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Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
An uncertain ceasefire in Iran
After five weeks of war, the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on 8 April. Its basic details, however, and to what extent it will be implemented, are surrounded by uncertainty. A main sticking point is the question of whether Lebanon was included in the deal. Iranian and Pakistani officials are insisting it was, but the US and Israel say that it wasn’t. Meanwhile, Israel is continuing to carry out devastating attacks on Beirut and other parts of Lebanon (more on that below). The shaky ceasefire is based on a 10-point plan to end the war sent by Iran to Washington in the final hours before a deadline set by US President Donald Trump. If Iran did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Trump threatened on 7 April that a “whole civilization will die tonight”. Since the ceasefire began, some vessels have begun to trickle through the strait, but Iran is maintaining a chokehold on passage. The fate of the ceasefire could be decided in the coming days as US and Iranian officials head to Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, for peace talks.
Israel unleashes day of terror in Lebanon
Israel’s position on the question of whether Lebanon was part of the US-Iran ceasefire was made painfully clear on 8 April, as Israel unleashed a massive series of attacks on Beirut and throughout the country. Many of the strikes targeted densely-populated civilian neighbourhoods, killing at least 303 people, by the latest count. Hospitals were struggling to deal with the influx of casualties, already working on power supplied by generators and with supplies dwindling. On 9 April, Israel issued an evacuation order for the Beirut neighbourhood of Jnah, which includes two hospitals, Rafik Hariri University Hospital and Al-Zahraa, that are treating the injured. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said there is nowhere to evacuate patients to and urged Israel to reverse the order. While various aid groups and leaders urge for the inclusion of Lebanon in the truce, and issue conflicting statements, Lebanese civilians have once again been left to wait, search for survivors, and mourn the dead.
Less money = more questions about aid’s future
A record year-on-year cut to foreign aid is the headline. But there’s a deeper question beneath new stats from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on global foreign aid spending: Is the development cooperation system still viable? Official development assistance, or ODA, fell to $174.3 billion in 2025, according to preliminary figures from the OECD. It’s a record 23% drop from 2024 and “a major shock” to the system itself, the OECD says. “It calls into question both the fiscal space available in developing countries to sustain their long-term development, and whether the reduced volume of ODA can remain effective and maintain its catalytic role to offset these pressures,” OECD analysts said in launching the new data. For more, explore the numbers and read our takeaways.
Evaluating Gaza’s so-called ceasefire, six months on
Six months ago, on 10 October, Israel and Hamas agreed to a 20-point US ceasefire plan that was supposed to bring an end to the two-year Israeli military campaign that has laid waste to the Gaza Strip, immiserated its population, and been deemed a genocide by a UN commission of inquiry, multiple rights groups, and numerous experts. Since then, Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes on the enclave, killing over 730 people and injuring over 2,000. While the level of violence has declined from the full-scale war, the continued attacks do not qualify as a ceasefire, according to a new scorecard published by five humanitarian organisations that evaluates the implementation of the US plan against its stated objectives. In every area the groups evaluated – including aid access, civilian protection, reconstruction, and freedom of movement – Israeli authorities have failed or only partially implemented the agreement. Daily life in Gaza remains stark, with Israel physically occupying more than half the strip, choking off aid, preventing Palestinians from returning to their homes, and carrying out widespread demolitions of property. “This word ceasefire doesn’t reflect the reality around us. Ceasefire suggests safety. It suggests stability. It suggests the beginning of recovery. It suggests the beginning of reconstruction. Here in Gaza, none of these conditions exist,” Ghada Al Haddad, a communications officer with Oxfam in Gaza, said during a press conference introducing the scorecard on 9 April.
Burkina Faso’s post-coup record of human rights abuse
The most comprehensive human rights report on Burkina Faso’s conflict since the 2022 coup that brought Ibrahim Traoré to power has documented the killing of nearly 2,000 civilians by both state security forces and jihadist groups. The report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) details 57 incidents based on hundreds of interviews, finding evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity that it says warrant examination by the International Criminal Court. Under Traoré, authorities have carried out brutal counterinsurgency campaigns, including a string of massacres of civilians living in areas controlled by the al-Qaeda-linked JNIM group. Fulani communities – whom jihadists have heavily recruited from – have been disproportionately targeted, in patterns that HRW says appear systematic rather than the work of isolated actors, and which have caused displacement that amounts to ethnic cleansing. For its part, JNIM has also carried out mass killings, punishing those who refuse to join its ranks or whom it accuses of collaborating with government forces. The report notes that the full civilian death toll in the conflict is unknown. See our years of in-depth reporting for more.
Signs of goodwill and unresolved tensions in US-Cuba relations
A week after the US allowed a Russian oil tanker to dock in Cuba and said it would soften the blockade imposed on the island since January, the Cuban government announced it would release more than 2,000 prisoners. The news came as a sign of goodwill from Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. But tensions are far from resolved. In the past few weeks, President Trump has oscillated between threats of imminent intervention and signs of easing. Despite the decision to release political prisoners, Díaz-Canel struck a less conciliatory tone in an interview with Newsweek. He warned that if the US attacks Cuba, “[Cuba] will fight back” – a statement dismissed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as irrelevant. The UN has meanwhile warned of the worsening impacts of the energy blockade and unveiled an updated humanitarian action plan. For more on the situation in Cuba, read: As Trump threatens to force change, what do Cubans want and what do they fear?
In case you missed it
AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN: A week of talks between Afghanistan and Pakistan in China have come to an end. The talks were aimed at bringing an end to Pakistani military attacks that have caused hundreds of civilian deaths in Afghanistan since February. Afghan officials said the talks were “constructive”, but there was no clear outcome in terms of ending the conflict. Pakistan began attacking Afghanistan over what it says is the Islamic Emirate’s support for armed groups that routinely target civilian areas in Pakistan.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Under a deal with the United States, Kinshasa is to take in people deported by the Department of Homeland Security. Kinshasa said the first deportees will begin arriving this month but provided no details on numbers. Washington has struck similar arrangements with at least seven other African countries.
HAITI: Kenyan officers of the UN’s Multinational Security Support mission (MSS) deployed to help fight gangs have been involved in four cases of sexual abuse and exploitation, according to a UN report. The allegations include three cases of rape of minors. In a letter sent to the UN Secretary General, the Kenyan government disputed the allegations, saying they where unsubstantiated. For background, read: The new Gang Suppression Force and what it means for Haitians.
HUMAN RIGHTS: Silicon Valley has channelled millions of dollars into organisations actively undermining human rights worldwide, a new report has alleged. The Institute for Journalism and Social Change (IJSC), in partnership with the feminist think-tank Noor, has identified a decade-long trend of financial support by Big Tech firms for groups involved in anti-LGBTQI "conversion therapy" in Latin America, anti-abortion legal challenges in Eastern Europe, and "sexual purity" programming across Africa.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Over 80 people are believed to have drowned following yet another migration-related shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea. This one took place off of Libya’s northwestern coast. Two merchant boats rescued 32 survivors. Nearly 1,000 people have died in migration-related shipwrecks already this year in the Mediterranean – a spiralling toll even before the onset of summer, when departures and deaths usually both increase.
NIGERIA: The prosecution has begun of more than 500 people accused of involvement in violent extremism in one of the country's largest ever terrorism trials. Some defendants are alleged to have taken part in attacks in the northeast, while others face charges of supporting the 17-year-old jihadist insurgency through funding or supplying arms and logistics. The mass trial opened this week at a high court in the capital, Abuja, where 227 suspects were arraigned before 10 judges.
SOMALIA: Drought-driven Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of food insecurity are expected in northern, central, and Juba pastoral areas through May, with pockets of households in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) in the Bay and Bakool areas, the hunger monitor FEWS NET has warned. After consecutive seasons of poor rainfall, increased livestock deaths, negligible milk production, and near-record high food and water prices, northern and central pastoral areas are expected to remain in IPC Phase 4 through September.
SOUTH SUDAN: President Salva Kiir has fired the parliamentary speaker and her deputy, further shaking up the country’s fragile political landscape. The dismissal follows accusations that Speaker Jemma Nunu Kumba had mismanaged parliamentary funds. She has not yet responded to the allegations. This latest reshuffle comes just weeks after Kiir fired his finance minister without explanation amid a growing political succession battle.
UNITED NATIONS: The influential but little known UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations is the grouping of 19 states empowered with choosing which civil society groups are allowed access to the UN. Critics are calling foul on its recent elections: Only one vote was competitive, allowing 13 governments hostile to civil society to stroll into the committee and play havoc with NGOs trying to engage with the UN. “When States with genuine intent… invest in these bodies, they can help stave off more problematic actors from gaining power over critical UN functions,” said Maithili Pai, Senior Programme Officer at the International Service for Human Rights.
UNITED STATES: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents shot and injured a man, Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, in California on 7 April during an attempted apprehension. The agency’s use of force has been a source of controversy and scrutiny following numerous violent incidents – including the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this year. Following violent incidents, ICE has a record of putting out demonstrably false accounts of what transpired, which appears to be the case in Mendoza Hernandez’s case as well.
WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: The US has nominated agriculture official Luke Lindberg to succeed Cindy McCain (a Biden-era appointee) as chief of the UN’s World Food Programme – a key humanitarian role. As head of trade and foreign agricultural affairs at the US Department of Agriculture, Lindberg recently led a MAGA rebrand of US food aid. He has previously touted weapons exports to Israel’s military and strong support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The top WFP post is usually held by an American, but picked by the UN secretary-general. For more on what’s at stake, read: Will the next World Food Programme chief answer to Trump?
What are the implications of a Trump appointee leading the world’s largest humanitarian agency? Read more here.
Weekend read
Reflections of a Lebanon aid worker on holding on while everything collapses
Hind Obeid writes about navigating displacement while helping others make it through the same war.
And finally…
From military hero to war criminal: Ben Robert-Smith’s arrest
Australia’s most well-known and decorated soldier has officially been charged with five counts of war crimes for murders he allegedly committed in Afghanistan. Ben Roberts-Smith, who for years has been hailed a war hero in Australia, is to be tried in what is being called the nation’s “trial of the decade” after Australian Federal Police and the Office of the Special Investigator said he was involved in at least five murders of Afghan civilians between 2009 and 2012. Though Australian commentators and Elon Musk have lambasted the charges against Roberts-Smith, residents in Afghanistan’s southern province of Uruzgan, where most of Sydney’s forces were stationed during the US-led occupation, are calling for justice. This is not the first time Australian forces have faced scrutiny for war crimes during the occupation of Afghanistan. In 2019, the Australian military confirmed Australian soldiers murdered 39 people in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016. In 2025, Sydney agreed to pay compensation to affected Afghan families. In a statement, Human Rights Watch said Roberts-Smith’s arrest at Sydney Airport showed that “even those deemed ‘war heroes’ are not above the law”.
