The Friday Humanitarian Scan #18

The tech giants are running ads for illegal settlement housing, a gun license programme, and machinery used in the demolition of Palestinian property.

MSF’s latest report documents how Israeli authorities have used access to water and sanitation services as a weapon to collectively punish people in Gaza, Palestine.

In this latest report, MSF documents how the Israeli authorities’ repeated weaponisation of water in Gaza, Palestine, are not isolated acts, but part of a recurrent, systematic and cumulative pattern.

Countries: Pakistan, Iran (Islamic Republic of) Sources: International Organization for Migration, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Please refer to the attached Infographic.

Countries: World, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Yemen Sources: UN Children’s Fund, United Nations Population Fund Please refer to the attached file. As the global community approaches the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation has released its 2025 annual report entitl

Country: occupied Palestinian territory Source: Save the Children Save the Children staff have spoken with families who are too afraid to sleep at night, worried their children will be bitten by rats. ****GAZA, 1 May 2026 -****Plagues of rats, mice and insects have swarmed displacement sites in Gaza in recent weeks as temperatures rise, escalating health risks for about 1.4 million people living in overcrowded displacement sites, Save the Children said.[1] The United Nations Office for the Coord

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih (centre) speaks to internally displaced Lebanese families in Beirut.

There are reports of continuing clashes in Mali on Sunday, a day after a series of coordinated attacks across the landlocked African nation against Government forces by extremists and northern separatist rebels.

Four pillars of dysfunction – governance, security, infrastructure, and socioeconomic fragility – drive suffering and undermine humanitarian effectiveness.

Nearly 7.5 million children across the Central Sahel region in Africa are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance – “an emergency that remains too far from the attention of the international community,” a senior official with the UN child rights agency UNICEF has said. 

The United Nations has condemned two recent drone attacks in Sudan, one of which left seven dead, Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Monday during his regular media briefing in New York.

They don’t leave because they stop caring, they leave because an international NGO or UN agency offered them three times the salary, formal contracts, and something refugee-led organisations almost …

The rise and fall of a remote sea route between Panama and Colombia shows how fluctuating US policies have exposed people to dire risks.

Twenty years after the conflict in Darfur first sparked global outrage, children in the region are once again trapped in a catastrophic cycle of violence, hunger, and displacement – but this time, the world is failing to take notice.

Conflict and displacement are intensifying South Sudan’s hunger crisis, with 7.8 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity while 2.2 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition, according to a joint statement on Tuesday from UN agencies.

War and crisis forced 32‑year‑old Achuei to send her 6 children out of Sudan alone. She could only afford 6 tickets on a crowded truck heading towards safety. Instead of leaving one child behind, she stayed.

The objective has to be not only to regain territorial control but to unstitch the ties that link criminal groups, politicians, and economic actors.

From communal kitchens to local food production, residents of the North Kordofan capital have reinvented all aspects of daily life.

We have been forced to permanently close our hospital in Lankien, South Sudan, after it was bombarded on 3 February, ending 31 years of continuous medical support.

International humanitarian law (IHL) has long been critiqued for its gendered fault lines, specifically the marginalization of violence and harm to women and girls during armed conflict, laid bare by the lacunae of protection found in the normative content of the Geneva Conventions. The inadequacy of this normative protection finds a parallel in the Pictet… The post Gender (re)balancing: the updated ICRC Commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention appeared first on Humanitarian Law & Policy

Tom Fletcher’s cameo, and NRC’s local aid spin. Quick recap: Several aid organisations – particularly international NGOs based in the US – swiftly hunted down and erased words thought to offend the …

The EU is coordinating the largest and most complex UCPM operation ever in Ukraine. All 27 EU Member States, and 6 participating states, have provided in-kind assistance – millions of items, from first aid kits and shelter equipment to firefighting tools, water pumps, generators and fuel.

Ten years after the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2286, MSF is calling on states to respect their commitment made in the resolution, and protect medical care.

A key U.S. food assistance program in Ethiopia could be cut off by the end of June, putting millions who rely on the program at risk. Plus, the U.S. Congress tussles over funding for food, foreign affairs, and healthcare.

In Benin, MSF teams are providing medical care and essential relief items to families who have recently fled violence in Nigeria.

The attacks over the weekend were of unprecedented magnitude in Mali – hitting cities spanning hundreds of kilometres of territory – but the sheer number of fighters that stormed Bamako and nearby …

Country: Costa Rica Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Please refer to the attached file. SUMMARY OF THE EARLY ACTION PROTOCOL The IFRC Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) has allocated CHF 383,103 for the implementation anticipatory actions to reduce and mitigate the impact of Volcanic Ash in Costa Rica. This Early Action Protocol includes an allocation of CHF 254,568 to preposition stock and undertake annual readiness activities to implement early acti

Countries: Romania, Ukraine Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Please refer to the attached file. A. SITUATION ANALYSIS In February 2022, Romania was affected by the international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which triggered one of the largest displacement crises in Europe. Within weeks, hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Ukraine crossed into Romania, primarily through the northern and eastern border points. The sudden influx placed immedi

Country: Costa Rica Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Please refer to the attached file. SUMMARY OF THE EARLY ACTION PROTOCOL The IFRC Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) has allocated CHF 528,641 for the implementation anticipatory actions to reduce and mitigate the impact of floods in Costa Rica. This Early Action Protocol includes an allocation of CHF 35,039 to preposition stock and undertake annual readiness activities in order to implement early ac

Countries: Poland, Ukraine Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Please refer to the attached file. A. SITUATION ANALYSISDescription of the crisis Since February 2022, Poland became one of the primary destinations for people, mainly consisting of women, children and older people, fleeing Ukraine as the result of the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine international armed conflict. Based on October 2025 figures, 1 million displaced people from Ukraine are recorded

Countries: Czechia, Ukraine Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Please refer to the attached file. A. SITUATION ANALYSISDescription of the crisis From February 2022, Czech Republic was affected by the international armed conflict in Ukraine, resulting in widespread displacement and inflow of people displaced from Ukraine to the entire country. The emergency led to immediate humanitarian needs, particularly in the areas of food, shelter and protection, affecti

Countries: the Republic of North Macedonia, Ukraine Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Please refer to the attached file. SITUATION ANALYSISDescription of the crisis As a result of the international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, beginning on 24 February 2022, a total of 86,4362 displaced people from Ukraine had entered North Macedonia by February 2025. More than 80 per cent of those fleeing were women, including single mothers with young childre

Countries: Hungary, Ukraine Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Please refer to the attached file. A. SITUATION ANALYSISDescription of the crisis In February 2022, Hungary was directly impacted by the escalation of the international armed conflict in Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022. As one of Ukraine’s immediate neighbours, Hungary became a key transit and destination country for people fleeing the violence. The sudden and large-scale emergency escal

Countries: Belarus, Ukraine Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Please refer to the attached file. A. SITUATION ANALYSISDescription of the crisis In February 2022, Belarus was affected by the international armed conflict in Ukraine, resulting in a rapid influx of people seeking safety and widespread disruption to lives and services for those arriving across the border. By late September 2022, around 56,000 border crossings from Ukraine to Belarus had been rec

Countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Please refer to the attached files. Description of the EventDate when the trigger was met11-04-2025What happened, where and when? The Government of Pakistan launched the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan (IFRP) on 1 November 2023 to facilitate the return of undocumented foreign nationals, primarily Afghan citizens. The policy has evolved over time, with a significant shift in March 2025 w

Countries: Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Thailand Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees Please refer to the attached Map.

Country: Cambodia Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Please refer to the attached file. No Flood, rainfall deficit Until 10 May 2026 Samraong district, Oddar Meanchey Province Flood Early Warning No flood risk for the next 10 days. Keep tree bases mulched 10-15 cm {about a palm to a palm-and-a-half thick): using dry rice straw chopped pruning:, dried grass/leaves; keep mulch a hand with away from the trunk to avoid rot. Maintain shallow diversion furrow some hand wid

Country: Pakistan Source: World Food Programme Please refer to the attached file. HIGHLIGHTS March The Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based annual headline inflation increased to 7.3 percent (YoY), up from 6.9 percent in February. On a month-on-month basis the CPI increased by 1.2 percent in March compared to February, reflecting higher transport, utility, and perishable food costs. Annual food inflation increased by 3.6 percent (YoY) compared to March 2025, indicating that households paid nearly 4

Country: Madagascar Sources: Government of Madagascar, Health Cluster, World Health Organization Please refer to the attached file. CONTEXTE Depuis décembre 2025, Madagascar fait face à une épidémie de mpox évoluant dans un contexte de crises multiples. Les premiers cas suspects ont été détectés le 24 décembre 2025 à Mahajanga I (région Boeny) et confirmés le 30 décembre. Les analyses virologiques ont identifié un virus du clade Ib, génétiquement proche des souches africaines. Au 31 mars 2026, 1

Country: Pakistan Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees Please refer to the attached Infographic.

Countries: World, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) Source: International Organization for Migration Panama, 30 avril 2026 – Selon un nouveau rapport de l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM), la violence liée à la criminalité organisée, les mutations économiques, l’évolution des politiques migratoires, l’augmentation des retours et des expulsions, ainsi que l’impact croissant des aléas climatiques devraient remodeler les dynamiques migratoires en Amérique latine et dans les Ca

Country: Papua New Guinea Source: UN Country Team in Papua New Guinea Please refer to the attached file. As of 30 April 2026, assessments have expanded to 140 wards in 23 LLGs, across 8 districts and 5 affected provinces. Preliminary findings indicate over 83,000 people affected, with over 77,000 people in need of humanitarian assistance, and 34 reported fatalities. Priority needs identified include food assistance, shelter and NFIs, WASH, health services, and support to reach isolated and hard

Country: Somalia Source: Radio Ergo Please refer to the attached file. Brief Analysis There were more calls about rainfall than about drought in the audience feedback captured on Radio Ergo’s independent nationwide call-in platform in the week 23-29 April 2026. Many callers said that water resources had been replenished, temperatures dropped, and welcome signs of recovery had returned. However, there were indications that rain though heavy in some southern parts was not evenly spread and may not

Violence against women

This year’s World Day for Safety and Health at Work provides an opportunity to highlight the important contribution of European social dialogue to the continuous improvement of occupational safety and health (OSH) at work in the context of changing technological and environmental conditions and econ

Mining economy

Artificial intelligence

The European Commission has proposed €2 million in funding to help 803 workers who lost their jobs after the bankruptcy of Belgian car glass manufacturer Soliver. The money will come from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers (EGF).

The European Commission welcomes the approval by EU Member States of the revision of the social security coordination rules. The revised rules are an important step towards fair labour mobility in the EU.

Recycling

Dr. Renu Garg of Resolve to Save Lives says hypertension alone, considered the number-one risk factor for death globally, likely affects 2 billion people today, yet “barely 1 out of 5” people have it under control.

Opinion: Trade finance is one of banking’s oldest business lines. And yet in Africa, it remains one of the areas where African banks capture the least value.

A new report from the U.K. Parliament’s International Development Committee says ministers still need to put flesh on the bones of their aid strategy, days after the government rejected several key recommendations from the committee’s previous report.

In the latest episode of our podcast series, Devex Business Editor David Ainsworth sits down with reporters Colum Lynch and Elissa Miolene to discuss this week’s top global development stories.

Are Africa’s health development gaps self-inflicted? Some African leaders seem to think so. Plus, the WHO leader race begins, and USAID OIG plans to create a detection system to flag diverted health supplies.

Governments are under pressure to raise more revenue through taxes. The problem is, they can’t always see who owes what.

Opinion: When U.S. funding retreats, the ramifications ripple worldwide. Here are three approaches to ensure sustainable health systems globally.

Myanmar is at the heart of the geopolitical race for rare earths, with devastating consequences for a country already torn apart by war. For this report, our authors draw upon local research and spoke to people in Kachin State.

Rare earths

The House Farm Bill would permanently transfer the $1.2 billion hunger program to USDA and mandates that half its budget go toward U.S.-grown commodities, a move aid groups warn could strain the program’s operations.

Public development banks say the next phase of development finance will hinge on recycling scarce public capital to unlock private investment amid shrinking aid budgets and rising global constraints.