OCHA Annual Report 2023

FOREWORD

2023 was another gruelling year for millions of people – and one that stretched the humanitarian system to its limits.

It began with devastating earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria. In Syria, they hit people already struggling with their worst humanitarian crisis in more than 10 years of conflict.

So too across the world – in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Horn of Africa, Myanmar, Ukraine, Yemen and beyond – long-running conflicts, insecurity, instability and economic hardship kept millions of people reliant on humanitarian assistance and acutely susceptible to further shocks. Meanwhile, global warming broke all records in 2023 and the climate crisis deepened.

In February and March, Cyclone Freddy, one of the longest-lived tropical cyclones ever, battered Malawi and Mozambique.

In May, Cyclone Mocha affected more than 3 million people in Bangladesh and Myanmar. In September, Storm Daniel caused monumental flooding in Libya. And across the world we saw record-breaking heat waves, catastrophic wildfires and numerous extreme weather events.

Martin Griffiths

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator