UN News Today 17 July 2026 |

Hunger deepens for displaced families in Sudan’s El Obeid

UN humanitarians working in war-torn Sudan on Friday highlighted rapidly growing needs among the more than 100,000 displaced people now sheltering in camps in the city of El Obeid. 

There is not enough food to give everyone a full monthly ration, but recipients are still sharing what they have with other families”, said Abdallah Alwardat, World Food Programme Country Director for Sudan.

Mr. Alwardat provided an update on what he had seen in El Obeid city, which now hosts hundreds of thousands of uprooted people. He described meeting a frail aid recipient:

“I met one old woman at the distribution centre, where she had to come to receive her food. And she has been in that camp for a year now. And when I ask, you know, ‘Do you have any other source of income?’ She just said, ‘It’s only what WFP is giving me and it’s not enough.’”

WFP has been providing food assistance to more than 100,000 people in camps inside El Obeid. But there are many more displaced individuals sheltering elsewhere in the city “and they need urgent assistance”, Mr. Alwardat stressed.

He noted that the agency also provides nutrition support to 17,000 children caught up in the crisis and living in camps.

It is more than three years since Sudan’s rival militaries embarked on a brutal war that followed the collapse of the country’s transition to civilian rule, after the overthrow of longtime former President Omar al-Bashir.

The Sudanese Armed Forces continues to battle former allies the Rapid Support Forces  militia for control of the vast country, where more than 14 million people have been uprooted and both sides have been linked to grave rights violations.

DR Congo Ebola outbreak: 60 per cent of deaths happen in the community 

To the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, where the ongoing Ebola outbreak has grown by approximately 70 per cent in just the past two weeks, with an average of more than 40 new cases reported each day.

The UN migration agency, IOM, stressed that people uprooted by violence in eastern DRC are particularly vulnerable. 

IOM’s Frantz Celestin, Regional Director for East, Horn and Southern Africa, said that detection and response were initially hampered by the fact that it was not known that this Ebola outbreak was the Bundibugyo species.

He said that “it’s nothing like we’ve seen before,” both in its scale and nature:

“Of particular concern is the fact that 60 per cent of the reported deaths have occurred in communities, which highlights continued challenges in early detection, surveillance, and timely access to care. In several affected health zones, we are seeing our capacity to surveille and timely response is constrained, which means that we have, we don’t know the true impact of what’s happening in the communities.”

The outbreak has expanded into two new provinces – Haut-Uele and Tshopo – which highlight how important it is to manage the highly mobile health threat. 

Strengthening surveillance at points of entry, land and riverine communities along the Congo river, holds the key to effectively preventing further spread, not just within DRC, but also across borders, Mr. Celestin said. 

Nearly 150,000 internally displaced people live in 69 sites supported by the agency in eastern DRC; another 300,000 are supported by host communities. 

UN human rights chief Türk appeals for calm in Pakistan-Administered Kashmir 

The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has appealed for calm in Pakistan-Administered Kashmir, amid unrest ahead of regional elections.

Dozens of people, mostly protesters but also law enforcement personnel, have reportedly been killed since June, ahead of the vote for the Legislative Assembly on 27 July. 

The movement behind the protests is the Joint Awami Action Committee, or the JAAC. Its members include traders, students and lawyers and it is banned under anti-terrorism laws, for allegedly threatening public order and security. 

Some of the group’s leaders have been arrested, said UN human rights office spokesperson, Jeremy Laurence:

“The criminalization of a civil society organization and imposition of strict limitations on gatherings raise serious concerns about infringements on the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.”

Mr. Laurence noted the UN rights chief’s call to restore full internet access and his appeal for meaningful and inclusive political dialogue to address underlying issues and grievances of the local population. 

Daniel Johnson, UN News