Today's top news: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Occupied Palestinian Territory

DRC Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher speaks with community members in Nyiragongo territory, north of Goma, during a visit to areas where displaced families have recently returned and urgently need support to rebuild their lives.

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher speaks with community members in Nyiragongo territory, Goma, during a visit to areas where displaced families have recently returned. Photo: OCHA/Francis Mweze

#Democratic Republic of the Congo

UN Relief Chief concludes visit to DRC

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has wrapped up his four-day visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.*

Yesterday, in North Kivu province in the country's east, he visited Nyiragongo and Buhumba, where many displaced families returned earlier this year and urgently need support to rebuild their lives.

Fletcher met with families and visited an integrated health and gender-based violence project, supported by NGO partners. Sexual violence against women and girls in the eastern DRC has reached unprecedented levels.

Meeting with de facto M23 authorities in Goma, he stressed the urgent need to uphold international humanitarian law and ensure unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance.

Fletcher reiterated that people in eastern DRC continue to require life-saving assistance as they face continued conflict, displacement, severe food insecurity, and soaring levels of sexual violence.

While humanitarian partners remain on the front lines to deliver essential services, funding cuts are severely hindering the humanitarian response in the DRC.**

*B-roll and soundbites from Under-Secretary-General Fletcher’s visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo is available in OCHA’s Media Centre.

**Donations made to UN Crisis Relief help UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs reach people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with urgent support.

#Occupied Palestinian Territory

Hostilities reportedly kill more aid workers in Gaza

OCHA continues to warn of the dire conditions on the ground in the Gaza Strip amid ongoing hostilities, dwindling supplies, and draconian constraints on the UN and its humanitarian partners’ ability to operate.

As strikes continued across Gaza, four more aid workers were reportedly killed over the past 24 hours – three in southern Gaza and one in the north. OCHA stresses that under international humanitarian law, civilians, aid workers, and medical staff and facilities must be protected.

Aid entering Gaza is a mere trickle of what is needed to address the immense humanitarian needs of more than 2 million people.

Partners working to provide water, sanitation and hygiene support stress that water production has dropped to some of the lowest levels since October 2023. Currently, only 40 per cent of drinking water facilities are functional, and fuel shortages are pushing water systems to the brink of collapse. Partners report that by mid-June, 93 per cent of households in Gaza faced water insecurity, which also exacerbates public health risks.

Again today, a UN mission to retrieve fuel in southern Gaza was denied. Unless additional fuel enters Gaza in the coming days, more lives will be at risk, as health and other life-saving facilities could face a total shutdown. At water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, equipment that requires continuous operation could sustain irreversible damage if those systems are forced offline due to fuel shortages.

Meanwhile, education partners report that they can reach less than a quarter of Gaza’s school-aged children with essential support, as hostilities are taking an immense psychological toll. The vast majority of children and young people lack access to education, amid ongoing displacement orders and extensive destruction of school buildings – threatening the future of an entire generation. Since the collapse of the ceasefire in March, at least 46 incidents involving attacks on schools have been recorded, resulting in civilian deaths and extensive damage.

Partners working on shelter warn that more than 1.3 million people are in urgent need of shelter assistance. The entry of essential items – including tents, tarpaulins, plastic sheeting, timber, tools and household items – is critical, but the UN and its partners have been barred from bringing in shelter materials for more than 16 weeks.

In the meantime, food insecurity continues to deepen. According to the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Market Monitor, food consumption in Gaza reached a critical low in June, with dietary diversity dropping to its lowest level since October 2023. According to WFP, over 95 per cent of households are experiencing severe financial hardship, with widespread cash shortages making it nearly impossible to purchase food.

The UN reiterates that to address hunger and curb starvation, the unrestricted flow of essential supplies into Gaza must be enabled over a sustained period of time. Moreover, humanitarians must be allowed to deliver aid safely and efficiently, through multiple crossing points and via all available corridors.