Humanitarian Crisis

More than a year after the start of the war in Sudan, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said Friday it remains extremely concerned about shocking levels of violence and devastating risks as many areas across the country remain beyond the reach of aid organizations. Among these areas is Sudan's North Darfur state, where intensifying clashes between the warring parties are preventing aid deliveries to the wider Darfur region.

The United Nations Security Council has voted Monday to authorize an international force to support Haiti’s police amid a gang-driven security crisis. Acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, 13 of the 15 council members voted for the non-UN Multinational Security Support Mission. China and Russia abstained. Haiti has repeated called for help in supporting its national police.

A hunger emergency is looming on the border between South Sudan and Sudan as families fleeing fighting in Sudan continue to cross the border every day, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday. New data shows that among the nearly 300,000 people who have arrived in South Sudan in the last five months, one in five children are malnourished and 90 percent of families say they are going multiple days without eating.

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.

More than one million people are now internally displaced in Haiti, according to new figures released Tuesday by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The latest data shows that 1,041,000 people are struggling amid a worsening humanitarian crisis - many of them forced to flee multiple times. According to IOM, children bear the greatest burden of forced displacement, accounting for more than half of all displaced people.

In the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday, United Nations relief chief Tom Fletcher and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi launched the humanitarian and refugee response plans for 2025. The UN is appealing for $3.3 billion to provide humanitarian assistance to 8.2 million of the 14.9 million Ukrainians whose lives have been upended by Russia's invasion of their country nearly three years ago.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that the massive displacement of civilians continues in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, DR Congo) following recent clashes between armed groups.  Since October 1, more than 145,000 people have fled the violence in Masisi and Rutshuru territories in North Kivu province, amid reports of pervasive human rights abuses.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says it has succeeded in delivering desperately needed food and nutritional supplies to Sudan's Darfur region, the first WFP convoys to reach the war-torn region in months. But the UN food agency warned Friday that the hunger catastrophe in the country will only worsen unless the people of Sudan receive a steady flow of aid through all possible humanitarian corridors - from neighboring countries and across battle lines.

The United Nations says Myanmar has passed a "bleak milestone," with more than 3 million civilians now displaced across the country amid intensifying conflict. The number has risen sharply, by 50 percent in just six months, according to the UN's ad interim humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, Stephen Anderson.  The situation is one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, with nearly 19 million people nationwide in need of humanitarian assistance this year.

The warring parties in Sudan have committed an appalling range of harrowing human rights violations and international crimes, including many that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, United Nations-appointed experts said on Friday. They called for the immediate deployment of an "independent and impartial force" with a mandate to protect civilians.

In the nearly 1,000 days since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of civilians have been killed, the country's energy capacity is on the brink, and drones are terrifying frontline communities, the UN's top aid official in the country said on Friday. Speaking in Geneva, Matthias Schmale warned that winter posed a critical challenge and described the anguish felt by Ukrainians as the war rages on.

Hunger levels in many of the world's poorest countries will remain high for another 136 years if the lack of progress in feeding the world continues, according to a new report released Thursday. While global progress in reducing hunger has stagnated, the 2024 Global Hunger Index (GHI) reveals that hunger is at severe or alarming levels in 42 countries.

Fifteen months into Israel's war on Gaza, more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, according to the territory's health ministry. The horror of the situation in Gaza shows no signs of abating as the world looks the other way. Meanwhile, Israeli officials continue to systematically deny the delivery of life-saving aid in flagrant violation of international law.

The latest analysis of acute food insecurity in the Gaza Strip concludes that as long as Israel's war on Gaza continues and humanitarian access is restricted by its military and political authorities, the risk of famine remains high throughout the territory. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report on Gaza, released on Tuesday, paints a stark picture of ongoing hunger, finding that 96 percent of the population faces acute food insecurity at crisis level or worse, with nearly half a million people in catastrophic conditions.

Three months after the horrific earthquakes of February 6 in Turkey and Northwest Syria, resulting in over 60,000 deaths, thousands of injuries, and massive damage to infrastructure, the humanitarian needs across the earthquake affected region remain acute, warns the nongovernmental organization (NGO) CARE International. In a statement Tuesday, CARE said it remains committed to continue responding to increasing humanitarian needs in a fragile context.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is calling for immediate, unimpeded and safe access to conflict-hit areas of Sudan to provide food to millions of displaced people facing acute hunger, amid warnings that this “forgotten war” has potential implications for regional stability. The UN agency says more than nine months of conflict have taken an unimaginable toll on civilians. WFP calls the situation beyond dire, noting that almost 18 million people are facing acute hunger.

The entire population in the Gaza Strip faces an imminent risk of famine, with more than half a million people already in catastrophic conditions, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warns. Meanwhile, after days of intense negotiations on a humanitarian pause and the delivery of aid to the war-torn Gaza Strip, the United States abstained Friday on a United Nations Security Council (SC) resolution, allowing its adoption by the 15-member body.

The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon following a large-scale military operation launched by Israel against its northern neighbor this week. Lebanese health officials say nearly 700 people, including more than 50 children, at least 94 women and two UNHCR workers, have been killed and more than 2,000 injured by Israeli airstrikes since Monday.

The shooting deaths of two drivers with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in South Sudan last week underscored the country’s status as one of the deadliest for aid workers. But aid workers say help is needed now more than ever as the UN estimates 9.4 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2023.