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Support for refugees erodes as funding gaps surge globally and in India
The latest figures from the UNHCR's global report reveal that the number of people displaced across the world had risen to 122.1 million as of April 2025, up from 120 million a year earlier
Shikha Chaturvedi New Delhi
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The World Refugee Day, on June 20, reminds us of the journey millions of people around the world have been forced to take. Entire communities are uprooted by war, violence, and persecution. The latest figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR's) global report reveal that the number of people displaced worldwide had risen to 122.1 million as of April 2025, from 120 million a year earlier.
India remains a longstanding haven for
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Business Standard
4 hours ago
- Business Standard
Sudan civil war overwhelms border town in Chad as refugees find little help
Fatima Omas Abdullah wakes up every morning with aches and pains from sleeping on bare ground for almost two years. She did not expect Sudan's civil war to displace her for so long into neighbouring Chad. There is nothing here, she said, crying and shaking the straw door of her makeshift home. Since April 2023, she has been in the Adre transit camp a few hundred metres from the Sudanese border, along with almost a quarter-million others fleeing the fighting. Now the US- backed aid system that kept hundreds of thousands like Abdullah alive on the edge of one of the world's most devastating wars is fraying. Under the Trump administration, key foreign aid has been slashed and funding withdrawn from United Nations programmes that feed, treat and shelter refugees. In 2024, the US contributed USD 39.3 million to the emergency response in Chad. So far this year, it has contributed about USD 6.8 million, the UN says. Overall, only 13 per cent of the requested money to support refugees in Chad this year has come in from all donors, according to UN data. In Adre, humanitarian services were already limited as refugees are meant to move to more established camps deeper inside Chad. Many Sudanese, however, choose to stay. Some are heartened by the military's recent successes against rival paramilitary forces in the capital, Khartoum. They have swelled the population of this remote, arid community that was never meant to hold so many. Prices have shot up. Competition over water is growing. Adre isn't alone. As the fighting inside Sudan's remote Darfur region shifts, the stream of refugees has created a new, more isolated transit camp called Tine. Since late April, 46,000 people have arrived. With the aid cuts, there is even less to offer them there. 235,000 Sudanese in a border town Adre has become a fragile frontline for an estimated 235,000 Sudanese. They are among the 1.2 million who have fled into eastern Chad. Before the civil war, Adre was a town of about 40,000. As Sudanese began to arrive, sympathetic residents with longtime cross-border ties offered them land. Now there is a sea of markets and shelters, along with signs of Sudanese intending to stay. Some refugees are constructing multi-story buildings. Sudanese-run businesses form one of Adre's largest markets. Locals and refugees barter in Sudanese pounds for everything from produce to watches. There is respect between the communities, said resident Asadiq Hamid Abdullah, who runs a donkey cart. But everyone is complaining that the food is more expensive. Chad is one of the world's poorest countries, with almost 50 per cent of the population living below the poverty line. Locals say the price of water has quadrupled since the start of Sudan's civil war as demand rises. Sudanese women told The Associated Press that fights had broken out at the few water pumps for them, installed by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. Even food aid could run out shortly. The UN World Food Programme says funding to support Sudanese refugees in Adre is guaranteed only until July, as the US aid cuts force a 30 per cent reduction in staff worldwide. The UN refugee agency has seen 30 per cent of its funding cut for this area, eastern Chad. Samia Ahmed, who cradled her 3-year-old and was pregnant with her second child, said she has found work cleaning and doing laundry because the WFP rations don't last the month. I see a gloomy future, she said. Sudanese try to fill aid gaps Sudanese are trying to fill gaps in aid, running private schools and their own humanitarian area with a health clinic and women's centre. Local and UN authorities, however, are increasing the pressure on them to leave Adre. There are too many people here, they say. A vast city, said Hamit Hadjer Abdullai with Chad's National Commission for the Reception and Reintegration of Refugees. He said crime was increasing. Police warn of the Colombians, a Sudanese gang. Locals said it operates with impunity, though Abdullai claimed that seven leaders have been jailed. People must move, said Benoit Kayembe Mukendi, the UN refugee agency's local representative. For security reasons and for their protection. As the Chadian population begins to demand their land back, Mukendi warned of a bigger security issue ahead. But most Sudanese won't go. The AP spoke to dozens who said they had been relocated to camps and returned to Adre to be closer to their homeland and the transit camp's economic opportunities. There are risks. Zohal Abdullah Hamad was relocated but returned to run a coffee stand. One day, a nearby argument escalated and gunfire broke out. Hamad was shot in the gut. I became cold. I was immobile, she said, crying as she recalled the pain. She said she has closed her business. The latest Sudanese arrivals to Adre have no chance to establish themselves. On the order of local authorities, they are moved immediately to other camps. The UN said it is transporting 2,000 of them a day. In Tine, arriving Sudanese find nothing The new and rapidly growing camp of Tine, around 180 kilometres north of Adre, has seen 46,000 refugees arrive since late April from Northern Darfur. Their sheer numbers caused a UN refugee representative to gasp. Thousands jostle for meagre portions of food distributed by community kitchens. They sleep on the ground in the open desert, shaded by branches and strips of fabric. They bring witness accounts of attacks in Zamzam and El-Fasher: rape, robbery, relatives shot before their eyes. With the US aid cuts, the UN and partners cannot respond as before, when people began to pour into Adre after the start of the war, UN representative Jean Paul Habamungu Samvura said. If we have another Adre here it will be a nightmare.
NDTV
4 hours ago
- NDTV
Why UN Nuclear Watchdog Thinks Iran Could Again Enrich Uranium Within "Months"
Washington: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, has warned Iran would likely be able to resume producing enriched uranium within months, despite damage to several nuclear facilities from US and Israeli attacks. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi on Saturday noted that despite damage from attacks, the Islamic republic's nuclear infrastructure is "still standing" and it can revert to their previous capabilities in "a matter of months." The Middle East was rattled over the last few weeks after Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, targeting Iran's nuclear and military facilities on June 13, saying it was aimed at keeping Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon - an ambition the Islamic republic has consistently denied. The United States subsequently joined Israel in bombing three key facilities used for Tehran's atomic program, with the US President Donald Trump claiming the sites were completely "obliterated", insisting Iran's nuclear program had been set back "decades". Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, also acknowledged that the extent of the damage to the nuclear sites is "serious", but the details are unknown. What Rafael Grossi Said Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said, "some" of Iran's nuclear programme is "still standing." "They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that," Grossi said in an interview with CBS News Friday. "Iran had a very vast ambitious program, and part of it may still be there, and if not, there is also the self-evident truth that the knowledge is there. The industrial capacity is there. Iran is a very sophisticated country in terms of nuclear technology, as is obvious," he added. Another key question is whether Iran was able to relocate some or all of its estimated 408.6-kilo (900-pound) stockpile of highly enriched uranium before the attacks. The uranium in question is enriched to 60 per cent -- above levels for civilian usage but still below weapons grade. That material, if further refined, would theoretically be sufficient to produce more than nine nuclear bombs. Grossi admitted to CBS: "We don't know where this material could be." "So some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved. So there has to be at some point a clarification," he said in the interview. For now, Iranian lawmakers voted to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, and Tehran rejected Grossi's request for a visit to the damaged sites, especially Fordo, the main uranium enrichment facility. "We need to be in a position to ascertain, to confirm what is there, and where is it and what happened," Grossi said. Trump's New Bombing Threat US President Trump sharply criticised Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, on Friday, as he dropped plans to lift sanctions on Iran. Trump said he would consider bombing Iran again if Tehran is enriching uranium to worrisome levels. Trump's remarks came after Khamanei said Iran "slapped America in the face" by launching an attack against a major US base in Qatar following the U.S. bombing raids. Khamanei also said Iran would never surrender. The US leader said he had spared Khamenei's life. Earlier reports claimed Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill the supreme leader. "His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life," Trump said in a social media post. "I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH," he said. Iran said a potential nuclear deal was conditional on the US ending its "disrespectful tone" toward the Supreme Leader. "If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran's Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, and stop hurting his millions of heartfelt followers," Iran's Foreign Minister said in a post on X in the early hours of Saturday. Trump also said that in recent days he had been working on the possible removal of sanctions on Iran to give it a chance for a speedy recovery. He said he had now abandoned that effort. Trump said at a White House news conference that he did not rule out attacking Iran again, when asked about the possibility of new bombing of Iranian nuclear sites if deemed necessary at some point. "Sure, without question, absolutely," he said.
India Today
5 hours ago
- India Today
Asim Munir at it again; threatens India, calls Pak net regional stabiliser
Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir claimed that India had attacked the country twice without any provocation, calling it a "troubling absence of strategic foresight." Blaming India for escalating regional tensions, Munir vowed a decisive response to any future Indian at the Pakistan Naval Academy in Karachi on Saturday, Munir called Pakistan a "net regional stabiliser," claiming that Islamabad had responded "resolutely" to "unprovoked" Indian military aggression. advertisement"Despite provocations, Pakistan displayed restraint and maturity, reaffirming its commitment to regional peace," he said. Munir accused India of deliberately creating tension in the region just as Pakistan was nearing the elimination of THREAT AFTER KASHMIR JUGULAR VEIN REMARKMunir raked up the Kashmir issue in his latest address on Saturday, claiming that "at such a time, we must remember the sacrifices of our Kashmiri brothers who are struggling against India's illegal occupation."'Pakistan is a strong advocate for a just resolution of the Kashmir issue in accordance with United Nations resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people,' he before the Pakistan-backed Pahalgam terror attacks, Munir had reignited the region's most dangerous rivalry by claiming Kashmir to be Islamabad's "jugular vein.""Kashmir is our jugular vein; it will remain our jugular vein; we will not forget it," Munir had said, addressing the Pakistani diaspora a week after Munir's "jugular vein" remarks, Pakistan-backed terrorists slaughtered more than two dozen male tourists in Kashmir's picturesque Pahalgam. In response, India put the Indus Waters Treaty on hold - a decisive blow to its neighbour. This was followed by the launch of Operation Sindoor, which targeted and demolished terror launchpads deep inside Pakistan.- EndsTrending Reel
