Three weeks after super Typhoon Odette devastated a huge swathe of the Philippines, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today warned of a severe nutrition and food crisis in hard-hit communities if immediate food needs are not met over the coming six months.
“The needs are increasing every day, so from the time that the humanitarian needs and priorities were started that was launched on December 24, the needs have gone from 2 million people affected of up to 7 million people.”, said Brenda Barton, WFP’s Country Director for the Philippines at a press briefing at the United Nations in Geneva. She added that “there are still many many areas that we have not been able to reach, many areas without telecoms, still today without electricity. I think 18 municipalities still don’t have water, and ,of course, we are seeing incidents with diarrhea”.
Food security and malnutrition rates before typhoon Odette hit the Philippines were already high in areas like Caraga region where 53 percent of families were unable to afford a nutritious diet while childhood stunting was 36 percent.
WFP requires USD 25,8 million to provide food assistance to 250,000 typhoon survivors. Of this, USD 20.8 million is needed for food and cash transfers over the coming 6 months. Three weeks into the crisis, WFP so far has only received USD 4.7 million.
“We are really seeing a combination of factors on the ground that are of grave concern”, said WFP’s Brenda Barton. “The Philippines is already a country that has had stagnant and high levels of poverty and malnutrition in the particular area that was hit”. Ms Barton added that “one of the islands was a very famous tourist area, famous for surfing, people came from all over the world. In those areas 90 to 95 % of the houses has been destroyed”.
Typhoon Odette was the strongest typhoon that hit the Philippine archipelago in 2021. Notwithstanding its relatively low death toll, Typhoon Odette (known internationally as Rai), had been devastating. It had made landfall nine times over the course of two days in mid-December in an area the size of Austria.
“It started as a tropical storm and it quickly evolved into a super typhoon and it just ripped across an area that is enormous just really erasing things to the ground, houses to the ground”, Ms Barton recalled. “The area that I saw there was no building that was untouched, no house without a roof. All houses were without roofs and it was heartbreaking because it was on Christmas eve and the Filipino community comes together and celebrates Christmas.”
The situation is worsening due to rains and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have continued rains, we have communities that cannot go into their houses, they are living in evacuation centers and Covid, just like in other parts of the world, is now of course starting to rip through the Philippines with its highly dense population”, said Ms Barton.
-ends-
1
1
1
Edited News | UNWOMEN
Aid agencies echoed wider warnings of growing signs of widespread starvation in Gaza on Tuesday, as UN-partnered international food security experts released their most dire assessment yet of the situation in the wartorn enclave.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , UNDP , UNHCR
Sudan: urgent help needed as more than 1.3 million war-displaced people begin to return home
As conflict rages on across parts of Sudan, pockets of relative safety have emerged in the past four month, spurring more than one million internally displaced Sudanese to make their way home, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM). A further 320,000 cross-border refugees have come back to Sudan since last year, mainly from Egypt and South Sudan, to assess the current situation before deciding to return to their country for good.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , WHO
Gaza: SOS messages describe people fainting from hunger; UN health worker detained
Worrying alerts from United Nations staff in Gaza who have been fainting from hunger and exhaustion over the past 48 hours have increased fears for people’s survival in the devastated enclave, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , UNOG
Over 11.6 million refugees risk losing aid access due to funding cuts, says UNHCR
Approximately one in three refugees and other vulnerable individuals normally supported by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) are expected to lose out from funding cuts, it said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made the following announcement on the Office’s opening of a new mission in Bangladesh.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
“The surge in the number of Afghans forced or compelled to return to Afghanistan this year is creating a multi-layered human rights crisis requiring the urgent attention of the international community,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday called for accountability and justice for the killings and other gross human rights violations and abuses in the southern city of Suweida.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNHCR
Syria: hundreds killed in Sweida, ‘widespread’ violations as civilians flee for their lives
Amid violent clashes in southern Syria’s Sweida governorate, a picture of grave human rights abuses and rising humanitarian needs is emerging by the hour, the UN said on Friday.
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
At the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva the UN Human Rights Spokesperson Liz Throssell made the following statement on the latest number of civilian casualties in Ukraine.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday called for investigations into hundreds of killings of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank by Israeli security forces and settlers, warning against ongoing forced mass displacement of the Palestinian population.
1
1
2
Edited News | OHCHR , UNRWA
Nearly 900 people have been killed in Gaza in recent weeks trying to fetch food, with most deaths linked to private aid hubs run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and the UN Human Rights Office have today released a report detailing the evolution of violent gang incidents beyond the capital Port-au-Prince since October 2024 up to June 2025, and the resulting loss of life and mass displacement.