(UN News)* — Heavy monsoon rains and flash floods have killed at least 739 people across Pakistan since late June, displacing thousands and destroying homes and crops, with more severe weather expected in the weeks ahead, according to UN agencies and national authorities.
The National Disaster Management Authority has also reported 978 injuries and the destruction or damage of more than 2,400 houses, while over 1,000 livestock have been lost as of Thursday, 21 August.
Severe weather is forecast to continue into early September, raising the risk of further flooding, landslides and crop losses, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
18 August 2025 — Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have been cut off from safe water supplies in recent months due to severe humanitarian funding shortfalls, putting entire communities at heightened risk of deadly disease outbreaks, warns the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
A woman carries a jerrycan of water on her back as she makes her way home in Qaydar-adde displacement camp, Baidoa, Somalia. Photo: Abdulkadir Mohamed/NRC
With just a trickle of the humanitarian appeal set at the start of this year for Somalia funded, the collapse of water, sanitation, and hygiene services is accelerating the spread of preventable diseases including cholera and acute watery diarrhoea.
(UN News)* —UN aid teams in Gaza say that they’re only able to get less than half the lifesaving food support that is needed into the war-torn enclave.
In an alert from the World Food Programme (WFP), the agency said that half a million people “are on the brink of famine”, a claim backed up by multiple humanitarian agencies.
The latest worrying data is showing widespread acute malnutrition.
13 Aug 2025 – But did you know? Is this discussed now when the UN turn 80 in October? No, politicians, media and scholars generally focus on war and ignore humanity’s most important peace-maker.
“UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2025 (IPS) – The United Nations, facing a liquidity crisis, has been threatening to lay-off about 20 percent of its estimated 37,000 employees world-wide: a proposed move that has triggered widespread protests from staff unions both in New York and Geneva.”
(UN News)* —The small trickle of aid entering Gaza is totally insufficient to alleviate starvation and displacement in the Strip, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday [].
“The risk of starvation is everywhere in Gaza,” UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva.
“This is a direct result of the Israeli government’s policy of blocking humanitarian aid,” he said.
Mr. Al-Kheetan insisted that in the past few weeks, Israeli authorities have only allowed aid to enter in quantities that remain “far below what would be required to avert widespread starvation”.
On 19 August, we mark the World Humanitarian Day — a time to honor those who step into crises to help others, and to stand with the millions of people whose lives hang in the balance.
PHOTO:United Nations
This year the message is clear: the humanitarian system is stretched to its limits; underfunded, overwhelmed and under attack.
Where bombs fall and disasters strike, humanitarian workers are the ones holding the line keeping people alive, often at great personal risk. But more and more those who help are becoming targets themselves.
In 2024 alone over 380 humanitarian workers were killed. Some in the line of duty, others in their homes. Hundreds more have been injured, kidnapped or detained, and there is reason to fear 2025 could be worse.
“The vast majority of governments want a strong agreement, yet a handful of bad actors were allowed to use process to drive such ambition into the ground,” said one environmentalist.
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Plastic waste washes ashore in the Maldives archipelago. Credit: UNDP
NEW YORK, Aug 18 2025 (IPS)** –– Negotiators in Geneva adjourned what was expected to be the final round of plastics treaty negotiations on Friday [15 August 2025] without reaching an agreement, a failure that environmentalists blamed on the Trump-led United States, Saudi Arabia, and other powerful nations that opposed any effort to curb plastic production—the primary driver of a worsening global pollution crisis.
The Dewele Migration Response Centre in eastern Ethiopia offers returning migrants a moment of rest before they continue their journey home. Photo: IOM/Aïssatou Sy
Dewele, Ethiopia, 15 August 2025 – In the dry borderlands near Dewele in eastern Ethiopia, the air hangs heavy with heat as trucks thunder past, ferrying goods across the eastern corridor.
Amidst the dust, tired figures walk slowly beside the road, mostly young men, carrying nothing but a worn backpack, a bottle of water, and a stubborn belief that something better lies ahead.
Ibrahim* remembers that walk all too well – five days on foot across harsh terrain, each step marked by exhaustion and uncertainty.
12 August 2025 — For 14-year-old Atsede Tesfay, each morning began with a jerrycan and a three-kilometre walk to the nearest water source. The journey was open, exposed, and unsafe. The road was long, the risks familiar. She spent more hours searching for water and fewer hours in class.
“It was painful,” Atsede recalls. “But we had no other choice.”
Rehabilitated well. | Photo: NRC | In Fiyelwuha village in northern Ethiopia, water once flowed within reach of every home. Then came conflict, and the wells that sustained the community were intentionally destroyed by troops in the contested area. The lifeline ran dry.
In Dima District, the destruction of water infrastructure during the conflict cut off clean water access for over 2,900 people.
Families were left with few options like using unsafe water or embarking on dangerous journeys to obtain it.
Armed conflict, climate shocks and economic downturn drive out local experts who take with them the know-how that is essential to reversing the crisis.
So the crisis continues. And the brain drain intensifies.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 