In 2025, 305 million people around the world will require urgent humanitarian assistance and protection, as multiple crises escalate with devastating consequences for the people affected by them. The Southern and Eastern Africa region hosts the highest number of people in need (85 million), with the catastrophic crisis in Sudan accounting for 35 per cent of the regional total. This is followed by the Middle East and North Africa, where 59 million people require assistance and protection. While the Syria crisis continues to drive the highest magnitude of needs in the region—with 33 million people requiring assistance and protection inside Syria and in neighbouring countries—the severity of needs is unparalleled in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and rapidly rising in Lebanon.
In West and Central Africa, 57 million people are in need, with the highest rise coming in Chad, due to the continued arrival of people fleeing Sudan in desperate need of refuge and support. In Asia and the Pacific, 55 million people are in need, of whom more than half (30 million) are in Afghanistan. The deepening crisis in Myanmar continues to drive increasing needs, with 22 million people now requiring assistance and protection both inside the country and across borders. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 34 million people are in need, including 15 million impacted by the Venezuela crisis. Meanwhile in Europe, 15 million people remain in need due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
El Fasher, Sudan
In Sudan, conflict's impact on children is stark: sadness, fear, and hopelessness weigh heavily on their lives. The exposure causes deep emotional stress with lasting health and psychosocial impacts. Adam, 9, was displaced from Tawila and shares his exhaustion from war, and his dreams of peace: “I wish world leaders would come here, greet me and the people of Tawila, and help us achieve peace and stop the war.”
UNICEFThere are two main drivers of these needs, both of which are man-made and therefore could be reversed with concerted and collective action:
- Conflict: Civilians are bearing the brunt of a record number of armed conflicts marked by blatant disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law, including mass atrocities. 2024 was one of the most brutal years in recent history for civilians caught in conflicts and, should urgent action not be taken, 2025 could be even worse. By mid-2024, nearly 123 million people had been forcibly displaced by conflict and violence, marking the twelfth consecutive annual increase. The global food security crisis is staggering, affecting over 280 million people daily as acute hunger spreads and intensifies. Violence and displacement further prevent food production and block access to vital markets. And around one in every five children in the world—approximately 400 million—are living in or fleeing conflict zones. In 2024, four out of every five civilian fatalities in conflict worldwide occurred in countries with a humanitarian plan or appeal, with lack of respect for international humanitarian law (IHL) continuing to be the single most important challenge for protecting people in armed conflicts, according to the ICRC. Grave violations against children have reached unprecedented levels in multiple conflicts, with Sudan alone witnessing a 480 per cent rise from 2022 to 2023. Over the past year, more women and children were killed in Gaza than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades, while in Ukraine an average of at least 16 children have been killed or injured every week since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. The number of United Nations verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence was 50 per cent higher in 2023 than the year before. Meanwhile, total global military expenditure has surged, reaching US$2.4 trillion in 2023.
Kyiv, Ukraine
In the morning of 8 July 2024, a wave of deadly air strikes hit several cities across Ukraine, killing and injuring scores of civilians, including children. Strikes in Kyiv damaged residential homes, a private hospital and a children’s hospital. Local rescuers, hospital staff and volunteers worked to clear the rubble and search for people trapped under debris: a poignant example of communities helping communities.
OCHA- The global climate emergency: The world is perilously close to 1.5ºC warming and the climate crisis is increasing the frequency and severity of disasters, with devastating consequences for the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. It is expected that 2024 will be the hottest year on record, marked by floods in the Sahel, East Africa and Europe, drought in Southern Africa and the Americas, and heatwaves across the globe. In 2023, 363 weather-related disasters were recorded, affecting at least 93.1 million people and causing thousands of deaths. In the same year, disasters triggered some 26.4 million internal displacements/movements with over three quarters caused by weather events. Climate change is worsening disasters, making events like the devastating Horn of Africa drought (2020 to 2023) at least 100 times more likely, and increasing the likelihood and destructive power of major hurricanes, such as Hurricane Beryl in 2024, the strongest June hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic. The climate crisis is wreaking havoc on food systems, with droughts causing over 65 per cent of agricultural economic damages in the past 15 years, worsening food insecurity, especially in areas reliant on smallholder farming. Conflict can also contribute directly to climate change, with researchers estimating that emissions from the first 120 days of the conflict in Gaza exceeded the annual emissions of 26 individual countries and territories. Meanwhile, the top 30 oil and gas companies (excluding those based in poorer countries) have recorded a combined $400 billion per year in free cash flow since the 2015 Paris agreement.
Ha Noi, Viet Nam
Children wade through floodwaters after Super Typhoon Yagi, the most powerful storm to hit Viet Nam in 70 years, devastated 14 northern provinces. The typhoon caused widespread flooding and disrupted the lives of millions of children and families.
UNICEF/Pham Ha Duy LinhIn the absence of meaningful action to end and prevent conflicts and halt global warming, people are facing increasingly prolonged crises. The average duration of a humanitarian plan/appeal is now 10 years, with plans/appeals in Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, OPT, Somalia and Sudan having run consecutively for over 20 years.
The longer a humanitarian crisis lasts, the bleaker the prospects become for affected people. Data tracked since 2011 reveals that, in a crisis-affected country:
Life expectancy
People’s life expectancy is six years below the global average (67 compared to 73).
Maternal mortality
The maternal mortality rate is nearly double the global average.
Nutrition
Over 25 per cent of people are undernourished, compared to around 8 per cent globally.
Vaccination
Measles vaccinations reach just 64 per cent of children, compared to 84 per cent globally.
Access to an improved sanitation facility
Only half the population has access to an improved sanitation facility, far below the global average of 88 per cent.
Education
Primary school completion rates are just 10 per cent, compared with 90 per cent globally.
However, in a small number of countries, the situation has improved. Six countries that were responding to time-limited climate emergencies will conclude their humanitarian response plans/appeals by the end of 2024, and therefore, people in need in these countries are not included in the GHO 2025. This includes Burundi (floods), Grenada (hurricane), Libya (floods), Madagascar (cyclone/drought), Nepal (floods) and St Vincent and the Grenadines (hurricane). In addition, in Central America, whilst vulnerabilities remain high, four years after 2020 Hurricanes Eta and Iota humanitarian needs have reduced. Throughout 2025, six other countries—Bangladesh, Malawi, the Philippines, Viet Nam, Zambia and Zimbabwe—will also conclude climate-related plans/appeals. However, significant vulnerabilities remain in each of these countries, underscoring the need for rapid investments in locally led development and climate financing to help the most affected communities adapt to future threats.
Civilians killed in conflict
People affected by climate-related events
References
- Internal OCHA calculations based on the number of country-specific appeals per year, lasting at minimum 6 months.
- These findings are based on a model for a country in need, which looked at all countries that had a country-specific appeal lasting a year or longer since 2011. Using a weighting factor for development indicators based on the ratio of country-specific people in need to total population, an average indicator was produced covering all countries which experienced a crisis in a particular year. Calculations and data can be found in the GHO master dataset. This exercise is a follow-up to a similar study included in World Humanitarian Data and Trends, Figure 8: “A country in need”.