UN Sounds Alarm Over Global “Apathy” as It Launches Sharply Scaled-Back 2026 Humanitarian Appeal

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — The United Nations on Monday issued a stark warning about what it described as growing global indifference to human suffering, as it unveiled its significantly reduced 2026 humanitarian aid appeal amid severe funding shortfalls and escalating crises worldwide.

“This is a time of brutality, impunity and indifference,” UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said, decrying a year marked by “the ferocity and the intensity of the killing, the complete disregard for international law, and horrific levels of sexual violence.”

Speaking to reporters, Fletcher said the international system meant to safeguard civilians is “in retreat,” eroded by distraction, political polarization, and shrinking aid budgets.

“Our survival antennae have been numbed by apathy,” he warned.

Streamlined Appeal Reflects Harsh Realities

The UN’s 2026 request seeks at least $23 billion to assist 87 million people across some of the world’s most dangerous contexts — including Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti, and Myanmar.

The organization’s full goal is $33 billion to help 135 million people, though officials acknowledge that target is increasingly difficult to reach.

Fletcher said the “highly prioritized appeal” was built on “excruciating life-and-death choices,” shaped in part by drastic cuts to US foreign aid under President Donald Trump.

Washington remains the world’s largest humanitarian donor, but its contributions plummeted from $11 billion in 2024 to $2.7 billion in 2025, UN data shows.

Funding Collapse Leaves Millions Without Help

The scale of the crisis is vast: an estimated 240 million people worldwide now require emergency assistance due to conflict, climate disasters, epidemics, and displacement.

Yet funding has reached a decade low. The UN’s $45 billion appeal in 2025 drew only $12 billion, limiting support to 98 million people—25 million fewer than the year before.

“When politicians boast of cutting aid,” Fletcher said, “we are forced to choose who lives and who dies.”

Gaza, Sudan Among Most Urgent Priorities

At the top of the 2026 priority list is Gaza and the West Bank, where the UN seeks $4.1 billion to aid three million people amid a deepening humanitarian catastrophe.

Sudan remains another epicenter of extreme need, as conflict and ethnically targeted violence have displaced millions. The UN is requesting $2.9 billion for 20 million Sudanese.

Fletcher recounted meeting a young Sudanese mother in Tawila who fled El-Fasher after armed men killed her husband and child. Along “the most dangerous road in the world,” she carried the malnourished baby of neighbors who had also been murdered.

“Men attacked her, raped her, broke her leg — and yet something kept her going,” he said. “Does anyone, wherever you come from, whatever you believe, however you vote, not think that we should be there for her?”

Call for Governments — and the Public — to Step Up

The UN will press member states over the next 87 days — one for every million people in need — to open their government coffers. If contributions fall short, Fletcher said the organization will reach out more aggressively to civil society, corporations, and individual citizens.

He pushed back on growing disinformation, suggesting that humanitarian contributions drain domestic budgets.

“I'm not asking people to choose between a hospital in Brooklyn and a hospital in Kandahar,” he said. “I'm asking the world to spend less on defense and more on humanitarian support.”

The amount the UN is requesting, he noted, is barely one percent of global military spending.

As crises deepen across continents, Fletcher warned the world cannot afford to stand by:

“The scaffolding of coexistence is under sustained attack — and indifference is its greatest threat.”