World news in brief: Haiti, Lebanon, Gaza and DR Congo updates
Conflict and crisis are pushing millions closer to the edge this week, with fresh displacement in Haiti, ongoing violence in Lebanon and Gaza, and a fragile humanitarian corridor opening in an Ebola-hit corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Haiti: thousands uprooted in Artibonite
More than 2,600 people were forced from their homes in Haiti’s Artibonite department last week after armed groups clashed in the region, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA). The violence struck one of the country’s most populous agricultural zones, and it’s making an already catastrophic situation dramatically worse. Families are sheltering in schools and churches with little food and no clean water. Aid agencies say access remains severely restricted. And with gang violence continuing to paralyze large swaths of the country, there’s no clear path to stability any time soon. OCHA has warned that Haiti’s overall displacement figure now exceeds 700,000 — one of the highest in the Western Hemisphere.
Lebanon: displacement continues amid fragile ceasefire
In Lebanon, hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced after weeks of Israeli military strikes targeting Hezbollah positions in the south and the Bekaa Valley. The ceasefire brokered in late November brought some relief, but it’s holding only loosely. Entire villages in southern Lebanon were emptied during the conflict. Many residents haven’t returned, either because their homes were destroyed or because they don’t feel safe. The Lebanese government estimates that more than 90,000 housing units sustained damage. International donors have pledged support, yet actual funds on the ground remain far short of what’s needed to begin meaningful reconstruction.
Gaza: aid trickles in as death toll mounts
The situation in Gaza remains dire. Palestinian health authorities reported this week that the death toll since October 2023 has surpassed 45,000, with thousands more missing under rubble. Humanitarian convoys are entering in limited numbers, but UN officials say the volume is nowhere near sufficient. “We’re talking about a population that is surviving on almost nothing,” said a senior UN humanitarian official briefing reporters in Geneva on Tuesday. Food, medicine and fuel are critically short across the strip. Negotiations over a new ceasefire deal continued this week, with Qatar and Egypt playing central mediation roles, though no agreement had been reached at time of publication.
DR Congo: UN food agency delivers amid Ebola outbreak
There was rare positive news from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the World Food Programme confirmed it had successfully delivered emergency food assistance to communities affected by the latest Ebola outbreak in South Kivu province. Reaching those areas wasn’t easy — armed group activity and destroyed roads made logistics extraordinarily difficult. But WFP teams managed to distribute rations to roughly 4,500 people in the most affected zones. Health authorities are still working to contain the outbreak, with at least 31 confirmed cases reported so far.
With crises stretching from the Caribbean to the Middle East and central Africa, humanitarian organizations are warning that funding gaps going into 2025 could force devastating cuts to the programs keeping the most vulnerable alive.
