Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan, Chad, Ukraine, 2024 Annual Report
#Occupied Palestinian Territory
Deadly hostilities continue in Gaza as fuel, other critical supplies run low
OCHA warns that amid ongoing hostilities in Gaza, people continue to be killed or injured. This includes reports of people coming under fire near non-UN militarized distribution sites or on routes designated by the Israeli authorities for the UN to collect trucks carrying aid.
Yesterday, a mission to access fuel stored in Rafah was successfully accomplished. That fuel is being allocated to run critical services in the south, thereby buying some time. However, unless more fuel is allowed into Gaza, these lifelines will very quickly shut down.
Fuel is essential to produce, treat and distribute water to more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza. UNICEF warns that “if the current more than 100-day blockade on fuel coming into Gaza does not end, children will begin to die of thirst.” Last week, the agency reported that the number of children admitted for treatment of acute malnutrition surged nearly 50 per cent in May compared with April. This underscores the urgent need for domestic water, as the systems that produce it collapse.
Israeli authorities must allow the delivery of fuel, in sufficient quantities, into and throughout Gaza, including to the north. If these life-saving operations shut down, more people will die.
Meanwhile, caregivers warn that children in Gaza are experiencing mounting psychological stress. This is driven by the deteriorating conditions, including lack of food. Last week in several displacement sites in Gaza city, Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, the UN and its partners provided more than 1,000 children with sessions to help them manage their fears and other difficult emotions. They also provided more than 2,000 caregivers with mental health support services.
The World Health Organization (WHO) sounded the alarm today over the mental health emergency that Gaza is facing. Across the Strip, WHO has trained hundreds of front-line humanitarian workers in psychological first aid to support people and promote a sense of safety among the population.
Today, the Israeli military issued another displacement order in three neighbourhoods in Jabalya, in the north. At least 30,000 people are assessed to be in those areas. OCHA notes that most of Gaza remains under displacement orders.
With no shelter supplies allowed into the Strip and many existing shelters requiring urgent repairs, partners in Khan Younis are working creatively to recycle wooden pallets received as part of food shipments to rehabilitate and maintain temporary sites. OCHA notes that, just like fuel, shelter materials have been banned for over 16 weeks – at a time when hundreds of thousands of people have been newly displaced.
Yesterday, the UN and its partners attempted to coordinate 14 humanitarian movements inside Gaza, but six were denied outright. These included the trucking of fuel and water as well as the retrieval of bodies and broken trucks. Humanitarians were able to carry out some health and nutrition activities and remove solid waste.
#Sudan
Hospital attack kills dozens in West Kordofan
OCHA is gravely alarmed by reports of a deadly attack on a hospital in Sudan’s West Kordofan state over the weekend.
The Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that more than 40 civilians were killed in the attack on the Al Mujlad Hospital, including children and health workers, with dozens of people injured. WHO noted that there was also extensive damage to the facility.
OCHA underscores that the parties must respect the specific protection afforded to healthcare under international humanitarian law. The rules of war demand that the wounded and sick, medical personnel and hospitals be protected at all times.
Healthcare in Sudan continues to come under attack, at a time when about three quarters of health facilities in areas worst affected by conflict – including the Kordofan region – are barely operational or closed. Meanwhile, health and humanitarian partners are overstretched and underfunded as they try to stem the spread of diseases, including measles and cholera.
Despite the many challenges, the number of new suspected cholera cases has sharply declined in recent weeks. Between 16 and 22 June, 207 new suspected cases were reported, compared to more than 8,400 between 19 and 25 May. This represents a 40-fold reduction, according to the Sudanese Ministry of Health.
The UN and partners working on health and water, sanitation and hygiene continue to scale up their response. More than 3 million oral cholera vaccine doses have been delivered to Khartoum and North Kordofan, with vaccination campaigns already underway. Another 3 million doses are expected to arrive shortly.
So far, partners have reached 2.3 million people through emergency water and sanitation activities, while hygiene promotion efforts have supported 1.3 million.
However, aid organizations are now facing a depletion of prepositioned supplies due to the early onset of the outbreak, which was driven by attacks on infrastructure and disruptions to power and water sources.
OCHA stresses that flexible funding is urgently needed to sustain and scale up the response, especially with cholera cases expected to rise again from July to August onwards with the rainy season and potential flooding.
Since July 2024, more than 82,000 suspected cholera cases have been reported across 13 of Sudan’s 18 states, with over 2,100 deaths, according to the Federal Ministry of Health.
*Donations made to UN Crisis Relief help UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs reach people in Sudan with urgent support.
#Chad
UN fast-tracks support for displaced people, host communities
OCHA says US$8 million has been allocated from the OCHA Regional Pooled Fund to support the humanitarian response in Chad.
Of that funding, $6 million will go towards assisting vulnerable host communities, Sudanese refugees and Chadian returnees in eastern Chad. The remaining $2 million will support more than 220,000 people displaced in Chad’s western Lac province due to ongoing attacks by non-state armed groups, as well as secondary displacement of people in search of alternative livelihoods given the inadequacy of humanitarian aid.
This new funding – largely directed through national humanitarian partners – comes on the heels of a $14.5 million disbursement from the Central Emergency Response Fund this year that was also primarily focused on eastern Chad.
Since conflict erupted in Sudan in April 2023, Chad has received nearly 860,000 Sudanese refugees and 274,000 returning Chadians – more than 700,000 of them children.
Chadian authorities, in collaboration with humanitarian organizations, continue to provide life-saving assistance and protection to refugees both inside and outside camps, as well as to Chadian returnees and host communities. Ongoing efforts include relocating refugees to safer areas, providing food assistance, vaccinating children, setting up child-friendly spaces, and delivering gender-based violence services.
These operations are far from adequate. Funding shortfalls continue to hamper the response, leaving many refugees and vulnerable communities in precarious conditions. The looming flood season threatens to make matters worse.
Despite these recent funding allocations, Chad’s Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan remains critically underfunded. Only 11 per cent of the $1.4 billion required for this year has been received. Of this, $835 million is urgently needed to assist 2.8 million people facing the most severe needs across the country.
#Ukraine
Attacks reportedly kill over two dozen civilians in two days
OCHA reports that hostilities continue to kill and injure civilians across Ukraine. According to local authorities, 27 civilians have been killed and more than 230 injured over the past 48 hours.
Children have not been spared, with one child killed and 10 others injured.
Attacks have intensified in the regions of Dnipro, Sumy and Odesa, while the Donetsk, Kherson and Kharkiv regions also report multiple civilian casualties and damage to homes, schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure.
According to local authorities, today around noon, the city centre of Dnipro was hit by multiple missiles, with one strike close to UN premises in the city. The regional governor reported that 29 schools and kindergartens have been damaged, along with eight healthcare facilities – a hospital, ambulatory care facilities and a dental clinic. The attack also reportedly impacted a passenger train travelling from Odesa to Zaporizhzhia through the Dnipro region.
Yesterday in the Odesa region, an attack on a school in the town of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi killed three staff members and injured 13 other people, including two teenagers. Aid workers were quickly deployed to provide psychological support and distribute emergency shelter materials.
According to an International Organization for Migration report in May, more than 21 per cent of children ages 3 to 5 are not attending preschool due to displacement and proximity to front lines. In front-line regions, non-attendance reaches 37 per cent.
From January to May of this year, humanitarian organizations provided education support to over 270,000 people across Ukraine. More than 165,000 received mental health and psychosocial support, and 66,000 children took part in catch-up learning. Nearly 46,000 people benefitted from shelter and school repairs, while 25,000 children accessed digital and temporary learning spaces.
#2024 Annual Report
OCHA publishes Annual Report for 2024
Released today, OCHA’s 2024 Annual Report covers a daunting year for millions of people – and the deadliest for the humanitarian system.
Conflicts and unrest flared in places such as Haiti, Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan and Ukraine, displacing families, destroying homes and pushing fragile communities to breaking point – with the climate crisis adding fuel to the fire.
2024 was also the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers, with 377 killed, most of them in Gaza.
“Their deaths were unconscionable and devastating to aid operations,” writes Tom Fletcher, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, in the report’s foreword. “There must be accountability, for their sake and for those who take their place.”
Despite these immense challenges, and with donors’ generous support, OCHA reached 116 million people in 33 countries with life-saving aid, working closely with UN agencies and more than 2,000 partners.
Looking ahead, Fletcher said that “brutal funding cuts will set us back, and we’re working hard to reset the system to this new reality.”