Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
Talk of ceasefire reemerges amid Gaza’s unabating horror
Israel is continuing to commit war crimes and genocide in Gaza through its effort to replace the UN-led aid system with the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), Amnesty International said on 3 July. Since the GHF began operating at the end of May, thousands of people have been injured and more than 600 have been killed trying to get aid from its four distribution centres. Israeli soldiers have been ordered to open fire on unarmed civilians waiting for aid at these sites as a means of crowd control, according to an investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “It’s a killing field… Our form of communication is gunfire,” one soldier said. US military contractors working at the GHF’s sites also regularly lob stun grenades, use pepper spray, and fire live ammunition at Palestinians trying to get food, according to an AP report. On 26 July, the US approved $30 million in new funding for the GHF, while UN-led aid efforts are on the edge of imminent and total collapse due to Israeli-imposed obstacles, including a more than 17-week-long refusal to allow fuel to enter Gaza. Meanwhile, Hamas is discussing a US ceasefire proposal. The potential sticking point is the same as in previous talks: guarantees from Israel that any deal will lead to a permanent end to the war. As discussions have been ongoing, Israel has stepped up its aerial assault on Gaza. An airstrike on the Al-Baqa cafe – a community staple in Gaza City that became a haven for journalists during the war – killed at least 33 people on 30 June, including photojournalist Ismail Abu Hatab. Israel used a US-supplied 500lb bomb in the strike. The death toll since 7 October 2023 recorded by the Gaza Healthy Ministry stands at over 57,000. The true toll, according to another report in Haaretz, is likely close to 100,000 dead.
A shaky (and shady) US-brokered peace deal in DRC
The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda have signed a US-brokered peace deal that is supposed to bring an end to conflict in the region – but there are plenty of skeptics. The deal, like others before it, calls for Rwandan troops to withdraw from DRC – where they are supporting the M23 rebel group – within three months. At the same time, the Congolese government will take military action against the FDLR, a militia founded by exiled Rwandan genocidaires. The US has described the deal as historic, but there are catches. First, it doesn’t directly involve the M23. It calls on Kinshasa and Kigali to support separate talks between the Congolese government and the M23 in Qatar, but those discussions have been topsy turvy so far. Second, the pro-government Wazalendo militias that have done much of the fighting against the M23 are left out – something they are unlikely to accept. Third, the US wants to obtain economic benefits from the agreement in the form of access to Congolese minerals worth vast amounts of money. Many, therefore, see the agreement as a Trump-led resource grab rather than diplomacy. Fourth, the deal fails to address issues of justice and could include provisions to give M23 officials positions in the government and military – a de facto pay off for the rebels that may incentive future armed uprisings.
The human costs of dismantling US humanitarian assistance
USAID funding cuts could kill 14 million people by 2030 – including 4.5 million infants – as health programmes are pulled, according to a study in the Lancet. The cuts “threaten to abruptly halt and reverse one of the most important periods of progress in human development… [T]he resulting shock [for poor countries] would be similar in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict”, said the study. The report’s findings – disputed by some – came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio authored a Substack article deriding USAID, the former US development agency, which has now been officially folded into the State Department. Rubio declared that aid should be used “in furtherance of an America First foreign policy” and said future assistance would be “targeted and time limited”. It outlined an approach that will be more political and focused on trade. Meanwhile, Trump celebrated the passing of a major new finance bill, which cut food and health support for poor Americans but massively increased funding for Trump’s immigration crackdown (more on that below).
Record drought, broiling heatwaves, and lackluster talks on climate
Some of the worst droughts in recorded history have taken place in the past two years, according to a new UN report, which collected information on droughts and their impact world wide to show how dry weather affects almost all aspects of life in countries across the Global North and South. “This is not a dry spell. This is a slow-moving global catastrophe, the worst I've ever seen,” said Dr Mark Svoboda, report co-author and director of the US National Drought Mitigation Center. The report’s publication came amid a broiling heatwave in Europe, which has caused at least eight deaths in several countries as temperatures, yet again, surpassed seasonal averages. Meanwhile, the UN climate talks – humanity’s main mechanism for tackling global warming – have been floundering. The meetings that mark the halfway point between COP summits ended last week in Bonn, Germany, but they made little progress, with governments more preoccupied with tense domestic and geopolitical environments.
US ends Syria sanctions
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order ending many sanctions on foreign financing to Syria, following a May promise he made before meeting with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The order keeps sanctions on former President Bashar al-Assad and his associates – ousted last December – and orders Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review the terrorist designations of al-Sharaa and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group he led for years that toppled al-Assad. Rights and aid groups have long argued that broad sanctions on Syria have contributed to Syria’s economic collapse and widespread poverty while hindering the humanitarian response. Trump has said that removing the sanctions will support Syria’s efforts to rebuild, and both US and Syrian authorities have emphasised the importance of a unified country that is safe for all of its ethnic and religious groups. The challenge of building some sense of harmony – especially after years of war and division, reinforced by the state and various factions – was highlighted once again by a late June suicide bombing at a Damascus church that killed 25 people and injured many more.
In case you missed it
AFGHANISTAN/RUSSIA: The Russian Federation has become the first nation to recognise the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate as the official government of Afghanistan, nearly four years after the group returned to power. The announcement came one day after Moscow became the sixth nation to accept an official ambassador from the Islamic Emirate. When the Taliban were last in power in the late-1990s, only three nations officially recognized their government: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
AFGHANISTAN/UK: The UK has officially ended its resettlement scheme for Afghan nationals. The move, declared by parliament, ended two programmes that provided a path to the UK for vulnerable Afghans who had worked with the UK military or government during the US-led occupation and for women and other minority groups who feared they would be targeted by the Taliban-led government. The International Rescue Committee said the closures represent “a concerning abandonment of the UK's commitments to the people of Afghanistan”.
BANGLADESH: Ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been handed a six month prison sentence in absentia in a contempt of court case. Hasina, who has been in exile in India since she was forced from power after a weeks-long protest movement last year, is also the subject of an extradition request from the interim government. The charges of contempt date back to a leaked conversation in which Hasina can be heard saying, “there are 227 cases against me, so I now have a licence to kill 227 people”.
EAST AFRICA: Two east African activists say they will sue the Tanzanian government for illegal detention and torture during a visit in support of an opposition politician in May. Kenya’s Boniface Mwangi and Uganda’s Agather Atuhaire allege they were sexually assaulted before being deported. Both said they plan to initiate cases in Tanzania, as well as the East African Court of Justice and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
ETHIOPIA: Eight rusted screws, a steel pair of nail clippers, and a note, written in ballpoint pen and wrapped in plastic, all inserted into a Tigrayan woman’s womb. Those details are part of horrifying testimony collected by the Guardian of the extreme sexual violence, rape, and torture committed by Eritrean soldiers against tens of thousands of Tigrayan women – aimed at destroying their fertility – during the war in Ethiopia’s northern province two years ago. Warning: it’s a difficult read. See also: Ethiopia conflicts trigger surge in rape and violence against women.
EUROPEAN UNION: Overshadowed by Trump’s immigration and mass deportation campaign, EU countries are continuing their dramatic rightward lurch on migration and asylum rights as well: Greece recently dispatched navy vessels to prevent departures from Libya amid an increase in arrivals on the island of Crete; Germany announced that it will stop funding NGOs trying to plug a gap in migrant rescue efforts in the central Mediterranean Sea, left by the withdrawal of EU states; and Austria became the first EU country to deport someone to Syria since the fall of the Assad regime, setting what rights groups warn could be a dangerous precedent.
HAITI: A year since the launch of the Kenyan-led multinational security mission to Haiti, armed gangs have expanded their control over the capital, Port-au-Prince, now dominating nearly 90% of the city. The UN has warned of a looming “total collapse of state presence in the capital”. The mission aimed to send 2,500 troops, but so far, only about 1,000 have been deployed, primarily from Kenya, with additional forces from Jamaica, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and the Bahamas. Operating at only 40% of the intended capacity, the joint operation has struggled to regain control and reestablish state presence. Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in Haiti is escalating, with approximately 1.3 million people displaced amid dwindling aid.
KENYA: Anti-government protests are expected to resume in major towns across Kenya on Monday, 7 July. Dubbed the Saba Saba protests (meaning 7/7 in Swahili), they are being organised to mark the 35th anniversary of demonstrations that helped bring an end to single-party dictatorship in the country. A similar youth-led protest movement has been met with a brutal response from the regime of President William Ruto, with nearly 20 killed by security forces during protests on 25 June.
SUDANESE REFUGEES: The World Food Programme has warned that its support to Sudanese refugees in the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan, and Uganda may grind to a halt in the coming months because of funding shortages. More than four million people have left Sudan since war erupted in April 2023.
UNITED STATES: President Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies are about to get a massive injection of cash. The US congress passed an omnibus budget bill covering much of Trump’s political agenda that the president was set to sign into law on 4 July. The bill contains around $170 billion in funding for new immigration detention centres, deportation operations, border wall construction, and other anti-migration initiatives. The news website Salon pointed out that this is more money than any country in the world spends on its military, except for the US and China, and more than four times the World Food Programme’s estimate of the yearly amount of money needed to end global hunger by 2030.
Weekend Read
Could (and should) private investors make up for US aid cuts in Afghanistan?
“When no one officially recognises a country’s government, they also won’t recognise its investors and entrepreneurs.”
A senior US diplomat recently indicated that the United States will no longer provide financial assistance, saying private investors must do more.
And finally…
AI for Good?
The AI for Good summit returns 8 July with the stated aim of solving global challenges – alongside warnings that the UN needs to keep a closer eye on who it partners with. The yearly conference in Geneva is partly a display of flashy tech and a summit of ideas, bringing together techies, thinkers (so-called AI “godfather” Geoffrey Hinton is a frequent guest), a K-pop outfit, and a phalanx of reps from Big Tech. This latter cohort is why this year’s summit has caught the eye of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, known as BDS. The movement says companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Cisco, Oracle, and IBM are complicit in atrocity crimes in Gaza, including genocide, for supplying services and tech to the Israeli defence ministry. Many of these companies are also named in a report by the UN’s own Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, released on 1 July, titled “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide”. BDS is urging the UN to cancel all partnerships with “complicit tech corporations”. Tech from companies like Microsoft and OpenAI, for example, have “empowered Israel to track and kill” far more quickly in Gaza, the AP reported. Beyond a single AI summit, it’s another example of the deepening questions around the aid sector’s growing dependence on tech and private partnerships. Humanitarians and Big Tech don’t share the same values. But as cash-strapped aid groups look for funding and solutions elsewhere, they’re increasingly sharing the same stages.
