Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
In Myanmar, an earthquake disaster on top of a humanitarian crisis
Myanmar was already facing one of the world’s largest and most neglected humanitarian crises. Now it faces a major earthquake disaster that crosses the front lines of its civil war. While reliable information from the ground remains scant, key response challenges are emerging: poor (and now badly damaged) transport infrastructure, cut communications, politicised aid, and a healthcare system near collapse. Efforts to provide assistance to the 10.4 million people residing in the Mandalay and Sagaing regions hardest hit by the 28 March earthquakes continued into a second weekend, as an international aid sector reeling from US cuts called urgently for more money and a lasting pause to hostilities to allow for unhindered humanitarian access. The official death toll surpassed 3,300 people, but hundreds were still listed as missing as chances of finding survivors quickly evaporated. Impacts in rural areas – often controlled by armed opposition groups, and where the ruling military junta typically cuts off internet access – remained largely unclear. Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the military government that came to power following a February 2021 coup, was condemned for continuing to order airstrikes on targets in earthquake-affected areas. It wasn’t until 2 April that the military ordered a temporary 20-day ceasefire – almost a week after armed ethnic groups who are fighting the junta announced their own unilateral ceasefire. Min Aung Hlaing, who is facing potential prosecution by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity, headed on 3 April to Thailand for a regional summit. Thailand was also hit by the earthquakes, suffering at least 22 fatalities. Min Aung Hlaing’s trip will allow him to meet representatives from India. Along with China, it has been the biggest international contributor to the earthquake response; although, as ever, it is local organisations and local volunteers that have been doing a lot of the relief work in the disaster’s immediate aftermath.
Evidence mounts of Israeli massacre of humanitarian workers in Gaza
The bodies of 15 rescue workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the Palestinian Civil Defense, and the UN’s agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were recovered from a mass grave on the outskirts of Rafah in southern Gaza on 30 March. They had been missing since 23 March when Israeli forces opened fire on an ambulance dispatched to retrieve people injured in an airstrike. Israeli forces then opened fire at a convoy of rescue vehicles and two ambulances from a different location dispatched to collect the bodies of two paramedics killed. In total, five clearly marked ambulances, a fire truck, and a UN vehicle – all crushed – were pulled from the mass grave along with the bodies. It was the deadliest attack on Red Cross Red Crescent workers globally since 2017. A team from the UN and the Palestinian Red Crescent searching for the missing aid workers last week witnessed hundreds of Palestinian civilians fleeing under Israeli fire, including a woman shot in the back of the head. Since Israel resumed its assault on Gaza on 18 March, at least 1,171 Palestinians have been killed and more than 280,000 have been newly displaced. About 65% of Gaza is under Israeli evacuation orders or has been declared a “no-go” zone by the Israeli military, which is further dividing up the enclave and seizing large areas of territory. No aid or supplies has been allowed to enter since 2 March.
Trump tariffs “inexplicably cruel” for Africa
Some of the world’s poorest countries, including nations grappling with protracted humanitarian crises, are among those most affected by US President Donald Trump’s new trade tariffs regime, which has compounded preexisting economic strains and debt woes. Asian markets will be particularly hard hit, including imports to the US from Myanmar to be charged at 45%, and Bangladesh at 37%. Big charges were also imposed on fragile economies in the Middle East and North Africa, with Syria at 41%, Libya at 31%, and Iraq at 39%. But among the worst effects will likely be felt in Africa, where Trump’s decision created an “inexplicably cruel situation”, according to the Centre for Global Development. “It is hard to fathom that the administration set out to destabilise poor African countries and unclear what they hope to gain,” wrote CGD researchers. The tariffs have effectively tanked the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allowed duty-free imports to the US for 32 countries and was credited with helping economic growth. Lesotho and Madagascar could be among the Trump tariffs’ biggest losers, CGD predicted. Amid existential financial worries in the international aid sector – triggered by Trump’s closure of USAID – economists have also raised the possibility of a global trade war, with far-reaching ramifications for inflation and the cost of living worldwide.
Can the aid sector reprioritise and reset at the same time?
The great reset is coming… just wait a bit longer to find out what it means for a sector in crisis. UN relief chief Tom Fletcher has settled on the idea of a “humanitarian reset” in response to Trump’s aid dismantling. Up until now, it has been a bit more rhetoric than reality: Floated so far have been changes to a lumbering international coordination system, rather than deep structural reforms. Fletcher wants to “prioritise implementation of the humanitarian reset in the next quarter”, he wrote in his latest newsletter – but it’s unclear how far consultations have gone beyond the usual centres of power. In the meantime, the internal wrangling over how to strip budgets to fit US and other donor government cuts continues in parallel. ”We are – where possible – using severity of needs as the starting point for the choices we must make, prioritising the most urgent lifesaving and protection work,” Fletcher wrote. It’s part of the relief chief’s job to help the sector speak and act in a collective voice, but action on cuts and reforms will come down to the many aid groups – from grassroots outfits to massive agencies – that comprise the sector. This includes the World Health Organization, which faces a bigger funding gap than previously thought, Health Policy Watch reported. ”Everything is on the table, including merging divisions, departments and units, and relocating functions,” WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told staff during a town hall meeting.
African Union tries to prevent return to war in South Sudan
An AU delegation arrived in South Sudan this week to defuse tensions after President Salva Kiir put Vice President and former rebel Riek Machar under house arrest, while detaining many other opposition officials. The AU's Peace and Security Council called for Machar's immediate release, though its mediators were reportedly denied access to the opposition leader, as was Kenya’s special envoy – former prime minister Raila Odinga – who visited South Sudan last week. Kiir accuses Machar and his SPLM-IO party of trying to stir a rebellion by collaborating with the White Army, a militia that overran a military base last month in the town of Nasir in Upper Nile state. Independent experts say the vice president (who has tenuous command even over SPLA-IO forces) was not involved, and that the White Army was acting in self-defence after the government sent forces to attack Nasir. Kiir has long used a peace deal with Machar to strengthen his own position and weaken his rival.
The evolving use of drones in African insurgencies
The use of drones in Africa’s conflict zones is well established. Militaries in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, and Sudan typically employ Turkish- and Chinese-made medium-altitude long-endurance systems – although not always with precision. A combination of wrong intelligence, mistakes in explosive payload calibration, and “pilot” error means civilians have borne the brunt of errant strikes. Less well documented has been the proliferation of drone use by Africa’s jihadist groups. These are cheap off-the-shelf quadcopters used for surveillance and to coordinate attacks by insurgents in Somalia, Mozambique, the Sahel, and Nigeria. Recently, there has been an evolution, with explosive-laden drones used offensively against military targets – typically dropping grenades on troops or as “suicide drones” crashing into their positions. It’s perhaps only a matter of time before another deadly iteration appears: the twinning of drone systems with open-sourced AI for enhanced planning and targeting. Africa’s insurgent groups have already proven quick to adopt tech innovations – and the barriers to AI have tumbled.
Weekend read
First person | Eid amid the unfathomable horror unfolding in Gaza
“To realise there is no end in sight is exhausting.”
A Palestinian journalist writes about the weight of a war whose aims have been reduced to two choices for Gaza’s population: death or expulsion.
And finally…
Are Musk’s mistakes errors, baked-in chaos, or both?
Termination notices sent to thousands of USAID employees by Elon Musk’s cuts squad were so riddled with errors they’ll have to be redone, Reuters reported. Of course, this will be no surprise to aid workers who have weathered the contradictions, disorganisation, and gaslighting that have marked US aid policy during Trump 2.0: Humanitarian waivers were promised but it was unclear who was approving them; exemptions were granted but no money flowed; aid grants were cancelled before some were reinstated; USAID staff were terminated then partially extended. Chaos is baked into the design of Trump 2.0. But it’s evident that Musk, a Trump benefactor and beneficiary, has also lent his own tech ethos to the White House: Move fast and break things.
