Refugees

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that the global hunger crisis is deepening. The organization expects 318 million people to face crisis-level hunger or worse next year — more than double the number in 2019. However, the world's response remains "slow, fragmented, and underfunded."

United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk called Friday on Myanmar's military to end all attacks on civilians and civilian objects. He said the unremitting violence against civilians, despite a ceasefire declared after the March earthquakes, underscores the need for the parties to the conflict to commit to and implement a genuine and lasting nationwide cessation of hostilities and a return to civilian rule.

United Nations officials have called on Israel and Palestinian armed groups to stop targeting civilians and allow them access to basic services.  UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Tuesday issued an urgent plea to all states with influence to take steps to defuse the “powder keg” situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). He stressed that international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law must be respected in all circumstances.

The United Nations and its humanitarian partners released the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) for Burkina Faso on Tuesday, supporting the country's national humanitarian efforts. The HNRP requests US$658.5 million for key sectors, including food security, health, and essential services, as approximately 4.5 million people require humanitarian assistance.

February 1 marks three years since Myanmar's military toppled the country's democratically elected government, setting off a bloody civil war that continues to tear apart the country of 57 million people.  Some 18.6 million people in Myanmar – one-third of the population – urgently need humanitarian assistance this year – compared to one million before the military takeover on February 1, 2021.

Amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, renewed conflict and airstrikes in Jonglei State have forced over 100,000 people to flee, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The majority of those displaced are women, children, and older people. The insecurity has also led several humanitarian organizations to relocate their staff, disrupting essential activities.

According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), 25.6 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo) continue to face crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity. In a joint statement on Thursday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that armed violence, ongoing conflict and soaring food prices are fueling acute food insecurity among displaced people and returnees.

The European Union (EU) says it is gravely concerned by the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo, DRC), which recently led to an immediate system-wide scale-up by the United Nations of humanitarian operations in the eastern part of the country. In a statement Friday by its High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, the EU also expressed outrage at the levels of violence and atrocities that continue to be perpetrated by armed groups with impunity against civilians. 

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. 

The United Nations (UN) says that millions of people in Ukraine are without electricity, water or heating following a wave of Russian missile attacks on Tuesday that hit critical infrastructure in at least 16 of the country’s 24 regions and in the capital, Kyiv.  According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the damage to civilian infrastructure comes at a critical time when the temperature is dropping below zero, raising concerns about a serious humanitarian crisis during the harsh Ukrainian winter if people are unable to heat th

The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been displaced last week following clashes between the Congolese armed forces and the Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) rebel group in North Kivu province in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo). Since early March, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group has reportedly killed at least 97 civilians in the Beni territory, also in North Kivu Province. 

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.

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 report that fighting continues between the Congolese army and the “Mouvement du 23 mars” (M23) rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu Province. A United Nations spokesman also said Monday that at least 32 civilians have been killed in two separate attacks by other rebel groups in neighboring Ituri province.

East African head of states have renewed their call for an immediate ceasefire by all parties in the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo). The call came at an extra-ordinary summit in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura on Saturday. The leaders of the East African Community (EAC) also demanded the withdrawal of all foreign armed troops.

Global solidarity is urgently needed to help vulnerable people in the Horn of Africa survive a rapidly unfolding humanitarian catastrophe, driven by the longest and most severe drought in recent history, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) said in a joined statement on Monday. As the drought is set to run well into 2023, aid organizations must prepare now to continue their life-saving work in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya in response to extremely high humanitarian needs through to next year.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is warning that the humanitarian situation in North Kivu Province, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo), continues to deteriorate amid renewed clashes between armed groups. Since early February, intensified violence has triggered large-scale displacement, forcing thousands to flee multiple times in search of safety.