Internal Displacement

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 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Friday warned of a further deterioration in the human rights situation in South Sudan, following a sharp increase in hostilities, arbitrary arrests and hate speech in the country since February. The warning comes as South Sudan faces one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises, and one of the worst prospects since independence in 2011.

The humanitarian crisis in Somalia has faded from the news this year, after a historic four-year drought ended in 2023 and famine was averted, bringing relief to millions of Somalis. But UN officials and humanitarian agencies warn that needs in the country remain critically high as a lack of humanitarian funding delays recovery from the drought.

The United Nations on Tuesday renewed its appeal for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan, with officials warning that civilians are paying a heavy price for the fighting as outside parties fuel the conflict by supplying weapons. They say the unrelenting violence in Sudan, which has raged for more than 18 months, is poised to intensify, worsening already alarming levels of human rights violations, hunger and displacement.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has announced the beginning of a bilateral ceasefire with five illegal armed groups: the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN), Segunda Marquetalia, Estado Mayor Central, the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC) and the Sierra Nevada group. The development came in an announcement in Bogota on New Year's Eve. The ceasefire will begin on Sunday, January 1, 2023 and last until June 30, 2023.

Amid rising regional tensions and a worsening humanitarian situation, all actors must put the interests of the Yemeni people first in order to restore peace and stability in the country, Hans Grundberg, the UN envoy for Yemen, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday. Grundberg warned that as the military escalation in the Middle East intensifies, Yemen risks being dragged further into it.

A prominent international human rights group is calling for the deployment of a protection force in Sudan following a recent wave of attacks on civilians in Al Jazirah state, widely blamed on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of the warring sides in the country's ongoing conflict. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement on Sunday that the situation has become so grim that a mission is needed to protect the Sudanese population.

A report by the UN human rights office accuses both of Sudan’s warring parties of committing horrific violations and abuses against the country’s civilian population, “some of which may amount to war crimes and possibly other serious crimes under international law.” The UN report holds the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) responsible for the killings of at least 14,600 civilians and the forced displacement of more than 8 million people both inside Sudan and as refugees in five neighboring countries.

The ongoing political instability and armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo, DRC) have devastated food production and distribution systems, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said Tuesday. Meanwhile, the non-governmental organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) warned today that extreme levels of violence, hunger, and displacement receive “scant funding, media apathy, and neglect”, as recent months have brought a dramatic deterioration in the situation in the eastern part of the country.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told the UN Security Council Friday that two months into Israel’s war against Gaza “we are at a breaking point,” and urged members to push for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, but the United States used again its veto to prevent the council from demanding the urgent needed stop in the attacks. Meanwhile, UN leaders says the situation in the tiny enclave is apocalyptic and there is a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system.

United Nations agencies warn that South Sudan continues to face a severe food and nutrition crisis which threatens to worsen unless urgent humanitarian action is mounted. According to the latest food security report, over half of South Sudan's population — around 7.56 million people — will experience crisis-level or worse hunger during the lean season from April to July 2026 while, in the coming months, tens of thousands are at risk of famine.

Children make up about half of all armed gang members in Haiti, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday, calling for their protection to be stepped up. Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) says it is ramping up its operations in Haiti in the face of a hunger crisis caused mainly by violence and displacement. Some 5.5 million Haitians are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2024, a number that is expected to rise.

As Sudan has entered its tenth month of conflict, United Nations agencies launched a US$4.1 billion appeal Wednesday to provide urgent aid for 14.7 million people inside Sudan and 2.7 million refugees and host communities in five neighboring countries. Due to the war, half of Sudan’s population – some 25 million people – needs humanitarian assistance and protection. More than 1.6 million people have fled across Sudan’s borders to the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

More than eleven months into the armed conflict in Sudan, 24 million children are at risk of a “generational catastrophe”, and their rights to life, survival, protection, education, health, and development have all been gravely violated, a UN committee has said. To mark nearly a year of brutality against Sudanese children, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) issued a statement on Monday, urging Sudan to immediately put an end to these grave violations and stop recruiting children into its armed forces.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that acute hunger in Afghanistan is no longer seasonal but a grueling daily reality for millions of people. WFP said today that two-thirds of the country’s population - or 28.3 million - will require humanitarian assistance next year, up from 24.4 million men, women and children in 2022. According to the UN agency, malnutrition in Afghanistan has reached the highest levels since records have been kept.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has voiced alarm over the escalating violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo), which has already displaced 237,000 people this year. Clashes between non-state armed groups and the Congolese army in North and South Kivu provinces are exacerbating one of the world's most under-reported humanitarian crises, characterized by widespread human rights violations and massive forced displacement.