Humanitarian Crisis

Amid new daily heat records worldwide, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned Thursday that the Earth is becoming hotter and more dangerous for everyone, killing nearly half a million people a year, and he blamed fossil fuels for driving global warming. Guterres also issued a global call to action focused on caring for the most vulnerable exposed to extreme heat.

A joint United Nations convoy led by the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has reached Dilling and Kadugli, two cities in Sudan’s South Kordofan State, carrying life-saving supplies for over 130,000 people. This 26-truck convoy marks the first major delivery of aid to the area in three months, as high levels of insecurity along the route had previously prevented such deliveries.

With the full-scale war in Ukraine about to enter its second year, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) today have jointly appealed for US$5.6 billion (€ 5.24 billion) to ease the plight of millions of people affected. The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, launched the appeal Wednesday in Geneva.

Amid the alarming humanitarian situation in Sudan, the UN Security Council on Thursday demanded that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) end their siege of the North Darfur capital, El Fasher, as they move to take the last remaining town in the Western Darfur region from the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Meanwhile, the humanitarian emergency remains severely underfunded, despite the United States pledging US$315 million in additional funding to Sudan on Friday.

Two weeks after 7.7 and 6.4 magnitude earthquakes struck Myanmar, the United Nations and humanitarian partners on Friday launched a $275 million flash appeal as an addendum to the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) to reach 1.1 million people with urgent assistance. The devastating earthquakes have killed at least 3,600 people and left 2 million in critical need of assistance and protection.

Hunger has reached alarming levels in Myanmar and the situation is set to deteriorate further in 2025, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned on Wednesday. A staggering 15 million people are expected to go hungry this year, rising from 13.3 million in 2024. The warning comes as Myanmar nears four years since the military seized power in the Southeast Asian country.

More than 40 million people in West Africa - predominantly in the Sahel - and parts of Central Africa are struggling to feed themselves in the 2024 post-harvest season. This number of acutely food insecure people is expected to rise to 52.7 million by mid-2025, including 3.4 million people facing emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4), according to a recent analysis by Cadre Harmonisé. In a joint statement on Friday, UN agencies called for scaled-up humanitarian action and durable solutions to hunger.

United Nations officials have called on Israel and Palestinian armed groups to stop targeting civilians and allow them access to basic services.  UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Tuesday issued an urgent plea to all states with influence to take steps to defuse the “powder keg” situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). He stressed that international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law must be respected in all circumstances.

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.

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar has strongly condemned the escalation of violence in the country, which has resulted in heavy civilian casualties. There are alarming reports of civilians being killed in recent days in Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State, and Lashio town, northern Shan State, while trying to flee ongoing fighting.

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).

Extreme rainfall from storm system Daniel has hit parts of the central and eastern Mediterranean in recent days, leading to devastating flooding and loss of life in Libya, the worst affected country. Several thousand are reported dead and some 10,000 people are reported missing in Libya's eastern city of Derna after severe flooding hit the north-east of the country. 

At the end of a visit to Syria, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, on Monday called on the international community to take bold and decisive action to help Syrians rebuild their war-torn country and support displaced Syrians returning home. More than 500,000 refugees have returned to Syria since September, including 200,000 after the fall of the Assad government in early December.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says it is closely monitoring developments in Myanmar, where anti-military armed groups and their allies have made significant advances, and several hundred soldiers had reportedly chosen to lay down their weapons. In the fighting so far, around 70 people have been reportedly killed and over 90 wounded, with more than 200,000 internally displaced since the end of October.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on Friday that Israel must immediately halt its military offensive in the Rafah Governorate of the Gaza Strip and keep open the Rafah border crossing for the unimpeded delivery of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid at scale. The new interim measures come as the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the bombed and besieged Gaza Strip continues to deteriorate, with extremely limited aid reaching the besieged enclave.

Top United Nations officials on Monday called for urgent global action to save Palestinians in Gaza, highlighting once again the catastrophic humanitarian crisis. For more than a month, Gaza has been cut off from commercial and humanitarian supplies, leaving more than 2.1 million people trapped, bombed and starving. Meanwhile, Israeli attacks on civilians, including aid workers, journalists, UN personnel, hospitals and ambulances, continue with impunity.

The humanitarian organization International Rescue Committee (IRC) has released its annual Emergency Watchlist Wednesday, highlighting the 20 countries most at risk of deteriorating humanitarian crises in 2023.  This year, Somalia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan top the Watchlist, as East Africa faces the worst drought in decades and economic turmoil continues to compound needs in Afghanistan. 

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that Palestinians in northern Gaza are experiencing extreme suffering as the Israeli siege of the area continues. OCHA says there are harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction in the north. Meanwhile, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) describe apocalyptic scenes as atrocities against civilians and attacks on hospitals intensify.