UN News Today 15 May 2025 |

Gazans leave aid lines empty handed as more kitchens close – OCHA

As the Israeli blockade of Gaza continues, UN aid teams said on Thursday that the number of hot meals provided by community kitchens has fallen from one million to just 249,000 a day.

Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said that the situation will continue to worsen as supplies run down, forcing more kitchens to close.

“People are terrified and are telling me every day that they don’t know how they will survive,” she told UN News:

“I have passed several kitchens in the past few days where crowds of people were standing with empty pots and despair in their faces, and these people were being told to go home because all the food had run out for that day.”

The development comes as Israeli airstrikes across Gaza intensified on Wednesday evening in residential areas in the southern city of Khan Younis. Twenty-four hours earlier, Nasser hospital and the European hospital – also in Khan Younis – were hit by deadly strikes.

These attacks “terrorize the people who expect hospitals to be sacred places where they would be protected,” Ms. Cherevko said, adding that although medical staff are terrified, they still turn up for work “thinking that they might be next” to be hit.

Sudan’s Adre crossing must remain open despite dangers, insist aid agencies

To wartorn Sudan, where aid agencies have appealed for a vital crossing from Chad to remain open, as the most direct route for them to reach millions of desperate people.

In an alert on Thursday, OCHA said that the alternative border crossing at Tine “presents serious risks” for tens of thousands of civilians fleeing violence in Sudan’s Darfur region. Many have reported facing extortion and violence along the way.

According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, nearly 50,000 Sudanese refugees have been registered in Chad in just the last two weeks.

Almost all of the new arrivals have come from North Darfur where armed affiliates of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have reportedly attacked displacement camps and continued to besiege the last government-held city of El Fasher.

Conflict erupted between the rival militaries in April 2023. Since then, more than 12.4 million people have been displaced, including around 3.3 million who’ve fled to neighbouring countries.

Deep concern at alleged Myanmar pushbacks by Indian navy

A top independent rights expert on Myanmar expressed concern on Thursday at reports that some Rohingya refugees fleeing the country have been forced off an Indian Navy vessel and into the Andaman Sea.

Tom Andrews, who was appointed by the Human Rights Council to monitor and investigate rights violations in Myanmar, said that he has begun an inquiry into the alleged incidents.

He also urged the Indian Government to refrain from what he called was the “inhumane and life-threatening treatment” of ethnic Rohingya refugees, including sending them back to face potential recrimination.  

The plight of the majority Muslim Rohingya made the headlines in 2017 when hundreds of thousands fled systematic persecution, seeking safety in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Former UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein called the exodus a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

In a statement Mr. Andrews said that he was deeply concerned by the apparent “blatant disregard for the lives and safety of those who require international protection”. Such actions would be a serious violation of the principle of non-refoulment, the rights expert continued.

The Indian authorities have yet to respond to Mr. Andrews, who works in an independent capacity and is not a UN member.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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