Conflict

More than 240 attacks on medical facilities in Afghanistan over the last 2 years have completely eroded an already fragile health system, according to a new report by Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict.   Attacks by the Taliban, the Afghan government and other groups…

As the battle for Mosul rages in house to house fighting, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is trying to prepare for a mass exodus of up to 700,000 Sunni civilians.   UNHCR head Bruno Geddo warned that his agency is low on funds with winter coming on soon and said…

Seniors in eastern Ukraine have been particularly hard hit by the ongoing conflict between government forces and Russian-back separatists. Living on fixed incomes, many don’t have the means to flee or don’t wish to abandon their homes.  

The UN reports that 6 years of fighting, weather conditions and the soaring costs of farming have sent food production in Syria plummeting to a record low. In the past 5 years, wheat output has dropped by more than half and the availability of livestock has seen staggering…

Following attacks on 5 hospitals in Syria in a 48-hour period earlier this week, the WHO condemned the bombings, demanding that all parties in the conflict respect the safety and neutrality of health workers and facilities. The Numbers:

Conflict between Boko Haram and government forces in Nigeria’s Borno State has taken an appalling toll, wiping out most children under age 5, write two Médecins Sans Frontières representatives after a recent visit.   International President Joanne Liu and Emergency…

The ongoing Syrian conflict has left Aleppo with only 30 doctors to provide health care to about 300,000 people. M. Zaher Sahloul of the University of Illinois, Chicago, recently traveled to Syria to volunteer at “an underground hospital in a besieged Mideast city” and…

Riyadh Lafta, a physician and researcher based at Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, Iraq, set out to document a more accurate death toll of the 2003 Iraq war that challenges early official US estimates.

Syrian and Russian airstrikes against East Aleppo’s civilians are “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity,” said top UN human rights official Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein in a video speech on Friday to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The condemnation came in the midst of…

Syrian health is spiraling downward with 2/3rds of Syrians lacking access to clean water and almost 300,000 pregnant women missing out on the care they need.   Each month more than 30,000 people need treatment for injuries and half of all children are not getting lifesaving…