The UN humanitarian affairs office OCHA is stressing the need to scale up support for displaced families in Haiti amid ongoing insecurity and violence.
Displaced Haitians are dispersed among the 250 active displacement sites across the country, most of which are informal. Just over a fifth of these sites are managed by humanitarian organizations, meaning that many are living in precarious conditions.
In June alone, more than 200 alerts were reported across displacement sites, over 80 per cent of which were related to essential needs such as lack of water, food, shelter or healthcare.
OCHA noted that nearly 1.3 million people are now internally displaced in Haiti, the highest number ever recorded in the country due to violence.
Constrained UN response
The UN and partners have supported more than 113,000 displaced Haitians this year, providing essential services such as water, shelter, sanitation and healthcare.
The humanitarian response is severely constrained by limited funding and persistent insecurity, hampering humanitarian access to the most affected areas and delaying the delivery of aid.
Despite the challenges, the agency continues to work closely with Haitian authorities and humanitarian partners to coordinate relief efforts and mobilise additional resources to support displaced communities.
DR Congo: Ongoing violence in the east drives displacement, impedes aid delivery
Ongoing violence in North and South Kivu provinces in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to claim the lives of civilians and to trigger new displacement.
In North Kivu, UN partners on the ground in Rutshuru and Lubero territories reported that fighting between M23 and other armed groups was ongoing until Tuesday, resulting in eight civilian deaths and 42,500 displaced people as of earlier this week.
Since early July, heavy clashes between M23 and other armed groups in South Kivu have also persisted, as local partners said the fighting has displaced at least 37,000 people from their homes.
Aid access restrictions
The surge in violence is making it harder for humanitarians to deliver assistance to vulnerable communities.
While partners and teams on the ground are doing their best to maintain services for those affected, access restrictions and severe funding shortages pose significant obstacles.
A humanitarian convoy coordinated by OCHA along the road between the provincial capital Bukavu and the city of Uvira, primarily planned for this Friday, has been postponed due to a lack of security guarantees on that route.
Many UN partners on the ground are forced to scale back their operations, disrupting essential services for those in need.
OCHA called on the international community to take urgent action to address these severe funding gaps and avert a humanitarian tragedy.
New panel to examine the effects of a nuclear war
The UN Secretary-General has appointed an independent scientific panel of 21 experts to examine the physical and societal consequences of a nuclear war on a local, regional and planetary scale in the days, weeks and decades following such an event.
The creation of the panel, mandated by a General Assembly resolution, comes at a time when nuclear guardrails are being eroded and “the risk of nuclear war is higher than at any point since the depths of the Cold War,” UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Friday during the daily media briefing from Headquarters in New York.
The panelists will seek input from a wide range of stakeholders – including international and regional organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), civil society and affected communities.
Members will hold their first meeting in September and will submit a final report to the General Assembly in 2027.
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