Gaza
Funding shortages have forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to slash assistance to hungry families in the Gaza Strip by roughly one third – a move that will affect some 500,000 people as winter approaches, the UN agency announced on Monday. WFP said that its food assistance “has provided a lifeline for up to 90 per cent of families in Gaza” over the past three years. Since the October 2025 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas fighters, teams have reached around 1.6 million people monthly with food parcels, wheat flour, bread, hot meals, nutrition support, school snacks and cash assistance. “Improved humanitarian access and delivery of assistance since October 2025 have helped reduce food insecurity, but these gains remain fragile and could quickly be reversed if humanitarian funding continues to decline,” the agency warned. – UN News Gaza: Funding cuts leave half a million without food assistance
Haiti
Armed groups in Haiti are adapting to intensified security operations, stepping up reprisals against civilians and extending their reach into rural areas, the UN warned the Security Council on Monday. The briefing came two weeks after presidential and legislative elections planned for 13 December were postponed indefinitely, with the UN’s top official in the country cautioning against setting new dates without a realistic assessment of whether a vote can be held. Key points: 1,123 Haitians were killed and 440 injured in gang-related violence between July and early October; sexual violence remains widespread, with 689 women and girls reportedly raped by gang members in July and August; the Security Council-authorised Gang Suppression Force is not yet fully deployed. – UN News Haiti: Elections on hold as gangs adapt to security crackdown, Security Council hears
Right to Food
More than a quarter of humanity struggles to get enough food, even though the world produces enough for everyone, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Monday, blaming injustice and the denial of human rights for hunger in a world of plenty. Addressing the UN-hosted Committee on World Food Security in Rome, the High Commissioner said that while the right to food has found its way into treaties and laws, “for too many people, it has yet to find its way onto their dinner plates”. Global food supply now exceeds 3,000 calories per person per day – a historic high – yet hunger reduction has not kept pace. “Too much of that abundance is swallowed up by injustice and the denial of human rights,” Mr. Türk said. – UN News Hunger is ‘an avoidable tragedy’ in a world of plenty: Türk
Sudan
Drone strikes killed and injured dozens across Sudan on Monday as the ongoing war continues to cause soaring displacement and hunger. “We are alarmed by the continued deadly drone strikes across the country that are killing civilians, including children, and that are disrupting essential services,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists in New York. The rising use of armed drones during the war between rival militaries comes at a time when 20 million people face acute hunger, with a rising risk of famine in parts of Darfur and Greater Kordofan. Fighting erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – former allies who had jointly seized power in a 2021 coup. This latest escalation comes on the heels of a spate of deadly drone attacks last week. – UN News UN condemns deadly wave of drone strikes in war-torn Sudan
UN Biodiversity Conference
