Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
Gaza: Israeli escalation, looming famine, and genocide
Israel appears to be moving ahead with the promised escalation of its war in the Gaza Strip and plans to seize control of the whole territory, intensifying its bombing campaign and pushing the death toll in the enclave directly from hostilities to over 53,000 people. Israel’s total blockade of Gaza – in place since the beginning of March – is also putting Gaza’s population of 2.1 million people at “critical risk of famine”, according to a new analysis by the IPC, the world’s foremost authority on food insecurity. People are being forced to eat animal feed, boil grass, slaughter horses, and catch turtles from sewage-contaminated water to try to feed themselves, Oxfam’s Bushra Khalidi wrote in an op-ed. “Immediate action is essential to prevent further deaths, starvation and acute malnutrition, and a descent into Famine,” the IPC analysis said, adding that the widely rejected aid plan put forward by Israel would be insufficient to meet the population’s needs. In a forceful statement to the Security Council, Tom Fletcher, head of emergency aid coordination body OCHA, became the first UN official to use the term genocide in relation to Israel’s war in Gaza. Fletcher did not outright accuse Israel of committing genocide – a conclusion reached by numerous rights groups – but did ask the Council: “Will you act – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law?” For more, don’t miss Nour ElAssy’s powerful first-person on Palestinian journalism: We are the only eyes left inside Gaza.
Trump meets al-Sharaa, lifts US sanctions on Syria
US President Donald Trump met with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh this week, a meeting that is particularly remarkable given that the US offered a $10 million reward for al-Sharaa’s arrest up until last December for his role as the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a rebel group that the US considered terrorists. Shortly after the meeting, Trump announced he was lifting sanctions on Syria, a change that – depending on how it is implemented – aid groups say could help alleviate the suffering of millions of Syrians and boost the aid effort after so many years of war and economic collapse. It could also be a game-changer for reconstruction, including private investment, and some expect the Gulf states and Türkiye to be in line for the latter, making it no coincidence that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan helped convince Trump to make the change. It’s worth keeping in mind that the US is not the only country that has sanctions on Syria, and untangling the complex web of restrictions – some in place since the mid-1970s – will be no small feat.
UN reform plan big on cost-cutting, low on vision
The UN’s big reform plan, revealed this week, has been dismissed by critics as an exercise in bureaucratic tweakery that fails to address the key challenges facing a cash-strapped institution that is under fire from all sides in an increasingly polarised world. UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s 12 May speech on the UN80 Initiative – the global body will mark its 80th birthday in June – outlined three strands of reform: cost-cutting, structural reform, and a review of the UN’s 3,600 mandates. The reductions will be significant: Guterres said 20% cuts from both UN peace departments – already announced – “must be seen as a reference for the wider UN80 exercise”. But the speech was widely panned for not tackling bigger issues around the UN’s role in a fast-fragmenting world. It bore the ”fingerprints of outsourced consultant thinking” and was “institutional, traditional, defensive”, said David McNair, executive director of global policy at the ONE Foundation. “The most important question – reform for what? – remains unanswered,” wrote aid worker Stephanie Hodge. Separately, the World Health Organization announced a major shake-up of its senior leadership posts, reducing the number of positions and leaving respected figures like Mike Ryan, head of the Health Emergencies Programme, out in the cold.
Peace hopes in Türkiye, as PKK renounces armed conflict
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, an armed group that has staged a decades-long armed fight for greater rights and autonomy for Türkiye’s ethnic Kurdish population, has announced that it will disband as part of peace efforts with Ankara. The PKK, which Türkiye, the US, and the EU have long labelled a “terrorist” group, now says it wants to ensure Kurdish rights through politics and not armed conflict. Since its 1978 founding, the PKK has claimed responsibility for some of the deadliest attacks in a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people. Giving added hope to peace efforts this time around – several previous attempts have failed – is the fact that the group’s leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999, called in February for the group to disarm and disband. The group then convened a gathering and agreed to do so, as well as announcing a unilateral ceasefire. Ankara has said it is considering parole for Ocalan, while President Erdoğan is pushing for Kurdish groups across the border in Syria to follow suit.
ISWAP attacks intensify in northeastern Nigeria
Jihadist insurgents attacked four military bases in northeastern Nigeria over a 24-hour period this week, killing troops and destroying equipment in a blow to an already demoralised army. The so-called Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) killed seven soldiers and stole military hardware when they overran Marte, on the western shore of Lake Chad, on 13 May. A day later, they overwhelmed Rann, near the Cameroon border, killing four soldiers and taking more equipment. The army managed to repel two more raids that day on Dikwa, near Rann, and Gajiram, west of Marte. But the growing tempo of attacks – at least 10 bases have been hit in the last two months – has alarmed the authorities. ISWAP is a skilled and nimble adversary. They are a military “peer in training and tactics”, notes a well-connected analyst, utilising drones and night-vision equipment against army positions. The security setbacks are raising concerns that the northeast could be slipping back into the chaos of a decade ago, with large-scale population displacements and food insecurity – even though the government has pledged more money to revamped armed forces.
Burkina Faso: Dozens killed in fresh assault on Djibo
The al-Qaeda-linked JNIM group has stepped up attacks across Burkina Faso in recent days, including a major assault on the northern town of Djibo, one of the areas hardest hit by a decade of conflict. Fighters briefly controlled the town, overrunning a military camp and killing dozens of soldiers and civilians. Home to around 300,000 people, Djibo has been under a suffocating blockade for years. Jihadists stop supplies from coming in, while the army restricts what can leave, aiming to stop goods from reaching militant-held rural areas. In the past, community leaders were allowed to negotiate with the fighters to try and lift the siege. But those efforts were halted by the current junta, which favours military action over dialogue. Though the junta – and its much-memed leader – still enjoy considerable support locally and abroad, they’ve faced coup threats, and their operations have caused significant civilian casualties, which tend to boost rebel recruitment. In one such case in March, an operation involving the army and pro-government groups led to the killing of at least 130 Fulani civilians – a community long stigmatised due to the involvement of some members in jihadist groups – according to a report released this week by Human Rights Watch.
Weekend read
Myanmar in-depth: Slow earthquake response underlines need to overhaul long-flawed international aid efforts
“There’s new attention, with the earthquake, to Myanmar: It ideally should encourage a shift in approaches.”
Six weeks after a major new disaster, calls are growing to find new ways to address a host of access, funding, and structural response challenges.
And finally…
US cuts health aid to Zambia over corruption
When Mulmbo Haimbe, Zambia’s foreign minister, warned diplomats this week to stop interfering in Zambia’s domestic affairs, everyone knew he was referring to the US envoy, Michael Gonzales. Given that Washington doesn’t take kindly these days to a chiding – even obliquely – that took some courage. But Haimbe’s bluster didn’t disguise the seriousness of the issue raised by Gonzales. Fed up with corruption in the health system – and after repeated warnings – he announced the US was cutting $50 million in health aid. "We are no longer willing to underwrite the personal enrichment of fraudsters or the corrupt when patients go without or have to buy lifesaving medications that we have provided for free," Gonzales said. The US accounts for about a third of public health spending in Zambia. The government's response has been to raid more than 400 health facilities and arrest 75 people over the thefts. However, research by the US embassy suggests the scams are far broader than that.
