Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan, Haiti, Colombia, Central Emergency Response Fund
#Occupied Palestinian Territory
UN reiterates commitment to principled aid delivery in Gaza
Since the end of February, the UN has engaged consistently with the Israeli authorities to discuss proposals for a new aid distribution system in Gaza, where the situation has deteriorated to its worst point since October 2023. In these discussions, the UN stressed its aim of doing all that is practically possible on its side to ensure that the crossings to Gaza re-open and that the aid community can continue delivering life-saving assistance to people in need.
The UN has proposed steps to address concerns raised, increase confidence in existing systems, and enable the provision of aid in line with the international system built by Member States of the United Nations over decades.
Despite these efforts, the planned aid delivery scheme, as presented to the UN verbally, does not meet the minimum bar for principled humanitarian support: It will not deliver aid to people in need based on independent needs assessments – the globally tested and donor-demanded minimum requirement.
As the Secretary-General has made clear, the UN will not engage in any arrangement that fails to uphold the humanitarian principles: humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality. The UN remains committed to continued discussions with all parties that will enable the delivery of principled, life-saving assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.
Under international humanitarian law, Israel has clear obligations toward the people of Gaza: ensuring food and medical supplies for the entire population; treating everyone humanely; and not engaging in forcibly transferring people. For as long as people are not adequately supplied, Israel must facilitate the entry and distribution of humanitarian relief impartially to all those in need.
Concerns over the risk of aid diversion – for which no further evidence has been provided – cannot justify the shutdown of a life-saving humanitarian operation. The UN is confident that, as a result of strict monitoring systems put in place by the UN and its partners, no major diversion of the aid over which it has oversight has occurred.
UN cargo has been subjected to theft and looting, and warehouses – currently inaccessible to the UN due to displacement orders issued by Israeli authorities – may have been emptied of aid supplies. The UN cannot stop the unauthorized sale of this aid, but it has consistently emphasized that humanitarian assistance is free of charge and must never be sold.
The UN remains confident that the aid it coordinates reaches people in need in Gaza. The ceasefire clearly demonstrated how the UN can swiftly and effectively scale up humanitarian operations with the right conditions and access.
The UN remains steadfast in its commitment to help people in need and ready to engage in meaningful dialogue to find practical solutions that uphold humanitarian principles and ensure that no one is left behind.
OCHA calls for fully lifting Gaza blockade
OCHA stresses that lifting the total blockade of the Gaza Strip and allowing principled humanitarian operations has never been more urgent. After nearly 10 weeks with no aid or other supplies entering Gaza, the humanitarian crisis is worsening by the day.
The cost of any further delay is irreversible. Humanitarian deliveries and services must reach everyone, wherever they are, and based on what they need.
OCHA notes that stocks administered by the UN and its partners have been handled securely and delivered with proven safeguards to people in need. But supplies inside Gaza have mostly run out, while large quantities are waiting just outside. Humanitarian teams are ready to scale up the moment access is granted.
Partners working on nutrition in Gaza report that over the past week, more babies and other children are seeking support from clinics due to malnutrition. Compared to February this year, the proportion of children suffering from acute malnutrition has almost doubled.
Earlier this week in Deir al Balah, a UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) school in Al Bureij camp – where some 300 families were sheltering – was hit twice within several hours. On Wednesday, partners visited the site, noting that people there urgently need latrines, tents, water tanks and mattresses.
In Gaza city and Khan Younis, partners working in health continue to provide health services in hospitals. They say efforts are underway in Khan Younis to establish an additional hospital, with more than 100 beds and lab X-ray machines.
Today, partners working to support telecommunications in Gaza note that the fiber optic cable has been damaged for more than six weeks, while Israeli authorities continue to deny coordination requests to allow its repair. The latest rejection was this morning. As the cable is a critical source of data connectivity for humanitarian responders, partners continue to submit coordination requests daily.
Regarding fuel, a UN team led by OCHA retrieved some supplies from a fuel station in Rafah today, after the Israeli authorities facilitated their efforts to reach it. This is the second consecutive day they have been allowed to retrieve fuel from Rafah after nearly three weeks of denials – since 18 April. The supplies the team retrieved represent a trickle compared to the immense needs.
OCHA stresses the need for Israeli authorities to facilitate humanitarians’ movements inside Gaza. Seventy per cent of the Gaza Strip is either within the Israeli-militarized zone, under displacement orders, or in areas where these two overlap.
#Sudan
Humanitarians scale up response in North Darfur
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, says UN humanitarian teams just completed a vital mission to the town of Tawila, in Sudan’s North Darfur state, where people displaced by attacks in Zamzam camp have sought shelter.
This was a cross-border mission into Sudan from Chad via the Adre crossing, a lifeline for the flow of humanitarian supplies and personnel into Darfur.
In a social media post, Fletcher stressed that humanitarian needs in Tawila are massive and called for safe, sustained access, including via Adre.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has been providing food and nutrition supplies in Tawila, supporting even more people than originally planned amid the overwhelming needs, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced. So far, more than 300,000 people in Tawila who fled Zamzam and El Fasher have received vital food and nutrition assistance from WFP. The agency says more aid is on its way over the coming week.
NGO partners have been on the ground responding, despite limited resources and the volatile operating environment.
Once again, OCHA calls on all parties to facilitate safe, unhindered and sustained access to the area via all necessary routes. Stepped-up, flexible funding is also urgently needed to sustain and expand life-saving support for people in need in North Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan.*
*Donations made to UN Crisis Relief help UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs reach people in Sudan with urgent support.
#Haiti
Thousands displaced by violence in Artibonite Department need assistance
OCHA warns that a recent surge in armed violence in the Lower Artibonite Department of Haiti has forced thousands of people to flee their homes.
According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 16,000 people were displaced between 28 April and 3 May, with many families now living in makeshift shelters with limited access to safe water, food and healthcare.
OCHA is coordinating the response and supporting authorities in identifying priority needs.
UNICEF supported the deployment of three mobile clinics, reaching nearly 2,000 displaced people between 5 and 7 May. The agency is also working with partners to sustain pediatric, nutrition and immunization services in affected health facilities and prepositioned hygiene kits for nearly 2,000 people. Partners are expected to carry out additional distributions in the days ahead.
Humanitarians are doing everything possible to support children, who are bearing the brunt of the ongoing violence. UNICEF and its partners are setting up child-friendly spaces in displacement sites, providing psychosocial support, and strengthening case management systems to monitor and respond to serious protection concerns. Recreational kits have been delivered to help restore a sense of normalcy for children who have experienced trauma.
While access remains a challenge in some areas, field teams are working closely with local actors to ensure that assistance reaches those most in need.
#Colombia
Civilians in western Colombia cut off from essential services
OCHA reports that nearly 50,000 people in the Chocó region, in the western part of Colombia, were under complete mobility restrictions during the first week of May.
They remain cut off from essential services due to the activities of non-State armed groups. Among them are 5,000 people belonging to 25 Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities in the town of Bajo Baudó.
Since the start the year, more than 775,000 people in Colombia have suffered total mobility and access restrictions, confinements or displacement due to armed conflict and clashes among non-State armed groups and the security forces. This means that communities are restricted from accessing food and healthcare, among other critical services.
Next week – under the leadership of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mireia Villar Forner – OCHA, the UN Refugee Agency and UNICEF plan to assess the needs of and support communities in Chocó affected by these restrictions.
Meanwhile, the US$342 million Humanitarian Response Plan to assist some 2 million vulnerable people in Colombia is only 14 per cent funded, with $48 million received so far.
#Central Emergency Response Fund
UN fast-tracks support for refugees in Uganda, cholera response in Angola
Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher has released two new allocations from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).
The first $2.5 million allocation will support the response to the arrival of more than 60,000 refugees in Uganda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo since the start of the year.
With the new funding, the UN and its partners will provide life-saving assistance to more than 40,000 refugees, including clean drinking water, food, healthcare and nutrition support.
Meanwhile in Angola, a $1.8 million CERF allocation will support the urgent response to cholera amid the worst outbreak in the country in two decades.
Since January 2025, the outbreak has spread to 17 out of Angola’s 21 provinces with a total of more than 18,000 cases and 586 deaths reported as of 7 May.
The allocation will support the scale-up of the response and help prevent a further spread of the disease.