latest IPC analysis released Monday.

The European Union's Humanitarian Office (ECHO) reports that armed gangs in Haiti attacked the town of Petite-Riviere in the Artibonite department on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people, injuring 60 and setting fire to 20 houses. Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that humanitarian agencies are scaling up life-saving assistance in other parts of Haiti, where armed violence continues to hamper access to health care.

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.

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.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is warning of a looming halt to its food and nutrition assistance to 1.4 million crisis-affected populations in Chad – including newly arrived Sudanese refugees - due to funding constraints. Today's warning comes as aid agencies scramble to respond to a fresh wave of Sudanese refugees fleeing the unimaginable humanitarian crisis unfolding in neighboring Darfur amid reports of mass killings, rapes, and widespread destruction.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has expressed extreme concern over the impact of escalating violence on civilians in Sudan, especially in Kordofan and North Darfur. On Friday, OCHA reported that the humanitarian situation in the besieged towns of Dilling and Kadugli in South Kordofan has continued to deteriorate.

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.

In Niger, a country already affected by multiple crises, humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are warning that further instability could strongly deteriorate the living conditions of the most vulnerable people, and hamper the humanitarian response. In a joined statement Saturday, the NGOs said the combination of sanctions and conflict could have devastating effects on the lives of over 4.3 million people in the country who are already in need of humanitarian assistance.

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.

Insecurity and horrific sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo, DRC) have forced tens of thousands to flee across borders, with no sign of the exodus stopping, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday. UNHCR reiterated its call on all countries to allow access to their territories for civilians fleeing conflict and violence in DRC, to guarantee the right to seek asylum and to ensure respect for the principle of non-refoulement.

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. 

After an 11-week total blockade of humanitarian and commercial goods into the Gaza Strip, Israeli authorities have temporarily allowed the resumption of limited aid deliveries since Monday. While the entry of some trucks has been welcomed as a positive development, as of Wednesday night none of the supplies had reached those in need, amid extreme deprivation throughout the territory.

Renewed violent clashes involving non-state armed groups are exacerbating the hunger and protection crises in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo), leaving 10 million people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the international humanitarian organizations Oxfam, CARE International and the Danish Refugee Council have warned in a joined statement Tuesday.

One year after famine was first confirmed in Sudan's North Darfur state, and 843 days after the war erupted, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that families trapped in the besieged state capital of El Fasher face starvation. The town is cut off from humanitarian access, leaving the remaining population with little choice but to fend for survival with whatever limited supplies are left.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says three million children in the Central African Republic (CAR) face the highest recorded level of overlapping and interrelated crises and deprivation in the world.  The UN agency warned on Tuesday that ten years of protracted conflict and instability in the Central African country had rendered children invisible and at risk of being completely forgotten by international donors, the global media and the public.

A new United Nations report published Tuesday details a further, shocking rise in gang violence in Haiti as criminal gangs forge alliances and expand to rural areas previously considered safe – killing, raping, kidnapping, and destroying property, among other human rights abuses. The report, released by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) and the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), calls for the urgent deployment of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission authorized by the UN Security Council in October, in accordance with international human rights norms and standards.