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Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
RSF war crimes include targeting disabled people: report
The paramilitary-turned-rebel Rapid Support Forces deliberately targeted and killed people with disabilities during and after its takeover of El Fasher last October, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. Based on interviews with 22 survivors and witnesses, investigators found that RSF fighters accused civilians with disabilities of being wounded combatants, while mocking others as “insane” or not “complete”. One nurse said she saw fighters kill a young man with Down’s syndrome, a blind child, and a woman who was unable to walk. The findings add to a growing body of evidence of RSF crimes in El Fasher, which a UN fact-finding investigation said last week bear the hallmarks of genocide. Still, despite mounting scrutiny, the RSF is continuing its military operations. This week, it clashed with army-aligned forces in al-Tina, a town near Chad that is vital for cross-border trade and humanitarian access; Chad has since closed its frontier with Sudan until further notice. The RSF also attacked Mistereiha, the village stronghold of Musa Hilal, an internal Darfuri rival of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Both are from the Rizeigat Arab communities that form the backbone of the RSF.
Israel making West Bank annexation “an irreversible reality”
A slew of unlawful policies put in place by Israeli authorities since December is “deliberately designed to dispossess Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to make the annexation of the territory an irreversible reality”, Amnesty International said in a 26 February press release. In the nearly six decades since Israel occupied the Palestinian territory, successive Israeli governments have overseen the establishment and expansion of settlements as well as the creation of a discriminatory legal system. Together, rights groups have said these policies, in certain places, amount to the international crime of apartheid. Even by that measure, the actions taken by Israel’s current far-right government – including dramatically expanding illegal settlements, allowing violent settlers to rampage across the territory, and introducing new mechanisms to dispossess Palestinians of their land – have been an “unprecedented escalation”, according to Amnesty International. These developments have been enabled by unconditional US support and the failure of the rest of the international community to hold Israel accountable, the press release said. In a further sign of the US lockstep with Israeli policies, the US embassy in Israel announced it is beginning to provide consular services to US citizens in illegal West Bank settlements.
How jihadists are expanding from the Sahel
Two recent reports have shed light on the territorial expansion of Sahelian jihadist groups. First, conflict-monitoring organisation ACLED reports that the al-Qaeda-affiliated JNIM and Islamic State-aligned ISSP have expanded across the borderlands of Benin, Niger, and Nigeria. Comparing 2024 and 2025, violent events rose by 86%, while associated fatalities increased by 262%. ACLED says the trend reflects “a combination of continued spread, growing lethality, and risks to civilians in the regions concerned”. Second, a new report by the International Crisis Group warns that jihadist expansion beyond the Sahel remains a major security concern, particularly for Benin and Togo. However, its analysis – focused primarily on JNIM – suggests the group’s push into coastal West Africa has been less aggressive than many feared in the late 2010s. JNIM’s central leadership, the report argues, is attempting to balance fears of overstretch and fragmentation with pressure – especially from lower-ranking commanders – to recruit more fighters, profit from cross-border trade, and establish additional rear bases.
US war fears linger in Iran and the wider region
Talks in Geneva between the United States and Iran over the latter’s nuclear programme wrapped up on 26 February with no deal: Negotiators said progress had been made, but many in the Middle East remain fearful of another war. The Oman-mediated indirect talks are supposed to reconvene next week in Vienna, but the US has announced new sanctions against Iran and continues to send warplanes, ships, and military personnel to the region. The military build-up – combined with threats from US President Donald Trump, and Iran’s promise that it will retaliate if the US strikes the country – has people in Lebanon especially worried. Israel and Hezbollah signed a ceasefire in late November 2024, but Israel has continued to bomb Lebanon, killing more than 370 people and damaging civilian infrastructure even further. Hezbollah’s ties to Iran, plus Lebanon’s location, make it particularly vulnerable to being dragged into a new war, and the US decision to pull all but essential staff from its embassy in Beirut this week likely did not inspire confidence. While predictions abound, Trump gave no sign of his plans in the longest-ever State of the Union address: The best most civilians in the region can do is just wait and see.
Pakistan declares “open war” on Afghanistan after latest flare-up
Violence has once again broken out between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with Islamabad declaring “open war” on Kabul. Late on 26 February, Afghan forces fired on military bases across the border in Pakistan, reportedly using drones. Pakistan retaliated early overnight on 27 February, bombing what it said were military and infrastructure targets in Kabul and several border provinces. Afghanistan’s Islamic Emirate government said its attacks were a response to Pakistani airstrikes on 21 and 22 February that reportedly killed at least 13 civilians in Nangarhar province. Pakistan accuses the Taliban-led government of harbouring fighters from the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan and the so-called Islamic State armed groups – accused of being behind recent attacks in Islamabad and Peshawar. Afghan Minister of Interior Sirajuddin Haqqani said the “doors for dialogue” remain open but insisted that if Afghanistan continues to be attacked, it will respond. Iran, a mutual neighbour and close ally of the Islamic Emirate government in Afghanistan, has offered to mediate between the two sides. Türkiye and Qatar helped to forge a fragile ceasefire after a previous flare-up in October.
What next for WFP when McCain steps down?
Cindy McCain took over as head of the World Food Programme in 2023, just as global aid funding was plummeting. Her successor will have to navigate a dramatically changed humanitarian landscape filled with sceptical funders, fraught politics, and spiralling emergencies. McCain will step down as WFP’s executive director after a three-month transition, citing health concerns (she suffered a mild stroke in October, the agency said). Deputy Carl Skau of Sweden will be officer in charge, McCain told staff. After being appointed in 2023, one of McCain’s first moves was to order deep spending cuts and an organisational restructuring (which happened to funnel operational oversight through Skau). Compared to other organisations that were still planning budget hikes, WFP acted relatively early in anticipating the trends that have seen the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and other big donors carve up their funding. The question soon turns to McCain’s successor. US nationals have held the position continuously since 1992, under the UN’s barely concealed horse-trading of key leadership roles. The WFP chief is nominally chosen by the UN secretary-general and the head of the Food and Agriculture Organization (currently Qu Dongyu of China). The odds of choosing a non-American might be low most years. But given President Trump’s antagonistic UN stance, and that António Guterres is in his final months as secretary-general, does the calculus change?
Zambia, Zimbabwe pause US health deals
Zambia and Zimbabwe are pushing back on US health aid agreements that include preferential access to epidemic data and, in the case of Zambia, a side deal on access to copper and cobalt. Lusaka said it was rethinking its $1 billion agreement, which offers $500 million less in aid over five years. Under the deal, Zambia was supposed to provide the US with information about pathogens with pandemic potential for 25 years and data-sharing for a decade. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has been more forthright in rejecting its $367 million bilateral agreement, describing it as “clearly lopsided”. The US had reportedly insisted on instant access to information about pathogens, while refusing to agree to benefit-sharing of any products developed as a result. The US has signed health deals with at least 17 African countries – designed to see US support fall as governments ramp up their health spending. However, they tie health spending to US commercial interests, and reflect Washington’s current ideological battles, politicising – and potentially undermining – lifesaving programmes.
Weekend read
“City of forced waiting”: Stuck at Mexico’s southern border
“They don’t have anywhere to go because the system is collapsed.”
Every day, people forced to flee countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are arriving in the city of Tapachula, with nowhere else to go.
And finally…
AI’s unwitting footsoldiers
On paper, AI is now the world’s most valuable industry, but its boom has been fuelled by thousands of poorly paid gig workers from across the Global South, who help train data sets. Reporting from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) suggests that work may not always have been used for peaceful means. Many AI gig workers were employed to do monotonous training tasks by Australian company Appen, which supplies datasets to tech giants like Apple. Many of these workers were Somali refugees living in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya who transcribed and translated seemingly random audio for Appen. “I personally could not understand what it was about,” one worker told TBIJ. But, according to the TBIJ report, Appen also has extensive links to the US military, and the Somali gig workers may have been unwittingly providing them with intelligence analysis. While some tasks were innocuous, others were more sinister. “I felt very like I was part of a war somewhere,” said a former Appen employee who managed Somali workers.
