Refugees

Amid the catastrophic human rights situation and dire humanitarian crisis in the Caribbean country, the UN human rights expert for Haiti has called on all states not to forcibly return anyone to Haiti. This statement comes as more than 121,000 women, children, and men have been deported to Haiti between January and June of this year.

In Niger, a country already affected by multiple crises, humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are warning that further instability could strongly deteriorate the living conditions of the most vulnerable people, and hamper the humanitarian response. In a joined statement Saturday, the NGOs said the combination of sanctions and conflict could have devastating effects on the lives of over 4.3 million people in the country who are already in need of humanitarian assistance.

At least 46 people, half of them children, were killed early Monday in a militia attack on a camp for displaced people in the northeastern province of Ituri - the latest in a series of attacks by non-state armed groups on forcibly displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo, DRC). United Nations agencies have condemned the attack and expressed shock and horror at its brutality.

The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) around the world reached 71.1 million across 110 countries and territories at the end of 2022, a sharp increase of 20 percent from the previous year, according to a new report released Thursday. The Global Report on Internal Displacement 2023 (GRID 2023) by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) says rapidly escalating conflict and violence in countries such as Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and climate related disasters such as flooding in Pakistan forced millions of people to flee in the past year.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the escalation of hostilities in north-west Syria has developed rapidly since Tuesday night. Shelling and airstrikes on front lines in the cities of Idleb and western Aleppo have escalated, leading to clashes and changes of control between warring parties. The renewed fighting has exacerbated the already dire humanitarian situation.

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown, has strongly denounced a wave of Russian attacks that began Thursday night and lasted through Friday on populated areas across the country. At least 30 civilians were reportedly killed, with more than 150 others injured. Ukrainian authorities said the death toll will likely increase further as rescue operations continue.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned today that intense fighting and hostilities continues to uproot thousands of civilians monthly in the front-line community of Kupiansk, in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, where constant bombardment has destroyed homes and other civilian infrastructure. According to local authorities and humanitarians on the ground, those who remain in the area in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection.

The United Nations Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region has told the UN Security Council Wednesday that the fragile ceasefire between the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and the Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) rebels in North Kivu Province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo) seems to be holding. Meanwhile, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says the security situation in neighboring Ituri Province remains extremely concerning due to ongoing attacks against civilians. 

The non-governmental organization (NGO) Danish Refugee Council (DRC) predicts that global forced displacement will surge in the next two years, with 4.2 million people newly displaced in 2025 alone, and a further 2.5 million people expected to flee their communities in search of safety and protection in 2026. The grim forecast comes at a time when global displacement is already at an all-time high, with some 123 million people currently forcibly displaced around the world.

The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on Sunday issued a stark warning about the deepening humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli authorities maintain a blockade on the delivery of humanitarian aid and commercial goods for more than two months. In a statement, HCT, which coordinates relief efforts in Gaza and the West Bank, also condemned Israeli efforts to dismantle the current aid system.

While heavy Israeli bombardments, from the air, sea and land, have continued almost uninterrupted, a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, a part of the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). The calamitous deterioration of the situation follows the complete blockade on electricity, fuel, water, and food supplies from Israel into Gaza, and after the Israeli military requested all people in northern Gaza, to flee to the south within 24 hours.

Severe flooding continues to wreak havoc in South Sudan, affecting nearly 270,000 people in 12 counties across four states: Jonglei, Unity, Upper Nile, and Central Equatoria, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday. These floods come at a time when the country is already facing an alarming humanitarian crisis, with 9.3 million people in need of assistance and 7.7 million experiencing acute hunger.

The United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) said Friday that in the first six months of this year, approximately 11,600 children are believed to have made the dangerous journey across the Central Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe and nearly 300 have died. Both figures are double those from the same time last year.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has expressed great alarm today as violent clashes between non-state armed groups and government forces drive hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo). In February alone, nearly 300,000 people fled across Rutshuru and Masisi territories in North Kivu Province, UNHCR said.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday that more than one million people in Myanmar will be cut off from life-saving food assistance from April due to a critical funding shortfall. The warning comes as escalating conflict, displacement and restricted access are driving up food aid needs, with an estimated 15.2 million people - nearly a third of Myanmar's population - threatened by hunger in 2025.

Seven years after the historic peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), entire remote communities remain caught in an endless cycle of conflict and confinements. The international humanitarian organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) today strongly urged armed groups to cease confinement strategies, allowing people to regain fundamental rights and essential services. 

In the nearly 1,000 days since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of civilians have been killed, the country's energy capacity is on the brink, and drones are terrifying frontline communities, the UN's top aid official in the country said on Friday. Speaking in Geneva, Matthias Schmale warned that winter posed a critical challenge and described the anguish felt by Ukrainians as the war rages on.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has called for an urgent and significant scale-up of interventions and funding to respond to the escalating number of cases of sexual violence reported against children and women in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo). Gender-based violence (GBV) against girls and women in North Kivu province increased by 37 percent during the first three months of 2023 compared to the same period a year ago, UNICEF said on Thursday.