The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, has expressed grave concern at the outbreak of heavy clashes in the town of El Fasher, despite repeated calls for the warring parties to refrain from attacking the town. Since Friday, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have launched fresh attacks on the North Darfur provincial capital. Nkweta-Salami said in a statement Saturday that the violence threatens the lives of more than 800,000 civilians living in El Fasher.
The people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are suffering from one of the most complex and protracted humanitarian crises, with 21.2 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in 2025. At the same time, the DRC faces one of the world's most neglected displacement crises, with more than 8 million women, children, and men in the country forced to flee their homes. For decades, the DR Congo has endured multiple, overlapping crises, mainly driven by conflict and forced displacement, both of which are having devastating consequences. Since the start of 2025, the longstanding instability and insecurity in eastern DRC has escalated as the M23 rebel group stepped up fighting and seized large territory in North and South Kivu provinces.
While the world's attention is focused on armed conflicts elsewhere, some 15.6 million people have been displaced by conflict in Sudan, making the situation by far the largest displacement crisis in the world. The vast majority of the displaced - more than 12.3 million women, children and men - have been uprooted by the war, which began in April 2023 and continues unabated. Yet the emergency receives almost no media, diplomatic, or political attention, and the humanitarian response is grossly underfunded.
In a new report released on Tuesday, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel said that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Commission urged Israel and all states to fulfill their legal obligations under international law to end the genocide and punish those responsible for it. Genocide is widely regarded as one of the most egregious international crimes, alongside war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.
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.
South Sudan is in the midst of a dire humanitarian crisis driven by years of brutal civil war. Nearly 400,000 South Sudanese died as a result of the conflict that began in December 2013. Atrocities and attacks on civilians, including widespread sexual violence, defined the civil war. In 2025, the world’s youngest nation is on the verge of plunging back into civil war due to prevailing political tensions and a worsening security climate.
At a ministerial meeting on Wednesday, the United Nations and Member States issued an urgent call for stepped-up action to end the war in Sudan and accelerate the humanitarian response in the region. 17 months of brutal conflict in Sudan have fueled the world's worst hunger crisis and one of the world's largest displacement crises, with more than 10 million people forced to flee their homes.
Two leading United Nations agencies are warning that more than a million Sudanese refugees in Chad face immediate and life-threatening cuts to food, water, shelter, protection, and health care as the conflict in neighboring Sudan approaches the three-year mark. Earlier this week, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced that they will drastically scale back essential assistance to refugees in Chad unless the US$428 million funding gap is filled.
Aid agencies marked 1,000 days of war in Sudan on Friday, issuing a stark reminder that the conflict has caused the world's worst hunger crisis and largest emergency of forced displacement. Every day, civilians have been paying "the price for a war they did not choose," said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports that over 25,000 people have been displaced in Mozambique in recent weeks. They have joined nearly 1.3 million Mozambicans affected by displacement due to armed conflict, tropical cyclones, and drought. With critical funding running low, the UNHCR is raising the alarm and warning that its ability to protect and assist those in urgent need is being pushed to the limit.
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.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has ruled out the possibility of transforming the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) in Haiti into a UN peacekeeping force for the time being, recommending instead the creation of a UN support mission to assist the MSS, funded through the UN peacekeeping budget.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Thursday that Nigeria’s food security crisis is worsening faster than anticipated. Armed conflict is pushing some northern states, particularly in the northeast, toward levels of hunger not seen in nearly a decade. A recently completed food security analysis shows that more than 17 million people across nine conflict-affected states in northern Nigeria are experiencing crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels of hunger.
This week marks the sixth anniversary since over 700,000 Rohingya women, men and children fled Myanmar to Bangladesh, following coordinated attacks by the Myanmar military. They joined hundreds of thousands of other Rohingya who had previously sought refuge in the country. The United Nations (UN) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are calling this week for renewed commitment from the international community to sustain the humanitarian response for nearly one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
In June 2026, two powerful earthquakes struck north-central Venezuela, causing more than 4.500 deaths and at least 16,700 injuries. This catastrophe added to an already deep crisis; 7.9 million people in Venezuela required humanitarian assistance at the beginning of 2026. Political turmoil, socioeconomic decline, and strained public services had led to the worst humanitarian crisis in South America and one of the world's largest migration crises. Since 2014, more than 6.7 million Venezuelans have fled to Latin American and Caribbean countries, out of nearly 8 million who have left Venezuela.
United Nations human rights chief Voker Türk has expressed dismay at the extent to which warring parties in many settings have overstepped the bounds of what is acceptable and legal, "trampling human rights at their core." Moreover, data collected by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) shows that the number of civilian deaths in armed conflicts skyrocketed by 72 percent in 2023 compared to 2022.
One month after two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela’s north-central coast, humanitarian organizations are drawing attention to the long-term effects communities are still facing, including displacement, damaged infrastructure, and disrupted essential services. The earthquakes killed nearly 5,400 people, injured more than 16,000, and left thousands homeless.
In 2024, 299.4 million around the world will need humanitarian assistance and protection, due to conflicts, climate emergencies, collapsing economies, and other drivers. The United Nations today launched its global humanitarian appeal for 2024, calling for US$46.4 billion to help 180.5 million people with life-saving assistance and protection, a significant reduction compared to 2023.
On 6 February two devastating earthquakes of 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude took place in Turkey’s Kahramanmaraş Province, but more than a month after the disaster hit, needs remain immense, while funding has been slow. The Turkey Earthquake Appeal of $1 billion is currently only 10.4 per cent funded with $104.3 million received. The Syria Earthquake Flash Appeal has received $218 million, or 55 per cent, of the nearly $400 million needed.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that Madagascar is experiencing a worsening humanitarian crisis, particularly in the Grand Sud and Grand Sud-Est regions, which have endured a series of droughts, cyclones, and other disasters this year and last. The lingering impact of the recent El Niño drought and cyclone season, combined with a malaria outbreak and strained health systems, has left many communities without the means to recover.
