UN News Today 15 January 2026 |

In Gaza, 800,000 people now live in dangerous locations prone to flooding

Gazans continue to face airstrikes, shelling and gunfire across the occupied enclave, three months into the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, UN aid coordinators OCHA have warned.

In an update, the agency noted that the Israeli military is still deployed in more than half of the Gaza Strip, beyond the “Yellow Line”, where access is either restricted or banned to aid facilities, public infrastructure and agricultural land. Detonations of residential buildings have continued, along with bulldozer activity, OCHA said, including near or east of the “Yellow Line”.

Access to the sea for Palestinians remains prohibited and there continue to be reports of Palestinian fishermen being killed or detained in the waters just off Gaza.

The UN agency also warned that almost 800,000 people now live in sites prone to flooding, where winter storms and heavy rain have made shelters uninhabitable. 

It maintained that although the quantity of aid entering the Strip has nearly tripled since the ceasefire began three months ago, effective delivery is impeded by damaged roads, limited storage capacity and a ban on restricted materials.

Myanmar’s ethnic Rohingya called ‘Muslim dogs’ before attacks

Hearings continued on Thursday at the UN’s top court, into The Gambia’s claim that Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya people, with allegations that military officials incited violence by calling the ethnic minority “Muslim dogs” who should be made “extinct”.

From The Gambia’s legal team, Jessica Jones highlighted how the Rohingya endured “longstanding denigration” and hate speech from senior members of the Myanmar military. 

She referred to a video posted on Facebook in 2017 featuring a soldier encouraging genocidal violence against the Rohingya – actions that would be in clear breach of Myanmar’s obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention:

“He told them, and I quote, ‘We will clear the villages where those animals live. We have guns, we have bullets. That’s what we came with, with ammunition and the spirit to attack the animals, we have come here. If you can carry a sword, carry a sword. If you can carry a stick, then carry a stick. Carry whatever you can and bravely face these animals.’”

The Gambia alleges that Myanmar committed brutal acts of genocide against the Rohingya people from 2016 to 2018 in northern Rakhine State. 

These violations included mass executions, the indiscriminate killing of up to 10,000 civilians, widespread sexual violence and the burning of hundreds of villages. 

Myanmar has long denied intentionally persecuting the Rohingya, saying it was carrying out counter-insurgency operations.

Sudan’s people pushed to brink amid war and famine, warns WFP

As Sudan marks more than 1,000 days of brutal conflict this month, the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis shows no signs of letting up, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday.

In an alert, the agency warned once again that it is struggling to keep lifesaving emergency operations running, because of deep funding cuts to aid work globally.

Despite this, WFP has reached over 10 million of Sudan’s most vulnerable people   with emergency food, cash and nutrition assistance, since conflict erupted in April 2023. 

But rations have been reduced “to the absolute minimum for survival” as the agency assists around four million people per month, including in previously hard-to-reach areas across the Darfur and Kordofan regions, along with Khartoum and Al Jazira states.

Today, more than 21 million people face acute hunger in Sudan. Famine has been confirmed in parts of the country where fighting between rival militaries has made access for aid workers largely impossible. Nearly 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.