Today's top news: Sudan, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Security Council briefing on food security, Ukraine
UNOCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Sudan
UN Relief Chief calls Darfur 'epicentre of human suffering'
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, described Sudan's Darfur region as the "epicentre of human suffering," after concluding a visit to the country today.*
Briefing reporters from Adré, Chad, Mr. Fletcher said that the week he spent in Darfur was meant to confront the perils that civilians there face every day, unlock humanitarian access to the hardest-hit communities, and demand a vigorous international response.
In recent days, the Under-Secretary-General met with people who fled the violence in El Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur - as well as the community volunteers helping support them at displacement sites. "El Fasher, based on the testimonies I heard from many survivors, is basically a crime scene right now," he told journalists.
More than 100,000 people have been displaced from El Fasher and surrounding villages since 26 October, when the Rapid Support Forces took over the city, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration - while many of those who fled remain unaccounted for.
In Tawila and Korma, Mr. Fletcher heard harrowing accounts from survivors of atrocities in El Fasher. He said that people seeking refuge in Korma are arriving to appalling conditions, after enduring a dangerous journey - and underscored the urgency of ensuring they get the food, water and medicine they need.**
The Under-Secretary-General noted that humanitarians are fully mobilized to organize missions into El Fasher as soon as possible - despite staggering political, security and logistical obstacles to getting life-saving aid to survivors in the city.
Mr. Fletcher stressed the need for safe access and protection of civilians - and reiterated that humanitarians will go anywhere and talk to anyone to get access to those in need, guided by the principles of neutrality, impartiality, humanity and independence.
"I think there is potentially a moment of opportunity here, if the international community is ready to seize it," he told journalists. "We need the Security Council, we need Member States to be much, much clearer on protection of civilians, on humanitarian access, on limiting these flows of arms which are doing such damage to civilians, and on ensuring we get accountability and investigations."
*OCHA soundbites and footage from Under-Secretary-General Fletcher's visit to Darfur are available in OCHA's Media Centre.
**Donations made to UN Crisis Relief help UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs reach people in Sudan with urgent support.
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Colder temperatures underscore urgency of stepping up shelter support in Gaza
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that the UN and its humanitarian partners continue to respond to needs across the Gaza Strip. OCHA warns that the humanitarian situation remains very difficult, with many people struggling to access the basics they need.
Following heavy rains on Friday, humanitarian teams carried out rapid assessments of affected areas over the weekend and provided initial aid. More than 13,000 families are estimated to have been affected by the flooding.
Partners working on shelter say they helped distribute at least 9,000 tents, 83,000 tarpaulins and 59,000 blankets over the weekend, with thousands more planned in the coming days.
While the UN and its partners have moved swiftly to respond in rain-affected areas, these efforts remain constrained by the inadequate volumes of shelter and other necessary supplies allowed to enter through the UN-coordinated mechanism.
OCHA stresses that with temperatures dropping and winter fast approaching, the UN must be allowed to expand the shelter response to meet the vast scale of needs across the Strip. Once again, OCHA calls for unrestricted, rapid and sustained access; the opening of additional crossings; facilitation of entry of tents that are currently restricted, as well as critical equipment to maintain storm drains and repair sanitation networks; permissions for NGOs to bring in supplies; and the safe movement of humanitarian convoys. Since 10 October, at least nine attempts by the UN and its partners to bring in tents have been rejected.
Meanwhile, partners working on food security report that with the volume of food parcels entering Gaza having increased in recent days, they plan to resume the distribution of two food parcels and one bag of flour per household across the Strip. Earlier last week, distributions in the north had to be limited to high-energy biscuits and one bag of flour because partners working to bring supplies into Gaza were facing impediments, including de-prioritization of humanitarian cargo at crossings, customs clearance delays, and lack of access to northern crossings.
Since the ceasefire came into effect, partners leading efforts to remove rubble and debris from roads and communities report that they have cleared 100,000 tons of debris. However, nearly 58 million tons of debris and rubble remain spread across the Strip - and only half of that amount is currently accessible.
The UN and its partners continue to collect supplies daily from the crossings. Over the weekend, they started collecting supplies offloaded at Zikim and bringing them into Gaza - after two months of that crossing's closure. The teams collected over 2,700 pallets of essential supplies - about 2,600 metric tons.
Overall, between Thursday and Sunday, the UN and its partners collected over 5,400 metric tons of assistance from the crossings, according to the UN 2720 Mechanism dashboard. Supplies included food, tents, tarpaulins, blankets, mattresses, medicine and animal fodder.
Food Insecurity
UN Deputy Relief Chief calls for action to address hunger in conflict
The Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Joyce Msuya, told the Security Council today that the world's most extreme food crises - including the famines in parts of the Gaza Strip and Sudan - are driven primarily by armed conflict and violence.
Addressing an open debate on conflict-related food insecurity, Ms. Msuya stressed that international humanitarian law is clear: "Civilians and civilian objects must be protected," she said. "The use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited."
The Assistant Secretary-General called on the Security Council and Member States to use their leverage to address hunger in conflict, adopt strong policies and practices to protect civilians, facilitate humanitarian action by simplifying bureaucratic procedures and ensuring humanitarians can engage all parties, and strengthen accountability.
Ukraine
Deadly attacks disrupt critical services
OCHA reports that hostilities in Ukraine over the weekend caused dozens of civilian casualties and further disrupted critical services amid cold weather.
According to authorities, widespread attacks between 15 November and this morning killed at least a dozen of civilians and injured more than 60 others, including five children.
In the town of Balakliia, in the region of Kharkiv, a missile strike killed three civilians and injured 15 more, among them five girls. Additional casualties were reported in the regions of Chernihiv, Dnipro, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia.
Humanitarian organizations responded immediately after the deadly attack in Balakliia, where more than 30 multi-storey buildings, houses and a preschool were damaged. They delivered bottled water, snacks, hygiene items, blankets and construction materials, while also providing mental health and psychosocial support.
Authorities and partners also report that residential buildings and critical infrastructure were damaged along the front line. In the region of Odesa, drone attacks left more than 30,000 households without electricity, while strikes in the Chernihiv region disrupted power in several communities.
Scheduled power outages continue across much of Ukraine following recent attacks. Power disruptions remain particularly severe near the front line, where partners report that nearly 70 per cent of locations they have assessed face frequent or prolonged outages, while some have no electricity at all. These outages continue to affect the water supply, heating and telecommunications, with direct consequences for civilians and humanitarian operations.
Meanwhile, OCHA says that evacuations from front-line areas continued over the weekend. More than 450 people were evacuated from the region of Donetsk over the past three days. Transit sites in Dnipro and Kharkiv region also registered more than 700 evacuees.
Posted on 17 November 2025
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