displaced

Thousands of displaced Palestinians have begun returning to their abandoned and mostly destroyed homes, as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas takes hold, with Israeli forces withdrawing from parts of Gaza.

Families started moving from western residential areas on Friday back towards Gaza City’s main districts, areas from which they were previously forced to flee.

Several Israeli military brigades and divisions have pulled out from central Gaza regions as well.

At the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, families have begun travelling northward, though many remain waiting to enter areas in the Netzarim Corridor, where Israeli forces were stationed. They are holding there until the final Israeli tank departs the area.

Concerning developments include heightened activity of Israeli drones, fighter jets, and warships since early morning. Multiple attacks were reported in the morning at locations where people were gathering to return home.

A huge procession of displaced Palestinians moved northward through dust-filled roads towards Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban centre, which had experienced intense Israeli military operations just days earlier.

“Thank God my house is still standing,” said Ismail Zayda, 40, in the Sheikh Radwan area in Gaza City. “But the place is destroyed, my neighbours’ houses are destroyed, entire districts have gone.”

The Israeli military announced the ceasefire agreement took effect at noon local time (09:00 GMT). Israel’s government ratified the ceasefire with Hamas early Friday, setting in motion a partial troop withdrawal and complete suspension of hostilities in Gaza within 24 hours.

Israeli captives are scheduled for release within 72 hours afterwards, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

The first phase of United States President Trump’s plan to end the two-year Gaza conflict requires Israeli forces to withdraw from major urban centres, though they will maintain control of approximately half the enclave’s territory.

Once the agreement takes effect, aid trucks carrying food and medical supplies will enter Gaza to assist civilians, hundreds of thousands of whom have been living in tents after their homes were destroyed and entire cities reduced to rubble.

As talks continue in Egypt to end the war in Gaza, displaced Palestinians in Deir el-Balah say they’re ready to return to their homes – even if they are in ruins.

“We do not know what to do right now. We do not even have water to drink or bathe with. We don’t know what we would do if the rain falls and meets us in the open air with all our children.”  These are the words uttered by Jacky Tshibala, a resident of the Laurent Desire Kabila camp in Lemba, situated in the southeast of Kinshasa, the national capital of the DR Congo, where over 300 houses were razed to ashes. 

A disturbing silence now reigns in the quarters,  where parents and children this morning  found themselves searching for any personal belongings that the fire might have spared.

One of the affected victims, who is a father and a policeman, reveals that the fire started at 2 a.m. Tuesday morning and spread with unprecedented rapidity to various residential houses.

“We were all taken by surprise at 2 a.m. in the morning by a fire we up to now don’t know its origin. I can tell you that the fire spread so fast that one was unable to save even a pin. Nothing was saved from the more than 300 houses that have been razed to the ground,” declared the policeman with a walkie-talkie in hand.

Another victim,  Julie, told HumAngle that her husband was on an out-of-station assignment when their house was destroyed.  She said she currently depends on neighbours who were not as badly affected as herself.

“Some of them have been giving us their pots with which we are using to cook in the open air. We are still perching outside not knowing where to pass the nights. I have personally lost everything except the clothes I am wearing now,”  she said.  

A group of women sitting on the ground and sweating from the hot temperature said they did not know what to do after the calamity. Some said they had not eaten anything or had a drop of water since the fire struck. They said they were also afraid the rain threatening the horizon might meet them still in the open air with their little children.

Students and primary school children too have been affected as most of them have lost their uniforms and school textbooks. Some of them can be seen sleeping in the open air while their parents struggle to find something for them to eat.

The victims say the vice prime minister in charge of the interior and security, Jacquemain Shabani, had during the day come to express his sympathy and had promised to arrange for assistance to the affected families. However, they had been waiting for the whole day without any indication of the help the vice prime minister promised.

As of now, every victim is sitting on the ruins of what was once their home while waiting for government assistance.

An Israeli strike targeted a vehicle carrying displaced Palestinians who were evacuating Gaza City to the south under Israeli forced displacement orders on Tuesday. Injured women and children were filmed being carried away from the burning car, while authorities said multiple people were killed.

The Israeli offensive on Gaza City is displacing thousands of starving Palestinians.

France’s most devastating wildfire in decades remains active despite being brought under control, officials announced, as firefighting efforts continue with hundreds of personnel.

The massive blaze in Aude has scorched more than 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) – an area larger than Paris – killing one person, injuring another 13 and destroying numerous homes.

Approximately 2,000 firefighters remain deployed to combat the flames, which were declared under control on Thursday night.

“The fire will not be declared extinguished for several days,” said Christian Pouget, Aude’s prefect. “There is still a lot of work to be done.”

Officials have restricted access to the devastated forests until at least Sunday due to hazardous conditions, including fallen power lines and other dangers.

Pouget confirmed that roughly 2,000 evacuees still await clearance to return home, with hundreds sheltering in school gymnasiums and community centres throughout the region.

This wildfire is the largest in France’s Mediterranean region in at least 50 years, according to government monitoring agencies. The southern area is particularly susceptible to such fires.

At its peak, the blaze consumed about 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) per hour, Narbonne authorities reported. Shifting strong winds over two days made the fire’s behaviour unpredictable.

A 65-year-old woman who refused evacuation orders was found dead in her burned home, while 13 others were injured, including 11 firefighters.

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, visiting the affected area on Wednesday, called the wildfire a “catastrophe on an unprecedented scale”.

“What is happening today is linked to global warming and linked to drought,” Bayrou said.

Environment Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher wrote in a post on X that this was France’s largest fire since 1949. The country has experienced approximately 9,000 wildfires this summer, primarily near the Mediterranean coast.

Aude has seen increasing burn areas in recent years, exacerbated by reduced rainfall and vineyard removals that previously helped slow fire progression.

In Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, the hardest-hit village, thick smoke continued rising on Thursday from pine-covered hills overlooking vineyards where dry grass still burned.

With Europe facing new August heatwaves, many regions remain on wildfire alert. Portugal extended emergency measures on Thursday due to heightened fire risks.

Near Spain’s Tarifa, fire crews secured areas around tourist accommodation after controlling a major blaze that destroyed hundreds of hectares.

Climate experts indicate that global warming is driving longer, more intense and more frequent heatwaves worldwide, creating more favourable conditions for forest fires.

Escalating attacks in Cabo Delgado are taking place amid major cuts in international aid.

Nearly 60,000 people have fled Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province in two weeks, a United Nations agency has said, amid a years-long rebellion by fighters affiliated with ISIL (ISIS).

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement on Tuesday that escalating attacks that began on July 20 had displaced 57,034 people, or 13,343 families.

Chiúre was the hardest-hit district, with more than 42,000 people uprooted, more than half of them children, the IOM said.

“So far, around 30,000 displaced people have received food, water, shelter, and essential household items,” Paola Emerson, who heads the Mozambique branch of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the AFP news agency.

Emerson said OCHA was preparing to step up its assistance in the coming days. “The response, however, is not yet at the scale required to meet growing needs,” she said, in a context of cuts to international aid by the United States and other countries.

“Funding cuts mean life-saving aid is being scaled back,” she added. The UN’s 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan for Mozambique has so far received only 19 percent of the pledges requested.

The organisation also stressed that the lack of safety and documentation, and involuntary relocations, were compounding protection risks.

The Southern African nation has been fighting a rebellion by a group known locally as al-Shabab,  though with no links to the Somali fighters of a similar name, in the north for at least eight years. Rwandan soldiers have been deployed to help Mozambique fight them.

More than 6,100 people have been killed since the beginning of the insurrection, according to conflict tracker ACLED, including 364 last year, according to data from the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies.

Cabo Delgado has large offshore natural gas reserves, and the fighting caused the suspension of operations by the French company Total Energies in 2021. The French fossil fuel giant has said it hopes to re-ignite the $20bn gas project this summer.

Human Rights Watch last month said the armed group had “ramped up abductions of children”, using them as fighters or for labour or marriage. The group said recruiting or using children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities constitutes a war crime.

Sudanese women who fled the city of el-Fasher say paramilitary Rapid Support Forces fighters killed, looted, and raped people during their escape. Now in Tawila, about 60km to the west, they face rain, hunger, and a growing cholera outbreak.

At the Muna Kumburi camp along Dikwa Road in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria, displaced families are taking desperate steps to survive. 

With the provision of humanitarian aid having been ceased for over three years and growing insecurity keeping them from farming freely, dozens of internally displaced people (IDPs) have begun dismantling and selling the very shelters meant to keep them safe.

“We have no choice,” Malum Aisami, the camp chairperson, told HumAngle. “People are in such a desperate situation that they sell their shelter and travel using the money.”

The makeshift tents, constructed from wood, tarpaulin, and zinc sheets, are sold for ₦40,000 to ₦50,000. They use the money to feed their families, buy seeds, cultivate lands in remote areas, or attempt to resettle in safer areas.

When HumAngle visited the camp on July 24, many spaces where shelters once stood now lay bare, marked by upturned soil and abandoned frames. 

While some moved into nearby host communities after selling their shelter, other families squeezed into overcrowded shelters with relatives in the camp. Many travelled to remote bush areas to work on farmlands, and some relocated entirely to farming settlements for the duration of the rainy season–a common practice among families in the region seeking seasonal agricultural income.

“I sold it so that I can use the money to go and buy seeds and feed myself on the farm,” Baisa Modu said, pointing to the plot where his shelter used to be.

Camp residents say the situation worsened when the state government began constructing buildings in parts of the camp, displacing even more families within an already overcrowded space. Some residents relocated to nearby host communities, but many remain in desperation for a good life.

“So far, we’ve recorded over 50 households who dismantled and sold their shelters and moved on. Even me, I sold one of mine. There is hunger, and we cannot go to a farm in peace. There is insecurity and abduction on a daily basis,” Aisami said. 

In February this year, several residents of the same camp were abducted while fetching firewood in the bush. Their families were forced to launch crowdfunding efforts, scraping together ₦300,000 in a desperate attempt to pay the ransom demanded.

Now, as hunger worsens and with risks rising, selling shelters has become a survival strategy, even if it means sleeping in the open or starting over in a new place.

Despite their depressing conditions, over 200 households were also forced to vacate parts of the Muna Kumburi camp last month to make way for a government construction project. The development, which affected nearly half of the camp’s area, rendered many families homeless, pushing them to seek refuge in surrounding host communities.

The camp, which accommodates over 3,000 individuals across more than 600 households, is now experiencing one of its most severe humanitarian crises to date. The perios is marked by food shortages, insecurity, and the gradual disappearance of what little shelter remains.

HumAngle reached out to both the Borno State Police Command and the State Government spokesperson for comments regarding the increasing cases of abductions targeting returnees in Dalori and the humanitarian distress in Muna Kumburi. At the time of filing this report, no official response had been received. 

Abduction cases are rising

After Boko Haram members abducted and killed her husband in 2019, Maryam Indi fled her hometown of Goniri Kadau in Konduga local government of Borno State.

Accompanied by her family, she fled to Maiduguri, the capital city, settling at the Kawar Maila camp for displaced people. She lived there for about six years until the government shut down the camp in 2023 and repatriated her and all other occupants to the 1,000 Housing Units situated at Dalori village along the Bama–Maiduguri road. 

She now lives there with her six children, she says, and life has only grown more difficult and unbearable since their return.

The 55-year-old worked as a farm labourer but stopped this year when suspected Boko Haram members began kidnapping residents who were going to the fields.

Her father-in-law, Ba Modu, was taken just five days before, while returning from the farm in Lawanti, a remote village in Konduga. He was one of eight people abducted from the community when HumAngle visited on July 25.

“The kidnappers demanded ₦1 million per person, but we couldn’t raise the money,” she said.

The abductors warned that Ba Modu would be killed in a week if the ransom was not paid. Maryam says this isn’t the first time their family has suffered such an ordeal.

“We have had three other cases of abduction in our family since we were repatriated to this estate. We paid ₦400,000 to free them,” she recalled.

But now, there is nothing left to give. And the process to raise the money is nearly impossible for many families.

“We used to go around the neighbourhood collecting donations from people, like ₦200 here, ₦500 there. But this time, we couldn’t raise anything. Everyone is suffering,” Maryam told HumAngle.

Maryam now begs in the markets across Maiduguri to feed her children. She said her daughter had recently narrowly escaped an attempted kidnapping while fetching firewood. Her son, who was with her, became sick with shock after witnessing the incident.

“We are scared. We can’t even go outside without fear. We are just surviving on begging and prayers,” she said.

Women like Maryam now bear the brunt of farming-related risks. While farming is often considered a male-dominated occupation in the region, the current insecurity has pushed many men into hiding, leaving women to farm in distant and dangerous areas. 

“Our men are afraid to go. If they go, they’re targeted more. So we, the women, take the risk,” Maryam said.

Since 2021, the Borno State government has implemented a phased closure of displacement camps across Maiduguri, relocating IDPs to newly built housing units in their ancestral communities or nearby towns. The policy was premised on restoring dignity, reviving local economies, and reducing long-term aid dependency.

As part of the exercise, at least ten informal camps in Maiduguri have been shut down. The most recent was the closure of Muna IDP camp in May 2025, during which the state governor, Babagana Umara Zulum, oversaw the relocation of 6,000 displaced families.

The government said the decision was driven by rising issues of crime, drug abuse, and child exploitation within the camp. However, the transition has deepened the humanitarian burden for many, particularly those unable to relocate or access livelihoods.

For many returnees, the promise of stability and improved living conditions remains unfulfilled.

Yakaru Abbagana, 30, another returnee, fled Shettimari in Konduga and lived at the same camp with Maryam before being relocated to the Dalori estate. She now lives with her husband and eight children in what was meant to be a fresh start.

“I used to be a farmer. Now, my children and I beg for survival. Sometimes my children and I go three days without food,” she told HumAngle in a faint voice.

When HumAngle visited her for an interview, her brother, Mammadu, had been abducted ten days before while working as a farm labourer in Lawanti. As with Ba Modu, the captors are demanding ₦1 million. The family cannot raise it; their only asset is the house gifted to them through the resettlement scheme.

“We told them we don’t have that money. They told us to sell our house for his release. But if we do that, we’ll have no shelter. Nothing,” she said.

Yakaru’s family had faced abductions in the past, too.

“Two of my uncle’s children were kidnapped last year. We paid ₦500,000 each to get them out. But now, we have nothing. Only this house the government gave us,” she said.

The uncertainty and fear have left many families choosing between starvation and the risk of death. “We are just begging. That’s our only means now,” Yakaru said.

On July 25, Nagari Bunu’s younger brother, Mustapha Bukar, 20, was abducted while farming. Ngari told HumAngle that, in two days, their family managed to raise ₦900,000 out of the ₦1 million ransom through community donations. 

He added that their father had considered selling their tent to raise the money, but community members helped. “People came together to help. They said we shouldn’t sell the house,” Nagari said.

Mustapha was abducted alongside others, but he remains the only one in captivity as others have paid and regained their freedom. The captors did not set a deadline but made it clear that Mustapha would not be released until the full ransom was paid.

Muhammed Usman, 30, is a community representative of the repatriated families from Kawar Maila camp, overseeing about 400 households now living in Dalori. His account reflects a community on the verge of collapse.

“This year alone, more than ten people have been abducted from our community while trying to farm. At least eight are still in captivity. The total ransom demanded is over ten million naira,” Muhammed said.

He explains that farming is not only a livelihood but the only lifeline left for many. Yet the farmlands surrounding Dalori and other nearby farming areas have become hunting grounds for Boko Haram.

Each time their community members are abducted, they resort to crowdfunding as authorities or organisations do not support them in the process. Muhammad says they do it alone year in year-round. 

“We rely on neighbours to contribute what they can to rescue victims. But now, even that system is failing. We are all empty,” he told HumAngle.

According to locals interviewed by HumAngle, security presence is patchy. Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) members are stationed in some areas, but vast stretches of farmland remain unprotected.

“The government helps by giving us these houses. But they don’t help when our people are kidnapped. No food, no aid, no security. We are on our own,” Muhammad said.

The displaced communities continue to appeal for urgent government intervention to address their growing insecurity, hunger, and lack of support in resettlement areas

Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon – Fatima Kandeel, 43, and her two sons moved into a new rented apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut in March.

They had been staying with her sister Aida nearby for four months after a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon had stopped the worst, but not all, of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, and it felt good to have their own place.

In their barely furnished living room in Laylake, Dahiyeh, with only two armchairs and a shisha pipe between them, the walls make clear where the family stands.

A framed photo of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hangs beside a martyr’s portrait of Fatima’s 21-year-old nephew, a Hezbollah fighter killed in an Israeli air strike in Jnoub in October.

In the rubble, scraps of home

When the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah declared its support for Palestine and escalated tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border for about a year until Israel invaded and launched full-scale war.

The suburbs of Dahiyeh have been repeatedly targeted in Israeli strikes as it is widely recognised as a Hezbollah stronghold.

The family’s previous home in Dahiyeh’s Hay el-Selom, a 10-minute walk from Laylake, was destroyed by an Israeli air strike in October.

Yet Fatima was warm and hopeful in early June, her hazel eyes still smiling from below her hijab while recounting the pain of loss, displacement and hardship.

Energetic and confident, she spoke expressively, using her hands as if she were on stage.

Like many Lebanese hosts, she offered drinks and an invitation for lunch while chatting about what it was like to feel under attack in Dahiyeh and whether that changed her relationship with her neighbourhood.

After her family’s home was destroyed and they fled to Aida’s, Fatima said, her sons, 24-year-old Hassan and 20-year-old Hussein, managed to salvage two wardrobes and a bed from the rubble along with other scraps from their lives there.

Proud of that small victory, Fatima flung open the bedroom doors to show off the two wardrobes restored to the point where it would be hard to guess they had been in a bombing. The rescued bed is used by one of her sons after getting new slats and a new lease on life.

“These are the most important pieces of furniture in the house,” she said, gently running her hand over one of the damaged surfaces.

“They’re historical [because they survived]. I was so happy we got them back.”

Hassan and Hussein found more in the rubble of their home: a stuffed toy that Hassan used to play with and a few of the books from their mother’s library.

As she spoke, Fatima held the stuffed toy in her hands, smiling and looking at it. Hussein was quietly observing his mother as she shared her thoughts.

“He used to sleep with it beside him every night,” Fatima recalled. “I couldn’t save much from their childhood after my divorce, but I kept this, and now it survived the war too.”

In her bedroom, a small table holds a stack of books about history, religion and culture – a fragment of what she once owned.

Scars, visible and invisible

From the living room balcony, the scars of war are visible. The top floors of a neighbouring building have been destroyed, the lower floors still standing – a daily reminder of what was lost.

Yet Fatima holds Dahiyeh dear and is determined to stay.

“I love the people here,” she said. “Everyone is kind. … Dahiyeh is home.”

Hussein agreed that he feels most at home in Dahiyeh with its strong sense of community and friends and neighbours all around.

During the war, he struggled emotionally, constantly stressed and getting into fights. He has seen two therapists but hasn’t felt much improvement.

Unlike his mother, Hussein is open to the idea of leaving Dahiyeh, but he pointed out practicalities – rents and the overall cost of living outside Dahiyeh are much higher if they could find a place to rent.

And, he said, they could face sectarian discrimination if they relocate.

The family had to leave Dahiyeh briefly during Israel’s war on Lebanon and sought shelter in the nearby coastal Beirut suburb of Jnah. Fatima still carries a painful memory from that time.

A Jnah grocery store owner snidely remarked: “Look at those trashy Shia people,” as he looked at newly arrived families dressed in the slippers and pyjamas they fled in.

The comment left a scar, and she refuses to leave Dahiyeh again.

“If war comes again, what do you teach the next generation?” she asked. “That it’s OK to give up your home? Or that you stand your ground?”

‘If it were just me, I’d stay’

While Fatima has chosen to stay in Dahiyeh, her 55-year-old sister, Iman, wants to leave.

Iman lives with her husband, Ali, a plastering foreman, and their four children: Hassan, 25, a programmer; Fatima, 19, a university student; and 16-year-old twins Mariam and Marwa, both in school.

All the children still share a single bedroom in their modest but light and joyful home.

The living room was full of laughter as Iman sat with Mariam and Hassan, passing around chocolate and juice while cousins chatted in the background.

There was teasing as they shared memories of fear, displacement and resilience.

Dahiyeh has never been entirely safe. Its history has been shaped by the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War and Israeli assaults, including the devastating 2006 war.

It’s a cycle, Iman said – another war, another wave of fear and displacement. During Israel’s most recent war on Lebanon, the family fled multiple times.

They first went to Kayfoun village in the Mount Lebanon governorate in late September, but tensions there were high, and a local man spread rumours of imminent Israeli strikes, trying to scare displaced families away.

They left Kayfoun after a week and fled to Tripoli in the north, where life was quieter and the presence of nearby relatives offered some comfort, but mistrust lingered.

Iman was often judged by her hijab, which marked her as “resistance-aligned” to people who blamed Hezbollah for Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

“We all became introverts,” Hassan recalled. “We stayed home most of the time, but we had relatives nearby and met some good friends. We’d sit together, play cards. It helped.”

In early October, they followed friends to Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, where they were welcomed warmly – more warmly, they said, than in parts of Lebanon.

After the ceasefire, they returned. “There’s no place better than our country,” Iman insisted, but Dahiyeh does not feel safe to her any more despite her deep ties to the neighbourhood, so she is searching for a new home – anywhere that’s safer.

“If it were just me, I’d stay,” she said. “But I have kids. I have to protect them.”

‘They don’t rent to Shia families’

Iman’s son Hassan recalls the first time Israel bombed near their apartment – on April 1 in breach of the November ceasefire.

“I just wanted out,” he said. “I don’t care where we go. Just somewhere that isn’t a target.”

But finding a new place to rent is far from simple.

They considered moving to Hazmieh. It is close to Dahiyeh but not part of it, making it relatively safer. And it would be closer to Iman’s sister Mariam, who lives there.

But Iman said: “In Hazmieh, most of them don’t rent to Shia families, or they would double the price.”

Despite the mounting fear, the family does not want to leave Lebanon, and Hassan has turned down a job offer abroad. They’re exhausted, they said, but not ready to abandon their country.

Even in the midst of war, Hassan said, his parents did not want to leave Dahiyeh. He had to work on convincing them to go first to Kayfoun, then eventually Iraq.

It was the same after the ceasefire with long discussions about whether to leave, and it was his mother’s fear for her children that made her eventually agree.

But more than a month after they spoke to Al Jazeera in early June, they’re still searching for a place that will take them and that they can afford.

Authorities in the Adamawa Region of Cameroon have called for vigilance and better urban planning to avoid future disasters following the death of four persons and the displacement of families after heavy torrential rains and floods.

Local sources told HumAngle that the heavy rainfall in Ngaoundere, the regional capital, and surrounding areas caused significant damage and forced numerous families to leave. “The floods have seriously impacted the usage of several roads in the region, and many of the roads are out of use. Several schools and markets have been closed down, and access to most areas is now impossible without assistance,” a civil society activist in Ngaoundere said.

For several days, the rainfall in Ngaoundere, the region’s main town, led to a rapid rise in water levels from a nearby lake. This surge damaged infrastructure and left residents stranded, as Valeri Norbert Kuela, the prefect of the Vina division in the area, reported.

A civil engineering expert, who examined the ravaged location, stated that the profundity of the damage shows that the way houses are constructed here is not structured. The engineer warned that something has to be done by strictly vetting building plans before approval is given for construction. 

“The large number of houses which easily collapsed without much effort is evidence of the veracity of accusations that have always been levied against Council authorities, that very little real control is carried out before and during the construction of houses in the city,” he said. “I hope these deaths and damage to several houses would teach the council authorities to do their work better.”

Several displaced individuals who spoke with HumAngle revealed that bribing construction verifiers to overlook standard building regulations was harmful to them.

“Where do I start from now at my age? How long would I have to stay in someone else’s uncompleted building with my children and grandchildren? Sometimes, being ‘smart’ can be a sort of stupidity,” one local, an octogenarian, cried out.  “I thought I was smart by bribing council control staff to look the other way while I bent the construction rules. Look at where I find myself today.”

Six people have died from floods in China’s Guizhou province, state media said, after more than 80,000 people were driven from their homes this week.

Towns and villages by a key river in China’s Guangxi lay half-submerged as floodwaters from a province upstream roared into the mountainous region, with the expected landfall of a tropical cyclone later on Thursday compounding disaster risk.

The flooding that overwhelmed the counties of Rongjiang and Congjiang in Guizhou province on Tuesday has spread downstream to other parts of southwest China, including rural settlements in Guangxi by the Liu River, which originates from Guizhou.

On Thursday, state broadcaster CCTV said “exceptionally large floods” had swept through Guizhou’s Rongjiang county since Tuesday.

China is enduring a summer of extreme weather.

This week, authorities issued the second-highest heat warning for the capital, Beijing, on one of its hottest days of the year so far.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated last week in Hunan province – neighbouring Guizhou – due to heavy rain.

‘Exceptionally large floods’ swept through Guizhou’s Rongjiang county, forcing some 80,000 people to flee their homes.

At least six people have died and more than 80,000 people were evacuated from their homes after floods inundated China’s Guizhou province, state media reported, as a tropical depression made landfall in the island province.

State broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday that “exceptionally large floods” had swept through Guizhou’s Rongjiang county since Tuesday.

Deluges in Guizhou – classified as a southwestern province by the Chinese government – have prompted authorities to activate the highest-level emergency flood response, evacuating about 80,900 people.

“As of 11am on Thursday… six people have unfortunately lost their lives,” the report said, citing the local flood control headquarters.

“Many low-lying areas in the county were flooded, and the infrastructure of some towns was seriously damaged, resulting in traffic obstruction, communications blackouts, and some people being trapped,” the broadcaster said.

“The water level in the county has now retreated below the warning level,” it added, saying “post-disaster recovery and reconstruction and investigation of trapped people are under way.”

State news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday that a football field in Rongjiang was “submerged under three metres (10ft) of water”, and a resident said they were rescued from the third floor of their home.

Images published by Xinhua also showed rescue operations carried out by emergency services. Tents have been set up to serve as temporary shelters for those who were displaced.

In other parts of Guizhou, where the floods have subsided, people were also seen clearing up the debris and thick layers of mud that covered the lower sections of some business establishments and other buildings.

Meanwhile, a tropical depression made landfall in Hainan early on Thursday, according to the country’s National Meteorological Centre.

The tropical depression is expected to move from the city of Wenchang across the island’s northeast tip, before heading back into the South China Sea and making a second landfall in China’s southern Guangdong province and gradually weakening.

The storm will again test the flood defences of the densely populated Guangdong province, as well as Guangxi and Hunan further inland.

China is enduring a summer of extreme weather.

This week, authorities issued the second-highest heat warning for the capital, Beijing, on one of its hottest days of the year so far.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated last week in Hunan province – neighbouring Guizhou – due to heavy rain brought about by Typhoon Wutip.

At least 123.2 million people, or one in 67 individuals worldwide, remain forcibly displaced, according to a report released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today.

The number of displaced people has increased by seven million people, or 6 percent, compared with the end of 2023. This continues a 13-year trend which has seen a year-on-year increase in the number of displaced people globally.

However, the UNHCR estimated that forced displacement fell in the first four months of this year, to 122.1 million by the end of April 2025.

“We are living in a time of intense volatility in international relations, with modern warfare creating a fragile, harrowing landscape marked by acute human suffering. We must redouble our efforts to search for peace and find long-lasting solutions for refugees and others forced to flee their homes,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

Of the 123.2 million total forcibly displaced, 73.5 million are internally displaced within their own countries due to conflict or other crises. This is an increase of 6.3 million compared with 2023. Internally displaced people (IDPs) account for 60 percent of the majority of those who have been forced to flee globally.

In Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimates that about 90 percent of the population, or more than two million people, have been displaced by Israel’s continuing assault.

As of 2024, the number of refugees stood at 42.7 million, a decrease of 613,600 from the previous year. Of this number, 31 million are under the UNHCR’s mandate, 5.9 million are Palestinian refugees under the mandate of UNRWA, and another 5.9 million need international protection.

According to the UNHCR, the lower number of refugees in 2024 reflects lower estimates of Afghan and Syrian refugees and updated reporting on Ukrainian refugees. However, the number of Sudanese refugees increased by nearly 600,000 to 2.1 million.

The number of asylum seekers – people seeking protection in another country due to persecution or fear of harm in their home country – waiting for a decision stood at 8.4 million, an increase of 22 percent from the previous year.

This puts the number of displaced people globally at one in 67 people.

How have forcibly displaced people’s numbers changed over the years?

In 1951, the UN established the Refugee Convention to protect the rights of refugees in Europe in the aftermath of World War II. In 1967, the convention was expanded to address displacement across the rest of the world.

When the Refugee Convention was born, there were 2.1 million refugees. By 1980, the number of refugees recorded by the UN surpassed 10 million for the first time. Wars in Afghanistan and Ethiopia during the 1980s caused the number of refugees to double to 20 million by 1990.

The number of refugees remained fairly consistent over the next two decades.

However, the invasion of Afghanistan by the United States in 2001 and that of Iraq in 2003, together with the civil wars in South Sudan and Syria, resulted in refugee numbers exceeding 30 million by the end of 2021.

The war in Ukraine, which started in 2022, led to one of the fastest-growing refugee crises since World War II, with 5.7 million people forced to flee Ukraine in less than a year. By the end of 2023, six million Ukrainians remained forcibly displaced.

The number of IDPs has doubled in the past 10 years, with a steep incline since 2020. Conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has triggered the world’s largest displacement crisis, with a total of 14.3 million Sudanese remaining displaced at the end of 2024. This was 3.5 million more people than 12 months prior.

Where are people displaced from?

In 2024, more than one-third of all forcibly displaced people globally were Sudanese (14.3 million), Syrian (13.5 million), Afghan (10.3 million) or Ukrainian (8.8 million).

IDP and refugee returns

In 2024, 1.6 million refugees returned to their home country.

“However, many of these refugees returned to Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan or Ukraine, despite the fragile situations in each,” Matthew Saltmarsh, UNHCR’s media head, said. “Returns to places in conflict or instability are far from ideal and often unsustainable.”

In 2024, 8.2 million IDPs returned to their area of origin.

The UNHCR estimates that nine in 10 refugees and IDPs returned to just eight countries, which included Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Lebanon, Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine.

“Large IDP returns during the year were also registered in several countries that simultaneously saw significant new displacements, such as the DRC (2.4 million), Myanmar (378,000),  Syria (514,000) or Ukraine (782,000),” Saltmarsh said.

“Even amid the devastating cuts, we have seen some rays of hope over the last six months,” Grandi said. “Nearly two million Syrians have been able to return home after over a decade uprooted. The country remains fragile, and people need our help to rebuild their lives again.”

The Rukban displacement camp, which opened and was cut off in the height of the civil war in 2014, housed thousands of people.

The notorious Rukban displacement camp in the Syrian desert, a dark emblem of the country’s civil war, has closed, with the last remaining families returning to their hometowns.

Syrian Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa said on Saturday on X that with the dismantlement of the camp, “a tragic and sorrowful chapter of displacement stories created by the bygone regime’s war machine comes to a close”.

“Rukban was not just a camp, it was the triangle of death that bore witness to the cruelty of siege and starvation, where the regime left people to face their painful fate in the barren desert,” he added.

The camp, established in 2014 at the height of the country’s ruinous civil war, was built in a deconfliction zone controlled by the United States-led coalition forces fighting against ISIL (ISIS).

The camp was used to house those fleeing ISIL fighters and bombardment by the then-government of President Bashar al-Assad, seeking refuge and hoping to eventually cross the border into Jordan.

But al-Assad’s regime rarely allowed aid to enter the camp as neighbouring countries also blocked access to the area, rendering Rukban isolated for years under a punishing siege.

About 8,000 people lived in the camp, staying in mud-brick houses with food and basic goods smuggled in at high prices.

But after al-Assad was toppled following a lightning offensive led by the current president of Syria’s interim government, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in December, families began leaving the camp and returning home.

Al-Sharaa has promised to unite Syria following the fall of al-Assad and rebuild the country at home and rejoin the international fold abroad.

Last month, al-Sharaa met with world leaders, including United States President Donald Trump, who announced that sanctions on Syria would be removed in a decision that would allow the country a “chance at greatness”. The European Union followed suit and also lifted sanctions. Both moves have given Syria a critical lifeline to economic recovery after nearly 14 years of war and economic devastation.

‘A castle in my eyes’

Yasmine al-Salah, who returned to her home after nine years of displacement in the Rukban camp and marked the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Adha, told The Associated Press news agency on Friday that her feelings are a “happiness that cannot be described”.

“Even though our house is destroyed, and we have no money, and we are hungry, and we have debts, and my husband is old and can’t work, and I have kids – still, it’s a castle in my eyes,” al-Salah said.

Her home in the town of al-Qaryatan in the eastern part of the Homs province was damaged during the war.

Syrian Minister for Emergency Situations and Disasters Raed al-Saleh said on X said the camp’s closure marks “the end of one of the harshest humanitarian tragedies faced by our displaced people”.

“We hope this step marks the beginning of a path that ends the suffering of the remaining camps and returns their residents to their homes with dignity and safety,” he added.

According to the International Organization for Migration, 1.87 million Syrians have returned to their homes since al-Assad’s fall.

No fewer than 115 persons have been reported killed after a devastating flood submerged several communities in Mokwa in Niger State, North-central Nigeria.

Communities are still struggling from the impact of the severe flooding, which is believed to have been triggered by torrential rainfall and structural failures in some areas. The disaster, which struck the region on the morning of Thursday, May 29, has claimed over 100 lives so far. Residents of the area told HumAngle that the death toll is nearing 150 even as officials work to rescue more victims.

The spokesperson of Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), Ibrahim Audu Hussein, told newsmen that over 3000 houses were submerged. Eyewitnesses report entire neighbourhoods submerged, forcing people to abandon their homes in search of safety. 

“There are entire families that have been almost wiped out,” Farouk Mokwa, a resident of the community, told HumAngle. “There is a family of 12, and only one person is alive. There is another family of nine, and only two people have survived so far.”

Farouk himself lost his shop, which functioned as both a chemist and a stop for people looking to buy soft drinks. The shop contained three refrigerators and goods worth millions of naira, he said. 

Rescue teams and emergency responders are on the ground to locate missing persons and provide relief to affected residents. The flooding has also cut off major roads, complicating rescue efforts and making access to food and medical supplies difficult.

So far, displaced people have sought refuge in two primary schools in Mokwa, while those with relatives in unaffected communities have trooped there in search of cover.

Mokwa serves as a commercial hub in Nigeria’s north-central region and a key point for traders and farmers from the north to the south. 

In response, President Bola Tinubu has ordered swift intervention from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to support rescue operations. Residents also said the Deputy Governor had paid a visit to the area to assess the devastation.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) had issued prior warnings of potential flash floods, urging residents to take precautions. 

Nigeria faces annual devastation due to heavy rainfall, which wreaks havoc on infrastructure and is made worse by inadequate drainage systems. In September 2024, HumAngle reported how torrential rains and a dam failure in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria, led to severe flooding, claiming lives and displacing millions of residents.

Two months after the Maiduguri incident, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revealed that in 2024, Nigeria saw one of its worst floods in decades, with significant deaths leaving 1.3 million people affected across 34 out of 36 states.

Currently, the number of residents displaced by floods in Nigeria has reached 1.2 million, with over 1000 deaths, according to NEMA.

The worsening flood crises highlight the urgent need for improved drainage infrastructure and long-term disaster management strategies to protect vulnerable communities. As relief efforts continue, affected families are in dire need of temporary shelter, clean water, and essential supplies.

At least 3,018 people displaced and 265 houses destroyed in the floods in central Nigeria as more rains are feared.

More than 150 people have been killed and thousands displaced after floods devastated parts of central Nigeria, local authorities said, as rescue teams continue to recover bodies and search for the missing.

The flooding struck the rural town of Mokwa in Niger State following torrential rains that began late on Wednesday and continued into Thursday.

The death toll has risen to 151 after more bodies were recovered nearly 10km (6 miles) from Mokwa, said Ibrahim Audu Husseini, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) on Saturday.

At least 3,018 people have been displaced, while 265 houses were “completely destroyed” in the floods, he said, adding that many victims were believed to have been swept down the Niger River, warning that the toll could still rise.

President Bola Tinubu extended his condolences overnight and said search-and-rescue operations were ongoing with the support of Nigeria’s security forces.

“Relief materials and temporary shelter assistance are being deployed without delay,” he wrote in a post on social media.

“We lost everything, the families. We don’t have anywhere else to go, the property has gone,” Mohammed Tanko, a local, told Al Jazeera. “We lost at least 15 from this house.”

Another survivor said: “I escaped with only my nightdress. Right now, I can’t even identify where our home used to be.”

More rains feared

Meteorologists warn that more rain is expected in the coming days, raising fears of further flooding across the region.

Flooding is a regular threat during Nigeria’s six-month rainy season, but experts say the frequency and severity of these disasters are increasing due to climate change, unregulated construction, and poor drainage infrastructure.

“Flooding has become an annual event, between the months of April and October,” Ugonna Nkwunonwo, a flood risk analyst at the University of Nigeria, told Al Jazeera.

He warned that while flood risks have long been identified, “there has not been much political power to implement this change”.

“This flooding is a result of climate change, which is affecting the frequency and intensity of rainfall,” he said. “The amount of rain you expect in a year could probably come in one or two months, and people are not prepared for that kind of rainfall.”

Last year, more than 1,200 people died and up to two million were displaced by similar disasters across Nigeria.

“This tragic incident serves as a timely reminder of the dangers associated with building on waterways and the critical importance of keeping drainage channels and river paths clear,” the National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.

A large farm stretches across the uneven terrain of Bauchi State in northeastern Nigeria, where even motorcycles struggle to navigate the rugged countryside. The land is parched, and the air carries a sense of endurance—of people surviving, not living. This place, Gonar Abacha, is no longer just a farmland; it is a refuge and a wound. 

Now known as Garin Shuwa, it serves as a displacement camp, named after the Shuwa Arab community, which makes up most of its residents. Sitting at the foot of Bauchi’s rocky hills, the camp sprawls in fragile huts made of sticks and thatch, where displaced families live with little support, waiting for help that feels farther away each day.

This is where Imam Abdulkarim, a middle-aged man, and his family found shelter after Boko Haram terrorists forced them to flee their home in Kachan Shuwa, a village in Marte Local Government Area of Borno State, about eight years ago.

Before arriving here, they had tasted the ups and downs of life in an internally displaced persons (IDPs) camp in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. The overcrowding and hardships eventually compelled Abdulkarim and his family to seek an alternative. With the support of the country’s former First Lady, Maryam Abacha, they were offered this land as a temporary, unofficial residence. That was how they came to settle in Garin Shuwa and began farming on borrowed land.

“We are between 600 and 700 people, and you can find many different stories, but we were all affected by Boko Haram violence,” he told HumAngle. “Among us there are widows, orphans, and those who have lost their relatives. It’s a large community of victims, but we are now surviving as a big family here.”

But there is a problem.

There is no school for the children at Garin Shuwa. No clinic, market, or even a small centre for basic relief. A mosque built recently through community donations is the only structure with a semblance of permanence.

Abdulkarim has learned not to expect too much.

“School is not our biggest problem,” he said. “We have a small madrasa (school) where children recite the Qur’an. What we need, what we truly need, is clean water and a clinic. Just a place to take our sick ones without watching them die slowly.”

“If a woman wants to give birth, she must travel to the town. But the road… even motorcycle riders fear it,” he added. According to Abdulkarim, several women have died due to this. Their babies did not survive. And for years, nothing has changed.

The road from Gonar Abacha to Bauchi town stretches barely 15 kilometres, yet the journey can take over an hour. During the rainy season, it dissolves into mud, swallowing bikes and bodies alike. Women in labour sometimes begin the journey with prayer, knowing the odds stacked against them.

And yet, they stay. Not out of love for this place, but because they have nowhere else to go.

A few metres from where we stood with Abdulkarim, a group of women gathered around a well, lowering water into its shadowy mouth. The well is deep, painfully so, but they are exhausting their energy to fetch the water because they have nowhere else to go.

Fatima Ibrahim, a young widow whose husband was killed by Boko Haram terrorists, wiped the sweat from her brow and spoke without lifting her gaze. “This is all we have,” she said. “This single well serves the whole camp: for drinking, cooking, washing, even bathing.”

She said it gets worse when the dry season comes. The well runs empty, and then they need to start walking again, like before, searching for water like refugees in their refuge.

Two boreholes were once dug in the camp by a local politician and a government agency, “but all of them have stopped working,” Abdulkarim said, showing the location of abandoned taps that had long not been used.

Different location, same problem

Bauchi is not alone in this quiet devastation. Hundreds of kilometres away, the story is the same as that of Katsina State in northwestern Nigeria. 

Many women gathered around the house of Dahiru Mangal, a Nigerian businessman and founder of Max Air, a local airline. They are not city beggars by origin. They are displaced women, survivors of attacks too terrifying to forget, from villages devastated by terrorist attacks: Batsari, Faskari, Dandume, Jibia, and many more. Violence chased them away from their homes, but hunger kept them on the streets.

“I never imagined my children would sleep like this,” says Rabi Ado, a mother of four from Faskari who fled home with her family. Despite her younger age, Rabi’s face shows every sign of hardship: hollow cheeks, sunken eyes, and cracked skin.

In the night, Rabi and many other displaced families sleep under the open sky, spreading their mats on bare ground, with only thin wrappers to shield them from the cold night. 

“We ran from the terrorists,” she said. “They came in the night, shot our neighbours, and burnt our house. We walked for days and then got into a car. When we got here, we had nothing.”

Behind Mangal’s compound, a local philanthropy serves food to the displaced. It is a slight relief, given in dignity, but never enough. “It’s first come, first served,” said Hauwa, a young woman who arrived with her grandmother. “Sometimes we get food, sometimes we don’t. And we have to look for something.”.

Aside from begging, some women turn to petty trading, selling second-hand items to make ends meet. It is a small market of old goods, clothes, utensils, mats, shoes, and everyday items that they could never afford to buy new.

Children, especially young girls, join their mothers on the streets, and others go alone. They beg from shop owners and passing motorists, often returning with just enough for a sachet of water. The boys beg, too; others run errands, or sift through rubbish bins in search of scraps of food.

The biggest problem is that these families have never witnessed government support, especially with the continued humanitarian aid cuts. 

They have become invisible in the very state that promised them refuge. There is no shelter, no IDP camp registration, and no aid agency monitoring their condition. The streets are both their home and their shame.

“Even if someone wants to help,” said Talatu Habibu, an elderly woman, “they don’t know we are here. We are not on any list. No government official has come. We are not counted among the displaced.”

Katsina State authorities occasionally promise interventions, such as cash support, resettlement plans, and empowerment programs, but they rarely reach those sleeping under the open skies. And when aid comes, it is often through personal charities, not accountability systems.

“There are many like us,” Talatu told HumAngle. “We are multiplying. When more villages are attacked, they come here too. This place is turning into another camp, but no one calls it one.”

Several women interviewed said several people have come promising support, but they don’t see it. “They come and tell us that they are from the government or Abuja, ask us about how we live, promise support, go, and never come back,” Talatu explained.

The IDPs have learned not to trust the government, local NGOs, or people who appear as philanthropists, even journalists. 

“They were told that when journalists interview them, they get money when the story gets published,” said Aminu, a local fixer for HumAngle. This climate of abandonment and broken promises has silenced many women who refused to speak to the press. “They are tired,” Aminu explained. “And I don’t blame them.”

‘We are all back to square one’

Lack of support defines the two IDP camps in Bauchi, Katsina, and several other communities in the country. In Gonar Abacha, Abdulkarim recalls when USAID, working through a local NGO, used to conduct medical outreach to their camp. “Nurses used to come, check women, and give them medicine,” he said. “The last time was, I think, some months ago. They said they would come back again, but they never did.”

There are over 60,000 documented IDPs in Bauchi. Many have received some support from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and the North-East Development Commission (NEDC), but others remain completely unaided. Abdulhamid Sulaiman, the deputy chairman of the Bauchi IDP communities, explained the situation.

“For those within the IDP communities, they have gotten some support that includes foodstuffs, but the main support we receive from NGOs has been stopped,” he said.

The suspension of USAID-supported programmes has deepened the humanitarian crisis across the Northeast. Several local NGOs, previously dependent on USAID funding, have ceased operations. “We used to get small grants to train women on hygiene, to teach children how to read,” said Aliya Muhammad, formerly with a Bauchi-based NGO. “Now we are all back to square one.”

Humanitarian bodies working in northeastern Nigeria confirm that USAID’s pullback has negatively affected the delivery of essential services. According to surveys in the region, most local organisations relied heavily on USAID, and its withdrawal has crippled their ability to function.

A staff member of SEMA in Bauchi, who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to speak, told HumAngle that there is a huge crisis in the activities of SEMA, making it difficult to achieve its plans, especially in the areas of WASH.

“The issue is, SEMA doesn’t rely on any local or foreign NGO for funding. The real problem is that some of the activities that SEMA covers are supported by local NGOs, which rely on donors. As they stop working, the problem increases for us, and it’s difficult or even impossible to solve all of them,” he said.

In Katsina, the situation is even more dire.

Over 250,000 IDPs are spread throughout the state. While those in Bauchi get some support, they don’t even think of getting any in Katsina. “If you are not in an official camp,” said Jamilu Muhammad, a volunteer aid worker in Katsina, “you don’t get counted. And if you’re not counted, you don’t get help.”

In this informal camp, children are the worst hit. The thought of taking them to school sounds like a privilege. “Some of our children used to go to school back in the village,” said Aisha, a mother holding an underweight baby. “But now, they need food first. Survival comes before anything.”

While street begging in northern Nigeria has long been associated with Almajiri boys in Qur’anic schools, a troubling trend is emerging in Katsina: the rising number of girl beggars. Unlike their male counterparts, these girls are not in any structured learning environment. They have no mentors, no protection, and no sense of direction.

HumAngle met girls between the ages of six and ten, wandering markets, mosques, and public spaces with begging bowls in hand. They are visibly malnourished, uneducated, and unguarded. Their parents, displaced by terrorist violence in places like Kankara and Jibia, are too overwhelmed to offer more than basic survival.

The girls said they are the daughters of the IDPs who fled their homes in places like Kankara and Jibia in Katsina State due to terrorist violence. With no schools to attend and no safe spaces to grow, they are forced to contribute to their families’ survival through street begging.

This growing population of girl beggars presents alarming risks. Beyond the obvious deprivation, they face threats of abuse, harassment, and trafficking. Their visibility in public spaces without guardianship or protection leaves them particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence.

As the international community scales back aid and state capacity remains stretched, girls in IDP families are becoming invisible casualties of a system that overlooks their specific needs. “Without urgent intervention, a generation of girls is at risk of growing up in trauma and perpetual poverty,” an aid worker who simply identified as Aliya said.