November 2022

More than half of all children living in conflict areas in 2021 – an estimated 230 million – lived in the deadliest conflict countries, a 9% increase from the previous year, reveals new analysis from the humanitarian organization Save the Children International released today. High-intensity conflict zones are defined as conflict zones with more than 1,000 battle-related deaths in a year. The report also shows that about 449 million children worldwide were living in a conflict zone in 2021, a slight drop from the previous year.

Humanitarian needs in dozens of conflict zones from Yemen to Somalia, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo are rising, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warns today. The humanitarian organization fears that this pattern will continue in 2023. ICRC says for the millions of people in these conflicts reliant on humanitarian assistance greater support is desperately needed to save lives and avert further suffering.

Following the signing of a peace agreement earlier this month, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has delivered over 2,400 metric tons of food, medical, nutrition and other lifesaving supplies to Ethiopia’s Tigray region. However, the UN agency warned in a statement Friday that deliveries of humanitarian assistance within Tigray are not matching the needs. WFP and its partners organizations urgently need access to all parts of the northern region to deliver food and nutrition assistance to the most vulnerable people.

More than 50,000 people worldwide have lost their lives during their migration since 2014, according to a new report published today by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The United Nations agency says despite the increasing loss of life, little action has been taken by governments in countries of origin, transit, and destination to address the ongoing global crisis of missing migrants.

The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the country’s largest remaining guerrilla group, have formally launched new peace talks. The first round of dialogue, aimed at reaching a peace agreement, started Monday in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. The relaunch of the negotiations comes more than three years after peace talks collapsed in 2019.

The Norwegian Government is providing an additional NOK 51 million (4.8 million EUR) to support humanitarian efforts to help the Syrian population, which is in dire need of assistance. According to a statement by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, released Thursday, the additional allocation will bring Norway’s funding for life-saving assistance in Syria in 2022 to approximately NOK 750 million (71 million EUR).

The United Nations (UN) says that millions of people in Ukraine are without electricity, water or heating following a wave of Russian missile attacks on Tuesday that hit critical infrastructure in at least 16 of the country’s 24 regions and in the capital, Kyiv.  According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the damage to civilian infrastructure comes at a critical time when the temperature is dropping below zero, raising concerns about a serious humanitarian crisis during the harsh Ukrainian winter if people are unable to heat th

Two trucks full of lifesaving medical supplies have arrived in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region today in the first aid delivery since fighting between the warring parties resumed in August and the Pretoria and Nairobi peace agreements were signed in November. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it has suplied medicines to Mekelle on Tuesday, destined for medical facilities.

The Bundestag, the national parliament of Germany, has approved additional spending of one billion euros to tackle the global food crisis in the coming year. After more than 17 hours of deliberations, the Budget Committee of the Bundestag adopted the federal budget for 2023 early Friday morning.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is warning that it will be forced to suspend its life-saving assistance to one million people in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province unless additional funding is urgently received. In a media briefing Friday, the UN agency said it is also faced with funding shortfalls for the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) that WFP runs on behalf of the entire humanitarian community.

Over 200,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Rutshuru Territory in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North-Kivu province, since renewed fighting between the Congolese army and the “Mouvement du 23 mars” (M23) armed group broke out on 20 October, the United Nations report this week.  While at least 188,000 men, women and children are now internally displaced, more than 16,500 others have sought refuge in Uganda.

Global solidarity is urgently needed to help vulnerable people in the Horn of Africa survive a rapidly unfolding humanitarian catastrophe, driven by the longest and most severe drought in recent history, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) said in a joined statement on Monday. As the drought is set to run well into 2023, aid organizations must prepare now to continue their life-saving work in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya in response to extremely high humanitarian needs through to next year.

Hunger and malnutrition are on the rise across the flood, drought, and conflict-affected areas of South Sudan, the United Nations (UN) warns. In a joint statement Thursday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that some communities are likely to face starvation if humanitarian assistance is not sustained and climate adaptation measures are not scaled-up.

Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF) have announced a ceasefire for the conflict in northern Ethiopia after ten days of peace talks in South Africa. Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who mediated the talks led by the African Union (AU), broke the news Wednesday in the South African capital of Pretoria. A joint statement said the warring parties “have agreed to silence the guns and end the two years of conflict in northern Ethiopia.”