IOM

Following the Israeli government's announcement on Tuesday to suspend the operations of leading international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the Gaza Strip, UN agencies and over 200 international and local NGOs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) called on the authorities to reconsider this decision. The aid agencies stressed that international NGOs play a critical role in delivering life-saving assistance and that suspending them would severely undermine the humanitarian response.

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, has strongly condemned indiscriminate attacks in the town of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State. Local authorities reported that at least 97 civilians were killed or injured when a hospital, a cattle market and residential areas came under attack on Saturday.

The heads of more than a dozen United Nations agencies and international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have issued a rare joint statement Friday calling for action to address the crisis gripping the Central Sahel as exacerbating humanitarian and protection needs are threatening to reverse development gains. In 2024, some 17 million people – one fifth of the population - in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is warning that the humanitarian crisis in Haiti continues to worsen, largely due to ongoing violence. According to an OCHA update on Friday, more than 700,000 people are displaced in the country, more than half of whom are children, with the latest violence in the capital, Port-au-Prince, displacing an additional 12,000 people in recent weeks.

The United Nations and international aid agencies are warning that the lives of millions of people in Sudan are at risk as the world turns its attention away from the enormous humanitarian needs facing the war-torn country. Today, Sudan entered a year of war that many have called the world's largest human-made crisis, with half the population in need of life-saving assistance, tens of thousands killed and injured, and millions uprooted from their homes.

The heads of more than a dozen United Nations agencies and international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have issued a rare joint statement Sunday calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Gaza officials reported today that more than 10,000 Palestinians - including more than 4,100 children - have been killed since October 7 by Israel’s retaliatory attacks against the tiny enclave.

Civilians and civilian infrastructure in Iran continue to bear the brunt of attacks by the United States and Israel. The Iranian Ministry of Health reports more than 1,900 deaths and nearly 25,000 injuries, including over 1,600 children and at least 4,000 women, since February 28. Casualties have been reported in at least 20 provinces, with the highest numbers in the capital, Tehran, and the province of Hormozgan.

United Nations agency chiefs have urged the UN Security Council to renew a resolution guaranteeing cross-border aid access to north-west Syria, warning that without it, millions of people, especially those displaced for years and multiple times, will not have access to food and shelter. The appeal came in a written statement Monday signed by the heads of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, International Organization for Migration, UN Children's Fund, World Food Programme, World Health Organization, UN Refugee Agency, and UN Population Fund.

With the support of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, Israel and Lebanon have signed a ceasefire agreement after more than 13 months of conflict. Under the agreement, Hezbollah troops will move north of the Litani River and Israeli troops will withdraw from southern Lebanon. The Israeli cabinet voted on Tuesday to approve the ceasefire agreement, which came into effect at 4am local time on Wednesday.

Numerous countries around the world have been hit by torrential rains, flash floods, river flooding, and other large-scale flooding events that have submerged vast areas of land, caused devastation, affected millions of people, displaced hundreds of thousands, and claimed hundreds of lives. Although the rainy season is still underway in many regions of the Northern Hemisphere, the magnitude of the ongoing natural disasters points to the effects of the climate crisis and the La Niña phenomenon.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns of a sharp decline in the humanitarian situation in El Fasher, the besieged capital of Sudan’s North Darfur State. OCHA reports that civilians in El Fasher continue to endure relentless attacks, acute hunger, and cholera. The population faces daily threats from shelling, airstrikes, and drone attacks — with fierce clashes reported in north-eastern districts of the state capital in recent weeks.

In a rare joint statement on Wednesday, the world's humanitarian leaders strongly condemned the growing and blatant violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in conflicts across the globe. They warned that the problem lies not in the absence of legal rules, but in the failure to uphold them, the erosion of accountability, and the refusal to act, even in the face of atrocities.

Humanitarian organizations are deeply concerned about the rising number of civilian casualties, including women and children, the large-scale displacement, and the increasing humanitarian needs resulting from the ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon. UN officials and aid agencies continue to call on all parties to protect civilians, civilian infrastructure, humanitarian personnel, and health workers.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Monday that ongoing conflict and displacement, coupled with severe funding shortages, are exacerbating humanitarian needs across Sudan. In North Kordofan State, insecurity around the city of El Obeid continues to endanger civilians, forcing them to flee and increasing humanitarian needs.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is warning that hundreds of thousands of people in South Sudan are at risk of going without life-saving assistance unless additional funding for the humanitarian response is received without delay. Some 9 million people - including 4.9 million children - in the country are in need of humanitarian aid, and the outlook for the coming months is worrying.

Since the last attack on El Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur State at the end of October, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports that tens of thousands of refugees and returnees have crossed into neighboring Chad. The Saharan nation is currently hosting approximately 903,000 Sudanese refugees who escaped the conflict that began in Sudan in April 2023.

The heads of United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) warned in a rare joint statement on Tuesday that escalating conflict is driving record levels of displacement, hunger and gender-based violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) said that without urgent international action, the situation threatens to push the DRC to the brink of catastrophe.

The humanitarian organization International Rescue Committee (IRC) has expressed concern about the humanitarian impact of growing insecurity in northwest Nigeria due to conflict between various armed groups. In Zamfara and Sokoto states, armed attacks in March and April have displaced more than 10,000 people and killed at least 92, while many others have been kidnapped, the IRC said.

The abrupt suspension of foreign aid by the United States has fueled a global humanitarian catastrophe, according to UN human rights experts. The extreme cuts in funding are expected to cost millions of lives worldwide. On Thursday, the experts said the situation was made worse by the US administration’s failure to publish a mandatory review of contracts and disbursements by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).