The New Humanitarian

19/09/2024

Join The New Humanitarian and Refugees International at for a crucial conversation on the future of humanitarian aid. Two panels featuring diverse voices will explore the limits of current approaches and what comes next. Join us online, register today at the link below.

Panel 1: Gaza, Sudan, and the limits of humanitarian action 9:00am-10:15am (ET)

17/09/2024

Tens of millions of people will die over the next 25 years because of bacterial infections that can resist antibiotic treatments, new research has predicted, showing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) cases are set to swell by 2050.

There will be 1.91 million annual deaths as a direct result of AMR by 2050 and 8.22 million with AMR as a factor, according to forecasting published in The Lancet, a medical journal. That’s compared to 1.27 million deaths from AMR in 2019. From 2025 to 2050, the researchers predicted, AMR will kill 39.1 million people and contribute to 169 million deaths.

The research was published less than 10 days ahead of a high-level UN General Assembly meeting to discuss AMR. The 26 September gathering, intended to boost international coordination and funding to fight AMR, will culminate in a political declaration, which is still being negotiated by diplomats.

The new research demonstrates the scale of the challenge, which is notoriously difficult to manage, requiring coordination between governments in a tense geopolitical atmosphere and major reform across sectors as disparate as farming and pharmaceuticals.

The research also indicated geographic hotspots for AMR are expected to overlap with many crisis settings and regions affected by the worst impacts of climate change. “The future AMR burden is highest in south Asia, southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania, and sub-Saharan Africa,” said the report.

This “leads to a worry about how to support those countries to develop their vaccine programs, cleanliness, and access to antibiotics”, Sally Davies, the UK Special Envoy on AMR and former chief medical officer, told The Telegraph. The study “confirms that the world is facing an antibiotic emergency, with devastating human costs for families and communities across the world”, she added.

Humanitarian crises settings – which often suffer from disrupted healthcare, poor infection control, and deteriorated antibiotic regulations – are potential hotspots, according to experts from groups like Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

But AMR has long been a growing problem outside of disasters too, as Indian doctors told The New Humanitarian in 2022. This is thanks to an overdependence on antimicrobial drugs – sometimes bought directly by sick people themselves rather than prescribed by a doctor – and scarce diagnostic equipment and trained personnel.

‘Superbugs’ may have benefited from the pandemic, as use of antibiotics grew and vaccination and sanitation programmes were curtailed.

16/09/2024

A spate of flooding disasters in Asia, Europe, and Africa has led to hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries, and mass displacement events across three continents, underlining the global scale and humanitarian impact of extreme weather events.

In Myanmar, Typhoon Yagi has claimed at least 113 lives and displaced more than 320,000 people, with unconfirmed reports indicating that hundreds more may have been killed in more rural areas, some of which were cut off by floodwaters.

The aid response in Myanmar, where the military rulers are under heavy international sanctions as they face down several armed opposition and separatist groups, is likely to be hampered by insecurity and access restrictions.

Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, China, and the Philippines also all felt the deadly effects of Yagi, the strongest typhoon of the year so far, as it swept across East Asia over the last week. At least 292 people were killed in Vietnam, with dozens still missing. More than 230,000 homes were damaged, and the economic cost was put at $1.6 billion, according to state media.

Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia bore the immediate brunt of Storm Boris in Europe, with the death toll from flooding and landslides standing at 16 by Monday, and hundreds of thousands of people having been evacuated from their homes.

After declaring a national emergency on Monday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced $260 million in aid for people affected by Storm Boris.

In Hungary, 12,000 soldiers were placed on standby amid fears that the River Danube could burst its banks. The Mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karacsony, warned the capital’s residents that the nation is expected to experience the largest floods in decades in the coming days.

In Austria, the province surrounding the capital, Vienna, has been declared a disaster area, with leaders calling it "unprecedented”, and parts of the Czech Republic experienced three months’ worth of rain in just three days.

In Nigeria, meanwhile, aid agencies and the government are still scrambling to respond to a major disaster in Maiduguri, where at least 30 people were killed and tens of thousands displaced when a regional dam burst and flooded half the city.

The climate crisis is blamed for the prevalence of extreme weather events, prompting leading humanitarian ethicist Hugo Slim to suggest that this “Earth emergency” demands a radical overhaul of humanitarian action.

New principles, new ethics, new mandates: Hugo Slim’s radical call to reinvent humanitarianism for the climate emergency.

13/09/2024

In the last episode of our Snapshots series on the impact of climate change in Central America, photojournalist Fritz Pinnow finds out why wildfires in Honduras are becoming more frequent and witnesses first-hand efforts to put out a wildfire.

Photojournalist Fritz Pinnow takes a road trip through Honduras to document the effects of El Niño on local communities.

13/09/2024

Five refugees discuss their feelings about the Kenyan government’s new refugee integration plan. Spoiler alert: They are not happy.

Refugees say they’re not convinced the much-touted Shirika integration plan will improve their lives, or end their isolation.

13/09/2024

Amsterdam-based philanthropic organisation Porticus will close its Asia regional office in Hong Kong next year, and open a new regional hub in Malaysia. Nine staff face potential layoffs if they choose not to relocate.

All nine regional office staff face potential layoffs as Porticus moves its Asia hub to Malaysia.

12/09/2024

A creeping gentrification is underway in Mogadishu as wealthy business elites – including returning diaspora Somalis – take advantage of the slowly improving security to invest in new apartments and shopping malls. Read more: ⬇️

A construction boom in the Somali capital is threatening already vulnerable people with evictions.

12/09/2024

Amsterdam-based philanthropic organisation Porticus will close its Asia regional office in Hong Kong next year and open a new regional hub in Malaysia, according to an internal announcement seen by The New Humanitarian.

All eight staff at the Hong Kong office and one staff member based abroad who is also part of the regional office face potential layoffs, a staff member told The New Humanitarian, requesting anonymity to avoid reprisals at work. They have been offered the option to relocate to Malaysia, but their salaries would be adjusted to local market rates.

Porticus employs over 180 people, according to its website. Its staff work out of six regional main offices, as well as in India, Bangladesh, and several additional European offices.

Staff across the organisation are alarmed by the sudden announcement. “Is it me next? Is it my office next?” the staff member said, describing the atmosphere among colleagues.

The written announcement, shared with Porticus staff on 5 September, cited three reasons for the move: the high costs of operating in Hong Kong, a shift in activities from East Asia to South and Southeast Asia, and challenges posed by Hong Kong’s national security law.

“[Despite] little to no work in the region, we find our team and organisation exposed to increased scrutiny because of the National Security Law in Hong Kong,” the announcement said.

Hong Kong’s legislature passed the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance in March, making various, vaguely defined political crimes, like treason, sabotage, and insurrection, punishable by life imprisonment. China imposed a separate national security law on Hong Kong in June 2020.

But the staff member who spoke to The New Humanitarian said this explanation seems inconsistent with the organisation’s previous messaging about the law.

Read more:

All nine regional office staff face potential layoffs as Porticus moves its Asia hub to Malaysia.

12/09/2024

In the final episode of our Snapshots series on the impact of climate change in Honduras, photojournalist Fritz Pinnow talks to one of the many farmers displaced by climate change to urban gang areas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADvJA6Dua38&t=8s

Photojournalist Fritz Pinnow takes a road trip through Honduras to document the effects of El Niño on local communities.

12/09/2024

The ongoing war in Myanmar between the ruling junta and armed ethnic groups has led to widespread abuses and systematic atrocities, including torture, sexual violence, and attacks where civilians were “the target”, according to a UN rights probe.

In an address to the Human Rights Council, Nicholas Koumjian, the head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), said the situation is particularly bad in Rakhine State, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims are caught in the crossfire between the military rulers and the Arakan Army, the largest and most well-known armed ethnic group in the country.

“They have been directly targeted and thousands forcibly displaced from their homes,” Koumjian said.

Rakhine was the site of a brutal military crackdown by the former government in 2017 that led more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh, and now activists and residents warn of a similar situation, with both sides now being accused of abuses against the long-persecuted Rohingya minority.

Adding to the troubles for the Rohingya is the fact that Bangladesh, which is facing its own crisis after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled last month, has increased border security in an effort to keep out Rohingya refugees.

Koumjian also warned of airstrikes, almost entirely carried out by the junta, on everywhere from IDP camps to weddings, schools, and monasteries. Though Western countries have imposed jet fuel sanctions against the military, activists say those sanctions are not being properly implemented, despite the clear evidence of their toll on civilians.

“Just last week, airstrikes near a night market in northern Shan state reportedly killed about a dozen people, including a pregnant woman and two children,” Koumjian said.

He said his group had also received reports of abuses carried out while people have been detained: “Victims and witnesses have recounted beatings, electric shocks, strangulations and torture by pulling out fingernails with pliers. There is evidence that minors and other victims of all genders have been subjected to gang r**e, burns on sexual body parts and other violent sexual and gender-based crimes.”

For more context and background, read our coverage on Myanmar here: ⬇️

Myanmar - The New Humanitarian puts quality, independent journalism at the service of the millions of people affected by humanitarian crises around the world

11/09/2024

Eight and a half years later, aid funding and attention are moving elsewhere, creating existential questions about the future of Jordan Compact. It’s time to re-evaluate the entire system and push for legal changes to refugee employment that are based on rights, potential, and skills, rather than just what donors are prepared to fund. Read more:

The Jordan Compact is ending. It’s time to rethink how Jordan approaches work for Syrian refugees.

11/09/2024

📰 The new Inklings newsletter: Notes and musings on how aid works, from ’s policy desk. Sign up here ⬇️
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/subscribe
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/newsletter/2024/09/05/inklings-how-aid-works-gaza-according-gazans

The latest humanitarian news, direct to your inbox

11/09/2024

Four big changes to create a humanitarianism fit for the climate emergency:
⚖️ Principles: A new doctrine of humanity
🔍 Precautionary ethics: Plan from the future, not the past
🔄 Assessments: Think beyond “people in need”
🆕 New mandates, new agencies
Read more: ⬇️

New principles, new ethics, new mandates: Hugo Slim’s radical call to reinvent humanitarianism for the climate emergency.

11/09/2024

Thanks to a global movement advocating for refugee leadership, the idea that people with first-hand experience of forced displacement should be able to meaningfully participate in the process of making decisions about the policies that affect their lives has garnered significant attention and support in recent years.

Read this opinion piece on how to end tokenism here:

Both simple actions and profound changes are needed to move past lip service and create more equitable responses to forced displacement.

10/09/2024

The world will soon be swerving full speed toward a universal climate emergency. Better described as an Earth emergency, the potential devastation of humans and nature makes it blindingly obvious that there can be no human life without other life. This resets the core humanitarian challenge: How do we find life-saving harmony between humanity and nature? Read Hugo Slim’s radical call to reinvent humanitarianism for the climate emergency: ⬇️

10/09/2024

Authorities and residents in northern Vietnam are dealing with the aftermath of Asia’s most powerful storm of the year, Typhoon Yagi, which has killed at least 60 people and injured some 300 more in the country, after claiming dozens of lives in China and the Philippines.

The storm, which hit Vietnam on Saturday, caused widespread destruction, including the collapse of the Phong Chau bridge over the Red River in Phu Tho province. This left three dead and 13 missing as cars and scooters were sent crashing into the water.

Dozens were also missing feared dead after a bus was swept away by a flood and a landslide in mountainous Cao Bang province, while the high winds knocked down power for much of the region, including across the Quang Ninh and Haiphong areas.

At least 3,300 homes have been damaged and over 120,000 hectares of crops destroyed. Some 1.5 million people have been left without power as authorities evacuate 50,000 residents from high-risk areas. The storm also caused 30 vessels to sink in the coastal region of Quang Ninh province along Ha Long Bay.

Schools in 12 northern provinces have been temporarily closed, and recovery efforts are being ramped up as authorities continue to assess the full scope of the damage. Vietnam is the third country to experience Yagi typhoon after China and the Philippines, where 24 people were killed by the storm.

Although Vietnam’s meteorological department downgraded the storm on Sunday, it said the risk of flooding and landslides remained, and residents were asked to remain indoors.

Typhoons have shifted northwards in East Asia, and climate change is increasing both their number and their intensity, according to scientists, who argue that adaptation to reduce the risks and building resilience to extreme weather events is key.

For an in-depth look at why community readiness and human connection need to be at the centre of that disaster preparedness, read: ⬇️

Poorer countries may not be able to afford advanced engineering, but they can build on capacities for survival that have existed for generations.

09/09/2024

Some of Kenya’s best-trained officers are on a peacekeeping mission abroad, but bandit-affected communities say they’re urgently needed at home: ⬇️

Some of Kenya’s best-trained officers are on a peacekeeping mission abroad, but bandit-affected communities say they’re urgently needed at home.

09/09/2024

Two months have passed since the arrival of 400 Kenyan police officers in Haiti, but Haitians have seen little improvement in their daily life, and gangs continue to control most of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and neighbouring Ouest and Artibonite departments:

In this short video, a Haitian photographer explores whether the deployment is making a difference or not.

09/09/2024

Geneva narrowly lost the chance to host next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, in a clear blow to the humanitarian-Eurovision-peace nexus. More essential tidbits in the Inklings aid policy newsletter: ⬇️

Neighbourhood aid in Gaza, how aid groups tell staff about cuts, and why is Israel blocking diapers?

08/09/2024

West Bank raids, Horn of Africa tensions, and unstoppable Musk: The Cheat Sheet. Read our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe: ⬇️

A weekly read to keep you in the loop on humanitarian issues.

07/09/2024

Largely financed by the United States, it is hoped that the Multinational Security Support in Haiti could one day number up to 2,500 police and security personnel from several countries, but so far the small Kenyan contingent currently deployed says it lacks the firepower and equipment to efficiently fight the gangs: ⬇️

In this short video, a Haitian photographer explores whether the deployment is making a difference or not.

06/09/2024

When violent gangs moved into her neighbourhood in April, Haitian journalist and former UN official Monique Clesca left the Caribbean nation. She returned home a few months later, and in this episode, she describes what daily life is now like. “We are in more than a crisis situation”, she says. “The gangs are at war with us”:
⬇️

Listen here to a collection of occasional podcasts from the The New Humanitarian.

06/09/2024

Kenya has sent 400 -with 600 more to go- elite police officers to Haiti to restore peace, but back home, the North Rift struggles with a never ending cycle of violence. Read about it here: ⬇️

Some of Kenya’s best-trained officers are on a peacekeeping mission abroad, but bandit-affected communities say they’re urgently needed at home.

06/09/2024

El Salvador is once again under pressure from human rights organisations to end the state of emergency initiated in 2022 as part of a crackdown on gangs. On 4 September, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urged the country to restore civil rights laws that have been suspended for two years, arguing that clamping down on gang violence can be done without the violation of basic rights.

Between the beginning of the state of emergency in March 2022 and November 2023, over 73,000 people were detained with most being held in pretrial detention, according to the IACHR. The organisation highlighted numerous serious human rights violations by Salvadoran authorities, including arbitrary and illegal detentions, unlawful home raids, excessive use of force, and abuses against children and adolescents.

President Nayib Bukele, who initiated the state of emergency, remains highly popular, largely due to his tough-on-crime policies aimed at curbing gang violence.

El Salvador was one of the most violent nations in Latin America prior to Bukele’s crackdown. To address the crisis, Bukele received congressional approval for the state of emergency. The law has been extended monthly since its introduction.

In addition to the human rights concerns, critics argue that Bukele’s focus on gang violence has diverted attention from pressing humanitarian issues. Currently, over one million of El Salvador’s 6.3 million citizens require humanitarian assistance, the majority of them women.

For more, read our recent article:

Many Salvadorans back Bukele’s crackdown on gangs, but rights activists have raised concerns over arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances.

05/09/2024

Venezuelan authorities and armed government loyalist groups known as colectivos have committed widespread abuses, including killings, arbitrary detentions and prosecutions, and harassment of critics, according to Human Rights Watch.

HRW’s analysis of images and videos that circulated on social media confirms that 24 people were killed in the protests that erupted after President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner in the 28 July elections, widely considered to be rigged.

Maduro insists he won the presidential election, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Observers, including teams from the UN and the Carter Center, have rejected the results announced by Venezuela’s electoral body, the CNE. Over a month after the election, the government has yet to release the official vote tallies. But only days after the elections, the opposition, led by María Corina Machado, published voting data online showing that their candidate, Edmundo González, defeated Maduro by more than 30%.

This move provoked strong reactions from Maduro and his allies, who asked the Supreme Court – long controlled by the government – to audit the election results. The court, which has since validated his victory, summoned González to appear, but he failed to do so three times. On 2 September, Maduro’s government went one step further and an arrest warrant was issued for González, who authorities accuse of “serious crimes”, including “usurpation” of public duties, document falsification, instigation of disobedience, and system sabotage.

Since the day after the elections, Maduro has been leading a brutal crackdown on protesters, including a door-to-door hunt for critics and dissenters. Dubbed “Operación Tun Tun” (Operation Knock-Knock), the measure has put around 2,000 critics and dissenters in jail. Maduro has relied on the colectivos to voluntarily patrol the cities daily on motorbikes and subdue regime opponents.

Read more:

Venezuelan authorities and armed government loyalist groups known as colectivos have committed widespread abuses, including killings, arbitrary detentions and prosecutions, and harassment of critics,…

04/09/2024

In the Middle East, extreme heat is becoming the new normal. Here’s what it looks like for one journalist in Damascus: ⬇️

In the Middle East, extreme heat is becoming the new normal. Here’s what it looks like for one journalist in Damascus.

04/09/2024

As climate change makes the monsoon season more extreme, heavy rains are leaving a trail of destruction and death across parts of South Asia, with several areas experiencing their worst flooding in decades.

In Bangladesh, at least 71 people have been killed by floods in the past two weeks that have affected more than 5.8 million people across the country. UNICEF says two million children have been put at risk by the worst flooding the country has seen in 30 years.

Primary healthcare services, including for newborns and pregnant women, have been greatly affected. The UN also reported severe damage to roads, croplands, and fisheries, negatively affecting livelihoods across the country.

International organisations are scrambling to work with the caretaker government that was put in place after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country early last month.

In neighbouring India, at least 60 people have died across three states – Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana – in the past month. Gujarat alone saw at least 45 fatalities.

Pakistan, however, has had the most fatalities with 306 deaths, including 155 children. In the most affected provinces – Balochistan, Punjab, and Sindh – more than 20,000 houses have been damaged. As with the other countries, the rains and flooding have also severely damaged infrastructure, including bridges and roads in Pakistan’s three most populous provinces.

For an interactive take on how climate change has made the monsoon season more dangerous, here’s another chance to read this award-winning photo feature:

Damages multiply, months after a string of disasters. Lost income puts more pressure on women and girls, and pushes some families to migrate.

03/09/2024

Ethical codes based on Western standards don’t meet the realities of covering culturally different societies on the other side of the world.

03/09/2024

Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges.
In this episode of the First Person podcast, we tour Masaken Osman in Cairo. Meet Sudanese refugees who fled when the war broke out in 2023 and listen to how journalists, doctors, and teachers have created neighbourhood initiatives to boost community care in Egypt. ⬇️

Listen here to a collection of occasional podcasts from the The New Humanitarian.

03/09/2024

The latest in our series on the future of UN peacekeeping explores contrasting attitudes towards MONUSCO’s drawdown from DRC’s war-scarred South Kivu province.

The drawdown has taken place as security deteriorates in the area.