More than 300 million people need humanitarian assistance worldwide, says UN

More than 300 million people will need emergency humanitarian aid in 2025 due to wars and the consequences of climate change, according to estimates revealed on Wednesday, December 4, by the United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA, according to the English acronym). A figure comparable to that of the year which is ending and which confirms a global humanitarian situation of unprecedented severity. In ten years, the population concerned has multiplied by six and the number of countries concerned has increased from twenty-two to seventy-two.

Faced with this explosion of needs, the UN can only note, year after year, its limits: its fundraising appeals – 49.6 billion dollars (47 billion euros) in 2024 – are less than half covered. . However, their targeting is increasingly tightening towards the populations most in distress, in areas where it is possible to intervene. “We are short of funds, we are overwhelmed and, on top of that, humanitarian staff are facing attacks”summarizes Tom Fletcher, deputy secretary general of OCHA, pointing out the situation of “Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, where wars are marked by the intensity and ferocity of massacres, disregard for international law and deliberate obstruction of the efforts of humanitarian organizations to save lives”. Since the start of the year, the organization has recorded 281 humanitarian workers killed – more than 60% of them in the Gaza Strip – more than 500 attacks and 2,000 attacks on health infrastructure.

For 2025, OCHA hopes to raise $47.4 billion to benefit 190 million people in thirty-two countries. More than a third is destined for the Middle East where the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip then against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the civil wars in Yemen and Syria have led – in addition to direct victims – to displacement. population masses.

“Budget cuts announced”

Africa is also seeing crises multiply and worsen under the combined effect of conflicts and extreme climatic events. From Burkina Faso to Somalia, in southern Africa where drought has ruined a large part of the crops and decimated the herds, sixteen countries are on the United Nations appeal. In Sudan, 30 million people, or more than 60% of the population, are in need of assistance due to the civil war which, in addition to the approximately 7 million displaced people, has also led to the influx of nearly 2 million refugees in neighboring countries. Eclipsed by Gaza and Ukraine, it is the world’s leading humanitarian crisis.

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