Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
Fragile states and the humanitarian “reset”
There’s a bit more meat on the bones of a proposed humanitarian “reset”. UN relief chief Tom Fletcher outlined some ideas in a 11 March letter to other aid leaders: There are next steps to simplify; a repeat of old goals to localise funding, prioritise cash aid, and listen to communities; and some aspirational language around ending turf wars and giving up power. At this stage – approaching two months after Donald Trump re-took office and allies like Elon Musk helped slash aid overnight – defining the public narrative comes before the substance. “We will need to be – and demonstrate that we are – efficient, united, independent, and saving lives,” Fletcher wrote. But that last bit has become even more challenging as aid groups dig through the chaos of cuts, reprieves, and dwindling bank accounts. With the US typically supplying up to 40% of humanitarian funding, few emergency responses have been left untouched. Aid groups say some of the most urgent shortfalls are shaping up amid the disastrous civil war in Sudan. NGOs say humanitarians must urgently adopt a famine plan, but the current emergency response is only 6.5% funded (the US has supplied up to 60% of response funding in previous years). The crisis was already severe, but now “it is spiralling into catastrophe”, a humanitarian official said. In the US, the court battles to reinstate some funding continue. One ruling ordered the Trump administration to honour aid funding promises through 13 February. But in an increasingly fragile US, an unanswered question looms: What does it mean when a president simply ignores court rulings?
Will talks yield peace progress in DR Congo?
Mediator Angola has announced direct talks next week between the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the M23 armed group, the first since the Rwanda-supported rebels began a new insurgency in late 2021. Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi originally refused to negotiate with the unpopular group because he didn’t want to lose political capital during an election period, and because he was wary of treating the rebels as a separate entity to Rwanda. However, the M23 and the Rwandan army recently captured Goma and Bukavu, the two biggest cities in eastern DRC, and the rebels are now threatening to take the fight to Kinshasa. These developments appear to have forced Tshisekedi’s hand. The government's military strategy, meanwhile, has failed spectacularly, with soldiers fleeing front lines, allied local militias abusing civilians, and rag-tag European mercenaries suffering humiliating defeats. Kinshasa's main regional partner, Burundi, continues to sustain heavy casualties, while southern African troops have announced a phased withdrawal from DRC, after also losing many troops.
South Sudan on the brink
South Sudan is on the precipice of a renewed war. At least that’s the view of the International Crisis Group, reacting to increased tensions between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar – the two leaders who signed a peace deal in 2018 after five years of conflict. Machar has been under de facto house arrest, and many of his allies remain in custody, after a militia close to the opposition leader attacked army elements loyal to Kiir in the town of Nasir in Upper Nile state. Uganda has since deployed troops to Juba to support Kiir and the US has ordered the departure of non-emergency staff – both signs that the risk of war is growing. The violence has already displaced tens of thousands of people in Nasir, many to western Ethiopia. The Kiir-Machar power-sharing deal and transition has been fragile from the start. Kiir has long sought to weaken Machar by courting defections and supporting groups that targeted Machar’s forces. Still, the current moment is particularly dangerous because of the impact of the war in Sudan. The war has severely depleted South Sudan’s oil revenues, which rely on a damaged export pipeline running through Sudan, and which sustain Kiir’s patronage network. According to the International Crisis Group, many believe the Sudanese army is also backing the militias behind the Nasir violence. This could be partly due to Kiir’s growing ties with the Rapid Support Forces, which control territory that the pipeline runs through.
Regional tensions flare over Tigray
A “creeping coup d’état” is underway in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region – ratcheting up broader tensions between Addis Ababa and neighbouring Eritrea. A faction of the Tigrayan Defense Forces (TDF) has seized control of several major towns run by officials loyal to the Tigray interim administration. On 13 March, elements of the TDF also took the main radio station in the regional capital, Mekelle, sparking panic. A bitter feud is escalating between the interim government, appointed by Addis Ababa, and an old guard of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – the region’s dominant political party – led by party chairman Debretsion Gebremichael. The TDF had appeared neutral, but, after the sacking of three generals this week, it has now decisively sided with the Debretsion faction, which is reportedly backed by Eritrea. Getachew Reda, the head of Tigray’s interim administration, made a veiled request in Addis Ababa for help – an intervention that would risk a return to the 2020 to 2022 civil war. Some analysts are even warning that Tigray could be ground-zero for a much larger, region-shaking confrontation between Ethiopia and Eritrea, with both sides reportedly mobilising troops.
New Syria constitution, but massacres reopen old wounds
Syria’s interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa signed a new temporary constitution late this week, reportedly retaining the previous regime’s central role for Islamic law and the requirement that a Muslim be head of state. The constitution has drawn criticism from Kurdish leaders in northeast Syria who just signed a crucial deal with the government that could help unite the country – they say it “contradicts the reality of Syria and its diversity”. The challenges of bringing Syria together in a peaceful transition have been drawn into stark relief by last week’s mass killings of Alawites in the provinces of Latakia and Tartous, former strongholds of ousted President Bashar al-Assad (himself a member of the Alawite religious minority). Exact death counts vary, but rights groups report that more than 800 civilians were massacred by forces aligned with the current government. The revenge killings came after a series of ambushes on government forces by al-Assad loyalists. Al-Sharaa – former leader of the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – has vowed to hold accountable anyone involved. “No one will be above the law, and anyone whose hands are stained with the blood of Syrians will face justice sooner rather than later,” he said in a televised address.
Putin seeks upper hand amid Ukraine ceasefire talks
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he supported the idea of a ceasefire with Ukraine, but his stipulation of stringent conditions prompted accusations of obstruction. His comments on 13 March were the first to address the ceasefire proposal that emerged from recent talks between the US and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia. Putin demanded limits on Ukraine’s ability to mobilise troops and import weapons during the truce, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused him of delaying an agreement in order to continue the war. Putin said a ceasefire would be more advantageous to Ukraine than to Russia. His comments came a day after Russian forces seized the Kursk region town of Sudzha, which was seen as a key territorial bargaining chip for Ukraine. Trump and members of his administration have said on numerous occasions that a final agreement between the two countries would require territorial concessions by Ukraine.
Weekend read
“No real protection”: Deaths in Houthi detention raise urgent questions for aid work in Yemen
“The Houthis took these people, and they can come tomorrow and take others.”
Given the level of risk, how should aid organisations balance their need to deliver lifesaving assistance with their duty of care to protect employees?
Mottley pushes back on Cuban healthcare workers
Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados and the Global South’s highest-profile climate campaigner, has joined a Caribbean-wide standoff with the Trump administration. Leaders from across the region have collectively rejected threats from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who accused governments who employ Cuban healthcare workers of complicity in “abusive and coercive labor practices”. The “Expansion of Visa Restrictions Policy for Individuals Exploiting Cuban Labor” said its targets would include “foreign government officials… involved in the Cuban labor export program, particularly Cuba’s overseas medical missions.” Mottley said Barbados could not “get through the pandemic without the Cuban nurses and the Cuban doctors” and they received equal pay to Barbadians. “That we were involved in human trafficking by engaging with the Cuban nurses was fully repudiated and rejected by us,” Mottley told her country’s parliament. “I am prepared, like others in this region, that if we cannot reach a sensible agreement on this matter, then if the cost of it is the loss of my visa, to the US, then so be it,” she added. Cuban healthcare workers have saved “lives and limbs and sight for many a Caribbean person”, said Mottley. The spat threatens a “moment of reckoning” for the region, according to Barbados Today, which vigorously supported Mottley’s position in an editorial: “The Cuban medical programme is a shining example of South-South cooperation. It is an initiative rooted in solidarity, not coercion.”
