The local volunteers saving the lives of Iraqi protesters

Opinion | Editor’s take: Why nobody is talking about Ebola in Tanzania

Briefing: Five challenges facing Ethiopia’s Abiy

Opinion | Reporter’s Diary: Four years of growing callousness in the central Mediterranean

WFP needs ‘systemic overhaul’ to limit abusive behaviour

In northeast Syria, a civilian exodus and a fast-moving aid response

Opinion | How to reduce drought disasters? Try better land management

Roundup: Natural hazards, man-made disasters

Fleeing Turkish bombs, protesting in Iraq, and ignoring sexual abuse allegations

Kenya’s pastoralists on the brink

Pressure builds on Burundian refugees in Tanzania amid threat of forced return

The humanitarian principle of non-refoulement, forbidding the return of refugees to countries where they're likely to come into harm’s way, is again to the fore, this time in Tanzania. As TNH's Philip Kleinfeld explains in our weekend read, some 200,000 Burundians are under increasing pressure to head home – thousands have already done so. Countering assertions from the Tanzanian and Burundian governments, who signed a deal to begin weekly repatriations from 1 October, the UN’s refugee agency says conditions are still not conducive for returns. The potential threat for perceived opponents of President Pierre Nkurunziza – ahead of looming 2020 elections – throws the issue into sharp relief. While Burundi insists all is calm, a UN Commission of Inquiry reported last month that this is an “illusion” created by a climate of fear. For more on why it's even more important that returns are truly voluntary in such a context, read this TNH op-ed.

UN peacekeepers end mission in Haiti

The UN’s peacekeeping mission in Haiti has ended after 15 years amid violent protests that have crippled the country for more than a month. The UN Security Council voted in 2017 to end a mission that has been plagued by a number of controversies, including a child sex scandal involving Sri Lankan peacekeepers and a cholera outbreak that killed 10,000 people and was linked to UN peacekeepers from Nepal. The mission’s end comes at a precarious time. Hospitals and schools have been shut for weeks, with protesters calling for the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse. Compounding an economic crisis and fuel shortages, he and other leaders are accused of embezzling funds that were earmarked for infrastructure improvements and social programmes.