War

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Monday of a sharp deterioration in the situation in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur State. This warning comes amid reports that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured the Sudanese army headquarters in the city on Sunday. In light of the situation, UN relief chief Tom Fletcher has called for an immediate ceasefire in El Fasher, across Darfur, and throughout Sudan.

As Syria enters its fourteenth year of civil war with no political resolution in sight, United Nations aid agencies are appealing to the international community to remember the plight of millions of people who continue to suffer from violence, devastation, destitution and abuse. Thirteen years of crisis have taken an unimaginable toll on the Syrian people, and the UN warns the crisis continues to wreak havoc on the population, worsening an already dire humanitarian situation.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns of a sharp decline in the humanitarian situation in El Fasher, the besieged capital of Sudan’s North Darfur State. OCHA reports that civilians in El Fasher continue to endure relentless attacks, acute hunger, and cholera. The population faces daily threats from shelling, airstrikes, and drone attacks — with fierce clashes reported in north-eastern districts of the state capital in recent weeks.

The displacement crisis prompted by ongoing conflict in Sudan continues unabated, with nearly six million people forced out of their homes and women and children making up nearly 90 percent of those uprooted, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Wednesday. On Thursday, the international humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said that six months into the war in Sudan, people's lives are still in danger from bombings, shelling and shootings, while the country's health system is on the edge of collapse.

Deep concerns persist for the tens of thousands of people believed to be trapped in the town of El Fasher, located in the western Darfur region of Sudan. However, United Nations aid agencies believe they may soon gain access to the embattled city, where famine has been confirmed. Meanwhile, in South Kordofan State, drone strikes in and around the state capital, Kadugli, and the town of Dilling, point to a rapidly deteriorating security situation.

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.

Twenty months into the war in Sudan that has created the world's largest humanitarian crisis, the country continues to slide into a widening famine characterized by widespread hunger and a significant surge in acute malnutrition. According to a report released on Tuesday, the IPC Famine Review Committee (FRC) has identified famine in at least five areas, four months after famine was first confirmed in the Zamzam camp for displaced people in Sudan's North Darfur State.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday that approximately 19.5 million people — two out of every five in Sudan — are currently experiencing crisis-level acute hunger or worse nationwide. Sudan is also facing a severe nutrition crisis, with an estimated 825,000 children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

Six months of war have plunged Sudan into one of the worst "humanitarian nightmares" in recent history, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, said on Sunday, calling on the warring parties to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law, and urging donors to step up their support. He also highlighted the growing need for humanitarian assistance in neighboring countries, to which more than a million people have already fled.

Time is running out for millions of people in Sudan who are "at imminent risk of famine" because the country's warring parties are preventing aid from reaching them, major aid agencies warn. Nineteen global humanitarian organizations, including twelve United Nations agencies, urged Sudan's warring parties on Friday to stop blocking food aid from reaching millions of people suffering from acute hunger.

A new report by the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) released on Friday accuses all parties involved in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) eastern provinces of North and South Kivu of committing severe violations of international humanitarian law that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report comes as continued violence in the eastern part of the country continues to claim civilian lives and cause new displacement.

Following reports of a significant troop build-up by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied forces around the town of El Obeid in Sudan, as well as intensified drone strikes and artillery shelling, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, issued a stark warning on Thursday that an imminent offensive could result in the commission of further serious international crimes, further deepening the already catastrophic impact on the civilian population.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has expressed extreme concern over the impact of escalating violence on civilians in Sudan, especially in Kordofan and North Darfur. On Friday, OCHA reported that the humanitarian situation in the besieged towns of Dilling and Kadugli in South Kordofan has continued to deteriorate.

United Nations humanitarian workers in war-torn Sudan on Friday highlighted the rapidly growing needs of the more than 100,000 displaced people sheltering in the city of El Obeid. The capital of North Kordofan State is home to large numbers of displaced people and is also a critical logistics hub for the humanitarian response across the wider Kordofan region, which supports relief efforts in areas of acute need, including the cities of Dilling and Kadugli in South Kordofan State.

Children are being denied access to life-saving humanitarian aid in conflict zones around the world in blatant disregard for international law, a senior United Nations official told the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday. Speakers at the hearing focused in particular on the alarming situation for children in Gaza and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Sudan, Haiti, Yemen, Myanmar, Mali, Afghanistan and Ukraine.