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Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – For the first time in his short life, Imad Dib, orphaned by the Gaza war, was preparing to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha without his parents.

"Dad would buy us a sheep, but now we are alone," the 11-year-old said.

Before the war, he said, "I loved Eid so much, I was excited for it each year, to be able to celebrate and wear new clothes," he said of the Eid tradition, looking weary in his patched-up shoes.

Every day, the boy returns to the ashes and charred tarp, which are all that's left of the tent in which he once sheltered with his family. Dib said he wanted to remember his parents, who were killed in an Israeli air strike.

This year, rather than celebrating, he is preoccupied simply with the thought of how he and his four sisters will find anything at all to eat.

According to Muslim tradition, Eid al-Adha commemorates the sacrifice Ibrahim (known to Christians and Jews as Abraham) was about to make by killing his son, before the angel Gabriel intervened and offered him a sheep to sacrifice instead.

In a normal year, Gazans would now be preparing for big family get-togethers, traditionally centred around the sacrifice and eating of a sheep.

Markets would be busy with people shopping for sweets and pastries, while toy shops and those selling children's clothes would stay open late into the night for last-minute gifts.

Even poverty and the years-long Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory could not get in the way of the festivities.

Yet 20 months of war between Israel and Hamas, [...], have brought an end to all that.

With entire neighbourhoods levelled, almost all of the population displaced, often multiple times, and severe shortages brought on by a two-month blockade on aid, there is little possibility of celebration.

"This time of year, I might receive up to 300 orders, including for calves and sheep, but this year I haven't had a single one," said Ahmed al-Zayigh, a butcher in Gaza City.

Mohammed Othman, a 36-year-old displaced with his family to Deir el-Balah, said "One kilo of meat has become a dream... we just hope to find bread to feed our children on the day of Eid, and they will rejoice over flour as if it were meat".

Many Gazans said they longed for a time when it was possible, as prescribed in the Koran, to share part of their meat with the less fortunate.

"Tomorrow we will go to the Eid prayer," said Hamza Sobeh, 37, living in the Al-Mawasi displacement camp in southern Gaza.

Sobeh was observing the fast ritual, which is believed to erase sins on the eve of the festival, and reciting takbirs -- prayers glorifying God -- with his children.

"I want them to feel the joy of Eid, at least in a religious sense, so that they don't lose hope," he said, adding that he was considering buying them some date-filled pastries.

However, the majority of people interviewed by AFP journalists said they would not be able to recreate even a sliver of the usual celebrations, and not just because it was unaffordable.

"This Eid tastes of blood," said Sami Felfel, from the north of the Gaza Strip.

"These are the hardest years we've lived in Gaza," he said.

Washington (AFP) – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz came through his Oval Office encounter with Donald Trump relatively unscathed Thursday -- despite differences over Ukraine as the US president said it might be better to let Moscow and Kyiv fight it out like children.

A month into his job, Merz unleashed a charm offensive on the 78-year-old Trump, presenting him with a framed copy of the birth certificate of his grandfather Frederick, who was born in Germany in 1869.

Merz also hailed Trump as being the "key person in the world" when it came to ending the Ukraine war, saying the US leader could "really do that now by putting pressure on Russia."

It was a backhanded way of urging Trump to overcome his aversion to putting sanctions on Russia over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as the more than three-year-old war grinds on.

The polite meeting showed that the conservative German leader had done his homework as he sought to avoid ambushes like those that Trump unleashed on Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and South Africa's president.

But they did not see eye to eye on everything.

Trump -- who spoke to Russian leader Vladimir Putin a day earlier -- said it might be better to let the two sides fight it out, comparing the war that has left thousands dead and swathes of Ukraine in ruins to a children's brawl.

"Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy. They hate each other, and they're fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart," Trump told reporters.

"Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while."

Trump said however that he had urged Putin not to retaliate after Ukraine launched daring drone attacks on its airbases, destroying several nuclear capable bombers.

"I said 'don't do it,'" Trump told reporters, adding that Putin had told him he had no choice but to respond and it was "not going to be pretty."

Trump did make a series of off-color references to the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II -- still a deeply sensitive subject in modern-day Germany.

Praising Merz for Germany raising its defense spending in line with his demands for NATO members to cough up, Trump said he was not sure World War II US general Douglas MacArthur would have agreed.

Then, referring to the upcoming 80th anniversary of the allied D-Day landings that led to the end of the war, Trump said: "That was not a pleasant day for you?"

Merz, 69, calmly replied: "This was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship. We know what we owe you."

Merz avoided other possible pitfalls as Trump spent much of his time on a lengthy discourse against his billionaire former advisor Elon Musk.

Topics like US tariffs on the EU and the prospect of a trade deal barely came up, with Trump saying he believed a deal was possible.

On Trump's threat to hammer the European Union with sharply higher tariffs, Merz, leader of the bloc's biggest economy, had earlier argued that it must be self-confident in its negotiations with Washington.

Nor did Trump confront Merz over free speech issues in Germany as US media had reported he might -- a bugbear the administration has repeatedly brought up with European leaders despite its own record.

Merz told reporters in Washington ahead of the meeting that if Trump brought up German domestic politics "I will state my opinion very clearly if necessary."

Trump and some in his administration have given vocal support to the far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which came second in February elections.

US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former Trump adviser Elon Musk have all weighed in in support of the AfD, which in Germany is shunned by all other political parties.

Despite the tensions, Merz had said earlier that he was "looking forward" to his first face-to-face meeting with Trump.

The German chancellor is believed to have studied videos of previous Oval Office ambushes and learned how to stay calm and let Trump talk.

Jerusalem (AFP) – Thousands of Israelis took to the streets under a heavy police presence for Jerusalem's annual Pride march Thursday, a decade after the murder of a teenager by a Jewish extremist during the same event.

The fatal stabbing of 16-year-old Shira Banki on July 30 that year, in an attack that also wounded six others, prompted police to step up their surveillance of Pride festivities in Jerusalem in the years that followed.

Thursday's march snaked through central Jerusalem, with participants carrying rainbow flags, placards and balloons, while a small group of anti-LGBT counter-protesters were also permitted to gather in a contained space nearby.

"We mark 10 years since Shira Banki was murdered in Pride... which means that the Pride today is dedicated in her honour," Hadass Bloemendal, chairperson of the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance, told AFP.

Nadav Haruvi, Banki's former teacher, said it was especially important for him to come this year.

"I come here every year, but this is actually the first time we're coming in an organised way as teachers from the school. And we understood that after a decade, we want to create a strong tradition for future generations of teachers," he said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog also attended the march, a statement from his office said, making him the first president to join the event since Banki's murder.

"We came here to remember and remind, to honour the memory of a beautiful young Israeli girl who came to do good, Shira Banki, of blessed memory, who was murdered here 10 years ago," Herzog said, standing on the spot where Banki was killed.

"Her only goal was to do good and spread light in the world," he said.

"We must recognise a clear and unequivocal social principle: There is no place for violence, under any circumstances. There is no dialogue with violence. We will not accept violence in our society."

Banki's killer had been freed from prison just weeks before the 2015 attack, having completed a sentence for a prior attack at the Pride march that wounded three people.

He was later sentenced to life in prison for her murder.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid joined the marchers on Thursday, telling journalists that "liberal Israel is here and here to stay, and we stand by our friends in the LGBTQ community, and we are marching together in favour of rights for everyone".

The city has held an annual Pride march since 2002, often accompanied by counter-protests by far-right, religious groups.

Israel has a large and influential LGBTQ community, despite homosexuality being rejected by conservative religious parties.

While Israel does not register same-sex marriages itself, it recognises those conducted overseas.

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli attacks killed at least 37 people on Thursday, as a US-backed aid group reported it had resumed operations after a one-day hiatus.

But Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rejected the term "war" to describe the conflict in the devastated Palestinian territory, accusing Israel instead of carrying out "premeditated genocide".

Gaza civil defence official Mohammed al-Mughayyir said that "37 people have been martyred in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip", reporting attacks up and down the length of the territory.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

"What is happening in Gaza is not a war. It's a genocide being carried out by a highly prepared army against women and children," said Brazil's Lula, who has previously used the legal term to describe the conflict.

"It's no longer possible to accept," he added.

Lagos (Portugal) (AFP) – A new search launched this week into the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann ended Thursday, said police in Portugal, where she went missing 18 years ago.

Investigators, who spent three days scouring areas near the southern beach resort where Madeleine disappeared during a family holiday, did not detail the results of their latest searches.

Madeleine was just three years old when she vanished from the apartment where her family was vacationing on the Algarve coast, triggering a race to find her -- and massive global media coverage.

The new search, which began Tuesday, was carried out at the request of investigators in Germany, who are probing whether a convicted German sex offender was implicated in the disappearance.

Between Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon, around 25 German police officers assisting Portuguese authorities searched for evidence near the Praia da Luz seaside resort, where Madeleine disappeared on May 3, 2007, while her parents had dinner nearby.

Using shovels, rakes and a weed whip, investigators combed an overgrown wooded area bordered by several dilapidated, abandoned houses between Praia da Luz and the nearby city of Lagos, said AFP journalists at the scene.

They also used ground-penetrating radar and an excavator to search another area around the village of Atalaia, Portuguese media reports said.

A previous search in 2023 of a lake near the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz yielded no results.

That is near one of the lodgings where Christian Brueckner, a convicted rapist now serving a prison sentence in his native Germany, stayed during a stint in Portugal in the 1990s and 2000s.

Brueckner, a drifter with a criminal record, was living in a camper van on the Algarve coast at the time Madeleine vanished.

A mobile phone registered in his name was traced close to the family's accommodation on the night she went missing.

Authorities have played down expectations for the new search effort.

"As to whether or not something will be found, personally I'd remain rather prudent towards the results we can expect," Christian Wolters, a spokesman for the Braunschweig prosecutor's office in Germany, which issued the new search warrant, told AFP on Tuesday.

Brueckner, 48, is serving a seven-year sentence for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz. He is due to complete his sentence in September.

He was acquitted in October 2024 in Germany at a trial for two other sexual assaults and three rapes committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

German authorities in 2020 said they were convinced Brueckner was involved in Madeleine's disappearance, which gained worldwide publicity and has seen several false leads.

He has not been charged in connection with the McCann case.

Brueckner, who according to German media had a string of previous convictions, including for sexual offences, assault and theft before he was convicted of rape, worked as an odd-job man during his 10 years in the Algarve.

He also burgled hotel rooms and holiday apartments.

On Tuesday, a journalist from Germany's RTL television recounted his correspondence with Brueckner, and how he had met him in prison.

Brueckner, the journalist said, complained that "half the world" considered him a "cruel rapist". He said he wanted to eat steak and drink beer when he is released from prison.

He returned to Germany in 2007 -- the year Madeleine disappeared -- settling in Hanover, but still spent time in Portugal.

On the 18th anniversary of their daughter's disappearance this year, Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, said they were still determined to find out what happened.

"The absence still aches," they wrote on their website last year.

New York (AFP) – More than 130 news outlets and press freedom groups called Thursday for Israel to immediately lift a near-total ban on international media entering Gaza, while calling for greater protections for Palestinian journalists in the territory.

An open letter shared by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders called the restrictions "a situation that is without precedent in modern warfare."

Signees included AFP's global news director Phil Chetwynd, The Associated Press executive editor, Julie Pace, and the editor of Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Aluf Benn.

The letter added that many Palestinian journalists -- whom news outlets have relied on to report from inside Gaza -- face a litany of threats.

"Local journalists, those best positioned to tell the truth, face displacement and starvation," it said.

"To date, nearly 200 journalists have been killed by the Israeli military. Many more have been injured and face constant threats to their lives for doing their jobs: bearing witness.

"This is a direct attack on press freedom and the right to information."

The letter added that it was a "pivotal moment" in Israel's war -- with renewed military actions and efforts to boost humanitarian aid to Gaza.

This, it said, makes it "vital that Israel open Gaza's borders for international journalists to be able to report freely and that Israel abides by its international obligations to protect journalists as civilians."

Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a separate statement that Israel must grant journalists access and allow them to work in Gaza "without fear for their lives."

"When journalists are killed in such unprecedented numbers and independent international media is barred from entering, the world loses its ability to see clearly, to understand fully, and to respond effectively to what is happening," she said.

Marseille (AFP) – French dock workers at a southern port are blocking the shipment of military material bound for Israel in protest at Israeli actions against Palestinians in Gaza, their union said.

The stevedores at the port in Fos-sur-Mer outside Marseille have refused to load crates of links used to assist the rapid fire of bullets aboard the cargo vessel, the CGT trade union said.

Links are small metal pieces, used to connect machine gun bullets and allowing rapid bursts of fire. There has been concern in media and among rights groups that they have likely been used against civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Christophe Claret, leader of the dock workers in the port, said they had been notified that the ship was due to be loaded on Thursday with the material.

"We managed to identify it and set it aside," he told AFP, emphasising that once dockers refuse to load a shipment, no one else can do it for them. The other containers for the ship will all be loaded.

According to the union, the cargo is 19 pallets of links manufactured by the Marseille-based company Eurolinks.

The CGT said the move made clear its refusal to "participate in the ongoing genocide orchestrated by the Israeli government." Leading rights groups have accused Israel of committing genocide in its military campaign, a charge vehemently rejected by the government.

Contacted by AFP, Eurolinks did not respond to a request for comment. The Port of Marseille-Fos had no comment.

"We are very proud of this action led by our comrades and which is part of the CGT's long internationalist tradition for peace," CGT secretary general Sophie Binet told reporters in the eastern city of Strasbourg on Thursday.

"It is unacceptable that CGT dockers should be the ones forced to uphold the fundamental principles of international law and French values. The government must immediately block all arms deliveries to the State of Israel," she said.

The move was also welcomed by hard-left and left-wing leaders in France.

"Humanism is not for sale," said Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure.

According to the investigative website Disclose, which had access to maritime data, two other such shipments between Fos-sur-Mer and the Israeli port of Haifa took place on April 3 and May 22.

French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu had stated at the time that these parts exported by the Marseille company would be "re-exported" through Israel and not used by the Israeli army.

Tripoli (AFP) – Residents of the Libyan capital were preparing for the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha in relative peace after deadly clashes last month, but they were unconvinced it would outlast the festivities.

With celebrations set for Friday, Randa al-Mahmoudi, a schoolteacher in her thirties, said she was trying to keep life steady for her three children.

"We try, at least for the children, to do things as usual, without thinking about what might happen," she said, shopping in a supermarket in Siyahiya, a western district of Tripoli. "Otherwise, we can't live."

Despite "everything looking normal in Tripoli with traffic jams, open shops and schools, and flights operating," Mahmoudi said, she "can feel something is off".

Nureddin al-Shaouesh, a 48-year-old radio technician, said his children would "tremble when they hear wedding fireworks", thinking they were gunshots in the capital.

Another local, Hamza al-Ahmar, 39, wondered: "What will happen after Eid? That's the question on everyone's mind."

The Libyan capital was rocked in May by several days of fighting between rival armed groups.

The 444 Brigade, aligned with the Tripoli-based government, fought several powerful rival factions in control of various areas of the city.

Libya is split between the UN-recognised government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east.

The North African country has remained deeply divided since the 2011 NATO-backed revolt that toppled and killed longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi.

The clashes were sparked by the killing of Abdelghani al-Kikli, the leader of the SSA armed group, by the 444 Brigade, which later took on another rival faction, Radaa.

The fighting came after Dbeibah announced a string of executive orders seeking to dismantle armed groups that he later said had "become stronger than the state".

A fragile truce ensued, but many Tripolitans remained on edge after the clashes, which killed at least eight people, according to the United Nations.

"On the surface, things are calm," said Fathi Shibli, a 64-year-old retired teacher. "But I wouldn't say it's a return to normal. People are afraid of new fights because the root of the problem is yet to be resolved."

The area once under SSA control has since been taken over by the 444 Brigade, which claimed to have discovered a mass grave there containing dozens of bodies.

On Wednesday, UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk raised alarm over "gross human rights violations uncovered at official and unofficial detention facilities run by the Stabilisation Support Apparatus (SSA) force in Tripoli".

The UN support mission in Libya said "10 charred bodies" were found at the SSA headquarters in Abu Salim, its former stronghold in the capital, while "a total of 67 bodies in refrigerators" were discovered at two local hospitals.

A burial site was also reportedly found in Tripoli's zoo, formerly managed by the SSA.

"We'll see what happens," said Mahmoudi. "There's a new reality in Tripoli after Gheniwa's death and the tensions with Radaa."

Hundreds of people -- mostly from the Radaa-controlled Souq al-Joumaa district -- have protested for the past three Fridays in the capital to demand Dbeibah's resignation.

"I want him gone, but with the current chaos and a rival government in the East watching closely, toppling this government would be a mistake," said Ahmar.

Shibli said the issue was beyond the UN-backed premier, citing inefficiencies across the board: "Dbeibah's departure won't fix the crisis. He's just one part of the problem."

Presidential and parliamentary elections under UN supervision were scheduled for December 2021, but they were indefinitely postponed due to unresolved disputes between the country's eastern and western powers.

Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) (AFP) – Turkmenistan said Thursday it had significantly reduced a gas fire that has been raging for half a century at a site dubbed the "Gateway to Hell" .

The fire has been burning in the Karakum desert since 1971, when Soviet scientists accidentally drilled into an underground pocket of gas and then decided to ignite it.

The blaze has been spewing out massive quantities of methane, a gas that contributes to climate change, ever since.

Officials said the fire -- which has become the reclusive country's top tourist attraction -- had been reduced three-fold, without specifying the time frame.

"Whereas before a huge glow from the blaze was visible from several kilometres away, hence the name 'Gateway to Hell', today only a faint source of combustion remains," said Irina Luryeva, a director at state-owned energy company Turkmengaz.

Numerous wells have been drilled around the fire to capture methane, she said at an environmental conference in the capital Ashgabat.

Turkmenistan -- one of the world's most closed countries -- is estimated to have the world's fourth largest gas reserves.

It is the world's biggest emitter of methane through gas leaks, according to the International Energy Agency -- a claim denied by the authorities.

Paros (Greece) (AFP) – Restaurant owners on the Greek tourist island of Paros staged a 24-hour shutdown Thursday to protest against zoning regulations blocking them from using part of the island harbour's beachfront.

"There is uproar among the professionals on the island because for five years now, since around 2018, they have not been able to legally rent the coastal front" at the main port of Parikia, Paros Mayor Costas Bizas told AFP.

Fines for illegal occupation of beach space have increased fourfold, Bizas said, hitting restaurants that rely on the hundreds of thousands of visitors to Paros each year.

He noted that the government had pledged to address the issue months ago.

"Summer is here. There are thousands of visitors who want to enjoy their meal on the Parikia coastal front, and there are other areas in Paros that have a similar problem," Bizas said.

One restaurant owner, Nicolas Giannoulis, said part of the problem was that a 30-year-old walkway along the beach, built by previous municipal authorities, had been declared illegal for unauthorised seating.

"We want to pay and get a license" to utilise the space for tables, said Giannoulis, 35. "We cannot wait every time for July or August to find out if we will be allowed to set up tables during a season that begins in April or May."

"It's been a big struggle to issue our permits in order to get the licensing to use for our outdoor seating areas where we put our tables and chairs for at least 30 years," said fellow restaurant operator Olga Mira, 38.

"The bureaucracy changed so much that suddenly this area is not legal anymore," she said.

Gina Lavine, a visitor from Canada, lamented the empty tables and closed parasols.

"I think that we should be allowed to go sit at those tables and have the waiters come serve us," she said. "I don't think the government should be charging them to offer service to the tourists."

Paris (AFP) – Two Greenpeace activists who removed French President Emmanuel Macron's waxwork from a Paris museum to stage anti-Russia protests were on Thursday charged with aggravated theft, their lawyer said.

The pair have now been released, but their lawyer, Marie Dose, said the activists, a man and a woman, spent three nights in a cell in "absolutely appalling conditions".

"I found out this morning that I was going to be charged," one of the charged activists, who did not wish to be named, told AFP.

"I find it a bit much, all this for exercising my freedom of expression in France."

On Monday, several activists stole a 40,000-euro statue of Macron from the Grevin Museum and placed it in front of the Russian embassy. On Tuesday they placed Macron's double outside the headquarters of French electricity giant EDF to protest France's economic ties with Russia.

They stood the statue on its feet and put next to it a sign reading "Putin-Macron radioactive allies".

The waxwork, estimated to be worth 40,000 euros ($45,500), was handed over to police on Tuesday night.

The pair were detained on Monday.

On Thursday they were brought before an investigating judge and charged as part of a judicial inquiry into "the theft of a cultural object on display", the Paris prosecutor's office told AFP.

Jean-Francois Julliard, head of Greenpeace France, said that the detained pair were people who drove a truck during the protest in front of the Russian embassy, and not those who "borrowed" the statue from the museum.

The activists' lawyer condemned authorities for detaining and later charging them.

"I don't understand this decision to open a judicial investigation, as the Grevin Museum clearly stated that there was no damage," said Dose.

"Increasingly, the justice system is becoming a tool to deter activists from exercising their freedom of expression and opinion," she added.

The Grevin Museum filed a complaint on Monday but subsequently took the matter in good humour. "The figures can only be viewed on site," it said on its Instagram feed.

Speaking earlier, Dose denounced the detention as "completely disproportionate", saying they had spent three nights in a cell.

The lawyer condemned the "deplorable" conditions in which the two activists were being held, "attached to benches for hours and dragged from police station to police station".

One activist spent the night without a blanket and was unable to lie down because her cell was too small, the lawyer said.

"The other had to sleep on the floor because there were too many people in the cell," she added.

The lawyer argued that "no harm resulted from the non-violent action", insisting that "all offences" ceased to exist once the statue has been returned to the museum.

The activists managed to slip out through an emergency exit of the museum by posing as maintenance workers.

new report released by the Norwegian Refugee Council has placed Cameroon at the top of an annual list of the most neglected global displacement crises, highlighting a sharp decline in international support.

Despite hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people, the situation in the country has received limited international attention, insufficient humanitarian funding and minimal political engagement, according to the NGO.

"It’s a case study in global neglect," Laila Matar, NRC's director of communications, told RFI. "There’s little media coverage, no meaningful diplomatic engagement and chronic underfunding. People are really struggling to survive."

Cameroon is grappling with humanitarian emergencies driven by three distinct situations – violence in the far north, ongoing conflict in the anglophone regions, and an influx of refugees from neighbouring Central African Republic.

These crises have left the country’s services overwhelmed and under-resourced.

According to the NRC’s report, covering 2024, 11 percent of Cameroon’s population now faces acute food insecurity.

"1.4 million children are crammed into poorly maintained and overcrowded classrooms," said Matar. "There’s simply no meaningful investment coming in from the global community."

Cameroon’s 2024 humanitarian response plan was only 45 percent funded, leaving a gap of more than $202 million (almost €178m).

Alongside Cameroon, the NRC’s report highlights nine other displacement crises suffering from similar neglect and lack of aid funding, including those in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Burkina Faso, each grappling with ongoing conflict.

To explain this reduced support and lack of engagement, Matar says: "Donor fatigue is certainly a factor. But more worrying is the shift we’re seeing from international solidarity to more inward-looking, security-focused policies in countries that used to be generous donors."

Several developed countries have made significant cuts to their overseas aid budgets.

France announced it would reduce public development assistance by more than €2 billion – nearly 40 percent of its annual allocation.

The United Kingdom has cut its overseas development assistance from 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent of gross national income, while Germany and the Netherlands are amongst others to have announced substantial reductions in foreign aid.

This comes as the United States – formerly the worlds largest contributor to overseas relief funding – has shut down or drastically reduced several aid programmes, including USAID, amid accusations of inefficiency from the Trump administration.

These decisions carry serious consequences for the humanitarian work of NGOs such as the NRC.

"We’re layering compromise upon compromise," Matar told RFI. "And those compromises are deadly."

The NRC report also makes an impassioned plea for a shift in priorities, with the organisation's secretary-general Jan Egeland saying: "Displacement isn’t a distant crisis. It’s a shared responsibility. We must stand up and demand a reversal of brutal aid cuts which are costing more lives by the day."

While governments and institutions must lead the charge, Matar stressed that ordinary people also have a role to play.

"Humanitarian aid works. It helps people start to dream of a future again," she said. "We can write to our MPs, speak out, and demand that our governments stop cutting aid in our name. We don’t need these crises to come to our borders to care about them."