UN News Today 14 May 2026 |

Sudan war: Staggering civilian suffering continues alongside famine risk

Nearly 19.5 million people in Sudan are still acutely hungry as a result of the war and of this staggering number, nearly 135,000 are either experiencing famine or are on the brink of it. 

That’s the worrying news from UN-backed food insecurity experts just ahead of the lean season in the country, who say that famine could impact 14 areas across North Darfur, South Darfur and South Kordofan.

The assessment from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification platform defines famine as “extreme food gaps, starvation, very high levels of malnutrition and death”.

To highlight the suffering of Sudanese people caught up in the war, photographer Giles Clarke travelled with the UN to Tawila refugee camp in western Darfur.

Here he is now, describing the experience of one young man who was captured by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, after they stormed the city of El Fasher:

“I’d heard about this boy, he’s 19 and we got to meet him after a few days. I sat with him in his tent, in front of a boy who clearly had trauma issues, but after an hour or so, he opened up and he basically told me that he’d been trying to leave El Fasher on 28 October 2025 along with thousands of others and he’d been caught on the road and robbed at gunpoint and as he was with four others, and two RSF fighters had caught him and at gunpoint and robbed them and then made them flee, made them run, and while they ran, he had to, run from that. A few days later, he was caught again on the road, and he was taken back to El Fasher, where he was locked into the children’s hospital, which had been changed or turned into a detention camp by the RSF, and it was from there that they were put into groups. There were people killed next to him, he told me, during his detention. But during the day, they were sent out and they were told to load bodies onto donkey carts and move them. And so, his job was basically filling these donkey carts, moving the bodies and then taking them to mass graves in the north of the city.”

You can hear the full interview with Giles Clarke on the UN News audio hub.

Ukrainians wake from another massive night of Russian attacks

Ukrainians have endured another night of attacks by Russian forces which launched nearly 800 drones and 56 missiles against Ukraine, principally at Kyiv.

Condemning the violence, the UN country team in Ukraine said that the strikes included ballistic missiles – some air-launched – and cruise missiles. 

Although the main target of the attack was the capital, the whole country faced one of the most intense and prolonged attacks of the war to date, with nearly 24 hours of continuous strikes.

In April alone, at least 238 people were killed and more than 1,400 were injured.

More than one in two civilian casualties occurred near the frontline from artillery shelling, rocket attacks, drone strikes and aerial bombardment, according to the UN office in Ukraine. 

It said that short-range drones killed 80 civilians and injured 481, and that more civilians were killed and injured by drones than in any other month since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022.

The UN office in Ukraine warned that attacks by Russian forces on energy, railway and port infrastructure have continued to cause disruption and endanger civilians’ lives. 

In April, at least 14 attacks damaged seaport infrastructure in Odesa region, causing civilian casualties and threatening merchant shipping and the delivery of essential supplies.

Gaza reconstruction envisages building ‘islands’ out of rubble

A feasibility study is underway to examine whether Gaza’s war debris could be recycled to reclaim coastal land and build artificial islands, as part of reconstruction efforts.

More than two years of war between Hamas fighters and Israel have left the enclave covered with nearly 57 million tonnes of shattered concrete and other rubble.

Because three quarters of Gaza’s built environment has been destroyed by constant Israeli bombing, several reconstruction scenarios are being considered. 

One these options involves recycling debris to extend the enclave’s Mediterranean coastline and create artificial islands offshore.

This approach has the advantage of absorbing part of the enormous volume of war debris, while reducing the need for dredging the sea for new construction materials.

The project would require nearly 200 million cubic metres of aggregates but only around 10 million cubic metres can be sourced from recycled debris in Gaza.

This is because the enclave’s rubble contains a wide mix of materials, such as concrete, tiles and metals that can be used again – and many other elements that cannot, from sediment contaminated with asbestos to furniture, as well as human remains that have yet to be uncovered. Unexploded ordnance poses another major risk.

To help, UN teams are establishing two recycling centres in Gaza to turn the enclave’s usable rubble into construction materials.

Daniel Johnson, UN News