News Links - 27 February 2026

 

27 February 2026

Senegal

Child Exploitation Network UNICEF has condemned an alleged child sexual exploitation network in Senegal spanning 2016 to 2024, in which vulnerable children were subjected to repeated sexual abuse, manipulation, coercion, and deliberate HIV exposure intended to weaken victims and increase their dependency. Fifteen people have been arrested in Senegal, with French and Senegalese authorities jointly investigating the network, allegedly directed by a French national. UNICEF is calling for rigorous and transparent investigations and urging immediate medical and psychosocial support for all child victims.

South Sudan

Boys Abducted for Frontline Combat A UN Commission has found that South Sudan's ruling party forces are conducting forced recruitment in Juba, abducting boys and young men and transporting them north to fight—conduct prohibited under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Commission's report also documents widespread aerial bombardment of civilian homes and medical facilities, ethnically targeted attacks on Nuer communities, and the systematic dismantling of the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement, warning that South Sudan faces conditions for state failure and mass atrocity crimes.

Yemen

Houthis Drive Aid Groups to the Brink Aid organizations in northern Yemen are collapsing under a dual crisis: Houthi interference that dictates beneficiary lists, confiscates assets, detains staff, and denies work permits, plus the loss of more than 50 percent of funding following U.S. sanctions. The World Food Programme, which assisted eight million people in Yemen in 2024, is set to terminate northern operations by end of March despite projections of catastrophic hunger in three Houthi-controlled provinces. The UN reports 73 of its staff remain arbitrarily detained, with some held since 2021.

Eastern DRC 

663 Incidents Against Aid Workers in Twelve Months OCHA has documented 37 incidents against humanitarian workers in eastern DRC in January 2026 alone, bringing the total since January 2025 to 663. North Kivu accounts for 46 percent of all incidents over the period, with burglary, robbery, and movement restrictions the most common typologies. January marked the first month in a year with no critical incident—no killings, kidnappings, or injuries of humanitarian staff—though OCHA cautions that insecurity remains severe across multiple provinces.

Gaza
UN Rapporteur: Israel Weaponizing Water in Gaza The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water has warned that around 90 percent of Gaza's water desalination and treatment facilities have been destroyed or directly targeted, reducing per capita water availability to roughly 10 percent of pre-war levels. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo accused Israeli forces of using water as a weapon of war in explicit violation of international humanitarian law, and called for immediate restoration of water infrastructure and guarantees against renewed attacks, describing safe water access as a prerequisite for restoring life in Gaza.
Syria

Syria
Al-Roj: 2,200 Children and Women Still Stranded as Governments Refuse Repatriation More than 2,200 individuals — the vast majority of them children and their mothers from over 50 countries — remain held at Al-Roj camp, still under SDF control, as their home governments continue to refuse repatriation. Human Rights Watch documents near-nightly raids at Roj in which guards have beaten detainees and separated boys from their mothers. Australia turned back 34 of its women and children at the Syrian border after they left the camp. A Just Security analysis warns that without a rights-based exit strategy for Roj, the same chaos that engulfed Al-Hol will be repeated, leaving children who have already spent years in arbitrary detention in even greater danger.

157 Boys Among Detainees Transferred to Iraq for Trial As part of the chaotic handover of detention facilities in northeast Syria, U.S. forces transferred 5,700 male detainees — including Syrians, Iraqis, and third-country nationals — to Iraq for prosecution. Human Rights Watch has confirmed that 157 of those transferred are boys under 18, raising serious concerns about juvenile justice standards and due process. A separate population of boys and young men is held in so-called rehabilitation centers in Syria, most having been forcibly separated from their mothers in the camps. Human rights organizations are calling on all governments to urgently ensure the repatriation of their nationals and to guarantee that children are treated in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

US / Africa Health Pacts
African Countries Push Back on "Lop-Sided" US Health Aid Pacts At least 17 African countries have signed bilateral health agreements with the Trump administration, collectively securing $11.3 billion in funding but facing demands critics call exploitative — including sharing pathogen samples and patient data for up to 25 years, relying on US drug approvals, and meeting escalating domestic financing targets. Zimbabwe halted negotiations, with its foreign ministry warning that the country was being asked to provide biological resources with no guarantee that resulting vaccines or treatments would ever be accessible to its own people. In Kenya, the first country to sign, a court case has put the agreement on hold over data sovereignty concerns. In Nigeria, the $2.1 billion deal explicitly prioritizes Christian faith-based healthcare providers in a religiously plural country, raising fears of coverage gaps in family planning and HIV services for marginalized communities.