Underfunded Emergency

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that armed violence continues to displace people in Haiti. More than 10,000 people have fled their homes in the Artibonite and West departments in recent days. At the same time, funding shortfalls continue to hinder the work of humanitarian organizations.

Talks to stop the fighting in Sudan and alleviate the resulting humanitarian crisis continued Wednesday in Geneva, where nearly two dozen countries met to discuss a path to a ceasefire and a transition to a peaceful governance system that represents all Sudanese people. Although international engagement on Sudan is gaining momentum, a clear commitment from the warring parties to end the fighting is still lacking.

More than 250,000 people have now fled renewed fighting in Yemen, the United Nations said Tuesday, expressing particular concern for those sheltering in the southwestern city of Taiz and its surrounding governorate, where access is "essentially blocked." This development follows the resumption of clashes last month between Houthi fighters and the internationally recognized government based in Aden.

Nearly 19.2 million people in Afghanistan are projected to experience acute food insecurity during the lean season (November 2026 to April 2027), according to a warning issued on Thursday by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP), who cited the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis. This is an increase from 15.9 million people in September–October 2026.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Wednesday that the escalating conflict in Yemen has cut off life-saving assistance to 800,000 people ― a situation that could rapidly spiral into a humanitarian catastrophe. Shifting frontlines, blocked roads, and growing insecurity severely restrict humanitarian access in the city of Taiz and other areas affected by the conflict.

After almost two decades of progress, global hunger is rising again, driven by wars, climate shocks, and economic crises, according to the 2026 Global Hunger Index (GHI), released on Wednesday. The report reveals that hunger has worsened in 32 countries and that 57 countries are on track to miss even low targets for hunger by 2030.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) issued an alert on Monday, warning of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Sudan's Darfur and Kordofan regions. The risk of famine is growing due to conflict, displacement, drought, and the critical underfunding of humanitarian response efforts. New evidence published by the IPC points to a rapid rise in acute malnutrition across much of Darfur, raising further concerns about the survival of children and other vulnerable groups.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed increased concern on Friday about the deepening displacement crisis in the Central Sahel. Nearly 4 million people have been uprooted across Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, including over 818,000 refugees and asylum seekers, a figure that is roughly twice the number recorded six years ago.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) expressed alarm on Monday over the continued deadly violence in Sudan, including attacks against humanitarian operations, alongside rising displacement and worsening food insecurity. Meanwhile, a coalition of international aid organizations has called for urgent protection of the nation's upcoming harvest, as Sudan enters a critical period to prevent another catastrophic hunger crisis.

The humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, MSF) warns that Israel is "progressively asphyxiating Gaza" through a systematic campaign that is dismantling the essential conditions for human survival. As the livable space shrinks, the means of survival are being destroyed by continued violence, the deliberate blockade of essential supplies, and the destruction of healthcare and vital infrastructure.

The United Nations allocated US$160 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) on Friday to support life-saving assistance in 12 of the world’s most underfunded humanitarian crises, spanning Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. This allocation is part of a broader effort to assist 87 million people facing the most severe humanitarian crises this year.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) expressed alarm on Wednesday over the recent surge in gang violence in the Artibonite Department in Haiti. According to local authorities, at least 11 people were killed and homes were set on fire in the commune of Gros-Morne on Monday. Residents fled to surrounding neighborhoods and the commune of Gonaïves to seek safety.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk on Tuesday deplored military airstrikes that reportedly killed at least 50 people, including vendors, customers, transport workers, and other civilians, among them children and women, at a market in Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine State. The attack in Kyauktaw came just hours before Malaysia reportedly deported approximately 1,500 Myanmar nationals back to the war-torn country.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is warning that continued severe funding cuts are pushing refugee support and protection structures towards breaking point in the world’s main displacement situations. According to a UNHCR report published on Tuesday, nearly 8.3 million refugees and other forcibly displaced and stateless people are on the brink of losing access to crucial assistance.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that escalating violence in eastern DRC continues to displace and endanger civilians. This surge in conflict is unfolding against the backdrop of the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded in the country, as well as other health and humanitarian emergencies nationwide.

According to new food security data released on Wednesday, millions of people across Somalia continue to face high levels of hunger, and acute malnutrition among children is set to worsen over the coming months. United Nations agencies and the Somali government are warning that funding shortages and flooding associated with the anticipated El Niño are expected to worsen the situation from October to December 2026.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that, as fighting in Yemen continues and the toll on civilians rises, relief efforts are struggling to keep up with the growing needs and supplies are running low. Although the UN and its partners are ramping up support for displaced families and those in need, the relief response is facing ongoing funding shortages and access limitations.

The nutritional situation for hundreds of thousands of children continues to deteriorate across Haiti, while unrelenting violence by armed groups threatens to worsen conditions. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the World Food Programme (WFP), more than 250,000 children under five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition between June 2026 and May 2027.

Since December 2024, more than 3.8 million Syrians have voluntarily returned home after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's government, marking the largest wave of returns in Syria in decades. However, millions of people remain displaced, and insecurity, explosive remnants of war, rising costs, and severe humanitarian funding gaps continue to threaten the country's fragile recovery.

The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo) continues to spread across the vast country, despite some success in containing it. Aid officials renewed their call for international support on Tuesday to help responders on the ground. While there has been progress in some places, aid agencies warn that cases continue to rise exponentially in other locations.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is warning that ongoing hostilities in Yemen are forcing people to flee their homes, causing civilian casualties and putting already strained humanitarian operations under increasing pressure. According to OCHA, around 125,000 people had been displaced by renewed fighting as of Monday.

With severe shelter shortages and heightened risks from ongoing fighting and heavy rains continuing to plague hundreds of thousands of displaced people across Sudan, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned on Monday that Sudan’s emergency relief supply via the Common Humanitarian Pipeline could collapse within weeks.  This warning comes amid ongoing drone strikes and other hostilities that endanger civilians and force them from their homes in the regions of Darfur, Kordofan, as well as Blue Nile State.

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan expressed deep concern on Thursday following its latest visit to the country, emphasizing that renewed violence, political tensions, shrinking civic space, entrenched corruption, and persistent impunity continue to endanger civilians and the country's political transition. The Commission warned that the window to prevent further deterioration is narrowing.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that an escalation in fighting is devastating communities in Yemen that are already struggling to survive after more than a decade of conflict. According to humanitarian agencies, approximately 34,000 people have been displaced in the governorates of Taiz and Al-Hodeidah since Thursday, when hostilities escalated. Civilians are reportedly among those killed and injured as clashes intensify.

Amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes and scarce resources, a growing number of women-headed households in war-torn Gaza face “impossible decisions” every day, UN humanitarian officials said on Tuesday. According to a new analysis from UN Women, nearly one in four households in Gaza is headed by a woman, amounting to an estimated 86,290 families. This includes widows and women whose husbands are missing, detained, severely injured, forcibly disappeared, or whose fate remains unknown.

The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan released a new report on Thursday warning that foreign recruitment and external support networks are fueling the war in Sudan, strengthening the military capabilities of the country’s warring parties and enabling increasingly sophisticated military operations with devastating consequences for civilians.

The United Nations is sounding the alarm over the rapidly escalating Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), warning that the virus is spreading at an unprecedented rate in a region already plagued by conflict, displacement, and acute hunger. The country's health authorities have reported 6,100 confirmed cases of Ebola and 2,950 related deaths, resulting in a case fatality ratio of 48 percent.

A new report prepared by the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) reveals that the human rights situation in Myanmar, particularly for minority communities, has plummeted to a new low, citing the brutal abuse of the Rohingya population and the devastating impact of illicit economies. Released on Tuesday, the report details how unrelenting violence and a conflict economy expose civilian populations to untold misery.

The United Nations’ relief chief issued a scathing rebuke to the international community on Monday, warning that the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan is being fueled by a global "lack of action" despite a clear understanding of the scale of the crisis. An unprecedented 33.7 million people, including more than 20 million children, currently require assistance and protection as a result of the war, which began more than three years ago.

The global funding crisis is taking a growing toll on the most vulnerable children in Somalia, where hundreds of health and nutrition facilities have been forced to close, according to a warning issued on Friday by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Severe drought is compounding the emergency and threatening the survival of communities, as some 1.9 million children suffer from acute malnutrition.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday that more than 650,000 refugees and asylum seekers in South Sudan risk losing access to lifesaving food, nutrition, and other assistance due to critical funding shortfalls, leaving families who fled war and hunger with nowhere else to turn. This funding crisis is unfolding against the backdrop of one of the world’s most severe hunger emergencies.

United Nations relief chief Tom Fletcher told the UN Security Council on Thursday that the convergence of climate shocks and renewed regional tension threatens to deepen the humanitarian crisis in Yemen as hunger rises and health services crumble. Fletcher warned that the Yemeni people's enduring resilience should not be used to justify the international community's failure to address the collapsing humanitarian situation.

According to investigators appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, Myanmar's military has carried out a sustained campaign of deliberate attacks on civilians, including airstrikes on homes, schools, and camps for displaced people, as well as arbitrary detentions, torture, and sexual violence. These findings are included in the annual report of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), which covers the period from July 2025 to June 2026 and was released on Tuesday.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Monday that ongoing conflict and displacement, coupled with severe funding shortages, are exacerbating humanitarian needs across Sudan. In North Kordofan State, insecurity around the city of El Obeid continues to endanger civilians, forcing them to flee and increasing humanitarian needs.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports limited improvements in the flow of critical supplies into the Gaza Strip. However, needs remain immense, and populations continue to depend heavily on aid. Recent data indicate a 33 percent rise in the volume of supplies that aid agencies brought into Gaza in July compared to June.

In a new alert on Tuesday, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said that one in three Afghans is now experiencing acute food insecurity, and the organization lacks the resources to contain the deepening crisis. The dire hunger crisis in Afghanistan affects 14 million people, including babies who are fed weak tea and a little bread by their despairing, dirt-poor parents.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Wednesday of an alarming increase in gender-based violence in Haiti, especially against women and girls, driven by ongoing insecurity. From April to June of this year, aid agencies documented over 3,000 incidents of gender-based violence, with over 1,000 reported in June alone.

As the war intensifies in the town of El Obeid in Sudan’s North Kordofan State, filling a jerrycan with water has become extremely dangerous for women and girls. During the day, drones attack water points, and at night, women who venture out to fill a bucket risk being raped. On Friday, UN Women warned of this dual terror, which has made accessing water a deadly gamble, while access to food, healthcare, and other essential services is severely limited, particularly in displacement sites.

One month after two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela’s north-central coast, humanitarian organizations are drawing attention to the long-term effects communities are still facing, including displacement, damaged infrastructure, and disrupted essential services. The earthquakes killed nearly 5,400 people, injured more than 16,000, and left thousands homeless.

A new analysis released on Thursday shows improvements in food security and child nutrition across the Gaza Strip. However, the United Nations has cautioned that this progress, which is largely due to expanded access to humanitarian assistance, remains fragile due to severe constraints resulting from Israeli military operations, access restrictions, and shortages of essential supplies.

Syria’s political transition reached an important milestone with the establishment of a People’s Assembly and a Constitutional Supreme Court, senior United Nations officials told the Security Council on Tuesday. However, they warned that continued insecurity, Israeli incursions, other Israeli military activity, and a severely underfunded humanitarian response threaten the country’s progress.

A network of international and national humanitarian organizations issued a stark warning Monday that Yemen is reaching a "dangerous tipping point.", as escalating hunger, eroding resilience, and collapsing humanitarian funding pushes millions of people deeper into crisis. This warning comes as an estimated 22.3 million people, nearly two-thirds of Yemen's population, are in need of humanitarian assistance.

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.

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.

While needs are rising rapidly across the world, the United Nations is warning that humanitarian organizations providing life-saving services to women and girls are running out of money. A new UN Women report, published on Friday, reveals that at least one million women and girls have lost access to vital support since January 2025 — a figure which is believed to be much higher in reality.

United Nations relief chief Tom Fletcher called on UN member states and donors Wednesday for an additional US$296 million to provide life-saving support to 1.3 million people affected by devastating earthquakes in Venezuela over the next six months. Two weeks after the earthquakes hit, Venezuelan authorities have reported more than 3,800 deaths, at least 16,740 injuries, and 6,462 rescues since the start of the emergency. Some 18,000 people have been left homeless.