(UN News)* — The UN human rights office (OHCHR) on Tuesday [] sounded the alarm over escalating rights abuses in Sudan, warning that impunity is driving violations as fighting spreads and more armed groups become involved.
In a newreport, UN investigators detailed multiple attacks on civilians, healthcare facilities, markets, and schools, as well as ethnically motivated summary executions.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 2025 (IPS)* – President Trump—whose rash and ill-conceived proposals continue unabated—has threatened to “seize Gaza,” turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” and move Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan, two longstanding American allies who depend heavily on US support for their survival.
Children in Gaza stand on debris from a destroyed building. February 2025. Credit: UN News
The US President has also hinted that both countries would suffer either cutbacks or elimination of billions of dollars in economic and military aid —if they refuse to cooperate with him.
(Beirut) –Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon between October 2023 and December 2024 destroyed vast swathes of critical civilian infrastructure and public services, preventing tens of thousands of Lebanese from returning to their homes, Human Rights Watch said on 17 February 2025.
(UN News)* — As the UN and partners continue to deliver life-saving assistance across the Gaza Strip, the scale of needs remains overwhelming, requiring urgent and sustained support, UN aid coordination office OCHA said on Monday [].
OCHA cited Gaza’s Ministry of Health which stressed that oxygen supplies are critically needed to keep emergency, surgical and intensive care services running at hospitals, including Al Shifa and Al Rantisi hospitals in Gaza City.
(UN News)* — Sudan’s ruinous civil war is approaching its third year, leaving a legacy of malnutrition, massive population displacement and chronic insecurity.
As the UN system prepares to launch a call for record funding of $4.2 billion to support aid operations in the country, here are some of the main things to know about what has been described as the largest and most devastating displacement, humanitarian and protection crisis in the world today.
(UN News)* —The UN human rights office, OHCHR, on condemned the intensifying Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank, warning that nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced already amid an “alarming wave” of violence and destruction.
Since the start of the offensive on 21 January, Israeli forces have killed at least 44 Palestinians, including five children and two women, in Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas governorates, and four refugee camps in those areas, according to OHCHR.
(UN News)* — The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed deep concern over the impact of US funding cuts on critical global health initiatives, warning they pose a direct threat to public health efforts worldwide.
In a media briefing on Tuesday [], WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the consequences of funding suspensions, including disruptions to HIV treatment, setbacks in polio eradication and limited resources for responding to mpox epidemics in Africa.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 13 2025 (IPS)* – The Trump administration’s decision to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the US government’s primary channel for humanitarian aid and disaster relief, is expected to have a devastating impact on the world’s developing nations.
The 2025 Budget Request, under the former Biden administration, amounted to a staggering $58.8 billion in US foreign aid for this year.
The proposed aid included funding to fully support the US priorities and commitments made at the U.S.-Africa Leader’s Summit in May last year.
The request also fulfills Biden’s pledge made at the U.S.-hosted Seventh Replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria to match $1 for every $2 contributed by other donors by providing $1.2 billion to the Global Fund.
(UN News)* — Thousands of people affected by the fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are leaving displacement sites in and around Goma for safer areas, the UN humanitarian affairs office OCHA reported on .
UN News | A man carries water in a camp for displaced people in Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Last month, M23 rebels captured the city – the largest in the region and capital of North Kivu province. Nearly 3,000 people have reportedly been killed and 2,880 injured.
OCHA Spokesperson Jens Laerke said more than 110,000 displaced people have left sites in Goma and have started to move to villages in the Masisi, Rutshuru and Nyiragongo territories.
(UN News)* — The forced displacement of Palestinian communities in the northern part of the West Bank is escalating at an alarming pace, the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees UNRWA warned on .
Several refugee camps are nearly empty after Israeli forces launched Operation Iron Wall on 21 January, making it the longest operation in the West Bank since the second intifada, according to the agency.
The 2025 Budget Request, under the former Biden administration, amounted to a staggering $58.8 billion in US foreign aid for this year.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 