KHARTOUM, Sudan ¡ª The Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) today announced the return of its Sudan Country Office to the capital Khartoum. The announcement was made by Carl Skau, Â鶹ÊÓƵ¡¯s Deputy Executive Director, following a meeting in Khartoum with Kamil Idris, Prime Minister of Sudan. In attendance, was Abdallah Al Wardat, Â鶹ÊÓƵ¡¯s new Country Director in Sudan. The agency¡¯s planned return to the capital comes three years after Â鶹ÊÓƵ¡¯s former premises were looted and destroyed at the beginning of the war in 2023.
This is a transcript of what was said by Corinne Fleischer, Â鶹ÊÓƵ Director of Supply Chain (speaking from Rome via Zoom) ¨C to whom quoted text may be attributed ¨C at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
The briefing highlighted the severe impact that conflict in the Middle East is having on Â鶹ÊÓƵ's Supply Chain operations as food deliveries to life saving operations around the world face long delays and increased costs. In the most significant disruption to humanitarian supply chains since Covid or the start of the war in Ukraine, Â鶹ÊÓƵ is warning that today¡¯s supply chain challenges are tomorrow¡¯s hunger crisis.
YANGON ¨C As Myanmar marks one year since the devastating earthquake last March, the United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) warns that communities struggling to rebuild are now being hit by renewed hardship: the effects of the ongoing Middle East crisis on fuel, food, and fertilizer prices are pushing vulnerable families closer to hunger.
KABUL ¨C?The United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) has begun to rapidly mobilize a large-scale emergency response for communities in Afghanistan impacted by the conflict with Pakistan and is adapting quickly to keep life-saving aid moving despite violence in the region and shipping disruptions.
CAIRO / BEIRUT / ROME ¨C The United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) is warning that surging food and fuel prices driven by the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East could have ripple effects that will worsen hunger for vulnerable populations in the region and beyond. The escalation has already had a devastating impact on civilians bearing the brunt of the violence through mass displacement, loss of life, and the destruction of essential infrastructure.
As the conflict disrupts supply chains, drives up costs and weakens the purchasing power of families, people already on the edge could be pushed further towards severe food insecurity.
Below is a summary of Â鶹ÊÓƵ¡¯s assessments of the early impacts of the conflict on food security and humanitarian aid - and how Â鶹ÊÓƵ is adapting and scaling up its emergency operations across the region to meet rising needs.
BEIRUT, Lebanon ¨C The Government of Lebanon, through the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA), and the United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) have activated an emergency cash assistance programme to conflict-affected families and are scaling up food assistance as mass displacement across the country grows.
This is a summary of what was said by John Aylieff, Â鶹ÊÓƵ Afghanistan Representative and Country Director (speaking from Bangkok via Zoom) ¨C to whom quoted text may be attributed ¨C at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
GENEVA ¨C Afghanistan is seeing an escalation of insecurity on its borders¡ª increased fighting on the eastern and southern frontier with Pakistan, and ongoing violence in Iran. This renewed fighting is putting immense pressure on communities already vulnerable and worn down by years of crisis, conflict and chaos.
JUBA, South Sudan ¨C The United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) is scaling up its emergency response to reach the growing number of people forced to flee spiralling conflict in South Sudan¡¯s Jonglei state. These life-saving food distributions, transported along river routes, come amid increasing insecurity that is hampering humanitarian efforts and threatening to drive hunger in the region to unprecedented levels.
PORT SUDAN, Sudan 18 February 2026 ¨C A United Nations (UN) inter?agency convoy led by the Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ), the United Nations Children¡¯s Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has reached Dilling and Kadugli, South Kordofan, with life-saving humanitarian supplies to assist over 130,000 people. This marks the first major delivery of assistance to the area in three months.
JUBA, South Sudan ¨C The United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) is today calling on all parties to the conflict to urgently halt military operations, de-escalate the situation, and allow safe humanitarian access to deliver life-saving food assistance to hundreds of thousands of people in South Sudan¡¯s Jonglei State.
GAZA, Palestine ¨C One hundred days into the ceasefire, the United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) has significantly expanded its life saving operations across the Gaza Strip, reaching more than one million people each month. While critical progress has been made in pushing back famine, the situation remains extremely fragile. Sustained access through all crossings, the flow of humanitarian and commercial goods, and the continuation of the ceasefire are essential to prevent Gaza from sliding back into catastrophic hunger.
ROME ¡ª As Sudan marks more than 1,000 days of brutal conflict this month, what has become the world¡¯s largest hunger and displacement crisis shows no signs of abating. This comes as the United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) is struggling to keep life-saving emergency operations running.
Cindy McCain lays out Â鶹ÊÓƵ¡¯s strategic priorities for 2026 in the fight against hunger
ROME ¨C United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ¡¯s (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) Executive Director, Cindy McCain, this week kicks off the agency¡¯s 2026 efforts to push back on rising levels of extreme hunger at a time when humanitarians confront escalating risks and severe resource constraints.
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo ¨C The United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) is scaling up to deliver life-saving assistance to more than 210,000 of the most vulnerable people displaced by the recent violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). While some food supplies are already pre-positioned in the conflict area, Â鶹ÊÓƵ urgently needs USD 67M million to continue assistance for three months.
FAO, UNICEF, Â鶹ÊÓƵ and WHO say hunger, malnutrition, disease and the scale of agricultural destruction remain alarmingly high
Rome/Geneva/New York ¨C The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis for Gaza confirms that no areas of the Strip are currently classified in famine following the October ceasefire and improved humanitarian and commercial access. This welcome progress remains extremely fragile as the population continues to struggle with massive infrastructure destruction and collapsed livelihoods and local food production, given restrictions on humanitarian operations.
This is a summary of what was said by Â鶹ÊÓƵ Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, Ross Smith, to whom quoted text may be attributed?¨C?at a press briefing In Geneva today. Mr Smith participated in the briefing remotely from Rome.
GENEVA/ROME ¨C I would like to share the latest updates from Â鶹ÊÓƵ about circumstances in Sudan¡¯s Darfur and Kordofan regions as well as our operational response.
ABUJA, Nigeria ¨C Growing instability across northern Nigeria, including a surge in attacks, is driving hunger to levels never seen before, the United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) warned today. The warning follows the release of the latest Cadre Harmonis¨¦, a regional food security analysis that classifies the severity of hunger, which found that nearly 35 million people are projected to face severe food insecurity during the 2026 lean season, the highest number recorded in Nigeria.
TRIPOLI ¨C The United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) in Libya welcomes a generous contribution of EUR 3 million from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) through the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) to support the urgent food needs of Sudanese refugees and Libyan host communities.
GAZA, Palestine ¨C Three weeks into the ceasefire, the UN Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) has distributed food parcels to one million people in the Gaza Strip as part of a broad operation to push back hunger in the war-torn territory. But to continue expanding operations to the level required, humanitarian teams need more border crossings to be opened and more access to key roads inside Gaza.
FAO, Â鶹ÊÓƵ and UNICEF warn of the highest levels of acute food insecurity and malnutrition in El Fasher and Kadugli; improvements seen where fighting has receded and services have resumed
ROME/NEW YORK ¨C The latest analysis of food insecurity and malnutrition in Sudan shows stark contrasts along conflict lines, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) and UNICEF warned today. In areas where violence has subsided ¨C allowing humanitarian access and market recovery ¨C food security has begun to improve. But in conflict-hit locations that have been largely cut off from humanitarian assistance or under siege, famine has now taken hold.
JUBA, South Sudan ¨C The United Nations today warned that South Sudan continues to face a severe food and nutrition crisis, which is threatening to deteriorate further unless urgent humanitarian action is mounted.
KINSHASA, DRC ¨C The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) warn today of the escalating humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with acute food insecurity remaining stubbornly high and emergency hunger levels surging in the conflict-hit eastern provinces.
GENEVA/NEW YORK/ROME/PORT SUDAN ¨C Four United Nations agencies today called for urgent international attention on the crisis in Sudan, to address the immense suffering and growing dangers to the population. Over 900 days of brutal fighting, widespread violations of human rights, famine, and the breakdown of life-sustaining services have pushed millions to the brink of survival, particularly women and children.
