In its latest update, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that the first two weeks of March saw just 11 out of 24 missions “facilitated” by Israeli authorities. “The rest were either denied or postponed,” OCHA continued, noting that five convoys were refused entry and eight were postponed.

“Facilitated missions primarily involved food distributions, nutrition and health assessments, and the delivery of supplies to hospitals,” OCHA said, repeating warnings that “humanitarian access constraints” continue to “severely affect the timely delivery of life-saving assistance, particularly to hundreds of thousands of people in northern Gaza”.

Echoing those calls on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the Israeli authorities “to ensure complete and unfettered access for humanitarian goods throughout Gaza and for the international community to fully support our humanitarian efforts”. 

Speaking from Brussels where he is holding meetings with European Union representatives, the UN chief also repeated his call to “keep doing everything to stop the killing, reach an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and secure the unconditional release of the hostages”.

Wadi Gaza gateway

Dispatching aid to the north of Gaza requires “day-to-day approvals” from the Israeli authorities, OCHA explained, but despite all efforts to coordinate the process, “truck convoys are frequently turned back, even after long waits at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint”, which is the gateway to the north of the enclave. 

Aid convoys have also become the focus of “desperate people”, OCHA continued, “either at the checkpoint or along the difficult route north when they do get through. The only way to prevent this is to ensure that enough aid can be delivered on a reliable basis.”

During the same two-week period in March, Israeli authorities granted access to three in four relief missions to areas south of Wadi Gaza (78 out of 103), with 15 denied and 10 “postponed or withdrawn”, according to OCHA.

Famine closing in

All the while “famine is imminent” in parts of the enclave, warned the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, amid reports overnight that 24 people died in an aid convoy attack in the north of Gaza City.

“(On) average, 159 aid trucks per day crossed into the Gaza Strip so far in March. This is well below the needs,” UNRWA said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

A ceasefire and the release of all remaining hostages remains the only way to ensure that sufficient aid reaches Gaza by land – and far more effective than airdrops or shipments by sea – aid officials have long insisted.

To that end, talks entered a third day in Qatar on Wednesday between delegations including Israel, the U.S. and Egypt, media reports indicated. 

Latest information from the enclave’s health authority indicates that the death toll since 7 October has risen to 31,923 with 74,096 people wounded.

“As we approach the one-year anniversary of the conflict, we cannot make clearer the desperation that civilians are facing in Sudan,” said Edem Wosornu of the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA – one of three senior officials who briefed ambassadors.

The meeting was convened following OCHA’s submission of a white paper on food insecurity in Sudan last Friday. 

This was done in line with a 2018 Council resolution that requests the UN Secretary-General to promptly report when the risk of conflict-induced famine and widespread food insecurity occurs.

Agricultural production halted 

The war between the Sudanese army and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has left 18 million people – more than a third of the population – facing acute food insecurity.

The majority, or about 90 per cent, are in conflict hotspots in the Darfur and Kordofan region, and in Khartoum and Al Jazirah states.

Fighting has restricted agricultural production, damaged major infrastructure, caused prices to spiral and disrupted trade flows, among other devastating impacts.

Maurizio Martina, Deputy Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that hostilities are expanding across southeastern states, the country’s breadbasket, responsible for half of all wheat production.

An FAO report issued this week showed that cereal production last year dropped by nearly half, 46 per cent.

“Cereal import requirements in 2024, forecast at about 3.38 million tonnes, raise concerns about the financial and logistical capacity of the country to meet these import needs. And high production costs of cereals are likely to further inflate market prices, which are already at exceptionally high levels,” he said.

Malnutrition rates soaring 

Currently, around 730,000 people in Sudan are suffering from malnutrition, which is soaring to alarming rates and already claiming young lives.

Ms. Wosornu cited a recent report from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) which revealed that a child is dying every two hours at the Zamzam camp in El Fasher, North Darfur. 

“Our humanitarian partners estimate that in the coming weeks and months, somewhere in the region of around 222,000 children could die from malnutrition,” she said.

Obstacles to aid delivery 

Although aid should be “a lifeline” in Sudan, she said humanitarians continue to face obstacles in reaching people in need.

The Council adopted a resolution earlier this month calling for full and unhindered humanitarian access in Sudan, however “there has not been major progress on the ground.” 

Ms. Wosornu said humanitarians have welcomed Sudan’s recent announcement to again allow aid into the country through the Tine border crossing with Chad, although procedures have yet to be elaborated.

The authorities have also agreed to allow 60 trucks to enter through Adre in Chad into West Darfur, and she said a convoy carrying aid that includes food for more than 175,000 people is being prepared for deployment in the coming days. 

“These are positive steps, but they are far from enough in the face of looming famine,” she added, stressing the need for crossline aid delivery within Sudan, as well as greater protection for humanitarian staff and supplies.

Hunger stalking the region 

The Deputy Executive Director at the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Carl Skau, highlighted the wider regional context of the hunger crisis. 

Seven million people in South Sudan, and nearly three million in Chad, are also facing acute food insecurity, he said.

WFP teams have been working around the clock in Sudan to meet the massive needs, assisting some eight million people last year, but their operations are being hampered by the lack of both access and resources. 

“If we are going to prevent Sudan from becoming the world’s largest hunger crisis, coordinated efforts and joined-up diplomacy is urgent and critical. We need all parties to provide unrestricted access across borders and across conflict lines,” Mr. Skau said. 

Warning that rising hunger will only stoke instability across the region, he appealed for a rapid scale-up in financial and political support for emergency relief operations.  

“When we live in a chaotic world it’s very important to stick to principles and the principles are clear: the UN Charter, international law, the territorial integrity of countries and international humanitarian law,” the UN chief said, speaking at the opening of the European Council in Brussels. 

“That is the reason why we believe it is essential to have peace for Ukraine…(and) that is the reason why for the same reasons we need a ceasefire in Gaza.”

In a brief press encounter, Mr. Guterres condemned the Hamas-led terror attacks of 7 October in which some 1,200 Israeli and foreign nationals were killed, before reiterating his alarm that “we are witnessing a number of civilian casualties in Gaza that is unprecedented in my time as Secretary-General”.

Tedros starvation alert

Echoing the UN chief’s comments, the head of the UN health agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on Thursday highlighted the plight of “many” youngsters in northern Gaza lying seriously injured in hospitals or reportedly “starving”, after nearly six months of war. 

In a social media post accompanying Tedros’s appeal, a video clip from Al-Shifa Hospital showed a young amputee, Rafiq, who had been reportedly rescued from under the rubble of his home in Gaza City.

The video – filmed on 17 March, according to WHO – showed the boy’s doctor who maintained that nutritious food containing proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals was “unavailable in most of the northern Gaza Strip”.

The unnamed medic also noted that in addition to the malnourished young Gaza City patient he was treating, there were “many other children whose parents report that they have died due to malnutrition without any medical examination” at Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals.

WHO was last able to reach the medical facility on 11 March to deliver fuel and medicines, the UN agency said. According to media reports, the Israeli military raid of Al-Shifa that began on Monday is now into its fourth day.

“History will judge us all for what these children are enduring,” WHO Director-General Tedros wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Ceasefire! Allow immediate, unfettered, scaled-up humanitarian access.”

On Monday, a UN-backed food insecurity analysis warned that 1.1 million Gazans are now enduring catastrophic hunger and starvation, with famine possible in the north “anytime between now and May”.

Latest WHO data indicates 410 attacks on health care in Gaza since 7 October. The attacks reportedly caused hundreds of casualties, damaged nearly 100 facilities and affected more than 100 ambulances. 

In the West Bank, the UN health agency documented 403 attacks on health care since 7 October.

Nearly 31,200 people in Gaza have now been killed amid intense Israeli bombardment with more than 74,000 injured, UN aid coordination office OCHA said, citing the enclave’s health authorities. According to the Israeli military, 251 soldiers have been killed in the ground operation that began on 27 October.

US calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in new draft

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said on Thursday that the latest draft of a resolution penned by Washington on Gaza before the Security Council now includes the call for “an immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages.”

It is unclear when the draft might be put to a vote but news reports suggest it could be as early as Friday. The US has previously blocked attempts to pass a ceasefire resolution. 

The top US diplomat was speaking in Egypt and is touring the Middle East as indirect negotiations on a possible deal continue between Israel and Hamas, brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar. Mr. Blinken said an agreement was “very much possible”.

Weapon of war

Meanwhile, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA), Philippe Lazzarini, reiterated calls to “flood” Gaza with humanitarian aid.

Condemning a “man-made famine” in the north, Mr. Lazzarini insisted that the “easy response” was to open “all the land crossings into Gaza”. “It is easy to flood Gaza with food, it is easy to reverse this trend and I also believe it is a collective stain on our collective humanity that such a situation is artificially unfolding under our eyes,” he said.

The UNRWA Commissioner-General also repeated widespread calls for Israel and Hamas to agree on a ceasefire and the release of all remaining hostages taking during Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel on 7 October. “This should be a priority but meanwhile food should not be used as a weapon of war,” Mr. Lazzarini said.

“It’s important we don’t let the violence spill over from the capital into the country,” said Ulrika Richardson, briefing journalists at UN Headquarters via videolink from Haiti.

She said orchestrated gang attacks on prisons, ports, hospitals and the palace have unfolded over the past weeks, but in the past few days these heavily armed groups have been advancing into new areas of the capital.

“There is human suffering at an alarming scale,” she said, describing daily tension, sounds of gunshots and fear rising throughout the capital.

Deaths, hunger and gang rape

Abhorrent human rights violations are ongoing, with more than 2,500 people killed, kidnapped or injured, she said, stressing that sexual violence is rampant, with the use of torture and “collective rape” against women. 

“Time is running out” – 

UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti

A total of 5.5 million Haitians needed assistance, more than three million of them children. Food security remains a grave concern, with malnutrition being reported in a growing number of youngsters. In addition, 45 per cent of Haitians do not have access to clean water.

Around 1.4 million Haitians are “one step away from famine”, she warned, calling for urgent support for the humanitarian response plan, which requires $674 million but is only six per cent funded.

With more funds, “we can do more” to help the people of Haiti, she said, saying that “time is running out”.

Lifesaving supplies urgently needed

The Humanitarian Coordinator said UN-backed flights to Haiti have brought some shipments of lifesaving supplies, including blood transfusion bags for hospitals treating growing numbers of gunshot victims.

At the same time, the airport is closed to commercial traffic, making it impossible to import essential goods, including medicines. The national port is operational, but accessing it is challenging, as the surrounding areas are controlled by gangs.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that less than half of health facilities in Port-au-Prince are functioning at their normal capacity, and there is a pressing need for safe blood products, anaesthetics and other essential medicines.

According to the World Food Programme, 1.4 million people are facing emergency levels of hunger and need assistance to survive.

WHO calls for swift funding

Elaborating on the health conditions, the UN health agency said the cholera outbreak, which has been declining since the end of last year, could flare up again should the crisis continue. 

Cholera response activities and data surveillance have already been affected by the recent violence, and the situation could worsen significantly in the coming weeks if fuel becomes scarce and access to essential medical supplies is not improved soon, according to WHO.

The WHO chief called for swift support for efforts to help those trapped in a deteriorating situation.

“We call on all partners and the public not to forget the people of Haiti,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, also calling for safe and unhindered humanitarian access, health workers’ safety to be guaranteed and the protection of health facilities.

WHO and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) are supporting the Ministry of Health and other partners with supplies and logistics, including water, sanitation and hygiene and disease surveillance in centres for displaced persons, he said.

UN chief: Support mission remains ‘critical’

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for all efforts to maintain the momentum and work towards implementing transitional arrangements agreed upon last week following the prime minister’s resignation, said UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq on Thursday.

The UN chief welcomed reports that Haitian stakeholders have all nominated candidates to the Transitional Presidential Council, he said, adding that the UN, through its office in Haiti, BINUH, will continue to support the country in its efforts to restore democratic institutions.

“The swift deployment of the multinational mission remains critical to ensure that the political and security tracks can advance in parallel as only complementary efforts can be successful,” he said.

Security Council condemns gang attacks

In a statement released on Thursday, the Security Council strongly condemned the violence and the attacks carried out by the armed gangs and stressed the need for the international community to redouble its efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to the population and to support the Haitian National Police.

That includes through building the capacity to restore law and order and through the swift deployment of multinational security support mission, which the Council  authorized by resolution 2699 (2023) in October, according to the statement.