The UN resident coordinator in Cuba, Francisco Pichon, said the humanitarian situation has reached a critical point following the US oil blockade imposed in January. He added that the population remains in need of urgent humanitarian aid despite an oil shipment from Russia in late March that the US administration chose not to interfere with.

Pichon explained that disruption of the country’s electricity system has further exacerbated the crisis, resulting in interruptions of essential services such as health care and water access. Electricity shortages have forced medical authorities to postpone over 96,000 surgeries and delayed immunization for thousands of children. Officials also noted that vulnerable groups, including elderly citizens, people with disabilities, and women, are the most affected by the humanitarian crisis.

Decreases in available energy, combined with the destruction from Hurricane Melissa, have significantly hindered humanitarian assistance from the UN and its partners. In response, the UN has created a targeted Action Plan to address the urgent needs of Cubans, focusing on delivering humanitarian aid in priority sectors such as health care, water, sanitation, and food security.

The Action Plan includes steps to transition toward sustainable energy sources and reduce oil dependence, such as the installation of solar power and the reinforcement of water pumping infrastructure.

Pichon said the UN continues to cooperate with national authorities and the private sector in Cuba to identify logistical solutions that guarantee the viability of aid operations, but that additional funding is still required to fill the $68 million gap in the UN budget.

Cuba has long experienced an economic crisis and energy shortage that have worsened over time due to US economic sanctions and oil embargo, which include the imposition of trade tariffs on third countries that send oil to the island nation. The blockade has triggered an energy emergency, given that Cuba currently relies on imported oil from Mexico and Venezuela.

The UN has condemned the US action, describing it as a “unilateral economic coercion” and a violation of international law.

Amid the tightening sanctions, Cuba has experienced repeated natural disasters, including hurricanes and earthquakes, resulting in significant infrastructure damage, destruction of homes, and the displacement of thousands.

From JURIST, April 7. Used with permission.

See our last report on the crisis in Cuba.

Photo: Виктор Пинчук via Wikimedia Commons

The World Food Programme (WFP) warned March 17 that the escalating hostilities in the Middle East could lead to record levels of food insecurity, and the largest disruption in the global economy and humanitarian efforts since the COVID-19 pandemic.

WFP deputy executive director and chief operating officer Carl Skau said: “If this conflict continues, it will send shockwaves across the globe, and families who already cannot afford their next meal will be hit the hardest.” Skau urged the international community to mount an adequately funded humanitarian response.

Since the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran in late February, the conflict has spread to encompass much of the region, causing thousands of civilian casualties and forcibly displacing over 3 million people. The WFP predicts 45 million people may slide into acute hunger (a level known as IPC Phase 3+) if the conflict continues. Due to the heavy reliance of food and aid distribution on energy, the skyrocketing price of oil has placed heightened strain on already over-stretched aid supply lines. The disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has also increased fertilizer costs, posing a more long-term threat to food security.

In 2025, an estimated 318 million people across 68 countries were already experiencing acute food insecurity, with 41.1 million under “Emergency” conditions or worse (IPC Phase 4+). The number of people facing catastrophic hunger (Phase 5) remained alarmingly high in 2025, exceeding 1 million.

Import-reliant countries, predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, face the greatest risk. Humanitarian organizations are already spread thin by tightening budgets, as well as the proliferation and exacerbation of global crises. Global funding for foreign aid has contracted exponentially in recent years, with a sharp decline following President Trump’s signing of Executive Order 14169, which effectively suspended most operations of USAID. Together, these developments place extraordinary pressure on humanitarian organizations, leaving millions at risk of famine. Sudan and Somalia were named as particularly vulnerable.

From JURIST, March 19. Used with permission.

Note: Hunger in the Global South has already been exacerbated by Trump’s trade tariffs regime, while spikes in the price of oil and grain since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022 have contributed to popular privation and unrest worldwide.

Photo: Alex Blokha via Wikimedia Commons

The February 28 attack in the southern coastal city of Minab reportedly killed 168 people. According to Iran’s Minister of Education Alireza Kazemi, the overwhelming majority of the slain were schoolgirls aged seven to 12. The strike came on the first day of coordinated US and Israeli airstrikes officially targeting Iranian infrastructure and military facilities.

Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office, described the attack as “absolutely horrific,” adding that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk was “deeply shocked” and has called for a “prompt, impartial and thorough investigation.”

Shamdasani stressed that the “onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it,” and “make public the findings and to ensure accountability and redress for the victims.” If attacks were found to be directed against civilians or civilian objects or to be indiscriminate, they would constitute “serious violations of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes.”

Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Ali Bahreini, accused the US and Israel of deliberately attacking the school. He further stated that similar strikes on civilian targets occurred on the same day in other locations, including eastern Tehran and Abyek in Qazvin province.

Neither the US nor Israel has confirmed responsibility for the school attack. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated Monday that US forces “would not deliberately target a school.” Israeli officials said they were reviewing reports of the incident.

The widening conflict began when the US and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iranian targets Feb. 28, cutting short ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear program. Iran responded with missile and drone attacks against Israel and US allies across the region. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the first day of airstrikes .

According to UN officials, at least 12 countries have been affected, while Iran’s Red Crescent Society has counted 787 deaths since the initial strikes.

The conflict has also spread to Lebanon as Hezbollah fired missiles and drones into Israel, triggering Israeli strikes and the displacement of civilians. The UN Refugee Agency estimatesthat about 30,000 people have sought protection in shelters in Lebanon, while disruptions in key shipping routes and the temporary closure of Gaza crossings are complicating humanitarian aid deliveries.

When the airstrikes began, Türk deplored both the strikes on Iran and subsequent retaliation, urging all parties to respect international humanitarian law. “The protection of civilians is paramount,” he said, calling for immediate de-escalation and a return to the “negotiating table” to prevent “further senseless civilian deaths and destruction on a potentially unimaginable scale.”

Malala Yousafzai, UN Messenger of Peace and Nobel Peace Laureate, also condemned the school attack, likewise calling for all parties to “uphold their obligations under international law to protect civilians and safeguard schools.”

From JURIST, March 4. Used with permission.

Photo: Mehr via Wikimedia Commons

“The ‘Board of Peace’ is a dangerous assault on international law, a mechanism designed to bypass the UN, weaken international justice institutions, and entrench the power dynamics that have long enabled Israel’s unlawful occupation, apartheid, and ongoing genocide in Gaza,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, senior director for research and advocacy at Amnesty International.

Guevara-Rosas added: “Any EU engagement that does not place Palestinians’ rights at its core risks complicity in violations, which are [more] likely to occur if this fundamentally flawed mechanism is not urgently made rights-compliant and aligned with international law.”

Guevara-Rosas further urged: “The EU and its member states must be absolutely clear: this body is no substitute for the UN, the international human rights framework, or the global justice system painstakingly built over decades to uphold universal values, cooperation, and equality.”

On Jan, 22, US President Donald Trump ratified the Charter of the Board of Peace, establishing the board as an official international organization. Trump serves as the chairman, with no mechanism for succession. Last November, the UN Security Council endorsed the BoP in Resolution 2803, as an international entity to maintain peace and security in Gaza, develop its infrastructure, disarm militants, and establish a viable Palestinian Authority.

Notably, the BoP Charter does not actually include any mention of Gaza, and Israeli news reports indicate that the US envisions the BoP resolving other global conflicts. Ali Khan, emeritus professor at the Washburn University School of Law, argues that “the BoP’s expanded scope in the Charter conflicts with Resolution 2803 and diverts attention from the work needed in Gaza to Trump’s self-authorizing roving agenda to settle wars.”

From JURIST, Feb. 23. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Photo: WAFA via WikimediaCommons

On Jan. 15, union leaders and members of the Confédération Paysanne held protests in opposition to the EU-Mercosur Deal, signed in December 2024 but still pending ratification, which would reduce tariffs and more deeply link the European market with the bloc of South American nations. Participants unfurled banners in offices of the Agriculture Ministry in protest of the agreement.

Protesters included a large delegation from the French overseas departments and regions of Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion and Mayotte, who denounced unfair competition from imports that would be imposed under the agreement. Three key spokespersons were among those arrested.

The experts warned that arresting and charging peaceful protesters may violate thr freedoms of assembly, expression and association, enshrined in both the French Constitution and international law. According to farmer advocate groups, use of the BRAV-M—a special motorized anti-riot unit—to quell the protest signaled criminalization of peaceful assembly, raising concerns about proportionality and necessity of police force.

The EU-Mercosur Deal is a free-trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur bloc nations of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The agreement, which has been debated for 25 years, would connect South American farmers with millions of EU consumers. However, domestic producers in France fear the deal will undercut them and drive them out of the market.

The European Parliament voted on the agreement on Jan. 21, with 334 votes in favor and 324 against, although it still awaits ratification by EU member states. Many French  lawmakers have resisted ratifying the agreement unless it includes safeguards for European farmers, environmental protections, and regulatory parity.

Farmer and agricultural worker advocate groups like La Via Campesina, Serikat Petani Indonesia (Indonesian Peasants’ Union), the Kenyan Peasants League, European Coordination Via Campesina and the Latin American Coordination of Rural Organizations have condemned the detentions and called on French authorities to cease what they describe as “the criminalization of peasant movements.”

From JURIST, Jan. 27. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Photo: UN Human Rights Council via Twitter

A photo of a lone protester blocking a column of police motorcycles on a Tehran freeway has gone viral, drawing comparisons to the iconic “tank man” photo from Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

In a possible bid to deflect popular anger onto external enemies, President Masoud Pezeshkian stated Dec. 27 that Iran is engaged in a “full-fledged war” with the US, Israel and Europe, describing the pressures on Iran as “far more complex and difficult” than the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. The remark appeared in an interview published on the official website of the Supreme Leader. (Jurist)

Since the 2022 protests in Iran, there have been worldwide protests fueled by spikes in the price of food and fuel.

Photo via Twitter

The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) identified at least 150 “clusters of objects consistent with human remains” in and around El Fasher between Oct. 26, when the RSF claimed to have taken full control of El Fasher, and Nov. 28. They identified the clusters as likely human remains, based on their size, the timing of their appearance, and proximity to reddish ground discoloration that later turned brown, consistent with blood oxidation. In some cases, the RSF’s own social media posts corroborated the presence of human remains at the locations.

Researchers documented 38 instances of “reddish discoloration consistent with blood or other bodily fluids,” and evidence of ongoing efforts to destroy remains through burning and burial.

The report concludes “to high confidence” that the RSF conducted door-to-door killings in the Daraja Oula neighborhood, the city’s last major civilian refuge, and targeted people attempting to flee the city through the earthen barriers, or berms, that had been built around El Fasher during the months-long siege.

The researchers wrote:

HRL assesses that during this time of restricted access, RSF has systematically killed and disposed of a number of objects consistent with human remains likely in the tens of thousands. The evidence presented in this report cannot be used to estimate the number of people who have died, but it can be used to demonstrate that largescale and systematic mass killing and body disposal has occurred and is occurring on a scale that has not ever been seen before in very high resolution commercial satellite imagery analyzed by civilians.

Casualty estimates for El Fasher range widely, but Doctors Without Borders said the low number of survivors reaching safety at nearby displacement camps—roughly 10,000 of an estimated 260,000 people in El Fasher before the assault—suggests most civilians were killed, died, or remain trapped. Citing the Yale analysis, the humanitarian group said observations “point to a catastrophic scenario.”

By late November, 38% of the identified body clusters were no longer visible in satellite imagery, suggesting systematic disposal operations, the Yale researchers said.

The findings add to mounting evidence of atrocities in Sudan’s civil war, which began in April 2023 when fighting erupted between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces. The RSF has since advanced into the Kordofan region, seizing the strategic Heglig oilfield. Peace efforts have stalled after the Sudanese Armed Forces rejected a US-backed truce proposal in November, calling it biased; the RSF nominally accepted the plan but has continued military operations.

The researchers called on the UN Security Council to immediately secure access to El Fasher for humanitarian assistance and evidence collection, writing:

The international community, including the UN Security Council, must immediately secure access to El-Fasher to provide humanitarian assistance to survivors and to collect whatever evidence of the killing still remains. Time is of the essence for both those still living and for the evidence left by those who have died.

From JURIST, Dec. 17. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Photo: Google/Airbus via JURIST

The STC was excluded from the peace talks between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia that opened in 2023. It has been widely accused of human rights violations, including running clandestine prisons in conjunction with UAE forces. It declared self-rule in its areas of control in 2020.

Map of Yemen before 1990 unification via Wikipedia

Meanwhile, the Sudanese army, no paragon of peace either, has snubbed the latest US-led truce proposal as biased towards the UAE, which is said to be arming the RSF, and appears to have lost confidence in White House adviser Massad Boulos. Still, with US President Donald Trump promising to personally wade into mediation, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal casting the conflict as a sovereign army defending civilians against a genocidal militia, not a war between two rival (and equally bad) generals. Of course, that overly convenient framing ignores the state’s long record of cultivating and empowering the RSF (until their falling out in the 2023 attempted coup), not to mention the awkward fact that the two forces joined hands to stage the 2021 coup that derailed Sudan’s democratic transition.

From The New Humanitarian, Nov. 28. Slightly edited, internal links added.

Map: PCL

The resolution, passed by a vote of 13 members in favor with China and Russia abstaining, recognizes the proposal’s “Board of Peace” (BOP) as a “transitional governance administration” in Gaza to coordinate funding and the redevelopment of the Gaza Strip until the Palestinian Authority (PA) completes its “reform program.”

The resolution also authorizes the BOP to establish a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza. The ISF will consist of forces contributed by participating states in consultation with Egypt and Israel. The force, along with Israel, Egypt, and a newly trained PA police force, will secure border areas, monitor humanitarian operations, and enforce the permanent disarmament of Hamas. To carry out its mandate, the resolution empowers the ISF to “use all necessary measures” in accordance with international law.

Under the plan, as the ISF stabilizes the Gaza Strip, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is to withdraw from the territory, based on a demilitarization timeframe that the IDF, ISF and the US will agree upon. An IDF-controlled security perimeter will remain in force until the Gaza Strip is properly secured.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz hailed the resolution, stating that the ISF “will stabilize the security environment, support the demilitarization of Gaza, dismantle terrorist infrastructure, decommission weapons and maintain the safety of Palestinian civilians.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry, however, denounced the resolution as vague, and for failing to incorporate key principles, including “the Palestinians governing Palestine” and the two-State solution.

The BOP and the ISF were first outlined in the “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict” (also known as the “20-Point Plan”), with the first phase taking effect on Oct. 9. According to the plan, the BOP will be chaired by President Donald Trump, with other international leaders serving, including former British prime minister Tony Blair. The plan, which led to the current ceasefire in Gaza, called for the release of hostages, a partial withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza, and an increase in humanitarian aid into the territory.

As of today, Hamas has released all living hostages and the remains of most deceased ones, while Israel has released 2,000 Palestinian detainees.

The ceasefire, however, appears fragile as both sides have accused the other of violating the agreement, with at least one prominent Palestinian journalist killed by the IDF in a post-ceasefire clash. Israel also continues to restrict the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The UN resolution has drawn criticism from many experts, including Dennis Ross and Assaf Orion of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. They note that the resolution falls under Chapter VII of the UN charter, the category for those that concern threats to peace and the use of force or sanctions in response. They argue that applying this category to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is counterproductive, as force cannot resolve the question. Instead, they assert that Chapter VI resolutions, which emphasize diplomacy, are more appropriate.

From JURIST, Nov. 18. Used with permission.

Photo: displaced Palestinians returning home during this January’s ceasefire. Credit: UNRWA via Wikimedia Commons