Ceuta: Anatomy of a 72-Hour Border Crisis
Over roughly 72 hours at the end of July 2026, an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on North Africa's coast, by swimming around its breakwaters and forcing the Tarajal border fence.
Global Humanitarian Assistance 2026: The Humanitarian System's Great Contraction
ALNAP's Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2026 documents the worst year in the humanitarian system's recent history. Total international humanitarian assistance fell to US $33.3 billion in 2025, down 20% in one year and 30% from the 2022 peak. The system now runs on 2017-level resources while 300 million people are estimated to be in need
Venezuela Earthquakes Situation Update
Two consecutive shallow earthquakes, magnitude 7.2 followed by 7.5, struck north-central Venezuela on the evening of 24 June 2026. As of 26 June, OCHA reports a provisional official toll of 920 people dead and 3,360 injured, with at least 3,007 people displaced and more than 1,423 structures affected.
DRC: 2026 Ebola Outbreak
On 15 May 2026, authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo declared an Ebola outbreak after cases were confirmed in Ituri and North Kivu, with further cases later confirmed in South Kivu.
Does spending money on returning migrants work? Evidence from Africa and the Middle East
Financial leverage and enforcement infrastructure, the two key tools of the EU's externalisation strategy, have not produced sustained cooperation on returns in Middle Eastern and African countries.
The Future of Syria: Economic Recovery and EU–Syria Relations
15 months after Assad's fall, what does Syria's economy actually look like? Senior Research Analyst Benjamin Feve (Karam Shaar Advisory) joins PRISM's Umutcan Yüksel to unpack recovery, EU sanctions relief, the energy crunch, and the investment-vs-aid debate shaping Syria's future.
Internal Displacement in 2025
IDMC's GRID 2026 release places the world's internally displaced population at 82.2 million at the end of 2025 — down 1.5% from 2024's record 83.5 million. This is the first year-over-year decline in the GIDD series, which IDMC has tracked since 2016.
The Great Contraction: OECD DAC Preliminary ODA Data 2025
Official Development Assistance from DAC members fell 23.1% in real terms in 2025 to $174.3 billion — the largest annual contraction in the 66-year history of ODA reporting. The United States drove three-quarters of the decline with a record 56.9% cut, the single largest reduction by any provider in any year. Germany became the world's largest donor for the first time, surpassing the US by just $135 million — a crown earned by default as its own ODA fell 17.4%. Humanitarian aid collapsed by 35.8% to $15.5 billion, while Ukraine received more ODA ($44.9B including EU Institutions) than all 44 least developed countries combined ($28.1B). Only 4 of 33 DAC members now meet the 0.7% GNI target. OECD projects a further 5.8% decline in 2026. Non-DAC providers bucked the trend, growing 4.5% to $13.3 billion, led by UAE (+55.5%) and Qatar (+23.4%).
Middle East Situation Update #3
The regional crisis triggered by the 28 February 2026 US-Israeli military offensive against Iran has displaced an estimated 4.25 million people internally across Iran (3.2M) and Lebanon (1.05M+), while generating over 574,000 cross-border movements across nine countries. A two-week ceasefire was announced on 9 April, but the 8 April strikes in Lebanon — over 100 strikes within 10 minutes, killing 200+ — underscore continued volatility. IOM DTM Round 5 tracks 359,532 crossings from Lebanon to Syria, 141,538 from Iran to Afghanistan, and 88,600 to Turkiye. The Strait of Hormuz closure has driven oil prices up ~50%, with WFP warning 45 million additional people could face acute food insecurity globally. Flash appeals totalling $388M are critically underfunded: Iran at 8%, Lebanon at 14%.
Syria's Shelter & Displacement Landscape: A Cross-Sectoral Analysis
A comprehensive analysis of Syria's shelter and displacement landscape following the December 2024 political transition. With 5.96 million people still internally displaced, 1.2 million cross-border returns, and $216 billion in estimated reconstruction costs, this deep dive examines fourteen interconnected dimensions — from IDP trajectory and camp closures to real estate markets, industrial recovery, and investment governance — through the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) nexus lens. Includes live IOM DTM data, EMT Round 5 cross-border monitoring (196,654 individuals at points of entry), interactive maps, and ten policy recommendations for the international community.
The State of Humanitarian Data
Humanitarian data availability fell to 68% across active crisis operations in 2025 — down from 74% — as unprecedented funding cuts eliminated data staff, disbanded enumerator networks, and shrank geographic coverage.
Area-Based Child Protection Risk Analysis: Ukraine
Armed conflict, mass displacement, and deepening poverty have created a child protection crisis in Ukraine that differs sharply from one oblast to the next. This analysis uses 12 open-source 2024 publications and datasets — household surveys, displacement tracking, needs assessments, protection monitoring, and coordination records — to build an oblast-level composite risk profile.