Rising hunger and displacement pose growing economic risk, UN tells Davos

Posted on January 21, 2026 by Arun Kumar N

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has reported that an estimated 318 million people worldwide now face crisis levels of hunger or worse, with hundreds of thousands already experiencing famine-like conditions.

It cautioned that deep funding shortfalls are forcing it to cut rations and scale back assistance at a time of surging needs.

Current forecasts put WFP’s funding at just under half of its required $13 billion budget for 2026, leaving the agency able to reach about 110 million people – a third of those in need.

Combatting hunger yields dividends

“Hunger drives displacement, conflict, and instability and these not only threaten lives, but disrupt the very markets that businesses depend on,” said Rania Dagash-Kamara, WFP Assistant Executive Director for Partnerships and Innovation.

“The world cannot build stable markets on a foundation of 318 million hungry people.”

Ms. Dagash-Kamara, who is attending the forum, said the private sector has a direct stake in addressing food insecurity, calling on companies to invest in supply chains, technology and innovation that can help stabilize fragile markets and protect workforces.

WFP is urging business leaders in Davos to keep hunger and food security among their top priorities, invest in supply chain systems that strengthen fragile markets, and support food-related technologies that improve efficiency and resilience.

Displaced families in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, receive food aid. (file photo)

Migration powers growth and development

The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) is also taking its case to the annual forum in Switzerland, calling on political and business leaders to rethink migration as a driver of growth rather than a burden.

“Migration is one of the most powerful drivers of development when managed responsibly,” said IOM Director General Amy Pope.

“Mobility can unlock economic potential, help communities thrive independently, and provide lasting solutions to displacement, while respecting national sovereignty and human rights.”

Partnerships and innovation

IOM said partnerships with private companies and foundations are already helping realise that approach.

This includes using artificial intelligence to improve health screening and labour market policies, and programmes that support vocational training, entrepreneurship and durable solutions for displaced people.

At Davos, the agency is also highlighting the role of diaspora communities as investors and innovators.

“By using remittances and diaspora capital to support business creation and digital financial access, IOM aims to open new markets and create jobs, while helping communities become more self-reliant,” the agency said.

Other senior UN officials attending the forum include President of the General Assembly Annalena Baerbock; WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; Alexander De Croo, Administrator of the UN Development Programme; UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih; and Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

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Aid cuts push millions in West and Central Africa deeper into hunger

Posted on January 17, 2026 by Arun Kumar N

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) issued the warning on Friday, citing latest analysis from the food security framework Cadre Harmonisé, the regional equivalent of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) that uses a one to five scale – with five spelling catastrophe/famine – to inform response.

It projects that 13 million children are also expected to suffer from malnutrition this year while over three million people will face emergency levels of food insecurity – more than double the 1.5 million in 2020.

Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger account for 77 per cent of the food insecurity figures, including 15,000 people in Nigeria’s Borno state at risk of catastrophic hunger for the first time in nearly a decade.

Although a combination of conflict, displacement, and economic turmoil has been driving hunger in West and Central Africa, the slashes to humanitarian funding are now pushing communities beyond their ability to cope.

“The reduced funding we saw in 2025 has deepened hunger and malnutrition across the region,” said Sarah Longford, WFP Deputy Regional Director.

“As needs outpace funding, so too does the risk of young people falling into desperation.”

Rations reduced, hunger soars

WFP urgently requires more than $453 million over the next six months to continue its humanitarian assistance across the region, where the impacts of the aid budget cuts are evident.

In Mali, when families received reduced food rations, areas experienced a nearly 65 per cent surge in acute hunger (IPC 3+) since 2023, compared with a 34 per cent decrease in communities that received full rations.

Continued insecurity has disrupted critical supply lines to major cities – including for food – and 1.5 million of the country’s most vulnerable people are on track to face crisis levels of hunger.

Malnutrition levels deteriorate

In Nigeria, funding shortfalls last year forced WFP to scale down nutrition programmes, affecting more than 300,000 children. Since then, malnutrition levels in several northern states have deteriorated from “serious” to “critical.”

The UN agency will only be able to reach 72,000 people in Nigeria in February, down from the 1.3 million assisted during the 2025 lean season.

Meanwhile, more than half a million vulnerable people in Cameroon are at risk of being cut off from assistance in the coming weeks.

‘Paradigm shift’ needed

WFP underscored the importance of having adequate funding for its operations, which have helped to improve food security in the region.

For example, teams have worked with local communities in five countries to rehabilitate 300,000 hectares of farmland to support more than four million people in over 3,400 villages.

WFP programmes have also supported infrastructure development, school meals, nutrition, capacity building and seasonal aid to help families manage extreme weather and security risks, stabilise local economies and reduce dependency on aid.

“To break the cycle of hunger for future generations, we need a paradigm shift in 2026,” Ms. Longford said.

She urged governments and their partners to step up investment in preparedness, anticipatory action, and resilience-building to empower local communities.

Somalia declares drought emergency as millions face hunger after failed rains

Posted on December 27, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

On 10 November, the Federal Government of Somalia formally declared a drought emergency and appealed for urgent international assistance as conditions continued to deteriorate across northern, central and southern regions, according to the UN relief coordination office, OCHA.

Puntland is among the worst affected areas, where authorities estimate that nearly one million people need support, including 130,000 in immediate life-threatening need.

A UN assessment mission to Bari and Nugaal regions earlier this month found communities grappling with acute water and food shortages, with residents warning that catastrophe could unfold in the coming months.

“We have not received rain since last year; this is the worst drought in years,” said Abdiqani Osman Omar, the mayor of Shaxda village in Bari region.

“Hundreds of displaced families moved here three months ago, and more are coming. The new arrivals are mostly women and children as the men have moved to nearby Ethiopia in search of pasture and water.”

The village has no capacity to support them, he added, stating that even host communities need water and food assistance.

Dried up water sources, abandoned settlements

Across Puntland, water points have dried up, vegetation has withered and once-inhabited pastoral settlements now stand abandoned.

In Dhaxan town, where brief Gu’ season (April-June) showers offered short-lived hope earlier this year, residents are now dependent on expensive trucked water after the local borehole was found to be contaminated.

Community leader Jama Abshir Hersi said around 150 families moved to the town after the rains.

“We used to receive food and nutrition assistance, and medical supplies for our health unit. All that assistance has dwindled,” he said.

Funding shortfalls

Funding shortfalls are compounding the crisis.

As of 23 November, Somalia’s 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan was only 23.7 per cent funded, forcing major reductions in assistance. The number of people receiving emergency food aid plunged from 1.1 million in August to just 350,000 this month.

In Puntland alone, 89 supplementary feeding sites and 198 health and stabilization centres are facing severe supply shortages.

Millions going hungry

The drought is unfolding amid an already dire humanitarian landscape. At least 4.4 million people are projected to face acute food insecurity through December, while 1.85 million children under five are expected to suffer acute malnutrition through mid-2026.

Weather forecasts indicate little immediate relief. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that dry and hot conditions are expected to persist across most of the country, particularly in central and northern regions.

“The prevailing high temperatures and poor rain are likely to exacerbate water stress and limit pasture regeneration in most areas,” the agency said.

Global alliance meets in Doha to confront hunger crisis

Posted on November 3, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

Addressing heads of state, ministers and international partners, President of the UN General Assembly Annalena Baerbock said today’s hunger crisis is not the result of scarcity, but of inequality, conflict and policy choices.

Last year, more than 670 million people experienced hunger, and 2.3 billion faced moderate or severe food insecurity. “That is billions wondering where their next meal will come from. Parents having to see their children go to bed hungry,” she said.

This is occurring in a world that wastes over one billion meals every day.

“The crisis of hunger is not lack of food. It is entirely preventable,” she stressed, pointing to failures in access, affordability and social protection.

The meeting took place as Doha hosts the Second World Summit for Social Development, where nearly 14,000 attendees are discussing how to strengthen social systems, expand opportunity and reduce inequality.

As the planet heats, hunger spreads

Ms. Baerbock highlighted climate change as a rapidly accelerating driver of hunger. Recalling a recent visit to the Sahel, she described fertile land turned to dust as heat rises and rains fail. “This is the new frontline of food insecurity,” she said.

If global warming continues unchecked, as many as 1.8 billion additional people could face food insecurity, she warned. But limiting warming to 1.5°C, backed by investment in adaptation and resilience, could prevent millions from falling deeper into poverty.

Launched under Brazil’s G20 Presidency in 2024, the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty now includes nearly 200 members – over 100 countries, regional organizations, international agencies and civil society groups. Monday’s meeting was its first at leaders’ level, aimed at accelerating practical cooperation, from scaling up social protection to strengthening climate-resilient agriculture.

“In a world of plenty – where there should be more than enough to go around – ensuring that everyone, everywhere has enough to eat is entirely possible,” Ms. Baerbock said. “A world free from hunger and poverty is not a distant aspiration. It is within reach, if we reach for it together.”

‘Wars, disasters, displacement, hunger’ continue to burden Myanmar

Posted on September 12, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

Four years after the military coup which deposed the democratically elected government, Myanmar’s civil conflict grinds on, leaving millions displaced and without a home.

“The suffering of millions of people across Myanmar is immense,” said UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi. “With aerial bombardments, destruction of property, and forced recruitment, they live in daily fear for their lives.”

He added that “civilian men, women and children must be protected from violence, and solutions found so that they can choose to return home in safety and dignity.”

Many crises in need of response

A brutal civil war is not all Myanmar has to face.

In March, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit the country affecting multiple regions including the capital, Nay Pyi Taw. The UN relief chief Tom Fletcher said then on X that the humanitarian response “has been hampered by lack of funding.”

Mr. Grandi, who visited the affected communities earlier this year, urged wider humanitarian access and discussed solutions for the forcibly displaced.

“Millions of people forcibly displaced within the country and as refugees throughout the region, want nothing more than to be able to return home. They demand – and are entitled to – the safety and security that comes with peace.” Mr. Grandi said.

Homes destroyed

Thousands of people also had their homes destroyed after floods swept through many regions in July.

“Wars, disasters, displacement, hunger: the forgotten plight of so many people in Myanmar, like the Rohingya, never ends,” Mr. Grandi said in a post on X.

In the last year and a half, 150,000 Rohingya, a mainly Muslim minority in the majority Buddhist country, have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh. This marks the largest exodus to the country since 2017, when 750,000 Rohingya sought refuge from the violence in Rakhine state.

A call for solutions

UNHCR works with other UN agencies, NGO partners and communities in Myanmar to address the basic needs, physical safety and well-being of forcibly displaced and stateless people.

But many communities still suffer from lack of access to vital aid. This year’s UN response plan for Myanmar is currently only funded at 22 per cent.

Later this month in New York, Mr. Grandi will attend a high-level conference on the Rohingya and other minorities in Myanmar, calling for greater regional and international efforts to address the crisis.

“All parties – with the support of the international community – must engage seriously to find solutions to their plight. This is particularly needed for the Rohingya, who have not only been attacked and displaced, but deprived of their basic rights for far too long,” the UNHCR chief said.

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Attacks across Gaza intensify amid fear and hunger: ‘Leave me here,’ injured girl told fleeing family

Posted on September 4, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

A 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who depends on a wheelchair was among crowds fleeing Israeli military aircraft operations east of Rafah in Gaza on 13 October 2023, said committee member Muhannad Salah Al-Azzeh, who presented a report on the occupied Palestinian territories on Wednesday in Geneva. In the melee, she lost her wheelchair.

“She was crawling on the sand and asking her family, telling them ‘you can leave me here’ because she felt that she was slowing them down,” he said.

Indeed, some people are unaware of evacuation orders being given in Gaza due to their disabilities since the start of the nearly two-year-long war triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel.

“This is one of the most serious issues because in regular situations, personal disabilities are excluded in emergencies, more excluded,” he said. “It’s more complicated for them.”

A woman in a wheelchair is carried across rubble.

States fail to protect rights of persons with disabilities

Following extensive interviews with individuals, delegations and organizations working in Gaza and the West Bank, the UN committee submitted a series of recommendations and serious concerns to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The situation in Gaza is a grave concern, Mr. Al-Azzeh stated.

“What we are witnessing there is highly concerning for us,” he warned. “We do believe that all the State parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, they really failed in one way or another to fulfill their obligations to protect and to ensure the minimum protection of persons with disabilities in the emergency situation.”

Citing grim cases reported to the committee since the start of war, he said in one instance, prolonged electricity shutdowns in Rafah left a mother unable to receive evacuation messages on her mobile phone, and she and her children subsequently died in an Israeli strike.

Nine-year-old Noor’s parents, who are deaf, have heavily relied on her to survive Israeli tank shelling and attacks. She has had to learn new signing vocabulary for the language of war, including tanks, armed quadcopters, shrapnel and aircraft, the committee representative said.

There are dozens of examples of people like Abdulrahman Al-Gharbawi, with cerebral palsy and a lower limb disability, he said.

All nine times the 27-year-old graphic designer’s family has been forcibly displaced since the start of the war, his mother would carry his wheelchair while his father and brother would carry him.

‘Horrific’ situation in Gaza City

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Wednesday that further intensification of the continued offensive on Gaza City, amid ongoing famine, will push civilians – already battered and bereaved – into an even deeper catastrophe that world leaders must act decisively to prevent.

“Partners supporting displacement sites warned that the escalating hostilities in Gaza City are having horrific humanitarian consequences for people living at these sites, many of whom were previously displaced from North Gaza,” the UN agency said. “They say that many households are unable to move due to high costs and a lack of safe space to move to, with older people and those with disabilities especially affected.”

Partners report that between 14 and 31 August, more than 82,000 new displacements have been recorded, including nearly 30,000 movements from north to south, OCHA stated.

Chronic aid delivery obstacles

Meanwhile, humanitarian efforts continue to face chronic obstacles. While a trickle of aid is getting into the war-torn Gaza Strip, steep challenges remain, according to OCHA’s latest situation report.

Between 17 and 30 August, partners continued daily convoys to uplift humanitarian food aid from the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, bringing more than 6,900 metric tonnes of wheat flour, food parcels and bulk food supplies into Gaza through the UN-coordinated aid mechanism, OCHA reported.

“However, nearly all of this aid was offloaded by hungry crowds or looted by organized groups along convoy routes, preventing targeted household distributions and delivery to partner warehouses,” the UN agency stated.

Since 20 July, when regular food cargo shipments from Gaza’s crossings resumed, less than 40 per cent of the 2,000 metric tonnes of food supplies required daily to meet basic humanitarian food assistance needs could enter the Strip, OCHA said.

“Daily, civilians continue to be killed and injured by military forces or due to violence erupting among desperate crowds while trying to access aid, including in the militarised zone near checkpoints waiting for aid convoys and at non-humanitarian militarised distribution sites,” the UN agency reported.

‘Two per cent of food aid reached warehouses’

As of 30 August, 99 kitchens supported by 19 partners were preparing and distributing 468,000 meals daily across the Gaza Strip, with 155,000 in the north and 313,000 in central and southern Gaza, according to the OCHA report.

“Partners relied on the two per cent of food aid that safely reached warehouses, coupled with resources secured locally from markets,” the UN agency said.

“While representing an 80 per cent increase compared to the 260,000 daily meals prepared in early August, this remains far below the over one million meals produced in April with the humanitarian and commercial food stocks and cooking gas entered during the ceasefire.”

Families and children seeking food from a community kitchen in western Gaza City in late July. (file)

Famine response

The UN and partners continued integrated famine response efforts come on the heels of the UN-backed global hunger experts’ report finding famine conditions in parts of Gaza last month.

Efforts included scaling up cooked meal provision, promoting small-scale home gardening and community oven initiatives, expanding cash and voucher assistance and strengthening real-time monitoring and analysis systems.

“Intense advocacy continues with the Israeli authorities to increase the volume of humanitarian and commercial goods approved for entry, with a focus on fresh produce and fortified food, nutrition, health and cooking gas,” OCHA said in its report.

Access to safe drinking water in the Gaza Strip has been severely compromised due to the ongoing war.

New supplies and critical shortages

For the first time in over five months, concentrated fodder for livestock owners entered Gaza. Approximately 60 metric tonnes were distributed to 600 livestock holders in Deir Al-Balah, OCHA said.

However, despite sustained advocacy, cooking gas has not entered Gaza for more than five months and is no longer available in markets, the UN agency stated.

“Firewood has also become increasingly unaffordable,” according to the agency. “Many people are reduced to using waste and scrap wood as alternative cooking sources, exacerbating health and environmental risks.”

Meanwhile, the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees’ (UNRWA) health facilities continue to serve around 132,000 patients with non-communicable diseases despite facing dire shortages of medical supplies. Insulin stocks will be exhausted within one to two weeks, leaving at least 16,000 diabetic patients without an essential part of their treatment, OCHA reported.

Access to clean water is severely limited. At the same time, hospitals remain lacking in essential supplies and continue to face overcrowding as daily attacks are seeing a rise in the numbers of dead and injured.

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Hunger and disease in Gaza will only worsen from ‘man-made’ famine: WHO

Posted on August 27, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

In an online alert, the UN agency said that disease and hunger will only increase, unless all Israeli impediments to aid delivery at scale are removed and access is allowed across the Strip.

The UN aid coordination office, OCHA, confirmed on Wednesday that some aid is allowed into the enclave every day, albeit far too little to meet the huge level of needs.

OCHA’s Olga Cherevko returned this week to a UN-supported community kitchen in Gaza City that she last visited in March, which had been struggling to stay open even then during the total blockade.

Community resilience

It had been forced to close – but managed to reopen again 10 days ago: “They’re now feeding 5,000 people a day, making meals hot meals for people in need in the neighbouring communities,” she said.

“Of course, the number of meals being cooked every day remains severely insufficient because the volume of supplies entering remains severely insufficient, and the only way for us to stop famine is by ensuring that more supplies are entering every day.”

The WHO appeal comes two days after at least 20 people were killed in a double strike on Nasser hospital in southern Gaza, with four health workers and five journalists among the victims.

Across the Gaza Strip today, WHO said that more than half a million people are trapped in famine, with destruction to food and health services, and to water and sanitation systems.

‘Act without delay’

The UN General Assembly-mandated Palestinian rights committee issued a statement on Wednesday reminding that the famine is projected to spread in the coming days, if Israel fails to allow in more food aid.

“This catastrophic man-made disaster comes on the heels of two years of near total Israeli destruction and blockade of Gaza and relentless military assaults that have decimated civilian infrastructure, including food production capacities and all other means of subsistence,” the committee said.

“This is a grave breach of international law. States must act without delay to fulfill their legal obligations towards bringing a rapid end to this catastrophe and illegal situation.”

More to follow…

Driven by hunger in Gaza, amputees are part of the collateral damage

Posted on August 25, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

“I was going to buy falafel,” says Mohammed Hassan. “On the way home, I looked up and saw a rocket heading towards me. I tried to run, but it was too fast. I found myself pinned to the wall, and my foot had been blown off.”

Brought to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the young boy looks down at his heavily bandaged left leg, and the stump where his foot used to be.

In another area of the hospital, a small child, Maryam Abu Alba, is crying in pain. “The neighbour’s house was bombed, and their home was hit,” says her grandmother. “One of her legs had to be amputated, and metal plates had to be inserted into the other one, which was fractured. She is in severe pain.”

Earlier this year, the UN humanitarian aid coordination agency OCHA estimated that 4,500 new amputees require prosthetics, in addition to the 2,000 existing cases requiring maintenance and follow-up care, while about 24,000 injured people required rehabilitation.

Health facilities are overwhelmed with many patients undergoing multiple surgeries without adequate medical supplies, including anaesthesia.

Palestinian child Mohammad Hassan sitting on a hospital bed in Gaza after his left leg was amputated by a strike.

Desperately seeking food

In May, as supply routes for UN humanitarian convoys were interrupted, the number of distribution points of aid dropped from 400 dotted across the Gaza strip to a handful of hubs operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Given the shortage of humanitarian aid and diminished capacity, thousands of Palestinians have been killed or injured since May while seeking food. Among the wounded are children and parents who, despite losing limbs, continue to search for food and water.

This comes as a UN-backed food security report has just concluded that famine is confirmed in Gaza governorate, where half a million people are trapped in conditions of starvation, malnutrition and death.

Ibrahim Abdel Nabi was one of the many Palestinians who headed to the hubs in the hope of finding desperately needed provisions for their families.

In his tent at a displacement site in the coastal Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, Mr. Nabi, surrounded by his wife and children, explains how the journey ended in disaster and life-changing injuries.

“When I arrived at the Al-Alam area, west of Rafah, I was hit by an explosive bullet in my leg. I was bleeding for about an hour and a half, and no one came to help me. They were all trying to find food for their children.”

Eventually, a group of people came to his rescue and took him to the nearby Red Cross hospital.

“I stayed there for about a month and a half, undergoing about 12 operations. I became malnourished and lost a lot of blood. Infection spread, and more of my leg had to be amputated.”

Ibrahim Abdel Nabi, a Palestinian displaced in Gaza, sitting on a chair while his wife helps him wear the handmade prosthetic limb.

‘I made my prosthetic leg’

As Mr. Nabi was trying to recover, he was aware that his family were still in need of food. Despite the pain, he decided to make a simple prosthesis from materials he could find to allow him to get back on his feet and make fresh attempts to find food and water.

“The prosthesis injures my leg,” he said. “It causes inflammation and increases the pain. We don’t have medical care or supplies, but I will use it no matter how much it hurts.”

As he speaks, Mr. Nabi’s wife begins to cry. “God willing, we will live through this experience,” she says.

Mr. Nabi gets up on crutches and heads to a nearby tent, where his wife helps him to put on the crude prosthesis.

“Don’t strain yourself,” she repeats, over and over. “Take your time. Walk slowly.”

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Hunger and a heatwave plague the Gaza Strip

Posted on August 15, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

Recently, Israel has denied fewer humanitarian movements but approved missions “still take hours to complete and teams have been compelled to wait on roads that are often dangerous, congested or impassable,” the UN aid coordination office OCHA said in its latest update.

Between 6 and 12 August, humanitarians made 81 attempts to coordinate planned movements with the Israeli authorities, including to transfer fuel and personnel.

Challenges to aid delivery

Of this number, 35 were facilitated, 29 were initially approved but then impeded on the ground, 12 were denied and five had to be withdrawn by the organizers.

However, 14 of the missions that had faced obstructions eventually went ahead.

Nearly three years have passed since hostilities erupted in Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel which left roughly 1,200 people dead.

Some 250 others – both Israelis and foreigners – were taken hostage. It is believed that 50 people are still being held in Gaza, including some who have been declared dead.

Desperate times, desperate measures

Starvation in the enclave is now at its highest level since the conflict began, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).

The update cites the Gaza health authorities who have documented 235 malnutrition-related deaths, including 106 children, as of 13 August.

Despite hunger spreading, aid convoys are limited each day and dangers persist as the trucks travel through the war-ravaged enclave.

“Additionally, desperate crowds often offload food supplies from trucks to feed their families – while looting also prevents aid from reaching its intended destinations,” OCHA said.

Last month, WFP collected 1,012 trucks transporting nearly 13,000 metric tonnes of food from the Kerem Shalom and Zikim border crossings with Israel. Only 10 arrived at warehouses and the rest were offloaded on the way.

Food aid risks spoiling

Although WFP and partners have enough food either in the region or headed there to feed all 2.1 million people in Gaza for at least three months, “the risk of spoilage and infestation of the stranded food supplies has significantly increased, and some of them are nearing their expiry dates.”

Humanitarians continue to push for more aid and commercial goods to be allowed into Gaza. Although more food is entering, the quality and quantity remain insufficient to meet the immense needs.

As of 10 August, 81 community kitchens were preparing 324,000 individual meals daily – a “noticeable increase” over the 259,000 daily meals prepared two weeks ago but far below the more than one million daily meals distributed in April.

The heat is on

Meanwhile, a heatwave is making conditions much worse as Gaza is currently experiencing temperatures that surpass 40°C or 104°F.

UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA warned that dehydration is increasing because of the very limited water available.

As part of its ongoing efforts to help the people of Gaza, UNRWA has provided emergency water, sanitation and hygiene services to about 1.7 million people since the start of the war.

‘Only hunger and bombs’ for besieged civilians in Sudan’s El Fasher

Posted on August 13, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

At least 57 civilians were killed in the attack, which included the Abu Shouk displacement camp on the outskirts of the city, and UN human rights office, OHCHR, is also following up on allegations of summary executions there.

“It is with dismay that we yet again witness an unimaginable horror inflicted upon civilians in El Fasher, who have endured over a year of siege, persistent attacks and dire humanitarian conditions,” said Mr. Türk.

Serial attacks

“Such repeated attacks on civilians, which raise serious concerns under international humanitarian law, are totally unacceptable and must stop.”

Between January and June, the RSF – which has been battling forces of the military government for control of Sudan for over two years – has attacked the Abu Shouk camp at least 16 times, killing at least 212 and leaving 111 others injured.

“Once again, I am raising the alarm about the serious risk of ethnically motivated persecution as the RSF tries to seize control of El Fasher and Abu Shouk camp,” Mr. Türk stressed, reiterating his call to protect civilians and urging humanitarian pauses in besieged areas to reach those in need.

Human rights violations in Zamzam

UN human rights officials recently interviewed survivors of the RSF’s devastating assault on Zamzam camp, 15 kilometres south of El Fasher, where famine was confirmed in August 2024.

Testimonies corroborated previous documentation of serious human rights abuses against civilians during a particularly deadly attack on Zamzam camp in April 2025, including killings, widespread rape and gang rape, enforced disappearances and torture.

“I urge third States to use all their influence to put an end to these violations,” said Mr. Türk. “Accountability is crucial to break this cycle of persistent and egregious violations.”

Deepening hunger

A year after famine was first confirmed in Zamzam, hundreds of thousands are still trapped in El Fasher, cut off from World Food Programme (WFP) assistance and facing deepening hunger.

Trade routes and supply lines entering El Fasher are blocked, resulting in soaring prices and the cessation of most community kitchens’ operations.

Some residents are reportedly surviving on animal fodder and food waste.

“Everyone in El Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive,” said Eric Perdison, WFP’s Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa.

“Without immediate and sustained access,” for humanitarians, Perdison added, “lives will be lost.”

Sudan’s conflict, which began in April 2023, has created the world’s largest hunger crisis: around 25 million people – half the country’s population – face acute hunger, and 3.5 million women and children face malnutrition.

From El Fasher to Tawila

Many victims of the attack on the Zamzam camp and those suffering from hunger in El Fasher fled to the Tawila camp, 75 kilometres away.

“Hunger forced us to leave,” said eight-year-old Sondos, who told WFP she had fled with her family after weeks of surviving on millet.

There was “only hunger and bombs,” she testified, with shells raining down on the city.

Another Tawila resident, 47-year-old Mohamed, travelled from Zamzam to El Fasher before making it to Tawila.

People died of thirst along the way, he said. “Many of them were begging for water. Each person had to have only one sip, just enough to reach their stomach.”

But even when people make it to Tawila, the camp’s makeshift tents offer little protection from the rainy season just beginning.

WFP assistance

For the Tawila camp’s roughly 400,000 residents, WFP rations of nutrient-packed high-energy biscuits, sorghum, vegetable oil and salt are often their only sustenance.

They are just some of the four million Sudanese that WFP supports monthly.

This assistance has helped reduce catastrophic hunger in parts of Central and West Darfur. However, these gains are fragile: “WFP is ready with trucks full of food assistance to send into El Fasher,” says Corinne Fleischer, WFP’s Director of Supply Chain and Delivery. “We urgently need guarantees of safe passage.”

The RSF has yet to agree a pause in fighting to allow humanitarian goods to enter the city.

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Hunger in Gaza: Women and children face death in search of food

Posted on August 5, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

“I used to easily receive aid distributed by the UN,” Abir Safi, a displaced person from the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, told UN News. “Now, we get nothing. I risk my life by going to the Zikim crossing and returning with an empty bag. All I want is to return to my children with some food.”

Ms. Safi said she never imagined that providing for her children would become a deadly adventure. After losing her husband in the war, she found herself alone, facing the responsibility of supporting her family amid deteriorating humanitarian conditions.

She was among thousands of citizens who gathered along Rashid Street in northern Gaza, which connects the Zikim crossing to northern Gaza, hoping to receive humanitarian aid.

A horse-drawn cart carries the bodies of more than seven Palestinians killed while trying to reach aid.

‘Bullets over my head’

Our correspondent witnessed the arrival of thousands of Palestinians returning from a journey in search of food supplies. Thousands of emaciated bodies – men, women, and children – were caught in a scene that has become a daily occurrence. Everyone is running in search of the few aid trucks that reach northern Gaza.

The United Nations has the capacity and resources necessary to distribute aid in a safe, dignified manner to all those in need in the Gaza Strip. The organization continues to call for the lifting of restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on the entry and distribution of aid into Gaza.

The danger lies not only in the crowding and chaos, but also in the death that lurks around everyone. Fayza al-Turmisi, a displaced person from Shuja’iyya, described the horrific scene along Rashid Street in northern Gaza.

“They fire shells and bullets at us here. We are forced to lie on the ground. I hide among more than 200 men, and bullets fly over my head. If you raise your head, you get hit. If you stay on the ground, bullets fall around you.”

A young Gazan was injured while trying to obtain aid.

Between mourning and hunger

Mohammed Mudeiris, aged seven, said he lost his father in an airstrike just the day before. He doesn’t have the luxury of grieving for his father as he is now the sole breadwinner for his siblings.

Walking through the dense crowds, he extends his small hand, begging for a handful of flour to take back to his siblings.

“I am the eldest of my siblings,” he said. “My father was killed in an airstrike yesterday. I am trying to ask someone to give me a plate of flour or a meal from the aid that arrived today.”

Mohammed Mudeiris, a child who lost his father in an Israeli airstrike, coming to secure food for his siblings from aid trucks arriving via the Zikim crossing.

‘I risk my life to bring food to my children’

The race for food is not limited to men. Women are forced to take this risk, driven by the responsibilities of motherhood and the needs of their children.

“I throw myself into danger to bring food for my children,” said Asma Masoud, who was displaced from northern Gaza.

“We never get our fair share of aid,” she said. “My husband is paralysed, and there are widows and women like me who cannot provide food for their children.”

Highlighting that some young people take the aid and sell it at exorbitant prices that she cannot afford to buy, Ms. Masoud called on the world to ensure “a fair distribution mechanism and to allow UNRWA [the UN agency for Palestine refugees] and international organizations to do so”.

Aid should be distributed via text messages so that every person in need receives their share, as was the case before, she said.

“But now, only a few people are profiting and selling the aid,” she stated. “We cannot tolerate that. It is an injustice.”

Asma Masoud, a displaced woman from northern Gaza, returning from a search for food.

‘I don’t know how I’m going to feed my children’

Ms. Safi agreed with Ms. Masoud, complaining that “the beneficiaries now are largely thieves.”

“I’ve lost a lot of weight, and all my health is gone,” Ms. Safi said. “I don’t know how I’m going to feed my children. I want to receive aid with dignity. Aid used to come through the United Nations, and I could easily go and receive it, but now I don’t receive anything.”

I want to receive aid with dignity.

This chaotic system leaves behind widows, women, the elderly and many other complex humanitarian cases, such as Maqboula Adas, who supports her injured husband and her son who has a broken leg.

“My husband is injured and cannot move,” she explained. “My eldest son has a broken leg, and I also have three daughters. No one supports us except God. Every day I go to try to get some flour. If it weren’t for that, they would have died of hunger.”

Maqboula Adas, a displaced woman from Shuja’iyya.

Carts carry corpses

At the height of this tragedy, macabre scenes emerge. Instead of carrying bags of flour, a horse-drawn cart transports the bodies of at least seven Palestinians who were killed while trying to get aid.

While some young men carried sacks of flour on their backs, ambulances bring the wounded and dead from the northern regions. The achievement of getting food aid comes at a heavy price.

One young man was injured in the head and face while trying to collect aid.

“I came to collect aid, but today wasn’t my day,” he said. “I will come again despite my injury, and I hope God will provide for me next time.”

Thousands of Palestinians seeking aid arriving from the Israeli Zikim crossing in northern Gaza.

Risk of famine

Gaza is facing a severe risk of famine, with food consumption and nutrition indicators at their worst levels since the beginning of the current conflict, according to a warning issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

At least 147 deaths due to hunger and malnutrition have been reported, including 88 children. More than 28,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition have been recorded among children, according to reports from the World Health Organization and the World Food Programme.

Despite promises to facilitate the flow of aid, restrictions on the entry of food and fuel, along with ongoing attacks near the crossings, have prevented supplies from reaching those in need. In addition, the chaotic distribution of aid within Gaza has further complicated the situation and placed civilians at greater risk.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) has documented the deaths of hundreds of people attempting to access aid amid ongoing gunfire and shelling near relief truck routes and military distribution points.

Abir Safi, a displaced woman from Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood.

‘If I get killed, who will take care of my children?’

Amidst this chaos, widow Enaam Siam, a mother of six, recounts her struggle for food.

“I am a widow and a mother of six orphaned children, one of whom is injured,” she said. “Every day, I go out amidst death to bring them food. I see the dead and wounded.”

She asked why aid is no longer delivered to warehouses and distributed via text message.

“If I am killed, who will take care of my children? There are thousands of women in a similar situation. We want safety, peace and a fair system that ensures aid reaches those in need.”

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Hunger lines in Gaza: ‘Food is not enough’

Posted on August 2, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

Earning a living has become a daily struggle, and hundreds of men, women and children stand in endless queues, under the scorching sun, outside the few community kitchens that serve nothing but lentil soup.

A community kitchen in western Gaza reveals a panorama of painful scenes amid displaced people suffering, their cries for help and their urgent appeals to the world, demanding an end to their tragedy and relief.

Community kitchen workers are busy preparing lentil soup while plastic bowls and empty plates are piled up behind an iron fence, waiting for a small amount that many may not be able to get a sip of.

After a bitter struggle, Ziad Al-Ghariz, an elderly displaced person from Gaza, managed to obtain a cup of lentil soup. He sat on the floor and began to take slow sips. He told UN News that he had not tasted bread for 10 consecutive days.

‘We are dying of hunger here’

“I eat the lentil soup distributed by the community kitchen,” he said. “I cannot afford flour at all. I do not have the money for it, so I try to get whatever the kitchen distributes. The people of Gaza are hungry.”

Young Mohammed Nayfeh says he spent four hours waiting for a meal for his family.

“I’ve been standing here for four hours, and I can’t get any food in the crowds and the sun,” he said. “We’re dying. We need support. We need food and drink. Where is the world? We’re dying here of hunger. Every day we eat only lentils. There’s no flour, no food, no drink. We’re dying of hunger.”

A group of displaced Palestinians gathering in front of a local community kitchen in western Gaza City.

Burn in the sun or get trampled

“Either we burn in the sun or we are trampled underfoot”

Umm Muhammad, a displaced person from the Shujaiya neighborhood, described the macabre scene around her.

“There is no water, no food, no bread,” she said. “The bitterness of the situation forces us to come here. In the end, we return with nothing. We either return burned under the sun or trampled underfoot due to overcrowding, and we return empty-handed. And no one listens.”

Hussam al-Qamari, who was also displaced from Shujaiya, said the situation is no longer acceptable.

“We are dying, and our children are starving to death,” she said. “So much is happening to the people of Gaza. Much of what is happening is unacceptable. An old man like me has been standing here since morning, carrying a bowl for his children to eat breakfast, and they still haven’t eaten.”

Um Muhammad, who fled from the Shujaiya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City to its western areas, waits to get food.

From classrooms to queues for lentils

According to the latest findings from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), one in five children in Gaza City suffers from malnutrition, with cases increasing daily.

The image of this little girl standing behind an iron fence, holding her empty bowl waiting for a little lentil soup, encapsulates this horrific tragedy, for which children pay the heaviest price.

Bassam Abu Odeh, a displaced person from Beit Hanoun, made an appeal.

“We call on all the free people of the world and peace lovers to help us provide food and water until this famine imposed on us by the occupation ends. The trucks allowed into the area by the occupation are not even a drop in the ocean of needs. We have no one, but God.”

A young girl from Gaza waiting to fill her container with lentils.

‘Food is not enough’

Umm Rami, a displaced person from the Zeitoun neighborhood, said the necessities of life are lacking in Gaza, calling on the world to look at the people of the Strip with compassion.

“I came here to get a small amount of food to feed my children. “This is our reality now: we come to community kitchens for food, having once lived with dignity and respect in our own homes.”

She said food is not enough.

“We have reached a point where we stand in lines for food and water. As you can see, the lives of children now revolve around the lines for water and food. Food is not enough. We have only God. The world must look at us, and everyone must awaken their consciences.”

Undeniable risk of famine

According to a warning issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), Gaza is facing a severe risk of famine, as food consumption and nutrition indicators have reached their worst levels since the beginning of the current conflict.

The alert highlights that two of the three famine thresholds have been observed in parts of the Gaza Strip, with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warning that time is running out to launch a comprehensive humanitarian response.

The UN Secretary-General said the alert confirms that Gaza is on the brink of famine. He said the facts are undeniable, and that Palestinians in Gaza are suffering a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.

“This is not a warning, but a reality unfolding before our eyes,” he said.

He stressed the need for the aid trickle to become an “ocean”, with food, water, medicine and fuel flowing without hindrance.

“This nightmare must end,” he declared.

Death in search of food

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that days after the start of the tactical pauses announced by the Israeli authorities in Gaza, “we continue to witness casualties among those seeking assistance and more deaths from hunger and malnutrition.”

The UN office said that parents continue to struggle to save their starving children. Desperate and hungry people continue to unload small amounts of aid from trucks that manage to exit the crossings.

Although the UN and its partners are taking advantage of every opportunity to support those in need during unilateral tactical pauses, conditions for delivering aid and supplies are far from adequate, according to OCHA.

World News in Brief: Hunger in the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean, climate and displacement crisis in Somalia, World Breastfeeding Week

Posted on August 2, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

Across the region, nations face food-related challenges notably due to geographical remoteness, lack of local available resources and exposure to climate change. 

“The Caribbean is particularly vulnerable to natural hazards and supply chain disruptions, which can cause increases in food prices,” said, Brian Bogart. head of WFP for the region.

“It’s deeply concerning that many people are struggling to afford the food they need,” he said. 

Supply chain challenges

Rising food prices are a major concern for the region, with food inflation consistently outpacing overall inflation rates, with local production efforts challenged by increasing operational costs. 

In 2025, 30 per cent of Caribbean people reported eating less than usual, a trend notably triggered by increased food costs and global geopolitical factors.

As the region significantly relies on imported agricultural inputs, “strengthening and diversifying supply chains and trade routes across the region is essential,” said Mr. Bogart. 

He added that in a region particularly impacted by climate disasters, “these efforts will help make food more accessible and affordable while supporting faster recovery in times of crisis.”

A girl moves a container full of water at a site for displaced people in Dolow, Somalia. (file)

UN migration agency highlights deepening climate and displacement crisis in Somalia

Climate shocks and mass displacement caused by conflict have uprooted some 3.6 million people in Somalia, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Almost half the population has been impacted by the climate crisis, the UN agency added.

IOM Deputy Director General Ugochi Daniels concluded a four-day visit to Somalia this week where she expressed solidarity for communities who continue to endure relentless droughts, floods and conflict.

Ms. Daniels also noted that communities are finding solutions to withstand the worst impacts of the climate crisis, but they need international support from the Green Climate Fund urgently.

IOM is active across Somalia in displacement sites and in rural and other fragile areas. Its work includes promoting land restoration and so-called “environmental peacebuilding”, which aims to reduce tensions over shared resources.

Another IOM initiative encourages Somalis to invest in their own development by providing additional funding.

Last year, communities contributed more than half a million dollars toward projects such as solar energy, clean water access and small-scale farming – investments all matched by more than $2 million from IOM.

World Breastfeeding Week: Invest in health systems and policies to benefit mums and babies

This Friday (1 August) marks the start of World Breastfeeding Week and this year’s theme calls for investing in health systems as well as policies, laws and programmes that prioritize women, babies and breastfeeding.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said investing in breastfeeding support is one of the most powerful tools policy-makers have to improve public health, strengthen economies, and secure the well-being of future generations.

The UN agency explained that breastfeeding protects child health and improves survival, especially in the first months of life. For infants, breastmilk is more than food: it also provides protection against many common illnesses like diarrhoea, pneumonia and infections.

Mothers also benefit as breastfeeding reduces the risk of postpartum haemorrhage, as well as breast and ovarian cancers, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.

WHO urges governments to allocate dedicated funding for breastfeeding support, including for when new mums come home, along with maternity protections like paid leave after giving birth.

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Sudan gripped by deadly crisis as hunger, disease and heat intensify

Posted on July 31, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

In El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur that has been under siege for 15 months, the catastrophic humanitarian situation is worsening. Food shortages and soaring prices have forced community-run kitchens to shut down. Widespread hunger and malnutrition have reportedly caused several deaths and driven some residents to eat animal feed.

In the Tawila locality of North Darfur, humanitarian organizations have had to strengthen their responses to rising cholera cases. They have expanded the capacities of treatment centres, but needs remain dire. With medical supplies running low, clean water supplies and the construction of latrines are urgent necessities.

In East Darfur state, the Lagawa displacement site, hosting over 7,000 people, is facing severe food shortages and repeated armed attacks. Doctors are warning that the ongoing conflict continues to block the delivery of aid, so vulnerable families are left without access to food or healthcare.

Extreme heat and torrential rains

Meanwhile, floods and storms are displacing families and destroying homes across the country.

In the Rahad locality of North Kordofan state, heavy rains on Monday displaced around 550 people and damaged or destroyed more than 170 homes.

Torrential rains in the eastern state of Kasssala have devastated the Gharb Almatar displacement site, affecting more than 6,000 people. Many tents were flooded, exposing children to cold, hunger and unsanitary conditions. Displaced families urgently need cash assistance, shelter and protection.

In the coastal city of Port Sudan, extreme heat continues to endanger lives, with three reported deaths and 50 cases of sunstroke this week amid soaring temperatures and widespread power outages.

As temperatures reach 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 degrees Fahrenheit), overwhelmed hospitals are prompting health workers to call for urgent support, including cooling equipment, medical supplies and personnel.

Call for increased funding

With these crises compounding, international support is desperately needed. The 2025 response plan, which seeks $4.2 billion to assist 21 million of the most vulnerable people across Sudan, is only 23 per cent funded to date.

OCHA once again calls on international donors to scale up funding for the response.

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Slight decrease in global hunger as inequalities widen, says UN interagency report

Posted on July 29, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

The report estimates 8.2 per cent of the global population (673 million individuals) experienced hunger in 2024, down from 8.5 per cent in 2023 and 8.7 per cent in 2022.

Latin America and Asia saw improvements, with the prevalence of undernourishment falling by 1.2 percent in Asia and 1 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2022 and 2024.

However, 20 per cent of the African population and 12.7 per cent of people in Western Asian face hunger, showing evidence of an unfortunately steady rise.

Of the projected 512 million people who could be chronically undernourished by 2030, almost 60 per cent will be in Africa.

Sustainable Development progress

Together, these figures and the report’s assessment of nutrition targets under the Sustainable Development Agenda underscore the immense challenge of achieving the global goal of Zero Hunger.

Among child nutrition indicators, the prevalence of stunting among under-fives declined 3.2 per cent from 2012 to 2024, but the proportion of children overweight or wasting remains largely unchanged.

Also notable was the increase in anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 and adult obesity.

Crucially, while global food insecurity declined only slightly from 2023 to 2024, 335 million more people were affected in 2024 than in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, and 683 million more than in 2015, when the Sustainable Development Agenda was adopted.

Covid-era food inflation

The report was published by five UN agencies: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

They noted that hunger and food security estimates remain above pre-pandemic levels due to a “perfect storm” of COVID-19 inflation, the war in Ukraine and climate shocks.

Speaking at the report’s preview on 22 July, FAO Chief Economist Máximo Torero Cullen highlighted the finding that fiscal and monetary policies during the COVID-19 pandemic boosted demand and inflation.

Combined with food and commodity trade restrictions linked to the war in Ukraine and ongoing climate shocks, these factors drove food inflation up dramatically, hindering the post-pandemic recovery in food security and nutrition.

This perfect storm hit low- and lower-middle-income countries especially hard, driving food inflation even higher than the already elevated global average.

As a result, although the number of people able to afford a healthy diet increased globally from 2019 to 2024 despite rising prices, it declined in low- and lower-middle-income countries, where prices rose even more sharply.

Recommendations and funding needs

The report recommends a combination of policy responses to fight global food price inflation. These include targeted fiscal measures to protect the most affected, credible and transparent monetary policies to keep inflation in check and strategic investments in agrifood systems.

The report and agency leaders also underscored that funding is desperately needed to address global challenges.

“Hunger remains at alarming levels, yet the funding needed to tackle it is falling,” stressed WFP Executive Director, Cindy McCain.

“This year, funding cuts of up to 40 percent mean that tens of millions of people will lose the vital lifeline we provide,” she added.

“While the small reduction in overall rates of food insecurity is welcome, the continued failure to provide critical aid to people in desperate need will soon wipe out these hard-won gains, sparking further instability in volatile regions of the world.”

Amid starvation in Gaza, Sudan, Guterres slams hunger ‘as a weapon of war’

Posted on July 28, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

The development comes as UN Secretary-General António Guterres cautioned that conflict-driven hunger is spreading “from Gaza to Sudan and beyond”.

“Hunger fuels instability and undermines peace. We must never accept hunger as a weapon of war,” he said in a video message to the UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake in Addis Ababa.

Meanwhile, citing reports Monday that “more children died today of hunger”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that it hoped to receive permission to bring in thousands of trucks loaded with food, medicine and hygiene supplies that Israel has blocked from entering Gaza for months.

“They are currently in Jordan and Egypt waiting for the green light,” the UN agency explained, adding that “at least 500/600 trucks” are needed every day to prevent more people from starving. More than 100 people have now starved to death in Gaza, UNRWA said, while local health authority reports indicate more than 40 deaths from malnutrition this month alone.

“Opening all the crossings and flooding Gaza with assistance is the only way to avert further deepening of starvation among the people of Gaza,” the UN agency maintained.

Humanitarian pauses

Its comments follow a major policy shift over the weekend when the Israeli army announced the establishment of a daily humanitarian pause from 10am to 8pm local time, in areas where its troops are not active. Child malnutrition has been on the rise in Gaza, particularly since 2 March when Israel imposed a near-total blockade, UNWRA has said.

According to a map supplied by the Israeli authorities, the humanitarian pause applies to a thin strip of Gaza encompassing Al-Mawasi in the southwest, Deir Al-Balah in the centre and Gaza City in the north.

On Sunday, a convoy of more than 100 trucks carrying aid supplies reportedly entered the Strip via the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the south.

Aid desperatedly needed

While welcoming that development, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, highlighted the staggering scale of needs on the ground in Gaza.

One in three people “hasn’t eaten for days”, insisted Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Chief and head of OCHA. “People are being shot just trying to get food to feed their families. Children are wasting away. This is what we face on the ground right now.”

In his statement, Mr. Fletcher acknowledged “progress” on the aid front, but stressed that “vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis”. He said that UN agencies and the humanitarian community remain mobilized “to save as many lives as we can”.

In addition to Israel’s temporary boost for increased aid in Gaza, customs restrictions on food, medicine and fuel from Egypt have reportedly been lifted. Secure routes for UN humanitarian convoys have also been designated.

“We need sustained action, and fast, including quicker clearances for convoys going to the crossing and dispatching into Gaza,” Mr. Fletcher said, underscoring the need for “multiple trips per day to the crossings so we and our partners can pick up the cargo; safe routes that avoid crowded areas; and no more attacks on people gathering for food”.

Meeting on two-State solution

Meanwhile in New York, France and Saudi Arabia on Monday launched a new diplomatic initiative to push for a two-State solution between Israel and the Palestinian people.

The three-day conference begins as President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will formally recognize Palestine in September, the first of the G7 nations to do so.

A UN General Assembly resolution from 1947 established the partition of Palestine – then under British mandate – into two independent states, one Jewish and the other Arab. The State of Israel was declared in 1948.

UN warns of ‘catastrophic hunger’ in Gaza as Israel announces humanitarian pauses

Posted on July 28, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

But as starvation tightens its grip and “children are dying before our eyes,” UN officials and aid workers warn that the measures fall far short of the much-needed ceasefire and unfettered aid access that could help stem the spiralling humanitarian catastrophe.

“Welcome announcement of humanitarian pauses in Gaza to allow our aid through,” UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said on X. “In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window.”

Also reacting via the platform, UNICEF said: “This is an opportunity to begin to reverse this catastrophe and save lives.”

According to the agency, since the collapse of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in March, children have been trapped in a nightmare and deprived of the basics to survive.

“The entire population of over two million people in Gaza is severely food insecure. One out of every three people has not eaten for days, and 80 per cent of all reported deaths by starvation are children,” the agency continued.

UNICEF emphasized that while it has never stopped delivering, “we can do a lot more if additional designated humanitarian corridors are created to facilitate the movement of our convoys – as well as commercial trucks, which are essential.”

‘A lifeline – if upheld and expanded’

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) also welcomed Israel’s announcement and its intent to open designated corridors for aid convoys in Gaza, “where hunger has reached catastrophic levels.”

With nearly half a million people facing famine-like conditions and a third of the population going days without food, WFP said in a press statement that the measures could offer a lifeline – if upheld and expanded.

Despite recent deliveries, including 350 truckloads last week, aid workers continue to face extreme risks and logistical hurdles. WFP said it has enough food stockpiled or en route to feed Gaza’s 2.1 million residents for three months, but without a ceasefire and consistent access, the scale of need far outpaces current efforts.

“An agreed ceasefire is the only way to reach everyone,” the agency stressed, calling for predictable and safe conditions to prevent further loss of life.

‘An entirely preventable crisis’

At the same time, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned that malnutrition in Gaza is spiralling out of control, with a sharp rise in deaths – most of them in July – marking what it calls a “dangerous trajectory.”

Of the 74 malnutrition-related deaths recorded this year, 63 occurred this month alone, including 24 children under five. Many died before reaching medical care, their bodies showing signs of severe wasting.

“This crisis is entirely preventable,” WHO said in a press release, citing the deliberate obstruction of aid for the mounting toll.

Children are bearing the brunt. Over 5,000 children have already been treated for malnutrition in July, many with the most life-threatening form. But Gaza’s four specialized treatment centers are overwhelmed, running low on fuel and supplies, and staffed by exhausted health workers.

“The health system is on the brink,” WHO warned, as disease spreads rapidly through communities with no clean water or sanitation.

The crisis is also devastating pregnant and breastfeeding women, over 40 per cent of whom are now severely malnourished. And it’s not just hunger that’s killing people—it’s the desperate search for food, according to WHO.

Since late May, more than 1,000 people have been killed and over 7,000 injured while trying to access aid. WHO is calling for an immediate ceasefire and a sustained surge of diverse, nutritious food and medical supplies.

“This flow must remain consistent and unhindered,” the agency said, urging protection for civilians, health workers, and humanitarian operations.

‘The world will judge this conference’

Looking ahead to the High-Level Conference on Palestine set to open on Monday at UN Headquarters in New York, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a strong call for immediate action to end Israel’s unlawful occupation and the ongoing devastation in Gaza.

“Countries that fail to use their leverage may be complicit in international crimes,” Volker Türk warned in a statement, urging governments to seize the moment for concrete measures that pressure Israel to halt the carnage and recommit to a two-state solution.

The UN rights chief described Gaza as a “dystopian landscape of deadly attacks and total destruction,” where children are starving and families are being killed in their search for food. The militarized aid distribution system, supported by the US and Israel, is failing to meet the scale of need.

“We can never forget that more than 300 of our own colleagues have been killed,” he added.

Moreover, in the occupied West Bank, violence by Israeli forces and settlers continues unabated, with homes demolished and water supplies cut off.

Mr. Türk reiterated condemnation of the 7 October attacks by Hamas but emphasized that the scale of suffering inflicted on Palestinians since then cannot be justified.

Calling for an immediate, permanent ceasefire, the release of hostages and detainees, and a massive surge in humanitarian aid, he concluded:

“The people of the world will judge this Conference on what it delivers.”

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Nigeria: Amid record hunger and surging insecurity, emergency food assistance to stall entirely

Posted on July 24, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

While WFP has been able to hold hunger at bay across northern Nigeria in the first half of 2025, funding shortfalls are jeopardising such efforts, with life-saving programmes set to grind to a halt by the end of July.

Without immediate funding, millions of vulnerable people will be left without food assistance as WFP’s food and nutrition stocks have been completely exhausted, with the organization’s last supplies leaving warehouses in early July.

With life-saving assistance set to end after the current round of distributions is completed, millions of vulnerable people will face impossible choices: endure increasingly severe hunger, migrate, or even risk possible exploitation by extremist groups in the region.

Children at risk

“Nearly 31 million people in Nigeria are now facing acute hunger, a record number,” said WFP Country Director David Stevenson, with children set to be among the worst affected if vital aid ends.

With more than 150 WFP-supported nutrition clinics in Borno and Yobe states set to close if funding is not renewed, over 300,000 children under the age of two will lose access to potential life-saving treatment.

“This is no longer just a humanitarian crisis,” he said. “It’s a growing threat to regional stability, as families pushed beyond their limits are left with nowhere to turn.”

Extremist groups

In conflict-affected areas in the north, escalating violence from extremist groups is driving mass displacement, with some 2.3 million people across the Lake Chad Basin having been forced to flee their homes.

As mass displacement strains already limited resources and pushes communities to the brink, the lack of emergency food assistance risks increasing recruitment by these groups.

“When emergency assistance ends, many will migrate in search of food and shelter. Others will adopt negative coping mechanisms – including potentially joining insurgent groups – to survive,” said Mr. Stevenson.

“Food assistance can often prevent these outcomes,” he added, as WFP urgently seeks $130 million to sustain food and nutrition operations through the end of the year.

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Gaza: UN staff now fainting from hunger, exhaustion; WHO worker detained

Posted on July 22, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

“Doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians, among them UNRWA staff, are hungry…fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties,” said Juliette Touma, Director of Communications with the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA.

Speaking from Amman, she stressed that seeking food “has become as deadly as the bombardments.”

The development comes as the UN human rights office, OHCHR, announced on Tuesday that more than 1,000 Palestinians have now been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food in Gaza since the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started operating on 27 May.

“As of 21 July, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food,” said OHCHR spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan; “766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organizations’ aid convoys.”

Mr. Al-Kheetan noted that the finding came from “multiple reliable sources on the ground, including medical teams, humanitarian and human rights organizations. It is still being verified in line with our strict methodology.”

The Foundation’s hubs are supported by the US and Israeli authorities and started operating in southern Gaza on 27 May, bypassing the UN and other established NGOs.

Aid relief is not a job for mercenaries

“The so-called GHF distribution scheme is a sadistic death-trap,” UNRWA’s Ms. Touma said. “Snipers open fire randomly on crowds, as if they’re given a licence to kill.”

Quoting a statement by UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini, Ms. Touma called the scheme a “massive hunt of people in total impunity.”

“This cannot be our new norm. Humanitarian assistance is not the job of mercenaries,” she added.

The UNRWA spokesperson insisted that the UN and its humanitarian partners have the expertise, experience and available resources to provide safe, dignified and at-scale assistance.

“We have proven it time and again during the last ceasefire,” she said.

Living conditions in the Strip have reached a new low as prices for basic commodities have increased by around 4,000 per cent. For Gaza’s inhabitants who have lost their homes and been displaced multiple times, they have no income and find themselves completely deprived of essentials.

A child waits for food in Gaza.

$200 for a bag of flour

Ms. Touma highlighted the testimony of a colleague on the ground who had to walk for hours to buy a bag of lentils and some flour, paying almost $200 for it.

On Monday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that a quarter of Gaza’s population faces famine-like conditions. Almost 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and need treatment as soon as possible.

Vital everyday items such as diapers are scarce and costly, at about $3 each. Mothers have resorted to using plastic bags instead, while one father “said that he had to cut one of his last shirts to give his daughter sanitary pads,” Ms. Touma said.

“We at UNRWA have stocks of hygiene supplies, including diapers for babies and for adults waiting outside the gates of Gaza,” Ms. Touma stressed, insisting that the agency has 6,000 trucks loaded with food, medicines and hygiene supplies waiting in Egypt and in Jordan to be allowed into the enclave.

Urgent ceasefire call

She reiterated the UN’s calls for “a deal that would bring a ceasefire, that would release the hostages, that would bring in a standard flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza under the management of the United Nations, including UNRWA.”

Humanitarian operations in the enclave are being pushed into an “ever-shrinking space”, said World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Tarik Jašarević.

Briefing journalists in Geneva, he condemned three attacks on Monday on a building housing WHO staff in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, as well as the “mistreatment of those sheltering there and the destruction of its main warehouse.”

“Staff and their families, including children, were exposed to grave danger and traumatized after airstrikes caused a fire and significant damage,” Mr. Jašarević said, adding that Israeli military entered the premises, “forcing women and children to evacuate on foot” towards the coastal shelter of Al Mawasi amid active conflict.

Screened at gunpoint

The WHO spokesperson said that staff and family members were “handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot and screened at gunpoint.” Two staff and two family members were detained and while three were later released, one WHO staff member remains in detention for reasons unknown to the organization.

Mr. Jašarević called for the release of the detained staff member and insisted that “no one should be held without charges and without due process.”

The latest evacuation order for the area has impacted several WHO premises and compromised its presence on the ground, “crippling efforts to sustain a collapsing health system,” Mr. Jašarević added, and “pushing survival further out of reach for more than two million people.”

The Israeli military operation in Deir Al-Balah on Monday also caused an explosion and fire inside WHO’s main warehouse, which is located within the evacuation zone in the central Gazan city – “part of a pattern of systematic destruction of health facilities,” the agency’s spokesperson said.

According to Gaza’s health authorities, since the start of the war in October 2023 some 1,500 health workers have been killed in the Strip. Some 94 per cent of all health facilities have been damaged and half of Gaza’s hospitals are “not functional at all,” Mr. Jašarević said.

“The chance to prevent loss of lives and reverse immense damage to the health system slips further out of reach every day,” he stressed.

Visa denials

Spotlighting further challenges to the humanitarian operation in Gaza, the WHO spokesperson pointed to an increase in the denial of visas by the Israeli authorities for emergency medical teams seeking to enter the Strip since the breakdown of the latest ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on 18 March.

He said that 58 international staff for the emergency medical teams, including surgeons and critical medical specialists, have been denied access.

UNRWA’s Ms. Touma highlighted the fact that ever since the agency’s Commissioner-General was denied entry to Gaza in March 2024, he has not been allowed back into the Strip. He has also not received a visa from Israel to enter the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, for more than a year.

The UNRWA spokesperson also deplored the lack of access for international media to the enclave.

“It certainly is time, if not long overdue, for international media to go into Gaza precisely to look into the facts and to help with reporting first-hand information on the horrors that people in Gaza are living through,” she said.

UN warns of worsening humanitarian crisis in Sudan as displacement, hunger and disease escalate

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Arun Kumar N

The situation is particularly dire in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, which has witnessed some of the worst episodes of the ongoing conflict between rival militaries.

Those remaining in El Fasher are facing “extreme shortages” of food and clean water, with markets repeatedly disrupted, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at the regular news briefing in New York.

Across the city, nearly 40 per cent of children under five are suffering from acute malnutrition, including 11 per cent with severe acute malnutrition.

Most of the surrounding water infrastructure has also been destroyed or rendered non-functional due to minimal maintenance and fuel shortages, Mr. Dujarric added.

El Fasher displacement

Since April 2023, an estimated 780,000 people have been displaced from El Fasher town and the nearby Zamzam displacement camps, including nearly 500,000 in April and May of this year.

Famine conditions have been confirmed in the area since last August.

About three-quarters of Zamzam camp’s residents fled to various locations across Tawila, where the UN and its partners have scaled up critical humanitarian assistance.

Cholera outbreak continues

Mr. Dujarric further warned that the breakdown of water and sanitation services, combined with low vaccination coverage, has sharply increased the risk of disease outbreaks, including cholera.

So far this year, Sudan has reported more than 32,000 suspected cholera cases.

According to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cholera cases continue to rise across Darfur, with over 300 suspected cases and more than two dozen deaths reported in South Darfur state last week alone.

“Conflict and collapsing infrastructure continue to drive the spread of the disease and impede response efforts,” Mr. Dujarric stressed.

Unprecedented and complex crisis

Since war erupted between the former allies-turned-rivals, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and more than 12 million forced to flee their homes – including approximately four million as refugees in neighbouring countries.

The crisis is unfolding against a backdrop of extreme vulnerability, as the country remains highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and disasters.

From severe droughts to deadly floods, the compounded effects of conflict and environmental instability are pushing communities to the brink, leaving them struggling to survive. Famine has already been declared in some parts of the country, putting millions of lives at risk.

Lack of resources hamstring response

Despite growing needs, the $4.2 billion humanitarian response plan for 2025, which aims to assist around 21 million of the most vulnerable people, remains only 21 per cent funded, having received $896 million so far.

Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, underscored the gravity of the situation in El Fasher.

Civilians in the area remain cut off from aid and face the risk of starvation, he said in a post on social media.

Appealing for an urgent humanitarian pause, he warned that “every day without access costs lives.”

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