Humanitarian News

While negotiations for a comprehensive cease-fire and hostage deal in the Gaza Strip are reportedly underway between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas, a US-led proposal has not been officially accepted by either side. At the same time, the carnage and humanitarian catastrophe on the ground continues as the war entered its ninth month, with people dying across Gaza from Israeli attacks, starvation, or lack of basic resources.

The lives of more than 35 million people in the Sahel region are being affected by a complex and interdependent pattern of crises, exacerbated by deteriorating security, political instability, and the effects of climate change, leaving them in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection. UN agencies warn that lives will be at risk if aid organizations are not given the resources they need to respond to these crises and help the region's most vulnerable people.

Many of the hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who seek protection, asylum or work in Europe each year are "at great risk of harm and death" because few protection services are available to help them on their perilous journeys, according to a report released this week by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Acute food insecurity is set to increase in scale and severity in 18 hunger hotspots, a new United Nations early warning report said on Wednesday. The report highlights the urgent need for humanitarian assistance to prevent famine in Gaza and Sudan, and further deterioration of the devastating hunger crises in Haiti, Mali and South Sudan. It also warns of the lingering effects of El Niño and the looming threat of La Niña, bringing more climate extremes that could disrupt livelihoods.

The United Nations says more than one million Palestinians have fled the southernmost town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip as Israeli attacks there continue despite a binding order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to halt the offensive in Rafah immediately. Meanwhile, the Israeli government is torpedoing its own proposal to achieve a full and complete ceasefire in Gaza as part of a deal that would secure the release of all hostages, offer a roadmap to end the war, and rush desperately needed humanitarian aid throughout Gaza.

United Nations officials say they are deeply concerned by the alarming deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the eastern province of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo, DRC). According to the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), clashes have resumed in several parts of the towns of Masisi, Rutshuru and Sake, while fighting is also moving closer to the town of Kanyabanyonga.

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.

Violence against children in the central Sahel region increased sharply in the last quarter of 2023, surging by 70 percent compared to the previous three months, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Wednesday. The UN agency said that in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, cases of recruitment and use of children by armed groups, as well as killings and maiming, jumped by more than 130 percent between the two reporting periods.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has urged partners to provide immediate assistance to nearly 185,000 Sudanese who have crossed the border into Chad and continue to await relocation from dangerous border areas, particularly the border town of Adre. The call comes as more than 9.2 million people have fled the war in Sudan, with at least 7.2 million internally displaced and some 2 million seeking refuge across the border

The eighth edition of the "Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region" conference took place in Brussels on Monday, but saw only meager pledges from leading donors such as the European Union and the United States for this year's humanitarian response in Syria. In total, more than US$8.9 billion is needed to respond to the Syria crisis, making it the United Nations' largest humanitarian appeal worldwide.

Alarming reports are emerging of new atrocities being committed in a concerted campaign of violence and destruction by non-state armed groups and the Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF) against members of the Rohingya people in northern Rakhine State. Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced in recent days in relation to fighting in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships. Some 45,000 Rohingya have reportedly fled to areas near the border with Bangladesh.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on Friday that Israel must immediately halt its military offensive in the Rafah Governorate of the Gaza Strip and keep open the Rafah border crossing for the unimpeded delivery of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid at scale. The new interim measures come as the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the bombed and besieged Gaza Strip continues to deteriorate, with extremely limited aid reaching the besieged enclave.

An alarming six out of ten hospitals in Haiti are barely functioning as the recent escalation of violence in the capital, Port-Au-Prince, continues to deprive children of critical health supplies and medicines, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the non-governmental organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called on the armed groups involved in the fighting and Haitian authorities to facilitate the delivery of medical supplies to those in need.

The United Nations and its humanitarian partners have urged solidarity with drought-affected people in Southern Africa and called on the international community to help scale up a timely emergency response to drought in the region, which includes the already crisis-hit countries of Malawi, Madagascar and Mozambique. More than 61 million people in the region have been affected by drought and other extreme weather conditions caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon and exacerbated by the climate crisis.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have reportedly been displaced in Myanmar's western Rakhine State following escalating fighting between the Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF) and the ethnic armed organization Arakan Army (AA). The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has called on the warring parties to cease fighting, protect civilians, and allow immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access.        

Some 800,000 people have been forced to flee Gaza's southernmost town of Rafah since Israel launched a military operation in the area in early May, the head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said on Saturday, urging greater protection for civilians in Gaza, safe humanitarian access and a ceasefire.  The renewed appeal comes as virtually no aid has entered Gaza for more than ten days, and essentials such as fuel, food and water are in dangerously short supply.

The United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says last month was the warmest April on record - the eleventh month in a row with record global temperatures. Sea surface temperatures have also been at record highs for the past 13 months. While recent extreme weather events have caused numerous casualties and socio-economic disruption, the WMO warns that climate change is making heat waves - one of the deadliest types of weather - more extreme.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Wednesday that the window to save lives is closing as famine looms in Sudan's war-torn regions, with civilians trapped by intensified fighting in northern Darfur. The threat of famine is growing, especially for 5 million Sudanese already on the brink of starvation. In all, nearly 18 million people are facing acute hunger, while half the population - some 25 million people - are in need of humanitarian assistance. 

United Nations humanitarian and human rights officials are calling on Russia to immediately cease its armed attacks in Ukraine, as the intensification of fighting in the northeast of the country in recent days is causing a surge in civilian casualties and displacement, and the destruction of critical infrastructure. They also urge an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and for the UN Security Council to seek an end to the war.

Conflict and violence have pushed the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) around the world to a record high of 75.9 million, with nearly half living in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). The report, released on Tuesday, found that conflicts in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) accounted for nearly two-thirds of new displacements due to violence.

The UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that more than 216,000 people were forcibly returned to Haiti in 2023, despite the ongoing humanitarian and security crisis, and despite repeated calls that Haitians should not be forcibly returned to the Caribbean nation. According to an IOM report released Monday, most of the Haitians were returned from the neighboring Dominican Republic - 96 percent - but also from the United States, Cuba, the Bahamas, Turkey, and Jamaica as well as Turks and Caicos.

In what they call an "unprecedented emergency," United Nations agencies are warning that humanitarian operations throughout the Gaza Strip will cease within hours or days unless Israel reopens border crossings and allows critical fuel supplies into the Palestinian territory. Virtually no aid has entered Gaza in the past five days, and essentials such as fuel, food and water are in dangerously short supply.

The humanitarian organization International Rescue Committee (IRC) has expressed concern about the humanitarian impact of growing insecurity in northwest Nigeria due to conflict between various armed groups. In Zamfara and Sokoto states, armed attacks in March and April have displaced more than 10,000 people and killed at least 92, while many others have been kidnapped, the IRC said.

The United Nations says no goods for humanitarian operations are entering the Gaza Strip through either the Rafah or Kerem Shalom crossings because of Israeli military operations around the crossings, with bombardments throughout the day. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) says this is disastrous for the relief effort in the embattled territory, where 2.3 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

International donors have failed to adequately support the ongoing humanitarian response in Yemen at the Sixth Senior Officials' Meeting of donor countries in Brussels today. The announced funding of just over $791 million represents less than a third (29 percent) of the $2.7 billion needed in Yemen this year to meet urgent humanitarian needs, including those of 9.8 million children.

The United Nations says Myanmar has passed a "bleak milestone," with more than 3 million civilians now displaced across the country amid intensifying conflict. The number has risen sharply, by 50 percent in just six months, according to the UN's ad interim humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, Stephen Anderson.  The situation is one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, with nearly 19 million people nationwide in need of humanitarian assistance this year.

More than a year after the start of the war in Sudan, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said Friday it remains extremely concerned about shocking levels of violence and devastating risks as many areas across the country remain beyond the reach of aid organizations. Among these areas is Sudan's North Darfur state, where intensifying clashes between the warring parties are preventing aid deliveries to the wider Darfur region.

A full-scale Israeli military operation in Rafah could lead to a slaughter and cripple life-saving humanitarian work throughout the Gaza Strip, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday. The UN, governments and aid agencies have been appealing to Israeli authorities for weeks to spare Rafah, but a ground operation in Gaza's southernmost city, where more than 1.5 million people are at risk, is looming on the immediate horizon.

The non-governmental organization (NGO) Save the Children says more than 140,000 people in the Malian town of Menaka, including 80,000 children, face malnutrition and disease due to a blockade by Islamic State-linked insurgents. The humanitarian organization warns that the months-long blockade has driven supplies to alarmingly low levels as aid agencies and Malian government programs struggle to deliver basic necessities.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that the sudden escalation of hostilities in Alamata town and surrounding rural towns in northern Ethiopia since mid-April has displaced about 50,000 civilians - the majority of whom are women, children and the elderly - to neighboring Kobo district in North Wello zone and Sekota town in Wag Hamra zone. An undetermined number of casualties were reported in the fighting.

The heads of United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) warned in a rare joint statement on Tuesday that escalating conflict is driving record levels of displacement, hunger and gender-based violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) said that without urgent international action, the situation threatens to push the DRC to the brink of catastrophe.

The United Nations says Sudan's warring parties appear headed for major clashes in the North Darfur city of El Fasher, where hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) have sought refuge. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are reportedly encircling El Fasher, suggesting that a coordinated move to attack the city may be imminent. At the same time, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) appear to be positioning themselves.

The United Nations has reacted strongly to the passage of a bill in the United Kingdom this week that seeks to deport asylum seekers to the African country of Rwanda, in violation of international legal obligations. Following the passage of the "Safety of Rwanda" Bill by the UK Parliament, two UN leaders reiterated their alarm at the damaging impact it will have on refugee protection, human rights and global responsibility-sharing.

South Sudanese farmers who have relied on United Nations agencies operating in the country say they fear losing a ready market for their produce if the UN follows through on its threat to scale down operations in the world's newest nation. This comes after the United States, the European Union and other countries expressed concern over Juba's decision to impose taxes on some goods purchased by the UN.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is appealing for US$1.21 billion to address the unprecedented humanitarian emergency in the Gaza Strip and to respond to the growing needs in the West Bank as violence there intensifies. Meanwhile, Israeli bombardment from the air, land and sea continues across much of Gaza, resulting in further civilian deaths, displacement and destruction of the civilian infrastructure on which Palestinians depend.

A new analysis of the state of global hunger finds that escalating conflict, climate change and economic shocks are driving more people into acute hunger, threatening gains made in recent years toward the goal of ending hunger by 2030. The Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2024, released Wednesday, finds that 281.6 million people in 59 crisis countries and territories faced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2023 - a global increase of 24 million from the previous year.

The head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Monday that 3 million Haitian children caught up in rampant gang violence are in need of humanitarian assistance, including thousands who are at risk of dying from severe malnutrition. Meanwhile, a sharp increase in the number of wounded has put enormous pressure on the few functioning hospitals in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, as they run dangerously low on medical supplies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is appealing for $413 million in emergency funding to help more than 1.7 million people in Mozambique cope with climate disasters and an insurgency concentrated in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. The UN estimates that 2.3 million children, women and men in the country will need humanitarian assistance in 2024, most of them in Cabo Delgado and the neighboring provinces of Niassa and Nampula.

The United Nations, the Government of Cameroon and the humanitarian community have jointly launched the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for the country, where 3.4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance this year. The Plan, released this week, targets 2.3 million vulnerable women, girls, men and boys in the most affected areas and requires US$371.4 million.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk has warned that intensified fighting in Myanmar's Rakhine State between the military and the non-state armed group Arakan Army (AA), as well as tensions between the Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine communities, pose a grave threat to civilians. In a statement on Friday, Türk warned of the grave risk of a repeat of past atrocities, such as the horrific state-backed persecution of the Rohingya in 2017.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Wednesday launched a Flash Appeal for more than $2.8 billion to allow UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to respond to the urgent needs of 3.1 million people in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Israeli bombardment of much of Gaza continues, resulting in further civilian deaths, displacement and destruction.

Donors committed US$610.1 million to humanitarian operations in Ethiopia at a high-level pledging event on Tuesday, but fell short of the target. One billion US dollars is needed to fund the immediate response and ensure a pipeline of aid for the next five months. But before the conference, the situation was much worse, as the country's UN-backed $3.24 billion Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for 2024 was less than 5 percent funded.

The United Nations and international aid agencies are warning that the lives of millions of people in Sudan are at risk as the world turns its attention away from the enormous humanitarian needs facing the war-torn country. Today, Sudan entered a year of war that many have called the world's largest human-made crisis, with half the population in need of life-saving assistance, tens of thousands killed and injured, and millions uprooted from their homes.

Nearly 55 million people in West and Central Africa will struggle to feed themselves during the lean season between June and August 2024, according to a March 2023 food security analysis. In a joint statement on Friday, UN humanitarian agencies warned that the number of people who are food insecure in the Sahel and beyond has increased by four million compared to the November 2023 forecast and has quadrupled in the last five years.

The United Nations says Israel continues to block aid from reaching northern Gaza, where famine is imminent and people, mostly children, are already dying of malnutrition and starvation. A senior UN official is warning of a catastrophic outcome for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in precarious conditions in the war-torn Gaza Strip unless humanitarian aid deliveries into the territory are massively expanded in the coming days.

In the latest setback for Myanmar's military rulers, resistance forces have seized near-total control of a key border town on the main land trade route between Myanmar and Thailand. Amid a worsening humanitarian crisis, conflict has escalated in several states and regions of the country. Fighting between the Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF), ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), and People's Defense Forces (PDFs) continues to exacerbate the humanitarian situation.

Nearly a year after the outbreak of war in Sudan, the conflict continues to rage, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes every day and creating one of the largest and most challenging humanitarian emergencies and displacement crises in the world. The number of displaced people has now surpassed 8.8 million, with more than 2 million of them having crossed borders.