Refugees

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says it is deeply dismayed that repeated calls to rescue and safely disembark people stranded on boats in the Andaman Sea and Strait of Malacca are not being heeded. UNHCR warned in a statement Friday that inaction from states to save lives is resulting in more human misery and tragedies, each and every passing day.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday that over 165,000 people have fled increasing tensions and conflict in South Sudan in the past three months, seeking safety both within the country and across borders, thereby deepening an already dire humanitarian situation across the region. With more than 2.3 million South Sudanese living as refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, South Sudan remains one of the largest displacement crises in Africa.

Armed groups, including one linked to the Armed Forces of the Central African Republic (CAR), have committed grave human rights violations in the Haut Oubangui region in the south-east of the country, mainly against Muslim communities and Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers, according to a new UN report. Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in CAR remains critical as the population continues to face insecurity, while the ongoing war in Sudan exacerbates the situation.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is warning that the number of children requiring emergency treatment for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh has surged by 27 percent in February 2025 compared to the same period last year, pushing more young children into life-threatening hunger. The warning comes as severe cuts in food and nutrition assistance loom, putting the lives of thousands of boys and girls at risk.

The European Union (EU) announced on Friday €63 million (US$75 million) in humanitarian aid to help millions affected by the ongoing conflict in Myanmar, as well as nearly 1.2 million Rohingya refugees living in neighboring countries, primarily Bangladesh. The European Commission’s allocation comes as the crisis sparked by the military coup in Myanmar enters its sixth year.

More than 60,000 Somalis, mainly women and children, have fled to Ethiopia’s Somali region in the past few weeks to escape violent clashes and insecurity in the city of Laascaanood (Laas Caanood), in Somalia’s Sool region, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports. More than half of them arrived earlier this week, UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado Mur said Friday at a news conference in Geneva.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed deep concern on Thursday regarding reports that two boats carrying over 500 passengers may have capsized near Myanmar's coast in recent days. According to preliminary reports, the vessels departed Myanmar's Rakhine State in late June, carrying primarily Rohingya people, some of whom had reportedly traveled from refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has warned today that aid fatigue is growing at a time when a record number of people are fleeing conflict, persecution, human rights violations, climate change, and grinding poverty. According to the latest figures, 110 million people around the world are currently displaced within their home country or have sought refuge in other countries. 

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.

The international humanitarian organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on Monday called attention to the plight of people fleeing the war in Sudan and to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, as more than 500,000 refugees and returnees have crossed into the neighboring country. Meanwhile, intercommunal violence is affecting the safe delivery of humanitarian aid in the disputed Abyei region following deadly attacks on Saturday and Sunday.

A new United Nations report warns that people forced to flee war, violence and persecution are increasingly finding themselves on the front lines of the global climate crisis, exposed to a deadly combination of threats but without the funding and support to adapt. The warning comes as three-quarters of the world's more than 123 million forcibly displaced people live in countries heavily exposed to climate change.

The United Nations, its humanitarian partners, and the Chadian government launched the 2026 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) in N'Djamena, Chad's capital, on Friday, with the goal of supporting millions of people across the country. The plan requests US$986 million, including $540 million for refugees, to assist 3.4 million of the most vulnerable people in Chad.

As conflict continues to rage across parts of Sudan, including North Darfur State and the Kordofan region, pockets of relative safety have emerged over the past four months — spurring more than one million internally displaced Sudanese to return home, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Since last year, a further 320,000 refugees have returned to Sudan, mainly from Egypt and South Sudan, some to assess the current situation before deciding to return.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) says its staff are continuing to deliver aid to people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, who depend on them "for their very survival," days after an Israeli parliamentary ban on its activities went into effect. As the humanitarian operation in Gaza continues, UNRWA says it is committed “to stay and deliver until it is no longer possible to do so.”