News Links - 4 March 2026

OCHA
UN relief chief Tom Fletcher warned that escalating violence across the Middle East is draining the funding and political will needed to save lives, with strikes hitting homes, hospitals and schools across Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and the occupied Palestinian territory. More than 18,000 patients — including 4,000 children — have no access to specialized medical care, all crossings into Gaza except Kerem Shalom remain closed, and over 60,000 people in Lebanon are sheltering in collective sites. Fletcher warned that disruption to the Strait of Hormuz would drive food prices higher and squeeze health systems across the region.

Iran: Cities Under Attack
Tehran residents described a city transformed into a landscape of smoke, rubble and terror as joint US-Israeli strikes entered their fourth day, with 787 confirmed dead, more than 1,000 attacks recorded, and 153 cities and villages affected. Airports and schools are closed, hospitals have reached critical capacity, and families face an agonizing choice between sheltering at home or risking congested, dangerous roads. In Isfahan and Shiraz, children on their way to school fell to the ground in fear as strikes hit residential areas near educational facilities.

Sudan: A Rare Opening
UN Coordinator Denise Brown completed the first high-level UN mission to Dilling, South Kordofan since current hostilities began, visiting displacement sites and a local hospital after a supply route reopened. Save the Children simultaneously delivered vaccines to the state capital Kadugli — the first such delivery in nearly three years. Sudan's 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan requires $2.9 billion but is only 14% funded, leaving life-saving assistance severely constrained.

INGOs 
Fourteen INGO regional directors — representing Save the Children, Oxfam, NRC, Mercy Corps, DRC and others — issued a joint statement calling for an immediate end to the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and a return to diplomatic solutions. The statement warned that ongoing violations of international humanitarian law demand independent review and that aid alone cannot substitute for political will. "The human cost will continue to rise," the signatories warned, "and the consequences of inaction will reverberate across generations."

Uganda
Uganda has launched its first-ever Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), a nationwide effort to count and measure the lives of children in a country where nearly half of 45 million people are under 18. A four-day design workshop in Kampala produced a draft Country Survey Plan covering 12,000 households, with results expected in 2027. UNICEF's country representative set the tone at the survey's December launch: "Let us remember that behind each statistic is a human story."