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Fragile lives, flickers of hope, and following up on sexual abuse: The Cheat Sheet

20 July 2018

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

Feature

In appreciation: Barbara Harrell-Bond, refugee advocate and researcher, 1932-2018
18 July 2018
Remembering the doyenne of refugee studies
Feature

HAS VIDEO

In Conversation With: George Okoth-Obbo, head of operations at the UN refugee agency
17 July 2018
What keeps the man who oversees the UN’s assistance to refugees up at night?

Latest VideoInterviews from Cameroon’s anglophone war, part 1

News

Doubtful donors, Afghan balancing act and football felines
13 July 2018
A weekly read to keep you in the loop on humanitarian issues
News feature

“Whoever they met, they would cut and kill”: displaced Congolese recount rebel atrocities
12 July 2018
Even by the standards of the “world’s most neglected crisis”, the conflict in Rutshuru is flying under the radar
Special Report

Destination Europe: Demoralised
11 July 2018
Are EU migration policies working? The answer depends on which side of the Mediterranean you sit

Q&A: Why the UN must take a stronger stance in Myanmar
10 July 2018 Opinion
For Kurds in Southeast Turkey, the urban conflict continues
9 July 2018 Feature

Special Report

Destination Europe: Misery and Misunderstandings, part 1
19 July 2018
Migrant realities in Libya, and the problems with the programmes set up to help them
News

Fragile lives, flickers of hope, and following up on sexual abuse
20 July 2018
A weekly read to keep you in the loop on humanitarian issues
Feature

HAS VIDEO

In Conversation With: George Okoth-Obbo, head of operations at the UN refugee agency
17 July 2018
What keeps the man who oversees the UN’s assistance to refugees up at night?
Interview

Um Muhammad al-Daraj, Iraq, “I had to forget my honour to save my husband’s life”
2 August 2007
Mother of three Um Muhammad al-Daraj, 35, recently went through a traumatic ordeal to try to save her husband’s life. She told IRIN her husband...
Feature

In appreciation: Barbara Harrell-Bond, refugee advocate and researcher, 1932-2018
18 July 2018
Remembering the doyenne of refugee studies
Opinion

Q&A: Why the UN must take a stronger stance in Myanmar
10 July 2018
An expert on civilian protection urges the UN and aid groups to push back harder against government intimidation or risk entrenching a system of Rohingya...
News feature

“Whoever they met, they would cut and kill”: displaced Congolese recount rebel atrocities
12 July 2018
Even by the standards of the “world’s most neglected crisis”, the conflict in Rutshuru is flying under the radar
Analysis

Stopping deadly fungal contamination
25 November 2013
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that billions of people in the developing world are chronically exposed to aflatoxin, a natural poison on food...

"(Western) humanitarianism has reached its historical limits and is now on the cusp of retreat"

The crisis of multilateralism and the future of humanitarian action

In Depth
Congo: A decades-long cycle of war

The scale of the humanitarian crisis requires an urgent international response – but the world is yet to step up to the challenge
“Whoever they met, they would cut and kill”: displaced Congolese recount rebel atrocities
12 July 2018 News feature

Aid groups in Congo fear political tensions could impede their work
26 April 2018 Analysis

Politics and oil: the unseen drivers of violence in Congo’s Ituri Province
4 April 2018 Analysis

Solutions and Innovations

Opinion

Opinion | It’s time for the European Union to push Yemen towards peace
9 June 2018
The EU has credibility with Yemen’s warring sides. With a potentially catastrophic battle looming in Hodeidah, the negotiating table offers a better way forward
News feature

Songs, radio shows, and door-to-door visits: how community awareness is helping defeat Ebola in Congo
7 June 2018
Fighting the virus effectively means dispelling rumour and changing behaviour
News

Congo Ebola outbreak offers first test for emergency fund to prevent pandemics
28 May 2018
The latest tool to combat pandemics isn’t a vaccine, it’s an insurance policy and a readily available cash kitty

Aid and Policy

Special Report

Destination Europe: Desperation
3 July 2018
EU policies were designed to stop the migration business, but by driving it underground they’ve made it more dangerous
News

Erdogan wins, Burundi baffles, and the EU offshores
29 June 2018
A weekly read to keep you in the loop on humanitarian issues
News

UN fears new Syrian offensive could strand up to 200,000 civilians
25 June 2018
As the front line moves south toward the closed border with Jordan, international agencies can’t do much but wait and see

Migration

News

Landmines, limbo, and look out dictators
6 July 2018
A weekly read to keep you in the loop on humanitarian issues
Special Report

Destination Europe: Deportation
5 July 2018
The arrival of thousands of Sudanese in Niger signalled a new turn in the Africa-Europe migration story; their deportation back to Libya signals a broken...
Opinion

UPDATED: Welcome, director general. There’s a lot to do
2 July 2018
Here’s a list of priorities for the new head of the International Organization for Migration. First off: sort out the big political mess that migration...

Environment and Disasters

News feature

Heavy rains a “huge wake-up call” to relocate vulnerable Rohingya
21 June 2018
Torrential downpours damaged the camps faster than aid groups anticipated, but a severe land shortage leaves few safe options
Photo feature

‘Always looking at the sky’: Life amidst Somalia’s flood waters
4 June 2018
A year of drought followed by record rains has left hundreds of thousands of Somalis facing new health risks as they rebuild their makeshift shelters
News

Deadly dust storms, a plea on Cameroon, and a data protection guide for humanitarians
25 May 2018
A weekly read to keep you in the loop on humanitarian issues

Conflict

Analysis

Dispossession or development? The tug of war over Syria’s ruined slum dwellings
4 July 2018
Critics say a controversial law will allow the government to expropriate land from vulnerable refugees and al-Assad opponents
News feature

“The conflict must end”: Fighting threatens to drive up hunger in South Sudan’s lean season
2 July 2018
The combination of continued conflict, heavy rains, and limited access to food could prove deadly
Opinion

First Person: Two nearly identical cases of sex abuse; two very different responses
27 June 2018
Talking with displaced women in Nigeria, Dr Orly Stern saw how efforts to respond to “sexual exploitation and abuse” in aid settings overlook the victims...

Food

News

More migrant disasters, less help for Yemenis, and Cameroon’s brewing war
8 June 2018
A weekly read to keep you in the loop on humanitarian issues
Analysis

In Burundi, a disputed referendum threatens to deepen a neglected humanitarian crisis
3 May 2018
One in four Burundians already needs aid, but that figure is set to rise
Analysis

How to declare a famine: A primer from South Sudan
5 March 2018
War, political sensitivities and the weather all complicate the data collection and number-crunching needed to identify – and hopefully preempt – famine

Health

Photo feature

A day in the life of a Kabul emergency room
11 June 2018
What “an uptick in violence” looks like to civilians caught in the middle of it
News feature

Ebola: Fear, suspicion, and anger along Congo’s river of worry
30 May 2018
If Ebola reaches Kinshasa, there’s a good chance it will come by river
News feature

Maduro election win is no victory for hungry Venezuelans
23 May 2018
Venezuelans crossing into Colombia aren’t fleeing war; they’re abandoning a failing state

Human Rights

Special Report

HAS VIDEO

Cameroon’s anglophone war, part 1: A rifle as the only way out
12 June 2018
Why hundreds of anglophone farmers are taking on the US-trained Cameroonian army with hunting rifles
Special Report

Inside mission impossible: Peacekeeping in the Central African Republic
24 May 2018
How do you keep the peace in the Central African Republic, a country of dense jungle and spiralling conflict one and a half times the...
News

Niger sends Sudanese refugees back to Libya
10 May 2018
Rights advocates hope Niger hasn’t just set a worrying precedent