UN News Today 31 July 2025 |

On brink of famine, Gazans forced to scour dirt for food

In Gaza, UN aid teams continued their efforts on Thursday to help people of the war-shattered enclave by retrieving urgently needed fuel from the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south of the Strip.

Without fuel, there is nothing to power many basic facilities including water treatment, sanitation, healthcare and emergency telecommunications.

But far too little fuel and other relief supplies are being allowed into Gaza still, judging by what people are forced to do to find food, said veteran UN aid worker Olga Cherevko.

Here she is now, speaking to UN News:

“While we were driving, I saw an elderly man on the side of the road completely alone, kneeling down, and he was picking up handfuls of lentils that had spilled on the ground from one of the previous convoys that had been passing; and he was picking them up with his hands and just putting them into his T-shirt as this is obviously the only option he has right now to find food because this is how desperate the situation has become.”

Ms. Cherevko – who works with the UN aid coordination office, OCHA – said that the announcement of daytime military pauses by Israel appears to have slightly reduced the amount of time aid convoys have to wait for permission to proceed.

There has also been a “slight reduction” in security incidents involving Gazans taking food from UN trucks, she added.

UN migration agency sounds Somalia alert amid deepening climate and displacement crisis

To Somalia, where climate shocks and mass displacement caused by conflict have now uprooted some 3.6 million people, the UN migration agency, IOM, said on Thursday.

Almost half the country’s population has been impacted by the climate crisis, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The UN agency’s Deputy Director General, Ugochi Daniels, expressed solidarity for Somali communities who continue to endure relentless droughts, floods and conflict.

Ms. Daniels also noted that communities are finding solutions to withstand the worst impacts of the climate crisis, but they need international support from the Green Climate Fund urgently.

IOM is active across Somalia in displacement sites and in rural and other fragile areas. Its work includes promoting land restoration and so-called “environmental peacebuilding”, which aims to reduce tensions over shared resources.

Another IOM initiative also encourages the people of Somalia to invest in their own development by providing additional funding.

In 2024, communities contributed more than half a million dollars toward projects such as solar energy, clean water access and small-scale farming – investments all matched by more than $2 million from IOM.

Haitians in ‘despair’ following abrupt suspension of US humanitarian support

People in Haiti have expressed “despair” following the suspension of many humanitarian services, according to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA.

The development which has impacted vulnerable people in the Caribbean country follows the cancellation of most US funding in January.

Chronic political, security and socio-economic crises have left 5.7 million people suffering from a lack of food; 1.3 million have fled their homes.

OCHA’s country director in Haiti, Modibo Traore, said that the dramatic reduction in funding has left Haiti at a crucial “turning point”.

He told UN News that less than 10 per cent of the $908 million required to provide humanitarian assistance had been provided by donors.

This means that only a fraction of the 3.6 million people targeted can be reached.

Mr. Traore noted that development in Haiti has also been held back by frequent climate shocks and disasters including earthquakes and hurricanes.

And since 2019, the proliferation of armed groups has caused widespread insecurity, particularly in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and now in the Centre and Artibonite departments.

This has had the unfortunate result of deterring international donors, the OCHA official explained.

Daniel Johnson, UN News