Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Haiti, Ukraine, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo

Ukraine Kharkiv residents clear the debris after their homes were destroyed in an overnight attack.

Kharkiv residents clear debris after their homes were destroyed in an overnight attack. Photo: OCHA/Tanya Lyubimova.

Occupied Palestinian Territory

OCHA’s Director of Operations and Advocacy, Edem Wosornu, briefed the Security Council yesterday, saying the humanitarian situation in Gaza has only grown more urgent in light of ongoing Israeli ground operations in and around Rafah.

She stressed that as the conflict persists and lives are threatened, civilians must be allowed to seek protection – and their essential needs must be met.

Wosornu warned that the Rafah ground incursion is magnifying impediments to an already fragile and beleaguered aid operation. Due to the current closure of the Rafah crossing and limited access via Kerem Shalom and other crossings, we currently lack the supplies and fuel to provide any meaningful level of support.

As she told the Council, all available access points must be open – and kept open – for a sustained period to allow aid to enter at scale. Humanitarian and UN staff must be protected, and funding for the response must be forthcoming, particularly for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which is the backbone of the response.

As UNRWA reported today, the agency’s distribution centre, as well as World Food Programme’s warehouse – both in Rafah – are now inaccessible due to the ongoing military operation.

UNRWA also says that its health centres have not received any medical supplies in the last 10 days. Despite this, health-care staff continue to provide thousands of medical consultations each day at health centres that are still operational.

Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization expressed deep concern over the safety of patients and hospital staff remaining at Al Awda Hospital, in northern Gaza. In a social media post, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the facility has been under siege since Sunday, with no one allowed to leave or enter.

Haiti

Humanitarian colleagues continue to sound the alarm about the impact of the crisis on education in Haiti.

Since 3 May, armed groups have taken control of several neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, leading to the looting and burning of schools.

According to education partners, 30 attacks on schools have been recorded since the start of 2024. From July 2023 to mid-May of this year, violence forced the closure of nearly 900 schools in Port-au-Prince and in the Artibonite province. This has affected nearly 200,000 students and 4,000 teachers.

The UN and its partners continue to support children, with the World Food Programme and its partners having reached nearly 400,000 school children through its school feeding programs since the beginning of the year.

Ukraine

The UN and its partners continue to support civilians affected by attacks and active fighting in Ukraine's Kharkiv region.

In Kharkiv City, which hosts a transit centre for evacuees, humanitarian workers assisted some 9,000 recently displaced people.

Partners have also helped more than 800 evacuated people, including nearly 170 people with limited mobility, hosted in premises provided by the authorities.

At the same time, as attacks in front-line areas continue, power cuts affected 190,000 people in Kharkiv City this morning, according to the Energy Ministry of Ukraine.

In the Sumy Region, in the north-east of the country, people are also fleeing attacks in the communities on the Ukraine–Russia border.

Burkina Faso

Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, yesterday allocated US$5 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to support the emergency response in Burkina Faso.

The funds will support 150,000 people in the Sahel, Centre-Nord and Est regions with life-saving assistance and will also facilitate humanitarian air operations.

Nearly 3 million people across the country are expected to face acute food insecurity during the lean season from June to September and will require humanitarian assistance.

This year’s $935 million Humanitarian Response Plan for Burkina Faso is less than 13 per cent funded with $118 million received.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Clashes over land in the province of Tshopo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's northeast have resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians since the end of April.

According to humanitarian organizations, more than 740 civilians have been killed and over 75,000 people displaced in the town of Kisangani due to clashes over land since February 2023.

Humanitarian organizations are mobilized and are providing health care to the injured and the displaced. Aid workers are also aiming to provide shelter, access to clean water, hygiene and sanitation.

An OCHA-led assessment team found that food, health care and shelter are the top needs for people who have been displaced.

Humanitarian colleagues also tell us that addressing the root causes of land conflicts is crucial to prevent an escalation of intercommunal violence in Kisangani, which is home to 1.4 million people.

OCHA reiterates its call on all involved to work together to end the violence, protect civilians and find a sustainable solution to the conflict in Kisangani.