Anita Kiki Gbeho, the new Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), appointed on 11 April following the death of her renowned predecessor Nicholas Haysom, outlined the deteriorating conditions in the country since the last briefing at the beginning of the year.

Fighting between the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (also known as the Army in Opposition), has intensified, particularly in Jonglei state, and civilians continue to bear the brunt.

The UN has reported a 40 per cent increase in deaths and injuries in 2025 compared with 2024 and warned that intercommunal violence persists in parts of the Equatorias, Bahr el Ghazal and Warrap, driven by cattle raiding, land disputes and retaliatory attacks.

On the day that Ms. Gbeho briefed the Council, the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan expressed grave concern over reports that bodies have been discovered in Jonglei during recent road works, warning that the true human cost of the country’s renewed violence may be significantly greater than currently known.

Less money means more trade-offs

The growing fighting and rights abuses are coinciding with cuts to the UNMISS budget, which have forced the Mission to row back on certain activities. Ms. Gbeho remarked that operational capacity has been reduced by between 24 and 30 per cent.

While peacekeepers were able to protect civilians following violent incidents in Akobo and Abiemnhom, Ms. Gbeho pointed out that their longer-term presence is not financially sustainable under current budget conditions.

Diminished mine action capacity, she added, has limited the Mission’s ability to clear explosive hazards while simultaneously supporting patrols and site security, resulting in delays in responding to humanitarian requests in high-risk areas such as Jonglei. 

Peacekeepers have less capacity to engage with local authorities, traditional leaders, and communities. This affects early warning, confidence building and visibility which risks eroding trust and increasing the likelihood of misinformation.

The Mission chief underscored the dilemma faced by UNMISS and the Council: “the scale and urgency of needs on the ground,” she said, “are not yet matched by the type of sustained commitment and investment required to fully meet the shared ambition of a sustainable path to peace.”

‘A dangerous crossroads’

The devastating humanitarian crisis in South Sudan was underlined by Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, who told the Council that the world’s youngest nation “stands at a dangerous crossroads.

This year, he said, around two-thirds of the population will need humanitarian assistance, yet the UN’s $1.46 billion Humanitarian Plan is only 22 per cent funded.

Mr. Fletcher cited recent data from the World Health Organization (WHO), which show that 1.35 million people across Jonglei have lost access to healthcare after 26 facilities were destroyed or forced to close. Cholera is on the rise, and measles persists.

On a recent visit to Jonglei, Mr. Fletcher was told by local women that they had fled extreme violence, that their homes had been burned down and that people had been “slaughtered like goats”. 

Fighting in Upper Nile State, he added, is just as alarming, with fighting, access restrictions and interference with UN humanitarian operations blocking aid. 

Emergency levels of food insecurity are expected across all of South Sudan’s 10 states during the lean season, which begins this month and lasts through July: more than 7.5 million people will need food assistance this year.

Delivering aid under fire

In the face of multiple challenges, peacekeepers and aid workers in South Sudan continue to support the population.

In Jonglei alone, over 113,000 people have already received food this year, and UN partners have provided over 14 tonnes of emergency health supplies, and thousands of water, sanitation and hygiene kits. 

Despite constraints, the Mission has been able to continue credible human rights monitoring and reporting, which has contributed to improvements in detention oversight and the release of individuals held arbitrarily.

UNMISS also continues to support access to justice in areas where formal institutions have long been absent, through mobile and special courts, helping to reduce cycles of retaliatory violence and rebuild confidence in state authority.

The BBC’s Nick Robinson spoke to Head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Tom Fletcher about his recent visit to Gaza.

Fletcher recounted scenes of “despair and hopelessness” and said driving to Gaza City was like “going through the ruins of Hiroshima”, referencing the Japanese city struck by a nuclear bomb in World War Two.

People in the UK can listen to the full interview with Tom Fletcher on BBC Sounds. It will also be broadcast on BBC Two at 12:30 on Friday and BBC Radio 4 on Saturday at 17:30.

The cancellation of most US funding in January means many services to the most vulnerable people have been cut or put on hold.

Multiple political, security and socio-economic crises have led to 5.7 million people suffering from a lack of food and have forced 1.3 million people to flee their homes.

With a dramatic reduction in funding Haiti faces a crucial “turning point.”

UN News spoke to OCHA’s country director, Modibo Traore, about the current situation.

UN News: What is the current state of humanitarian funding in Haiti?

Humanitarian funding in Haiti is going through a critical phase, marked by a growing gap between the needs and available resources. As of 1 July, only around 8 per cent of the $908 million required had been mobilized.

This partial coverage only allows a fraction of the 3.6 million people targeted to be reached.

The sectors most affected are food security, access to drinking water, primary healthcare, education and protection.

This contraction in international support is part of a global context of multiple competing crises – Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan – but also reflects a loss of political interest in the Haitian issue.

UN News: What conditions in Haiti have led to such significant funding needs?

The growing humanitarian needs observed in Haiti are the result of an accumulation of structural and cyclical factors. On the socioeconomic front, multidimensional poverty affects a large part of the population.

Haiti’s exposure to natural hazards is an aggravating factor.

The country has experienced several major hurricanes that struck the southern region less than a week after an earthquake that severely affected the area, not to mention repeated droughts that have had a major impact on agriculture and livestock farming.

Since 2019, a new dimension has emerged; chronic insecurity caused by the proliferation of armed groups, particularly in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and now in the Centre and Artibonite departments.

In 2024, the multidimensional crisis that has been shaking Haiti for years has become catastrophic.

The level of violence and insecurity remains high, with devastating consequences for the population, including massive displacement of people who were already in vulnerable situations.

UN News: How has the growing control of armed groups affected donor confidence?

The rise of armed groups in Haiti and their increasing control of strategic locations, particularly major roads and ports of entry to the capital, is a major obstacle to the safe and efficient delivery of humanitarian aid.

This dynamic has an impact on the risk perception of international donors, who now assess Haiti as a high-threat environment for intervention. Access to beneficiaries has become irregular in many areas.

The deterioration of the security situation represents a major challenge for mobilizing and maintaining financial commitments.

Donors have expressed concerns about operational risks, particularly regarding securing supply chains, preventing exploitation and ensuring accountability.

The operational cost of aid has also increased.

UN News: What is the impact of the new approach taken by the US administration?

On 20 January, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14169, which imposed an immediate suspension of all new foreign funding by US federal agencies, including humanitarian programs run by USAID and multilateral partners.

In the case of Haiti, the effects were felt through the sudden halt of approximately 80 per cent of US-funded programmes. NGO partner staff were laid off, payments were suspended, and supply chains were disrupted.

Beyond the structural effects, this suspension created profound uncertainty in the Haitian humanitarian system. This situation not only weakened the continuity of essential services but also affected trust between beneficiary communities and humanitarian actors.

UN News: To what extent is the current situation unprecedented?

The year 2025 marks a turning point in humanitarian aid in Haiti. This crisis is not the result of a single or isolated event, but rather a series of deteriorating situations in the context of gradually waning international attention.

The interruption of US programmes has acted as a catalyst for the crisis. USAID’s technical partners, many of whom managed community health programmes in vulnerable neighbourhoods, have ceased operations, depriving hundreds of thousands of people of vital services.

US-co-funded health centres have closed, leaving pregnant women and children without assistance.

The current crisis demonstrates the country’s growing isolation.

While previous crises had prompted rapid international solidarity, the humanitarian response to the situation in 2025 has been slow and partial.

UN News: What difficult decisions have had to be made regarding cutting aid?

The interruption of funding has forced humanitarian organizations to make ethically complex and often painful trade-offs.

In the area of protection, for example, safe spaces for women and girls have been drastically reduced.

Cash transfer programmes, widely used in urban areas since 2021, have also been suspended. These programmes enabled vulnerable households to maintain a minimum level of food security. Their suspension has led to a resurgence of coping mechanisms such as child labour, less food and children being taken out of school.

Resilience-building activities have also been affected. Programmes combining food security, urban agriculture, and access to water—often co-financed by USAID and UN funds—have been frozen.

This compromises not only the immediate response but also the development of medium-term solutions.

UN News: How are Haitians being affected?

Children are among the hardest hit. UNICEF and its partners have treated more than 4,600 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, representing only 3.6 per cent of the 129,000 children expected to need treatment this year.

The proportion of institutional maternal deaths has also increased from 250 to 350 per 100,000 live births between February 2022 and April 2025.

In terms of security, the effects are equally worrying. Gender-based sexual violence (GBV) has increased in neighbourhoods controlled by armed groups.

In short, the withdrawal of US funding has led to a multidimensional regression in the rights of women and girls in Haiti, with consequences that are likely to last for several years.

UN News: How have people in Haiti reacted?

Beneficiaries expressed a sense of despair at the sudden suspension of the services.

In working-class neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince as well as in remote rural areas, the cessation of food distributions, community healthcare, and cash transfers was experienced as a breach of the moral contract between communities and humanitarian institutions.

Humanitarian partners communicate transparently about the reduction of support, so communities are, to some extent, aware of the financial constraints.

A Syrian woman whose grandfather, father and two brothers were detained by the military nearly 12 years ago has told the BBC it is “devastating” that her loved ones remain missing, despite the country’s most notorious prison being emptied.

“Now, miles away from that most brutal prison, we are huddling around screens, our hearts suspended between hope and despair,” Hiba Abdulhakim Qasawaad, a 24-year-old from the city of Homs, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“We are scanning every face in the footage, searching for traces of our loved ones. This is the only thing that we can do.”

On Sunday, when rebel forces swept into the country’s capital and declared an end to Bashar al-Assad’s rule, families rushed to Saydnaya Prison outside Damascus, where political opponents were reportedly held, tortured and executed.

But with rescue workers now ending their search for possible detainees in the prison, some families face renewed anguish.

“Now freedom rings like a bell too loud for ears accustomed to silence,” Ms Qasawaad said.

“Now, our hearts racing, we have this anticipation, joy and pain as we await the moment when we can finally embrace them, free at last, but I don’t know if we can see them again, because now we are torn between finding answers or never knowing at all.”