According to the Lebanese authorities, more than 2,700 people have been killed since 2 March amid clashes between Hezbollah fighters based in Lebanon and the Israeli military. 

Hezbollah – a totally independent militia – began firing rockets into northern Israel after the US-Israeli bombing of Iran started on 28 February.

Women make up 25 of the more than 380 people killed in Lebanon since the 17 April ceasefire came into effect, highlighting the dangers they face, “as they attempt to return to their homes under the perceived safety of the ceasefire,” said UN Women’s Moez Doraid, UN Women Regional Director for Arab States.

“Continued Israeli airstrikes, evacuation orders, bans to return to certain areas, and movement restrictions mean most people still cannot go back to their homes, with more than an estimated half a million women and girls remaining displaced,” he told journalists. 

‘Bring back the hope’

Speaking from Beirut via video link, Mr. Doraid urged the international community to “stand by these women and girls, men and boys to bring back the hope”.

Unlike past wars and conflicts that the people of Lebanon have endured in past decades, “this current conflict has eroded hope among many, as homes and lands in southern Lebanon have been destroyed”, the UN official insisted.  

He described how one woman had been forced “to forage for wild herbs to feed her family” amid deepening food insecurity. 

This worrying testimony is in line with respected food insecurity expert assessments which support estimates that an additional 144,000 women and girls are expected to face crisis-level hunger or worse in the coming months, bringing the total to approximately 639,000.

Basic services eroded

Today in Lebanon, access to food, water, healthcare, education and basic services has been dangerously disrupted. Some 1.2 million people have been displaced with entire communities uprooted by Israeli evacuation orders covering more of the country than ever before. 

With the ceasefire in place but no peace established, thousands are returning under challenging conditions, with extensive damage to homes, and the risks of unexploded ordnance.

So far during this conflict, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has negotiated the movement of 19 convoys to south Lebanon with support for 84,500 individuals. “But they’re a fraction of those that are approved,” said WFP’s Matthew Hollingworth, Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations.

“Typically, we’re only talking about less than 50 per cent [of convoy requests to Israel] getting approval. So, we would like to be doing many more such inter-agency, multi-agency and NGO convoys into hard-to-reach areas…We just need to be doing a lot more,” he said.

Since 2 March, UN Women has directly supported more than 15,000 women and girls, with reach extending to more than 70,000 people across their communities.  

“Under such dire conditions, I have also witnessed the incredible resilience in the response of women and women’s organizations who are delivering humanitarian assistance, supporting livelihoods, and enhancing societal cohesion across Lebanon,” UN Women’s Mr. Doraid noted.  

The agency is supporting more than 500 women leaders “to help communities navigate the crisis, connect people to assistance, identify urgent needs, reduce tensions, and ensure that women’s voices are heard in local response and recovery efforts,” he said.

“During 1,534 days of war, Ukraine’s healthcare system has experienced repeated attacks,” it said. 

Every aspect of the system has been targeted, from primary healthcare centres to maternity hospitals, ambulance teams and pharmaceutical warehouses. 

“This cannot be normalized” 

Some 80 per cent of attacks affected outpatient clinics, hospitals and other care settings. They caused immediate casualties, but also disruptions in service delivery, and damage to critical infrastructure, ultimately eroding the health system’s capacity. 

Attacks on ambulances and other health vehicles accounted for roughly 20 per cent. Nearly a third of incidents resulted in casualties, making medical transport one of the highest-risk areas for injury and death. 

“Every one of these attacks is a violation of international humanitarian law, and every one represents a patient who couldn’t be reached, a health worker in danger, a community left without care,” said Dr Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe.  

“This cannot be normalized. Under international humanitarian law, healthcare is protected.” 

Rising casualties, growing needs 

The assault on Ukraine’s health infrastructure has significantly hampered the ability of medical personnel to deliver essential care, which is taking place amid escalating needs. 

Some 12.7 million people nationwide require humanitarian assistance, including 9.2 million who need health support, according to UN figures.  Meanwhile, civilian casualties have increased by roughly 31 per cent compared with 2025. 

“Since the beginning of this year alone, 186 attacks on healthcare verified by WHO have resulted in 15 deaths and left at least 81 people injured, with numbers continuing to rise,” said Dr Jarno Habicht, the agency’s Representative in Ukraine. 

“Compared to the same period in 2025, the number of deaths has increased nearly fourfold, while injuries have almost doubled.” 

Continued support required 

Viktor Liashko, Ukraine’s Minister of Health, expressed gratitude to WHO and partners for their support.  He said latest estimates show that it will cost $23.6 billion to rebuild the healthcare sector over the next decade. 

“At the same time, we are doing everything possible to ensure that patients have access to necessary medical care,” he added. 

WHO underlined the need to sustain and strengthen Ukraine’s health system to ensure millions across the country have uninterrupted access. 

In the last year alone, WHO supported 1.9 million people with essential health services, nearly 1,000 health facilities with medicines and equipment, and more than 2,500 health workers through training. 

Additionally, over 6,400 patients were assisted with medical evacuation abroad for specialist care. 

Assistance to farmers 

Meanwhile, two UN entities have launched a programme to help small-scale farmers in Khersonska oblast in southern Ukraine to restore agricultural land and revive farming activities affected by the war. 

The initiative is by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture. 

The partners have issued a new call for applications in the State Agrarian Registry (SAR) for farmers in four communities whose land has been impacted by the hostilities and further affected by drought. 

Eligible applicants include agricultural producers cultivating between three and 300 hectares of land that is located at a safe distance from the frontline. 

Cash, seeds and guidance 

Those selected will receive cash assistance and vouchers to purchase items such as drought-adapted seeds, drip irrigation kits and other agricultural inputs needed to restart production. 

They will also receive guidance and support in applying for the State compensation programme for humanitarian demining. 

The initiative is being implemented with financial support from the Ukraine Community Recovery Fund (UCRF)—a UN-backed entity. 

It is part of a broader $2.6 million joint project by FAO and UNOPS, funded through the UCRF, to help farming communities in the Kherson region safely return to agricultural production. 

That’s the verdict delivered on Friday by World Food Programme (WFP) Assistant Executive Director Matthew Hollingworth upon his return from Somalia, where millions are once again being pushed toward the brink of famine.

The UN’s emergency food agency is warning that nearly six million people – roughly one in three Somalis – now face acute hunger, including two million already experiencing emergency levels of food insecurity, just one step away from famine.

Around 1.9 million children are acutely malnourished.

Hormuz factor

According to WFP, the crisis is being intensified by global economic shocks linked to instability in and around the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Middle East crisis. 

Food prices have surged by as much as 70 per cent in some areas of Somalia, while fuel prices have risen 150 per cent, driving up the cost of transporting aid and basic goods.

Supply routes have also been disrupted, making humanitarian operations increasingly difficult as repeated droughts, conflict and displacement continue to devastate communities across the country.

Mr. Hollingworth cited the example of therapeutic food containers due to arrive in Somalia which had been 40 days late “because of the impact on global shipping”. 

Families abandoning homes

The senior official – speaking to journalists in Geneva – described severe conditions across Somalia, particularly in Puntland, where dried-up water sources, collapsing livelihoods and successive failed rainy seasons are forcing families to flee in a desperate search for food and water.

“Somalia has now endured multiple failed rainy seasons – three consecutively –which has devastated crops, wiped out livestock, is eroding livelihoods and is impacting millions of people,” he said

He recalled meeting families who had left everything behind after losing animals, farms and income sources that could no longer sustain them.

Just one day earlier in Mogadishu, he met a newly displaced family that had arrived in the capital after fleeing the south: one among thousands now seeking assistance in overcrowded urban areas.

Even recent rainfall has brought little relief to communities that have already exhausted their ability to cope, he warned.

Aid response collapsing

WFP says humanitarian agencies are now being forced to make “impossible choices” because of severe funding shortages.

The agency warned that it is currently reaching only one in ten people in need of food assistance, a dramatic drop from last year when more than two million people were receiving aid.

During his visit to Puntland, Mr. Hollingworth toured a health centre where mothers had walked hundreds of kilometres with malnourished children seeking treatment.

One mother told him her three-year-old son had received only two months of nutritional support before aid was cut off because resources had run out.

“She is now forced to work out how on earth she will feed her child and other children next month,” he said.

In the same region, the number of functioning health centres has fallen from 12 last year to just three today. Preventive nutrition programmes have stopped entirely in some facilities, leaving only emergency treatment available

WFP warned that without urgent new funding, its operations in Somalia could halt entirely by July.

Echoes of 2022 famine scare

Aid officials drew stark comparisons to 2022, when Somalia came dangerously close to famine after prolonged drought and mass displacement.

At the time, a large-scale international humanitarian response helped avert catastrophe.

Mr. Hollingworth stressed that the same outcome is still possible now – but only if governments and donors act immediately.

“Famine is always preventable,” he said. “Prevention depends on timely action.”

WFP says it already has the systems and infrastructure in place to rapidly expand assistance, including 1.7 million biometrically registered people who could immediately receive emergency cash support.

But officials warned that without immediate international action, Somalia risks sliding into another devastating humanitarian disaster.

“Hunger is rising. Coping strategies are collapsing. And the window is starting to close,” Mr. Hollingworth said.

Edem Wosornu, Director of OCHA’s Crisis Response Division, was speaking to journalists fresh from her first-ever visit to the country, which “is determined to get itself out of crisis mode.”  

For years, the CAR has had “a good funding outlook”, with humanitarian appeals garnering 95 per cent support. However, the 2025 plan was less than 40 per cent funded and only 17 per cent of the $268 million needed this year has been received to date. 

Fears of a return to ‘crisis mode’ 

“The country is fragile, but the country is hopeful,” she said, but warned that “if we don’t sustain the funding, we will see ourselves slipping back into crisis mode –a context, a situation, we can’t afford.”  

The CAR has faced recurrent cycles of conflict since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Séléka rebels seized power, prompting the rise of the mainly Christian anti-Balaka movement. A UN Mission, MINUSCA, continues to support peace efforts. 

Out of a population of around six million people, 2.3 million need assistance. Humanitarians are targeting over half, 1.3 million. One in five citizens is displaced. 

‘Things are changing’ 

Ms Wosornu travelled to Zemio, a town in the southeast on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) “where there’s some insecurity”. However, the situation has changed over the past six months as internally displaced people (IDPs) who were sheltering in a church have returned to their communities. 

People are farming their lands “when there’s peace”, with support from a project by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), while the international medical NGO ALIMA, which receives UN funding, operates bi-weekly mobile clinics that serve up to 70 people at a time. 

During her visit, Ms. Wosornu met with CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, the Minister of Humanitarian Action, and local authorities in Zemio. 

It is “clear that things are changing,” she said. “However, it’s also very clear that progress can quickly unravel if attention is not sustained, and if funding is not sustained.” 

Fragile but generous 

Despite its fragility, the CAR is also “generous”.  The country is hosting refugees from Chad. Another 36,000 people from war-torn Sudan have found shelter there and have been given land by the authorities. 

Among the Sudanese refugees are doctors and nurses who want to support humanitarian operations in the CAR. 

She said the OCHA team on the ground “were asking ‘how do we support these refugees that have come over but also help them to feed into the economy and to support in that regard?’”  

Humanitarians forced to cut back 

Ms. Wosornu highlighted her conversations with local people in Zemio, such as a community leader and mother called Fane who just wants stability and peace, healthcare and education for her children, and livelihood support. 

Yet funding cuts threaten the humanitarian response—even though it only costs $16 to feed a displaced person for three months, and $26 dollars to provide them with healthcare for an entire year. 

International NGOs have closed 20 per cent of their offices and satellite offices, or 120 out of 634.  

The UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, noted a reduction in reporting on gender-based violence “not because it’s not happening, but because we don’t have the ability as humanitarians to be all over the country.”  OCHA too has been affected. 

“We used to have 15 sub-offices and antenna offices across the country. We’ve cut that down to seven, and I saw firsthand what that means,” she said. 

Meanwhile, humanitarian partners are worried, particularly those working on health because “communicable diseases are very, very rampant”, plus the CAR is surrounded by several fragile States. 

Ms. Wosornu stressed the need “to do all we can to support the communities on the ground to sustain themselves: from health to education, from education to food security, and everything else that we cover.”  

A new report released by the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) on Friday says at least 1,642 people were killed and 745 others injured during the first three months of 2026.

The report highlights worsening insecurity across the country, with violence continuing to spread beyond the capital into areas including Artibonite and the Centre department.

“Despite security advances in certain areas of downtown Port-au-Prince, insecurity is daily and unbearable for a large number of Haitians,” said Carlos Ruiz Massieu, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Haiti and Head of BINUH.

Gang violence spreads

According to the report, gangs continued to commit widespread human rights abuses in areas under their control, including targeted killings, kidnappings, extortion and destruction of property.

One of the most disturbing incidents documented involves the execution of a 13-year-old in March after the child – who had reportedly been used as a gang “lookout” – flew a kite.

In Lower Artibonite, coordinated gang attacks between 29 and 31 March targeted 16 localities where self-defence groups had been established. At least 83 residents were killed and 38 injured.

“Overall, gang members were responsible for 27 per cent of those killed and injured during the quarter” said UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq.

The report also documents widespread sexual violence, including gang rape and sexual exploitation, affecting more than 292 victims, primarily women and girls between the ages of 12 and 17.

BINUH said more than 69 per cent of those killed or injured between January and March were the result of operations carried out by security forces against gangs, at times supported by a private military company using drones.

The report states that 69 civilians, including five children, were among the victims of drone strikes.

Despite the deteriorating security situation, the report notes some progress within Haiti’s judicial system.

In March, 14 judges were appointed to newly established specialized judicial units tasked with addressing mass crimes and financial crimes, following the appointment of 10 government prosecutors earlier this year.

Disease outbreaks and aid shortages worsen conditions across Gaza and the West Bank

Overcrowded shelters, mounting waste and severe shortages of basic supplies are worsening health conditions across the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, warns that disease outbreaks and sanitation risks are spreading across Gaza, where cases of scabies, chickenpox and other skin diseases are rising.

Rat bites are also being increasingly reported at health clinics, particularly in Khan Younis, Gaza City and North Gaza.

OCHA, the UN’s humanitarian affairs office, warned that restrictions on the entry of generators, engine oil and spare parts are driving widespread system failures, disrupting health, sanitation and debris-removal operations.

Humanitarian services continue

Despite ongoing hostilities and operational constraints, UNRWA says it is still providing critical humanitarian services across Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Around 11,000 Palestinian UNRWA personnel remain active in the Strip, while more than 4,000 staff provide education, health and relief services across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

“We continue to do everything possible to protect families and maintain a safe, healthy environment,” said Bashar, a camp sanitation worker in Gaza.

Since October 2023, the agency has delivered more than 17.2 million health consultations.

UNRWA reported providing protection services to 4,265 survivors of gender-based violence and 7,340 children, including more than 3,200 unaccompanied children.

In Gaza, Israeli forces maintain a high level of military activity, particularly in the north, where a UNRWA school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia was reportedly struck by bullets, injuring two people inside the facility.

In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the report also highlights ongoing violence. According to OCHA, 1,088 Palestinians there, including at least 238 children, have been killed since 7 October 2023.

UN pays tribute to Earth Champion David Attenborough on his 100^th birthday

And finally, the world paid tribute on Friday to a newly minted centurion, the famed naturalist Sir David Attenborough.

When he was far beyond most people’s retirement age, Sir David became even more outspoken on the environment and the damage that we are wreaking on the planet.

Well into his 90s, Mr. Attenborough was honoured for his work by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which presented him with the prestigious Champions of the Earth award in 2022.

“The world has to get together,” he said. “These problems cannot be solved by one nation – no matter how big that single nation is. We know what the problems are and we know how to solve them. All we lack is unified action.”

Sir David celebrated his 100^th birthday along with a lifetime of environmental advocacy, which has included hugely influential and beloved documentaries produced for the BBC, including Life on Earth, the Living Planet and Our Blue Planet.

He said on Thursday that he had been hoping for a quiet celebration. There was never much chance of that.

A congratulatory message from the UN Secretary-General António Guterres is just one of many tributes from leading figures in science, politics and the arts, a live event at London’s Royal Albert Hall and the decision by the UK’s Natural History Museum to name a newly discovered parasitic wasp Attenboroughnculus tau after him.

This is obviously a very alarming development,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said during his daily briefing from New York. 

“We are deeply worried also about reports of civilians also being killed in the attack, and that also includes children.” 

Call for restraint 

The strike marked the first attack on Beirut since the 17 April ceasefire announcement between Lebanon and Israel, and its subsequent extension. 

Mr. Dujarric reiterated the UN’s call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and fully respect international law, including international humanitarian law. 

New displacement orders were issued on Thursday for three villages in the South and Nabatieh Governorates, forcing more civilians to seek shelter elsewhere, the UN coordination office, OCHA, reported. 

Overall, more than one million people in Lebanon remain displaced. This includes 126,000 people hosted in more than 600 collective shelters across the country, although most of those displaced remain outside formal shelters. 

Support for civilians 

Aid partners continue to assist civilians in conflict-affected and hard-to-reach areas, with 110 humanitarian movements facilitated since 2 March, when hostilities erupted between Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces. 

Yet deliveries remain constrained by insecurity, movement restrictions, unexploded ordnance, and damaged infrastructure. 

Despite the constraints, humanitarian partners have distributed more than 160,000 blankets, 120,000 mattresses as well as more than 100,000 hygiene kits and 50,000 menstrual hygiene kits. 

The UN and partners also have provided more than 3.7 million litres of bottled water to people in need, and more than 65,000 cubic metres of water through trucking operations. 

Concern for peacekeepers 

Meanwhile, peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) continue to observe “extensive military activities by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) throughout the area of operations,” said Mr. Dujarric, which includes high-density armoured movements, large-scale engineering works, and sustained logistical traffic. 

“Peacekeepers also report significant firing incidents and projectile trajectories, most of which appear to originate from Israel Defense Forces positions,” he added. 

UN peacekeepers and positions are being directly affected by the ongoing hostilities. Five ‘blue helmets’ have lost their lives since the fighting began. 

“Once again, we stress that the safety and the security of our peacekeepers and the inviolability of our UN premises must be respected at all times by everyone,” the Spokesman said.