Stories

Tymofii Bespalov is one of 5,000 Ukrainian patients transferred to hospitals in 22 countries through the European Union’s medical evacuation programme conducted under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

When the earthquake struck Myanmar in March 2025, it shattered more than buildings and roads. For families already living close to the edge, it wiped out the little they had to keep going. With EU funding, WFP provided multi-purpose cash assistance so they could keep their livelihoods afloat.

After decades spent building lives across the border, thousands of Afghans are now returning from neighbouring countries every day – many pushed out by mounting pressure, restrictive policies, and deteriorating living conditions, while others face sudden, forced deportation.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, violence by armed groups seeking control of territory continues to steeply increase. Rising food insecurity and a worsening displacement crisis, mean at least 14.9m people are in need of aid according to OCHA.

In Afghanistan, the guns have fallen silent, but the war remains buried beneath the soil in the form of deadly explosive items, including landmines and unexploded remnants of war.

Yemen remains one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. With deteriorating food security, soaring malnutrition rates, and recurring epidemic outbreaks, the country is on the brink of collapse.

For more than 2 years, the Sourou Valley was a place of silence. In the Boucle du Mouhoun of northwestern Burkina Faso, thousands of families lived under a total blockade - an act of strangulation that turned villages into open-air prisons.

Viktor, Evhenia and Hennadiy talk about their experience of evacuating and finding support in a transit centre thanks to the World Food Programme and the European Union.

In Cishemere, a transit camp near Burundi’s largest city, Bujumbura, thousands of people who fled violence in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo live in extremely squalid conditions.

Do you know what a water spreading weir is? Many people don’t, but for host communities and Sudanese refugees in Chad, this is a lifeline.

This wildfire season has been one of the most severe in recent memory — the worst since 2006, when records began. Across Europe, flames have threatened homes, communities, and natural landscapes.

Since January, heavy rainfall has caused widespread flooding throughout Colombia. The Córdoba department is particularly affected. There, the German and Colombian Red Crosses are providing emergency assistance to over 167,000 people, with EU support.

Since the beginning of the war, in 2012, the European Union has provided humanitarian funding to support the most vulnerable Syrians, inside the country and abroad.

Paola crossed a bridge with a backpack, her little child and no way back. She left her home, her job and her town to stay alive. Like her, thousands of people arrive every year at the border between Colombia and Ecuador, running away from threats, violence and fear.

Sudanese refugees arriving in Chad find relative safety, but the trauma does not end at the border. Sleepless nights, stomach aches, anxiety - 1 million refugees from Darfur, mostly women and children, carry invisible scars.

A story of motherhood, resilience, and the power of flexible cash support during disaster.

Afghanistan remains engulfed in crisis. One of the clearest and most alarming signs of this worsening emergency is malnutrition - widespread, deadly, and still rising.

‘The needs are enormous,’ said Thibault Larose, who helps oversee EU humanitarian programmes in Sudan. ‘We are seeing famine-like conditions. People arrive after days—or even weeks—on the road, often without any belongings or support.’

In Ukrainian, the name of February — лютий, Liutyi — carries meanings that go far beyond a calendar reference. It can mean fierce, harsh, bitter, merciless, cruel.