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Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
UN inquiry concludes Israel is committing genocide as assault on Gaza City intensifies
Since mid-August, nearly 250,000 people have been forced to flee Gaza City by Israel’s escalating assault. More than half did so in the past week, according to the UN. The Israeli military’s unrelenting attack on Gaza City and forced displacement of its population comes as a UN commission of inquiry concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza – adding further confirmation to the conclusions of numerous rights groups and experts. The commission’s findings, released on 16 September, did nothing to prevent Israel from launching a ground invasion of Gaza City that day. Israeli leaders have explicitly stated that they intend to take over the enclave’s main metropolis, where, until recently, around one million people – many who had already lost their homes earlier in the war and who were suffering an Israeli-induced famine – were living. What the fate of both those trying to stay or unable to leave the city and those forced to flee will be is entirely unclear. The New Humanitarian’s contributor, Rasha Abou Jalal, has been keeping a daily diary of life in the face of Israel’s assault. “I tried to endure longer, refusing the idea of displacement to the south. I could not accept the thought of leaving my city, Gaza,” she wrote. But as her neighbourhood emptied out and Israeli drones prowled the air firing at random, the prospect of death – either by starvation or Israeli violence – began to seem inevitable. Read her harrowing account: “The steadfastness and will to stay broke”.
Africa’s growing hunger crisis
Africa is facing its most severe hunger crisis in decades. Over 282 million – more than one in five people – are affected by climate shocks, economic instability, and conflict. In West and Central Africa, 52 million people are struggling – an all-time high. In East Africa, 42 million people are also facing acute hunger. With climate forecasting pointing to drier-than-usual conditions in parts of the region, the situation is set to deteriorate. Currently, Sudan and South Sudan have the highest toll of hunger-threatened communities. In Sudan, 24.6 million people are in a nutrition crisis, with famine and the risk of famine underway in multiple areas as the civil war grinds on. South Sudan has the largest share of people going hungry – 57% of its population. Flooding is the latest climate threat as rising waters submerge vast areas in Jonglei, Upper Nile, and Unity states – with 400,000 expected to be displaced by the end of the year. Overshadowing that emergency is the threat of widespread conflict (see below), and the expansion of the current pockets of famine.
Curtains up on an existential UNGA
High-level week at this year’s UN General Assembly opens in New York on 22 September with Gaza front and centre – and with broad questions about the future of the UN itself in the backdrop. As Israel’s destruction of Gaza and atrocity crimes against Palestinians escalate, there’s another push for member states to use what levers they have to end a genocide. Some Global North countries are considering recognising the State of Palestine – part of a pre-UNGA declaration led by France and Saudi Arabia that also backed the idea of a ”temporary international stabilisation mission” in Gaza (three quarters of the world’s states already recognise Palestine, FWIW). There are also calls for the General Assembly to invoke the rarely used “uniting for peace” resolution – originally created to bypass Security Council inaction – to trigger an emergency session on Gaza and recommend a peace operation. The UN itself is at a crossroads – funding stripped, painful cuts under way, and reforms like Secretary-General António Guterres’ UN80 proposal more reactive than transformative so far, according to critics. In any case, Guterres’ upcoming departure (sideline chatter about the next UN boss is likely to pick up as well) dilutes his power to push reforms. It’s all happening as crises spiral around the globe – and as funding for humanitarian response wanes, along with the multilateralism needed to end conflicts.
UNGA event: Remaking humanitarianism: Dispatches from the future. Join us on 25 September.
Machar charges leave South Sudan on the brink
South Sudan’s main opposition movement has called on supporters to use “all means available” to defend the country – an apparent call to arms that follows its leader, Riek Machar, being charged with murder and treason. Machar was also suspended from his position as first vice president, a role he took under the terms of a peace agreement with President Salva Kiir to end a civil war between their groups. Though widely seen as a sell-out by his grassroots base, Machar’s sidelining could still drive his own forces – and other nominally aligned anti-government groups – towards a broader insurgency. The charges stem from Machar’s alleged role in an uprising by the White Army, a militia that has been battling government forces since March. While the group did mobilise for Machar during the civil war, in-depth reporting by The New Humanitarian suggests he was not behind the current fighting. Critics and analysts suspect the ailing Kiir trumped up charges as a pretext to collapse the peace deal and sideline long-time rivals as he prepares to hand power to his chosen successor, businessman Benjamin Bol Mel. The latest developments have left the peace agreement and unity government effectively dead – though in reality, both had been faltering for years as Kiir’s party chipped away at the opposition with defections and military operations. Meanwhile, Kiir and his inner circle have been accused of siphoning off vast public revenues and looting the country’s wealth for private gain, according to a new UN report. Among the examples it cited: $1.7 billion paid to companies tied to Bol Mel for road construction projects that were never built. Read our latest report for more: Who is the White Army, the militia at the centre of renewed conflict in South Sudan?
Nepobaby protests sweep Asia
A spate of protests against political entitlements, nepotism, and societal inequities is sweeping across the Asian continent. Nepal is under an interim government after a week of protests against a social media ban led to police killing at least 74 people and to the nation’s three-term prime minister, Khadga Prasad Oli, stepping down. Protesters who spoke to The New Humanitarian in Kathmandu said the 4 September ban on 26 social networking services was a likely reaction to the proliferation of #nepobabies content all over Nepali social media. Those posts highlighted the fact that the children of well-to-do politicians were enjoying appointments and perks while the average Nepali had to live through a cycle of bribes and unemployment. In the Philippines, where President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is the son of a notorious former president, demonstrators – prompted by devastating floods – are venting all over social media about an unequal society overrun by entitled elites. In Indonesia, protesters, including hundreds of broom-wielding women, were set off by a potential housing allowance for parliamentarians nearly 10 times the average salary of a Jakarta resident. But it was the 28 August killing of Affan Kurniawan that really ignited those protests and rippled across the region – as many in Gen Z’s gig economy identified with the young motorcycle delivery driver crushed to death in a police crackdown. Excessive perks for MPs have also led to protests in Timor-Leste after lawmakers were slated to receive free government-purchased cars. All of this follows last year’s youth-led ouster in Bangladesh of autocratic ruler Sheikh Hasina. For more from Nepal, read this story from TNH’s reporting fellow Ahmer Khan.
America’s Reichstag fire moment?
In 1933, four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Germany’s chancellor, an arson attack on the Reichstag – the country’s parliament – provided the pretext for Hitler’s government to suspend civil liberties and consolidate authoritarian control. Since Charlie Kirk, far-right influencer and close ally of President Donald Trump, was killed on 10 September, the question of whether America is facing its Reichstag moment no longer seems hyperbolic. Kirk’s suspected killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, is now in custody, and evidence of his motive paints a muddled picture. But Trump and his allies in the MAGA movement have been quick to push for a draconian crackdown on “the left” – an ambiguous, catchall term. “We have radical left lunatics out there and we just have to beat the hell out of them,” Trump told reporters. Top figures in the administration have followed up on that with pledges to go after NGOs and donor organisations that support liberal political organising and causes. Trump also said he would designate Antifa, a loose-knit, anti-fascist movement, as a terrorist organisation and has launched a $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times. At the same time, right-wing activists online have been doxxing people whose comments after Kirk’s killing they took issue with. Dozens of people have lost their jobs. This has reached the highest levels of US popular culture, with late night comedy host Jimmy Kimmel having his show suspended by the ABC television network on 17 September. How far the crackdown will go, at this point, is anyone’s guess.
Weekend read(s)
EXCLUSIVE: Israel has killed nearly 3,000 Gaza aid seekers
“These are not isolated incidents. They're not just similar incidents. They are a pattern, and reflect policy and an acceptance on the part of the state that this should continue indefinitely.”
Our interactive database shows nearly 200 attacks, and a sharp uptick since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operations on 27 May.
Israel’s mass killing of Gaza aid seekers: An undeniable pattern of escalating atrocity crimes
“We’ve normalised horror.”
The nearly 200 attacks we recorded contribute to the growing evidence that Israel is committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
And finally…
Latest UN cutbacks: COP30 bedrooms
Amid a year of crippling funding cuts, the United Nations is now navigating another major demand on its budget: Amazonian hotel rooms. More specifically, the price gouging taking place in the Brazilian city of Belem, which is hosting the COP30 UN climate summit in November. Extortionate accommodation costs are a feature of most COPs – which attract tens of thousands of people globally, sometimes to quite random, unprepared places (see: COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh) – but concerns around the prices in Belem have seen warnings the conference could be the “least inclusive ever”. Admittedly, these warnings are raised by cash-strapped green activists every year ahead of COP. But what doesn’t happen each year is the head of the UN climate secretariat, Simon Stiell, asking UN agencies to try to decrease the size of the teams they are sending to the summit. “In view of the capacity constraints in Belem, I would like to kindly request that heads of the United Nations system, specialised agencies and other relevant organisations review the size of their delegations at COP30 and reduce numbers where possible,” Stiell said, in a document that appears to have been deleted from the UNFCCC website following media reporting.
