Share & more
Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
War on Iran sets off cascading human costs
The human toll of the war on Iran is rising fast and spreading. At least 1,332 people have been killed in Iran since the US and Israel began their bombardment of the country on 28 February, according to the Iranian Red Crescent. It gave no split of military versus civilian casualties but US military investigators have reportedly concluded that American forces were behind the bombing of a Tehran school that killed scores of young girls. A US submarine also torpedoed an Iranian warship on 3 March as it headed home from a military training exercise in India, sinking the vessel and killing at least 84 sailors. In Lebanon, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has warned of a humanitarian disaster as Israel continues its strikes on the country, which have already killed at least 217 people and displaced around 100,000. Thousands of civilian buildings have also been struck in Iran, including one of Tehran’s main hospitals, which suffered severe damage. The Islamic Republic has had to delay the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei several times due to the relentless bombardment. US President Donald Trump called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and said he wanted a say in picking its next leader. His Secretary of War said Washington had no plan to take in any Iranian refugees. Iran, meanwhile, showed no sign of ending its retaliation across the Gulf, targeting the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman with drone and missile attacks. Two Iranian drones also struck Azerbaijan, including an airport. Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to set any ship “ablaze”. As a fifth of all of the world’s crude oil passes through the narrow waterway, experts say prolonged disruption will cause global energy costs to soar. For more on the far-reaching humanitarian impacts, read our briefing.
Gaza braces for siege as Israeli forces raid Palestinian homes in the West Bank
Israel’s widening war with Iran is deepening Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, as new security measures effectively seal the territory off from the outside world. Israel, on 28 February, closed all crossings into Gaza – including the Rafah border with Egypt – while also tightening movement restrictions and carrying out raids across the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces killed two Palestinian men in one 2 March raid. The restrictions came as Israeli and US attacks on Iran triggered an eruption of air and missile strikes across the region. Despite the reopening of the Rafah crossing on 3 March, aid groups have warned that the remaining closures are swiftly draining supplies. Food stocks could run out within days, and panic buying and price spikes are spreading. The measures have revived memories of last year’s famine, which caused hundreds of hunger-related deaths.
At least 178 killed in single attack as South Sudan unrest escalates
An attack by fighters on a village in South Sudan’s Ruweng Administrative Area has killed at least 178 people, most of them civilians, according to multiple media reports. Responsibility for the assault appears disputed, but the scale of the killings underscores the rapidly escalating violence in the country, whose long-moribund peace agreement fully collapsed last year. The attack follows reports of atrocities in adjoining Jonglei state, where government forces have been battling the main opposition movement, the SPLM-IO, who are ostensibly still part of a power-sharing administration. Last month, more than a dozen civilians in Jonglei were reportedly killed after being lured from their homes by government-allied fighters under the pretext of registering for food aid. A hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was also hit by a government airstrike, while another health facility was burned and looted. On 2 March, MSF said 26 staff who had been working at the two sites remained unaccounted for. Tensions are also rising within the government’s own camp, with President Salva Kiir continuing to fire and/or arrest top officials, leaving many politicians in Juba living in fear of detention.
Dozens of Afghan civilians killed as Pakistan pursues “open war”
Dozens of civilians have been killed in Afghanistan since renewed clashes broke out with Pakistan at the end of last month, according to the UN. A statement sent to journalists via email says that UNAMA (the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) verified and recorded 56 civilians killed and a further 129 injured due to indirect fire and aerial attacks between 26 February and 5 March. Since Pakistan declared “open war” on the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan on 27 February, a refugee camp in Nangarhar province and a resettlement camp for victims of last year’s earthquakes in Kunar province have come under Pakistani fire. Despite calls for de-escalation from Türkiye and Russia, Pakistani officials have insisted they will not scale back their strikes until the Islamic Emirate government in Afghanistan halts its support for militants known as the Pakistani Taliban. Islamabad claims they are provided safe haven by Kabul, a charge the Islamic Emirate denies.
Catastrophic aid shortfalls in East Africa
Chronic crises along Africa’s eastern coast are affecting more than 10 million people across three countries, according to humanitarian agencies. A coalition of local and international aid groups is appealing for $185 million to assist at least 3.3 million people in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid counties who are facing acute hunger following the failure of last year’s rains. Further south in Mozambique, flooding following heavy rains in December and Tropical Cyclone Gezani in February has impacted more than 720,000 people, according to Save the Children, with a quarter of a million children cut off from school. Meanwhile, to the north, a severe malnutrition crisis in Somalia resulting from overlapping crises – including recurrent droughts and floods, ongoing conflict, disease outbreaks, and soaring living costs – has imperilled 6.5 million people. International humanitarian funding for Somalia has plummeted by over two thirds, according to the International Rescue Committee. The World Food Programme’s country director said the funding shortfall means food aid is reaching less than 15% of those who need it.
As trust fractures, weaponised information costs lives
Harmful information is becoming a life-threatening risk during disasters, a new report warns. False, misleading, or manipulated information can cost lives and undermine and threaten aid responses, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said as part of its annual World Disasters Report, launched on 5 March. In South Sudan, for example, unfounded rumours of poisoned food pushed some to avoid distributions. In Sudan, manipulated info about territorial control delayed evacuations or pushed early returns to unsafe areas. Or during 2024 floods in Spain, online narratives led to attacks on volunteers following claims that the Spanish Red Cross was diverting aid to migrants, the IFRC said. Amid a crisis of trust, aid groups are increasingly struggling with how to handle weaponised information targeted at them and the people they’re trying to help. It’s one of many topics on the schedule during the ongoing Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week forum, which shifts to three days of in-person sessions from 10-12 March in Geneva.
Weekend read
Bullying allegations and board resignations: Inside Adeso’s governance crisis
“The organisation has unwittingly mirrored the unequal power dynamics it is seeking to change in the world.”
A whistleblower alleging mistreatment sparked an investigation that uncovered broader problems around leadership and financial mismanagement.
And finally…
Oops, we had sea level data all wrong…
Sea level rise is often talked about as among the most devastating of climate change hazards. So the data on it has to be among the best there is… right? Not so much. According to a new study, published in Nature, nearly all the impact assessments of sea level rise have “handled sea-level and land elevation data inadequately”. As a result, most predictions have been wrong. Consequently, between 77 and 132 million more people are at risk than previously thought, most of them in the Indo-Pacific region. “Our findings may have far-reaching implications for existing coastal adaptation, protection and mitigation strategies, especially those using satellite-derived elevation data as information base,” the study authors wrote. “It’s somewhat dramatic,” Torbjorn Tornqvist, a geology professor at Tulane University, Louisiana, told The New York Times on reviewing the study’s findings. “It turns out we’ve been comparing apples to oranges nearly all the time.”
