NewzIntel.com

Category: NGOs

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Uganda announces plan to ban single-use plastic bags. Now we need action, then we need the rest of Africa to join them.

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    Nairobi, 8 May 2025 –The Ugandan government has just announced that they are planning to ban single-use plastic carrier bags.  This decision marks a significant step towards addressing plastic pollution in Uganda – protecting the environment and the wellbeing of our communities. 

    Hellen Kahaso Dena, Project Lead for the Pan-African Plastic Project at Greenpeace Africa said: 

    “This is a step in the right direction for Uganda, but good intentions do not bring change: only concrete actions do. We urge the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) to ensure effective enforcement of the ban and to incentivise businesses, manufacturers and producers to provide affordable, accessible, circular and sustainable alternatives to consumers. NEMA must also monitor implementation of the ban. Improved monitoring to assess compliance including in small scale and informal businesses will be critical.”

    In Kampala, the country’s capital, 100 metric tons of plastic are produced per day. It is time to turn the tide against this plastic menace and African countries can and should lead the way.

    “Uganda’s announcement comes at a time when world leaders are gearing up for the further Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meetings (INC 5.2) talks in Geneva. They will be discussing a Global Plastics Treaty which, if properly drawn up and enforced, could end the era of plastic. Greenpeace Africa urges Uganda to shun the petrochemical industry and support an ambitious treaty that prioritises cuts in plastics production and embraces solutions like refill and reuse for a future free from the devastating impacts of plastic pollution.” added Hellen

    Uganda joins other East African countries like Kenya and Rwanda who have taken the lead in putting in place similar regulations. 

    “Microplastics are everywhere. In the food we eat, in the water we drink, in the air we breathe. We urge other African governments to follow this example. Plastic is a poison and is doing a lot of damage to our cities” – Hellen Dena.

    Notes to the editor:

    According to NEMA, Uganda produces 600 metric tonnes of plastic waste everyday with less than 40% being properly collected and managed.

    Contacts Medias 

    Luchelle Feukeng, Communication and Storytelling Manager, [email protected]

    Hellen Kahaso Dena, Project Lead,  Pan-African Plastic Project Lead, Email: [email protected], Tel: 254 717 104 144‬

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Sudan: MSF returns to Bashair Teaching hospital in Khartoum amidst soaring cholera needs

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières –

    KHARTOUM – Exactly two years after Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) first worked in south Khartoum’s Bashair Teaching hospital, Sudan, our team is again joining the hospital’s Ministry of Health staff in partnership to meet people’s immense needs. MSF suspended activities at the hospital in January 2025 after repeated violent incidents. Our initial focus will be the worrying and growing cholera outbreak.

    “Our team in Bashair Teaching hospital has been working to ensure that the 20-bed cholera treatment unit is ready to receive patients. Training for over 60 hospital staff members has been completed, and cholera-related medical supplies have arrived at the hospital,” says Slaymen Ammar, MSF medical coordinator for Sudan. “The war has had a devastating impact on people’s access to healthcare. The population in many localities within the capital, including south Khartoum, still don’t have the needed access to essential, life-saving healthcare.”

    “Restarting and expanding critical health services in Bashair Hospital and beyond can’t wait – it was needed yesterday,” says Ammar.

    Like many health facilities in Khartoum and across Sudan, Bashair Teaching hospital stopped functioning when war first broke out in April 2023. A few weeks later, medics and volunteers reopened it to ensure the community could still access healthcare. An MSF surgical and medical team joined them on 9 May 2023, enabling the hospital to provide surgery alongside emergency medical care. In the first five weeks of working there, the emergency room saw more than 1,000 patients, over 900 of them with trauma-related injuries.

    For 20 months, MSF teams worked alongside volunteers and medical staff to provide healthcare to people trapped in violence and devastation in south Khartoum. During this time, we continuously saw desperately injured and ill patients flocking to the hospital, demonstrating the significant needs in this part of Khartoum. In August 2023, for example, MSF and the Bashair Teaching hospital team treated more than 200 people in two days in successive mass influxes of wounded after bombings nearby. When the maternity department reopened the following month, 40 babies were delivered in the first two weeks, including seven by caesarean section.

    Over the past two years, MSF has had to suspend activities several times. In 2023, a ban on the transport of surgical supplies to Khartoum forced a stop to all surgical activities – including caesarean sections and trauma care – for several months. In November and December 2024, violent incidents, including the killing of a patient in the hospital, led MSF to suspend temporarily. When armed men again entered the hospital in January 2025, MSF made the difficult decision to suspend all activity at the hospital. 

    The situation in Khartoum is significantly calmer now but many hospitals and healthcare facilities have been damaged or closed because of the war and are not fully functional. In addition to restarting work in Bashair Teaching hospital, MSF is providing general healthcare through mobile clinics in central and south Khartoum, and we are preparing to restart other medical activities in various parts of the city and state. MSF also continues to support medical activities in Omdurman, at Al Buluk hospital and Al Nao hospitals, where we run a cholera treatment unit, in addition to other activities aiming to improve water and sanitation services in the area.

    “The needs in Khartoum remain immense. The current cholera outbreak is only one of the challenges facing people still living in Khartoum or returning from other parts of the country,” says Claire San Filippo, MSF emergency coordinator for Sudan. “Humanitarian assistance must be scaled up, access facilitated and medical care protected to ensure that all those who need it, in Khartoum and in the rest of Sudan, can access healthcare.”

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: India/Pakistan: Urgent need to protect civilians as hostilities escalate

    Source: Amnesty International –

    ‘Neither security nor justice will be achieved with the senseless loss of more civilian lives’ – Carolyn Horn

    Responding to the escalating armed engagement between India and Pakistan, Carolyn Horn, Amnesty International’s Programme Director for Law and Policy, said:

    “The escalation of hostilities between India and Pakistan has already taken a toll on civilians. Amnesty is concerned by reports of the loss of civilian lives in both India and Pakistan.

    “In every armed conflict, protecting civilians is paramount – it’s a fundamental principle of international humanitarian law which binds all nations.

    “Deliberate, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks harming civilians or damaging civilian infrastructure such as homes, hospitals, schools, and essential services, are strictly prohibited under the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols and under customary international law.

    “Amnesty calls on the Governments of India and Pakistan to uphold their obligations under both international human rights and humanitarian law. They must take all necessary measures to protect civilians and minimise any suffering and casualties in both countries.

    “As forces from both countries are now engaged in open hostilities, Amnesty insists that neither security nor justice will be achieved with the senseless loss of more civilian lives.

    “We extend our condolences to the families on both sides of the border who have lost their loved ones and borne the devastating cost of the current escalation in what has been a long-standing conflict.

    “We unequivocally condemn the deliberate targeting and unlawful killing of civilians by armed groups during the horrific attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on 22 April and call for an independent, transparent and thorough investigation to bring the suspected perpetrators of the atrocity to account through fair trials, without recourse to the death penalty.”

     Attacks

    India conducted several airstrikes in Pakistan and in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the early hours of Wednesday 7 May. Pakistan officials claim that 31 people have been killed and 57 injured by the air strikes, including children, women and families, and claims one civilian was killed by drone-related attacks on 8 May. India’s army claims that at least 15 civilians were killed and more than 40 injured by Pakistani shelling on its side of the line of control since the airstrikes.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Cuba Revokes Conditional Release of José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro

    Source: Amnesty International –

    On 8 May, Amnesty International launched an urgent action demanding the immediate and unconditional release of opposition leaders and prisoners of conscience José Daniel Ferrer García and Félix Navarro, and all those unjustly imprisoned for merely exercising their human rights in Cuba.

    On 29 April, the Cuban authorities announced that they had revoked the conditional release of José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro. Both were released from prison last January in a process marred by irregularities. Since then, they have been threatened, harassed, and arbitrarily detained multiple times for their political activism, their denunciation of human rights violations and even for their humanitarian work. “José Daniel and Félix have once again been jailed unjustly and arbitrarily. Like thousands of others in recent decades, they have been victims of the Cuban authorities’ repressive pattern of using conditional release for surveillance and political control”, said Ana Piquer, Amnesty International’s Americas director.

    José Daniel and Félix have once again been jailed unjustly and arbitrarily. Like thousands of others in recent decades, they have been victims of the Cuban authorities’ repressive pattern of using conditional release for surveillance and political control

    Ana Piquer, Amnesty International’s Americas director

    Félix Navarro was detained in the early hours of 29 April at his home as he was getting ready to visit his daughter, Saylí Navarro, who is also a prisoner of conscience. Relatives and neighbours reported a major surveillance operation with no warrant during the arrest. Until 2 May there was no certainty as to Felix’s whereabouts or legal status, meaning that he was subjected to enforced disappearance for more than 72 hours.

    Simultaneously, a large police contingent also detained José Daniel Ferrer, his wife, his five-year-old son, and five other associates inside his home. José Daniel’s wife and son were released hours later, and the activists were released later in the week. His relatives and neighbours confirmed that the police used violence in the assault on his house, which is also the headquarters of the Unión Patriótica de Cuba, an organization led by Ferrer, and that his property was looted. José Daniel remains forcibly disappeared. Although his family has received unofficial word that he is being held at the Mar Verde prison, they have received no official communication about his whereabouts or legal status. His family has had no direct contact with him and has serious concerns about his health and physical integrity, since he has twice been denied visits with his wife.

    The Vice-President of the People’s Supreme Court issued a press release to inform international press agencies and media of the decision to revoke both men’s conditional release. The release confirms that the provincial courts revoked their conditional release and ordered that they be imprisoned again.

    The press release’s allegations reveal the political motives for the imprisonment, referencing José Daniel and Félix’s decades of political activism and struggle for human rights. The authorities again used the official media to discredit them, stigmatize their activism and make an example of them to intimidate other activists and human rights defenders.

    “The Cuban government has used these releases as bargaining chips in geopolitical games and in doing so has toyed with the desires and rights of these people and thousands of their relatives. It has offered no guarantees of justice, non-repetition or reparation for the victims,” said Ana Piquer.

    The Cuban government has used these releases as bargaining chips in geopolitical games and in doing so has toyed with the desires and rights of these people and thousands of their relatives. It has offered no guarantees of justice, non-repetition or reparation for the victims

    Ana Piquer, Amnesty International’s Americas director

    Since the January releases were announced, human rights organizations have denounced a lack of transparency in how they were carried out, excessive restrictions for those who were released, a tendency by the Cuban government to use people as pawns for political negotiation, and a constant risk of being arbitrarily sent back to prison. The reincarceration of José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro confirms these organizations’ fears and points to the persistence of a highly repressive context where all forms of dissidence are systematically criminalized.

    Amnesty International calls on the Cuban authorities to provide official, accurate and timely information on the legal status, physical integrity and place of detention of José Daniel and Félix, as well as to immediately guarantee their access to legal assistance, medicines and family visits.

    The organization demands the immediate and unconditional release of prisoners of conscience José Daniel Ferrer, Félix Navarro, Loreto Hernández, Roberto Pérez Fonseca, Saylí Navarro, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo, as well as the immediate and unconditional release of all who have been imprisoned for simply exercising their human rights in Cuba.

    “The Cuban authorities must cease to threaten, harass, arbitrarily arrest and forcibly disappear activists, human rights defenders and journalists in Cuba. They must also immediately repeal any laws and regulations that enable the state to criminalize dissent and peaceful protest and thwart efforts to defend human rights,” said Ana Piquer.

    The Cuban authorities must cease to threaten, harass, arbitrarily arrest and forcibly disappear activists, human rights defenders and journalists in Cuba. They must also immediately repeal any laws and regulations that enable the state to criminalize dissent and peaceful protest and thwart efforts to defend human rights

    Ana Piquer, Amnesty International’s Americas director

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: India/Pakistan: Urgent need to protect civilians amidst escalating hostilities

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Responding to the escalating armed engagement between India and Pakistan, Carolyn Horn, Programme Director for Law and Policy at Amnesty International said:

    “The escalation of hostilities between India and Pakistan has already taken a toll on civilians. Amnesty International is concerned by reports of loss of civilian lives in both India and Pakistan. In every armed conflict, protecting civilians is paramount— it’s a fundamental principle of international humanitarian law which binds all nations. Deliberate, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks harming civilians or damaging civilian infrastructure such as homes, hospitals, schools, and essential services, are strictly prohibited under the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols and under customary international law.

    “Amnesty International calls on the governments of India and Pakistan to uphold their obligations under both international human rights and humanitarian law. They must take all necessary measures to protect civilians and minimize any suffering and casualties in both countries. As forces from both countries are now engaged in open hostilities, Amnesty International insists that neither security nor justice will be achieved with the senseless loss of more civilian lives.

    In every armed conflict, protecting civilians is paramount.

    Carolyn Horn, Programme Director for Law and Policy at Amnesty International

    “We extend our condolences to the families on both sides of the border who have lost their loved ones and borne the devastating cost of the current escalation in what has been a long-standing conflict. We unequivocally condemn the deliberate targeting and unlawful killing of civilians by armed groups during the horrific attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on 22nd April and call for an independent, transparent and thorough investigation to bring the suspected perpetrators of the atrocity to account through fair trials, without recourse to the death penalty.”

    Background

    India conducted several airstrikes in Pakistan and in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the early hours on Wednesday, 7 May 2025. Pakistan officials claim that 31 people have been killed and 57 injured by the air strikes including children, women and families and claims one civilian was killed by drone-related attacks on 8 May.

    Meanwhile, India’s army claims that at least 15 civilians were killed and more than 40 injured by Pakistani shelling on its side of the line of control since the airstrikes.

    The escalation of hostilities between the two nuclear-armed countries came after the horrific killing of at least 26 civilians, mainly tourists and families, by five members of armed groups near Pahalgam in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April. India claims it has evidence linking the armed attack to Pakistan – a claim Pakistan denies. Pakistan has said that India has not offered any evidence to support its claim and has requested for an independent investigation.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Lithuania: Decision to leave convention banning anti-personnel mines could put civilian lives at risk

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Reacting to a vote Lithuanian parliament to withdraw from the Ottawa convention, a landmark treaty prohibiting the use of anti-personnel mines, Esther Major, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Research in Europe, said:

    “Today’s decision to leave the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is a retrograde move that will only further weaken the global consensus aimed at minimizing civilian harm during armed conflict.

    “Anti-personnel mines are inherently indiscriminate weapons. They have devastating effects on civilians, sometimes decades after they are deployed, while unexploded anti-personnel landmines can blight whole regions for generations. The use of weapons which are by their nature indiscriminate is prohibited under customary international humanitarian law.

    “This move, which follows the country’s recent withdrawal from the Convention on Cluster Munitions, is part of a disturbing trend which last month saw the Estonian government approve a proposal to withdraw from the convention, and the Latvian president sign into law a bill on the country’s exit from the treaty. We call on the Lithuanian government to reverse this decision that could put civilian lives at risk.”

    Background

    The 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (the Ottawa treaty) bans the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of antipersonnel mines and currently has 165 states parties.

    In March, the defence ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Poland issued a joint statement calling on their countries to pull out of the treaty. The Finnish government has recently initiated the process of withdrawing from the Ottawa treaty.

    Today Lithuania’s defence minister tweeted that the country will “resume mine production and acquisition”.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Sudan: Advanced Chinese weaponry provided by UAE identified in breach of arms embargo – new investigation

    Source: Amnesty International –

    • Norinco Group guided bombs and howitzers used in attacks
    • Weapons almost certainly provided by UAE to RSF in Sudan
    • “Civilians are being killed and injured because of global inaction” – Brian Castner

    Sophisticated Chinese weaponry, re-exported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has been captured in Khartoum, as well as used in Darfur in a blatant breach of the existing UN arms embargo, Amnesty International said following a new investigation.

    By analysing pictures and videos showing the aftermath of attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Amnesty International identified Chinese GB50A guided bombs and 155mm AH-4 howitzers. This is the first time GB50A bombs have been documented in active use in any conflict worldwide. The weapons are manufactured by the Norinco Group, also known as China North Industries Group Corporation Limited, a Chinese state-owned defence corporation. The weapons were almost certainly re-exported to Sudan by the UAE.

    “This is clear evidence that sophisticated Chinese-made guided bombs and howitzers have been used in Sudan,” said Brian Castner, Head of Crisis Research at Amnesty International.

    “The presence of recently manufactured Chinese bombs in North Darfur is a clear violation of the arms embargo by the UAE. Our documentation of AH-4 howitzers in Khartoum further strengthens a growing body of evidence showing extensive UAE support to the RSF, in violation of international law.

    “It is shameful that the UN Security Council is failing to implement the existing  arms embargo on Darfur, and not heeding calls to extend it to all of Sudan. Civilians are being killed and injured because of global inaction, while the UAE continues to flout the embargo. The UAE must halt its arms transfers to the RSF immediately. Until they do, all international arms transfer to the UAE must also stop.”

    This is clear evidence that sophisticated Chinese-made guided bombs and howitzers have been used in Sudan.

    Brian Castner, Head of Crisis Research at Amnesty International

    China, as state party to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), must take urgent measures to prevent the diversion of arms to Sudan. By continuing to supply such weapons to the UAE – a state which has a long track record of supplying arms to conflict where war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law are regularly occurring – China risks indirectly supplying weapons to the conflict.

    The UAE, as a signatory to the ATT, has consistently undermined its object and purpose. All states should stop transferring arms to the UAE until such time that the UAE can guarantee that none will be reexported to Sudan or to other embargoed destinations, and that all it’s past breaches of the UNSC arms embargoes are thoroughly investigated and perpetrators brought to account.

    Last year, Amnesty International’s briefing New Weapons Fuelling the Sudan Conflict documented how recently manufactured weapons from countries including China, Russia, Türkiye and the UAE had been transferred into and around Sudan, often in flagrant breach of the existing Darfur arms embargo. Amnesty International also revealed how French-manufactured weapons systems were being used on the battlefield in Sudan.

    Amnesty International sent letters to Norinco Group regarding the findings on 18 April 2025. At the time of publication, no response had been received.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Greenpeace vows to keep pressing antagonistic, evasive Woodside to protect climate and nature

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    PERTH Thursday, 8 May 2025 — Following Woodside’s 2025 AGM, David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia, said: 

    “Woodside Chairman Richard Goyder treated Greenpeace representatives at the AGM with unnecessary antagonism and evasiveness, but we will not relent on rigorous democratic scrutiny to hold Woodside accountable for its plans to wreck WA’s pristine oceans, Scott Reef, and our climate. 

    “From the proceedings at recent Woodside AGMs, it is abundantly clear that many Western Australians and Woodside shareholders are deeply concerned about the devastating potential impact of Woodside’s plans on our oceans, climate, health, and cultural heritage—and that Woodside is feeling the heat. 

    “Instead of responding to valid concern and scrutiny with antagonism, Woodside should focus on ensuring its plans align with what the science demands on nature protection and emissions reduction. We know that we must stop the extraction and burning of new fossil fuels, and transition to renewable energy at emergency speed and scale if we are to secure a safer climate in the future. 

    “Woodside’s proposed extension of the North West Shelf facility, and its plans to drill for gas near Scott Reef, pose an unacceptable risk to our oceans, and our climate. 

    “The hundreds of thousands of Australians who are deeply concerned about the future of our oceans, environment and climate, will continue to speak up against Woodside’s risky plans. Greenpeace calls on the Albanese government, which has just been elected with a strong climate mandate, to heed the evidence and reject Woodside’s planned North West Shelf extension and Browse gas field. 

    For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Vai Shah on 0452 290 082 or [email protected].

    Photos from the protest and file photos for editorial use will be available here after the protest: Google Drive folder.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: People fleeing violence in North Darfur need shelter, water, and food story May 06, 2025

    Source: Doctors Without Borders –

    In the weeks since the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) conducted a large-scale ground offensive on Sudan’s Zamzam camp, where nearly 500,000 people were taking shelter, tens of thousands of people are fleeing to areas including the town of Tawila, in North Darfur, while intense fighting reportedly continues in the state capital, El Fasher. 

    People are arriving in Tawila from Zamzam in extreme need; famine was declared in the camp in August 2024, and many people have been seriously injured in the attack. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is providing medical care in dedicated health posts in Tawila, as well as distributing water and donating dry food, but the needs of the arriving people are overwhelming emergency and nutritional services at the local hospital that MSF supports. People speak of fleeing horrific violence.

    Why are people fleeing Zamzam and going to Tawila?

    • On April 11, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of the parties in the war in Sudan, launched a massive ground offensive on Zamzam camp, North Darfur, which is home to at least 500,000 displaced people. Hundreds of people are estimated to have been killed.
    • MSF teams in Tawila, about 35 miles away, witnessed the arrival of thousands of displaced families, who told us that fighters  were going door-to-door, shooting people hiding in their homes, and burning large parts of the camp. 
    • The two health posts MSF set up at the main arrival sites in Tawila have been overwhelmed for two weeks in a row, providing up to 850 medical consultations per day, with patients suffering advanced states of dehydration and exhaustion. People have also arrived with gunshots and shrapnel injuries. MSF has set up a mass casualty plan, and in three weeks, our teams treated 779 patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds, including 138 children under 15. Of these, 187 were severe cases (including 24 children). 
    • Tens of thousands of people have now set up makeshift shelters in the surroundings of Tawila, and are trying to survive in extremely dire conditions.

    Dr. Mohamed Abubaker examines a patient in the pediatrics department in Tawila. | Sudan 2025 © Thibault Fendler/MSF

    The RSF came with their machine guns and drones,” says Mariam* who reached Tawila three days after the attack on Zamzam took place. “They attacked and killed [people]—including children. They burned our house with everything we had inside. They raped the women. They killed, they looted. Even before the attack, people had died of thirst and of starvation because of the siege that had been imposed on Zamzam for the past year. … They entered the house of one of my sisters, dragged her out, and killed her. My uncle’s son, my aunt’s son, and many people were killed. They slaughtered us like animals.”

    Mariam arrived in Tawila with 20 family members, including her mother, her sisters and their own children. They now spend their days crammed into a makeshift shelter they built with branches and a piece of fabric, sharing the little shade it provides.

    Makeshift shelters have filled what was an empty grass field in Tawila, as thousands of families flee the massive offensive on Zamzam camp. | Sudan 2025 © Thibault Fendler/MSF

    Newly displaced people are living in fields

    Since April 12, when the people first began reaching Tawila from Zamzam, the areas surrounding the town have been completely transformed, with tens of thousands of people now estimated to be living in makeshift shelters in fields that were totally uninhabited just a few weeks ago.

    “For four days now, we have been staying here as you see us, with nothing: no walls, no roof,” says Ibrahim, who fled Zamzam on foot with 11 of his family members. He carried one of his children on his shoulders and another on his back for five days. It’s the fourth time in 10 years he has been displaced in similar circumstances. He describes how soldiers entered people’s homes, forced them outside, and opened fire. Three of his brothers were killed in this manner. On his way to Tawila, he was robbed and witnessed people being beaten so harshly that they could no longer move.

    “We don’t see any future anymore”

    “I’ve been displaced four times over the past 10 years. We arrived in Tawila on April 16. We have been living here since then, under this tree, all 11 of us.

    On Friday, April 11, it started with shelling directly on the camp. Shells were falling where people were gathering. Then they attacked on the ground. We heard gunfire everywhere. Many people got killed, including three of my brothers. Soldiers entered their houses, brought them outside, and opened fire.

    When we managed to leave Zamzam, we left on foot. We had no vehicles, no donkey, no cart, nothing. I had one of my children on my shoulders, another one on my back. My older son and daughter were carrying their younger siblings the same way. Everyone around us was doing the same.

    We were stopped at the exit of the camp by armed men. They searched everyone, even the smallest children. There were looking for anything that had value. Some of us were beaten so harshly, they were not able to move anymore.

    The first night, we took shelter a few miles from there, in the valley of Golo. But there as well, they came for us, to steal from us. We had nothing left, but all those who did, got looted and beaten, once again.

    For four days now, we have been staying here with nothing—no walls, no roof. Under this tree, it is so crowded. We’re lacking water, shelter, and there is nothing to eat. Everyone is hungry. We’re getting most of our food from community kitchens. Sometimes, we manage to get some rice when they distribute meals, but if we don’t, we must wait until the next day to eat something. For the water, we go to the well, which is a bit further away, with our jerrycans. But there are many people, and we have to wait hours to be able to drink. 

    We have nothing left—no money, nothing that could help us leave. We just stay here, hoping we will get enough food to survive on the next day. We don’t see any future anymore.”

    -Ibrahim*

    Needs far outweigh available assistance

    A handful of organizations are present in Tawila, but the number of people in need of assistance far exceeds the capacity to respond. MSF teams have set up two health posts at the main arrival sites to provide newcomers with water and immediate nutritional and medical support, and are referring critical patients to the local hospital that MSF has been supporting since October 2024.

    “Every single person they saw, they shot at”

    “In my life, I have been displaced many times by the violence, from Sarafaya to Mouqrin in 2014, then to Shagra last year, and to Zamzam earlier this year, to finally arrive here, in Tawila. It was on Monday, April 14.

    It was already a similar attack that made us flee from Shagra to Zamzam. In 2024, attackers came on camels and motorcycles and stole everything from us: our horses, our donkeys, our camels, even the tobacco we had just harvested. 

    When we got to Zamzam, the camp was already under siege. Everything was blocked, no supplies entering anymore. Everything became so expensive: food was not affordable anymore. Then the attack on Zamzam happened. It has started with a lot of shelling and then shooting. They came walking, directly inside the camp. Every single person they saw, they shot at them, not matter if it was a child, a woman, or an old person. 

    At the exit of the camp, they were waiting for us. They searched the women, they took anything they thought had value: our money, our cell phones, even our clothes. And on the road to Tawila, it happened again. What little we had left was looted on the way, including our blankets. 

    I arrived to Tawila with my children. I came walking, carrying my youngest children on our donkey. The little water we had was finished. I saw two bodies on the way, with my own eyes. Dead from thirst. 

    Living conditions here are terrible. My elder children go to the market, they buy big boxes of biscuits they then resell by unit. With that very little money, we manage to survive. For water, we can go to a water tank which is a bit further away, but sometimes it’s empty. We managed to buy two jerrycans on the market, but here as well, they were really expensive.

    My children are coughing a lot. We have been to MSF’s health post; they gave us medications, but their condition is not improving. Nights are so cold; we are sleeping on the floor and only have two blankets for the 11 of us.

    As long as we remain safe here, we will stay. And if not… well, we will leave. Once again.”

    –Hamida* 

    Tiphaine Salmon, MSF head nurse, was working in the hospital on the day the mass influx of severe cases began on April 12. “The emergency room was overwhelmed,” she says. “Over the first few days, the number of patients in the hospital almost doubled. At one point, we had four patients in a bed because we did not have enough space. A lot of people had gunshot wounds and blast injuries—we’ve treated 779 people over the past three weeks, including 138 children. Of the 779 patients, 187 were severe cases. The youngest I saw was a 7-month-old baby with a bullet wound that went under his chin and into his shoulder. We also received patients as young as 1 day old suffering from dehydration. Many children arrived without their parents—and many parents were searching desperately for their children.”

    At the same time, our teams in the hospital witnessed an explosion of admissions in our intensive therapeutical feeding center, which treats children under 5 years old suffering from severe acute malnutrition. In the week following the influx, admissions increased almost tenfold, from an average of 6 or 7 per week to more than 60. They were mostly children from Zamzam.

    MSF nurse Hitham checks a patient at an MSF health post in Tawila Umda, where hundreds of people suffering from exhaustion and dehydration have arrived over the past few days. | Sudan 2025 © Thibault Fendler/MSF

    Disease and displacement make a deadly combination

    A suspected measles outbreak began in Tawila in March, worsening an already catastrophic situation. MSF has treated more than 900 suspected measles cases since early February, with more than 300 patients in such severe condition that they required hospitalization. This situation led our teams to launch a large-scale vaccination campaign in the city in the first week of April, reaching 18,000 children under 5 years old.

    Only one week after the massive influx of people from Zamzam began, our teams saw several suspected cases among children who had just arrived from the camp, meaning that measles had already begun to spread in displacement sites.

    In such sites with a high population density and low hygiene conditions, malnutrition and measles can be an especially deadly combination, with disastrous consequences for young children.

    “They just slaughtered us like animals” 

    “Our household is composed of 20 people, including my 12 children, my mother, my sisters and their own children. We arrived from Zamzam five days ago. We were living there since 2014.

    The RSF came with their machine guns and drones. They attacked and killed, including children. They burned our house with everything we had inside. They raped the women. They killed, they looted. But even before that, people died of thirst and of starvation, because of the siege they imposed on Zamzam for the past year. Everything was so expensive and so unaffordable in the end.

    I’ve seen a full group of children being killed during the attack by a shelling. I’ve seen it with my own eyes as we were fleeing.

    Nobody will ever go there and bury them now.

    They entered the house of one of my sisters, dragged her out, and killed her. My uncle’s son, my aunt’s son, and many people were killed. They slaughtered us like animals. 

    On our way to Shagra, at a checkpoint, I asked them why they were killing us like this. They didn’t answer. They raped several girls there. They beat the people, and loot them once again, whatever they had. We had a bit of water left, but they took the bottle and emptied it on the ground, in front of us. They also took our luggage, threw everything on the ground, and chose what they wanted to keep. I only had about 1,500 Sudanese pounds on me [about $2.25], even that they took from me. 

    On the way, there were six checkpoints like this one. At every single checkpoint, they emptied our luggage, searched, and kept what had value. Then they ordered us to pick up the rest and leave immediately. 

    Here, in Tawila, there is no food. Some people in Tawila shared a bit of millet flour with us, from which we make porridge. This is how we have survived so far: begging. We have one blanket for all of us.

    We don’t have any other place to go, and even if we did, we wouldn’t have the money to do so. So, we’re just staying here, hoping to receive a bit of help. We need a better place to stay than this shelter we built with our hands.”

    –Mariam*

    Immediate scale-up of aid is imperative

    MSF is continuing to scale up its intervention in Tawila. As well as carrying out hundreds of medical consultations per day, our organization has donated food to local community kitchens, enabling them to prepare and distribute more than 16,000 meals per day. We have also been providing 100,000 liters of clean water daily, and we have additional plans to construct 300 latrines.

    But the needs of people in Tawila are immense and far outstrip our capacity to respond. Although other actors have also mobilized, and a first mass food distribution has taken place, the humanitarian response still needs to be urgently and rapidly scaled up. We urge UN agencies to substantially increase their presence on the ground so they can coordinate a response with the magnitude to meet the ever-growing needs.

    *Names have been changed for privacy. 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Greenpeace USA responds to Energy Transfer Q1 earnings call announcement

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    Greenpeace USA projected a powerful message of purpose and defiance onto the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. The action marked 100 days into the administration’s second term and launched the global #TimeToResist campaign — a call to push back against attacks on democracy, dissent, and environmental justice from from billionaire oligarchs and corporate bullies. © Jana Asenbrennerova / Greenpeace

    Washington, D.C. (May 6, 2025) – In response to Energy Transfer announcing $4.1B in 2025 Q1 profits, Sushma Raman, Greenpeace USA Interim Executive Director, said: 

    “There are no words to fully capture the absurdity of Energy Transfer boasting billions in quarterly profits while trying to squeeze more than $660 million out of Greenpeace USA, Greenpeace Fund, and Greenpeace International. But as we’ve said from the beginning – this was never about money. There is no dollar figure that can be placed on rolling back constitutional rights to free speech and protest, yet, that is exactly what’s unfolding under this administration. Donald Trump’s wealthy allies are attempting to buy the power to silence dissent, using their bank accounts as battering rams against democracy. Our response is in our resistance. As we continue to fight these baseless charges, we know this is the Billionaire Bully playbook. They turn a profit by making people like us pay the price. 

    “The fact that we are still standing here today, because of the unwavering support of people who believe in a just and green future, is proof we refuse to be bullied by corporations into silence. As this nation’s founding document first declared — governments derive their power from the consent of the governed, so in that spirit, it is time we all say: We the People, resist.”

    Contact: Madison Carter, Greenpeace USA Senior Communications Specialist, [email protected]

    Greenpeace USA is part of a global network of independent campaigning organizations that use peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace USA is committed to transforming the country’s unjust social, environmental, and economic systems from the ground up to address the climate crisis, advance racial justice, and build an economy that puts people first. Learn more at www.greenpeace.org/usa.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Week 7 of “Dirty Dems” campaign sets its sights on Assembly Member Esmeralda Soria

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    FRESNO, CA (May 6, 2025)—As part of the ongoing “Dirty Dems” campaign, Greenpeace USA, in collaboration with the California Working Families Party and Courage California, continues to hold California State legislators accountable for their damaging connections to the oil and gas industry and their failure to support critical climate, economic justice, and progressive priorities.

    In its final week, the campaign turns to Fresno’s Assembly Member Esmeralda Soria. Though Soria has only spent just over two years in office, she has already directly accepted $53,000 from the oil and gas industry, including $29,500 in just the last session alone. 

    Amy Moas, Ph.D., Greenpeace USA Senior Climate Campaigner, said: “Assembly Member Soria’s ties to the fossil fuel industry are particularly alarming because she signed the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge while running for Congress in 2020. Her abrupt reversal to supporting toxic polluters begs the question: why is she unwilling to stand up for resilient families and a healthy future? In two short years, Soria has quickly made her priorities and true alliances known.”

    Assembly Member Soria has earned failing grades from every major environmental and progressive scorecard across the state for both years she has been in office. Some lowlights of her time as an elected official include the following: skipped voting on a bill to monitor noxious pollutants in neighborhoods that have been linked to asthma and cancer (SB 674); skipped voting on a bill to reduce toxins in everyday packaging (AB 2761); and skipped voting on a bill to protect Californians from inflated utility prices by requiring the comparison of rates to actual costs (AB 2666). 

    But Assembly Member Soria has also failed on other progressive issues, especially those related to protecting workers. In 2024, she skipped both voting on a bill to improve employment standards for janitorial labor in the state (AB 2364) and voting on a bill focused on establishing more protections against workplace violence (SB 553). While Soria has every reason to be a voice for a healthier and more resilient California, she has actively chosen corporate polluters over her communities. Thus, she has been named a “Dirty Dem.”

    Greenpeace USA is part of a global network of independent campaigning organizations that use peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace USA is committed to transforming the country’s unjust social, environmental, and economic systems from the ground up to address the climate crisis, advance racial justice, and build an economy that puts people first. Learn more at www.greenpeace.org/usa.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Myanmar: Life-saving education funding must be restored following USAID cuts 

    Source: Amnesty International –

    The United States and other governments must urgently find funding for education programmes in Myanmar that were a lifeline for students, teachers and families in the war-torn country, Amnesty International said today, as it warned of a “lost generation” if no action is taken.

    Testimony from teachers and students gathered by Amnesty International showed the impact on Myanmar students of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts to foreign aid, which included the termination of more than US$70 million in funding for education programmes in Myanmar, according to those involved in the efforts.

    “The battering of Myanmar’s education sector since the 2021 military coup has robbed millions of young people of opportunities. These US cuts to education programmes now make the prospect of a lost generation increasingly likely,” said Joe Freeman, Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher.

    “But it is not too late to fill this vacuum in Myanmar students’ education. Governments and universities in the US and beyond must find a way to enable them to continue their studies and prevent them being sent back to a conflict zone, where they are at risk of arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment; aerial and ground attacks on their communities; and forced conscription into a military that routinely resorts to human rights abuses as a strategy of war.”

    The US-funded education programmes, enacted after the coup, supported Myanmar students studying at Southeast Asian universities; online higher education initiatives; and basic education services for children in ethnic, remote and rural communities.

    They were a rare bright spot in an ever-deteriorating human rights situation in the country, where to date more than 6,000 civilians have been killed and more than 20,000 detained. In 2025, nearly 20 million people are expected to need humanitarian assistance.

    A 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck central Myanmar on 28 March 2025, killing nearly 4,000 people and destroying hospitals, homes, monasteries and at least 1,000 schools, has only exacerbated these needs. It will also create additional hurdles for students seeking an education after more than four years of armed conflict in the country.

    “The US cuts to foreign aid made a bad situation worse. The Trump administration must reverse course and not abandon Myanmar students working to fulfill their dreams under extremely challenging circumstances. But if the US continues to fail Myanmar’s young people, other governments, universities and donors must step up and help,” Joe Freeman said.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Tunisia: Year-long arbitrary detention of human rights defenders working with refugees and migrants  

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Tunisian authorities must immediately release human rights defenders, NGO workers, and former local officials who have been held in arbitrary pre-trial detention for one year because of their legitimate support for refugees and migrants, Amnesty International said today. The ongoing crackdown, part of a broader assault on civil society in Tunisia, was fueled by escalating xenophobia and has severely disrupted crucial assistance for refugees and migrants. 

    Since May 2024, Tunisian authorities have raided at least three NGOs providing critical assistance to refugees and migrants, arresting and detaining at least eight NGO workers, as well as two former local officials who cooperated with them. They also opened criminal investigations into at least 40 other individuals in relation to legitimate NGO work to support refugees and migrants.  

    “It is deeply shocking that these human rights defenders have now spent over a year in arbitrary detention, for simply assisting refugees and migrants in precarious situations. They should have never been arrested in the first place,” said Sara Hashash, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.  

    The Tunisian authorities must immediately release and drop all charges against those detained solely for their human rights and humanitarian work.

    Sara Hashash, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

    “This reckless crackdown on the staff of organizations operating under Tunisian law has had devastating humanitarian consequences for refugees and migrants in the country and represents a deeply harmful setback for human rights in Tunisia. The Tunisian authorities must immediately release and drop all charges against those detained solely for their human rights and humanitarian work.”  

    On 3 and 4 May 2024, Tunisian police arrested Mustapha Djemali and Abderrazak Krimi, respectively director and project manager of the Tunisian Council for Refugees (CTR), a Tunisian NGO working with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Tunisian authorities to pre-register asylum seekers and provide essential assistance to refugees and asylum seekers. Authorities have held them under successive pretrial detention orders for over a year now, while investigating them for “assisting the clandestine entry” of foreign nationals and “providing [them] shelter”, solely based on their work for the CTR. 

    From 7 to 13 May 2024, the police arrested Sherifa Riahi, Yadh Bousselmi and Mohamed Joo, respectively former director, director and administrative and financial director of Terre d’asile Tunisie, the Tunisian branch of French NGO France Terre d’asile.  

    Judicial authorities have held them in pretrial detention since then and are prosecuting them on charges of “sheltering individuals illegally entering or leaving the territory” and “facilitating the irregular entry, exit, movement or stay of a foreigner”, solely for providing critical assistance to refugees and migrants. When closing the investigation, the investigative judge cited a “European-backed civil society plan to promote the social and economic integration of irregular migrants into Tunisia and their permanent settlement” to support the charge.  

    On 11 May 2024, the police also arrested former deputy mayor of Sousse Imen Ouardani under the same charges, as well as the additional charge of using her position as public official “to obtain an unjustified advantage or harm the administration,” solely because of the collaboration between the municipality and Terre d’asile Tunisie.  

    Under international law, pretrial detention should only be used as an exception, to avoid undermining the presumption of innocence, and based on an individualized assessment which shows that the detention is necessary and proportionate because of a substantial risk of flight, interference with the investigation, harm to others or reiteration of the alleged offence. The Tunisian authorities have not demonstrated any of these grounds with regard to these individuals.  

    “Detaining human rights defenders criminalizes essential human rights and humanitarian work. Providing support to refugees and migrants – irrespective of their legal status – is protected under international law and should never be equated with human smuggling or trafficking,” said Sara Hashash. 

    Tunisia is party to the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocols, which set out precise standards for the definition of human smuggling and trafficking, exempting legitimate human rights and humanitarian work.  

    The May 2024 crackdown took place after xenophobic and racist social media smear campaigns against several organizations including the CTR and Terre d’asile Tunisie, after the CTR published a tender for hotels to shelter asylum seekers and refugees in precarious situations, in response to a request for assistance from UNHCR and local authorities. 

    On 6 May 2024, President Kais Saied accused NGOs working on migration of being “traitors” and “[foreign] agents”, and of seeking the “settlement” of Sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia. A day later, a public prosecutor in Tunis announced the opening of an investigation against NGOs for providing “financial support to illegal migrants”.  

    The crackdown which has involved the detention of NGO staff and freezing of NGOs’ bank accounts has triggered the suspension of vital services since May 2024, disrupting access to asylum procedures, shelter, healthcare, child protection, and legal aid. This has left potentially thousands of refugees and migrants, including unaccompanied children, in precarious and uncertain situations and at greater risk of facing human rights violations and abuse.  

    In April 2025, Tunisia’s Interior Minister, Khaled Ennouri, said that the authorities were prepared to “confront all plans to alter the demographic composition of the Tunisian population”. Such comments have contributed to an ongoing spike in racist violence against Black refugees and migrants, notably in border regions. Social media users have shared videos of themselves “tracking down [Black] Africans” and threatening violence and other abuse against them.  

    Other organizations targeted include anti-racism organization Mnemty – nine of their staff and partners have been under investigation since May 2024 for financial crimes for which the authorities have yet to provide evidence – and the children’s rights NGO Children of the Moon of Medenine. Authorities have also detained the executive director of the Association for the Promotion of the Right to Difference (ADD), Salwa Ghrissa, since 12 December 2024, pending investigation into the organization’s funding.

    Tunisian authorities must immediately cease the criminalization of human rights and humanitarian work and end the dangerous scapegoating and vilification of civil society.

    Sara Hashash, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

    “Tunisian authorities must immediately cease the criminalization of human rights and humanitarian work and end the dangerous scapegoating and vilification of civil society,” said Sara Hashash. 

    Background  

    Racist and xenophobic rhetoric has been repeated by Tunisian officials and members of the parliament over the past two years, starting with racist remarks made by President Kais Saied in February 2023.  

    Since May 2024, Tunisian authorities have also continued to carry out forced evictions and unlawful collective expulsions of refugees and migrants to Libya and Algeria regularly. In early April 2025, authorities announced an “operation of dismantlement” in the eastern region of Sfax, where refugees and migrants had established makeshift camps in the past two years, after having been forcibly evicted and relocated from urban areas by the authorities.  

    The wave of arrests of May 2024 is part of a wider attack on civil society. Ahead of the 2024 October presidential elections, authorities opened investigations into NGOs I Watch and Mourakiboun in relation to their funding and prevented them from observing the elections. 

    Tunisian financial authorities have subsequently opened investigations into at least a dozen organizations over funding and activities protected under the right to freedom of association, while banks have increasingly delayed or obstructed incoming transfers of funds from abroad, demanding excessive documentation regarding the transfers, thereby impeding NGO operations. 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Global: Ruling against NSO Group in Whatsapp case a “momentous win in fight against spyware abuse”

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Responding to a ruling that spyware maker NSO Group must pay more than USD167 million in damages to Whatsapp, Rebecca White, Amnesty International’s researcher on targeted surveillance, said:

    “This is a momentous win in the fight against spyware abuse. NSO Group, which develops the notorious and highly invasive Pegasus spyware, has been implicated in severe human rights violations against civil society, including journalists and activists, globally. 

    “For years, Amnesty International and civil society partners have documented how spyware companies, like NSO Group, have enabled human rights abuses on a massive scale. The surveillance industry has failed to act. We trust that this victory will deter the spyware industry, its investors and its government customers worldwide. We hope this judgement offers some measure of solace to Pegasus’ thousands of victims. Let this be a signal, loud and clear, that change is imminent. Those who misuse spyware to infringe on human rights will be held accountable and cannot act with impunity.

    We trust that this victory will deter the spyware industry, its investors and its government customers worldwide.

    Rebecca White, Amnesty International researcher on targeted surveillance

    “This decision should serve as a wake-up call to governments to take proactive, concrete steps to regulate the surveillance industry, to enforce safeguards on their surveillance practices, and to comprehensively ban tools that are inherently incompatible with human rights obligations and standards, such as Pegasus.”

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Israel must immediately abandon Gaza annexation plans and forced displacement of Palestinians

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Nearly 70% of the Gaza Strip is under ‘evacuation orders’ or designated as no-go zones                

    Majority of Palestinians in Gaza are descendants of 1948 Nakba survivors and have endured decades of displacement and dispossession by Israel

    Any move by Israel to displace Palestinians would amount to the war crime of unlawful transfer or deportation

    ‘Israel appears to be using the release of the hostages as a pretext to justify further crimes and violations against Palestinians’ – Erika Guevara Rosas

    The Israeli government must immediately abandon its plans for expanded military operations including plans to annex territory and forcibly displace Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, which would gravely violate international law, said Amnesty International today. 

    Israel has continued to commit genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreversible harm being inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza. Any move by Israel to displace Palestinians to the south of the Gaza Strip and confine them into so-called “closed bubbles” or continue to impose inhumane conditions of life to push Palestinians out of Gaza, would amount to the war crime of unlawful transfer or deportation. If these actions are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population, they would also constitute crimes against humanity.

    Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy, and Campaigns, said:

    “Israel’s declared intentions to expand its already devastating military offensive, further entrench its unlawful occupation of the Gaza Strip, and forcibly displace Palestinians could inflict a final blow leading to the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, who for months on end have been struggling to survive amid Israel’s ongoing genocide.

    “Any attempts to weaponise humanitarian aid, use it to coerce forced displacement, or establish discriminatory aid distribution zones would violate international law and must be rejected.

    “The international community must reject these dangerous plans and pressure Israel to comply with its obligations under international law and ensure unhindered humanitarian aid access throughout Gaza.

    “Instead of pursuing policies that lead to further forced displacement and potentially to illegal annexation, Israel must immediately stop its genocide in Gaza, end its unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory, and dismantle its system of apartheid against Palestinians.

    “Amnesty reiterates its unequivocal call on Hamas and other armed groups to immediately and unconditionally release civilian hostages. Israel appears to be using the release of the hostages, as a pretext to justify further crimes and violations against Palestinians and its continued genocide in the Gaza Strip, which some families of those still held in Gaza have denounced.”

    Forced displacement

    Since October 2023, the world has witnessed repeated waves of forced displacement of Palestinians within Gaza under inhumane conditions. The manner in which these waves of displacement have been implemented have been key to Israel’s inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. At the moment, nearly 70% of the Gaza Strip is under “evacuation orders” or designated as no-go zones.

    Israel’s new plans indicate the authorities are planning a horrifying escalation by seizing territory, establishing a ‘sustained physical presence’ there and indefinitely displacing the majority of the population.

    The majority of Palestinians in Gaza are descendants of those who survived the 1948 Nakba and have already suffered decades of displacement and dispossession by Israel while being denied their right of return. Israel’s latest plans risk compounding this historic injustice.

    Humanitarian aid

    Israel’s plans to control and militarise humanitarian aid distribution will also undermine the independent and impartial delivery of essential assistance to a population in dire need. These plans have been widely condemned by UN agencies and humanitarian organisations, who have unanimously rejected any attempt to weaponise aid.

    The ongoing siege which has completely blocked the entry of life-saving aid, including food, medicine and fuel, for more than two months is being used by Israel as a weapon of war and unlawful collective punishment. This is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, which strictly prohibits collective punishment and requires all parties to allow and facilitate the provision of impartial humanitarian assistance for civilians in need.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Greenpeace calls on Woodside shareholders to reject gas expansion plans at AGM

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    PERTH, Thursday 8 May 2025 – Greenpeace Australia Pacific is challenging Woodside on its troubling track record of harming WA’s oceans at its AGM, and urged shareholders to reject Woodside’s plans to drill for gas near Scott Reef. 

    Environment groups and concerned community members will stage a protest outside Woodside’s AGM at the Crown Towers in Perth, and Greenpeace will also directly challenge Woodside’s leadership and its gas expansion plans during the AGM proceedings. 

    Due to participate in Woodside’s AGM as a proxy shareholder, David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific said: “For the fourth year, Greenpeace has returned to Woodside’s AGM to expose its shameful environmental track record of harm to marine life, oil and chemical spills, and more. Woodside’s plans pose an unacceptable risk–this is a company that simply can’t be trusted with our oceans. 

    “Woodside’s planned Browse gas field would entail drilling up to 50 wells as close as 2 kilometres from Scott Reef, home to nesting sea turtles, endangered pygmy blue whales and dusky sea snakes. Its new carbon dumping plans involve repeated seismic blasting over the next 39 years, which can deafen whales, near Scott Reef. 

    “Woodside wants to turn Scott Reef into an industrial gas zone. We urge Woodside shareholders not to allow our precious oceans, whales, and turtles to face potentially irreversible harm, and call on Woodside to reconsider its plans. 

    “From leaving its trash in the ocean until Greenpeace pushed it to clean it up to delivering a climate plan that faced unprecedented rejection by shareholders last year, Woodside’s environmental and climate governance under its current leadership is not up to scratch with what shareholders or regulators expect. 

    “To protect the environment, Greenpeace is urging shareholders to vote down the re-election of board director Ann Pickard, who chairs Woodside’s sustainability committee. Between the multiple environmental failures on her watch and her history of leading Shell’s now-abandoned push to destroy the Arctic for oil, she does not inspire any confidence on sustainability. 

    “We are also calling on the newly re-elected Albanese government to listen to the millions of Australians who rejected the Coalition’s gas fast-track plans, and voted for nature protection and a safe climate future powered by renewables. Sentiment for climate action was also clear in WA, with a surge in support for Independent candidates championing the shift away from climate-wrecking gas expansion. 

    “In its second term, the Albanese government has an opportunity to stand up for oceans, marine life and clean energy. It must heed the evidence and reject Woodside’s proposals to extend its North West Shelf gas processing facility, and develop the Browse gas field. Doing so would protect Scott Reef from damage from industrial activity and prevent billions of tonnes of climate-wrecking emissions. 

    “We are halfway through the critical decade for action on climate change, and in the middle of a climate and biodiversity crisis. Corporations, shareholders, and governments alike must put an end to polluting fossil fuel projects, and accelerate the transition to clean, affordable renewable energy.” 

    —ENDS—

    For more information or to arrange an interview please contact Vai Shah on 0452 290 082 or [email protected].

    Photos from the protest and file photos for editorial use will be available here after the protest: Google Drive folder

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Historic breakthrough: over 40 Nigerian civil society organisations unite to launch climate justice movement

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    Abuja, Nigeria: May 7, 2025 –In a watershed moment for the promotion of environmental justice in Nigeria, more than 40 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) joined forces to launch the Nigerian Climate Justice Movement (CJM). A declaration was issued at the end of a landmark two-day event held in Abuja. The declaration reinforces the resolve of CSOs in holding corporations accountable for environmental damage and biodiversity destruction while amplifying Africa’s demands in global climate justice debates.

    The Climate Justice Movement, spearheaded by Greenpeace Africa, aims to connect isolated climate voices and responses under one umbrella movement to collectively address the disproportionate impact of climate change on the African continent. 

    Ogunlade Olamide Martins, Associate Director (Climate Change) for Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), one of the signatories, stated: “This declaration represents a turning point for grassroots environmental movements in Nigeria. For too long, our struggles have been fragmented despite facing common threats from extractive industries. By uniting under the Climate Justice Movement, we multiply our collective power and create space for community voices to shape the solutions.”

    Sherelee Odayar, Oil and Gas Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, said:  “For decades, oil giants like Shell have extracted billions in profits from Nigerian soil while leaving behind devastated ecosystems and broken communities. Recent media investigations exposing Shell’s negligence in the Niger Delta is an example of the toxicity and selfish, unempathetic profiteering that communities have endured for generations. Through this declaration, we’re sending a clear message: the era of unchecked pollution and corporate impunity is over – it’s time for polluters to pay.”

    Cynthia Moyo, Climate and Energy Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, said: “Nigeria stands at a crossroads in its energy future. As we witness intensifying flooding in the Niger Delta and advancing desertification in the north, it’s clear that climate change requires systemic solutions. This movement isn’t just about cleaning up past damage – it’s about shaping a just transition that centres African realities and protects communities from both climate impacts and false solutions like carbon trading that simply perpetuate exploitation.”

    Elizabeth Atieno, Food Security Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, highlighted the connection between pollution and food security: “Oil spills have contaminated once-fertile soils and fishing grounds across the Niger Delta, creating a food crisis that disproportionately affects women and children. When farmers can’t farm and fisherfolk can’t fish, entire communities face malnutrition and economic devastation. Climate justice is fundamentally about securing the right to food sovereignty in the face of corporate environmental abuses.”

    Despite contributing minimally to global greenhouse gas emissions, Africa suffers some of the most severe climate impacts, with warming already exceeding the global average. Between July and October 2024, floods affected 34 states across Nigeria, impacting over 4 million people, with more than 300 lives lost and over 2,854 people injured. Nigeria’s catastrophic 2022 floods killed over 600 people, displacing 1.4 million citizens, and affecting more than 4.4 million across 33 states. The disaster destroyed over 200,000 homes and damaged 676,000 hectares of farmland, worsening food insecurity in a country already facing economic challenges. 

    Another signatory, Ibrahim Muhammad Shamsuddin, Program Manager at Yanayl Haki Afriqya, added, “The youth of Nigeria are demanding accountability from corporations and policymakers. We refuse to inherit a country where profits routinely take precedence over people and planet, having lived the realities that climate change impacts pose to our communities. This declaration is our pledge to transform environmental advocacy in Nigeria from isolated campaigns into a formidable, unified force that drives positive change towards access to a safe and healthy environment for all, which is a fundamental human right.”

    The CJM declaration outlines comprehensive demands, including immediate remediation of oil-polluted sites in the Niger Delta, compensation for communities affected by decades of extraction, ending gas flaring practices, transitioning to renewable energy infrastructure, strengthening regulatory frameworks against corporate environmental abuses and rejection of false solutions like carbon trading. 

    The coalition brings together diverse organisations working across environmental sectors, including ocean conservation, forest protection, climate advocacy, and community rights. CJM Nigeria is the fourth launch, with successful previous launches in the DRC, Cameroon, and Ghana.

    The coalition will now focus on implementing a coordinated action plan, engaging government authorities, and expanding the movement across West Africa. 

    ENDS

    For more information or interview requests, please contact:

    Dr. Ignatius Emeka Onyekwere, Media Consultant for CJM Nigeria, [email protected], +234 810 038 5897

    Ferdinand Omondi, Communication Manager, Greenpeace Africa, [email protected], +254 722 505 233

    Notes to Editors:

    About Greenpeace Africa:

    Greenpeace Africa is an independent environmental campaigning organisation established in 2008 that operates across the African continent with offices in Senegal, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and South Africa. As part of the global Greenpeace network, the organisation works to protect and conserve Africa’s natural environment while advocating for peace and environmental justice. 

    About the Climate Justice Movement

    The Climate Justice Movement (CJM) is a pan-African initiative that unites grassroots organisations to address environmental challenges across the continent.

    The CJM represents a cornerstone of Greenpeace Africa’s strategy to build people-powered movements that challenge corporate environmental exploitation while elevating local communities as agents of change in environmental decision-making processes.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Nigeria/UK: “Historic moment” as community devastated by Shell oil spills have final chance for justice   

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Ahead of Thursday’s start of the trial of Renaissance, an oil company to which Shell recently sold its stake in onshore oil extraction in Nigeria, for the damage caused by oil spills which impacted a large area of land belonging to the Bodo Community in the Niger Delta, Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International Nigeria Director said: 

    “Almost two decades since oil spills by Shell’s then-Nigerian subsidiary SPDC devastated huge swathes of mangrove habitat, the Bodo community whose lives and livelihoods were – and continue to be – affected by the pollution, have a final chance for justice. 

    This long-overdue trial must provide the Bodo communities the justice and remediation they have fought for

    “Despite Shell admitting responsibility for the pollution over a decade ago, this case aims to prove that their promised clean-up is far from complete and contamination continues to pose a serious health risk to tens of thousands of people. 

    “It is shameful that it has taken so long and required legal action to get the companies responsible for this environmental destruction to face their responsibilities. We hope that this long-overdue trial will provide the affected Bodo communities the justice and remediation they have fought for and deserve. This is a historic moment that should serve as a reminder that a just transition to clean energy also means holding polluters to account for the harm they have caused in the past.”  

    Background 

    In 2008 there were two massive oil spills, caused by poorly maintained Shell pipelines, in a creek close to the Bodo community. Crude oil continuously leaked into the water for five weeks on each occasion. Shell settled with the community in 2014 but has yet to clean up Bodo’s devastated waterways despite a mediation process that started in 2015. 

    The Court of Appeal heard the Shell Nigeria oil spill appeal on 8 October 2024. On 11 October 2024, the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Nigerian communities over alleged pollution by oil giant Shell. On 6 December 2024, a full trial of Nigerian communities’ claims against Shell was given the go ahead. 

    The Bodo community’s legal claim is being brought against Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited (RAEC), which was formed after Shell divested from its Nigerian subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) in March 2025. Ahead of the sale, Amnesty International called for Shell to be held accountable for the environmental damage they had caused in the Niger Delta. 

    Over the past 20 years, Amnesty International has conducted extensive research and documented the human rights and environmental impact of Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta. In Amnesty’s 2023 report, Nigeria: Tainted Sale?, the organization recommended a series of safeguards to protect the rights of people potentially affected by Shell’s planned disposal of its oil interests in Nigeria. 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Israel must immediately abandon any plans for annexation in Gaza and mass forcible transfer of Palestinians  

    Source: Amnesty International –

    The Israeli government must immediately abandon its recently unveiled plans for expanded military operations including plans to annex territory and forcibly displace Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, which would gravely violate international law, said Amnesty International today.  

    Israel has continued to commit genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreversible harm being inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza. Any move by Israel to displace Palestinians to the south of the Gaza Strip and confine them into so-called “closed bubbles” or continue to impose inhumane conditions of life to push Palestinians out of Gaza, would amount to the war crime of unlawful transfer or deportation. If these actions are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population, they would also constitute crimes against humanity. 

    “After imposing two months of full siege on Gaza, Israel’s declared intentions to expand its already devastating military offensive, further entrench its unlawful occupation of the Gaza Strip, and forcibly displace Palestinians could inflict a final blow leading to the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, who for months on end have been struggling to survive amid Israel’s ongoing genocide,” said Erika Guevara Rosas Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy, and Campaigns at Amnesty International. 

    Since October 2023, the world has witnessed repeated waves of forced displacement of Palestinians within Gaza under inhumane conditions. The manner in which these waves of displacement have been implemented have been key to Israel’s inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. At the moment, nearly 70% of the Gaza Strip is under “evacuation orders” or designated as no-go zones.  

    Israel’s new plans indicate the authorities are planning a horrifying escalation by seizing territory, establishing a ‘sustained physical presence’ there and indefinitely displacing the majority of the population. 

    “These plans demonstrate Israel’s utter disregard for international law and its contempt for the rights of Palestinians. Amnesty International reiterates its unequivocal call on Hamas and other armed groups to immediately and unconditionally release civilian hostages. Israel appears to be using the release of the hostages, as a pretext to justify further crimes and violations against Palestinians and its continued genocide in the Gaza Strip, which some families of those still held in Gaza have denounced,” said Erika Guevara Rosas. 

    Israel’s plans to control and militarize humanitarian aid distribution will also undermine the independent and impartial delivery of essential assistance to a population in dire need. These plans have been widely condemned by UN agencies and humanitarian organizations, who have unanimously rejected any attempt to weaponize aid.  

    The ongoing siege which has completely blocked the entry of life-saving aid, including food, medicine and fuel, for more than two months is being used by Israel as a weapon of war and unlawful collective punishment. This is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, which strictly prohibits collective punishment and requires all parties to allow and facilitate the provision of impartial humanitarian assistance for civilians in need.  

    Any attempts to weaponize humanitarian aid, use it to coerce forced displacement, or establish discriminatory aid distribution zones would violate international law and must be rejected.

    Erika Guevara Rosas Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy, and Campaigns at Amnesty International.

    “Any attempts to weaponize humanitarian aid, use it to coerce forced displacement, or establish discriminatory aid distribution zones would violate international law and must be rejected,” said Erika Guevara Rosas. 

    “The international community must unequivocally reject these dangerous plans and pressure Israel to comply with its obligations under international law and ensure unhindered humanitarian aid access throughout Gaza.” 

    The majority of Palestinians in Gaza are descendants of those who survived the 1948 Nakba and have already suffered decades of displacement and dispossession by Israel while being denied their right of return. Israel’s latest plans risk compounding this historic injustice.  

    Israel must immediately stop its genocide in Gaza, end its unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory, in line with the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of July 2024, and dismantle its system of apartheid against Palestinians.

    Erika Guevara Rosas.

    “Instead of pursuing policies that lead to further forced displacement and potentially to illegal annexation, Israel must immediately stop its genocide in Gaza, end its unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory, in line with the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of July 2024, and dismantle its system of apartheid against Palestinians,” said Erika Guevara Rosas.   

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Amnesty Media Awards: Public vote for new ‘People’s Choice Award’ launches today

    Source: Amnesty International –

    New category celebrates an individual journalist’s contribution to human rights reporting over the past year 

    Finalists, including Lyse Doucet, Owen Jones and Nesrine Malek, were nominated by Amnesty UK supporters  

    Vote now goes to public who can submit their choice here 

    Amnesty International UK has today (Wednesday 7th May) launched the public vote for a new category in the 2025 Amnesty Media Awards. 

    As the awards enter their 33rd year, the ‘People’s Choice Award’ has been established to give the public the opportunity to vote for the UK journalist they believe has made an outstanding contribution to human rights reporting over the past year. 

    A shortlist of ten journalists, as nominated by Amnesty supporters, will be put to a public vote, which will be open for two weeks (closing at midnight on Wednesday 21 May). Voters will also have the chance to win tickets to the awards ceremony.  

    The winner of the People’s Choice Award will be announced on Wednesday 4 June at the BFI Southbank and will be livestreamed on the night on the Amnesty Media Awards website. 

    To vote, click here. 

    Nominees and links to their bios 

    What Amnesty supporters said: 

    ‘Owen has been one of the very few journalists who has had the courage to speak the truth about the Genocide in Gaza.’ 

    What Amnesty supporters said: 

    ‘In his reporting, he provides deeply insightful, yet clear, easily readable and straight-to-the point analysis.’ 

    What Amnesty supporters said: 

    ‘[Nesrine’s] knowledge and research on matters of global justice and conflict shine through every piece. She is unafraid to take a different view if that enables us to better understand the people at the heart of the stories. I just love her journalism.’ 

    What Amnesty supporters said: 

    ‘He is always at the centre of any major story and focussing on the human story within which always highlight human rights issues.’ 

    What Amnesty supporters said: 

    ‘[Their work is] informative, balanced and heroic.’ 

    ‘Committed to independent, truthful journalism.’ 

    What Amnesty supporters said: 

    ‘Lyse is incredibly brave and always at the forefront of news in war regions.’ 

    What Amnesty supporters said: 

    ‘Every column, every week is full of humanity, understanding and knowledge in a world of soundbites he is always detailed and shows huge knowledge and understanding.’ 

    What Amnesty supporters said: 

    ‘Outstanding, well researched, independent and honest journalism.’ 

    What Amnesty supporters said: 

    ‘Brave, truthful and good as it gets.’ 

    2024: The deadliest year yet for journalists 

    Each year Amnesty’s Media Awards showcase the incredible work of journalists and other media workers who strive to expose injustices being perpetrated around the world – often at a great deal of personal risk. 

    However, press freedom is more under attack than ever. Disturbingly, last year was the deadliest year for journalists since records began three decades ago. In 2024, at least 124 journalists and media workers were killed. A staggering 70% of those were at the hands of the Israeli military in Gaza and Lebanon.  Other countries with high death tolls include Sudan, Pakistan, Mexico, Syria, Iraq and Haiti. Hundreds more languish in prison as a direct result of their work.* 

    Media workers across the world continue to operate under the threat of censorship, harassment, prosecution and worse, with many risking their lives to expose abuses and corruption. 

    Now, more than ever, it’s crucial we work to defend press freedoms and help enable journalists to continue doing their vital work. 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: David Attenborough’s Ocean sets the stage for new Labor Government to ratify Global Ocean Treaty

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    SYDNEY, Wednesday 7 May 2025 – Following the premiere of Sir David Attenborough’s latest documentary Ocean, Greenpeace Australia Pacific is calling on the new Australian government to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty within its first 100 days in power.

    Ocean exposes the brutal realities of the global ocean under threat from industrial and destructive fishing like longlining and bottom trawling. At the end of the film, Sir Attenborough encourages world leaders to propose global ocean sanctuaries at the UN Ocean Conference in June, which can only be done once 60 nations ratify the Global Ocean Treaty. Australia signed the treaty in 2023, but has yet to bring it into force.

    From the premiere in Sydney, Georgia Whitaker, Senior Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “It’s difficult to watch Ocean without feeling emotional about the state of the world’s ocean, but through the Global Ocean Treaty, there is hope. The film sets the stage for the new Labor government to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty in the first 100 days in power.

    “Australians love the ocean, and the election showed Australians are voting for a nature-forward agenda for our country. With the UN Ocean Conference fast approaching, Australia has the opportunity to show leadership on the world stage and protect the open ocean by finally ratifying the Global Ocean Treaty, which they agreed to in 2023.

    “The ocean is under attack from all angles – from global heating, industrial fishing, and the Trump government opening the seabed to deep sea mining. Every day without protection, the open ocean and all the life it supports faces catastrophic collapse. But humanity can heal the ocean; world governments have the tools in the treaty, they just need to bring it into force.”

    In the Tasman Sea between Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand, longlining is the most prevalent industrial fishing method; longliners come from around the world to plunder the abundant open ocean of the Tasman Sea, catching and killing countless innocent animals like sharks, turtles and seabirds each year.

    The premiere comes as the first Australian government-supported science symposium to understand the importance of the high seas of the South Tasman Sea and Lord Howe Rise area comes to a close.

    The South Tasman Sea and Lord Howe Rise of the Tasman Sea is an area of special biological significance identified by the UN – and must be one of the first places protected as part of 30 by 30, the move to protect 30% of the oceans by 2030.

    —ENDS—

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: People fleeing Zamzam camp arrive to overwhelmed humanitarian response in Tawila

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières –

    Three weeks on from the large-scale ground offensive by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Zamzam camp, Sudan, in early April 2025, reports of intensified fighting in El-Fasher continue, and more displaced people are arriving in Tawila, North Darfur state. People have been arriving in Tawila in a vulnerable state; many are suffering from malnutrition, and others were injured during the attack on Zamzam camp. Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF’s) emergency and nutrition service at the hospital in Tawila has been overwhelmed.

    “They came with their machine guns. They attacked and killed people – including children. They burnt our house, with everything we had inside. They raped the women. They killed, they looted,” says Mariam*, who reached Tawila three days after the attack on Zamzam took place. “Even before the attack, people had died of thirst and of starvation because of the siege that had been imposed on Zamzam for the past year. Everything was so expensive and so unaffordable in the end.”

    Mariam* arrived with her mother, her sisters and their children- a household of 20 people. All of them now spend their days squeezed against each other under the makeshift shelter they built with a few branches and a piece of fabric.

    “Here, there is no food. A few people in Tawila shared a bit of millet flour with us, which we used to make porridge. This is how we have survived so far: begging,” she says. “We get the water from a tank, but they only let us fill one jerrycan per family, and we are 20 in ours. We only have one blanket for all of us.” 

    Since 12 April, when people first began reaching Tawila from Zamzam, the areas surrounding the town have been completely transformed, with tens of thousands of people now estimated to be living in makeshift shelters in fields that were totally uninhabited just a few weeks ago.

    “For four days now, we have been staying here as you see us, with nothing: no walls, no roof,” says Ibrahim*, who fled Zamzam on foot with 11 of his family members. He carried one of his children on his shoulders and another on his back for five days. It’s the fourth time in ten years he has been displaced in similar circumstances. He described how soldiers entered people’s homes, brought them outside and opened fire. Three of his brothers were killed like this. On his way to Tawila, he got looted and witnessed people being beaten so harshly that they could no longer move.

    “Under this tree, it is so crowded, we’re lacking water, or shelter… there is nothing to eat, everyone is hungry,” he says. “We’re getting some food from the community kitchens. Sometimes, we manage to get some rice when they distribute the meals, but if we don’t, we must wait until the next day to eat something. For water, we go to a borehole, but there are so many people, and we have to wait hours to be able to drink.” 

    A handful of organisations are present in Tawila, but the number of people in need of assistance far exceed the capacity to respond. MSF teams have set up two health posts at the main arrival sites to provide the newcomers with water and immediate nutrition and medical support. We are also referring critical patients to Tawila local hospital, where MSF has been working since October 2024.

    Tiphaine Salmon, MSF’s head nurse, was working in the Tawila hospital on 12 April, the day people began arriving with serious injuries.

    “The emergency room was overwhelmed,” she says. “Over the first few days, the number of patients in the hospital almost doubled. At one point, we had four patients in a bed because we did not have enough space.”

    “A lot of people had gunshot wounds and blast injuries – we’ve treated 779 people over the past three weeks, including 138 children. 187 of all the patients were severe cases,” says Salmon. “The youngest I saw was a seven-month-old baby with a bullet wound that went under his chin and into his shoulder. We also received patients as young as one day old suffering from dehydration. Many children arrived without their parents – and many parents were searching desperately for their children.”

    779

    779

    people with gunshot and blast injuries

    138

    138

    of whom were children

    At the same time, MSF teams in the hospital witnessed an explosion of admissions in our intensive therapeutic feeding centre, which treats children under five-year-old suffering from severe acute malnutrition in addition of other comorbidities. In the week following the initial influx, admissions increased almost tenfold from an average of six or seven per week, to more than 60. They were mostly children from Zamzam, showing how desperate the nutrition situation was in the famine-stricken camp.

    To make the situation even worse, a suspected measles outbreak began in Tawila in March. In the hospital, MSF treated more than 900 suspected measles cases since early February, with more than 300 people in such a severe condition that they required hospitalisation. This led our teams to launch a large-scale vaccination campaign in the city on the first week of April, reaching 18,000 children under five. But one week after the massive influx of people from Zamzam began, our teams saw several suspected cases among children who had just arrived.

    Malnutrition and measles, in such sites with a highly dense population and poor hygiene conditions, can be an especially deadly combination for young children.

    MSF is continuing to scale-up our intervention in Tawila. On top of carrying out hundreds of medical consultations per day, we have also donated dry food to local community kitchens, enabling them to prepare and distribute more than 16,000 meals per day. We are providing 100,000 litres of clean water daily and we have additional plans to construct 300 latrines.

    People’s needs remain immense and far exceed our capacity to respond. Although other actors have also mobilised, and a first mass food distribution has taken place, the humanitarian response still needs to be urgently and rapidly scaled up. We urge UN agencies to substantially increase their presence on the ground so that they can coordinate a response of a magnitude that will meet the ever-growing needs.

    *Names changed.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: People arriving in Tawila from besieged Zamzam camp met with overwhelmed humanitarian response

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières –

    Three weeks on from the large-scale ground offensive by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Zamzam camp, Sudan, in early April 2025, reports of intensified fighting in El-Fasher continue, and more displaced people are arriving in Tawila, North Darfur state. People have been arriving in Tawila in a vulnerable state; many are suffering from malnutrition, and others were injured during the attack on Zamzam camp. Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF’s) emergency and nutrition service at the hospital in Tawila has been overwhelmed.

    “They came with their machineguns. They attacked and killed people – including children. They burnt our house, with everything we had inside. They raped the women. They killed, they looted,” says Mariam*, who reached Tawila three days after the attack on Zamzam took place. “Even before the attack, people had died of thirst and of starvation because of the siege that had been imposed on Zamzam for the past year. Everything was so expensive and so unaffordable in the end.”

    Mariam* arrived with her mother, her sisters and their children- a household of 20 people. All of them now spend their days squeezed against each other under the makeshift shelter they built with a few branches and a piece of fabric.

    “Here, there is no food. A few people in Tawila shared a bit of millet flour with us, which we used to make porridge. This is how we have survived so far: begging,” she says. “We get the water from a tank, but they only let us fill one jerrycan per family, and we are 20 in ours. We only have one blanket for all of us.” 

    Since 12 April, when people first began reaching Tawila from Zamzam, the areas surrounding the town have been completely transformed, with tens of thousands of people now estimated to be living in makeshift shelters in fields that were totally uninhabited just a few weeks ago.

    “For four days now, we have been staying here as you see us, with nothing: no walls, no roof,” says Ibrahim*, who fled Zamzam on foot with 11 of his family members. He carried one of his children on his shoulders and another on his back for five days. It’s the fourth time in ten years he has been displaced in similar circumstances. He described how soldiers entered people’s homes, brought them outside and opened fire. Three of his brothers were killed like this. On his way to Tawila, he got looted and witnessed people being beaten so harshly that they could no longer move.

    “Under this tree, it is so crowded, we’re lacking water, or shelter… there is nothing to eat, everyone is hungry,” he says. “We’re getting some food from the community kitchens. Sometimes, we manage to get some rice when they distribute the meals, but if we don’t, we must wait until the next day to eat something. For water, we go to a borehole, but there are so many people, and we have to wait hours to be able to drink.” 

    A handful of organisations are present in Tawila, but the number of people in need of assistance far exceed the capacity to respond. MSF teams have set up two health posts at the main arrival sites to provide the newcomers with water and immediate nutrition and medical support. We are also referring critical patients to Tawila local hospital, where MSF has been working since October 2024.

    Tiphaine Salmon, MSF’s head nurse, was working in the Tawila hospital on 12 April, the day people began arriving with serious injuries.

    “The emergency room was overwhelmed,” she says. “Over the first few days, the number of patients in the hospital almost doubled. At one point, we had four patients in a bed because we did not have enough space.”

    “A lot of people had gunshot wounds and blast injuries – we’ve treated 779 people over the past three weeks, including 138 children. 187 of all the patients were severe cases,” says Salmon. “The youngest I saw was a seven-month-old baby with a bullet wound that went under his chin and into his shoulder. We also received patients as young as one day old suffering from dehydration. Many children arrived without their parents – and many parents were searching desperately for their children.”

    779

    779

    people with gunshot and blast injuries

    138

    138

    of whom were children

    At the same time, MSF teams in the hospital witnessed an explosion of admissions in our intensive therapeutic feeding centre, which treats children under five-year-old suffering from severe acute malnutrition in addition of other comorbidities. In the week following the initial influx, admissions increased almost tenfold from an average of six or seven per week, to more than 60. They were mostly children from Zamzam, showing how desperate the nutrition situation was in the famine-stricken camp.

    To make the situation even worse, a suspected measles outbreak began in Tawila in March. In the hospital, MSF treated more than 900 suspected measles cases since early February, with more than 300 people in such a severe condition that they required hospitalisation. This led our teams to launch a large-scale vaccination campaign in the city on the first week of April, reaching 18,000 children under five. But one week after the massive influx of people from Zamzam began, our teams saw several suspected cases among children who had just arrived.

    Malnutrition and measles, in such sites with a highly dense population and poor hygiene conditions, can be an especially deadly combination for young children.

    MSF is continuing to scale-up our intervention in Tawila. On top of carrying out hundreds of medical consultations per day, our organisation has also donated dry food to local community kitchens, enabling them to prepare and distribute more than 16,000 meals per day. We are providing 100,000 litres of clean water daily and we have additional plans to construct 300 latrines.

    People’s needs remain immense and far exceed our capacity to respond. Although other actors have also mobilised, and a first mass food distribution has taken place, the humanitarian response still needs to be urgently and rapidly scaled up. We urge UN agencies to substantially increase their presence on the ground so that they can coordinate a response of a magnitude that will meet the ever-growing needs.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Global CEO pay increased by 50 percent since 2019, 56 times more than worker wages

    Source: Oxfam –

    • Average CEO pay surged by 50 percent in real terms since 2019, while average worker wages increased by just 0.9 percent.
    • Every hour, billionaires pocket more wealth than the average worker earns in an entire year.  
    • The average gender pay gap in 11,366 corporations worldwide narrowed slightly from 27 percent to 22 percent between 2022 and 2023 ―yet their average female employee still effectively works for free on Fridays, while their average male employee is paid through the week.
    • Oxfam and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) are calling for higher taxes on the super-rich to invest in people and planet.

    Average global CEO pay hit $4.3 million in 2024, reveals new analysis from Oxfam ahead of International Workers’ Day (1 May). This is a 50 percent real-term increase from $2.9 million in 2019 (adjusted for inflation) —a rise that far outpaces the real wage growth of the average worker, who saw a 0.9 percent increase over the same five-year period in the countries where CEO pay data is available.

    The figures are median averages, based on full executive pay packages, including bonuses and stock options, from nearly 2,000 corporations across 35 countries where CEOs were paid more than $1 million in 2024. The data, analyzed by Oxfam, was sourced from the S&P Capital IQ database, which uses publicly reported company financials.

    • Ireland and Germany have some of the highest-paid CEOs, earning an average of $6.7 million and $4.7 million a year in 2024 respectively.
    • Average CEO pay in South Africa was $1.6 million in 2024, while in India, it reached $2 million.

    “Year after year, we see the same grotesque spectacle: CEO pay explodes while workers’ wages barely budge. This isn’t a glitch in the system —it’s the system working exactly as designed, funnelling wealth ever upwards while millions of working people struggle to afford rent, food, and healthcare,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

    Boosts to global CEO pay come as warnings grow that wages are failing to keep pace with the cost of living. While the International Labor Organization (ILO) global reports real wages grew by 2.7 percent in 2024, many workers have seen their wages stagnate. In France, South Africa and Spain for example, real wage growth was just 0.6 percent last year. While wage inequality had decreased globally, it remains very high, particularly in low-income countries, where the share of income of the richest 10 percent is 3.4 times higher than the poorest 40 percent.

    Billionaires —who often fully, or in part, own large corporations— pocketed on average $206 billion in new wealth over the last year. This is equivalent to $23,500 an hour, more than the global average income in 2023 ($21,000).
    Beyond runaway CEO pay, the global working class is now facing a new threat: sweeping US tariffs. These policies pose significant risks for workers worldwide, including job losses and rising costs for basic goods that would stoke extreme inequality everywhere. 

    “For so many workers worldwide, President Trump’s reckless use of tariffs means a push from one cruel order to another: from the frying pan of destructive neoliberal trade policy to the fire of weaponized tariffs. These policies will not only hurt working families in the US, but especially harm workers trying to escape poverty in some of the world’s poorest countries,” said Behar.   

    Increasingly, corporations are being required by law to report their gender pay gaps ―the average difference in earnings between women and men. Oxfam’s analysis of the S&P Capital IQ database found that among 11,366 corporations across 82 countries that reported gender pay gap data, the average gap narrowed slightly from 27 percent to 22 percent between 2022 and 2023. Yet, on average, women in these corporations still effectively work without pay on Fridays, while their male counterparts are paid for the full week.

    Corporations in Japan and South Korea reported some of the highest average gender pay gaps in 2023 (around 40 percent). The average gap in Latin America was 36 percent in 2023, up from 34 percent the previous year. Corporations in Canada, Denmark, Ireland, and the UK reported average pay gaps of 16 percent.

    Oxfam’s analysis also found that out of 45,501 corporations across 168 countries where the CEO is paid more than $10 million and their gender is reported, fewer than 7 percent have a female CEO.

    “The outrageous pay inequality between CEOs and workers confirms that we lack democracy where it is needed most: at work. Around the world, workers are being denied the basics of life while corporations pocket record profits, dodge taxes and lobby to evade responsibility,” said Luc Triangle, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

    “Workers are demanding a New Social Contract that works for them —not the billionaires undermining democracy. Fair taxation, strong public services, living wages and a just transition are not radical demands —they are the foundation of a just society. It’s time to end the billionaire coup against democracy and put people and planet first.”

    Oxfam and the ITUC are calling on governments to sustain and accelerate momentum on taxing the super-rich, both nationally and globally. This includes introducing top marginal rates of tax of at least 75 percent on all personal income for the highest earners to discourage sky-high executive pay. Governments must also ensure minimum wages keep up with inflation, and that everyone has the right to unionize, strike and bargain collectively.
     

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: MEDIA ADVISORY: EMERGENCY PRESS BRIEFING FROM HUMANITARIAN ORGANISATIONS IN GAZA AS ISRAEL’S TOTAL SIEGE ON GAZA MARKS TWO MONTHS

    Source: Oxfam –

    What

    Today marks two months since Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza. Representatives from leading humanitarian organisations, including those who are in or just left the Gaza Strip, will brief the press on the devastating humanitarian impacts, as Palestinians facing starvation struggle to survive against the backdrop of a total siege which has blocked the entry of all aid – food, water, medicine, vital equipment – and commercial goods into Gaza.

    Panellists will share testimonies on the unimaginable suffering people are experiencing as aid stocks run out and malnutrition rates rise, and will renew their urgent call for a full and permanent ceasefire and the unfettered entry of aid.  

    The situation in Gaza has become increasingly dire since Israel broke the ceasefire on 18 March and renewed bombings and ground operations. People are risking their lives as they search for food, water and shelter under bombardment.  

    Areas of focus

    • Depletion of essential supplies and food stocks from markets and aid agencies, causing food prices to skyrocket.
    • The resulting acute hunger and malnutrition, especially among children.
    • The militarization of aid.
    • Targeting of medical facilities and the dire state of medical care.
    • The severe constraints of humanitarian aid delivery under Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

    When

    Friday, May 2, 2025 – 13:00 BST; 14:00 CET; 15:00 Gaza; 08:00 ET

    Where

    Please register in advance for this webinar:

    https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_81_sW6z3Tbqb_pPvEijgKg

    After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

    Who

    • Moderated by Jacqui Corcoran, Media & Comms Lead, Oxfam Jerusalem, Occupied Palestinian Territory
    • Gavin Kelleher, Humanitarian Access Manager, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). He has been working from Gaza for the past year, advising on navigating the deteriorating humanitarian access environment, and focusing on getting aid to the hardest-to-reach populations.
    • Ghada Alhaddad, Gaza Media & Communications Officer, Oxfam International. She holds a master’s degree in Public Affairs, which she earned through a Fulbright Scholarship. Ghada has worked in multimedia production since 2017, with various NGOs in Gaza and USA including Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children, Anera, and the IU Center of Excellence for Women & Technology. She is based in Gaza.
    • Rachael Cummings, Gaza-based Humanitarian Director, Save the Children. She has been working in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) since October 2023, initially based in Ramallah before relocating to Gaza in February. Rachael brings extensive experience in humanitarian public health. Prior to her current role, she served as the Director of Humanitarian Public Health at Save the Children in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where she led the Emergency Health Unit’s COVID-19 response.
    • Amjad Shawa, Director, Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) and the deputy of the General Commissioner of the Independent Commission of Human Rights (ICHR). He worked as a teacher of the deaf from 1992 until 1999. He is a member of The Palestinian Resource Group on Conflict Transformation and is also co-founder and board member of a number of NGOs, and has written and spoken extensively on human rights and civil society issues. He is based in Gaza.
    • Dr. Fady Abed, Gaza-based dentist, Communications and Reporting Officer, MedGlobal. He supports nutrition and health programs by working closely with frontline teams to coordinate and document the response to rising malnutrition, providing firsthand insight into its impact on affected communities. He is based in Gaza.

    For more information and for interviews, please contact:

    Oxfam Media office | Media.OPTI@oxfam.org   

    Jacqui Crocoran | Oxfam Media Lead in Jerusalem, Occupied Palestinian TerritoryOxfam |  jacqui.corcoran@oxfam.org

    For real-time updates, follow us on X and Bluesky, and join our WhatsApp channel. 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Israel’s New INGO Registration Measures Are a Grave Threat to Humanitarian Operations and International Law – 55 Organisations Say

    Source: Oxfam –

    Oxfam, together with 54 organisations operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) call for urgent action from the international community against new Israeli registration rules for international NGOs. Based on vague, broad, politicised, and open-ended criteria, these rules appear designed to assert control over independent humanitarian, development and peacebuilding operations, silence advocacy grounded in international humanitarian and human rights law, and further entrench Israeli control and de facto annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory.

    For over a year and a half, humanitarian organisations have continued operating despite unprecedented constraints. In 2024, they reached millions of people across the oPt with essential services – from food and water to mobile clinics, legal aid, and education. The new registration rules now threaten to shut this work down. These measures go beyond routine policy. They mark a serious escalation in restrictions on humanitarian and civic space and risk setting a dangerous precedent.

    Under the new provisions, INGOs already registered in Israel may face de-registration, while new applicants risk rejection based on arbitrary, politicised allegations, such as “delegitimising Israel” or expressing support for accountability for Israeli violations of international law. Other disqualifiers include public support for a boycott of Israel within the past seven years (by staff, a partner, board member, or founder) or failure to meet exhaustive reporting requirements. By framing humanitarian and human rights advocacy as a threat to the state, Israeli authorities can shut out organisations merely for speaking out about conditions they witness on the ground, forcing INGOs to choose between delivering aid and promoting respect for the protections owed to affected people.

    INGOs are further required to submit complete staff lists and other sensitive information about staff and their families to Israel when applying for registration. In a context where humanitarian and healthcare workers are routinely subject to harassment, detention, and direct attacks, this raises serious protection concerns.

    These new rules are part of a broader, long-term crackdown on humanitarian and civic space, marked by heightened surveillance and attacks, and a series of actions that restrict humanitarian access, compromise staff safety, and undermine core principles of humanitarian action. They are not isolated but part of a wider pattern that includes:

    • Blocking or delaying aid through arbitrary bureaucratic restrictions, logistical obstacles, and complete sieges, denying essential lifesaving supplies to Palestinians.
    • Killing more than 400 humanitarian workers in Gaza, injuring and detaining countless others, and repeatedly attacking marked and notified humanitarian premises, facilities or convoys.
    • Passing legislation aimed at curtailing the operations of UNRWA, the largest provider of essential services for Palestinians.
    • Advancing legislation to impose a tax of up to 80 per cent on foreign government funding to Israeli NGOs, while barring them from seeking recourse through the Israeli court system – including organisations that serve as partners for INGOs to deliver assistance and uphold protections in communities facing displacement, demolitions, or settler violence.
    • Suspending work visas for international staff and revoking permits for Palestinians residing in the West Bank to access Jerusalem, severely disrupting operations.• And now, making INGO registration conditional on political and ideological alignment, undermining the neutrality, impartiality and independence of humanitarian actors.

    Under international humanitarian law, occupying powers are obligated to facilitate impartial humanitarian assistance and ensure the welfare of the protected population. Any attempt to condition humanitarian access on political alignment or penalise organisations for fulfilling their mandate risks breaching this framework. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to allow unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza in three legally binding provisional measures orders in 2024. Yet, these new rules expand and institutionalise existing barriers to aid.

    We call on States, donors, and the international community to:

    • Use all possible means to protect humanitarian operations from measures that compromise neutrality, independence, and access – including staff list requirements, political vetting, and vague revocation clauses.
    • Take concrete political and diplomatic action beyond statements of concern to ensure unhindered humanitarian access and prevent the erosion of principled aid delivery.
    • Support INGOs and Palestinian and Israeli civil society organisations through legal assistance, diplomatic support, and flexible funding to help mitigate legal, financial, and reputational risks. Donors must defend principled humanitarian and human rights work.

    The undersigned 55 organisations stress that engagement with the registration process to preserve critical humanitarian operations should not be misinterpreted as endorsement of these measures.

    These 55 organisations remain committed to the delivery of humanitarian aid, along with development and peacebuilding services and activities that are independent, impartial, and based on need, in full accordance with international law and the humanitarian principles derived from it. INGOs stand ready to engage with Israeli authorities in good faith on administrative processes but cannot accept measures that penalise principled humanitarian work or expose staff to retaliation. These measures not only undermine assistance in the oPt but also set a dangerous precedent for humanitarian operations globally.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Congolese refugees face humanitarian emergency in Burundi

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières –

    Thousands of Congolese refugees who fled violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are now living in extremely precarious conditions in the designated Musenyi site in Burundi. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has launched an emergency response to reduce the risk of measles and malaria, but more support is needed as people’s humanitarian needs remain largely unmet.

    Since the beginning of the year, thousands of people have fled fighting and insecurity in the provinces of North and South Kivu in the DRC. Crossing the Rusizi river into Burundi, they have hastily set up camp in schools, sheds, churches and stadiums in the province of Cibitoke on the border with South Kivu.

    In March, the Burundian authorities and the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) relocated the refugees to the Musenyi site, an official site inaugurated in 2024 in the south-east to provide basic facilities and services for up to 10,000 refugees.

    Megaphone in hand, an MSF community mobiliser walks around the Musenyi refugee site to encourage parents to vaccinate their children against measles. Burundi, April 2025.
    Dorine Niyungeko/MSF

    Unfortunately, the site’s capacity was quickly exceeded: according to UNHCR, by the end of April, some 18,000 refugees were living at the Musenyi site. Unsurprisingly, their living conditions quickly became unbearable and created health risks for adults and children alike.

    “I’ve been living in a shed since I arrived because there aren’t enough shelters for everyone,” says Nathalie*, a refugee who arrived in February. “Tarpaulins are given to large families to make shelters. But I live here, and we sleep in this shed, without mattresses, with toads, and moisture everywhere. We feel abandoned.”

    Built on poorly drained clay soil, the Musenyi site is particularly prone to flooding during the rainy season. Now, since the end of April, the rainy season has begun and, although drainage channels have been dug, water is stagnating in many parts of the site. People are trying to protect their shelters and the communal latrines as best they can to prevent the dirty water from spilling into the alleyways.

    “There is an urgent need to improve the living conditions on this site, as all the elements for serious health problems are present,” says Barbara Turchet, MSF’s emergency coordinator in Burundi. “Given the hygiene conditions, we have started to set up isolation units as a preventive measure in case of a cholera outbreak. And to reduce the risk of malaria, which is exacerbated by the amount of stagnant water everywhere, we have distributed more than 8,000 mosquito nets and are planning long-term mosquito spraying at the site.”

    8,500

    8,5

    measles vaccinations for children

    8,000

    8,

    mosquito nets

    Given the concentration of children at the site, MSF has also helped the health authorities organise a measles vaccination campaign, as several cases of this highly infectious but preventable disease have already been confirmed among the refugees.

    “We set up four vaccination points,” says Turchet. “We were able to vaccinate 8,500 children against measles and treat those who were infected. That’s something, but we have to do more to improve the refugees’ situation and protect their health.”

    Essential services overwhelmed as aid funding contracts

    A few organisations other than MSF are also present to offer healthcare to the refugees, but many people are unhappy with the insufficient access to care.

    “Here, refugees living with HIV have no access to treatment,” says Henri*, a refugee from South Kivu who was moved to Musenyi site from another in Burundi. “When we were in Rugombo, [also] in the province of Cibitoke, there was medical follow-up and treatment. But here, the health facilities don’t offer this kind of care.”

    In Musenyi, as in many other places today, humanitarian organisations are struggling to provide sufficient support because funding has decreased. Several humanitarian agencies are unable to provide sufficient medical follow-up for patients in the clinics they support. Food distributions are also clearly inadequate, further increasing the vulnerability of families. The UN estimates that US$76 million are required to meet the humanitarian needs of Congolese refugees in Burundi.

    “The gravity of the situation is real and calls for more attention and support,” warns Turchet. “At our level, we are doing our utmost and have extended our support to provide medical care for victims of sexual violence and psychosocial support for refugees suffering from mental health problems. But there are needs everywhere…”

    *Names have been changed for confidentiality

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Kajiado communities resist carbon offset land grabs disguised as climate action

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    Nairobi, Kenya — In a bold act of resistance, the Oldonyonyokie Group Ranch community in Kajiado County is pushing back against the latest wave of land grabs masquerading as climate action. The community is standing firm against carbon offset projects that threaten to displace Indigenous People and undermine centuries-old land rights, all in the name of so-called “climate finance.”

    At the center of the growing controversy are carbon market schemes promoted by companies such as Carbon Solve, Soil for the Future Africa, and Soil for the Future Tanzania. These entities are targeting community lands in Kajiado for carbon offsetting, continuing a trend already devastating communities across the border in Tanzania.

    Stop auctioning Maasai land to carbon traders and trophy hunters

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    In Tanzania’s Ngorongoro, Loliondo, Longido and Monduli, the Maasai are being violently evicted from their ancestral lands to make way for similar schemes.

    “This is climate colonialism, plain and simple,” said Amos Wemanya, Responsive Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Africa. “Communities that have lived in harmony with nature for generations are being pushed off their land so that foreign polluters can continue business as usual. Carbon offsetting is not a climate solution, it is a dangerous distraction that sells off our future.”

    Rather than reducing global emissions, carbon markets allow corporations, largely based in the Global North, to “offset” pollution through land grabs in the Global South. These schemes put a price tag on nature and make African communities bear the burden of a crisis they did not create, while enriching foreign middlemen and questionable local entities.

    The people of Oldonyonyokie have a long memory and are not easily deceived. They recall the case of Tata Chemicals Magadi Ltd, which was granted an initial 99-year lease on community land in 1928, and later received a 40-year extension in 2004. The lease, which involved over 224,000 acres, has long been a source of tension, with local communities raising concerns about inadequate consultation and limited benefits to the Maasai people.

    Disturbingly, some government officials are being used by the national government to facilitate the leasing and selling of land to private entities, without transparent community consultation or consent. This undermines democratic processes and violates the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

    Greenpeace Africa calls on Soil for the Future Africa and similar actors to immediately halt any attempts to force or impose projects on communities. Respect for Indigenous rights and community self-determination is non-negotiable.

    This is not just a local issue, it’s part of a global pattern of injustice. Greenpeace Africa is urging international solidarity and swift action to put an end to land grabs disguised as climate action. True climate solutions must protect people, not profits. That means:

    • Ending land grabs and forced evictions in the name of carbon offsetting
    • Protecting indigenous land rights and community livelihoods
    • Upholding real climate justice that centers food, energy, and land sovereignty
    • Holding historical polluters accountable for real emissions cuts

    From Kajiado to Loliondo, communities are saying: enough is enough. Africa is not for sale,” said Wemanya. “We call for a transition away from exploitative offsetting schemes toward climate solutions that center justice, local sovereignty, and real emissions cuts”.

    Greenpeace Africa stands in solidarity with the Oldonyonyokie Group Ranch and all African communities defending their land, dignity, and future against false climate solutions.

    ENDS

    For media inquiries, please contact:

    Sherie Gakii, Communications and Storytelling Manager, Greenpeace Africa, [email protected], +254702776749

    Greenpeace Africa Press Desk, [email protected]

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Pakistan: Climate disasters increasing risks of death and disease amongst children and older people – new report

    Source: Amnesty International –

    • Healthcare and disaster response failing during floods and heatwaves
    • Collaboration with Indus Hospital & Health Network reveals extent of problem
    • Children and older people most likely to suffer; least likely to be counted

    Pakistan’s healthcare and disaster response systems are failing to meet the needs of children and older people who are most at risk of death and disease amid extreme weather events related to climate change, Amnesty International said in a new report.

    Uncounted: Invisible deaths of older people and children during climate disasters in Pakistan documents how increasingly frequent floods and heatwaves are overwhelming Pakistan’s underfunded healthcare system, leading to preventable deaths among young children and older adults in particular.

    Pakistan, which contributes about 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually, is the world’s fifth-most vulnerable country to climate disasters. In collaboration with Indus Hospital & Health Network (IHHN), a charity hospital that provides free healthcare in Pakistan, Amnesty International investigated how spikes in deaths often followed extreme weather events.

    Children and older people in Pakistan are suffering on the front line of the climate crisis.

    Laura Mills, researcher with Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Programme

    “Rising temperatures drive ever more intense and unpredictable weather. Children and older people in Pakistan are suffering on the front line of the climate crisis, exposed to extreme heat or floods that lead to disproportionate levels of death and disease,” said Laura Mills, researcher with Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Programme.

    “Pakistan’s healthcare system is woefully underfunded and overstretched, even in non-emergency times. The climate emergency creates an extra strain that is unbearable and the system is failing to deliver adequate care to those in need.”

    Floods often foster the spread of water- and mosquito-borne diseases and respiratory illnesses, which pose a major threat to older people and young children. Similarly, extreme heat is most dangerous for older adults, particularly those with preexisting health conditions, as well as infants. Pakistan collects virtually no mortality data on these impacts, limiting its ability to respond adequately and save lives.

    To understand the impact of extreme weather patterns on health, IHHN conducted a quantitative study, analysing deaths across three of its facilities in 2022: Badin (in Sindh province, most affected by floods), and Muzaffargarh and Bhong (in Punjab province, most affected by heatwaves). IHHN compared the relationship between mortality rates and climate indicators, including precipitation and temperature.

    To build on IHHN’s quantitative investigation, Amnesty International conducted qualitative interviews to further understand the situation. Amnesty International visited Sindh and Punjab provinces four times between April 2024 and January 2025, and conducted remote interviews in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. In total, the organization interviewed 210 people, including 90 relatives of people whose deaths could credibly be explained by heatwaves or flooding.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: MSF condemns bombing of our hospital in South Sudan

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières –

    Jonglei State, SOUTH SUDAN – Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) strongly condemns the deliberate bombing of our hospital in Old Fangak, South Sudan, on 3 May. The attack began at around 4:30am when two helicopter gunships first dropped a bomb on the MSF pharmacy, burning it to the ground, then went on to fire on the town of Old Fangak for around 30 minutes. At around 7am, a drone bombed the Old Fangak market. There have been at least seven deaths and 20 injured.

    “At 8am, we received around 20 wounded people at our hospital in Old Fangak, including four in a critical condition,” says Mamman Mustapha, MSF head of mission in South Sudan. “There are reports of more fatalities and wounded in the community. One patient and two care givers, including one of our staff, who were already inside the hospital were injured in the bombing – patients who were not in a critical condition ran from the facility.”

    “The bombing of our hospital in Old Fangak has resulted in significant damage, including the complete destruction of the pharmacy, which was burned to the ground,” says Mustapha. “This is where all our medical supplies for the hospital and our outreach activities were stored, severely compromising our ability to provide care. We strongly condemn this attack, which took place despite the geolocations of all MSF structures, including Old Fangak hospital, being shared with all parties to the conflict.”

    “Old Fangak hospital is the only hospital in Fangak county, serving a population of over 110,000 people who already had extremely limited access to healthcare. We are still assessing the full extent of the damage and the impact on our ability to provide care, but this attack clearly means people will now be even further cut-off from receiving life-saving treatment,” says Mustapha. “We call on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure – this includes health workers, patients and health facilities. Hospitals must never be targeted and the lives of civilians must be protected.”

    The MSF hospital in Old Fangak on fire after being attacked. South Sudan, May 2025.

    This is the second time an MSF hospital has been impacted in the past month, following the armed looting of our hospital and premises in Ulang, Upper Nile state on 14 April, which led to all of Ulang county being cut off from accessing secondary healthcare. 

    MIL OSI NGO –