Humanitarian Crisis

According to estimates, more than 14,500 children have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) since October 2023, when Israel began its war in the Gaza Strip, which is characterized by grave war crimes, crimes against humanity and other gross violations of international humanitarian law. The real number of child fatalities is feared to be much higher, as thousands of children are reported missing and presumed dead.

The humanitarian crisis in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo) continues to deteriorate amid ongoing conflict that has displaced tens of thousands of people and caused widespread hunger, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday. UN aid agencies are struggling in particular in provinces overrun by Rwanda-backed rebels from the March 23 Movement (M23). However, dramatic funding shortfalls for humanitarian operations have also contributed to the dire situation.

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.

February 1 marks three years since Myanmar's military toppled the country's democratically elected government, setting off a bloody civil war that continues to tear apart the country of 57 million people.  Some 18.6 million people in Myanmar – one-third of the population – urgently need humanitarian assistance this year – compared to one million before the military takeover on February 1, 2021.

According to investigators appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, Myanmar's military has carried out a sustained campaign of deliberate attacks on civilians, including airstrikes on homes, schools, and camps for displaced people, as well as arbitrary detentions, torture, and sexual violence. These findings are included in the annual report of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), which covers the period from July 2025 to June 2026 and was released on Tuesday.

As global humanitarian funding plummets due to extreme funding cuts by the United States, the United Nations on Thursday released US$110 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to scale up life-saving assistance in ten of the world's most underfunded and neglected crises in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In total, more than 307 million people around the world are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

The United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says last month was the warmest April on record - the eleventh month in a row with record global temperatures. Sea surface temperatures have also been at record highs for the past 13 months. While recent extreme weather events have caused numerous casualties and socio-economic disruption, the WMO warns that climate change is making heat waves - one of the deadliest types of weather - more extreme.

Amid growing hopes for a Gaza ceasefire and an end to the war, United Nations humanitarian officials revealed disturbing details on Friday about the ongoing killing and injuring of Palestinians desperately seeking food. Israeli forces continue to target and kill people attempting to access food supplies at militarized distribution centers, UN distribution sites, and near aid convoys.

While most people displaced by months of airstrikes and insecurity in Lebanon have returned to their areas of origin, many are facing damaged homes, widespread destruction, and a lack of essential services, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). On Tuesday, UNHCR warned that the displacement and humanitarian crisis in Lebanon is far from over.

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.

More than one million people across Lebanon have been displaced by ongoing and deadly Israeli airstrikes across the country, with more than 1,000 killed in the past two weeks, raising fears of an imminent full-scale invasion. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), some 100,000 of those displaced have fled to neighboring Syria.

The number of people killed in several days of clashes between Syrian security forces and loyalists of former President Bashar al-Assad, followed by large-scale massacres, has risen to more than 1,000, a human rights monitoring group said on Saturday, marking some of the deadliest violence since Syria's civil war began 14 years ago. Since Thursday, escalating hostilities in the governorates of Tartus, Lattakia, Homs and Hama have also resulted in civilian injuries, displacement and damage to civilian infrastructure.

Ten days after the deadly earthquake struck Colombia, the United Nations and its partners launched their humanitarian response appeal on Friday. According to Colombian authorities, at least 319 people have been killed and more than 280,000 people have been affected overall. The 7.4-magnitude earthquake destroyed over 31,000 homes and damaged thousands of educational, community, and health facilities.

Donors committed US$610.1 million to humanitarian operations in Ethiopia at a high-level pledging event on Tuesday, but fell short of the target. One billion US dollars is needed to fund the immediate response and ensure a pipeline of aid for the next five months. But before the conference, the situation was much worse, as the country's UN-backed $3.24 billion Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for 2024 was less than 5 percent funded.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is warning that severe disruptions to six of its most critical humanitarian operations are expected by the end of the year due to dwindling global funding, which could push millions into emergency levels of hunger and endanger the lives of millions of vulnerable people. This warning comes at a time when overall global humanitarian funding is drying up, with less than a quarter of this year's appeal being funded, and hunger reaching record highs.

Amid growing fears of a wider war, the UN Security Council held an emergency session on Friday after Israeli strikes on the Lebanese capital Beirut and in the south left at least a dozen dead and more than 60 injured. The meeting came amid an upsurge in cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces and two days of terrorist attacks in Lebanon that used deadly explosions from wireless devices, killing at least 37 people and maiming or injuring more than 3,400.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) warns that urgent action is needed to save lives in Nigeria, where the malnutrition crisis is escalating. Without immediate intervention, 1.8 million children could die from severe acute malnutrition (SAM). The Nigeria Red Cross Society (NRCS) reports that 84 percent of healthcare facilities in six northern states have insufficient supplies of lifesaving ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF).

Nearly 1.5 million people in Haiti have been internally displaced following escalating gang violence and widespread instability, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Wednesday. This marks an unprecedented level of internal displacement due to armed violence in Haiti, further intensifying the suffering of millions as insecurity continues to plague the Caribbean nation.