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	Human-induced climate change continues to reach new heights by WMO, Copernicus Climate Change Service, agencies   15 Oct. 2025   Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose by a record amount in 2024, reaching new highs and locking in further long-term warming and extreme weather, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).   The surge was driven by continued human emissions, more wildfire activity and weakened absorption by land and ocean “sinks” – a development that threatens to create a vicious climate cycle.   The WMO’s latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin shows that CO₂ growth rates have tripled since the 1960s, accelerating from an annual average increase of 0.8 parts per million (ppm) to 2.4 ppm per year, in the decade from 2011 to 2020.   The rate jumped by a record 3.5 ppm between 2023 and 2024 – the largest increase since monitoring began in 1957.   Average concentrations reached 423.9 ppm in 2024, up from 377.1 ppm when the bulletin was first published in 2004.   Roughly half of CO₂ emitted remains in the atmosphere, while the rest is absorbed by land and oceans; storage that is weakening as warming reduces ocean solubility and worsens drought.   The 2024 spike was likely amplified by an uptick in wildfires and a reduced uptake of CO₂ by land and the ocean in 2024 – the warmest year on record.   “There is concern that terrestrial and ocean CO₂ sinks are becoming less effective, which will increase the amount of CO₂ that stays in the atmosphere, thereby accelerating global warming,” said Oksana Tarasova, WMO senior scientific officer who coordinates the bulletin research.   Methane and nitrous oxide – the second and third most significant long-lived greenhouse gases – also set new emission records. Methane levels rose to 1,942 ppb, 166 per cent above pre-industrial levels, while nitrous oxide hit 338 ppb – a 25 per cent increase.   “The heat trapped by CO2 and other greenhouse gases is turbo-charging our climate and leading to more extreme weather. Reducing emissions is therefore essential not just for our climate but also for our economic security and community well-being,” said WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett.   http://wmo.int/news/media-centre/carbon-dioxide-levels-increase-record-amount-new-highs-2024 http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/10/1166110   13 Oct. 2025   Global forests are still in crisis. (Forest Declaration Assessment 2025)   Deforestation and degradation rates remained stubbornly high in 2024, pushing the world even further off track from the shared goal of halting and reversing forest loss by 2030.   While some countries are demonstrating that progress is possible, the global trend remains one of stagnation, not transformation.   The Forest Declaration Assessment 2025 finds that:   8.1 million hectares of forest were lost in 2024, a level of destruction 63% higher than the trajectory needed to halt deforestation by 2030. Loss of humid primary tropical forests—the irreplaceable stores of carbon and biodiversity—spiked In 2024, largely due to climate change-induced increase of forest fires.   Forest degradation affected 8.8 million hectares affected in 2024—eroding ecosystem integrity and climate resilience.   Restoration efforts are expanding, but global data remain too fragmented to determine whether the world is recovering forests at the scale required. Financial flows are still grossly misaligned with forest goals, with harmful subsidies outweighing green subsidies by over 200:1. Despite new pledges, the flow of funds to forest countries and local actors remains far below what’s necessary to deliver on 2030 goals. Delivery on corporate and financial sector commitments is lagging, and transparency remains inconsistent.   At the halfway point to 2030, the world should be seeing a steep decline in deforestation. Instead, the global deforestation curve has not begun to bend.   http://forestdeclaration.org/resources/forest-declaration-assessment-2025/ http://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/banks-make-26-billion-in-a-decade-of-financing-deforesting-companies/   Sep. 2025   We are putting the stability of the entire life support system on Earth at risk, reports the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research   Scientists announce that 7 of 9 key 'planetary boundaries' have been crossed. (AFP)   A team of global scientists issued a new report this week, highlighting that seven out of nine of key "planetary boundaries" have been crossed.   Humans are gambling with the very stability of Earth’s life support systems, scientists warned, cautioning that ocean acidity is yet another key planetary threshold to be breached.   The team of global scientists assessed that seven of nine so-called “planetary boundaries” – processes that regulate Earth’s stability, resilience and ability to sustain life – had now been crossed.   Climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, freshwater depletion, overuse of agricultural fertilisers, and the release of artificial chemicals and plastics into the environment were all already exceeded.   In their new report, the scientists said all seven were “showing trends of increasing pressure – suggesting further deterioration and destabilisation of planetary health in the near future".   Destructive and polluting activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, are driving these further into risky territory and increasingly interacting with each other.   “We are putting the stability of the entire life support system on Earth at risk,” said Johan Rockstrom, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), at a press conference to launch the research.   “We are moving even further away from the safe operating space, risking destabilising our Earth and with an increasing risk growing year by year,” said Levke Caesar, co-lead of Planetary Boundaries Science at PIK.   Many of the causes of deterioration are interlinked, showing both the wide-ranging impact of human activities but also avenues for action.   The use of fossil fuels is a key example, driving climate change as well as fuelling plastic pollution and the rise in ocean acidification. The world’s seas are estimated to have absorbed roughly 30 percent of the excess carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from the burning of oil, gas and coal.   This alters the pH of the ocean, affecting the ability of organisms such as corals, shellfish and some forms of plankton to form shells and skeletons. Scientists said there was already evidence of shell damage, particularly for marine animals in polar and coastal regions.   “What we see in the data is no longer abstract. It is showing up in the world around us right now,” said Caesar.   One positive in this year’s dire report is that aerosol emissions have fallen, despite the continued scourge of severe particulate pollution in some regions. The final boundary – ozone depletion – remains within safe bounds, which scientists said demonstrates the success of global co-operation to restrict ozone-depleting pollutants.   Scientists have quantified safe boundaries for these interlocking facets of the Earth system, which feed off and amplify each other. For climate change, for example, the threshold is linked to the concentration of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere.   This hovered close to 280 parts per million (ppm) for at least 10,000 years prior to the Industrial Revolution, and researchers suggest the boundary is 350 ppm. Concentrations in 2025 are 423 ppm.   The assessment of the world’s biodiversity and ecosystems is even more perilous. “Nature’s safety net is unravelling: extinctions and loss of natural productivity are far above safe levels, and there is no sign of improvement,” the report states.   24 Sep. 2025   Johan Rockstrom, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) address to heads of state at the United Nations General Assembly:   "It’s now 10 years since the world in Paris entered a legally-binding agreement to avoid dangerous climate change. Since then, science has become overwhelmingly clear: allowing long-term global warming to exceed 1.5°C constitutes danger.   And yet, greenhouse gas emissions continue rising and in 2024 annual global temperature change was pushed beyond 1.5°C for the first time on our watch. This is a deep concern. An even deeper concern is that warming appears to be accelerating, outpacing emissions.   The long-term average warming is now between 1.3 and 1.4°C. We are on a path to breach the 1.5°C multi-decadal boundary within the next 5-10 years. Here, we must admit failure.   Failure to protect peoples and nations from unmanageable impacts of human-induced climate change.   But we don’t have to keep failing. Returning to below 1.5°C by the end of the century must remain the obligation for all international efforts to limit dangerous climate change.   Extreme heat, fires, droughts, water scarcity, flooding and soil degradation, reinforced by us, are already impacting the lives of billions of people around the world. Beyond 1.5°C, these dangers will become increasingly unmanageable. Every tenth of a degree of avoided warming saves lives and livelihoods – this is not the time for resignation.   Beyond 1.5°C there is also a real risk of crossing tipping points. The most recent science concludes we are therefore dangerously close to triggering fundamental and irreversible changes.   If we make the right choices going forward, there are still ‘overshoot’ pathways that could bring temperatures back below 1.5°C by the end of this century. Such a narrow escape remains possible, but it will be extremely challenging. It requires deep and rapid reduction of all greenhouse gases, involving the near complete transition – starting now – away from fossil fuels.   We also know that cutting emissions won’t be enough. We need to massively scale up carbon dioxide removal (through natural processes). For each 0.1°C of planetary cooling, 200 billion tons need to be removed from the atmosphere.   But even if this succeeds, we fail, unless we safeguard the world’s most powerful carbon sink and cooling system - a healthy planet.   If we don’t return to the "safe operating space” of the nine Planetary Boundaries that regulate Earth’s stability, (including biodiversity, pollutants, land, nutrients and the ocean) a safe climate will be out of reach – irrespective of our mitigation efforts.   Don’t be fooled: we are currently following a path that will take us to 3°C in just 75 years.   An existential threat we have not experienced in the last 3 million years, and there is no guarantee that efforts to cool our planet will succeed.   My message today: science is clear – we have a planetary crisis on our watch. And we do have scalable solutions for phasing out fossil fuels, efficient resource use and transformation to healthy and sustainable food. Pathways that make us all winners. The window to a manageable climate future is still open, but only just. Failure is not inevitable. It is a choice".   http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/johan-rockstrom-addresses-heads-of-state-during-united-nations-general-assembly-201cfailure-is-not-inevitable-it-is-a-choice201d http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/seven-of-nine-planetary-boundaries-now-breached-2013-ocean-acidification-joins-the-danger-zone http://www.planetaryhealthcheck.org/ http://news.exeter.ac.uk/research/new-reality-as-world-reaches-first-climate-tipping-point/ http://global-tipping-points.org/ http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adv2906 http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/development-cannot-be-achieved-dying-planet-un-committee-issues-new-guidance http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/ec12gc27-general-comment-no-27-2025-economic-social http://climateandhealthalliance.org/press-releases/cross-cutting-report-reveals-devastating-global-health-impacts-of-fossil-fuels-thru-production-life-cycle-across-human-lifespan http://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03313-z http://www.solargeoeng.org/african-ministers-call-for-a-non-use-agreement-on-solar-geoengineering http://www.ciel.org/geoengineering-biodiversity-risks/   Apr. 2025 (Copernicus Climate Change Service, agencies)   The average global temperature last month was 1.6C (2.88F) higher than in pre-industrial times, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Tuesday.   March 2025 was the 20th month in a 21-month period for which the global-average surface air temperature was more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. 14 of these 20 months, from September 2023 to April 2024, and from October 2024 to March 2025, were substantially above 1.5°C, ranging from 1.58°C to 1.78°C.   Scientists have warned that every fraction of a degree of global warming increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall and droughts.   Samantha Burgess, strategic lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs the C3S service, noted that Europe experienced extremes in both heavy rain and drought in March.   Europe last month recorded “many areas experiencing their driest March on record and others their wettest March on record for at least the past 47 years”, Burgess said.   Scientists said climate change also intensified an extreme heatwave across Central Asia and fuelled conditions for extreme rainfall in countries like Argentina.   Arctic sea ice also fell to its lowest monthly extent last month for any March in the 47-year record of satellite data, C3S said. The previous three months also set record lows.   The main driver of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, according to climate scientists. But even as the costs of disasters due to climate change spiral, the political will to invest in curbing emissions has waned in some countries.   United States President Donald Trump has called climate change a “hoax”, despite the overwhelming global scientific consensus that it is human-caused and will have severe and ongoing consequences if not urgently addressed.   In January, Trump signed an executive order to have the US withdraw from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming. In 2015, nearly 200 nations agreed in Paris that limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels offered the best chance of preventing the most catastrophic repercussions of climate change.   Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London told the AFP news agency that the world is “firmly in the grip of human-caused climate change”. “That we’re still at 1.6C above pre-industrial is indeed remarkable,” she said.   http://climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-temperature-maps http://climate.copernicus.eu/second-warmest-march-globally-large-wet-and-dry-anomalies-europe http://wmo.int/news/media-centre/wmo-report-documents-spiralling-weather-and-climate-impacts http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/pace-of-warming-has-doubled-since-1980s http://wmo.int/news/media-centre/global-climate-predictions-show-temperatures-expected-remain-or-near-record-levels-coming-5-years   Apr. 2025   UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres message for International Earth Day:   Mother Earth is running a fever. Last year was the hottest ever recorded: The final blow in a decade of record heat.   We know what’s causing this sickness: the greenhouse gas emissions humanity is pumping into the atmosphere – overwhelmingly from burning fossil fuels. We know the symptoms: devastating wildfires, floods and heat. Lives lost and livelihoods shattered.   And we know the cure: rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and turbocharging adaptation, to protect ourselves – and nature – from climate disasters.   Getting on the road to recovery is a win-win. Renewable power is cheaper, healthier, and more secure than fossil fuel alternatives. And action on adaptation is critical to creating robust economies and safer communities, now and in the future.   This year is critical. All countries must create new national climate action plans that align with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius – essential to avoid the worst of climate catastrophe.   This is a vital chance to seize the benefits of clean power. I urge all countries to take it, with the G20 leading the way. We also need action to tackle pollution, slam the brakes on biodiversity loss, and deliver the finance countries need to protect our planet.   Together, let’s get to work and make 2025 the year we restore good health to Mother Earth.   http://wmo.int/publication-series/state-of-global-climate-2024 http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1159846 http://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-january-2025-was-warmest-record-globally-despite-emerging-la-nina http://wmo.int/news/media-centre/wmo-confirms-2024-warmest-year-record-about-155degc-above-pre-industrial-level http://wmo.int/media/news/climate-change-impacts-grip-globe-2024 http://wmo.int/media/news/record-carbon-emissions-highlight-urgency-of-global-greenhouse-gas-watch http://www.worldweatherattribution.org/when-risks-become-reality-extreme-weather-in-2024 http://climatenetwork.org/2025/02/11/over-90-of-countries-fail-to-submit-new-ndcs-by-deadline http://www.iied.org/country-climate-targets-another-missed-deadline-make-change-happen-podcast-episode-31   Apr. 2025   Weathering the storm: poverty, climate change and social protection Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter.   While governments procrastinate, oligarchs win elections and authoritarian regimes seek to hide scientific data, the environmental collapse of the planet continues unabated.   Droughts, floods, heatwaves, storms and wildfires are becoming the new normal in all regions. Low-income countries and low-income households – those least to blame for the climate crisis – are being hit the hardest.   At a time when international solidarity faces threats unprecedented since the Second World War, the world can no longer depend solely on disaster relief to pick up the pieces when extreme weather hits. Nor should it.   Instead, the Special Rapporteur argues for a move from an ad hoc humanitarian approach to protecting people in poverty from climate disasters, towards establishing, strengthening and financing rights-based social protection.   Social protection is the most effective tool at our disposal for building people’s ability to withstand and recover from shocks, including climate-related shocks, yet the majority of the world’s poor have no access to social security whatsoever and are left to fend for themselves.   The Special Rapporteur urges Governments to take a powerful stand against current attempts to derail the international order that is based on the Charter of the United Nations by living up to pledges made to support low-income countries to establish social protection floors. International financial support, from traditional and new financing sources, could be channelled through a global fund for social protection; a positive incentive for low-income countries to invest in social protection which would in turn protect the most vulnerable from the climate volatility that is in no way of their making.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5951-weathering-storm-poverty-climate-change-and-social-protection   Apr. 2025   Clean energy can be Africa’s greatest success story, which is why its leaders must not fall for the pro-coal lobbying of the Trump administration, says Mohamed Adow, Founder and Director of Power Shift Africa   President Donald Trump’s administration has recently taken to urging African leaders to burn more planet-heating fossil fuels, and in particular coal, the dirtiest of all of them. Simultaneously, it scrapped USAID funding, which had been helping millions of the poorest people in Africa survive amid expanding climate breakdown.   Those thinking of aligning with Trump’s agenda would do well to remember that the droughts, floods, and storms which have destroyed the lives and livelihoods of Africans across the continent have been supercharged by US energy policy. The US alone has produced about a quarter of all historic carbon dioxide emissions since the Industrial Revolution, which are now responsible for accelerated global warming.   Not only would a coal-based development pathway for Africa heap more misery onto its citizens who are already living on the front lines of the climate crisis, but it would also be economically suicidal.   The economic impact of the climate emergency is already taking a terrible toll on Africa, and a 2022 report by the charity Christian Aid showed that under the current climate trajectory, African countries could suffer a reduction in gross domestic product growth of 64 percent by 2100.   There is also no need for Africa to shackle itself to the outdated fossil fuel infrastructure of coal when the continent is blessed with a spectacular potential for developing clean renewable energy.   The US fossil fuel advocates would be happy to see Africa trail along in the footsteps of the Global North, rather than see the continent leapfrogging the dirty energy era in the same way it leapfrogged landline telephone technology and adopted mobile phones en masse. But Africans should know better.   No other continent has more untapped wind and solar power than Africa, and this remains the key to its long-term prosperity. From the sun-drenched deserts of North Africa to the wind-swept plains of East Africa, the continent has the natural resources to become a global leader in clean energy.   Countries such as Morocco, Kenya and South Africa are already making significant strides in renewable energy development, with projects that harness solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower.   Investing in renewable energy offers numerous benefits. It can improve energy access for millions of people, create jobs, and boost economic growth. Renewable energy projects are often more scalable and adaptable to local needs, making them ideal for rural electrification and community-based initiatives.   By contrast, coal has wrought a terrible cost to Africans. It is often touted as a cheap and reliable energy source, but this ignores the hidden costs of environmental degradation, health impacts, and the overall economic harm of climate breakdown. Moreover, the global shift towards clean energy means that investments in coal are increasingly risky and likely to become stranded assets.   African countries must resist the lobbying efforts of Trump’s fossil fuel backers and instead focus on building a sustainable energy future. This requires a multifaceted approach, including investment in renewable energy infrastructure, strengthening governance and policy frameworks, and fostering international cooperation.   Investing in clean energy infrastructure is crucial. This includes not only large-scale projects like solar parks and wind farms but also decentralised systems that can bring electricity to off-grid communities. Many countries across Africa are already leading the way with community-focused solar systems and microgrids, and these initiatives demonstrate how renewable energy can be both ambitious and pragmatic, addressing energy access challenges while reducing reliance on imported fuels.   Strengthening governance and policy frameworks is equally important. African governments must prioritise climate adaptation and resilience in their urban planning and development processes.   This involves integrating climate considerations into all new projects and ensuring that resources are allocated where they are most needed. Effective governance structures can enable the implementation of climate adaptation strategies and ensure that investments in renewable energy are sustainable and equitable.   International cooperation and support are also vital. The global clean energy transition holds new promise for Africa’s economic and social development. Countries representing more than 70 percent of global CO2 emissions have committed to reaching net zero emissions by mid-century, including several African nations. These commitments can help attract climate finance and technology, enabling African countries to achieve their energy-related development goals on time and in full.   Africa’s path to sustainable economic development lies in embracing renewable, clean energy. The continent has the natural resources and innovative spirit to become a global leader in renewables, improving energy access, creating jobs, and reversing the climate crisis. By resisting the fossil fuel industry’s attempts to perpetuate coal use, African countries can build a resilient and prosperous future for their people.   Clean energy can be Africa’s greatest success story. For that to happen, African leaders must not take advice from a US president who admits he only cares about “America First”.   http://www.powershiftafrica.org/ http://africaclimateplatform.com/ http://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/africa-climate-justice-activists-to-submit-petition-to-achpr-seeking-courts-opinion-on-human-rights-obligations-of-african-states-in-the-context-of-climate-change/ http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/05/top-african-rights-court-consider-states-climate-obligations http://sdg.iisd.org/commentary/guest-articles/african-unions-voice-at-the-icj-seeking-climate-justice/ http://www.hhrjournal.org/2025/04/20/a-breath-of-fresh-air-indian-supreme-court-declares-protection-from-climate-change-a-fundamental-right/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/05/council-europe-must-recognise-right-healthy-environment-un-experts-urge http://rightsindevelopment.org/news/planet-burning-people-are-demanding-justice/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5646-scene-setting-report-report-special-rapporteur-promotion-and http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-environment Visit the related web page
	We must save as many lives as we can by OCHA, IPC, WFP, UNICEF, agencies   June 2025   We must save as many lives as we can, by Tom Fletcher - United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator   By the end of May 2025, nearly 300 million people around the world were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection. In the first months of the year, conflicts and violence intensified in multiple countries—deepening needs and driving many people to the brink of death—while natural disasters wreaked havoc on the lives of millions of people.   Multiple crises were characterized by systematic violations of international humanitarian law, including mass atrocities, with catastrophic consequences for civilians.   Forced displacement—primarily driven by conflict—reached its highest ever levels. The number of people forced to flee persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order rose in 2024, reaching a record 123.2 million people, or one in 67 people globally.   This included 83.4 million people who remained internally displaced within their own country as a consequence of conflicts and natural disasters, a 12 per cent increase compared to 2023.   In 2025, refugees continued to flee crises—particularly Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Myanmar and Sudan—and internal displacement rose rapidly.   In the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) , hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were repeatedly forcibly displaced and confined into ever-shrinking spaces. Haiti is seeing record levels of displacement due to violence, with nearly 1.3 million people now internally displaced, a 24 per cent increase since December 2024.   In the DRC, the M23 offensive in the east of the country, beginning in January 2025, displaced over a million people. In Burkina Faso, over 60,000 people were internally displaced in April alone and in Colombia, over 50,000 people were displaced in just two weeks due to the Catatumbo crisis.   With every displacement, urgent shelter needs arise. Shelter is a foundation for survival—without it, people remain exposed to violence, disease, and exploitation. Despite 40 per cent of IDPs globally still residing in displacement sites, the support provided to these locations is minimal.   The global food security crisis escalated dramatically, with 295.3 million people facing high acute food insecurity. Conflict and/or insecurity was responsible for Catastrophic food insecurity (Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) 5) in Haiti, Mali, OPT, South Sudan and Sudan, as well as famine in 10 locations in Sudan and famine-risk across all of Gaza, OPT.   Conflict also caused food insecurity to significantly deteriorate in Myanmar, Nigeria and Sudan, and drove malnutrition crises in Mali, OPT (Gaza), Sudan and Yemen.   Sexual violence was rampant, particularly against women and girls. In the DRC, it was estimated that a child is raped every half hour; in Haiti, there was a tenfold increase in sexual violence against children between 2023 and 2024; in Sudan, the scale and brutality of sexual violence escalated, and around 12.1 million people—nearly one in four, most of them women and girls—are now at risk of gender-based violence.   The horrifying toll of war on children continued to mount, with 50,000 children reportedly killed or injured in Gaza, OPT between October 2023 and May 2025, and April 2025 marking the deadliest month for children in Ukraine in nearly three years. In Colombia, more than 46,000 children and adolescents in the Catatumbo region are facing alarming risks, including fear of forced recruitment into non-State armed groups due to escalating conflict in 2025.   Attacks against health care disrupted vital and life-saving care for millions of people throughout the first months of 2025, with over 500 attacks recorded—over 300 of which involved the use of heavy weapons—across 13 countries and territories.   The use of explosive weapons in urban areas caused devastating harm for civilians and impacted services essential for their survival, including in Myanmar, OPT, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen. It is estimated that some 50 million people suffer the horrific consequences of urban warfare worldwide.   Climate and geological crises: Two major natural disasters occurred in the first half of 2025. On 28 March 2025, two earthquakes struck central Myanmar, killing 3,800 people, injuring 51,000, destroying thousands of homes and disrupting communications, water access and electricity supply. The disaster exacerbated an already dire humanitarian situation in the country where, prior to the earthquake, nearly 20 million people were already in need of humanitarian assistance.   Meanwhile, in Mozambique, Tropical Cyclone Dikeldi made landfall on 13 January 2025, just a month after Tropical Cyclone Chido on 15 December 2024. The two cyclones impacted 700,000 people and destroyed approximately 150,000 homes, as well as hundreds of schools and health facilities.   The risk of major emergencies continues to rise due to the global climate crisis, with 2024 now confirmed as the warmest year on record, while 2015 to 2024 are all in the ‘Top Ten’. And the future is bleak: there is an 80 per cent chance that at least one year between 2025 and 2029 will be hotter than 2024.   Underfunding: millions of people’s lives are hanging in the balance as services, programmes and organizations shut down   At the end of 2024, humanitarian action was already underfunded and under attack. Today, the situation is unimaginably worse: humanitarians are having to dramatically cut assistance and protection for people in crisis as funding plummets, while themselves facing increasing attacks.   In the first five months of 2025, multiple major donors reduced funding, triggering a seismic contraction in global humanitarian action.   The United States of America—which funded 45 per cent of the global humanitarian appeal in 2024—announced a suspension and subsequent termination of many humanitarian contracts, with sudden and widespread consequences around the globe.   This came on top of reductions announced or instituted by other major donors, including Germany and the United Kingdom, and on the back of a reduction in humanitarian aid from 2023 to 2024.   At least 79 million people in crisis will no longer be targeted for assistance as a result and this is likely a significant underestimate.   Cuts in food rations and emergency assistance are jeopardizing the lives and wellbeing of people facing acute food insecurity.   The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that it may reach more than 16 million people less (21 per cent) with emergency food assistance in 2025 compared to the 80 million people assisted in 2024. Already, prior to 2025, financing for food, cash and emergency agriculture was well below what was required, from Haiti to Mali and South Sudan.   In Bangladesh, one million Rohingya refugees who rely on food assistance will see their monthly food rations halved without additional funding. In Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), one in every three (60 out of 180) community kitchens had to close in just days. In Sudan, additional funding is urgently needed to procure and distribute seeds, without which, many farmers may miss this critical planting window. In Haiti, which has just entered the Atlantic Hurricane Season and where food insecurity is rampant, WFP, for the first time ever, has no prepositioned food stocks, nor the cash liquidity to mount a swift humanitarian response in the case of a hurricane.   Malnourished children face heightened risk of severe malnutrition and death. Disruptions to nutrition support and services due to global funding cuts are expected to affect 14 million children, including more than 2.4 million who are already suffering severe acute malnutrition and at imminent risk of death.   In Afghanistan, 298 nutrition sites closed, depriving 80,000 acutely malnourished children, pregnant women, and new mothers of treatment posing a serious risk of increased mortality.   Maternal and infant mortality may rise, as sexual and reproductive healthcare services are cut in countries where risks are already the highest. Funding cuts have led to facility closures, loss of health workers and disruptions to supply chains for lifesaving supplies and medicines such as treatments for haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and malaria—all leading causes of maternal deaths. Severe funding cuts are reducing support for midwives in crisis settings, jeopardizing the health and lives of pregnant women and newborns in some of the most fragile places on earth.   Children are losing access to their future, as access to education diminishes. More than 1.8 million children will miss out on learning due to aid cuts impacting just one NGO’s education programmes in over 20 countries.   Lack of shelter is leaving millions of people exposed to the elements and violence. In some of the world’s biggest crises—including Sudan and DRC—distribution of emergency shelters is at risk of being cut. In Chad, Colombia and Uganda, families face protracted displacement with no shelter assistance on the horizon.   Around the world, budget cuts are forcing humanitarian partners to reduce operations, presence and services. At least 12,000 humanitarian staff contracts have been cut and at least 22 organizations have had to completely close their offices in the relevant countries. National NGOs have reported the highest proportion of terminations.   Separately, almost half (47 per cent) of women-led organizations surveyed are expecting to shut down within six months, if current funding levels persist, and almost three-quarters (72 per cent) report having been forced to lay off staff.   Funding cuts have also affected humanitarian programmes for persons with disabilities, with 81 per cent reporting an impact on the delivery of assistance to address basic needs and 95 per cent reporting an impact on work to address barriers faced by persons with disabilities to access humanitarian assistance.   The risk of preventable disease and mortality has risen as health and water, sanitation and hygiene services (WASH) are curtailed.   In Syria, hospitals serving over 200,000 people in Deir ez-Zor are at risk of closing in May 2025 and over 170 health facilities in the north-west of the country risk running out of funds. In Somalia, over a quarter of one NGO’s health and nutrition facilities will stop services in June 2025, affecting at least 55,000 children.   In the DRC, 100,000 children are projected to miss out on measles vaccination in 2026 alone. In Afghanistan, approximately 420 health facilities have closed, denying three million people access to primary health care. In Sudan, through the South Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan, nearly 190,000 refugees and host households in White Nile, Kordofan and parts of Darfur risk losing access to WASH services, heightening the risk of disease outbreaks, malnutrition and protection violations, particularly for women and children.   Funding cuts for women-led organizations have hit gender-based violence prevention and protection efforts hardest. In the DRC, underfunding—combined with an upsurge in violence—means that 250,000 children will miss out on GBV prevention. In Yemen, funding suspensions have already forced 22 safe spaces to close, denying services and support to women and girls.   Services for refugees are being jeopardized. In Rwanda, under the DRC regional refugee plan, cash assistance for food decreased by 50 per cent. In Uganda, vulnerable refugees (82 per cent of the settlement refugee population) have had their food rations reduced to approximately a quarter of the full amount. In Lebanon, tens of thousands of vulnerable families risk being left without cash assistance to meet their basic needs. In Hungary, under the Ukraine Refugee Response Plan, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will not enroll any new refugees with severe disabilities into the cash support programme.   As of 10 June 2025, only 12 per cent of funding required under the 2025 Global Humanitarian Overview has been received. Without urgent additional support and financial backing, humanitarian partners will be unable to reach even people with the most life-threatening needs.   And yet, this devastating underfunding of humanitarian action comes amid an exponential rise in military expenditure. In 2024, military expenditure reached over $2.7 trillion in 2024; more than 100 times the amount galvanized for humanitarian appeals globally ($24.91 billion). This was the steepest year-on-year rise in military expenditure since at least the end of the Cold War, with European military expenditure accounting for the main increase.   http://www.unocha.org/latest/news-and-stories   June 2025   A hyper-prioritized Global Humanitarian Overview 2025: the cruel math of aid cuts, by Tom Fletcher - United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:   "This is a moment of reckoning. Brutal funding cuts have left us with no other option than to further reduce the number of people we are hoping to save.   Six months after ruthlessly prioritizing those in the direst need, we are left with the cruel math of doing less with less – even as the world around us remains on fire.   Make no mistake: our appeal for less money does not mean that there are less needs. Quite the contrary.   What has changed is that funding for our work has been decimated, even as more lives are shattered by wars and climate-induced disasters, and as our own staff is killed, injured, and detained just for trying to save lives.   What has changed is that more people in positions of power are choosing to finance wars instead of aiding people bearing their brunt; retreating from their obligations under international law instead of upholding them; allowing the worst violations to continue instead of holding perpetrators accountable; repressing women and girls instead of empowering them.   And yet I refuse to believe that humanity is dead. Everywhere I’ve been since taking on this role, I have seen its irrepressible power: In the people who have next to nothing and how they open their doors to those fleeing crises; in the women who have survived atrocities—from Gaza to El Geneina—and how they support their own communities; in the aid providers who, through sheer determination, ingenuity and care, manage to reach people in even the most dangerous and challenging crises.   So, as we launch this hyper-prioritized Global Humanitarian Overview, I am calling on the global community—Governments, businesses, individuals—to meet this moment. Help us deliver for those who need our support the most. Stand up for the laws that protect civilians and protect us as we serve them. Hold those responsible for atrocities to account. Ask yourself whether you did all you could.   This GHO Special Edition reflects our collective response to the most devastating funding cuts that our sector has ever seen. It is a focused, clear-eyed account of what must happen now—where the needs are most urgent, where we can still make the most difference, and where lives are, very literally, on the line.   Reaching this point has not been easy; it has required extremely tough conversations and difficult decisions. And let me be crystal clear: while this document outlines what we must do, right now, to save as many lives as we can with the resources that we have, it does not – in any way – replace our meticulous and painstaking planning for this year. The entirety of our initial Global Humanitarian Overview remains fully valid and should be fully funded. This hyper-prioritized version is the tip of the iceberg, not the whole effort.   What we are launching today is a call to action, not a plea for charity—it’s an appeal for responsibility, solidarity, and a future built on humanity.   Inaction is not inevitable. It is a choice—and one we can refuse to make. The stakes could not be higher".   http://humanitarianaction.info/document/hyper-prioritized-global-humanitarian-overview-2025-cruel-math-aid-cuts http://humanitarianaction.info/ http://www.fsinplatform.org/grfc-2025-september-update http://www.ipcinfo.org/   Gaza Strip: Famine confirmed in Gaza Governorate, projected to expand (IPC)   As of 15 August 2025, Famine (IPC Phase 5)—with reasonable evidence—is confirmed in Gaza Governorate. After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death. Another 1.07 million people (54 percent) are in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), and 396,000 people (20 percent) are in Crisis (IPC Phase 3).   Between mid-August and the end of September 2025, conditions are expected to further worsen with Famine projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. Nearly a third of the population (641,000 people) are expected to face catastrophic conditions (IPC Phase 5), while those in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) will likely rise to 1.14 million (58 percent). Acute malnutrition is projected to continue worsening rapidly.   Through June 2026, at least 132,000 children under five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition—double the IPC estimates from May 2025. This includes over 41,000 severe cases of children at heightened risk of death. Nearly 55,500 malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women will also require urgent nutrition response.   Despite limited data, conditions in North Gaza Governorate are estimated to be as severe—or worse—than in Gaza Governorate.   http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/countries-in-focus-archive/issue-134/en/ http://www.unocha.org/news/un-relief-chief-says-gaza-famine-must-spur-world-urgent-action http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/famine-confirmed-first-time-gaza http://www.wfp.org/news/famine-confirmed-first-time-gaza http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165702 http://www.savethechildren.net/news/children-starved-plain-sight-famine-confirmed-gaza-save-children http://www.care.org/media-and-press/famine-confirmed-in-gaza-as-assault-on-gaza-city-looms/ http://www.rescue.org/press-release/all-famine-thresholds-now-surpassed-gaza-city-irc-urges-government-israel-enable-aid   http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/countries-in-focus-archive/issue-124/en/ http://www.wfp.org/news/risk-famine-across-all-gaza-new-report-says http://www.unocha.org/news/un-relief-chief-calls-security-council-act-decisively-prevent-genocide-gaza http://www.who.int/news/item/12-05-2025-people-in-gaza-starving--sick-and-dying-as-aid-blockade-continues   Apr. 2025   If we die while sleeping… will it still hurt, by Nour Elassy - Poet and writer based in Gaza   Last week, during another violent night, my almost four-year-old niece asked me a question I’ll never forget. “If we die while sleeping… will it still hurt?”   I didn’t know what to say. How do you tell a child — who has seen more death than daylight — that dying in your sleep is a mercy?   So I told her: “No. I don’t think so. That’s why we should fall asleep now.”   She nodded quietly, and turned her face to the wall. She believed me. She closed her eyes.   I sat in the dark, listening to the bombs, wondering how many children were being buried alive just down the street.   I have 12 nieces and nephews. All are under the age of nine. They have been my solace and joy in these dark times.   But I, like their parents, struggle to help them make sense of what is going on around us.   We have had to lie to them so many times. They would often believe us, but sometimes they would feel in our voices or our stares that something terrifying was happening. They would feel the horror in the air.   No child should ever have to endure such brutality. No parent should have to cower in despair, knowing they cannot protect their children.   Last month, the ceasefire ended, and with it, the illusion of a pause. What followed wasn’t just a resumption of war — it was a shift to something more brutal and relentless.   In the span of three weeks, Gaza has become a field of fire, where no one is safe. More than 1,400 men, women and children have been killed. Daily massacres have shattered what remained of our ability to hope.   Some of them have hit home. Not just emotionally. Physically. Just yesterday, the air was filled with dust and the smell of blood from just a few streets away. The Israeli army targeted al-Nakheel Street in Gaza City, killing 11 people, including five children.   A few days earlier, at Dar al-Arqam School, a place that had sheltered displaced families, an Israeli air strike turned classrooms into ash. At least 30 people were killed in seconds—mostly women and children.   They had come there seeking safety, believing the blue United Nations flag would protect them. It didn’t. The school is less than 10 minutes away from my home.   The same day, the nearby Fahd School was also bombarded; three people were killed.A day earlier, there was news of a horror scene in Jabalia. An Israeli strike targeted a clinic run by the UNRWA, where civilians were sheltering.   Eyewitnesses described body parts strewn across the clinic. Children burned alive. An infant decapitated. The smell of burning flesh suffocating the survivors. It was a massacre in a place meant for healing.   Amid all this, parts of Gaza City received evacuation orders. Evacuate. Now. But to where? Gaza has no safe zones. The north is levelled. The south is bombed. The sea is a prison. The roads are death traps.   We stayed. It is not because we are brave. It is because we have nowhere else to go. Fear is not the right word to describe what we feel in Gaza. Fear is manageable. Fear can be named.   What we feel is a choking, silent terror that sits inside your chest and never leaves. It is the moment between a missile’s whistle and the impact, when you wonder if your heart has stopped.   It is the sound of children crying from under the rubble. The smell of blood spreading with the wind. It is the question my niece asked.   Foreign governments and politicians call it a “conflict”. A “complex situation”. A “tragedy”.   But what we are living through is not complex. What we are living through is not a tragedy. It is a war crime.   I’ve spent months writing, calling out to the world. I will not let our truth remain unspoken. Because I believe someone is listening. Somewhere. I write because I believe in humanity, even when governments have turned their backs on it. I write so that when history is written, no one can say they didn’t know.   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/world-must-act-urgency-save-palestinians-gaza http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-runs-out-food-stocks-gaza-border-crossings-remain-closed http://www.unocha.org/news/ocha-warns-deliberate-dismantling-life-gaza http://unocha.exposure.co/gaza-through-the-eyes-of-its-photographers http://www.unocha.org/news/aid-must-not-be-weaponized-warns-gaza-humanitarian-country-team-amid-mounting-crisis http://news.un.org/en/tags/gaza   26 Aug. 2025   After 500 days under siege, children in Sudan’s Al Fasher face starvation, mass displacement, and deadly violence. (UNICEF)   After 500 days under siege, the city of Al Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur has become an epicentre of child suffering, with malnutrition, disease, and violence claiming young lives daily, UNICEF warned today.   At least 600,000 people - half of them children - have been displaced from Al Fasher and surrounding camps in recent months. Inside the city, an estimated 260,000 civilians, including 130,000 children, remain trapped in desperate conditions, cut off from aid for more than 16 months.   “We are witnessing a devastating tragedy – children in Al Fasher are starving while UNICEF’s lifesaving nutrition services are being blocked,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Blocking humanitarian access is a grave violation of children's rights, and the lives of children are hanging in the balance.   UNICEF continues to call for immediate and full access, including through expanded pauses in the fighting to allow us to reach all children in need. Children must be protected at all times, and they must have access to life-saving aid.”   The toll on children is catastrophic. Since the start of the siege in April 2024, more than 1,100 grave violations have been verified in Al Fasher alone, including the killing and maiming of over 1,000 children. Many were struck down in their homes, inside displacement camps, or in marketplaces. At least 23 children have been subjected to rape, gang rape, or sexual abuse, while others have been abducted, recruited, or used by armed groups. Due to limited access and verification challenges, the number of affected children is almost certainly significantly higher.   This week saw reports of another mass casualty event, as seven children were reportedly killed in an attack on Abu Shouk Internal Displacement camp, located on the outskirts of Al Fasher.   In Al Fasher, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) siege has completely cut off supply lines. Health facilities and mobile nutrition teams have been forced to suspend services as supplies have been depleted without new supplies able to enter, leaving an estimated 6,000 children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) without treatment. Without therapeutic food and medical care, these children face an exponentially higher risk of death.   Health and education facilities have come under continued attack, with 35 hospitals and 6 schools struck, including Al Fasher Saudi Maternal Teaching Hospital, which was hit more than ten times, killing and injuring many, including children. In January, shelling destroyed the therapeutic health centre at Abu Shouk camp, depriving thousands of malnourished children of treatment.   Meanwhile, acute malnutrition is spreading fast. More than 10,000 children in Al Fasher have been treated for SAM since January – nearly double last year’s figure. But depletion of supplies has now forced the suspension of services. Recent reports indicate at least 63 people – mostly women and children – died of malnutrition in a single week.   The situation in the wider region is also concerning; In July, Mellit locality – hosting many displaced from Al Fasher – recorded an Acute Malnutrition rate of 34.2 per cent, a record high since the onset of the war in April 2023 in Sudan.   The siege is colliding with Sudan’s worst cholera outbreak in decades. Since July 2024, more than 96,000 suspected cases and 2,400 deaths have been reported nationally, with nearly 5,000 cases and 98 deaths in Darfur alone. In overcrowded camps around Tawila, Zamzam, and Al Fasher, children weakened by hunger are now highly vulnerable to deadly waterborne disease.   UNICEF continues to call on the Government of Sudan, and all other concerned parties, to help ensure sustained, unimpeded, and safe access to reach children wherever they are in Sudan, including:   An immediate and sustained humanitarian pause in Al Fasher and across other conflict-affected areas. Unimpeded humanitarian access for the delivery of therapeutic food, medicines, clean water, and other essentials. The re-establishment and continuity of UN and partner operations in the areas most critically affected. Protection of civilians, including children, and civilian infrastructure in line with international humanitarian law.   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/after-500-days-under-siege-children-sudans-al-fasher-face-starvation-mass http://sudan.un.org/en/300675-statement-attributable-spokesman-secretary-general-sudan http://www.wfp.org/news/one-year-after-famine-first-confirmed-sudan-wfp-warns-people-trapped-el-fasher-face-starvation http://www.wfp.org/stories/wfp-calls-humanitarian-access-sudanese-city-grapples-starvation http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165642 http://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/ingos-condemn-persistent-violations-international-humanitarian-law-ihl-el-fasher-where-civilians-are-starving-and-besieged   http://plan-international.org/news/2025/07/11/children-starve-famine-risk-persists-sudan/ http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/countries-in-focus-archive/issue-132/en/ http://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Alert_Sudan_July2025.pdf http://www.wfp.org/news/one-year-after-famine-first-confirmed-sudan-wfp-warns-people-trapped-el-fasher-face-starvation http://www.icrc.org/en/news-release/sudan-attacks-kordofan-states-hundreds-deaths-displacement-collapse-services http://www.mercycorps.org/press-room/releases/famine-tightens-grip-on-sudan-ingos-call-for-immediate-access-for-aid http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/children-sudan-reduced-skin-and-bones-unicef-calls-urgent-action http://www.unicef.org/sudan/press-releases/over-640000-children-under-five-risk-cholera-spreads-sudans-north-darfur-state http://www.msf.org/war-fuels-cholera-outbreak-across-sudan   UN urges global action to protect and support civilians devastated by Sudan’s war   Two years of conflict have fueled a catastrophic protection crisis and displaced a staggering 12 million people in Sudan and across borders.   Fighting continues to kill and injure civilians and destroy hospitals, markets and other essential infrastructure. Nearly two-thirds of the population need emergency aid, and the country is facing famine conditions. Refugees in dire need arrive in neighbouring countries where local resources are already stretched thin.   “Sudan is a humanitarian emergency of shocking proportions,” said Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher. “Famine is taking hold. An epidemic of sexual violence rages. Children are being killed and injured. The suffering is appalling. We need to stop the fighting, and funding to deliver for the Sudanese people, and we need better access by land, sea and air to those who need help.”   “Today, one-third of Sudan’s entire population is displaced. The consequences of this horrific and senseless conflict spread far beyond Sudan’s borders,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “Neighbouring countries have shown great solidarity by welcoming refugees, even when more are arriving every day. But their resources are stretched – essentials such as water, shelter and health services are scarce – and Sudan needs urgent support. The international community must step up and help, not just to ensure that emergency aid and life-saving protection can continue without disruption, but also to end the violence and restore peace to Sudan.”   Famine conditions have been reported in numerous locations in Sudan including displacement camps in Darfur and in the western Nuba Mountains. Catastrophic hunger is expected to worsen by May when the lean season begins. With continued fighting and basic services having collapsed across most of the country, the crisis is set to get worse.   The Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for Sudan aims to reach nearly 21 million vulnerable people with life-saving aid and protection. This is the highest number of people in any UN-coordinated plan this year. As the conflict rages on, thousands continue to flee every day. The majority arrive in an extremely vulnerable state, with high levels of malnutrition and requiring emergency assistance. To date, nearly 3.5 million people have sought safety in neighbouring countries further stretching already scarce services and resources.   Sudan: Acute Food Insecurity Situation   Twenty months into the conflict, Sudan continues to slide into a widening Famine crisis characterized by widespread starvation and a significant surge in acute malnutrition. The IPC Famine Review Committee (FRC) has detected Famine in at least five areas and projects that five additional areas will face Famine between December 2024 and May 2025. Furthermore, there is a risk of Famine in seventeen additional areas. Half of the population (24.6 million people) is facing high levels of acute food insecurity. This marks an unprecedented deepening and widening of the food and nutrition crisis, driven by the devastating conflict, which has triggered unprecedented mass displacement, a collapsing economy, the breakdown of essential social services, and severe societal disruptions, and poor humanitarian access.   Between December 2024 and May 2025, 24.6 million people face high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above). These results mark a stark increase of 3.5 million people compared to the number originally projected and correspond to over half of the population of Sudan. This includes about 15.9 million people (33 percent) classified in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis), 8.1 million people (17 percent) in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency), and at least 638,000 people (1 percent) in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe).   http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1159433/ http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/april/sudans-darkest-hour http://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-two-years-war-starvation-global-failure-world-must-act-now http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/04/sudan-faces-worsening-humanitarian-catastrophe-famine-and-conflict-escalate http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/number-children-need-humanitarian-assistance-sudan-doubles-conflict-enters-third http://www.icrc.org/en/news-release/sudan-new-report-sheds-light-two-years-devastation-sudan http://www.msf.org/two-years-war-sudan-leave-millions-more-need-ever http://news.un.org/en/tags/sudan http://www.unocha.org/latest/news-and-stories?responses=30   Mar. 2025   Three years into the war in Ukraine, one third of population in frontlines regions struggle to find enough to eat   As the war in Ukraine enters its fourth year, an estimated five million Ukrainians are facing food insecurity, with the greatest needs concentrated in areas near the frontlines.   According to data collected by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), millions of people are resorting to coping mechanisms, sacrificing their own meals so their children can eat. Others are going into debt to buy sufficient food supplies to feed their families.   WFP continues to provide food and cash assistance to nearly 1.5 million Ukrainians each month, mostly in the frontline regions. Despite these efforts, more than half of the people in the Kherson region in the south face severe hunger, and, two out of every five individuals face hunger in Zaporizhzhia as well as the Donetsk region in the east.   "Families in frontline regions are struggling to put food on the table, forcing them to make heartbreaking choices just to get by," said Richard Ragan, WFP Country Director in Ukraine. “As we look forward to sustainable peace in what is considered to be one of the world’s historical breadbasket regions, we must face the reality that humanitarian aid continues to be a lifeline for millions.”   According to WFP monitoring, 72 percent of those who receive food assistance reported having to cut back on food, buy less nutritious food, skip meals, or borrow money to feed their family. Across six frontline regions almost a third of all people are food insecure.   In areas close to the war, commercial supply chains are disrupted, infrastructure is often damaged or destroyed, and the opportunities to earn money are scarce. Where supermarkets are accessible and stocked, many families cannot afford nutritious food. The cost of basic food items rose by 25 percent in the last year, with some staple vegetables more than doubling in price.   Since March 2022, WFP has provided assistance in Ukraine equivalent to 3.3 billion meals and distributed 445,000 metric tons of food.   Meanwhile, the challenges of delivering lifesaving assistance near the frontlines have been growing. In the last six months, WFP food distribution points and the vehicles or assets of its local humanitarian partners have been hit by drones, shelling or missiles more than 20 times, putting humanitarian operations at risk.   http://www.wfp.org/news/three-years-ukraine-war-one-third-population-frontline-regions-struggle-find-enough-eat http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/february/ukraine-three-years-on-sharp-increase-in-basic-needs-along-the-frontline http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-after-three-years-war-ukrainians-need-peace-and-aid http://www.msf.org/medical-humanitarian-needs-ukraine-remain-urgent-ever http://www.ifrc.org/article/ukraine-ifrc-president-kate-forbes-reflects-scars-conflict-and-long-road-recovery http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/press-releases/suspension-of-us-international-aid-has-serious-consequences-as-ukraine-marks-three-years-of-war/ http://unocha.exposure.co/ukraine-three-years-of-fullscale-war http://www.savethechildren.net/news/ukraine-i-fear-i-wont-be-able-help-my-child-75-people-struggling-make-ends-meet-after-3-years http://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/three-years-loss-and-fear-war-ukraine-shatters-childrens-lives Visit the related web page
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