Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
New Israeli war and aid plans seen as “death blow” in Gaza
Israel is mobilising tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to dramatically expand its more than 18-month-long war in the Gaza Strip, which has already laid waste to the territory and brutalised the population. The plans, approved on 5 May, would have Israel seize control of Gaza and directly occupy it for an indefinite period of time. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said that Gaza’s population will be moved to the southern part of the territory as part of the new offensive, essentially confirming that Israel intends to do what many have long feared: permanently displace Palestinians from their homes and ethnically cleanse part or all of the enclave. In parallel, Israel has also developed plans to take over aid distribution in Gaza, replacing the existing UN-led system. UN officials and aid groups have rejected the plan and said they will not participate in it because it abandons fundamental humanitarian principles and deliberately weaponises aid as part of a strategy of military control. But a new organisation, called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is led by American military contractors and ex-military officers and aid officials, is floating a proposal to implement the Israeli plan. All of this comes as Israel has been blocking all aid from entering Gaza since early March, pitching the territory into the worst humanitarian and starvation crisis of a war already marked by hunger and severe deprivation. For more on Israel’s aid plan and the current situation on-the-ground in Gaza, read: With Israel’s expanding war and plan to take over aid, my colleagues and friends in Gaza fear a “death blow”.
Refugees in Dadaab protest aid cuts
Food distribution has been suspended and aid workers have left Kenya's northeastern Dadaab refugee complex following a clash close by on 8 May between Kenyan security forces and the insurgent group al-Shabab, refugees told The New Humanitarian. The suspension comes as refugees staged a peaceful protest earlier in the week over USAID funding cuts, which have sharply reduced food rations and access to water, healthcare, and education. The World Food Programme has snipped the basic minimum ration by 40%, providing just three kilograms of sorghum and rice per person per month – without beans and oil. “That won’t sustain you for even a week,” Mohamed Jimale, a refugee in Hagadera camp, told The New Humanitarian. “You won’t die but can’t really survive either.” A lack of fuel now means that boreholes in the three-camp complex of roughly 500,000 refugees pump water for only an hour a day: “People are reduced to drinking stagnant rainwater,” said Jimale. The protesting refugees also cited the lack of drugs in clinics and the inability of the cash-strapped UN refugee agency to register secondary school students. Refugees that had been employed by NGOs are also facing widespread layoffs, said Jimale. Look out for the next instalment of our Dadaab Voices series on the impact of the aid cuts.
Kashmir tensions stoked by media narratives
Tensions between India and neighbour Pakistan continue to flare, following the 22 April attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 tourists. New Delhi claims that the killings are tied to Pakistan. Though India has yet to provide any evidence to back it up, that allegation has been the basis for New Delhi’s continued military actions against Islamabad. In the latest development, both countries have accused the other of drone and missile attacks. Pakistan said more than 30 civilians were killed in the Indian attacks. Residents in Indian-administered Kashmir also reported hearing the sounds of explosions and sirens earlier in the week, which Indian officials said were the result of Pakistani fire. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reached out to officials in both countries and urged them to move towards “immediate de-escalation”. The countries’ media have struck a nationalistic tone: In particular, Indian media has taken on an aggressive stance, appearing to encourage military action that many fear could lead to an all-out war between the two rivals.
Sudan’s conflict takes to the skies
The paramilitary-turned-rebel Rapid Support Forces has launched a series of drone strikes on Port Sudan – the country’s wartime capital – in a sign of the conflict’s widening geographic reach and the growing role of air power. The group has been on the backfoot in recent months, kicked out of Khartoum and other key cities by the army and allied militias. Yet it has amassed an arsenal of long-range drones and used them to target critical infrastructure in army-held areas around the country, causing massive blackouts and leaving civilians feeling that nowhere is safe. The strikes on Port Sudan – which had enjoyed relative stability since civil war broke out in April 2023 – targeted an army base, fuel facilities, and an airport that serves as the primary entry point for humanitarian supplies and personnel coming into Sudan. The army (which has its own drone fleet and fighter jets) responded by severing diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates – the RSF’s principal foreign backer – and calling it an “aggressor state”.
Two views on the ceasefire in Yemen
The US and Yemen’s Houthi rebels both say that they have agreed to a ceasefire. While the sides differ on their framing of the Oman-brokered deal, the upshot appears to be the end of US bombing on Houthi targets in Yemen, and a stop to Houthi attacks on American ships in the Red Sea. The announcement came shortly after two days of Israeli strikes on the airport in Sana’a, which reportedly killed seven people and injured dozens more, and is likely to worsen Yemen’s humanitarian crisis by damaging civilian infrastructure and cutting off key supply routes. A Houthi official said the ceasefire did not include attacks on Israel, and it is continuing to send drones toward Tel Aviv. US President Donald Trump’s attacks on the Houthis have been increasingly frequent and intense over the past few months and have killed civilians, including a reported 68 people in a detention centre for African migrants in late April.
Weekend listen
Power Shift | No one wants to depend on aid, including refugees
Who has the power to improve refugee response?
What happens when a stateless activist sits down with one of the UN refugee agency’s highest-ranking officials? Listen in on the latest episode of the Power Shift podcast.
And finally…
Can you mine lithium and protect the environment at the same time?
Influential philanthropists or oligarchs – take your pick. Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos both have history in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Bezos Earth Fund has granted $110 million for protecting the Congo Basin’s biodiversity. The Gates Foundation, meanwhile, has previously taken flack for its interest in palm oil in the country, though philanthropic funds have also poured into vaccines and other health programmes. The billionaires’ latest effort is decidedly less biodiversity-friendly: A controversial $1 billion lithium mining project. KoBold Metals, backed partly by Gates and Bezos, this week finalised a deal to buy out another company, AVZ Minerals, which had lost its rights to drill in 2023 (partly to a Chinese company, Zijin Mining). It comes amid a mooted “peace-for-minerals” deal between the United States and DRC, in which the central African nation is seeking help against advancing M23 rebels backed by Rwanda (which is also involved in the US talks). The controversial diplomacy – which has echoes of the US-Ukraine minerals deal – was thoroughly embraced by KoBold, who vowed to “make America and the DRC safer, stronger, and more prosperous”. The company’s public statement explicitly tied the mining prospect to the “peace process”, and the US government is noted as a “stakeholder”.
The lithium mine is in Manono, Tanganyika Province. Both the town and wider region have endured sporadic violence for years. UN humanitarian coordination agency OCHA recorded more than 20,000 people displaced in the town in 2024, and food insecurity is a major concern. While KoBold has a slick PR operation and promises to mine “for the benefit of all”, extractive projects in DRC have historically been highly unequal, with profits enjoyed overseas. Gates says he wants more taxes on the mega-rich: Will the billionaires’ influence help share the wealth this time?
