OCHA

Senior United Nations officials warned the UN Security Council on Wednesday that the world cannot afford to lose focus on Syria as the humanitarian and political crisis continues to devastate the country. Across the country, 16.7 million people - more than 70 percent of the population - are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection, with women and children particularly affected.

The United Nations says Israel continues to block aid from reaching northern Gaza, where famine is imminent and people, mostly children, are already dying of malnutrition and starvation. A senior UN official is warning of a catastrophic outcome for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in precarious conditions in the war-torn Gaza Strip unless humanitarian aid deliveries into the territory are massively expanded in the coming days.

The 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan for Mali was launched this week in Bamako, the capital of the country. The United Nations, along with humanitarian partner organizations, will need over US$700 million to assist more than 4.1 million people across the Sahel country in 2024, UN officials announced on Thursday. An estimated 7.1 million people in Mali require humanitarian assistance this year, among them are some 3.8 million children.

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 United Nations relief chief, Martin Griffiths, warns that nearly nine months of war have tipped Sudan into a downward spiral that only grows more ruinous by the day. In a statement issued Thursday, Griffiths said that in 2024, the international community – particularly those with influence on the parties to the conflict in Sudan – must take decisive and immediate action to stop the fighting and safeguard humanitarian operations to help millions of civilians.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk has warned that intensified fighting in Myanmar's Rakhine State between the military and the non-state armed group Arakan Army (AA), as well as tensions between the Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine communities, pose a grave threat to civilians. In a statement on Friday, Türk warned of the grave risk of a repeat of past atrocities, such as the horrific state-backed persecution of the Rohingya in 2017.

The ongoing ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is allowing United Nations agencies to provide life-saving food to more desperate people, but the UN warns that greater access is necessary to prevent famine from spreading. Since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, the World Food Programme (WFP) has brought in over 6,700 metric tons of food — enough to feed nearly half a million people for two weeks. However, this falls far short of the daily target of around 2,000 tons.

The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the ongoing offensive launched last week by the rebel group Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). On Saturday, the non-state armed group captured the town of Masisi in the eastern province of North Kivu. Intense clashes between the Congolese army (FARDC) and the M23 have forced more than 100,000 people to flee their homes in less than a week.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) are warning of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with high levels of acute food insecurity and surging emergency hunger, particularly in the conflict-ridden eastern provinces. According to the latest food security analysis, 26.6 million Congolese people are projected to face crisis levels of acute hunger or worse by early 2026.

United Nations agencies are deeply concerned about the escalating humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), particularly in the Masisi territory in the eastern province of North Kivu. Fighting between the Congolese army and the M23 armed group has displaced at least 135,000 people in different areas of the territory in the past two weeks, adding to an already dire situation in North Kivu.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly (GA) on Wednesday, Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), urged UN member states to act to prevent the implementation of Israeli Knesset legislation targeting UNRWA.  He also urged states to maintain funding for UNRWA and not to withhold or divert funds on the assumption that the organization can no longer operate.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed grave concern on Tuesday as intensifying attacks on villages and the rapid spread of the conflict into previously safe districts forced tens of thousands of people to flee across northern Mozambique. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), recent attacks have displaced some 108,000 people from Memba District in Nampula Province alone.

According to the international humanitarian organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), the number of people forced to flee their homes in Colombia has doubled since the historic peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was signed eight years ago. While more than 130,000 people were forced to flee in Colombia in 2016, NRC estimates that the number of newly displaced people will exceed 260,000 in 2024.

Nearly 3 million children – the highest number on record – need humanitarian support in Haiti, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned Thursday. Children face staggering levels of violence that have exacerbated hunger and malnutrition in a country already mired in poverty and a resurgence of cholera. Meanwhile, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) held a special meeting Friday on food insecurity in Haiti amid the rapidly deteriorating situation in the country.