The United Nations has said continued weapons supplies to Sudan’s warring military and paramilitary forces are “enabling the slaughter” and must stop, with civilians bearing the brunt of the conflict.

Both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are escalating their military operations and recruiting new fighters fuelled by “considerable” external support and a steady flow of arms, said Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN undersecretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs.

“To put it bluntly, certain purported allies of the parties are enabling the slaughter in Sudan,” she told the UN Security Council (UNSC) late on Tuesday, without naming any of the countries or parties sending weapons.

“This is unconscionable. It is illegal, and it must end.”

Sudan plunged into civil war on April 15, 2023, as a result of a power struggle between the RSF led by Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo and SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

The UN says the war has killed more than 24,000 people and created a humanitarian crisis that has displaced 11 million people. Of them, nearly three million people have fled to neighbouring countries, in the world’s worst displacement crisis.

Both sides, especially the RSF, have been accused of war crimes and massacres, which they deny. The paramilitary group, which faces many allegations of ethnic cleansing in areas including West Darfur, claims rogue parties are behind the attacks.

DiCarlo said it is long past time for the rival warring parties to come to the negotiating table, but added that they appear convinced they can win on the battlefield, something that is driven by outside support.

Sudan’s government has accused the United Arab Emirates of arming the RSF. The Gulf nation has denied the allegations. The RSF has also reportedly received armed backing from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group.

UN experts said in a report earlier this year that the RSF has received support from Arab-allied communities, with military supply lines running through neighbouring Chad, Libya and South Sudan.

Al-Burhan, the army chief who led a military takeover of Sudan in 2021, is a close ally of neighbouring Egypt and its president, former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. Sudan’s Foreign Minister Hussein Awad Ali held talks in Tehran in February, leading to speculation that Iran may be preparing to send drones to government forces. Iran has not reported any arms shipments to Sudan.

This comes as the UNSC is discussing a resolution proposed by the United Kingdom that demands Sudan’s warring parties immediately cease hostilities and calls on them to allow unhindered deliveries of humanitarian aid as more than half of the country’s population of 50 million faces severe food shortages.

As a three-month approval by Sudanese authorities for the UN and aid groups to use the Adre border with Chad to deliver supplies to Darfur is set to expire in mid-November, the draft also calls for the crossing to remain open.

Climate change is helping to drive a rising refugee crisis, adding to the huge numbers already displaced by conflict, according to a United Nations report.

Three-quarters of the world’s forcibly displaced people live in countries heavily affected by climate hazards, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in the document released on Tuesday.

The number of people fleeing conflict doubled to more than 120 million over the past decade, 90 million of them in countries with high-to-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards, it reported.

Half of displaced people are in locations affected by both conflict and serious climate hazards, such as Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Syria.

“For the world’s most vulnerable people, climate change is a harsh reality that profoundly affects their lives,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. “The climate crisis is driving displacement in regions already hosting large numbers of people uprooted by conflict and insecurity, compounding their plight and leaving them with nowhere safe to go.”

About 700,000 people were forced to flee war in Sudan crossing into neighbouring Chad. The country has hosted refugees for years, but is highly exposed to climate change. Those who remain in Sudan are at risk of further displacement due to severe flooding, the report says.

More than 70 percent of refugees from Myanmar have sought safety in Bangladesh, where cyclones and flooding are classified as extreme.

“In our region, where so many people have been displaced for so many years, we see the effects of climate change before our very eyes,” said Grace Dorong, a climate activist and former refugee living in South Sudan.

“I hope the voices of the people in this report help decision-makers to understand that if not addressed, forced displacement – and the multiplying effect of climate change – will get worse. But if they listen to us, we can be part of the solution, too.”

The UN report was released at the COP29 climate meeting in Azerbaijan. Delegates from nearly 200 countries are gathering this week to discuss climate change-related challenges, although larger ones, such as the United States and China, have not sent top-level delegations.

The climate summit opened on Monday amid new warnings that 2024 is on track to break temperature records, adding urgency to a fractious debate over climate funding as poorer countries seek an increase in the $100bn-a-year target at the forum.

Israel has officially notified the United Nations of its decision to cut ties with its agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) as another UN agency warns of an impending famine in genocide-ravaged Gaza.

In a statement on Monday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it cancelled a cooperation agreement from 1967 which provided the legal basis of the country’s relations with UNRWA.

“UNRWA – the organisation whose employees participated in the October 7 massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives – is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz was quoted as saying.

The Israeli parliament last week adopted two controversial bills banning UNRWA from operating on Israeli territory, closing its premises in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza.

Israel alleges fighters of Palestinian group Hamas have infiltrated UNRWA. The UN agency denies the allegations and says it takes measures to ensure its neutrality.

UNRWA on Monday said Israel’s ban on its operations would lead to the “collapse” of humanitarian work in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

“If this law is implemented, it would be likely to cause the collapse of the international humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip – an operation of which UNRWA is the backbone,” Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA spokesman, told the AFP news agency.

The UN agency provides education, healthcare and other basic services to Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation and their descendants, who now number nearly six million. Refugee families make up the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.

Aid groups have warned that Israel’s ban on UNRWA could create further obstacles to addressing a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israel has said other UN agencies and aid groups can fill the gap, but those organisations insist UNRWA is essential.

Israel’s notification to the UN came as the World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza “could soon escalate into famine” as Israeli forces continue to severely restrict the entry of food and other supplies into the enclave.

On Saturday, a WFP official said the agency cannot serve as a replacement for UNRWA in Gaza. “We cannot replace the important functions of the UNRWA in Gaza, such as the administration of emergency shelters, schools and health centres,” Martin Frick, head of the WFP Berlin office, told German media group RND.

In January, Israel claimed that more than a dozen UNRWA members took part in a Hamas-led attack on Israel last year, in which Palestinian fighters killed more than 1,100 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 captives.

After the assault, the Israeli army waged a ferocious military campaign in Gaza, killing more than 43,000 people so far, displacing almost its entire 2.3 million population, and reducing large swaths of the Palestinian enclave into rubble.

The UN launched an investigation into Israel’s allegations which resulted in the termination of contracts of nine staff members against which “the evidence – if authenticated and corroborated – could indicate that the UNRWA staff members may have been involved” in the attack.

In July, Israel claimed that another 100 UNRWA employees were members of Hamas and other Palestinian groups. The agency asked Israel to provide more information to take action. UNRWA on Monday told Al Jazeera it had not received any response.

Meanwhile, UN officials say Israeli forces have killed more than 130 of their workers in a year in Gaza – the largest such toll in any conflict since the global body was founded.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon says Israeli tanks have forced entry at one of its positions, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN to evacuate its troops from the area.

The incident is the latest in a series of violations and attacks by Israeli forces on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in recent days and comes as Israel expands its bombardment and ground attacks on Lebanon.

UNIFIL said in a statement on Sunday that two Israeli tanks “destroyed the position’s main gate and forcibly entered the position”.

Soon after the tanks left, shells exploded 100 metres (328 feet) away, releasing smoke that blew across the base and sickened UN personnel, causing 15 to require treatment despite wearing gas masks, UNIFIL said. It did not say who fired the shells or what sort of toxic substance it suspected.

It also accused Israel’s military of halting a logistics convoy. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to the statement.

“Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and Resolution 1701,” the United Nations force said. “UNIFIL’s mandate provides for its freedom of movement in its area of operations, and any restriction on this is a violation of Resolution 1701. We have requested an explanation from the [Israeli army] for these shocking violations.”

The incident occurred hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the UN to evacuate the peacekeeping force from combat areas in Lebanon.

Attacks on UN peacekeepers

Five peacekeepers have so far been wounded in a series of attacks that have hit peacekeeping positions and personnel in recent days, with most of the attacks blamed by UNIFIL on Israeli forces.

On Thursday, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the UN Security Council that “the safety and security of peacekeepers is now increasingly in jeopardy”. He said they remained in position but operational activities had virtually come to a halt since September 23 and peacekeepers were confined to base. Three hundred had also been temporarily relocated to bigger bases.

The United States and European countries have demanded that Israeli forces stop firing at the peacekeepers. On Friday, US President Joe Biden said he was “absolutely, positively” telling Israel to stop.

On Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, typically one of Israel’s most vocal supporters among Western European leaders, also reiterated to Netanyahu the “unacceptability of UNIFIL being attacked by Israeli armed forces”, according to an Italian government statement.