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Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
Iran war: Israel’s gas field strikes threaten civilian energy lifeline
Political wrangling over who knew what before Israel bombed Iran’s South Pars gas field aside, the 18 March strikes marked a significant escalation in the US-Israeli military campaign. The deliberate attack on by far the world’s largest natural gas field – which Iran shares with Qatar and which accounts for some 70% of Iran’s domestic gas production – threatens an energy lifeline for Iranian civilians. Iran retaliated by upping its strikes on energy sites in the Gulf region, including on Qatar’s main gas export terminal, Ras Laffan. World energy prices surged. But US-Israeli attacks have also been hitting other types of civilian infrastructure inside Iran that are not making headlines: The Iranian Red Crescent has counted hits on 498 schools and 236 health facilities. Meanwhile, in Lebanon, heavy Israeli bombardments have now forced more than a million people to flee their homes. Israel has targeted bridges and bombed medical buildings, killing dozens of healthcare workers, including first responders. Israel says ambulances and medical facilities are being used by Hezbollah, a claim Lebanon’s Ministry of Health denies.
Pakistan bombs Kabul rehab centre, killing hundreds
Afghanistan’s Taliban-led Islamic Emirate government says a Pakistani airstrike on a 1,000-bed drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul on 16 March killed at least 400 men, most of them in treatment at the time. The UN verified 143 deaths at the Ibn Sina Drug Addiction Treatment Hospital but said the number will likely go up. Pakistan claims the strike hit a weapons depot, but calls are mounting for an independent investigation. Amnesty International said Pakistan failed to properly assess the intelligence. “Even if an ammunition depot was present inside the wider camp, the decision to attack should have been weighed against any excessive harm that it was likely to cause to civilians,” it said. The flare-up of hostilities between Afghanistan and Pakistan has been overshadowed by events in Iran and the Gulf but has serious implications for regional stability and militancy. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of providing safe haven to the Pakistani Taliban militant group, which the Islamic Emirate continues to deny. On 18 March, at the behest of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, Pakistan agreed to pause attacks on Afghanistan during the Eid al-Fitr holiday. That armistice is expected to last until 24 March. For more, read this Editor’s take from Asia Editor Ali M. Latifi.
UNICEF suspended as aid dwindles in Gaza
Israeli authorities have suspended UNICEF from bringing aid into Gaza after claiming to have found smuggled nicotine products in hygiene kits belonging to the UN agency. The brother of the head of Israel’s internal security service and numerous reserve soldiers were recently indicted by an Israeli court for smuggling cigarettes into Gaza. UNICEF ranks third among UN agencies and NGOs in terms of aid brought into Gaza since Hamas and Israel reached a ceasefire agreement last October, according to a UN tracking mechanism. The suspension comes as humanitarian groups are having to dip into stockpiles because needs are outpacing the amount of aid Israeli authorities are allowing in. Israel closed all of Gaza’s border crossings following the beginning of the war with Iran. The Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem border crossing has since reopened, but Israeli authorities are severely restricting what and how much is allowed to enter. The Rafah border crossing with Egypt partially reopened on 19 March for limited medical evacuations and returns. Meanwhile, a report by the UN’s human rights office found that Israel’s expansion of illegal West Bank settlements displaced 36,000 Palestinians between October 2024 and October 2025. The rate of displacement has accelerated this year, as has violence by the Israeli military and settlers. Israeli soldiers killed four members of a family, including two children, in the West Bank on 15 March. Settlers also attacked a Palestinian herding community on 12 March, beating around 20 people and sexually abusing one man.
Boko Haram triple bombing kills 23 in Nigeria’s Maiduguri
Three simultaneous bomb explosions by Boko Haram in Maiduguri on 16 March killed at least 23 people and injured more than 100. The early evening blasts – as people were breaking their Ramadan fast – targeted the entrance to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, and two popular markets. It was a significant security breach in the centre of a city that’s the headquarters of the Nigerian military’s counter-insurgency campaign in the northeast, and of the humanitarian response. The last bombing was on a mosque in December last year, and prior to that in 2021. The suspected suicide attack follows a series of setbacks for the military at the hands of Boko Haram’s larger rival, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Over the last few months, the group has overrun a string of rural bases in coordinated attacks. It tried again on 18 March at Malam Fatori, near the border with Niger, using armed drones. But this time the assault was repelled by the army with the help of air support. ISWAP reportedly lost more than 60 fighters, including senior commanders.
RSF attacks spill Sudan’s war over into Chad
The paramilitary-turned-rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has once again attacked the Darfur border town of Tina, with more than 123 injured people arriving at a hospital supported by Médecins Sans Frontières near the Chad frontier. A drone strike – with responsibility still unclear – also killed 17 people on the Chadian side of the border. Tina has been hosting large numbers of displaced Darfuris fleeing RSF attacks elsewhere, many of them supported by a local emergency response room recently profiled by our reporters. The RSF has also recaptured the strategic town of Bara, one of the largest in North Kordofan state, while reportedly assassinating 12 civilians – including six women – in the nearby village of Sherim Mima. Some had hoped that as the RSF’s chief external backer, the United Arab Emirates, focuses on countering Iranian drones and missiles, it might scale back support for the group. But cargo flights from the UAE to countries neighbouring Sudan are reportedly continuing. Some also argue that Abu Dhabi’s absorption of the costs of the US-Israel war on Iran makes it even less likely that Washington – a key player in Sudan diplomacy – will seriously pressure the Emirates to stop backing the RSF.
Crunch time for Cuba’s Díaz-Canel
Cuba is facing its most critical hour since US President Donald Trump imposed a complete oil blockade on the island in January, deepening a humanitarian crisis driven by American sanctions and government mismanagement. Trump has been stepping up the bellicose rhetoric, saying he believed he would “have the honour of taking Cuba” and he could “do whatever [he wants] with it”. Hit by constant blackouts that paralyse nearly all activities, rampant inflation, and rising food insecurity, Cubans had to endure the collapse of the electricity grid on 16 March. Their despair is increasingly turning into defiance: Peaceful pot-banging protests against the food and medicine shortages have multiplied and, in a rare act of rebellion, demonstrators attacked the headquarters of the Communist Party in the central city of Morón. President Miguel Díaz-Canel has announced new measures to try to alleviate the economic crisis, including the creation of public‑private enterprises and allowing expatriates to own businesses in Cuba. But it may not be enough to save him. The New York Times reported that the Trump administration told Cuban authorities that the ousting of Díaz-Canel was a condition to progress in their negotiations – a claim Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied.
Weekend read
Aid group scrubs content after TNH exposes donations to Israeli soldiers and settlers
One NGO has deleted and edited at least 20 posts about donations to Israeli soldiers and illegal settlements or work in Israeli-occupied Syria.
And finally…
Is there an “emergency brake” for climate change?
What if there was a quick fix for a problem driving about a quarter of global warming? Well, there just might be. Methane risks triggering climate tipping points that would be catastrophic, but the gas is also naturally removed from the Earth’s atmosphere far more quickly than carbon dioxide, leading some experts to view cutting methane emissions as an “emergency brake” for climate change. The world’s worst “mega-leaks” of methane in 2025 were predominantly concentrated in Turkmenistan, with others in the US, Venezuela, and Iran, according to new satellite data analysis released by the Stop Methane Project at the University of California, Los Angeles. The leaks of the potent greenhouse gas largely resulted from poor infrastructure at oil, gas, and landfill sites, which could be repaired easily and at low cost. “It is really maddening,” UCLA researcher Cara Horowitz told The Guardian. “These sites are the result of poor maintenance – if you upgraded the infrastructure a little bit, did good housekeeping, you could solve a really important part of the problem. We’re hoping that by bringing visibility to these major issues, we will help increase public and political pressure to do something.”
