At Sunday night’s Baftas, film stars, royals and the viewing public were reminded that the Syrian people should not be forgotten – as airstrikes and barrel bombs still rain down on Idlib province, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee (Report, 4 February).
As she accepted the award for best documentary, the director and narrator of For Sama, Waad Al-Kateab, told the world that the “people of Idlib should hear your voice now”.
Continue reading...Three new Muppets, Basma, Jad, and Ma’zooza, will star in new show for the millions of children displaced across the Middle East
Cooperation, kindness and the alphabet. For over 50 years, the characters of Sesame Street, from the Cookie Monster to Big Bird, have helped children from diverse backgrounds navigate the challenges of life as a small person in a big world.
From the moment it launched, Sesame Street has unflinchingly dealt with difficult issues – and from this week they are bringing their special brand of magic to the children who need them the most.
Continue reading...Turkey intervenes, raising tensions, after weeks of aerial bombardment of rebel territory
More than half a million people have been displaced in Syria’s last rebel stronghold by a deadly regime offensive that has led Turkey to intervene in the fighting and has raised tensions between Damascus, Ankara and Moscow.
Weeks of intensive aerial bombardment by the forces of Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies and a bruising ground offensive have emptied entire towns in north-west Idlib province and sent huge numbers of civilians fleeing north towards the Turkish border.
Continue reading...Almost 300 civilians have been killed since renewed bombardment in the region
A regime offensive in Syria’s last rebel enclave has caused one of the biggest waves of displacement in the nine-year war, as tensions spiked between Ankara and Damascus following a deadly exchange of fire.
Weeks of intensive aerial bombardment and a bruising ground offensive have emptied entire towns in northwest Idlib and sent huge numbers fleeing north towards the Turkish border.
Continue reading...Wave of airstrikes force 700,000 civilians to flee towards Turkish border
Syria’s last opposition-held province has been battered with 200 airstrikes in the past three days in an assault that has pushed 700,000 civilians to flee towards the Turkish border and sparked fears of an impending international crisis.
The strikes on north-west Idlib were carried out mainly against civilians, the US special envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, said on Thursday.
Continue reading...Climate emergency is fuelling drought, food poverty and disaster in the global south but humanitarian crises under-reported
The African continent is a “blind spot” for coverage of the humanitarian crises that are being fuelled by the climate emergency, according to a new analysis [pdf].
Madagascar’s chronic food crisis, where 2.6 million people were affected by drought in 2019, came top of the list of 10 of the most under-reported crises last year, Care International’s annual survey found.
Continue reading...Its new commission is failing to enact its grand ambitions, as destructive global power games are played out by others
It has been a difficult start to 2020 for the EU and the new European commission, which took office last month. Ursula von der Leyen, who succeeded Jean-Claude Juncker as commission president, is not short of ambition. She believes Europe should take a leading “geopolitical” role in international affairs, reflecting the EU’s status as the world’s largest trade bloc. But turning words into deeds is proving problematic.
“The EU needs to be more strategic, more assertive and more united in its approach to external relations,” Von der Leyen told Josep Borrell, the newly nominated EU high representative for foreign and security policy, in a mission statement last autumn. “We must use our diplomatic and economic strength to support global stability and prosperity… and be better able to export our values and standards.”
Continue reading...Children and rescue workers among those killed after market and industrial zone hit
At least 18 civilians have been killed in airstrikes as an offensive by Bashar al-Assad’s forces presses ahead, burying a supposed ceasefire in Syria’s last opposition-held province.
Airstrikes carried out by the Syrian air force and its Russian allies hit a market and industrial zone in Idlib city in a ferocious attack on Wednesday, destroying several buildings and setting cars on fire, leaving the torched corpses of motorists trapped inside.
Continue reading...Venezuela also in top five as IRC’s David Miliband warns of devastating impact from war, floods, droughts and disease
Yemen has topped an annual watchlist of countries most likely to face humanitarian catastrophe in 2020, for the second year running.
Continued fighting, economic collapse and weak governance mean that more than 24 million Yemenis – about 80% of the population – will be in need of humanitarian assistance this year, according to analysis by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which found that another five years of conflict could cost $29bn (£22bn).
Continue reading...Syrian forces’ attack on densely populated area east of Idlib city also left four adults dead
Five children and four adults have been killed by a missile that hit a school and a camp for displaced people in Syria’s Idlib region, the latest attack on civilian infrastructure in opposition held areas.
“Fortunately, most students had left only 10 minutes before the bombing, but there were some still playing in front of the school,” said Mustafa Al Rashid, 31, a spokesman for the civil defence office in the town of Sarmin.
Continue reading...Water shortages and extreme weather contribute to tension in Middle East and India
Violence associated with water has surged in the past decade driven by attacks on civilian water systems in Syria’s civil war and increasing disputes over supplies in India, according to a comprehensive database of conflicts linked to the vital resource.
Recorded incidents of water-related violence have more than doubled in the past 10 years compared with previous decades, the statistics maintained by the California-based Pacific Institute thinktank show.
Continue reading...The US military carried out airstrikes on Sunday against the Iranian-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah militia in response to the killing of an American civilian contractor in a rocket attack on a US military base in Iraq. An Iraqi militia leader warned of a strong response after airstrikes in Iraq and Syria killed at least 25 people overnight. This footage shows the aftermath of a strike on Kata'ib Hezbollah's headquarters in the Iraqi town of Qaim
Continue reading...Offensive on Kata’ib Hezbollah sites comes after rocket attack on Iraqi military base blamed on militia group
The US military has carried out what the Pentagon described as “defensive strikes” in Iraq and Syria against the Kata’ib Hezbollah militia group, two days after a US civilian contractor was killed in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base.
The Pentagon said it targeted three locations of the Iranian-backed Shia Muslim militia group in Iraq and two in Syria. The sites included weapons storage facilities and command and control locations Kata’ib Hezbollah had used to plan and execute attacks on coalition forces.
Continue reading...With Trump deciding against protecting allies, old rivalries are converging across the region
Throughout the Middle East’s modern history, a constant remained – the US held a prominent stake and would throw its weight around to protect its interests and allies. The maxim held true as ideologies rose and fell, Gulf monarchies, Israel, and Arab nationalist police states took root – and war and insurrection periodically raged.
But it ended during Donald Trump’s third year, a time when an isolationist, unworldly president began to see regional interests through a much narrower lens. The effect has been profound and 2020 will continue the process of recalibration by traditional friends of the US without a country whose clout they used to defer to and whose agenda they could more or less understand.
Continue reading...Displacement follows two weeks of air and ground assaults on rebel stronghold
More than 235,000 civilians have fled their homes in opposition-held areas of north-west Syria in the past two weeks, the UN has said, after attacks by Syrian government forces intensified.
Syrian troops and their foreign backers are targeting the towns of Maaret al-Numan and Saraqeb in Idlib province, which sit on a highway connecting Aleppo with the capital, Damascus.
Continue reading...This year world leaders struggled to manage the fallout from the erratic tenant in the White House – as China flexed its imperial muscles. We look back at the events that created the most turbulence
Click here for 2019’s reasons to be cheerful
A year of high anxiety was rendered more alarming by intensifying clashes of interest between world powers. As international cooperation declined, and nationalist agendas gathered strength, China, the US, Russia and Europe, and their respective allies, emulators and proxies, engaged in often dangerous competition.
The Chinese communist regime’s increasingly assertive behaviour at home and abroad, reflecting the authoritarian outlook of its paramount leader-for-life, Xi Jinping, produced head-on collisions with western countries, notably over Hong Kong, trade, technology and the repression of the Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang.
Continue reading...Up to 30,000 leave area of Idlib province as government forces push to reopen road from Damascus to Aleppo
A mass exodus of civilians from the last rebel-held stronghold in Syria has begun as thousands of people flee towards the Turkish border in the face of a fierce new military assault by Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies.
As many as 30,000 people have left the area around the town of Maarat al-Numan after four days of airstrikes and heavy shelling paved the way for Syrian government troops to push deeper into north-western Idlib province.
Continue reading...When the Observer spoke to people in the besieged city three years ago, they told of their daily struggle. Now they tell their stories of exile
In December 2016, in the eastern half of Aleppo, a brutal siege was drawing to a bloody end. The last bombs were falling on its shattered streets, snipers were picking off their last victims. Besieged civilians, if they still had food, prepared their final meagre meals inside a city they had clung to for four painful years.
Continue reading...Impasse continues as Russia calls for reduction in number of crossings for delivering aid
Vital cross-border aid to Syria is under threat after the UN security council was unable to overcome Russian and Chinese objections to the programme.
The aid, which is sent over borders at four UN approved checkpoints and without the formal permission of the Syrian regime, is seen as critical as the humanitarian crisis in Idlib and north-east Syria continues to mount.
Continue reading...Congresswoman calls on US Syria envoy to give full briefing on October incident in border town
Four US congressional Democrats have written to Donald Trump’s Syria envoy asking him to spell out what information the US has about the alleged use of white phosphorus by Turkey against Syrian Kurdish civilians in October.
Ilhan Omar and three of her colleagues in the House of Representatives called on Jim Jeffrey to provide a full briefing – in private if necessary – into whether it believes the incident during the Turkish invasion two months ago amounts to a war crime.
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