The ongoing siege and hostilities in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan's North Darfur State, have left at least 782 civilians dead and more than 1,143 injured, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said in a report released on Friday. OHCHR said thousands of civilians are besieged, without guarantees of safe passage out of the city, and at risk of death or injury from indiscriminate attacks by all parties to the conflict. After more than 20 months of war in Sudan, the situation remains in dire in many parts of the country, particularly in Sudan’s Darfur region.
At least 70 people were reportedly killed in attacks carried out by heavily armed gang members in the Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite region of central Haiti between Saturday and Tuesday. Members of the Gran Grif gang stormed the rural Jean-Denis area late Saturday night into Sunday morning, opening fire and burning homes. Nearly 9,000 people were forced to flee as a result of these attacks.
The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon following a large-scale military operation launched by Israel against its northern neighbor this week. Lebanese health officials say nearly 700 people, including more than 50 children, at least 94 women and two UNHCR workers, have been killed and more than 2,000 injured by Israeli airstrikes since Monday.
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.
Humanitarian aid is a complex and multifaceted field involving a network of a wide range of international, regional and national actors, from international organizations and governments to non-governmental organizations and local partner organizations. Each of these actors has a specific role to play in responding to humanitarian crises, providing relief or supporting humanitarian operations.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) says its peacekeepers have stepped up their presence around and inside displacement camps to provide additional security, amid growing fears that the peace agreement will collapse and South Sudan will slide back into war. Meanwhile, high-level political negotiations are underway to convince the country's leaders to avoid the outbreak of a new war, as fighting continues around Ulang in Upper Nile State.
For the second year in a row, Burkina Faso is the world's most neglected displacement crisis, according to a new report by the international humanitarian organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). According to the analysis released Monday, for the first time all three countries in the central Sahel - Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger - are among the top five most ignored crises. Other countries on this year's list are: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Honduras, South Sudan, and Sudan.
Independent investigators appointed by the United Nations have accused Sudan's warring parties of driving the country into a humanitarian abyss by flagrantly disregarding basic human rights and international humanitarian law. The three-member International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan presented its first oral update to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Somalia is showing resilience to persistent security, human rights and socio-economic challenges, but needs continued international support as climate change and natural disasters exacerbate suffering, loss of livelihoods and rights violations, an independent United Nations expert said today. In her new report to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), Isha Dyfan highlighted the ongoing insecurity in the East African country.
Failure to provide timely humanitarian aid and protection to Syrian earthquake victims has cost the lives of many civilians caught in this catastrophic disaster, according to a United Nations-appointed commission of inquiry on Syria. In a statement Monday, the three-member independent body accuses the Syrian government and other parties to that country's conflict, the international community, and the UN of the abandonment of millions of Syrian civilians in dire need.
Sources in Iran report steadily rising numbers of fatalities from Israeli attacks. More than 450 people have reportedly been killed in the country, including dozens of women and children, and more than 1,400 people have reportedly been injured in Israeli airstrikes and missile attacks that began early Friday. Meanwhile, Israeli health authorities say that 24 people have been killed and more than 600 injured by Iranian counter-strikes since Friday.
Children make up about half of all armed gang members in Haiti, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday, calling for their protection to be stepped up. Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) says it is ramping up its operations in Haiti in the face of a hunger crisis caused mainly by violence and displacement. Some 5.5 million Haitians are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2024, a number that is expected to rise.
The year is not yet over, but 2024 has already become the deadliest on record for humanitarian workers, with the war in Gaza driving up the numbers, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday, citing data from the Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD). The grim milestone was reached with the recorded deaths of 281 aid workers globally, surpassing the previous record of 2023.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says the devastating human rights crisis in Sudan has created the world's largest humanitarian catastrophe. Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva on Thursday, Volker Türk also warned of an increasing risk of atrocity crimes and mass deaths from famine as a result of the conflict, which began in April 2023.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday issued an urgent warning about the deepening human rights catastrophe in Haiti, after new figures showed that January was the most violent month in more than two years. Overall, more than 1,100 people were killed, injured, or kidnapped in gang-related violence last month.
Amid the political stalemate in Syria, United Nations officials on Monday urged the UN Security Council to maintain its focus on the country, stressing that the consequences of neglecting the more than 13-year-old conflict could be grave for both the country and the region. Syria remains one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, with at least 16.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and some 13.6 million people displaced from their homes.
A top United Nations official has expressed grave concern over the rapid expansion of the M23 armed group in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo), particularly in North Kivu province and its spillover into neighboring South Kivu province. Briefing the UN Security Council on Monday, Bintou Keita, the UN special envoy to the DRC, described the situation as "one of the most serious, complex and neglected humanitarian crises of our times."
As civilians lining up for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip continue to be killed by Israeli forces, speakers at the United Nations Security Council meeting on Wednesday urged Israel to lift restrictions on aid operations in Gaza, called for a return to UN-led delivery mechanisms, and stressed the urgent need for a ceasefire and the protection of civilians. Among them was UN relief chief Tom Fletcher, who told members that "we are beyond vocabulary to describe conditions in Gaza."
Insecurity persists in Somalia, with attacks by extremist group Al-Shabaab and fighting in the Laascaanood (Las Anod) region taking a heavy toll on civilians, the UN envoy for the country told the UN Security Council on Thursday. While humanitarian needs in Somalia remain high, improved access to water and pasture has alleviated the impact of the severe and protracted historic drought, she said.
Senior UN officials warn that the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) decades-long human rights crisis is on a downward spiral as armed clashes, attacks on schools and hospitals, sexual violence and other forms of abuse escalate. Opening a discussion at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, UN rights chief Volker Türk urged the international community to pay more attention to the plight of Congolese civilians.
