In 2025, the MENA region faced overlapping crises including conflict, displacement, economic collapse, disease outbreaks, and climate shocks, placing children at risk and disrupting access to services.
Middle East and North Africa offers a comprehensive, evidence-based analysis of one of the world’s most complex and dynamic mobility landscapes where labour migration, protracted displacement, environmental stressors and socioeconomic transitions converge.
In September, the security situation in Darfur and Kordofan States remained highly volatile and unpredictable, marked by intensified military confrontations, drone strikes, aerial bombardments and increasing intercommunal tension, leading to widespread insecurity, civilian displacement and growing humanitarian needs.
Since the outbreak of armed conflict in Sudan on 15 April 2023, Africa Region faced a large-scale humanitarian crisis marked by one of the most significant displacement movements in recent years. Millions of people fled the violence, crossing into Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Uganda.
Despite urgent needs, 62 per cent of UNICEF’s response remains unfunded. Without timely support, the most vulnerable children risk missing access to critical, lifesaving services.
According to a statement by the UN Spokesperson, and the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, civilians remain cut off without access to food and clean water, and public health is deteriorating amid outbreaks of diseases like cholera.
There are now 12.0 million forcibly displaced due to the outbreak of conflict in Sudan since April 2023, including 7.7 million internally and 4.1 million in neighbouring countries.
Latest data from IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) shows a 13% drop in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sudan since January 2025, now standing at 10.1 million.
In June 2025, WFP assisted an estimated 3.6 million people across all activities. Of those assisted, 1.6 million people were in famine and risk of famine (RoF) areas in Sudan.
WFP reached 4 million people in March, the highest number since the start of the conflict. Of this, 1.6 million people were in Famine and Risk of Famine areas, another record high number of people reached since the conflict started in April 2023.
The international community must act urgently to end the conflict which is driving the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in Sudan, and provide the funding needed to respond to the escalating humanitarian needs.
WFP is working to scale up assistance in Sudan for 7 million people by mid-year in Sudan. In Libya, in February, WFP distributed food assistance to 4,285 individuals and reached 342 children under five and 125 pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls.
In February alone, within the total of 3.2 million people assisted, WFP provided Cash-Based Transfers (CBT) to 1.4 million people, the highest number of people reached under this modality since the conflict began.
Lebanon stands at a crossroads. The cessation of hostilities has allowed nearly 829,000 displaced people to return to their cadasters of origin as of 18 December, but for many, the journey back does not meet the minimum requirements for a secure and sustainable return.
UNHCR is engaging with thousands of refugees in neighboring countries, often with daily contact through helplines, surveys, focus group discussions, and other communications channels, listening to their concerns, providing up-to-date information, and understanding their perceptions and intentions around return.
This report is produced by OCHA Lebanon in collaboration with humanitarian partners and the Inter Sector Coordination Group. It covers the period from 6 – 12 December 2024.
