UN News Today 09 April 2025 |

Two years into Sudan war, UNHCR chief urges help for host country Chad

As the war in Sudan nears the two-year mark, thousands of people continue to flee into neighbouring countries, including Chad, UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said on Wednesday.

Chad hosts 1.3 million forcibly displaced people, according to the UN agency, UNHCR despite it being one of the world’s poorest countries.

More than half of these vulnerable individuals are Sudanese who fled after war broke out in 2023.

Speaking from the Chadian border, Mr. Grandi condemned the ongoing “vicious human rights abuses” against civilians happening in Sudan, before calling for greater international support for Sudanese refugees and their Chadian hosts.

The arrivals are mostly women and children and some of whom have been crawling across the border, according to aid teams on the ground.

The UN agency stressed once again that the crisis rocking humanitarian funding worldwide has only made matters worse. With more, here’s UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado:

“Over 770,000 Sudanese refugees have arrived in Chad in the past two years. The vast majority are women and children and because of the aid cuts our teams are now making impossible choices and are being forced to reduce food, shelter, water and medicine, support,”

International aid cuts have made it impossible to pay teachers, the UN agency said, with clinics and schools that protect women and children from violence and exploitation forced to shut down.

Gaza: fears and uncertainty for pregnant women amid ongoing war

To Gaza, where ongoing Israeli military operations and the  aid blockade have continued to add to daily fears and hardships faced by those about to give birth.

That’s the message from the UN World Health Organization, WHO, which said that mothers are going into labour amidst dire conditions, putting their health and their babies’ lives at risk.

It is now five weeks since the Israeli authorities stopped all commercial and humanitarian relief supplies from reaching Gaza.

Medicines and medical consumables “are rapidly running out”, including already critically low levels of supplies and blood units for maternal and child health, UN aid teams report.

Unexploded weapons are also a major threat across Gaza, said Luke Irving, Chief of the UN Mine Action Programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT):

“What people are doing currently right now is they’re scared. They are concerned that word for their safety, they’re focusing on that day-to-day, survival, if you like, on how they would stay safe, how they stay fed, how they stay watered. This is the reality in Gaza at the moment.”

At UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, UN chief António Guterres issued a strong appeal for guaranteed aid access to the enclave.

He also repeated his call for a renewed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and for the release of all hostages still held inside Gaza.

Yet another wave of attacks in Ukraine, warn UN aid teams

To Ukraine, where aid teams have condemned “yet another wave of attacks”, this time in Dnipro, Kramatorsk and Kharkiv.

OCHA, the UN aid coordination office, said that many people had been injured while residential buildings sustained damage – and that relief staff are on the ground to assess needs.

It is now more than three years since the full-scale Russian invasion and UN refugee agency, UNHCR, is reporting that families in Ukraine “are still being displaced and endure daily suffering”.

Frontline communities are especially hard-hit, but the agency continues to deliver critical aid where it has sufficient access.

Latest UN data on the Ukraine conflict indicates a significant increase in civilian casualties last month.

According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, at least 164 people were killed and 910 injured in March. That’s 50 per cent higher than in February.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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