International Humanitarian Law

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director, David Beasley, has appealed to the world to invest in the Syrian people and communities to get them on their feet and off food assistance. During a visit to Syria on Friday, Beasley said that 12 million people in the country do not know where their next meal is coming from, while an additional 2.9 million are at risk of sliding into hunger.

Extreme levels of violence in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador are shattering lives and compounding humanitarian needs, the international humanization organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) warned today. The non-governmental organization (NGO) says almost one in three people in North Central America are in urgent need of aid as the international community continues to overlook this crisis and is failing to provide adequate funding. 

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is sounding the alarm as the ongoing violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo) reaches devastating levels. Two years of cyclical conflict in the North Kivu territories of Rutshuru and Masisi have forced more than 1.3 million people to flee their homes within the DRC, resulting in a total of 5.7 million internally displaced people in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri.

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.

In 2023, children living in situations of war and conflict experienced intolerable levels of violence, according to a new United Nations Secretary-General's report on children and armed conflict released this week. Children were recruited and used, including on the front lines, attacked in their homes, abducted on their way to school, their schools used for military purposes, their doctors targeted, and the horrific list goes on.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says it is gravely concerned at the latest developments in Sudan as fighting escalates in the Darfur region. UNHCR warned Friday it was receiving deeply alarming reports of continued sexual violence, torture, arbitrary killings, extortion of civilians and targeting of specific ethnic groups in the region. 

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, warned on Friday that Sudanese civilians are in greater danger than ever, as ethnically motivated attacks by warring parties are becoming "increasingly common." The warning comes amid reports of an imminent battle for control of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. The conflict in Sudan has sparked famine, killed tens of thousands of people, and driven millions from their homes.

Ten million children in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are in dire need of humanitarian assistance – twice as many as in 2020 – largely due to spiraling conflict in the Central Sahel region, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned in an analysis released Friday. According to the UNICEF Child Alert, nearly 4 million children are at risk in neighboring countries as hostilities between armed groups and national security forces spill across borders.

United Nations investigators say that human rights violations and abuse in Syria are sowing the seeds for further violence and radicalization, despite diplomatic efforts to stabilize the situation in the country, including through its re-admission to the League of Arab States. The three-member Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria presented this bleak outlook Friday to the UN Human Rights Council.

Due to the wide-reaching impacts of Israel’s war and its ongoing blocking of aid deliveries, famine is projected to occur anytime between now and May 2024 in northern Gaza, according to a new report published today by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The rest of the Gaza Strip is also at the risk of famine if hostilities do not cease and humanitarian assistance at scale does not reach those most in need.

Hospitals in Gaza are on the verge of total shutdown as more have come under intense bombardment. Almost two thirds of all hospitals in Gaza are now completely out of service, and the rest are struggling to keep functioning while civilian casualties continue to rise. Bombardments and armed clashes around the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City have intensified since Saturday afternoon.

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.

The Myanmar Armed Forces have carried out deadly airstrikes which reportedly killed as many as 100 people in an opposition stronghold in the northwest on Tuesday. The air strike is one of the deadliest attacks on civilians since Myanmar's military seized power in a coup in February 2021. According to media reports, most of the injured and dead are women and children.

On Wednesday, United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk condemned the recent surge in deadly attacks by the Rwandan-backed M23 and other armed groups against civilians in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo). According to the UN human rights office (OHCHR), at least 490 civilians were killed in these attacks in July alone.

A senior United Nations official has called Wednesday for a negotiated solution to the conflict in Sudan, saying there is no alternative. Meanwhile, UN agencies warn health conditions are deteriorating in Sudan and neighboring countries as growing numbers of people flee escalating fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

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.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned Wednesday that an additional 2 - 2.5 million people in Sudan are expected to slip into hunger in the coming months as a result of the ongoing violence in the country. This would take acute food insecurity in Sudan to record levels, with more than 19 million people affected, two fifths of the population.