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Sudan again tops International Rescue Committee crises watchlist
After being ranked third in 2023, Afghanistan has improved but still features in the unranked second half this year

Sudan – for the second year in a row – topped a 2025 watchlist of global humanitarian crises released by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) aid organization on Wednesday, followed by Gaza and the West Bank, Myanmar, Syria and South Sudan.
While Afghanistan is no longer in the top 10 on the Emergency Watchlist for this year, after being ranked third in 2023, the country still features in the unranked second half this year – between 11 and 20 on the list.
According to the report, the improvement can be attributed to various factors including the economy having now settled at a low-level equilibrium and because of crises in many other countries deteriorating rapidly.
The report stated that Afghanistan’s economic crisis continues to cause some of the highest rates of humanitarian need worldwide and that growth is being held back by a number of factors. These include the country’s economic isolation, particularly the suspension of most development funding (which previously subsidized Afghanistan’s spending on public services by an estimated 75%), the lack of progress on unfreezing the Afghan central bank’s frozen funds (held in a Swiss-based trust fund), and the impact of sanctions and international restrictions on foreign financial inflows.
The New York-based IRC began the watchlist more than 15 years ago as an internal planning tool to prepare for the year ahead, but chief executive David Miliband said it now also served as a call to action globally.
The report said 305.1 million people around the world are in humanitarian need – up from 77.9 million in 2015 – and that the 20 countries on the IRC watchlist account for 82% of them. Miliband described the numbers as “crushing.”
“There are more resources to do more good for more people than at any time in history. This makes it all the more bewildering that the gap between humanitarian need and humanitarian funding is also greater than ever,” he wrote in the watchlist report.
The report said the humanitarian crisis in Sudan was the largest since records began and that the country accounts for 10% of all people in humanitarian need, despite being home to just 1% of the global population.
War erupted in April 2023 from a power struggle between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule, and triggered the world’s largest displacement crisis.
The remaining 15 countries on the IRC watchlist are: Lebanon, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Mali, Somalia, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Ukraine and Yemen.
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Thousands of local tourists flock to Balkh over Eid-ul-Fitr

More than 12,000 local tourists, along with 21 foreigners, visited Balkh province in northern Afghanistan over Eid-ul-Fitr, Balkh Information and Culture Department officials confirmed.
According to the officials, the tourists visited recreational areas and historical sites during the three-day Eid holiday period.
Tourists visiting the province said they were happy about the improved security situation but called for more recreational areas.
One popular area was Marmul district, which lies about 20 km west of Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital. Visitors said however they would have liked to see more restaurants, mosques, markets and other facilities.
Local officials in Balkh said efforts are being made to create facilities in recreational areas in the province.
In addition to Marmul, other popular destinations in Balkh for visitors this Eid was the Qosh Tepa Canal, Dasht-e-Shadian, Amu River and Chashma-e-Khaja Sikandar.
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UN rights experts call on Pakistan to stop removal process of Afghan refugees
The experts urged Islamabad to immediately stop mass internal relocations, deportations, arrests, evictions, intimidation and other pressures on Afghans

UN human rights experts have called on the Pakistan government to stop their plans to forcibly remove Afghans from the cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, nor to deport them to Afghanistan.
According to a statement issued on Friday, the UN experts (as listed below) called on Pakistan to continue its important role as a neighboring country with a long history of hosting Afghan refugees.
The deadline for their voluntary departure was set for 31 March, but Islamabad moved the deadline by a few days to take Eid-ul-Fitr into account.
“Millions of Afghans in Pakistan are at risk of being pushed back to Afghanistan without regard for their genuine protection concerns – including gender-based violence and the systematic dismantling of the rights of women and girls – in violation of international human rights law and refugee law, and disregarding UNHCR’s non-return advisory,” the experts said.
“We urge Pakistan to immediately stop mass internal relocations, deportations, arrests, evictions, intimidation and other pressures on Afghans to cross the border into Afghanistan, and to uphold the absolute and non-derogable principle of non-refoulement,” they said.
The experts expressed particular concern about the gendered and intersectional impact.
The UN experts have repeatedly spoken out against Pakistan’s Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan of September 2023, which has already pressured hundreds of thousands of Afghans to uproot their lives and return to Afghanistan.
Ahead of the 31 March deadline, the UN documented a worrying increase in arrests of Afghans. Many desperate Afghans have contacted the experts, fearing persecution by the Taliban in Afghanistan if they are forced to return.
“The most vulnerable are Afghan women, girls, LGBTI persons, ethnic and religious minorities, former government officials and security personnel, human rights defenders, and media workers,” the experts said.
“Children, especially unaccompanied, are at heightened risk of trafficking, child marriage and abuse, while persons with disabilities and older persons are also particularly vulnerable. They should all be individually assessed.”
The experts expressed concern about returns of Afghans to Afghanistan from other countries, potentially contravening international human rights and refugee law.
The experts also acknowledged security risks, including terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan.
The experts noted that many Afghans who had left for Pakistan, having been given reasonable expectations of being resettled in a third country, had their dreams of a secure future shattered by the sudden halt of resettlement programmes.
They stressed that funding cuts will reduce the ability of the de facto authorities in Afghanistan, together with humanitarian agencies, to support a large influx of people from neighboring countries.
“Abrupt and drastic funding cuts by donors are already having a severe impact on much-needed humanitarian assistance to Afghans,” the experts said.
“Given the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan, durable solutions are needed for Afghans outside the country, with strong support from the broader international community.”
The experts are as follows:
Richard Bennett, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan; Siobhán Mullally, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; Laura Nyirinkindi (Chair), Claudia Flores (Vice-Chair), Dorothy Estrada Tanck, Ivana Krstić, and Haina Lu, Working group on discrimination against women and girls; Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; and Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing.
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Pakistan urges global community to block arms flow to militant groups in Afghanistan

A Pakistani diplomat on Saturday called on the international community to block the flow of modern and sophisticated weapons to militant groups in Afghanistan.
“Terrorist armed groups are in possession of billions worth of illicit arms abandoned in Afghanistan,” Syed Atif Raza, a counsellor at the Pakistan Mission to the UN, told an Arria-Formua meeting of the UN Security Council, convened by Sierra Leone.
“We call upon our international partners to recover the vast stockpile of abandoned weapons, prevent their access to armed terrorist groups and take measures to close this thriving black market of illicit arms,” he said.
Pakistani officials have repeatedly claimed that attacks in the country are planned in Afghanistan and that militants use weapons left behind by foreign forces.
The Islamic Emirate, however, has denied the claim, saying Afghanistan is not responsible for Pakistan’s “security failure”.
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