Humanitarian Catastrophe

A new United Nations report warns that acute food insecurity is worsening in 16 hunger hotspots across the globe, which threatens to push millions more people into famine or risk of famine, with time running out to avert widespread starvation. The report identifies armed conflict and violence, economic collapse, climate extremes, and an unprecedented decline in humanitarian funding as the main drivers of acute hunger.

Myanmar’s military has created a perpetual human rights crisis through the continuous use of violence, including the killing, arbitrary arrest, torture and enforced disappearance of anti-coup opponents, a report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says. The report published Friday documents a litany of human rights abuses from 1 February 2022 to 31 January 2023, accompanied by a sharp rise in violence especially in the north-western and south-eastern parts of Myanmar.

As Yemen marks ten years of war, humanitarian organizations including the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warn that a widening gap between humanitarian needs and the funding needed to meet them risks leaving millions of Yemenis without access to food, health care and protection. After a decade of crisis, humanitarian needs in Yemen continue to rise, particularly among children.

While civilians are being targeted or indiscriminately attacked in several regions of Sudan, with hundreds reportedly killed, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that Sudan's humanitarian crisis continues to intensify as cholera spreads throughout the country, flooding displaces communities, and thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) return to areas with little to no support.

190 million children in 10 African countries are at the highest risk from a convergence of three water-related threats – inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); related diseases; and climate hazards – according to a new analysis released Monday by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The triple threat was found to be most acute in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Somalia.

Leading United Nations agencies, including the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO), warn that millions of people in the greater Horn of Africa are trapped in an emergency hunger and health crisis driven by overlapping disasters, including climate change and conflict. WHO’s Greater Horn of Africa region includes the seven affected countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.

The United States government this week labelled the actions of Sudan's paramilitary forces as genocide and imposed sanctions on its leader for the "horrific, systematic atrocities" committed by his forces in a war that has gripped Sudan for nearly two years, killing tens of thousands of people and driving more than 12 million from their homes. Yet at the same time, the US administration denies that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are being committed in the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has urged partners to provide immediate assistance to nearly 185,000 Sudanese who have crossed the border into Chad and continue to await relocation from dangerous border areas, particularly the border town of Adre. The call comes as more than 9.2 million people have fled the war in Sudan, with at least 7.2 million internally displaced and some 2 million seeking refuge across the border

The latest acute food insecurity report (IPC report) on Somalia issued Tuesday finds famine in that country has been narrowly averted for now due to the response efforts of humanitarian organizations and local communities to the crisis. While famine has not been officially declared in Somalia, the United Nations (UN) says the underlying crisis however has not improved and even more appalling outcomes are only temporarily averted.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is sounding the alarm that its lifesaving emergency food and nutrition assistance in Somalia is at imminent risk of grinding to a halt without immediate new funding. The organization's resources are expected to be depleted within weeks without urgent replenishment, as Somalia faces an "extremely worrying humanitarian situation" with 4.4 million people experiencing acute hunger.

A ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas took effect in the Gaza Strip on Sunday at 11:15 am local time, after more than 470 days of war that have devastated the tiny territory and left its two million inhabitants in dire need of the basics to survive. According to the United Nations, more than 630 trucks of humanitarian goods entered Gaza on the first day of the truce, with at least 300 of them going to the northern Gaza Strip, which has been cut off from aid for months.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says it is gravely concerned at the latest developments in Sudan as fighting escalates in the Darfur region. UNHCR warned Friday it was receiving deeply alarming reports of continued sexual violence, torture, arbitrary killings, extortion of civilians and targeting of specific ethnic groups in the region. 

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that the situation in Sudan's North Darfur State remains alarming as fighting continues to displace families and people face severe shortages of food and clean water. North Darfur has been an epicenter of clashes since the beginning of Sudan’s brutal conflict over two years ago.

Deep concerns persist for the tens of thousands of people believed to be trapped in the town of El Fasher, located in the western Darfur region of Sudan. However, United Nations aid agencies believe they may soon gain access to the embattled city, where famine has been confirmed. Meanwhile, in South Kordofan State, drone strikes in and around the state capital, Kadugli, and the town of Dilling, point to a rapidly deteriorating security situation.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Wednesday expressed shock at reports that as many as hundreds of civilians were killed and many others injured in air strikes by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on a crowded market in Tora village, Sudan's North Darfur State, on Monday. There are conflicting reports on the number of casualties, ranging from several dozen to hundreds.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, warned on Friday that Sudanese civilians are in greater danger than ever, as ethnically motivated attacks by warring parties are becoming "increasingly common." The warning comes amid reports of an imminent battle for control of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. The conflict in Sudan has sparked famine, killed tens of thousands of people, and driven millions from their homes.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is urgently appealing for funds to provide life-saving food assistance to two million people in Malawi who are facing the devastating effects of drought. Today's appeal comes just days after Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera declared a state of disaster.  Malawi, like other countries in Southern Africa, is grappling with the effects of a severe period of dry weather, exacerbated by the effects of the El Niño phenomenon.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), alongside 64 humanitarian and national civil society organizations, has appealed Monday for US$1 billion to provide essential humanitarian aid and protection to over 1.8 million people expected to arrive in five neighboring countries by the end of 2023, fleeing ongoing conflict in Sudan. One million refugees, returnees and foreign nationals have already crossed borders into the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

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.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warns that Yemenis are silently suffering from hunger and malnourishment amid a severe lack of funding and ongoing insecurity that are exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. Yemen is one of the most food-insecure countries in the world and now has the highest number of people facing emergency levels of hunger.