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Flood and landslide emergency

Nepal

Nepal's authorities report 1,458 deaths and 5,285 people missing after the August floods. Water, temporary classrooms and cholera vaccination are reaching some families, but the toll remains provisional.

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Every signal keeps its source date visible. The full atlas was editorially reviewed on 24 October 2026.

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Places in focus

Every place holds a deeper story.

Places are arranged by current severity, scale, access constraints and urgency, with the most critical first. This guides attention; it does not rank the value of people or lives.

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Humanitarian affairs brief · 24 October edition

Nine developments shaping the response now.

Major developments reviewed through 24 October 2026. Each item separates what has been reported from what it changes operationally.

A UNICEF worker and a child stand together as a temporary learning space is prepared in Nuwakot, Nepal.
Photo: UNICEF Nepal/Rasik Maharjan · September 2026
01

The flood's human toll is still being counted · Nepal

Authorities report 1,458 deaths and 5,285 people missing after Nepal's flash floods.

What is confirmedUNICEF's 13 October situation report gives the latest government-reported toll of 1,458 deaths and 5,285 people missing. Its response has restored safe-water access for about 36,000 people, supported oral cholera vaccination for 68,834 and opened 52 temporary learning centres serving nearly 1,500 children.

Why it matters operationallyThe missing-person count is provisional, and families need dependable information alongside shelter, safe water, health care and psychosocial support. UNICEF reported reaching 16,216 people with mental-health and psychosocial services. Recovery must continue into isolated communities before winter and rebuild water and school systems more safely.

Read the UNICEF Nepal · 13 October
Palestinian children overlook a crowded displacement site in Gaza.
Context photo: OCHA
02

Genocide, hunger and winter exposure · Gaza

The genocide remains the defining reality as funding cuts strip food assistance from half a million people.

What is confirmedWFP said on 19 October that funding cuts would leave 500,000 people without critical food assistance. Its planned caseload fell from 1.6 million people in September to 1.1 million in October; remaining household rations were halved, and daily hot meals fell from around 250,000 to 150,000. Nearly two million people also need urgent shelter assistance before winter, according to IOM.

Why it matters operationallyFunding is not the only constraint: attacks, restrictions and damaged infrastructure continue to shape what reaches families. Civilian protection, an end to the genocide, safe shelter, repair materials, clean water and sustained humanitarian access are inseparable from the food response.

Read the World Food Programme · 19 October
Community members and health workers involved in the Ebola response in DR Congo.
Context photo: WHO Africa · July 2026
03

Ebola spreads across borders · DR Congo

DR Congo's Ebola outbreak has reached 9,704 confirmed cases as Kenya and Nigeria detect imported infections.

What is confirmedWHO reported on 23 October that DR Congo had recorded 9,704 confirmed Bundibugyo Ebola cases and 4,687 deaths as of 20 October, across 66 health zones in eight provinces. Kenya had nine linked cases, including one death, and Nigeria had confirmed one imported case. WHO found no evidence of wider community transmission outside Kenya's known cluster.

Why it matters operationallyOf 482 newly reported deaths in DR Congo, 307 occurred in communities, underscoring the need for earlier detection and care. Contact follow-up remains below WHO's 95 per cent target. Safe access, trusted local communication, infection control and coordinated cross-border surveillance are essential; WHO does not recommend travel or trade restrictions.

Read the World Health Organization · 23 October
A child carries mosquito nets distributed by UNICEF in Sudan.
Context photo: UNICEF Sudan
04

Violence and failed rains compound hunger · Sudan

Air and drone strikes are killing civilians and aid responders as severe rainfall deficits deepen needs.

What is confirmedOCHA reported on 22 October that air and drone strikes in Darfur and Kordofan had killed civilians, including two Emergency Response Rooms volunteers in North Darfur. Severe rainfall deficits are worsening hunger and hardship. Sudan's humanitarian response plan was just over 46 per cent funded, with US$1.32 billion received against nearly US$2.9 billion required.

Why it matters operationallyFuel-price increases threaten to make food and other essentials less affordable. The response needs civilian protection, safe passage, nutrition and health supplies, clean water and support for farmers before the next planting season. OCHA warned that food and nutrition stocks could run out early next year without new funding.

Read the OCHA · 22 October
Displaced children and family members collect water beside temporary shelters in Yemen.
Photo: WHO Yemen · October 2026
05

Displacement and health care under pressure · Yemen

More than 256,000 people have fled fighting since August; health facilities in Ta’iz face acute shortages.

What is confirmedOCHA reported on 23 October that more than 256,000 people had been forced from their homes since August. Across five governorates, more than 2,000 displaced families had no shelter. WHO said 42 health facilities in Ta’iz city were reporting acute shortages of fuel, oxygen, medicines and medical supplies, putting surgery, dialysis and maternal care at risk.

Why it matters operationallyHumanitarian partners have reached more than 188,000 displaced people, but safe routes are needed for supplies and patients. The food pipeline, shelter, cash, water and protection response must keep pace with new movement; a delivery in one accessible area cannot substitute for services cut off elsewhere.

Read the OCHA · 23 October, citing WHO and UNHCR
A mother feeds her child therapeutic food at a health centre in Badakhshan, Afghanistan.
Context photo: UNICEF/UNI680216/Naftalin · August 2026
06

Winter hunger is rising despite a stronger harvest · Afghanistan

Nearly two in five people are projected to face acute food insecurity this winter.

What is confirmedA 15 October FAO–WFP analysis projects that 19.2 million people, or 38 per cent of the population, will face high levels of acute food insecurity during the November-to-April lean season. Five million are projected at emergency level. The analysis projects four million acute-malnutrition cases in 2027, a quarter of them severe.

Why it matters operationallyImproved crops have not restored purchasing power for families without steady income. More than 1.2 million returnees this year, high prices and falling aid have added pressure. Food and nutrition support, agricultural inputs and safe access need to arrive before winter closes mountain routes and planting windows.

Read the FAO and World Food Programme · 15 October
A health worker screens a young child for acute malnutrition in Somalia.
Photo: UNICEF/Sewunet
07

Hunger before the projected floods · Somalia

The October-to-December window could combine extreme malnutrition, new displacement and roads cut by El Niño rains.

What is confirmedA new IPC analysis projects that 5.4 million people will face crisis-level hunger or worse through December, including 1.5 million in emergency conditions. About 1.92 million children under five will require acute-malnutrition treatment through June 2027. On 9 October, the Humanitarian Coordinator warned that escalating violence in Baidoa is worsening conditions in a city already facing extreme malnutrition and famine risk.

Why it matters operationallyViolence is threatening access and services during the narrow window before projected El Niño flooding. Food and nutrition supplies, protected water systems, cash and transport need to be positioned before roads disappear, while civilian protection and continuity of care in Baidoa cannot wait for a verified casualty count.

Read the United Nations in Somalia · 9 October
Search-and-rescue personnel assess earthquake damage with Panamanian responders in Chitré.
Photo: U.S. Army/Sgt. Jabari Middleton · Public domain
08

Earthquake recovery under heavy rain · Panama

More than 3,800 people remain in shelters as Panama assesses widespread earthquake damage.

What is confirmedUNHCR reported on 20 October that authorities counted 2,318 destroyed homes, 5,546 partially damaged homes and 55 active shelters housing 3,827 people. More than 600 schools and 120 health facilities were damaged. The geosciences institute recorded 917 aftershocks by 19 October and preliminary assessments identified about 2,300 landslides. USGS's reviewed magnitude for the 9 October quake is 7.7.

Why it matters operationallyShelter safety, drinking water, hygiene, continuity of care and schooling remain urgent, especially in rural communities cut off by landslides and rain. Counts remain provisional while damage teams reach isolated places and aftershocks continue.

Read the UNHCR · 20 October
UNICEF's executive director meets a mother and her children in Lebanon.
Photo: UNICEF · October 2026
09

Childhood inside repeated displacement · Lebanon

Families are returning to damaged communities while thousands of children still do not know when home or school will be safe again.

What is confirmedUNICEF reported on 2 October that at least 261 children have been killed and 1,056 injured since 2 March. Some 436 schools have been damaged or destroyed, putting about 100,000 children at risk of having no classroom. Families in collective shelters in Tyre include people displaced more than once and a mother caring for her newborn.

Why it matters operationallyRecovery cannot be measured by returns alone. Safe shelter, unexploded-ordnance clearance, school repair, health care and psychosocial support must follow families into the places they are trying to rebuild. A child who returns to a damaged village without a classroom or reliable water has not yet returned to ordinary life.

Read the UNICEF · 2 October

Figures in active outbreaks and disaster responses change quickly. Sapiens preserves the source date, links to the originating publisher and updates confirmed totals without treating provisional figures as final.

Wildflowers and sunshine in a meadow in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee · Photo: Rhododendrites · CC BY-SA 4.0

A moment with the world · Presence

Be where
your feet are.

A guide to being here.

Light on a wall. A change in the air. The ground beneath your feet. An invitation to find your way back to the place where you are.

“Forever - is composed of Nows -”Emily Dickinson

Lives, not statistics

Stories
worth staying with.

These accounts are summarized from the original humanitarian publishers. Names, testimony and photographs remain with their sources.

Children take part in a recreational and psychosocial activity at the Ferme Le Blanc displacement site in Belladère, Haiti.Photo: UNICEF Haiti/2026 Honore
01

In Belladère, play becomes a way to feel safe again

At the Ferme Le Blanc displacement site in Belladère, trained local teams have reached more than 200 children with play, learning and psychosocial support. For one mother and her five-year-old son, the work is measured in a child smiling again and speaking about the future.

Read the full story on Sapiens
The Kunar River passes mountain settlements in eastern Afghanistan.Context photo: Qudratkhan · CC BY 3.0 / Wikimedia Commons
02

After the night moved, the road to help climbed into the mountains

More than half a million people were exposed to strong shaking when an earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan late on 31 August. The first seven days revealed more than 2,205 deaths, thousands of injuries and a response trying to reach mountain communities without allowing the country's existing nutrition and health emergency to disappear from view.

Read the full story on Sapiens
A displaced man sits inside a tent beside sacks of food assistance at Al-Firdous Camp in Aden, Yemen.Photo: WFP/Mahmoud Mohammed
03

They arrived carrying bread

As Yemen’s conflict widens again, IOM now counts more than 201,000 displaced people, almost all since 1 September. At Al-Firdous Camp, a ration is immediate relief; what it also reveals is how little margin repeated flight has left.

Read the full story on Sapiens
Sonika stands with her parents, brother and sister at the school shelter in Nuwakot, Nepal.Photo: UNICEF Nepal/Prasad Ngakhusi · August 2026
04

When the water reached Bhaise, the hill became the way out

In Nuwakot, a thirteen-year-old carried her younger brother through the jungle as floodwater erased the family home. Their reunion is one human story inside an emergency that had claimed more than 1,250 lives by 4 September and left entire mountain villages displaced before winter.

Read the full story on Sapiens
Mohammad Amin visits a family in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.Photo: UNICEF Bangladesh/Saikat
05

Amin brings the first signs of care to the door

In Cox’s Bazar, more than 760 Rohingya nutrition volunteers visit homes, screen children and help caregivers reach treatment early. Amin’s work is practical and deeply personal: care delivered in a familiar language by someone who knows what displacement asks of a family.

Read the full story on Sapiens
A community member addresses Ebola response workers at a gathering near Bunia, DR Congo.Photo: WHO Africa · July 2026
06

The vaccines arrived before the outbreak reached its peak

The first Ebola vaccine doses have reached DR Congo, but WHO says the outbreak remains an international emergency. Their arrival is one part of a response built from laboratories, treatment centres, safe water, trusted referral and the speed required to reach people before illness becomes severe.

Read the full story on Sapiens
A man examines a building that collapsed during the Flores earthquake in Reo, Indonesia.Photo: AP/Firdia Lisnawati
07

After the ground moved, the road to help became part of the emergency

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed 83 people and displaced more than 110,000. On Flores, restored roads and power have changed what responders can reach, but tens of thousands of damaged homes mean infrastructure recovery and household recovery are moving at very different speeds.

Read the full story on Sapiens
Palestinian children sit on a sandy rise overlooking a crowded displacement site in Gaza.Photo: OCHA
08

Between every water delivery is the question of whether the next one can arrive

OCHA reported that 90 per cent of Gaza’s population experienced moderate-to-high water insecurity in early July. Kitchens and bakeries continued producing food at scale, but water, spare parts, safe access and functioning waste systems remained painfully fragile.

Read the full story on Sapiens
A woman stands beside temporary shelter in South Sudan.Photo: WFP/Gabriela Vivacqua
09

For 240,000 refugees, September may be the last ration

WFP and UNHCR warn that food assistance for 240,000 highly vulnerable refugees in South Sudan could stop after September. The cutoff would arrive during the rains, while new families continue crossing from Sudan and host communities are already under severe pressure.

Read the full story on Sapiens
A Colombian Red Cross worker helps families prepare safe-water storage kits before drought conditions intensify.Photo: Colombian Red Cross / IFRC
10

Forecasts become clean water before drought arrives

In Tolima and Cesar, the Colombian Red Cross is turning El Niño forecasts into early action: safe-water kits, support for crops and livestock, and cash before shortages become a disaster.

Read the full story on Sapiens
A Saudi Red Crescent volunteer assists a pilgrim using a wheelchair at the Hajj holy sites.Photo: Saudi Red Crescent Authority / IFRC
11

The responders protecting pilgrims in extreme heat

During Hajj, volunteers, paramedics, motorcycle teams and air ambulances formed a layered emergency system, answering an average of 1,445 cases a day as temperatures climbed past 44°C.

Read the full story on Sapiens
Two fishermen repair a net on a beach in Gaza.Photo: WFP / Mohammed Hinnawi
12

A fisherman keeps casting his nets as hunger gains remain fragile

Murad al-Aqra risks going to sea to feed his family. WFP reports that expanded aid has helped, but restricted access and funding gaps could quickly reverse progress.

Read the full story on Sapiens
Community members and health workers involved in the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Photo: WHO Africa
13

Communities become the front line of the Ebola response

In Ituri, trained community volunteers are helping families recognize symptoms, seek care early and take part in safe, locally trusted response measures. Their work has become even more consequential as the outbreak reached 8,728 confirmed cases nationwide.

Read the full story on Sapiens

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