Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
Jihadists kill hundreds in Burkina Faso massacre
The al-Qaeda-linked JNIM group in Burkina Faso has killed several hundred people in one of the worst recent attacks in the country, which has been affected by a jihadist insurgency since 2015. The attack was carried out in the northern town of Barsalogho and targeted civilians who were digging defensive trenches. Some reports say 200 people were killed, though a Barsalogho victims group said at least 400 were slain. The victims group said a military detachment had forced people to construct the trench “against their will”, exposing them to retaliatory violence. Burkina Faso has been ruled by juntas since back-to-back coups in 2022. Military leaders inherited a bad situation from their predecessors, though insecurity has worsened significantly under their watch. The current junta has ramped up military operations and enrolled tens of thousands of civilians into an anti-jihadist volunteer force. Jihadist groups have committed massacres and enforced sieges as punishment.
NRC cuts, as aid booms go bust
Budget cuts are looming at the Norwegian Refugee Council, in the latest sign of the financial pressures stretching across the humanitarian sector as donor wallets tighten. NRC aims to cut 80 million Norwegian kroner, or roughly $7.6 million (about 1% of its income) in the next fiscal year, the organisation confirmed. “After years of growth, NRC experiences a levelling off of external funding,” Geir Olav Lisle, NRC’s deputy secretary general, said in a statement sent to The New Humanitarian. The agency will announce its plans in September. “There will be redundancies, but the number of staff affected has not yet been identified,” he said. NRC is the latest big aid group to confirm cuts. In recent weeks, Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee have announced shortfalls and cutbacks that have sparked staff anger and in some cases raised claims of financial mismanagement. The World Food Programme, the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR), the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other groups big and small have also undergone heavy cuts. This points to a fundamental problem, some analysts say: Big aid groups have focused on aggressive growth, at the expense of grassroots humanitarian action and more sustainable emergency response. For more, read our full analysis.
Dam disaster adds to the desperation in Sudan
The war in Sudan has now been raging for over 500 days, and the humanitarian situation keeps regressing. Since June, torrential rains have displaced over 136,000 people across 14 states, nearly half of whom were already uprooted by the conflict. The flooding resulted in the collapse on 25 August of a dam that provides the main water source for the eastern city of Port Sudan, which has become the de facto capital and main humanitarian hub in lieu of besieged Khartoum. At least 30 people were killed, hundreds more are believed to be missing, and 20 villages around the dam have been decimated. In the famine-stricken Darfur region, flooding has also been severe, washing out displacement camps and further disrupting an already hamstrung humanitarian response. The war began in April 2023 and pits the army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. It has produced the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises. Recent mediation efforts have failed, with the army refusing to turn up, and the RSF using its attendance to help launder its image.
Israeli strikes hit aid convoys in Gaza
An Israeli airstrike hit a convoy carrying fuel and medical supplies to a hospital in Gaza on the night of 29 August, reportedly killing several employees of a transportation company associated with the US-based NGO Anera. Israel says it was attacking “armed assailants” who were trying to hijack the truck, but Anera said the only people killed worked for the transport company and they had confirmed their route as part of a “humanitarian deconfliction” programme intended to stop hits on aid. The hit on the convoy, which eventually arrived at the hospital, came days after Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint shot at a vehicle marked as belonging to WFP, which said it was pausing staff moments in Gaza until further notice. WFP head Cindy McCain said, “this is totally unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have endangered the lives of WFP’s team in Gaza… the current deconfliction system is failing and this cannot go on any longer.” Israel’s assault in Gaza has made 2024 the deadliest year on record for humanitarians. The World Health Organisation has said that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a series of “humanitarian pauses,” scheduled to begin 1 September, to allow for 640,000 children to be vaccinated against polio. Israel has already begun vaccinating its soldiers against polio, which has been detected in Gaza for the first time in 25 years and has left a 10-month-old baby partially paralysed. Meanwhile, Israel said its forces shot dead the leader of Hamas in the West Bank town of Jenin during one of its largest military operations in the territory in years. There has been a sharp increase in Israeli airstrikes and settler attacks in the West Bank since the 7 October attacks, with at least 622 Palestinians killed, according to figures cited by the UN.
Monsoon deaths pass 300
Monsoon rains and flooding are affecting millions of people across India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. More than 300 people have died across all three countries since early July. In India, the western state of Gujarat has been hit the hardest, with at least 28 deaths, while at least 1,000 villages across the country have been left without power. In eastern Bangladesh, at least 40 people have been killed by flooding that has affected more than 5.8 million. With the country in the hands of a caretaker government since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country on 5 August, the UN and other aid agencies are scrambling a response effort, including for one million people cut off due to the flooding. In Pakistan, more than 35,000 people have been affected by the flooding in Sindh, the nation’s second most populous province. Of the three countries, Pakistan currently has the highest number of monsoon deaths, at 243, and almost half of those in the last two months have been children.
Kenyan police fail to make headway in Haiti
Two months after the deployment of 400 Kenyan police officers – the first members of a UN-approved Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission tasked with helping to restore security in Haiti after months of intensifying gang violence – there are few signs of Haitians getting any relief. Nearly 4,000 people have been killed and injured this year, including five children every week, some of them babies. Minors are often victims of stray bullets – targeted for being suspected of supporting rival gangs or the police, or lynched by vigilante groups. Outnumbered and outgunned by the gangs, the much-vaunted Kenyan police contingent has called urgently for more firepower. The United States, which is largely the one financing the mission, has delivered some new armoured vehicles and supplies but, according to Le Nouvelliste, they may not be much use without proper maintenance, better intelligence, and a winning strategy. More personnel are also needed, but the lack of funding for the mission has even caused delays in the payment of Kenyan officers’ wages. Watch this video to know what life is like for Haitians today:
Weekend read
Opinion | The limits of Western media ethics
This was not how I thought about journalism.
Ethical codes based on Western standards don’t meet the realities of covering culturally different societies on the other side of the world.
And finally…
Where’s the next ERC?
Two months have passed since the UN’s top humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths, stepped down. The UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, has been without a permanent leader for 61 days, and the agency is stonewalling on who might become the new Emergency Relief Chief, while former deputy ERC Joyce Msuya holds the reins as interim leader. “It is shocking,” said Fred Carver, an editor at the Blue Smoke blog, which tracks UN appointments. Names of potential successors have been churning through the rumour mill, where some blame a lack of interest by UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy for delaying the process. The former Conservative government, voted out of power in July, is understood to have backed Lord Tariq Ahmad, a foreign office minister, for the job. Much to the infuriation of those who want a more equitable global distribution of senior UN positions – including The New Humanitarian – the UK government has been long tied to the OCHA role. Since 2007, the five officials to hold the job have all been from the UK, a country that holds disproportionate power in the UN as a permanent member of the Security Council. But as campaigners have pointed out, there’s nothing in the rules stopping UN Secretary-General António Guterres from appointing someone from another country. If it’s helpful, Blue Smoke has documented 40 years’ worth of UN General Assembly resolutions against the practice of ring-fencing jobs.
