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.
Since the start of the conflict, some 164,000 people have sought refuge in neighboring countries, including an estimated 33,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 35,000 in Ethiopia, 70,000 in Sudan, and 26,000 in 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.
In 2025, the Regional RRP is designed to target the needs of 2.53 million refugees and 1.84 million members of the host community in the five main asylum countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda.
UNHCR has declared an internal Level 2 emergency for Ethiopia and Sudan due to the escalating crisis in South Sudan, which will remain in force for six months until November 2025.
UNOCHA reports that over 9.3 million children are expected to suffer from high levels of acute malnutrition between June 2024 and May 2025 in Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.
At least 110,000* severely acutely malnourished children supported by Save the Children in 10 countries could be left without access to life-saving ready-to-use emergency food and nutrition programmes as aid cuts hit supplies in coming months, according to a Save the Children analysis.
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.
Nearly two months since the onset of hostilities on 23 September 2024, WFP has significantly scaled up its emergency response, reaching almost half a million conflict-affected people with food and/or cash assistance.
