UN News Today 12 December 2025 |

Sudan war: Aid teams report agreement reached to access stricken El Fasher

In Sudan, deep concerns persist for tens of thousands of people still trapped in El Fasher in the Darfur region, but UN aid agencies believe they may soon get access to the embattled city.

The town was overrun by paramilitary fighters in October after an 18-month siege and today, essentials for survival have been “completely obliterated”, UN humanitarians said on Friday.

With more, here’s Ross Smith from the UN World Food Programme (WFP):

“The little that’s known at the moment about the current conditions in El Fasher is indeed beyond horrific. We know that there’s anywhere between 70 and 100,000 people potentially remaining trapped inside the city itself…Network blackouts mean that communication is largely cut off and extremely limited, what is coming out of the city. We see satellite images and survivor accounts and they describe the city as a crime scene with mass killings, with burnt bodies, with abandoned markets.”

Mr. Smith said that unimpeded access to El Fasher is needed urgently to help those who remain trapped there.

He added that an “agreement in principle” had been reached with the Rapid Support Forces on entering the city which might soon allow for initial aid needs assessments to take place.

Deep concerns for Palestinians amid intense Israeli raids in occupied West Bank

To the occupied West Bank, where the UN human rights office, OHCHR, has expressed alarm at reports of a so-called “settler road” being built there.

Around 100 hectares of Palestinian land have been reportedly confiscated to make way for the new route.

This would mark another step towards the progressive fragmentation of the West Bank, warned the head of the OHCHR’s Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ajith Sunghay.

“We are alarmed to hear that Israel has actually started building a new barrier and a road in the heart of the Jordan Valley. In fact, this is the most fertile land in the West Bank and the road is likely going to separate Palestinian communities from each other and the Palestinian farmers in Tubas from thousands of [pieces of] land they own on the other side of the planned barrier.”

Mr. Sunghay maintained that the move would consolidate Israel’s annexation of the West Bank and remove all sources of livelihood for Palestinians.

He also noted that Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur shams camps have been emptied and that after almost one year, residents have not been allowed to return.

This raises concerns about forcible transfer which is prohibited under international law, the UN rights official said, before expressing concern about warnings issued to continue bulldozing Palestinian camps.

Sri Lanka’s cyclone Ditwah created ‘2.2 million stories of loss and resilience’, says IOM

Cyclone Ditwah which devastated Sri Lanka earlier this month created “2.2 million stories of loss and resilience”, the International Organization for Migration said on Friday.

In an update, the UN agency warned of a rapidly deepening humanitarian crisis as communities have been devastated and lost everything.

“Behind every number, is a person, a family” whose future is now uncertain, said Kristin Parco, IOM Chief of Mission in Sri Lanka:

“Just a few days ago, when I visited a safety centre that is crowded, I met a mother of three who returned from years of work overseas just to only see that the years of her work overseas, her life saving, washed away in a single night. Her three children now face an uncertain future without any basic provisions for daily life.”

The cyclone has uprooted more than 280,000 people whose homes have been destroyed.

IOM is responding along with Sri Lankan authorities by distributing urgent relief supplies to families in the northern, eastern, central and western provinces.

But it says that communities remain in desperate need of shelter, clean water and access to basic health care and psychosocial support.

“Every hour without assistance puts more lives at risk. Without immediate support, we risk losing the window to prevent suffering and loss,” Ms. Parco insisted.

Daniel Johnson, UN News