The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) says that two additional members of staff have been killed by Israeli air strikes against the Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll since October 7 to 101. This is the highest number of United Nations aid workers killed in a conflict in the history of the United Nations. Meanwhile, intense bombardments and shelling continue across the Gaza Strip, including in central and southern areas, killing hundreds of civilians every day; the majority of them are children and women.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that ongoing Israeli airstrikes are deepening the crisis in areas of Lebanon already struggling with displacement, as casualties and the impact of the conflict mount. According to the Lebanese government, more than 2,400 people have been killed and more than 11,000 injured since October 2023, most of them in the past four weeks.
While civilians are being targeted or indiscriminately attacked in several regions of Sudan, with hundreds reportedly killed, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that Sudan's humanitarian crisis continues to intensify as cholera spreads throughout the country, flooding displaces communities, and thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) return to areas with little to no support.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that Yemen bears the highest burden of cholera in the world. According to a WHO report released earlier this week, there are approximately 250,000 suspected cases of cholera reported, with more than 860 associated deaths since the beginning of the year, accounting for 35 percent of the global cholera burden and 18 percent of the global reported mortality.
The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime, the leading international human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday. In a statement, HRW stressed that Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival.
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.
Millions of people in Syria remain at risk of death from unexploded ordnance, disease and malnutrition, and urgent assistance is needed, United Nations humanitarian officials said on Friday. Despite some progress, humanitarian needs in Syria remain immense as years of conflict have pushed 90 percent of the population into poverty, with nearly 7.5 million people displaced inside Syria and more than six million living as refugees.
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.
This Sunday marks 100 days since the devastating war in the Gaza Strip began, killing tens of thousands of civilians – among them more than 10,000 children - and displacing millions of people, following the major attacks that Palestinian armed groups carried out against Israel on October 7 last year. United Nations officials say Palestinians in Gaza are in a state of desperation after three months of being militarily battered and left without sufficient supplies of food, water and medicine.
A wave of deadly strikes hit several cities throughout Ukraine on Monday morning, killing and injuring scores of civilians, including children. Kyiv experienced several attacks, which impacted many residential homes. The children's hospital in the center of the city was severely damaged as children were being treated. Today's attacks also struck one of the country's main health facilities for women in Kyiv, as well as key energy infrastructure.
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.
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.
Four months into the war in Sudan, humanitarian leaders are highlighting the devastating impact the brutal conflict has had on millions of people whose lives have been destroyed and whose basic human rights have been violated. In a statement issued Tuesday, they called on the parties to the conflict to end the fighting, protect civilians and give humanitarian organizations unfettered access to all people in need in all areas of the country.
Wrapping up her five-day visit to the Central African Republic (CAR), UN Deputy Relief Chief Joyce Msuya said on Friday that the country stands at a crossroads and urged global solidarity with those in need. She stressed that this is the moment to transform fragile stability into lasting progress by working together across humanitarian, development, and peace efforts.
Retaliatory attacks by Israeli security forces have killed more than 25,000 civilians in the Gaza Strip, including about 70 percent women and children, and injured more than 62,000 others. The carnage follows a large-scale attack on Israelis and foreign nationals by Palestinian armed groups on October 7 last year. Meanwhile, heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea continue across much of Gaza, causing more and more civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction.
A non-state armed group (NSAG) is an armed entity that operates independently of state governments and engages in armed conflict or insurgency. These groups are often referred to as non-state actors or non-state armed actors. NSAGs can take various forms, ranging from rebel groups, militias, and insurgent factions to terrorist organizations and paramilitary forces.
At a ministerial meeting on Wednesday, the United Nations and Member States issued an urgent call for stepped-up action to end the war in Sudan and accelerate the humanitarian response in the region. 17 months of brutal conflict in Sudan have fueled the world's worst hunger crisis and one of the world's largest displacement crises, with more than 10 million people forced to flee their homes.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that clashes and insecurity continue to kill and injure civilians in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo). Ongoing fighting between non-state armed groups (NSAGs) and the Congolese army, and attacks by NSAGs against civilians, are also causing record displacement, with eastern DRC facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
Rohingya communities in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State are facing forced labor, food and health crises, severe movement restrictions, and escalating armed conflict, said the rights group Amnesty International on Monday, issuing a warning against premature decisions to repatriate refugees from Bangladesh. This warning comes as the United Nations General Assembly (GA) is set to convene a “High-Level Conference on the Situation of Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities in Myanmar” on Tuesday.
Large parts of Burkina Faso are "terrorized by armed groups" and rampant insecurity is "beyond alarming," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said this week after a brief visit to the country. During his first trip to the country in his new role, Türk expressed solidarity with the people of Burkina Faso and held high-level talks on the human rights and humanitarian situation in the central Sahel country.
