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Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
Trump threatens Iran strikes as regional allies push diplomacy
As the United States continues to build up its military presence near Iran, President Donald Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric against the country’s theocratic leadership, warning they must do two things to avoid strikes: “Number one, no nuclear. And number two, stop killing protesters.” Amid frantic regional diplomatic efforts involving Türkiye, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Gulf nations, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told a press conference with his Turkish counterpart in Istanbul on 30 January: “If negotiations are fair and equitable, Iran is ready to participate in such talks.” Iran’s neighbours in the Persian Gulf have all said they will not allow US forces to use their airspace for any attack, while Israeli and Saudi officials visited Washington to discuss possible strikes, which British Prime Minister Keir Starmer indicated he would support. Meanwhile, the EU has labelled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which is charged with maintaining the security and order of the Islamic Republic and its leaders, a “terrorist” organisation. The designation comes after weeks of protests led to a crackdown that left thousands of people dead: Wide-ranging tolls given by US-based rights groups and the Iranian state are impossible to verify. For more on the economic collapse underpinning the recent protests, read our latest article from Tehran.
A year of rebel rule brings hardship to DR Congo’s Goma
It has been a year since the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group seized Goma, the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the security and humanitarian situation remains dire for millions of residents. The takeover on 27 January was marked by large-scale killings (though the precise death toll remains disputed) and kick-started the rebels’ biggest ever expansion, paving the way for the capture of Bukavu further south and other key towns. Displaced people who had sought refuge in Goma saw their camps closed, while other civilians were targeted on suspicion of links to the Congolese army or allied militias. An investigation we published last year documented a catalogue of M23 abuses, including summary executions, mass arrests, and forced recruitment. The economic picture is just as bleak. Banks were closed by Kinshasa when the city fell and remain shuttered, and the local airport is still not operating. People have improvised – pooling resources, and crossing into Rwanda to access cash – but the strain is showing. As one of our reporters in Goma told us this week: “Many people are living without income and without prospects. Some have begun to leave the city, abandoning their homes and part of their personal history.”
US agents kill Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, two weeks after Renée Good
Federal law enforcement agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 24 January while Pretti was using his phone to document the ongoing immigration crackdown in the city. Pretti’s killing came just over two weeks after a federal agent shot and killed Renée Good in Minneapolis. The city has been the target of a massive immigration operation since late last year – part of the Trump administration nationwide deportation push – that residents liken to an occupation. Heavily armed federal agents have snatched people off the streets, used small children as bait to detain their parents, detained students on the way to school, and illegally tried to enter a foreign consulate. People in Minneapolis have banded together to resist the crackdown, developing community networks to monitor the movements of immigration agents, blowing whistles and honking horns to alert people to their presence, and protesting. Federal agents have responded with teargas, pepper spray, and physical force. Following Pretti’s killing, Trump administration officials tried to claim that he posed a violent threat to agents, but those claims quickly fell apart as videos of his killing came out. At least six people have lost their lives during Trump’s immigration crackdown since it began last year.
Sudan’s army ends RSF siege of Dilling
The Sudanese army announced this week that it has broken the Rapid Support Forces’ siege of Dilling, a town in South Kordofan where a long-running blockade forced roughly half the civilian population to flee last year and left those who remained facing acute shortages of food and healthcare services. Dilling is the second-largest town in South Kordofan – which has become a key battleground in the war – and only a lack of data appears to have stopped monitors from announcing a famine there. The UN says the security situation remains highly volatile and that humanitarian access routes are still cut off, while local medical groups report that dozens of civilians were killed and injured in an RSF drone strike on the city on Wednesday. Siege warfare has become a signature RSF tactic throughout the conflict: starving towns and cities into submission while its fighters profit from smuggling networks and by controlling escape routes.
Global gag rule raises more US dilemmas for aid groups
The US is expanding its so-called “global gag rule” to ideological extremes, and humanitarians are still grappling with the consequences. The Trump administration expanded the on-again, off-again anti-abortion care directive known as the Mexico City policy to include nearly all foreign assistance, including humanitarian funding sent through UN agencies and international and local aid groups. It also slaps sweeping bans on programmes related to diversity and equity, and gender identity. Among the gag rule’s impacts are: more abortions, more unwanted pregnancies, and higher school dropout rates for girls. Harsher rules will extend more harm to trans people and others in the LGBTQI+ community, and to racialised communities and others already on the margins in emergencies. For humanitarian groups, the move injects more chaos into emergency responses: Will they over-comply and over-interpret the rules – cutting more than they need to and undermining others that provide reproductive care? Will they choose between US funding and other donors – making them even more dependent on a volatile donor? These risks are inevitable, say those in women’s health movements, who have hard-won lessons from previous gags. The expanded rules also recast the dilemmas around $2 billion in recently announced US humanitarian funding. Humanitarians were parsing the sparse fine print for signs of ideological compromise. With the new version of the gag rule on the horizon, accepting US funding has become an even finer ethical tightrope.
Sexual violence spikes in Haiti
Sexual and gender-based violence have surged in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, amid the country’s long-running economic and political crisis, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said in a 28 January report. It draws on data from an MSF clinic in the city, where monthly admissions for sexual violence have spiked from 95 to 250 since 2021, when the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse sparked an escalation of gang violence and a new era of insecurity in the Caribbean nation. Since 2022, most survivors have reported attacks by members of armed groups, sometimes involving multiple assailants. Displacement and insecurity have prevented most survivors from accessing treatment within the critical window for preventing HIV and unwanted pregnancy. MSF stresses urgent, coordinated action to expand medical, psychosocial, and protection services alongside long-term support. Four dozen US lawmakers have signed a 22 January resolution condemning abuses against women and girls in Haiti. For more on how survivors are struggling to recover, read this article from February last year.
Weekend read
Fear and uncertainty for Yazidis and Kurds in Syria amid government advances
For minority groups in the northeast, the fragile ceasefire holding around Kobani comes with more profound questions over their future in Syria.
And finally…
TikTok deal raises US censorship fears, sparks exodus
Majority ownership in TikTok’s US assets have officially been transferred over to a group of investors. The administrations of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump had raised alleged national security concerns over ByteDance, a Chinese company, having access to so much user data. One of the largest individual stakeholders in the new company is Larry Ellison, the Oracle CEO who co-owns Paramount with his son David. Ellison’s closeness to the Trump government and his ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have raised concerns about alleged censorship on the app since the handover became official. A US-based comedian said she was unable to post about the violence inflicted against US civilians by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents (see above). There are also reports that use of the name “Epstein”, in reference to the deceased billionaire sex abuser, in direct messages is censored. Most notably, a Palestinian journalist with more than 1.4 million followers said she was banned from the app within days of the takeover. TikTok has said some of the issues may be due to a problem at one of its data centres, however, given the accusations of biased reporting lobbed at CBS News following the Ellisons’ takeover of Paramount, users are sceptical and are deleting the app in their millions.
