Rohingya

The United Nations and its humanitarian partners on Friday launched the 2025 humanitarian appeal for Myanmar, seeking $1.1 billion to reach 5.5 million people with life-saving assistance over the next year. With 12 out of 15 regions impacted by armed conflict, Myanmar faces one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, as 19.9 million people - nearly a third of them children - will need some form of relief aid in 2025.

Hunger has reached alarming levels in Myanmar and the situation is set to deteriorate further in 2025, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned on Wednesday. A staggering 15 million people are expected to go hungry this year, rising from 13.3 million in 2024. The warning comes as Myanmar nears four years since the military seized power in the Southeast Asian country.

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.

United Nations Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) Martin Griffiths has today called for expanded humanitarian access and increased funding to assist the 18 million people in need of aid across Myanmar. The call comes as Myanmar’s overall humanitarian and human rights situation has deteriorated to alarming levels, exacerbated by the military’s strategy to prevent life-saving humanitarian aid from reaching those who desperately need it.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is urgently appealing to Myanmar’s neighboring countries to immediately stop forced returns of Myanmar nationals seeking safety from serious harm. Sending them back to the country is "placing countless lives at risk" and a violation of international law, the UN agency said in a statement released Thursday.

A new United Nations report warns that acute food insecurity is worsening in 16 hunger hotspots across the globe, which threatens to push millions more people into famine or risk of famine, with time running out to avert widespread starvation. The report identifies armed conflict and violence, economic collapse, climate extremes, and an unprecedented decline in humanitarian funding as the main drivers of acute hunger.

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."

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says it is closely monitoring developments in Myanmar, where anti-military armed groups and their allies have made significant advances, and several hundred soldiers had reportedly chosen to lay down their weapons. In the fighting so far, around 70 people have been reportedly killed and over 90 wounded, with more than 200,000 internally displaced since the end of October.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that halfway into 2023, it has only received 20 percent of the US$54.8 billion it needs this year to help people in need around the world. At the same time, the World Food Programme (WFP) continues to cut emergency food aid to millions in urgent need of humanitarian assistance due to severe funding constraints.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warn that acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 18 hunger hotspots – comprising a total of 22 countries or territories including two regions – during the period from November 2023 to April 2024.

Amid rising global humanitarian needs, the European Commission has announced on Wednesday that its initial annual humanitarian aid budget will grow to €1.7 billion in 2023, an increase of about €200 million compared to the previous year.  In 2022, the European Union's (EU) initial humanitarian aid budget was €1.5 billion.

A new report published on Friday states that up to 11.6 million refugees and others forced to flee could lose access to direct humanitarian assistance from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) this year due to major cuts to humanitarian budgets around the world. This figure represents approximately one-third of the people the humanitarian organization assisted last year.

Next year will set another record for humanitarian relief requirements, with 339 million people in need of assistance in 69 countries, an increase of 65 million people compared to the same time last year, the United Nations (UN) and humanitarian partner organizations said today. The estimated cost of the humanitarian response going into 2023 is US$51.5 billion (EUR 49.3 billion), a 25 per cent increase compared to the beginning of 2022.

The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has released US$125 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to boost underfunded humanitarian operations in fourteen countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East. Afghanistan and Yemen top the recipient list with $20 million each. 

The United States administration’s sudden and sweeping suspension of foreign aid has placed millions of lives in peril, according to the human rights organization Amnesty International. In a report released Thursday, Amnesty paints a damning picture of how the abrupt cuts have gutted critical health and humanitarian programs globally, leaving millions facing life-threatening situations.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says a funding shortfall has forced it to cut by one-half food rations for more than 50,000 people in Malawi at the country's only refugee camp. The food cuts come at a time when refugees at the Dzaleka camp, who are mainly from the Great Lakes region, are already facing deteriorating food security.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says it is being forced to drop another 2 million hungry people from food assistance in Afghanistan in September, bringing to 10 million the number of people cut off from its support this year in the country. Due to a massive funding shortfall, WFP will only be able to provide emergency assistance to 3 million of the most vulnerable people per month, the UN agency said in a statement Tuesday.