In an alert on Monday, the World Food Programme (WFP) said that the trucks will be the first from the UN agency to reach Wad Madani in over a year, since conflict spread there at the end of 2023.

But “they must arrive safely”, the WFP insisted.

Battlefield development

That comes after the Sudanese Armed Forces – the national army – reportedly reclaimed Wad Madani from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who they’ve been battling for control of the country since April 2023.

The conflict has involved the use of heavy artillery, fighter jets and drones. 

It has killed at least 29,600 people and caused one of the world’s biggest displacement crises across the region, with around 11.5 million uprooted inside the country, 3.2 million refugees, and famine declared in parts of northeast Sudan.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has also demanded urgent action from the international community to address the worsening famine. 

Wave of attacks on Ukrainian cities met with swift humanitarian response

The UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said on Monday that further civilian casualties were sustained in Ukraine over the weekend following attacks in the densely populated cities of Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia.

According to local authorities “the hostilities also disrupted basic services and damaged civilian infrastructure,” said UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, at the regular daily briefing in New York. 

Dozens more were reportedly killed and injured in front-line areas in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Sumy regions.

Swift response

“Humanitarian workers swiftly responded wherever security permitted,” Mr. Haq added.  

Aid was provided to civilians who had come under attack in Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia. Humanitarians provided building materials to cover shattered windows, plus psychological and legal support to affected residents.  

Aid Coordinator for Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, on Friday allocated $70 million from the UN’s Ukraine Humanitarian Fund – which provides aid on the ground – to support the 2025 Needs and Response Plan. 

“The funds will aid newly displaced people, provide essential services in frontline areas, and strengthen local organizations, including those supporting women’s rights, people with disabilities, and marginalized communities,” Mr Haq said. 

Last week, two inter-agency convoys delivered essential aid to front-line areas including Pokrov in Dnipropetrovska and communities in Kherson. Both regions have been heavily impacted by the fighting.

Supplies included food, medicine, hygiene kits, blankets, and solar lamps for residents, many of whom are older or have disabilities. 

Marburg virus alert: WHO’s Tedros advises against travel restrictions

The head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has advised against travel restrictions linked to the Marburg virus outbreak in Tanzania.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “considering the low global risk and the strong capabilities of the Tanzanian Government”, the UN agency’s assessment was that there should not be restrictions on trade and travel to the East African nation.

The WHO chief met Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Monday to assess the situation and support ongoing efforts. 

Confirmed case

Tedros’s comments came as Tanzania confirmed an outbreak of Marburg disease in northwestern Kagera region with one case confirmed. 

At least nine suspected cases have already been reported and eight people have died. 

Healthworkers were among those affected, and patients presented with similar symptoms including high fever, back pain, diarrhoea and vomiting with blood.

This is the second reported outbreak of the disease in Kagera – the first was almost two years ago, in March 2023, in which a total of nine cases and six deaths were reported. 

Previously, the WHO has said that animal carriers of the disease such as fruit bats remain in the area.

Tedros said that following the outbreak, the Tanzanian authorities had scaled up their response by enhancing case detection, setting up treatment centres and a mobile laboratory to test samples. National response teams have also been deployed.

To support Tanzania’s response, the WHO has released $3 million from its emergencies fund.  

“The WHO regrets the announcement that the United States of America intends to withdraw from the Organization…We hope the United States will reconsider,” said WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic, hours after the new President signed an executive order at the White House, bringing US involvement in the UN agency to an end in 12 months.

The US joined WHO in 1948 after a joint resolution was passed by both chambers of Congress. The resolution requires the country to provide one year’s notice to leave the organization.

President Trump took steps to withdraw from the WHO in 2020 during his first term – but the move was reversed by the Biden administration.

Responding to journalists’ questions in Geneva, Mr. Jasarevic insisted that WHO “plays a crucial role in protecting the health and security of the world’s people, including Americans, by addressing the root causes of disease, building stronger health systems, and detecting, preventing and responding to health emergencies, including disease outbreaks, often in dangerous places where others cannot go.”

Asked about the impact of the US withdrawal, Mr. Jasarevic pointed out that he saw the executive order “this morning like everyone else” and that further analysis will be needed. He confirmed that the US was WHO’s largest single donor, accounting for 18 per cent of the agency’s budget in 2023.

Also in Geneva, UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke highlighted the UN health agency’s importance, saying that “the world lives longer, healthier, perhaps a little bit happier because of WHO”.

“WHO is in places where others cannot go,” Mr. Laerke said, including Gaza, Yemen, Afghanistan and Sudan. “It is an indispensable part of the international humanitarian system,” he insisted.

Climate shock

From the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), spokesperson Clare Nullis reacted to President Trump’s vow to quit the universally adopted 2015 Paris Agreement – marking an immediate return to the policies of his first presidential term, which ended in January 2021.

The need for all countries to respect the accord was “pretty obvious”, she said, given that 2024 “was the hottest year on record”, at about 1.55°C above the pre-industrial era. “It is the defining challenge of our time,” she insisted.

In the wake of the recent devastating and deadly massive wildfires that ripped through Los Angeles, the WMO spokesperson also noted that the US had suffered the bulk of global economic losses from weather, climate and water-related hazards.

“It has sustained 403 weather and climate disasters since 1980 where overall damages/costs reached or exceeded $1 billion. The total cost of these 403 events exceeds $2.915 trillion, according to US figures,” Ms. Nullis said.

Her comments echoed those of the UN Spokesperson’s Office late on Monday which responded to journalists’ questions insisting that “the transformation envisaged in the Paris Agreement is already underway”, with a renewable “energy revolution” offering opportunities for jobs and prosperity.

“The Secretary-General remains confident that cities, states and businesses within the United States – along with other countries – will continue to demonstrate vision and leadership by working for the low-carbon, resilient economic growth that will create quality jobs and markets for 21st century prosperity,” the statement continued.

“It is crucial that the United States remains a leader on environmental issues,” it concluded. 

On day three of the ceasefire which entered into force on Sunday 19 January, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, welcomed the “surge” in lifesaving humanitarian assistance into the enclave, after 15 months of devastating Israeli bombardment.

Aid trucks began entering Gaza “a few minutes after the deal entered into force on Sunday,” said OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke. “Up to now – these two first days of entry – there [have] been no reports of looting or attacks against aid workers.”

Hundreds of trucks

More than 900 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Monday, as the truce held between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas, according to the Israel authorities and the ceasefire’s guarantors, the US, Qatar and Egypt.

While the conflict raged, prompted by Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, the aid lifeline to Gaza dwindled to as little as 50 trucks per day.

“At long last, aid at scale is entering,” said Mr. Laerke. “At long last, more hostages were released and can be reunited with their families and at long last, women and minors were freed from detention. It’s a tremendous hope, fragile but vital; this deal must hold.”

Addressing physical and mental scars

Immediate priorities for Gazans include “getting food in, opening bakeries, getting healthcare, restocking hospitals, repairing water networks, repairing shelter, family reunification,” the OCHA spokesperson told journalists in Geneva. “A lot of the things that we have done throughout, but nowhere near at the scale needed. And that is what we hope and work towards to be able to do now.”

UN humanitarians have long maintained that the entire population of Gaza – more than two million people – depends on such essentials. They include children, who account for about half of the Strip’s population, “with many surviving on just one meal a day”, OCHA said in an update.

“We have to – and we will – maximize delivery through this opening. Hunger is widespread, people are homeless; disease, injuries are rampant. Children are separated and there’s a cloud of deep psychological trauma hanging over Gaza that needs to be dealt with.”

Health emergency continues

Urgent health needs must also be addressed across Gaza where one in two hospitals are not functional, others are only partially functional and the majority of health facilities have sustained damage, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

“The idea is as quickly as possible to try to provide health facilities to people of Gaza, focusing on emergency care, maternal and child health and other areas,” said WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic.

He added: “We should not forget other areas and that’s 12,000 patients still need to be evacuated outside Gaza. We need to make sure that those people can go and receive medical care they need.

“We’ve been talking to 25,000 people [who] have sustained life changing injuries. These people need rehabilitation services that are not available right now.”

The head of communications for the UN agency that serves Palestine refugees, UNRWA told UN News in an interview on Tuesday they are committed to staying and delivering in Gaza. Listen below.

Between 16 and 18 January, at least three civilians were killed and 14 injured in shelling and other attacks impacting Manbij, Ain al-Arab and other villages near the Tishreen Dam in the eastern Aleppo region.

UN partners also reported that shops in the main market were damaged when an improvised bomb detonated inside a car in Manbij.

These incidents have forced people from their homes and obstructed aid access, OCHA reported after sending a mission to the city on Monday.

The mission visited the Manbij National Hospital and met with local officials, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and local non-governmental organizations to identify and address the issues at stake, according to Farhan Haq, the Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General.

OCHA and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also completed a monitoring mission on Monday to the Ain Al Bayda water station in eastern Aleppo.

Deadly remains

UN partners have recorded 69 explosive ordnance incidents over the first two weeks of January due to contamination, in which 45 people were killed and 60 others wounded.

“Since 26 November, a total of 134 new areas with explosive remnants of war have been identified by partners across five governorates – Idlib, Aleppo, Hama, Deir-ez-Zor and Latakia,” said Mr. Haq.

As people continue to move and return to their communities, UN partners are calling for increased and flexible funding for mine action, including risk education and emergency clearance.                   

Meanwhile, with water and sanitation services suspended in many displacement camps due to funding gaps affecting more than 635,000 people, OCHA asked for increased funding to ensure the continuation of its services.

$770 million response plan launched in Mali

On Tuesday, the UN in collaboration with Mali’s transitional authorities, launched a $770 million humanitarian needs and response plan in the capital Bamako to support millions of people across the country this year.

The plan aims to address the urgent needs of 4.7 million people affected by conflict, displacement, health emergencies and climate shocks, according to the Deputy Spokesperson.

Mostly women and children

Nearly 80 per cent of the people to be reached with aid are women and children who are in need of food, water, healthcare and protection support.

Last year, UN partners mobilised nearly 40 per cent of what was required – just over $270 million – enabling lifesaving assistance and protection to reach 1.8 million people.

The Acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator on the ground, Khassim Diagne, said it is urgent that the entire humanitarian community and donors renew their commitment to addressing essential needs in the region.

UN rights experts urge Thailand to halt Uyghur deportations

Independent UN human rights experts have called on Thailand to immediately stop the deportation of 48 Uyghurs to China, citing serious concerns over potential torture and inhumane treatment.

“The treatment of the Uyghur minority in China is well-documented,” the Human Rights Council-appointed experts stated. “We are concerned they are at risk of suffering irreparable harm.”

The experts emphasised the international prohibition on refoulement, which forbids returning individuals to countries where they face real risks of torture or cruel treatment. They urged Thailand to provide urgent medical care to the mostly Muslim Uyghurs being held.

The 48 individuals are part of a larger group of around 350 Uyghurs detained in Thailand since 2014 after crossing the border irregularly. They have reportedly been held incommunicado for over a decade, without access to legal representation, family members or UN officials.

No return

“It is our view that these persons should not be returned to China,” the experts said. “They must be provided with access to asylum procedures and humanitarian assistance, including medical and psycho-social support.”

The experts highlighted that 23 of the 48 Uyghurs held suffer from severe health conditions, including diabetes, kidney dysfunction and paralysis. “It is essential they receive appropriate medical care,” the experts added.

Thai authorities were reminded of their obligation to treat all detainees humanely and with dignity, ensuring access to legal representation, medical assistance and the ability to communicate with lawyers and family members.

The plea underscores the urgent need for Thailand to uphold international human rights standards and protect the Uyghur detainees from potential harm.

Special Rapporteurs and other experts are not UN staff, receive no salary for their work and are fully independent of any government or organization.