Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
Israel approves plan to seize Gaza City
Israeli security officials have approved a plan to take over Gaza City, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said that Israel would take military control over all of Gaza. Opposed even by top Israeli generals, the plan marks the latest escalation in a 22-month campaign – widely viewed as genocidal – that has seen Israel kill more than 60,000 Palestinians, and deliberately push the territory into famine. Israel, which already controls 75% of Gaza (notwithstanding its occupation), says the land offensive will once again aim to “defeat Hamas”, but UN officials say it will lead to more forced displacement and atrocity crimes. Starvation and malnutrition deaths have continued to climb as Israel maintains its brutal chokehold on aid (allowing in only dribs and drabs as PR), while a new UN report shows that Palestinians’ now have access to just 1.5% of their cropland. More civilians seeking aid have been killed this week, including a man crushed by an air-dropped crate, others when commercial trucks overturned, and dozens shot dead by Israeli troops as they tried to reach distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The US- and Israeli-backed GHF has been widely condemned for militarised food distributions that have led Israel to kill hundreds of Palestinians, yet US President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing to expand its operations and is urging the UN and other aid agencies to work with the group. Earlier this week, senior UN officials met secretly with GHF in a US-arranged meeting in New York. A read-out obtained by The New Humanitarian said the officials agreed to work in parallel, complementary ways with GHF, and discussed potential collaboration. The meeting comes after UN experts called for the dismantling of the group, and as Médecins Sans Frontières described its method of distributing aid as a “system of institutionalised starvation and dehumanisation”. Read our exclusive report for more: International aid agencies hold secret collaboration meeting with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. And watch this short video with TNH CEO Tammam Aloudat for more on why it matters.
UN’s Türk accuses M23 of civilian slaughter in eastern DRC
The UN’s human rights chief has accused Rwanda-supported M23 rebels of killing at least 319 civilians last month in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Volker Türk said the M23, backed by the Rwandan army, attacked four villages in the Rutshuru area of North Kivu, with most of their victims "local farmers camping in their fields during the planting season". Reuters quoted a UN report in July that said the attacks were supposed to target suspected members of the FDLR, a Rwandan rebel group founded by exiled Hutu extremists responsible for the 1994 genocide. There was a surge of violence last month by other armed groups, including the Allied Democratic Forces, CODECO, and Raia Mutomboki/Wazalendo militias, said Türk. The spike comes despite a bilateral peace agreement reached in June between DRC and Rwanda in Washington, and the so-called Doha agreement in July, committing both sides to a ceasefire and further negotiations.
Starvation countdown in Sudan’s El Fasher
Time is running out for starving people in the Sudanese city of El Fasher, the UN’s relief chief warned this week, as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces continues a brutal year-long siege. El Fasher is the only remaining city in Darfur where the Sudanese army and aligned armed groups still have a significant presence, and the RSF is refusing to allow in humanitarian supplies. WFP said it has not been able to deliver food assistance by road for over a year, forcing it to provide digital cash that is falling far short of the massive needs. Basic food items like sorghum and wheat currently cost up to 460% more in El Fasher than in the rest of Sudan, WFP said, adding that only a few community kitchens set up by local groups are currently functioning. Civilians have largely depended on so-called famine foods such as ambaz, an animal feed formed from the residue of peanut oil processing, but even this is running out, according to the latest report from Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab. The report said civilians attempting to exit El Fasher must pass through a single 50-metre-wide RSF control point – where people have been robbed, forced to pay bribes, and killed – and that burial activity at civilian cemeteries between early May and August show at least 378 new individual mounds. It is unclear how many people are currently inside El Fasher – hundreds of thousands have left over the past two years – but some local organisations suggest it is close to a million. The RSF – which grew out of the Janjaweed forces that perpetrated genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s – is being backed heavily by the United Arab Emirates.
Thousands of Muslim families evicted in India’s Assam
In India’s northeastern state of Assam, an escalating eviction campaign has displaced thousands of Bengali-origin Muslim families – commonly known as Miya Muslims – ahead of state elections. Since mid-June, authorities have demolished the homes of more than 5,300 Muslim families, accusing them of illegally occupying government land, in what is being described as the most intense crackdown in decades. In just the past few days, over 4,000 homes have been bulldozed and nearly 5,000 acres of land cleared, according to government data. Most of those displaced are now living in the open or in makeshift shelters constructed from tarpaulin sheets and plastic. The latest crackdown, carried out under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, has targeted only Muslims and recently sparked protests in which a teenager was killed. According to officials, Assamese, Nepali, and Boro families have been spared as many hold forest rights certificates. The spike in evictions comes in the wake of a deadly April attack on tourists in Kashmir, which Indian authorities blamed on “terrorists” allegedly linked to Pakistan – a claim Islamabad denies. In the aftermath, several BJP-ruled states launched widespread crackdowns, targeting Bengali-origin Muslims portrayed as “illegal immigrants” and threats to national security.
Asian countries suffer summer weather extremes
From the Indian subcontinent to the Central Asian steppe to the edge of the Pacific, the Asian continent has been plagued by extreme weather conditions this summer. China, India, and Pakistan have all been suffering weeks of torrential monsoon rains. Pakistan has been the worst hit: 300 people, including more than 100 children, have died in flood-related incidents since June. A recent study by World Weather Attribution highlighted the role that climate change played in worsening Pakistan’s monsoon season. Further east, the problem has been heatwaves. South Korea marked a record 22 consecutive nights with temperatures exceeding 25 degrees Celsius. Japan has also set new heat records: On 5 August, temperatures reached 41.8 degrees Celsius in the city of Isesaki, beating the previous high set the week before in the Hyogo region. While heavy rains claimed 10 lives and left dozens missing in Yuzhong County in northwestern China, tourists at a UNESCO-protected geopark in Inner Mongolia captured this footage of an enormous tornado. Fortunately, no lives were lost.
Is Kenya, under Ruto, playing all sides?
For decades, Kenya has been the model of cautious diplomacy in the East African region. But now Nairobi is increasingly seen as a less-than-honest broker and more an enabler of insurgencies, according to articles in The Africa Report (pay-walled) and Al Jazeera. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has long accused President William Ruto of tilting the Nairobi-led peace process in favour of Rwanda and the rebel M23 group. Sudan’s military council says Ruto tacitly backs the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces – including supplying weapons – which reflects investment-friendly UAE’s position in the conflict. Juba is also said to be concerned that Kenya has played a “double game” in facilitating peace talks with opponents of Salva Kiir’s regime. Analysts describe Ruto’s policy choices as “transactional opportunism”. Of his neighbours, only Uganda seems happy, with Nairobi having assisted in the abduction of a leading dissident of President Yoweri Museveni.
Weekend read
First Person | I don’t want to fight again in another Tigray war
Worst of it all is the prospect of seeing Tigrayans killing other Tigrayans. The last war was terrible, but at least we were united. At least we had a cause.
Tigray’s political class is split between support for Ethiopia or Eritrea, and Tigrayans fear they will pay the price.
And finally…
No one reads UN reports, says UN report
“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” This quote, attributed to 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal, accurately captures a problem faced by 21st century UN report writers. The number of reports produced by the UN system has grown by 20% since 1990 in tandem with their verbosity, with word counts rising by nearly half since the turn of the century. Despite pushing the system to “breaking point”, according to Secretary-General António Guterres, a fifth of the 1,100 reports released by the UN Secretariat last year attracted less than 1,000 downloads, with the most popular 5% being downloaded on average just 5,500 times. Guterres was, ironically, briefing on a report produced by the UN80 taskforce seeking ways to improve efficiency and cut costs at the organisation, though it remains unclear how many will actually read it. A directive issued in October last year already limits Secretariat reports to 8,500 words (with other UN bodies allowed slightly longer word counts), but Guterres now says the UN will mandate fewer, better designed (and hopefully shorter) reports. He could always take a leaf out of China's book: Lawmakers this week included a 5,000-word document limit as part of a directive aimed at freeing grassroots officials from “bureaucratism and pointless formalities”.
