The Friday Humanitarian Scan #19

Concern is mounting over the health of imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, who was reportedly being held alongside high-risk offenders.

The UN has formally concluded its cross-border humanitarian operations from Türkiye into Syria, marking the end of an 11-year mission that served as one of the most complex supply chains in the organization’s history. 

Death and destruction have continued unabated in Lebanon while communities are still unable to return to their homes despite a ceasefire that began on 17 April, humanitarians said on Tuesday.

Lebanon’s accession last week to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) comes not in a time of peace, but amid ongoing conflict – precisely when the consequences of inaction are most visible. In communities across the country, particularly in the south, anti-personnel mines are not relics of past wars, but active threats shaping daily life,… The post Lebanon’s wartime decision to ban anti-personnel mines appeared first on Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog.

Israel’s manufactured malnutrition crisis in Gaza, Palestine, had devastating impacts on pregnant women and their newborns.

An Israeli airstrike overnight on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut has sparked a new wave of displacement among civilians already impacted by months of conflict, the United Nations said on Thursday.

In Somalia’s Puntland region, dried out watering holes, animal carcasses and old pots filled with ash have become part of the landscape as worsening drought conditions deepen a growing hunger crisis.

After years of displacement, families are slowly returning to Al-Tibni, a town in Deir-ez-Zor countryside in northeast Syria. Surrounded by dozens of villages across a wide agricultural region, Al-Tibni is home to tens of thousands of residents, many of whom have returned to rebuild their lives.

On the 10th Anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 2286, the ICRC, WHO, and MSF call on states to uphold the protection of medical care in armed conflict.

The same Western countries that have long tried to isolate the Taliban are now pressuring Afghans to return home.

For more than 2 years, the Sourou Valley was a place of silence. In the Boucle du Mouhoun of northwestern Burkina Faso, thousands of families lived under a total blockade – an act of strangulation that turned villages into open-air prisons.

Since the outbreak of the conflict in Sudan in 2023, the hostilities have pushed over a million displaced people – including Sudanese refugees and Chadian returnees – into neighbouring Chad.

Between 4 and 9 February, police in the capital Dakar arrested 12 men – among them Pape Cheikh Diallo, one of Senegal’s best-known television presenters – on charges of same-sex relations and alleged …

During the last decade, attacks against hospitals have been a hallmark of almost every conflict. What humanitarian medical practitioners have witnessed and denounced for years has become alarmingly routine. International humanitarian law (IHL) is sometimes criticized for failing to protect the very purpose that justified its own existence, particularly when the states responsible for its… The post Attacks on the medical mission: identification of issues and good practices appeared first on Hum

After more than three years of providing care to families in Darat Izza, northwest Syria, MSF concluded our work in the town’s healthcare centre in March 2026.

MSF teams in southern Lebanon are working in hospitals, alongside the Ministry of Public Health, treating people who have been wounded during the ceasefire.

Obstetric care has become inaccessible to women in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, as donor organisations have recently withdrawn from the area.

The peer review was organised by the Spanish EQAVET National Reference Point (NRP) at the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, in close cooperation with the Department of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sport, Government of the Canary Islands

Just transition

Cross-border conflicts

The European Commission has presented a bold social package to help end poverty in the EU and to strengthen the rights of persons with disabilities.

The latest episode of PESPod, the podcast of the European Network of Public Employment Services (PES Network), explores how PES are helping jobseekers and employers prepare for the skills needed in tomorrow’s labour market.

Gender equality

Good News

For the latest episode of our podcast series, Adva Saldinger sits down with Anna Gawel and Colum Lynch to discuss the top global development stories of the week.

The country is now among WHO’s top 10 contributors, alongside China, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, the U.S. exit from WHO has left the Gates Foundation as the agency’s largest funder.

The Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance policy now extends far beyond abortion and is set to reshape how organizations receive U.S. funding in countries across the world.

ONE Campaign cofounder Bono framed Green as a bridge figure for a fractured moment. Plus, a look at the first U.S. State Department aid hub in Florida, and has child sponsorship run its course?

Opinion: The entire food system must be rewired to establish economic drivers that make healthy food the profitable choice.

U.S. lawmakers are pushing the State Department to pay Gavi the $600 million that Congress appropriated. Plus, Saudi Arabia is now among WHO’s top 10 donors, and what went down at Women Deliver.

Opinion: El Niño will not wait for the Strait of Hormuz to open.

Uganda passes a softened but still controversial sovereignty law targeting foreign-funded political activity, and Moody’s South Africa exit revived concerns about distant assessments.

As the war continues, donors and development banks are shifting from solely emergency aid to financing Ukraine’s long-term recovery.

The European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) has launched a new call for proposals to combat child poverty and help Roma young people access the labour market. Applications are open until 30 September 2026.

West Africa