Israel’s Lebanon attacks, UNGA challenges, and an assault on Bamako: The Cheat Sheet

Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.

On our radar

Is Israel launching an all-out war in Lebanon?

Israel has carried out an airstrike in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, and significantly stepped up its bombardment of the country’s south following days of dramatic escalation. On 17 September, thousands of recently purchased pagers – allegedly manufactured by Israel in an elaborate ruse – used by members of the Lebanese political and militant group Hezbollah simultaneously exploded. The following day, during funerals for those killed in the previous attack, walkie-talkies also exploded. At least 37 people – including children – were killed and more than 3,000 were wounded. Human rights groups said the attacks likely violated international humanitarian law prohibiting the indiscriminate targeting of civilians. During a speech on 19 September, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called the attacks a “declaration of war” and vowed retaliation. Even as he spoke, Israeli fighter jets streaked over Beirut, setting off sonic booms as Israel intensified its bombing of southern Lebanon. On 20 September, Hezbollah launched over 140 rockets into Israel, while Israel ramped up its bombing further. The Israeli military and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire ever since Hezbollah began striking northern Israel a day after the Palestinian political and militant group Hamas launched its 7 October attacks into Israel last year, sparking the war in Gaza. But on 16 September, Israel revised its war goals to include returning tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah’s shelling to their homes near the country’s northern border. Hezbollah has said it would end its attacks if a ceasefire deal is reached in Gaza. But US officials, who have been trying to broker a deal, said they now believe that reaching one is unlikely during the remainder of President Joe Biden’s term in office, which ends in January. With all eyes on Lebanon, there are concerns that less attention will be paid to the devastation and suffering caused by Israel’s nearly year-long war in Gaza, which appears to have no end. For more on conditions on the ground in Gaza, watch our latest dispatch from journalist and rights activist Maha Hussaini: 

Jihadist militants behind attack on Bamako

The al-Qaeda-linked JNIM group has carried out a major attack in Mali’s capital, Bamako, with reports suggesting that up to 70 people were killed and hundreds more wounded. Jihadist fighters attacked the city’s airport – damaging a plane used by the World Food Programme – and stormed a military police school. JNIM only makes rare forays into Bamako, and may be sending a message to the ruling junta that it remains a potent force despite operations launched against it. Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, reported that JNIM and a rival group linked to the so-called Islamic State have been extremely active in neighbouring Burkina Faso, escalating attacks on civilians and massacring villagers and displaced people. The rights group documented the killings of 128 civilians across the country in seven attacks since February 2024, though the total number of people killed by militants over that time period is far higher. Last month, JNIM killed several hundred people in the northern town of Barsalogho. They targeted villagers who were digging defensive trenches on the orders of the military, which wants civilians to combat the insurgents as part of a general mobilisation.

Hope meets reality at UNGA

Hope for what’s possible collides with the cold reality of international compromise, as global leaders converge in New York for a new UN General Assembly session. Take the Summit of the Future, which gets a head start on a week of high-level meetings on 22-23 September. It’s part of Secretary-General António Guterres’s flagship proposal for countries to revamp multilateralism – weighing in on everything from artificial intelligence to peacebuilding and imbalanced financial systems. Some proponents see it as a chance to reset global governance to address inequalities that have long benefited former colonial powers. Civil society groups have been weighing in on revisions to draft texts to be hammered out at the summit. But with UN member countries holding the pen, expectations are modest. Also on the official agenda: a summit on antimicrobial resistance, a meeting on addressing the “existential threats posed by sea-level rise”, and the general debate, where world leaders swap podium time. Hundreds of less official side events will keep attendees dashing from venue to venue across Manhattan. The New Humanitarian’s 27 September event with Refugees International – discussions on the state and future of humanitarian action – is available to all online.

Storms and floods kill hundreds around the globe

Typhoons, storms, and flooding have killed hundreds and left millions homeless across four continents in recent days. More than 600 people – mostly in Vietnam and Myanmar – died when Super Typhoon Yagi, one of the strongest typhoons to hit Southeast Asia in decades, tore through the region, triggering landslides. In China, Typhoon Bebinca battered the commercial capital, Shanghai, forcing more than 400,000 people to evacuate. In Europe, at least 23 people died when Storm Boris dumped five times September’s average rainfall in a single week. In the United States, parts of North and South Carolina recorded 45 centimetres of rain in 12 hours – a statistic so rare it’s considered a once-in-a-thousand-year event. Inevitably, the wild weather has been devastating for more vulnerable countries. In conflict-affected northeastern Nigeria, half of the city of Maiduguri is under water after a local dam overflowed following torrential rains: Recently emptied displacement camps are being used to shelter the homeless. In neighbouring Chad, meanwhile, flooding has killed more 340 people in the country’s south.

UK aid sector disappointed by Starmer’s false start

The United Kingdom’s beleaguered aid budget is set to fall in real terms to its lowest level since 2007. This year’s forecast decline to £9.7bn – down to 0.36% of national income from 0.7% in 2020 – would see the withdrawal of “humanitarian support from millions of marginalised people globally”, warned a statement from 122 NGO leaders in the country. The UK’s NGO sector had hoped the country’s new Labour government, elected in July, would provide a reset for the aid budget and policy after a chaotic period under the previous Conservative governments. Two years ago, Prime Minister Keir Starmer voiced support for restoring the Department for International Development, which had been folded into the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and his party frequently criticised the aid budget cuts set in motion under former prime minister Boris Johnson. But since being elected, Labour have avoided major changes and the main aid budget pressures – the Home Office’s syphoning of aid budget funds to pay for refugee accommodation within the UK – has continued. Those costs are predicted to hit £6.4bn this financial year. Meanwhile, in what was seen as another worrying sign, Starmer recently visited Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to hear how her government deports migrants to Albania.

Judge considers Diego Garcia unlawful detention claims

The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) hosted a trial between 17 and 19 September in which a visiting UK judge heard arguments that nearly 60 Sri Lankan asylum seekers are being unlawfully detained on the island of Diego Garcia. Most have lived in a fenced compound on the island, which hosts a large US military base, for the last three years. One testified that BIOT authorities warned the group on multiple occasions that they could be shot by American soldiers if they left the camp. Lawyers for the group alleged that even after the court granted some asylum seekers bail to leave the camp in April, BIOT authorities tried to prevent them from doing so, including by banning them from using toilets outside the camp, while also telling them public urination was illegal. One asylum seeker said he urinated in a bottle and drank it to avoid being punished. BIOT officials and their lawyers put forth several arguments for why the asylum seekers’ confinement does not amount to unlawful detention. They said the fence surrounding the camp was flimsy and not meant to prevent them from leaving; the asylum seekers have always had the option to accept transportation back to Sri Lanka (where many say they were tortured by security forces); and certain restrictions on movement have been necessary for both the asylum seekers’ safety and to satisfy US security concerns. If the judge upholds the unlawful detention claims, the asylum seekers will gain greater access to other parts of Diego Garcia, including beaches and a nature conservation area. For more on the prison-like living conditions on Diego Garcia, read this piece.

Weekend read

‘If you’re too vocal about conditions on the trail, they’re going to kick you out.’

A recent US-Panama deal threatens to add to the dangers on the route, while Venezuela’s election fallout could also compound the crisis. 

And finally…

Are the P5 vetoing UNSC reform?

Ahead of the Summit of the Future, campaigners have highlighted one of the most intractable weaknesses of global governance today: the UN Security Council and its veto power. Under the UN charter, the UNSC – made up at its core of the so-called Permanent Five (P5): China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – has primary responsibility for international peace and security. The UNSC has special powers. It can pass resolutions – on everything from launching ceasefires, peacekeeping missions, and aid initiatives – that other countries are obliged by the charter to accept. However, the world’s 23 most protracted conflicts have received very different amounts of UNSC attention in the last decade, according to Oxfam’s Vetoing Humanity report. While 12 conflicts have seen UNSC resolutions in the double digits, another 11 have seen scarcely any, including Ethiopia (0), Myanmar (1) and Ukraine (2). The UN charter also allows any of the P5 to veto resolutions: 30 were vetoed between 2014 and 2024 – 15 on Syria, 8 on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, 4 on Ukraine, and 1 each for Yemen, Mali, and Venezuela. Russia and the United States were singled out as the main culprits, having issued 75% of the 88 UNSC vetoes since 1989. Sixteen of China’s 18 vetoes have been issued alongside Russia. The UK and France have not used their veto power since 1989. UNSC reform is one of the high-level proposals in the New Agenda for Peace, a UN blueprint reforming multilateral peace and security policy. But diplomats are sceptical about the prospects for improving the UNSC, and the focus has shifted to resolving conflicts nationally – an aim that has also attracted criticism. For more, read our analysis: Can the Summit of the Future help to alleviate conflict?