UN to cut humanitarian operations office staff by 20%

The UN humanitarian agency said it is cutting its 2,600 staff who operate in more than 60 countries by 208 because of “brutal cuts” in funding that have left it with a nearly $60 million shortfall.

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UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said in a letter that “the humanitarian community was already underfunded, overstretched and literally, under attack” before the recent funding cuts.

In the letter to staff at the agency, he didn’t say which country was responsible for the cuts that led to the funding crisis at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, but he indicated it was the United States.

Fletcher said OCHA had an overall budget of around $430 million for 2025, noting that several countries have announced or implemented cuts to the agency's extra-budgetary resources.

He singled out the United States.