The update came on Friday, in a release by the World Food Programme (WFP), which has been working with the government and partners to assist 2.7 million people in Haiti by providing emergency food assistance, school meals, social protection programmes, and assistance to smallholder farmers.

“These small improvements to food security numbers must not lead to complacency,” warned Wanja Kaaria, WFP Haiti Country Director. “Elevated fuel prices and the resulting rise in food costs risk rolling back these gains, pushing already vulnerable families deeper into crisis and further destabilising the situation.”

For almost a decade, Haiti has experienced an ever-deepening food security crisis, driven by violence related to armed groups, political upheaval, economic crisis and high levels of vulnerability to extreme weather, such as Hurricane Melissa which struck the south in late 2025. 

WFP is calling for robust measures and funding to provide emergency relief and invest in long-term solutions to address the food insecurity that affects more than one in two Haitians. “Tackling hunger is vital to restoring stability in Haiti,” said Ms. Kaaria. “We cannot build peace when families have nothing to feed their children.” 

WFP requires $332 million to maintain its crucial operations over the next 12 months and, if enough funding is secured, plans to reach more than 2.7 million people with critical emergency and resilience-building support. The $880 million Humanitarian Response Plan for Haiti is just under 20 per cent funded, with only $172 million received.

Violence and displacement spread across the country

Armed attacks earlier this week have displaced hundreds of people from the South-East department. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), violence on 13 April in the municipality of Marigot displaced more than 1,300 people.

IOM notes that this is the first time that displacement of this scale, directly linked to armed attacks, has been recorded in the South-East department, an area that has previously served as a reception zone for people displaced by violence elsewhere in the country. More than 165,000 men, women and children are currently hosted privately across the department.

Conflict has displaced more than 1.4 million in Haiti, resulting in roughly 300,000 people living in overcrowded and unhygienic temporary shelters in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Fabrizia Falcione, UNFPA Country Representative in Sudan, briefed journalists in New York on a recent assessment based on 95 focus group discussions across 16 out of 18 states.

Roughly 1,000 women girls participated and 76 per cent of those aged 25 to 49 “reported feeling unsafe in the displacement camps and sites, but also outside the camps: in markets, water points, in firewood collection areas, roads and streets,” she said, speaking from Khartoum.

This was particularly the case at night, when going to use latrines in the camps.

“No matter where, they feel unsafe, and it’s not about a few incidents or a few locations,” she said.

Displacement, violence and danger in the dark

The conflict in Sudan has now entered a fourth year, with fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) showing no signs of stopping.

Ms. Falcione said the majority of women she has met in visits across the country – including in the northern states, Khartoum as well as White Nile and Blue Nile states – “have lived under shelling and active conflict for many months.”

Many have been displaced multiple times “and all of them have suffered enormous violence or witnessed violence being suffered by their families and community members.”

Furthermore, “the road to safety is actually not safe at all,” she added as women face “harassment, sexual violence, all types of physical violence, shortage of food and water, and in the areas of displacement, as I was saying, they continue to feel unsafe.” 

She described visiting displacement camps, where women and children overwhelmingly comprise the majority of residents.

“The women, including pregnant women, have to walk at night inside the camps completely in the dark, trying to reach latrines with no lighting at all,” she said.

Furthermore, reporting cases of gender-based violence remains extremely difficult due to stigma, fear of retaliation, financial constraints, and distance from service providers.

What women want

Regarding what Sudan’s women need most, Ms. Falcione reported that three quarters indicated that the main priority was economic empowerment and livelihoods, while her missions confirmed that women want to return to their homes.

“They ask for three things,” she said. “Basic services and access to health; access to schools, particularly for their children, and livelihood opportunities.”

She stressed that Sudan’s women “don’t want to be fed. They want opportunities, income generation activities, opportunities to be able to feed their families and their children.”

The issue, however, is whether there will be enough financial support to meet women’s needs at a time when funding for the protection and health sectors currently stands at 14 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively.

“We keep hearing over and over that this is a protection crisis particularly affecting women and girls, it is a health crisis, and yet the funding is not following—neither the definition nor the needs that are being identified,” she said.

Safe spaces and services

UNFPA manages 88 safe spaces for women and girls across Sudan where they “find the courage to speak up, to talk about the violence that they’ve suffered, to seek help and to receive the services that they that they need the most.”

However, lack of finding makes it difficult to sustain operations.

Ms. Falcione shared the testimony of a girl, who felt safe at these spaces because she got to spend time with her friends, just like they did before the war.

“I think that this is a very important message that the world should hear,” the veteran humanitarian said, urging the international community not to abandon the Sudanese people.

The overall total includes at least 22,000 women and 16,000 girls and amounts to an average of at least 47 women and girls killed every day, the agency’s Sofia Calltorp, Chief of Humanitarian Action, told journalists in Geneva.

“Those killed were mothers, they were daughters, sisters, and friends, deeply loved by those around them,” she noted, adding that the killings have continued in recent months, despite a ceasefire between Hamas fighters and the Israeli military.

Data also indicates that nearly 11,000 women and girls have been injured and that many have life-changing disabilities. The true toll is likely higher because many bodies are still trapped under rubble, UN Women said. According to the Gazan health authorities, more than 72,315 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip and another 172,137 injured since October 2023.

This has created a chronic humanitarian emergency in Gaza where many households are now headed by women facing increased economic hardship and protection risks.

Families clinging together

Six months since the ceasefire began in Gaza last October, women and girls continue to face severe and persistent risks, as humanitarian needs remain critical and recovery conditions remain fragile. 

“This war has reshaped families. Tens of thousands of households are now headed by women,” UN Women’s Ms. Calltorp insisted. “Having lost their husbands, they are sustaining their families without income, without support or access to essential services.”

In addition, “there is a complete lack of most services”, Ms. Calltorp continued, highlighting an urgent need for “the basics”, including sexual and reproductive health and access to sanitary pads. She recalled visiting Gaza in November and meeting two women who had to deliver their babies in the street, “because there were no transportations to bring them to any functional hospitals”.

UN Women is calling for full respect of the ceasefire, adherence to international law, and scaled-up humanitarian assistance, stressing that women and girls must be at the centre of recovery and peacebuilding efforts.

The agency remains on the ground in Gaza partnering women-led and women’s rights organizations. 

Together with the UN system, aid partners and women’s organizations, UN Women works to reach all women and girls with lifesaving assistance and to ensure that women’s organizations are funded and represented in decision-making and reconstruction.