Speaking ahead of the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Wicklow, Ireland today and tomorrow, September 1-2, Jim Clarken, Oxfam Ireland CEO said:
“Compliance with international law cannot depend on Israel’s electoral calendar. EU governments cannot keep on finding new reasons to delay while these illegal settlements continue to expand, amid escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
“EU countries already acknowledged in July that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The law is clear on that. Which begs thequestion – why then is the EU still not prepared to act?
“No decision can be taken when the informal meeting of foreign ministers takes place in Wicklow, but they can put the wheels in motion. Otherwise, this risks becoming another lap around the EU’s roundabout of indecision.
“Action must not be deferred until peace talks conclude or election results emerge. Peace talks and elections do not change the law, or the violent, oppressive conditions Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory face daily under Israel’s illegal occupation. The EU knows its legal obligations; what is missing is the political will to act on them.
“The EU has already acknowledged that current measures do not stop goods from illegal settlements from entering the European market. Anything short of a ban allows settlement trade to continue through the back door and onto European shelves.
“There is a technical point with major political consequences: how the measure is brought forward. A settlement trade ban should be brought forward as a trade measure under Article 207, where qualified majority voting is the general rule. Requiring unanimity risks handing every government a veto and producing yet another EU deadlock.
“The EU should stop contradicting itself, and end trade in goods, services and investments with illegal Israeli settlements. Anything less is failing to address longstanding international legal obligations.
“Banning trade with illegal settlements is the bare minimum requirement, and the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement should be the next step in halting the continued injustices.”
Reacting to a growing number of reports that Belarusian authorities are persecuting, intimidating and targeting students and others connected to the European Humanities University (EHU) in Vilnius, Lithuania, as part of their efforts to repress dissent beyond Belarus’ borders, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said:
“As the new academic year begins, the Belarusian authorities’ relentless campaign against the exiled European Humanities University has taken a disturbing new turn, intensifying its assault on the rights to education, freedom of expression and academic freedom. This campaign of intimidation is no longer confined to students and others connected to the independent Belarusian university in Lithuania. They now extend to relatives and associates in Belarus, illustrating how the authorities’ brazen repressive tactics reach far beyond the country’s borders.”
“Mounting reports show that dozens of people in Belarus are subjected to searches, interrogations, detention and threats, and forced to pressure their loved ones to quit the university and return to Belarus.
“The authorities have already designated the EHU as an ‘extremist organization’ and are increasingly targeting those associated with it. The expanding scope of these measures raises concerns that the authorities may seek to pursue further action, including through a demonstrative ‘anti-extremism’ trial involving students, graduates, staff and their relatives.
The expanding scope of these measures raises concerns that the authorities may seek to pursue further action, including through a demonstrative ‘anti-extremism’ trial involving students, graduates, staff and their relatives
Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia
“The Belarusian authorities must stop this campaign of persecution and remove the absurd and detrimental label of ‘extremist organizations’ from the EHU and other civil society groups. Meanwhile, the international community must make every effort to put pressure on the Belarusian government to stop its crackdown on human rights. Lithuanian authorities must also promptly and effectively investigate all allegations of human rights abuses against EHU students.”
Background
Founded in Minsk in 1992 as an independent private university, the EHU was stripped of its license by the Belarusian authorities in 2004 and forced to relocate to Vilnius, Lithuania, in 2005. On 14 April 2026, the Supreme Court of Belarus banned the EHU, designating it an “extremist organization” for allegedly “encroaching on the sovereignty of Belarus, the foundations of the constitutional order and public security.”
Between 2 and 4 June 2026, Belarusian security forces conducted coordinated searches and interrogations across the country targeting EHU affiliates and their families. Belarusian Human Rights Centre Viasna documented over 60 searches, noting that investigators were threatening individuals with “extremism”-related charges, including retrospectively, in relation to payments to the EHU dating back to 2016. Several people, including relatives of EHU students, have reportedly been briefly detained in connection with the crackdown. By 17 August, Viasna had identified at least 175 people affected by this campaign.
Former and current EHU students interviewed by the BBC described how, while in Belarus, they were threatened by State Security Committee (KGB) officers, pressured to become secret informants, detained incommunicado and interrogated. They also reported that relatives in Belarus had been threatened with criminal prosecution unless students abroad withdrew from the EHU or returned to Belarus.
The Belarusian authorities began expansively designating civil society groups as “extremist” in mid-2022. Their list includes now 376 “extremist formations and organizations,” 19 of which are groups operating abroad, including the Union of Belarusians in Britain, the Association of Belarusian Businesses Abroad, the Belarusian PEN Centre and the network of “People’s Embassies” run by exiled Belarusian political activists.
Placing communities in Cameroon at the heart of cholera prevention efforts is the basis of a new initiative between Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Cameroon’s Ministry of Health (MoH). The project – launched in November 2024 in Djoungolo, a neighbourhood of the country’s capital, Yaoundé, that has been regularly affected by cholera – addresses factors that contribute to the resurgence and transmission of the disease to strengthen prevention capacities often already in place.
“We had already introduced community cleaning days in each neighbourhood to clear drainage channels, clean the areas in front of homes and public spaces,” says Simon Ahanda, neighbourhood chief in Djoungolo. “Residents were already mobilised to fight diseases linked to poor sanitation.”
A woman sources clean water from a borehole in Djoungolo. Yaoundé, Cameroon, July 2026.Vanessa Fodjo/MSF
Listening to communities before taking action
Since October 2021, Cameroon has experienced recurring cholera outbreaks. While emergency responses treat patients and reduce the risk of death, additional measures are needed to prevent the disease from returning. Underlying causes include limited access to safe drinking water; inadequate sanitation infrastructure; poor waste management; and inadequate hygiene practices. It is in this context that MSF chose to develop a different approach, based on community involvement.
Our teams held consultations with residents, community leaders, health authorities, and other local stakeholders. The discussions identified community priorities, the challenges communities face, and existing measures. The consultations showed that communities had already identified several challenges and developed local initiatives that needed strengthening. This approach is part of the Patients and Populations as Partners (PPP) approach and made it possible to adapt project activities to the realities on the ground.
“We could not come in with ready-made solutions,” says Frida Tebere, MSF’s PPP manager. “Patients and communities know their realities, their challenges and the problems they face every day better than anyone.”
“Our role is to listen, create dialogue and build solutions together with them,” says Tebere.
Frida Tebere, MSF PPP manager“We could not come in with ready-made solutions. Patients and communities know their realities, their challenges and the problems they face every day better than anyone. Our role is to listen, create dialogue and build solutions together with them.”
Community consultations helped guide project activities towards concrete priorities including improving access to safe drinking water, strengthening hygiene and sanitation practices, supporting the early detection of suspected cases, and promoting better understanding and adoption of prevention measures.
MSF is supporting the promotion of good hygiene practices, the rehabilitation of seven water points, and the establishment of a chlorine production unit to improve access to safe drinking water. The use of chlorine caused concern among communities. Discussions showed that the concern was based on the practicality of chlorine use – the correct dosage and how to store treated water – and not on treating water itself.
The project developed a strategy centred on model households. These are volunteer families who are trained in chlorine use and, having gained practical experience, then share their knowledge with neighbours.
“At first, we had concerns about using chlorine,” says a member of a model household. “After the explanations and demonstrations, we understood how to use it correctly. Today, we also show other families how to treat their water.”
The MSF team and community members visit water points MSF rehabilitated in Djoungolo. Yaoundé, Cameroon, July 2026.Fabienne Toumba/MSF
Continuously strengthening community capacities
More than 1.2 million people have been reached through awareness-raising activities since 2025. Approximately 5,000 households are targeted each month in the Djoungolo health district.
Community engagement is a key component of the project. Participation goes beyond awareness-raising. At some sites, communities also help secure worksites and equipment during the rehabilitation of water points. This involvement strengthens local ownership of the infrastructure and aims to create the conditions necessary for its continued use and sustainability.
The project also supports health facilities and communities through a chlorine production unit intended to supply health facilities and households for water treatment. MSF remains ready to support the response to future cholera outbreaks, including through free patient care, strengthening the capacities of healthcare workers, supporting peripheral health facilities when needed, and contributing to preventive or reactive vaccination campaigns.
The objective is therefore to create a continuum between prevention, preparedness and response: strengthening community involvement and health facilities, while maintaining the capacity to respond rapidly as soon as a cholera case is confirmed.
Collective responsibility for sustainable prevention
In a context where humanitarian needs are increasing while available funding is declining, cholera prevention cannot rely on a single organisation. The experience in Djoungolo shows that communities never start from scratch. They already have knowledge, initiatives, and solidarity mechanisms that can contribute to preventing the disease. The role of health organisations is therefore not only to provide expertise, but also to identify, strengthen, and support solutions that already exist locally.
In Djoungolo, preventing cholera is not simply about providing safe water, chlorine, or awareness messages. It is about enabling people to understand the risks, participate in decision-making, and have the means to take action. Prevention becomes more sustainable when communities are not simply recipients of a response, but full partners in shaping it.
After six years of operation, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is gradually withdrawing from Marseille, France. We will strengthen our work on the northern French coast, where the situation continues to deteriorate for migrants seeking to reach the United Kingdom. Camille Niel, head of mission for France, reflects on a collective project that has helped hundreds of young people rebuild their lives.
What was the situation like for unaccompanied minors in France, and particularly in Marseille, when our project was launched in 2020?
In 2020, hundreds of young people were sleeping on the streets of Marseille in the middle of winter, due to a lack of support from public institutions. It was at this point that MSF decided to fund 100 emergency shelter beds, in collaboration with associations and collectives based in Marseille. This failure of the state prompted us to intervene more broadly and sustainably with unaccompanied minors in the city, by launching a shelter and care programme.
Unaccompanied minors are young people who arrive in France without their legal guardians. If they are officially recognised as minors by the State, they will be taken into care under child protection services, with access to education and healthcare, and cannot be detained or removed from French territory. If they are not recognised as minors, they will not receive any specific support.
Assessing their age is therefore essential. Each department in France is responsible for this and conducts an assessment through interviews with child welfare professionals. However, the results vary considerably depending on the location of these young people, with some départements (departments – administrative regions in France) having a low recognition rate. This is the case in the Bouches-du-Rhône department where Marseille is situated, even though it was for a long time the city with the second highest number of unaccompanied minors arrivals in France.
View of Notre-Dame de la Garde from the Vieux-Port of Marseilles.Benoît Guillaume/MSF
When their minority status is not recognised, these teenagers have the option of appealing this decision by petitioning a juvenile court judge. They are then referred to as “unaccompanied minors”; there were 300 such cases in Marseille in 2025. This is a lengthy process, sometimes lasting a year, during which, neither considered adults nor recognised as minors, unaccompanied minors receive no institutional support, and are left to fend for themselves, without access to housing, schooling, or medical care.
This extreme vulnerability has serious consequences for their physical and mental health. Many of the young people we encountered over these six years presented symptoms and disorders requiring long-term care, and for whom referral to appropriate psychological treatment facilities was essential.
In six years of operation, approximately 150 young people were accommodated by our teams, and nearly 1,500 consultations were carried out in the “MSF house”, a building that belonged to the Marseille city hall, where our teams took care of often very complex cases.
Can you tell us about this house?
It was at the heart of the MSF project in Marseille. Its unique feature was that, beyond providing shelter, it offered comprehensive multidisciplinary support to the young people it housed: access to state medical aid (AME in France), education, transportation, a registered address, and basic necessities (clothing, hygiene products, food etc.). Furthermore, all the young people received support in their academic and professional development, and the majority of them were able to access apprenticeships.
On the legal front, our team assisted them with appeals related to their minor status, helping them obtain civil status documents and navigating the procedures for those who reached adulthood (residence permits and Youth Protection Certificates). It was also crucial that these young people become independent.
The organisation of the house and communal living, to which they contributed significantly, played a particularly important role. When we made the decision to withdraw from Marseille, the reorganisation was very gradual, and the teams took the time to support the young people until the very end of the project. They have all now left home with an alternative accommodation solution, social support, and stabilised health pathways.
Two unaccompanied minors, cutting their hair and having some respite at the day center called Le GR1, located in Marseille.Meryl Sotty/MSF
What is their profile?
Many were in difficult family situations before embarking on their journey or had fled armed conflicts. They took different routes, some passing through Libya against their will, sold by smugglers to human traffickers, or through Tunisia, managing to board a makeshift boat to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Most arrived via Italy, while others entered Europe through Spain via Morocco and Algeria.
Each journey carried its share of risk, violence, and suffering – right up to their arrival in France, and even once they arrived in the country. They have experienced traumatic events; for example, in Libyan detention centres, where torture is commonplace, or while crossing the Mediterranean. Some have lost one or more of the people they were travelling with, whether a friend or a family member. They have faced death and must live with that.
All have experienced the rejection of their minor status by the departmental authorities, following an assessment considered biased, even prejudiced, by organisations that support unaccompanied minors, including MSF. The assessment itself and its outcome are experienced as yet another act of violence, with this institutional violence all the more difficult for these young people to endure, because they were convinced they would finally be safe in France after months of travel. They were able to find respite within the “GR1”, a collective project created in 2024 by organisations based in Marseille.
What role does this structure play?
The needs of unaccompanied minors far exceed our capacity, particularly given the Bouches-du-Rhône department’s refusal to assume its responsibilities regarding child protection and shelter. With several partner organisations – Yes We Camp, Just, Secours Catholique, Ligue de l’enseignement, and the Salvation Army Foundation – we mobilised by creating a place called “GR1”, a name that refers to the gathering of young people in the Sahel region to chat over a cup of tea. It is the only day centre for unaccompanied minors in Marseille.
It is designed to be a true haven and provide respite for these young people. They can rest, wash, eat and cook, take French classes, receive support with legal procedures and access medical care. Up to 80 young people have been welcomed there daily. For two years, the MSF medical team provided medical consultations twice a week and offered individual sessions with a psychologist once a week.
For these teenagers, each day spent at the GR1 is one less day spent on the street, and an additional chance to rebuild their lives. The programme is now well established after several years of collaborative work and consultation. It is a model worth defending, a shared space that continues to thrive beyond its founding organisations, even if its foundations still need strengthening in the future.
You mentioned the needs of unaccompanied minors, which far exceed the capacities of associations – could you explain?
The GR1 is attempting to provide a response, notably with the support of the City of Marseille, and the Marseille community is mobilising extensively. However, these organisations are facing the underfunding of public services that affects all associations in France. Despite this, they are being called upon to address a reality that exceeds their capacity.
The situation of unaccompanied minors in Marseille remains problematic. They continue to be among the most excluded and invisible communities. This neglect exposes them to abuse, criminal networks, the dangers of life on the streets, and extremely strong stigmatisation, which is politically exploited.
We are faced with a policy implemented by the department that creates a largely avoidable situation and forces associations to step in where the state is failing. It is essential that public authorities abandon their logic of exclusion and invisibility of unaccompanied minors, and work with local stakeholders to build dignified, legal, and sustainable reception conditions.
Civil society urges governments to disclose resource-backed deals, strengthen mining taxation and protect communities under the Common African Position on Debt.
NAIROBI, 27 August 2026 – African governments must not sign away future mineral revenues to meet today’s financing needs, civil society organisations warned at the sixth African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD VI). To prevent such commitments from undermining future public revenues, the civil society groups called for resource-backed loans and related mineral agreements to be publicly disclosed and independently scrutinised.
The call came during a session on “Critical Minerals, Debt and Tax Justice in Africa’s Common Position,” which examined how borrowing tied to mineral exports could affect Africa’s debt sustainability, fiscal sovereignty and long-term development.
Africa holds vast reserves of critical minerals like copper, cobalt, lithium, graphite and manganese that are increasingly important to renewable energy, electric transport and the global energy transition. Civil society organisations said this mineral wealth presents a historic opportunity for African countries to build industries, create decent jobs, strengthen public services and finance their own development. Yet many resource-rich countries continue to face high debt, poverty and inequality.
For governments struggling to access affordable finance, resource-backed loans can appear attractive because they provide immediate funding, often for infrastructure, in exchange for repayment through future commodity exports or revenues. But participants warned that such arrangements can carry long-term costs, particularly when they are negotiated without sufficient transparency and safeguards.
“Africa’s minerals should finance development by powering green industrializations, creating decent jobs, strengthening public services and generating the revenue needed to improve people’s lives. By using future mineral wealth as collateral for short-term borrowing risks repeating an old pattern: value leaves the continent, while African countries are left carrying the debt, inequality and the environmental costs. The energy transition must build Africa’s sovereignty, not mortgage it.” said Koaile Monaheng, Global Political Lead, Greenpeace Africa.
Participants said implementation of the Common African Position on Debt should include clear continental principles for borrowing linked to natural resources. These should promote transparency and public accountability, while requiring governments to assess the long-term fiscal, environmental and social consequences of proposed agreements.
They also stressed that debt justice cannot be separated from tax justice. African governments, they said, must ensure mining companies pay their fair share of taxes and close loopholes that allow profits and public revenues to leave mineral-producing countries.
Without fair taxation and greater domestic value addition, Africa risks remaining an exporter of raw materials while higher-value processing, technology, profits and jobs remain concentrated elsewhere.
Further, the civil society called on African governments to:
Publish resource-backed loan agreements and the mineral contracts connected to them
Require parliamentary and independent scrutiny before future mineral revenues are committed
Strengthen the taxation of mining companies and tackle illicit financial flows and other revenue losses
Expand domestic and regional mineral processing to create jobs and retain more value within Africa
Include affected communities in decisions and guarantee their access to relevant information
Enforce strong environmental and human-rights protections throughout mineral supply chains
Greenpeace South Asia expresses its deepest sorrow and solidarity with everyone affected by the catastrophic Bhotekoshi flood and mudslide in the district of Rasuwa in Nepal. Our thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones, those still waiting desperately for news of family and friends, the communities whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed, and everyone working to rescue survivors and provide assistance.
Hundreds of people are missing, and countless homes have been destroyed. The scale and suddenness of this disaster are horrifying, especially as it comes barely a year after another devastating flood struck the same region. As the climate crisis escalates, frontline communities face a growing risk of being hit by one disaster while still struggling to recover from the last one.
What started in Langtang Himal does not stop there. The Nepal flood also threatens hundreds of communities living downstream, including in India. The states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are now on high alert, as they face damaging floods almost every year as a result of their proximity to Nepal.
The immediate priority must be saving lives, finding people who remain missing and ensuring that affected communities have access to safe shelter, food, clean water, healthcare and other essential supplies.
Rescue teams, local communities and authorities are working under extremely difficult conditions. With roads and bridges damaged and electricity supplies disrupted, reaching affected communities and delivering essential assistance remains a major challenge.
Greenpeace calls for all available resources to be mobilised towards emergency response and recovery, with particular attention to vulnerable communities and people whose homes, livelihoods and access to essential services have been disrupted.
Scientists say it’s too early to determine exactly what role global warming played in this particular event, but preliminary investigations have pointed to a collapsed glacier as the cause, and the wider trend is not in question: a warming world is increasing the risk of such disasters.
Global heating, mostly driven by fossil fuel emissions from just 32 companies, is rapidly transforming the Himalayas. Even if warming can be limited to 1.5C as a global average, more than a third of the ice volume of glaciers within the extended Hindu Hush Himalaya region is projected to be lost this century.
Glaciers are shrinking, snow and ice are melting, permafrost is thawing, and mountain slopes are becoming less stable. These changes are creating a more dangerous environment in which catastrophic floods, landslides, and avalanches like this one are more likely to occur.
Every fraction of a degree of additional warming increases the danger, while communities who did least to cause the crisis bear the greatest human and financial costs.
Those costs should not be borne by these families, communities and governments of nations struggling to recover from one disaster after another. These are not simply natural disasters. The climate crisis has been driven overwhelmingly by the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, while year after year, international oil giants have made record profits while we pay the price.
Governments must respond to disasters like this not only with emergency relief but also with action to prevent the next one by rapidly phasing out fossil fuels, accelerating the global shift to renewable energy and electrification, investing in adaptation and resilience, and by making big polluters pay towards the costs of the damage their business helped cause.
NAIROBI, KENYA – Environmental groups are calling on the Kenyan government to seal smuggling loopholes that allow illegal single-use plastics to flood local markets. The demand was made in Nairobi during the handover of policy recommendations to key decision-makers on the anniversary of Kenya’s landmark plastic bag ban.
The recommendations set out steps to enforce existing environmental laws and expand refill-and-reuse systems across the country. Nearly a decade after Kenya introduced one of the world’s toughest bans on single-use plastic carrier bags, campaigners warn that porous borders, illegal imports, and unregulated suppliers threaten to reverse gains.
Hellen Kahaso Dena, Plastics Project Lead at Greenpeace Africa, said:
“Kenya is uniquely positioned to lead Africa toward a plastic-free future through its pioneering 2017 plastic bag ban and prohibitions in protected areas, but only if enforcement is strict and consistent. Refill and reuse of packaging represents a major opportunity to cut material waste. Refill and reuse is not new; in African culture, it has existed since time immemorial.”
While the 2017 prohibition initially cut carrier bag use by 80%, illegal packaging streams and thin, non-woven bags continue to slip through into informal urban markets. Civil society groups point out that while the Sustainable Waste Management Act of 2022 and the 2024 Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations acknowledge refill models, they lack binding legal mandates for manufacturers to adopt returnable packaging.
“The carrier bag ban addressed one source of plastic pollution, other unnecessary packaging remains largely unregulated. Stronger policies are needed to promote waste prevention, reuse and refill, while preventing toxic chemicals in plastic products and packaging. Producer responsibility must also go beyond collection and disposal. Producers should reduce unnecessary packaging, eliminate toxic chemicals, design products that are safe for human health and the environment and invest in reuse and refill systems. Without clear legal mandates, manufacturers will continue to manage waste rather than prevent it at source,” said Ledoner Okeyo Centre for Environment Justice and Development (CEJAD).
“Plastic pollution begins affecting nature long before it becomes visible as litter. Preventing waste at source through refill and reuse systems is one of the most effective ways to reduce pressure on ecosystems,” added Yvonne Khaemba,World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF Kenya). “Coupled with stronger corporate leadership and investment across the full lifecycle of packaging, this approach protects biodiversity, conserves resources, and accelerates the transition to a circular economy.
Highlighting the human impact on frontline communities, Joyce Wangariof the Kenya National Waste Pickers Association, emphasised the need for an inclusive transition:
“For our communities, plastic pollution is a daily reality. Those of us living near dumpsites face toxic air, contaminated water, and severe health risks every day. Integrating frontline waste workers into official refill-and-reuse frameworks ensures fair working conditions and dignity for the people keeping our cities clean.”
Key Policy Demands
To halt the flow of illegal plastics, the coalition is urging the Ministry of Environment and NEMA to crack down on illicit cross-border supply chains and update EPR rules to enforce binding targets for returnable packaging. The recommendations demand that manufacturers assume full lifecycle responsibility by shifting investment from post-disposal collection into waste prevention, while formally integrating and compensating frontline waste pickers in national circular economy plans.
Oxfam is launching an emergency response in Rasuwa and Nuwakot, the districts worst affected by Wednesday’s flash flood, as roads and bridges swept away by the surge have left entire communities almost impossible to reach.
On Wednesday 26 August, a landslide and glacial event around 20km north of the Rasuwagadhi checkpoint blocked the Lhende Khola, triggering a major flash flood. At least 200 people have been killed and hundreds more are missing across Nepal and Tibet. The surge then swept into the Trishuli River via Timure, Syaprubesi and Bhairabkunda, leaving families along the riverbanks of Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha and Chitwan, in peril.
“Entire neighbourhoods are under mud and rescue teams are still digging. The water rose nine metres in half an hour. What we are seeing so far is only what we can reach,” said Santosh Pandey, Oxfam Humanitarian Lead in Nepal.
“Entire neighbourhoods are under mud and rescue teams are still digging. The water rose nine metres in half an hour. What we are seeing so far is only what we can reach.”
Santosh Pandey, Humanitarian Lead
Oxfam in Nepal
The collapse of roads, bridges and communications has severely hampered relief efforts. The Government of Nepal’s has asked for 30 temporary bridges of 50 to 70 metres each, alongside food, shelter and water purification supplies. For now, reaching the hardest-hit communities depends almost entirely on-air access.
“The rivers are full of debris and sewage, and there is no piped supply left to fall back on. Getting clean water and safe sanitation to most affected people into these valleys is the priority now,” added Pandey.
Families also need hygiene supplies, emergency shelter and food. The Government of Nepal estimates that 8,692 households – nearly 40,000 people – require emergency hygiene support and water purification, in addition to 3,130 dignity kits and nearly 4,000 baby kits for children under five.
Oxfam, working with its partners and in close coordination with local authorities, is immediately supplying emergency hygiene kits, incorporating water purification solutions, for 200 households in the hardest-hit Rasuwa district. But Oxfam urgently needs £1 million British pounds to scale up its response and reach 10,000 people with temporary shelter, clean water, and sanitation and hygiene kits.
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After a major flash flood struck the Rasuwa district in Nepal, on Wednesday 26 August, a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team experienced in providing emergency response has arrived in Nepal to assess people’s immediate needs. We stand ready to provide urgent humanitarian and medical assistance.
The floods rapidly impacted the Timure, Rasuwagadhi, and Syabrubesi areas causing significant damage to settlements, markets, and infrastructure. Flood waves are estimated to have been as large as 8-10 metres in some locations. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are feared to have died, with many people still missing.
Floodwaters reached the town of Mugling, in Chitwan district, and have since begun to recede. However, authorities say the risk remains high, as the blocked section of the river upstream has not yet been fully cleared.
High-alert warnings have been issued for communities located along the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers, particularly in Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha, and Chitwan districts. People living along riverbanks have been advised to move to safer locations.
Authorities are carrying out urgent search and rescue operations in affected areas, and a full health emergency response has been initiated.
The MSF team arrived in Nepal less than 24 hours after the floods struck, and we are engaging with health facilities to assess if we can support. We know from our years of experience in emergencies that people in affected areas will have urgent needs for shelter, non-food items such as hygiene and cooking items, access to clean water and latrines, and emergency medical and trauma support.
MSF teams are assessing how we can provide assistance to people and stand ready to support the national response to this tragedy.
Ahead of the meeting of the Central Election Commission on 28 August regarding a proposed referendum on introducing judicial caning as a criminal punishment in Taiwan, Amnesty International Taiwan’s Director, E-Ling Chiu, said:
“It is both disturbing and disgraceful that the Legislative Yuan has chosen to advance a referendum proposal on judicial caning that clearly breaches international human rights law.
“This proposal is part of a broader pattern that has emerged in recent months. Human rights-related budgets have been cut, the work of independent institutions such as the National Human Rights Commission has been obstructed and the functioning of the Constitutional Court has been undermined. The advancement of a referendum seeking to legitimize cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment further contributes to the erosion of the human rights protection framework that Taiwan has spent decades building.”
Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director Sarah Brooks added:
“When public anger over crimes is exploited for political gain at the expense of human rights, everyone stands to lose.
“Amnesty International opposes any legislative proposal to introduce judicial caning in Taiwan and calls on the government to reaffirm its commitment to Article 7 of the ICCPR and the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.”
