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Source: United Nations – United Nations –

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February 17, 2026 Refugees and migrants

As the war in Sudan approaches its fourth year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and 123 partner organizations on Tuesday appealed for $1.6 billion to support millions of people forced to flee the country in search of safety.

The 2026 regional response plan provides life-saving assistance to 5.9 million people in seven neighboring countries: the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan, and Uganda. The plan will continue to prioritize support for the approximately 470,000 new refugees expected to cross these countries' borders.

The world's biggest crisis

War in Sudan erupted in mid-April 2023, with the Armed Forces and the Rapid Intervention Forces locked in a bitter power struggle.

UNHCR Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa Mamadou Diane Baldé said the need for the fourth annual humanitarian appeal for Sudan highlights the ongoing impact of the conflict on the population and the challenges facing the humanitarian system.

"Sudan remains the world's largest displacement crisis and gravest humanitarian crisis, unfolding against the backdrop of the most severe funding shortfall in decades," he told reporters in Geneva.

Host communities are at their limits

Some 4.3 million Sudanese refugees have found refuge within the region, most in Egypt and eastern Chad.

Host governments and local communities continue to show "amazing solidarity," Balde said, but their capacity is stretched to its limits.

"Due to severe funding cuts, UNHCR was forced to close two of its three registration centers in Egypt, limiting people's access to key protection mechanisms," he said. Furthermore, he said, funding per refugee per month has been reduced from $11 to $4.

In eastern Chad, more than 71,000 refugee families have not received housing assistance, meaning they lack safe and suitable housing. "Nearly 234,000 people are awaiting resettlement, living in extremely precarious conditions at the border," Baldé added.

Growing needs, shrinking resources

Balde emphasized that despite the limitations, the 2026 plan will continue to support host countries in providing basic services—food, shelter, medical care, and protection mechanisms—for new arrivals and the most vulnerable refugees. However, he warned that the growing gap between increasing needs and dwindling resources threatens to undermine both emergency responses and medium-term solutions.

UNHCR continues to call for increased international support to address the chronic underfunding of humanitarian operations in countries hosting people fleeing Sudan.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

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Source: United Nations – United Nations –

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February 17, 2026 Refugees and migrants

Migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in Libya face "merciless and systematic human rights violations," including killings, torture, sexual violence, and human trafficking, said Tamin Al-Khitan, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), presenting a new report in Geneva.

The document was prepared by OHCHR jointly with the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and covers the period from January 2024 to December 2025.

Exploitation of vulnerable people

According to Al-Khitan, the report describes how migrants are "detained and abducted by criminal networks involved in human trafficking, often linked to the Libyan authorities and foreign criminal organizations." People are separated from their families, arrested, and held without due process, which effectively amounts to arbitrary detention.

“In places of detention, migrants are regularly subjected to appalling violations and abuses, including slavery, torture, ill-treatment, forced labor, forced prostitution and other forms of sexual violence, extortion and blackmail,” the UN representative said.

The report says an "exploitative model" has emerged that exploits the vulnerable position of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees and has become a "cruel and normalised reality".

Dangerous interceptions and forced returns

Migrants also spoke of "horrific attempts" cross the central Mediterranean SeaAccording to Al-Khitan, interceptions by Libyan authorities are often accompanied by threats, dangerous maneuvers, and excessive use of force, putting lives at risk. Those intercepted are often forcibly returned to Libya, where they once again face the same cycle of violence and exploitation.

Suki Nagra, a human rights expert with the UN Mission in Libya, joined the briefing remotely. She shared examples of testimonies documented in the report. Specifically, a Nigerian woman who became a victim of human trafficking in 2021 spent two years in Tripoli under forced sexual exploitation. After a police raid, she was transferred to a house in Zuwarah, where she found herself in a situation of domestic servitude, without freedom of movement or pay. In February 2025, she managed to leave Libya.

“There are no words to describe the endless nightmare these people are plunged into, only to fuel the growing greed of traffickers and those who profit from the system of exploitation,” Al-Khitan emphasized.

Collective expulsions

The report also condemns the frequent expulsion of migrants from Libya to other countries without consideration of their individual circumstances. This practice violates the prohibition on collective expulsions and deprives people of the right to apply for asylum, the authors of the document recall.

The UN Human Rights Office has called on the Libyan authorities to immediately release all persons arbitrarily detained in both formal and informal centres, to end dangerous interceptions at sea, and to decriminalise entry, stay, and exit without proper documentation.

In addition, the international community, including the European Union, is recommended to impose a moratorium on interceptions and returns to Libya until adequate human rights guarantees are ensured in that country.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

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February 17, 2026 Peace and security

Today, only 5,000 children remain in Kherson out of the more than 60,000 who lived there before the war. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is helping ensure their safety by supporting efforts to build bomb shelters. There, deep underground, young Kherson residents spend their childhood. The head of UNICEF's Ukrainian office told reporters in Geneva this, joining via video link from one of these bomb shelters.

According to Munir Mammadzade, Kherson is subjected to daily artillery shelling, which leads to the destruction of houses and critical infrastructureHe recounted the fate of one family recently affected by a strike: "On that freezing night in late January, Kateryna pushed her two children into the hallway and ran out after them. The explosions were louder than usual, even by Kherson standards, and suddenly a powerful blow destroyed their home."

Life is under attack

Sixteen-year-old Darya and eight-year-old Artem were injured by shrapnel. Ekaterina required surgery, but fortunately, they all survived. A local mobile child protection team, supported by UNICEF, visited the family in the hospital that same day, providing psychosocial support, cash assistance, and essential items. "The family is currently recovering from their injuries, but the house they rent outside the city does not guarantee their safety in this brutal war," Mammadzade said.

Struggle for survival

However, he added, the tragedy is that four years after the start of full-scale war, there are almost no safe places left in Kherson. "In the city of Kherson and the region where I am today, the daily life of children and their families is a struggle for survival," the UNICEF representative said. "This frontline area is covered with anti-drone nets, and Kherson residents spend their childhoods literally underground."

Protection centers

Today, 5,000 of the 60,000 children who once lived peacefully with their families and friends until their childhoods changed forever on February 24, 2022, remain in Kherson. Today, they study, play, and sleep in basements to escape shelling, a UNICEF representative noted.

"At the UNICEF-supported child protection center, I spoke with families and staff, including psychologists and social workers. They all spoke of the extreme exhaustion of families forced to live in a 24-hour state of constant anxiety," he said. "The constant fear of attacks, the endless need to hide in basements, and isolation at home with limited social contact take a heavy toll on children and adolescents, affecting their mental and physical health."

Read also:

Without heat and light: UNICEF warns of worsening situation for Ukrainian families

At the same time, Mammadzade continued, such spaces offer a respite from the horrors happening above. "Here, you can sense an incredible determination to keep living. UNICEF helps children and families with precisely this," he emphasized.

Together with local authorities and partners, UNICEF supports seven child protection centers across the Kherson region, provides mobile teams with vital emergency assistance to victims, and strengthens alternative care systems for the most vulnerable children.

UNICEF has also created early childhood development and digital learning spaces in Kherson, as well as youth centers for skills development and social connections. Residents receive cash assistance, and local utility services support efforts to restore heating and water supplies. Similar assistance is being provided in other frontline areas.

Forced to flee

Mammadzade also drew attention to the fate of children forced to flee their homes. This concerns 2.6 million young Ukrainians. Approximately 1.8 million of them are living as refugees outside the country, and more than 791,000 are displaced within Ukraine.

The war, according to a UNICEF representative, is being felt most acutely in frontline areas, but people are suffering across the country: attacks on civilian areas continue, leading to the destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure. "For example, the number of child deaths and injuries in Kyiv and the Kyiv region last year was almost four times higher than in 2024," Mammadzade recalled. "A recent UNICEF study showed that one in three adolescents aged 15-19 had been forced to move at least twice, and the main reason for fleeing was the search for safety. Other important factors include the quality of education and opportunities for skill development."

"Children and young people haven't given up on their future—and neither will we," concluded the UNICEF representative. "UNICEF works across Ukraine and in neighboring refugee-hosting countries to support children affected by displacement and ongoing violence."

The International Organization for Migration is helping Ukrainians.

Arthur Erken, Regional Director for Europe at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), also spoke to journalists in Geneva about the assistance provided to Ukrainians. Speaking from Vienna, he stated that since the full-scale invasion, more than 4.4 million people have returned to their areas of origin.

Of the million people who returned to Ukraine from abroad, 372,000 were unable to return to their home countries and are considered internally displaced. IOM provides them with comprehensive support to prevent further waves of displacement.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.