#humanitarian-crisis

#humanitarian-crisis

Under international humanitarian law, healthcare must be protected and not attacked. At a briefing on Thursday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO, said it had verified 13 attacks on health care in Iran and one in Lebanon. Ghebreyesus did not give further details, or attribute blame, but said healthcare must be protected.

A few blocks from Revolution Square, in a former shantytown in Havana, Dr. Omitsa Valdes holds her consultations. It's a dusty, dilapidated place where she tells patients they must bring their own syringe and medication from home. But if a general checkup is needed, including urine and blood tests, Dr. Valdes is even more direct: If you can get it done yourself, I'll write the order.

On 1 February 2021, Myanmar's democratically elected government was overthrown in a military coup. There were mass protests against the military seizing power and many people were arrested for criticizing the new leadership. Frequent military airstrikes killed civilians and destroyed schools, hospitals and places of worship. According to the UK government, nearly 20 million people in Myanmar now need humanitarian aid.

In 2025, the administration of US President Donald Trump ordered the US Agency for International Development to be closed; this year, it withdrew the country from 66 international organizations. Other Western nations that are plagued with high levels of debt and pressure to prioritize domestic challenges have slashed their foreign aid, too. According to projections, official development assistance dropped by 9-17% in 2025, amounting to some US$55 billion.

Montaha Omer Mustafa, 18, was among many people who managed to get out of el-Fasher before the city's seizure by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, but only after paying for passage and going days on foot with little water, moving through villages and scrubland. As fighting closed in on the last big city held by the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in North Darfur state, tens of thousands of residents fled westwards, abandoning homes, possessions, and even family members.

Sudan's military says it has broken through a siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group of the South Kordofan capital of Kadugli, marking its second major advance in less than a week. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto leader of the country, visited Sudan's public television station in the city of Omdurman on Tuesday to assert that his forces had opened a supply route to the capital.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground.

"These circumstances, combined with a challenging funding environment, have resulted in the need for WFP to end the contracts of 365 staff members," he said.

Since October's ceasefire, which meant Israel would allow some - but not nearly enough - aid trucks to enter our besieged Strip, people in Gaza have desperately been eating, whenever possible, what they had been deprived of previously. Yet, as a result, many have developed " refeeding syndrome," which is a serious medical condition. Refeeding syndrome occurs when food is suddenly reintroduced after a prolonged period of starvation - and Israel has subjected those of us in Gaza to such periods on multiple occasions.

President Daniel Chapo has canceled his trip to Davos because of severe flooding in Mozambique that has damaged infrastructure and affected hundreds of thousands of people. Chapo published a Facebook post late on Sunday saying that the country was going through "a tough time." "As President of the Republic, our place is with our people. We maintain our commitment to investment and international partners, but the absolute priority at this moment is to save lives," he wrote.