EU budget support for Ethiopia ignores human rights reality
22/4/2026: Ahead of national elections to be held on June 1st, Ethiopian authorities have imposed heightened restrictions on independent media, harassed and detained journalists, threatened civil society groups, and severely curtailed peaceful assembly and free speech. Despite these abuses, the European Union has resumed direct budget support to the Ethiopian government.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Amnesty calls on states to confront attacks on human rights and international law
21/4/2026: Amnesty International's annual report warns that predatory attacks on multilateralism, international law and civil society amount to a pivotal moment for humanity. The alternative on offer is a racist, patriarchal, unequal and anti-rights world order.
Source: Amnesty International
The debt crisis is worse than we thought
21/4/2026: A report published by ONE Data concludes that the cost of borrowing for African countries has almost doubled between 2020 and 2024. Some countries have been locked out of capital markets altogether. Attention to the debt crisis has been overtaken by the Iran war and the collapse of USAID.
Source: Devex
Jubilee US chief optimistic Trump administration will tackle debt crisis
21/4/2026: The executive director of the Jubilee USA Network says the White House has an appetite for helping poorer countries restructure their debt. He cites comments by US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent.
Source: Devex
US spending on ‘reckless’ Iran war could have saved 87 million lives
20/4/2026: The $2bn a day that the US has been spending on the war in Iran could have saved more than 87 million lives, according to the head of the UN’s humanitarian agency. He also warned that language threatening to bomb Iran back to the stone ages was very dangerous.
Source: The Guardian
More than half of Haitians still facing acute food insecurity
18/4/2026: Over five million people in Haiti are currently experiencing acute food insecurity. Of these, more than 1.8 million people are in emergency conditions requiring immediate humanitarian assistance. Violence linked to armed groups has displaced more than one million people, disrupting food supply chains and restricting farmers’ access to their land.
Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization
Whose water is AI drinking in India?
17/4/2026: The current trajectory of AI infrastructure investment in India is a deeply political allocation of a scarce common resource. The choice before India today is whether its AI infrastructure will deepen existing inequalities or help to dismantle them.
Source: Dialogue Earth
Burkina Faso dissolves more than a hundred NGOs and associations
16/4/2026: Intensifying its crackdown on civil society, Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Territorial Administration and Mobility has banned the activities of 118 NGOs and associations, without any further justifications. In January 2026, all political parties were dissolved.
Source: Amnesty International
Rising death toll of children in attacks on Ukraine
16/4/2026: According to the latest verified data from the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, 89 children were killed or injured in attacks in March alone. The UN children’s agency has confirmed that at least 3,452 children in Ukraine have been killed or injured since the full-scale Russian attack on Ukraine began in February 2022.
Source: UN News
Five things to know about Sudan’s food crisis
15/4/2026: The world faces multiple crises at any given time, all vying for our attention. As other crises command headlines, the suffering of Sudan’s people must not be ignored or forgotten. Conflict, displacement and economic pressures continue to fuel unprecedented levels of hunger and humanitarian need.
Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization