View previous stories
	Nuclear weapons threaten everyone on the planet by Melissa Parke International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, agencies   Feb. 2026   We have entered 2026 with the highest threat ever from nuclear weapons, and we are on the cusp of the expiration of the last remaining arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, the New START treaty, removing the last restraints on an accelerating arms race.   This dangerous moment comes on Feb. 5, as both countries are using military force against other countries illegally — Ukraine and Venezuela, respectively — to coerce them into complying with their demands as signs also point to another US attack on Iran.   Underlining the threat we face, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock was moved forward on Jan. 27 to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever progressed since its creation in 1947 to the time that signifies humanity’s annihilation.   Contrast the current situation to the optimism that was felt at the end of the Cold War, when many people assumed that nuclear weapons arsenals would shrink, eventually to be retired as relics.   Instead, mostly without impinging the reality on public consciousness, the original nuclear-armed states, Britain, China, France, Russia and the US, defying their commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), did not disarm. Rather, they are building a new generation of weapons.   Since the 1990s, three more countries that are not parties to the NPT — India, Pakistan and North Korea — have joined the “nuclear club,” while Israel continues to refuse to admit it has such weapons, though the rest of the world assumes it has them.   Yet, there is a bright spot on the disarmament horizon: the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which has been in force for five years as of Jan. 22.   The treaty was established after discussions shifted around nuclear weapons by focusing on the humanitarian effects of their deployment. The debate sparked impetus for a new effort to abolish nukes that culminated in a UN treaty that, as of the end of 2025, a global majority of countries had signed or ratified.   While the leaders of the nuclear-armed states have so far refused to join it, turning their backs on the rest of the world and isolating themselves from the broader community of nations, the treaty’s architects always envisaged disarmament would not happen immediately.   Inspired by the land mines and cluster munitions bans, the idea is that as more countries join the TPNW, clinging to these weapons will become less acceptable as the diplomatic and reputational costs of doing so will become greater, leading to the nuclear-armed countries realizing it is no longer useful to keep them.   Adopted in 2017, the treaty came into force in January 2021. Although the countries with nuclear weapons and their nuclear-weapons-endorsing allies have tried to pretend the ban does not exist and dismiss the TPNW as purely symbolic, this is hardly true.   As we marked the fifth anniversary of the TPNW’s entry into force on Jan. 22, we took stock of how the treaty is working and how it has changed the geopolitical and humanitarian landscape.   First, nuclear weapons are now banned under international law, like other weapons of mass destruction. This is a major landmark.   The TPNW has also strengthened the nuclear taboo that developed from the knowledge of what happened to the people hit by the first nuclear bombs — relatively small by today’s standards — in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A quarter of a million people died within four months and catastrophic, lingering and intergenerational harm has affected the survivors.   Nuclear weapons threaten everyone on the planet, so everyone should have a say in them. The TPNW has broken the stranglehold that nuclear-armed states and their misguided, dangerous doctrine of nuclear deterrence had on the public debate around nuclear weapons.   Now, the 99 countries that have signed or ratified the treaty so far are directly challenging this baleful doctrine as a threat to all countries and an obstacle to disarmament, while providing an alternative to deterrence through the TPNW.   The treaty has strengthened the international consensus that threats to use nuclear weapons are inadmissible. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, using nuclear threats to try to intimidate others not to support Kiev, TPNW members gathered at their first meeting a few months later in Vienna and issued the first multilateral condemnation of such threats.   Their condemnation has since been echoed by the G20 and individual leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden at the time as well as China’s President Xi Jinping.   By putting humanitarian concerns at the center of the push for nuclear disarmament, TPNW countries addressed the reality that the weapons are designed to cause mass, indiscriminate and lingering damage to civilians.   The TPNW has also inspired many investors to take their money out of nuclear weapons production. Financial institutions representing at least $4.7 trillion of global assets have cited the treaty as a reason for no longer doing business with the nuclear weapons industry.   This year, both the NPT and the TPNW will hold major conferences where progress in treaty implementation is reviewed and their members decide on their next steps.   The NPT meets in April, for its 11th review conference, but there has been no agreed outcome to the last two such conferences, and the prospects are dim for the meeting. In contrast, TPNW states meet in early December for its first review conference, and members are optimistic they will agree to strengthen the treaty’s impact. That includes the crucial act of providing international support for tens of thousands of victims of the more than 2,000 nuclear-test explosions across the globe since 1945.   The countries that pose the threat through their continued possession of nuclear weapons — or support for their use, chiefly, US allies and Belarus — could start to mend their reputations at these conferences by agreeing to progress at the NPT and by attending the TPNW conference as observers.   In a world where great-power rivalry and a zero-sum approach to international relations has returned with a vengeance, the TPNW shows that multilateral dialogue and diplomacy are still very much alive and that it is possible for countries to work together to save us from destroying ourselves.   * Melissa Parke is the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2017.   http://passblue.com/2026/02/01/the-right-way-to-stop-a-new-nuclear-arms-race/ http://www.icanw.org/ http://thebulletin.org/2026/01/press-release-it-is-85-seconds-to-midnight http://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/2026-statement/ http://theelders.org/news/elders-urge-usa-russia-halt-nuclear-arms-race-new-start-expires http://news.un.org/en/story/2026/02/1166892
	Sudan named most neglected crisis of 2025 by OCHA, OHCHR, Reuters, agencies   17 Dec. 2025 (Reuters)   The humanitarian catastrophe engulfing Sudan, unleashing horrific violence on children and uprooting nearly a quarter of the population, is the world’s most neglected crisis of 2025, according to a poll of aid agencies.   Some 30 million Sudanese people – roughly equivalent to Australia’s population – need assistance, but experts warn that warehouses are nearly empty, aid operations face collapse, and two cities have tipped into famine.   “The Sudan crisis should be front-page news every single day,” said Save the Children senior humanitarian director Abdurahman Sharif.   “Children are living a nightmare in plain sight, yet the world continues to shamefully look away.”   Sudan was named by a third of respondents in a Thomson Reuters Foundation crisis poll of 22 leading aid organisations.   The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – widely considered the deadliest conflict since World War II – ranked second.   Although Sudan has received some media attention, Mr Sharif said the true scale of the catastrophe remained “largely out of sight and out of mind”.   The United Nations has called Sudan the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, but a US$4.16 billion (S$5.4 billion) appeal is barely a third funded.   The poll’s respondents highlighted a number of overlooked emergencies, including Myanmar, Afghanistan, Somalia, Africa’s Sahel region and Mozambique.   Many agencies said they were reluctant to single out just one crisis in a year when the US and other Western donors slashed aid despite soaring humanitarian needs.   Oxfam’s humanitarian director Marta Valdes Garcia said: “It feels as though the world is turning its back on humanity.”   The conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which erupted out of a power struggle in April 2023, has created the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 12 million people fleeing their homes.   Aid groups cited appalling human rights violations, including child cruelty, rape and conscription.   World Vision’s humanitarian operations director Moussa Sangara said: “What is being done to Sudan’s children is unconscionable, occurring on a massive scale and with apparent impunity.”   Hospitals and schools have been destroyed or occupied, and 21 million people face acute hunger.   The UN World Food Programme has warned that without additional funds, it will have to cut rations for communities in famine or at risk.   Aid organisations say violence, blockades and bureaucratic obstacles are making it hard to reach civilians in conflict zones.   Mr Mamadou Dian Balde, the UN refugee agency’s regional director, said: “What we are witnessing in Sudan is nothing short of an indictment of humanity. “If the world does not urgently step up – diplomatically, financially and morally – an already catastrophic situation will deteriorate further with millions of Sudanese and their neighbours paying the price.”   South Sudan and Chad, which both host large numbers of Sudanese refugees, were also flagged in the survey.   Ms Charlotte Slente, head of the Danish Refugee Council, said Chad – a country already dealing with deep poverty and hunger exacerbated by the climate crisis – was being pushed “to breaking point”.   “Chad’s solidarity with the refugees is a lesson for the world’s wealthiest nations. “That generosity is being met by global moral failure,” Ms Slente said.   In South Sudan, Oxfam said donors were pulling out, forcing aid agencies to cut crucial support for millions of people.   Several organisations sounded the alarm over the escalating conflict in the DRC. Around seven million people have been displaced and 27 million face hunger in the vast, resource-rich country, where rape has been used as a weapon of war through decades of conflict.   Christian Aid’s chief executive Patrick Watt said: “This is the biggest humanitarian emergency that the world isn’t talking about.”   On a recent visit, he said villagers told him how armed groups had stolen livestock, torched homes, recruited boys to fight, and subjected women and girls to terrifying sexual violence.   Rwandan-backed M23 rebels seized a swathe of eastern DRC in 2025 in their bid to topple the government in Kinshasa. Fighting has continued despite a peace deal signed in December by the DRC and Rwanda.   The DRC’s conflict has intensified amid soaring global demand for minerals needed for clean energy technologies, smartphones and more.   Mr Watt said people now face economic disaster due to Kinshasa’s blockade on M23-controlled areas and aid cuts that have hollowed out the humanitarian response.   ActionAid said the violence had “created a hellscape” for women, while the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) called the DRC “a case study of global neglect”.   “This neglect is not an accident: It is a choice,” said NRC secretary-general Jan Egeland.   UN aid chief Tom Fletcher named Myanmar as among the most neglected crisis. A US$1.1 billion appeal for the South-east Asian country is only 17 per cent funded despite mass displacement, rising hunger and rampant violence.   http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026 http://www.context.news/socioeconomic-inclusion/sudan-named-most-neglected-crisis-of-2025-in-aid-agency-poll http://www.context.news/socioeconomic-inclusion/seven-neglected-crises-you-may-have-missed-in-2025 http://www.rescue.org/article/top-10-crises-world-cant-ignore-2026 http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/publications/global-hunger-hotspots-report-2026/ http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-calls-urgent-investment-life-saving-services-children-global-humanitarian http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/december/2026-millions-in-need-will-not-get-aid-unless-global-solidarity-revived http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2026/01/07/ten-humanitarian-crises-demand-your-attention-now-2026 http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2026/01/05/ten-humanitarian-trends-keep-eye-2026 http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2026/01/07/whats-shaping-aid-policy-2026   9 Dec. 2025   Sudan must address ethnic violence and prevent further escalation. (OHCHR)   UN anti-racism experts today underscored their grave concerns over the increase in the use of dehumanizing language, hate speech as well as ethnically motivated human rights violations and abuses in Sudan, particularly those targeting members belonging to the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa ethnic communities committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied forces in El Fasher, North Darfur.   The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a decision under its early warning and urgent procedures, highlighting the fact that Sudan is facing one of the world’s worst displacement crises, with 7.2 million internally displaced persons and over 3 million refugees in neighbouring countries, compounded by famine and a collapse of humanitarian access.   The fall of El Fasher on 26 October 2025 after more than 540-day siege was followed by reported atrocities and ethnically motivated human rights violations and abuses committed by the RSF and their associated and allied forces.   The Committee was particularly concerned over “ethnically motivated killings, torture, summary executions, arbitrary detention of civilians; widespread and systematic use of rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence as a weapon of warfare; attacks on healthcare facilities, including the killing of patients and the injured, and denial of healthcare; and deliberate attacks on humanitarian workers and aid blockades.”   The Committee also expressed concerns over the intensified violence and human rights violations and abuses in Kordofan region in light of the fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF and their associated and allied forces.   It urged Sudan to “take effective measures to stop and prevent further escalation of ethnic violence, incitement to racial hatred and racist hate speech, particularly the use of dehumanizing language, and hate crimes.”   In particular, the Committee asked the authorities to “conduct prompt, effective, thorough, impartial and public investigations into alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law, including those ethnically motivated, committed during the ongoing conflict, and ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted and punished, including persons in positions of command. It further asked Sudan to provide victims and their families with full reparations, regardless of the ethnicity of the victims and the perpetrators involved.   The Committee urged Sudan to cooperate with Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, particularly in investigating all alleged atrocities committed in and around El Fasher.   The Committee also reiterated its calls upon all parties to the conflict to cease hostilities immediately to put in place a lasting and unconditional ceasefire, and to engage in an inclusive dialogue bringing together different ethnic groups in Sudan, “aiming to reach a peaceful and lasting resolution of the conflict and to restore a civilian-led government.”   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/12/sudan-must-address-ethnic-violence-and-prevent-further-escalation-un http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/12/un-human-rights-chief-warns-against-atrocities-sudans-kordofan-region http://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/statement-operational-humanitarian-country-team-sudan-violence-kordofan-region http://interagencystandingcommittee.org/inter-agency-standing-committee/inter-agency-standing-committee-statement-sudan-call-urgent-international-response http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/no-child-safe-al-fasher   http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/november/sudan-one-month-after-the-attacks-on-al-fasher-children-arrive-in-tawila-without-parents-and-traumatised http://www.msf.org/people-who-escaped-el-fasher-are-struggling-survive-one-month-after-rsf-takeover http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/11/sudan-el-fasher-survivors-tell-of-deliberate-rsf-killings-and-sexual-violence-new-testimony/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/11/sudan-un-experts-appalled-reports-mass-atrocities-unlawful-killings-and http://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-office-prosecutor-situation-el-fasher-north-darfur http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/countries-in-focus-archive/issue-137/en/ http://www.nrc.no/feature/2025/al-fasher-a-calculated-campaign-of-destruction Visit the related web page
	View more stories