Eighteen months of war have forced more than 10 million Sudanese from their homes, created the world’s largest hunger crisis, and triggered terrible war crimes. It’s a conflict in which regional and global powers are dabbling, arming both sides, intent on pursuing their own geopolitical interests. We ask Solomon Dersso, founding director of Amani Africa, what it will take for the fighting to end?  What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and...

Ever wondered what daily life in Afghanistan, Syria, and Venezuela have in common? In this episode, What’s Unsaid host Ali Latifi, who lives in Kabul, speaks to Reporting Fellows Zeina Shahla in Damascus and Iván Reyes in Caracas to discuss dealing with conflict, threats of violence, and economic instability, while also buying groceries, having coffee with friends, and listening to music. It can make for a strange duality: life is normal - but also not.  What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast...

“We constantly urge each other to remain tender toward one another”.  Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. In this episode, Nour ElAssy, a poet and writer, reflects on a year since Israel began a total war against the entirety of the Gaza Strip and its population. From Deir al-Balah, where she now lives with 27 other family members after fleeing her home on 7 October last year, she contemplates “what it means to have a family, to be a human, and to...

When violent gangs moved into her neighbourhood in April, Haitian journalist and former UN official Monique Clesca left the Caribbean nation. She returned home a few months later, and in this episode, she describes what daily life is now like. “We are in more than a crisis situation”, she says. “The gangs are at war with us”. The ongoing turmoil in Haiti is featured in The New Humanitarian’s annual list of ten crises that demand your attention now, which highlights places in the world where...

“We came mainly seeking safety, seeking to live a decent life. But then we found another war” Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. This episode tells a story of the 15,000 Sudanese people living in Egypt’s Masaken Osman area. When the war broke out in April 2023, these tower blocks on the dusty outskirts of Cairo became home to a group of refugees. Meet them as they gather to discuss their current challenges and collective efforts to overcome them. ...

Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. In this episode, Zeina Shahla, a reporting fellow with The New Humanitarian based in Damascus expresses what it is like to live in the shadow of war. With everyone in Syria living on edge since the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated last month in Tehran, Shahla worries if a regional war is going to break out.  The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and...

Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. In this episode, Ali Latifi, The New Humanitarian’s Asia Editor and co-host of the What's Unsaid podcast, marks the anniversary of the creation of the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate in his home country, Afghanistan.  Three years on, the country is still in the throes of a humanitarian crisis, with 23.7 million people in need of assistance. Latifi says: “We're in a situation full of paradoxes”. He paints a picture of...

Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. In this episode, Mahmoud Shalabi describes the difficult reality of life in his home, Beit Lahia. When the Israeli military issued orders last October for 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate their homes in the north of Gaza, Shalabi refused to leave. “I believed that remaining in my home would be a form of resistance,” he says. Now, nearly 11 months later, the Deputy Director for programs for the UK-based NGO,...

Our First Person narratives aim to dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. In this episode, Yusuf Sa’adu, a shopkeeper in Warawa in Nigeria’s Kano state, points out that “whoever has abundant water has wealth”. He shares how water scarcity made him lose out on education and still impacts personal relationships. “If you are experiencing water stress, you will not be able to do a lot of things”, Yusuf explains.  The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum...

*This episode was originally published on November 9, 2023. Palestinian peace activist Nivine Sandouka discusses the difficult way forward for building trust between Israelis and Palestinians. Hosted by Irwin Loy. What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.   

Iyad Agha, a Syrian now living in Germany, has been working on his country's humanitarian crisis for nearly a decade. The United Nations itself recently said that “Syria is in danger of being forgotten”, while noting that the country is facing the highest levels of humanitarian need since the start of its 13-year war. Some 7.2 million people have been forcibly displaced inside the country, and another 5.1 million are refugees in neighbouring countries. Türkiye is host to 3.3 million refugees...

*This episode was originally published on September 27, 2023.  Aid worker and psychologist Imogen Wall tells host Ali Latifi that the way humanitarian organisations are run, can do as much damage to aid workers' mental health as being confronted with war, hunger, and rights abuses.  What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable truths around the world’s conflicts and disasters.     

When crises hit, a host of questions arise, among them: Who needs humanitarian aid? How much? Who delivers it? And who has the power to make all of those decisions? How aid agencies and the media choose to frame this information doesn’t always help. For the last year, researchers at ODI’s Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) have been trying to understand narratives and the role they play in humanitarian response and policy. What they’re finding so far is that human stories are more powerful...

Exiled from a country plagued by decades of civil war, allegations of genocide and ethnic cleansing, and limits on basic democratic rights, Maung Zarni, an academic, human rights activist, and Nobel Peace prize nominee, explains why the Rohingya cannot rely on protection from within the country. “I'm Burmese myself,” he tells host Ali Latifi. “We have proven incapable of maintaining peace and stability in our own country for the last 75 years”.  What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The...

Viewed from Western aid capitals, the international humanitarian system is overwhelmingly secular. But for much of the rest of the world, people’s lived realities are very different. As Amjad Mohamed Saleem, a development and peacebuilding entrepreneur tells host Obi Anyadike, being a person of faith in the aid industry is a “dynamic struggle”. What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s...

One and a half million people have been uprooted by the conflict between the M23 rebel group and the national army in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many are now living with host families, little-heralded frontline responders who play a central role in relief efforts across the region. Nicholas Bahati Ndoolé, a humanitarian worker based in the city of Goma, is one such host. In this First Person essay, he shares the many challenges his family faces, and explains why he feels he...

*As Martin Griffiths serves his last month at the helm of OCHA, take another listen to this episode from January 26, 2022 on his vision for the future of humanitarian aid, and his hopes for a non-British successor. ____ In the final episode of Season 2 of the Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast, host Heba Aly sits down with UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths to discuss his priorities in the role, how he intends to address unequal power dynamics in the aid...

India’s incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been accused of hate speech against Muslims during the election campaign. But Harsh Mander, a writer and peace worker, tells host Ali Latifi that Muslims are being mistreated and discriminated against at all levels of civil and political society. With results looming, he warns that Modi’s India is starting to head in the direction of Nazi Germany.  What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets...

After 25 years as an international humanitarian worker, Susana Raffalli returned to Venezuela only to find herself at the centre of a humanitarian, political, and economic crisis in her own backyard. She describes the devastating impact that 10 years of crisis has had on Venezuelans and argues that the Latin American country has been largely neglected by the international aid sector. The ongoing turmoil in Venezuela is featured in The New Humanitarian’s annual list of ten crises that demand...

Humanitarian organisations often push an image of refugees as passive victims in need of help. But refugees themselves say they have voices and need to be listened to. Refugee advocate Jean Marie Ishimwe tells host Obi Anyadike why it’s time for the refugee-led organisation, or RLO, ‘revolution’. What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.  

*This episode was originally published on December 14, 2022.  The call for reparations, which has long reverberated in former colonies, is now gaining momentum in the aid and philanthropy sectors, too. It’s a call that rejects the idea of aid as charitable giving, and instead reframes it as justice for the ravages of colonialism and imperialism. But like similar conversations in the United States around slavery, the idea of international reparations for colonialism is a political hot...

A visit to Inzargai refugee registration centre in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province prompts host Ali Latifi to explore how governments around the world are weaponising anti-refugee and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Economic and security “frustrations are absolutely real”, Professor Muhammad Zaman, director of the Center on Forced Displacement at Boston University, tells him. “The outsider is an easy and convenient way to let some of that steam out, without really solving the problems.” What’s...

Today’s First Person story comes from Moussa Kondo, executive director of the Sahel Institute. Moussa recounts how drastically life has changed for everyday people in Mali, where years of conflict, climate change, and political isolation have left more than 7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. The worsening political instability in the Sahel is featured in The New Humanitarian’s annual list of ten crises that demand your attention now, which highlights places in the world...

Young girls and women are leading the way in driving systemic change, and supporting their communities, but a new report, titled “We need to know the humanitarian sector stands with us”, shows the extent to which they’re being overlooked and underfunded – and makes a plea directly to the sector to change this. The report’s co-author Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah tells host Obi Anyadike that “a real revolution” is required. What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we...