Global Humanitarian Overview 2026: Trends in crises and needs: a world at breaking point by UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs   Dec. 2025   In 2026, millions of people caught in conflict and disaster face their hardest test yet: survival. Funding cuts in 2025 stripped away lifelines, even as crises deepen. Yet, the global humanitarian community is determined to stand with them—from local organizations aiding their own communities, to international partners delivering where it is needed most.   In 2026, humanitarians will aim to collectively assist 135 million people, out of 239 million people in need, with the immediate priority being to save 87 million lives.   The Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) 2026 is grounded in the harsh reality facing humanitarian action after a year in which thousands of staff were laid off and humanitarian offices were closed around the world.   Humanitarians are appealing for $33 billion through the Global Humanitarian Overview in 2026, of which $23 billion is required immediately to respond to the most life-threatening needs. While these amounts may seem daunting, they pale in comparison to other global expenditures—it is around one per cent of global military expenditure.   The 2026 GHO represents the critical core of the global humanitarian effort. It is focused on the places hit the hardest by crises and the people with the most life-threatening needs.   It reflects excruciating decisions—forced by funding cuts—regarding who and where should be prioritized for assistance, grounded in the principle of impartiality, and its call for humanitarians to reach those in most urgent distress first. The Global Humanitarian Overview reflects intense efforts by every country operation and regional response to take action to to save as many lives as possible.   2026 must be a year of renewed global solidarity following the decimation wrought by funding cuts in 2025. Humanitarian action remains the most effective lifeline for millions of people in crisis and costs just a fraction of global expenditure.   The Global Humanitarian Overview 2026 is the most tightly defined global appeal—focused on saving as many lives as possible—and it must be fully funded.   Trends in crises and needs: a world at breaking point   As 2026 begins, over 239 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection amidst entrenched conflicts that are more violent against civilians and lasting longer than at any time since World War Two, and a climate crisis that is escalating unabated.   From Haiti to Myanmar, Ukraine to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sudan to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), horrifying violence, hunger, displacement and disease are tearing people’s lives apart—killing and maiming civilians, waging war on the bodies of women and girls, separating families, forcibly uprooting people from their land and livelihoods, fueling the spread of diseases and devastating their mental and physical health.   There are two main drivers of urgent humanitarian needs globally, both of which are man-made and could be reversed with concerted and collective action.   Conflict is the main cause of death, displacement and hunger   Civilians are enduring a record number of armed conflicts marked by increased flagrant disregard for international humanitarian and human rights, including mass atrocities and attacks on health and learning facilities.   More than two years into the Israeli offensive in Gaza, OPT, 69,785 people have been killed, according to Ministry of Health figures, while a recent study estimated that the violent death toll is likely more than 100,000 people. In Sudan, a 500-day siege was followed by the killing of thousands of civilians in El Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces, while similar dynamics are playing out in Kordofan entering 2026, with lack of respect for civilian life and freedom of movement.   In 2025, three out of every four civilian fatalities in conflict worldwide has occurred in countries with a humanitarian plan or appeal. In Myanmar, increased killings, razing of villages, and mass forced displacement have been reported. The spread and intensification of cholera outbreaks have also been driven by conflicts, notably in Chad, DRC, Sudan and South Sudan. In 2025, three out of every four civilian fatalities in conflict worldwide has occurred in countries with a humanitarian plan or appeal.   As wars increasingly move into cities, the rising use of explosive weapons in populated areas is having catastrophic consequences. Civilians continue to make up 90 percent of those harmed by explosive weapons in populated areas and civilian casualties from explosive weapons rose by 69 percent in 2024 compared to 2023, predominantly due to the war in Gaza, OPT.   Attacks by explosive weapons in residential areas and markets can also disproportionately affect women in contexts where they have the primary responsibility for buying food and household goods at markets.   Meanwhile, the withdrawal of Member States from the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Ottawa Convention and the Convention on Cluster Munitions—which ban anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions respectively—marks a dangerous retreat from international humanitarian law and weakens fundamental norms for the protection of civilians. Globally, over 84 per cent of landmine victims are civilians.   The accelerating integration of emerging technologies into armed conflict is amplifying already intensifying risks. The use of drones is making conflict more accessible and more asymmetric: between 2022 and 2024, the number of companies making drones has exploded from six to over 200.   Drone attacks in conflict settings increased by 4,000 percent between 2020 and 2024, and more than quadrupled between 2023 (4,525 attacks) and 2024 (19,704). The proliferation of drones is also threatening life-saving humanitarian aid.   Until 2022, fewer than 10 drone-related incidents affected healthcare or aid delivery each year, while in 2024 there were over 300 such incidents. Meanwhile, Artificial Intelligence has significant implications for the way wars are waged. If algorithms are trained in overly permissive targeting rules, the result will be death and destruction among civilians at greater speed and on a larger scale.   Conflict trends in recent years—including widespread violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) by Member States and armed groups and impunity for international crimes—risk eroding protection of civilians everywhere.   ICRC has warned that, unless negative trends—including broadening the notion of who or what constitutes a lawful target, the idea that IHL obligations depend on reciprocity, and the dehumanization of fighting forces of the enemy, and civilian populations—are rapidly reversed, IHL risks becoming a justification for violence rather than a shield for humanity.   The unequal application of IHL and advocacy for compliance, which was pronounced in 2025, also risks respect for humanitarian principles, aid workers and organizations in future conflicts.   More than 295 million people face high acute food insecurity (IPC/CH Phase 3 and above) across 53 countries and territories—a sixth consecutive annual increase and nearly three times the number recorded in 2016.   Famine (IPC Phase 5) re-emerged, driven by conflict in Gaza, OPT and parts of Sudan in 2025, with a risk of Famine emerging in parts of South Sudan. Around 1.2 million people faced catastrophic levels (IPC/CH Phase 5) of acute food insecurity in 2025 across six countries and territories, primarily in Gaza, OPT and Sudan, followed by Haiti, Mali, South Sudan and Yemen.   Afghanistan, DRC, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia and Syria are of very high concern with deteriorating conditions and large populations already facing Emergency levels of acute food insecurity.   Conflict represents a principal driver of food insecurity for 14 out of 16 hunger hotspots where acute food insecurity is likely to worsen. It plays a major role in driving the catastrophic or extremely severe conditions affecting people in hotspot countries at the highest concern level.   Food insecurity significantly undermines protection; when individuals or communities lack reliable access to sufficient and nutritious food, they may resort to harmful strategies such as child labor, child marriage, or transactional sex to survive.   Over 117 million people are forcibly displaced by conflict and violence, including 42.5 million refugees. Sudan remains the world’s largest displacement crisis, while internal displacement doubled in Haiti from September 2024 to October 2025 and rose significantly in Myanmar and South Sudan.   Lack of respect for international humanitarian law (IHL) is fueling mass arrivals of refugees in certain places: Chad hosts 1.47 million refugees, of whom almost 900,000 have arrived since the conflict in Sudan started in 2023 and some 260,000 in 2025 only.   While the global number of people forcibly displaced has dropped due to an increase in returns, including to and within the DRC, Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan, those making long and fraught journeys home require assistance and risk mitigation, support and solidarity during their travel and upon arrival.   Around 520 million children—more than one out of five children in the world—are living in or fleeing conflict zones. Explosive weapons are killing children on a scale never seen before as wars increasingly move into cities and grave violations against children are on the rise.   In OPT, a staggering 64,000 children have reportedly been killed or maimed across Gaza in two years, and around one quarter of people facing life-changing injuries in Gaza are children.   In Sudan, the siege of El Fasher became an epicentre of child suffering, with more than 1,100 grave violations reported in El Fasher alone, including the killing and maiming of over 1,000 children.   In 2024, boys accounted for the majority of children affected by violations, facing significantly higher risks of recruitment, killing and maiming. Meanwhile, girls continued to suffer from sexual violence but the number of boys affected by sexual violence surged by 125 percent compared to the previous year. The highest numbers of grave violations against children were verified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Nigeria, OPT and Somalia in 2024.   Some 676 million women now live within 50 kilometres of deadly conflict, the highest level since the 1990s and conflict-related sexual violence increased by 87 per cent in two years.   In Haiti nearly two-thirds of the cases of sexual violence involve gang rape. In the DRC, children accounted for up to 45 per cent of nearly 10,000 reported cases of rape and sexual violence in just two months (January-February 2025), during which time, “a child was raped every half an hour.”   Climate change is worsening disasters and geological events are impacting communities already in crisis   The world is perilously close to 1.5ºC warming and it is expected that 2025 will be the second or third hottest year on record after 2024, marked by weather extremes: floods in West Africa and Asia, drought in South America, and heatwaves and wildfires across the globe.   Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall across Cuba and Jamaica in October 2025, was one of the most powerful landfalling hurricanes ever recorded. A hurricane such as this is approximately four times more likely to occur in today’s climate as compared to a pre-industrial time.   As of November 2025, 2192 weather-related disasters were recorded, affecting at least 49 million people and causing thousands of deaths.   Meanwhile, geological events—especially earthquakes—are increasingly impacting communities already in crisis. In Afghanistan, on 31 August 2025, a 6+ magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks struck Nangarhar and Kunar provinces in the east, killing over 2,150 people and causing widespread destruction of homes along the mountainous slopes and valleys.   In Myanmar, two devastating earthquakes struck on 28 March 2025, killing 3,800 people, injuring 51,000, destroying thousands of homes and disrupting communications, water access and electricity supply.   Globally, three in four people who are forcibly displaced live in countries facing high-to-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards and weather-related disasters have caused some 250 million internal displacements—equivalent to around 70,000 displacements per day—over the past ten years.   When development or political action fails, crises become protracted. Conflict duration has nearly doubled in the past thirty years: the average duration of conflicts that ended in 1990 was around 16 years, while in 2020 it was over 30 years.   Since 2010, conflict termination rates have declined by 25 per cent while recurrence rates have risen 44 per cent compared to 1990 to 2009.   Around 204 million people live in areas controlled or contested by armed groups globally—74 million under full control and 130 million in contested areas.   Meanwhile, resources for peace and conflict prevention in contexts facing high and extreme fragility are at their second lowest level since 20046 and development and climate financing remains lowest in countries with the highest fragility and vulnerability.   As a result, international humanitarian action in 75 per cent (18 out of 24) HNRP9 countries has lasted more than 10 years. Humanitarian action in the absence of robust development and political action cannot provide solutions or significantly strengthen resilience.   Amidst this devastation, humanitarians have worked incisively to identify just over 239 million people in 50 countries who have been hardest-hit by crises and face the most severe needs, requiring humanitarian assistance and protection in 2026.   The people facing the most urgent, crisis-driven, needs captured in GHO 2026 therefore represent the tip of the iceberg of global suffering.   Beyond humanitarian crises, millions of people are enduring needs driven by other causes, including deep-rooted economic challenges, while over 1.1 billion people in 109 countries now face acute multi-dimensional poverty, most of whom live in countries that do not have humanitarian plans or appeals but that may face different states of fragility.   More than 400 million children globally live in poverty, missing out on at least two daily needs such as nutrition and sanitation, and it is forecasted that more than 351 million women and girls could still be living in extreme poverty by the end of the decade if current trends persist.   The outlook for these people may worsen unless they receive concerted attention and support—both domestically and globally—focused on securing political will to end conflict, eradicating poverty, eliminating marginalization, bringing sustainable development to those left furthest behind in line with the 2030 Agenda, and climate adaptation.   http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026/article/trends-crises-and-needs-world-breaking-point http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026/article/under-fire-and-under-pressure-what-happens-when-humanitarian-action-hindered http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026/article/humanitarians-action-delivering-2025-amid-extreme-challenges http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026 http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-calls-urgent-investment-life-saving-services-children-global-humanitarian http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/december/2026-millions-in-need-will-not-get-aid-unless-global-solidarity-revived http://reliefweb.int/report/world/year-no-other-ngo-statement-launch-new-un-2026-appeal Visit the related web page
	We are putting the stability of the entire life support system on Earth at risk by Johan Rockstrom Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)   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://www.solargeoeng.org/african-ministers-call-for-a-non-use-agreement-on-solar-geoengineering http://www.ciel.org/geoengineering-biodiversity-risks/ http://climateandhealthalliance.org/press-releases/cross-cutting-report-reveals-devastating-global-health-impacts-of-fossil-fuels-thru-production-life-cycle-across-human-lifespan 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/ Visit the related web page
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