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Eleven people were killed and a dozen injured on Monday 15th August in an airstrike on a hospital supported by Médecins sans Frontières in the city of Abs, in Hajja province, northern Yemen. The attack came two days after an airstrike on a school in the province of Sadaa, which claimed the lives of ten children. Handicap International and five other humanitarian organisations are demanding an independent investigation into the attacks. Handicap International has strongly condemned these airstrikes and is calling on all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law.

Handicap International has been working in Libya since 2011. Due to the country’s extreme political and security instability the organisation relocated its operation to Tunis in July 2014. Anne Barthès who has been leading the mission since February 2016, reflects on the programmes currently being run by Handicap International, five years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

Although cluster bombs have been banned under the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2010, they have been used on multiple occasions over the last two years in conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Ukraine, Libya and Sudan. Cluster bombs have killed and maimed thousands of civilians, who are overwhelmingly the main victims. But what exactly are these weapons?

Every year, more than 250,000 people around the world sustain spinal cord injuries, mainly as a result of road accidents, falls or acts of violence. These injuries often cause disabilities. For more than 25 years, Handicap International, in conjunction with the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCOS), has provided quality rehabilitation care to injured people, and supported their inclusion in society and work. The 5th September is International Spinal Cord Injury Day.

President Barack Obama has doubled U.S. funding to clear the bombs and munitions polluting Laos. The funding increases to $90m over three years and will be spent on weapons clearance in a country that suffered near incessant U.S. bombing campaigns in the 1960s and 1970s

In preparation for the Paralympic Games, which recently kicked off in Rio, Brazil, Handicap International presented racing wheelchairs to disabled Congolese athletes taking part in the competition. The Chair of the National Paralympic Committee of the Democratic Republic of Congo congratulated the organisation on its initiative at the presentation ceremony.

In June 2016, a fire destroyed an orthopaedic centre in the town of Tenkodogo, in the centre of Burkina Faso. Part of the local hospital, it provided services to some 200 people a year.

Since June 2016, Handicap International and its local partner, AFRILAM, have cleared 92,000 square metres of land of mines and explosive remnants of war. The land, near Kisangani in northeast DR Congo, is equivalent to 15 football pitches. More than 4,000 people will benefit directly from the operation, which has already neutralised six anti-personnel landmines.

The United Nations General Assembly hosts a high-level meeting in New York on Monday 19th September to address large movements of refugees and migrants. According to the UNHCR[1], more than 65 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution or armed violence. Camille Gosselin, Handicap International’s humanitarian advocacy manager, explains the issues at stake in the meeting.

On 4 October 1996, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) presented the Nansen Medal Award to Handicap International “for its work on behalf of refugees and its contribution to the campaign against anti-personnel mines.” On the 20th anniversary of receiving the award, Handicap International’s co-founder, Jean-Baptiste Richardier, reflects on an important chapter in the organisation’s history.

Handicap International is taking part in the Meeting of the First Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations (disarmament and international security) in October 2016. Anne Héry, head of advocacy at Handicap International, explains why this meeting is important and the actions taken by the organisation to end the bombing of civilians.

Soumana Almouner Touré has worked for Handicap International since 2013. Originally from Gao, he coordinates the ESSPOIR project’s activities in Mali. He talked to us about the project, which helps malnourished children recover from developmental delays in three West African countries - Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger - by providing them with physiotherapy and teaching parents to stimulate their children.

One of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent years is expected to cause flooding and landslides when it passes by Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti on Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th October. Handicap International teams in Haiti are preparing to provide assistance to the victims of this potentially devastating natural disaster.

Thomas Hugonnier, Head of Handicap International’s Mine Action programme, oversees the organisation’s clearance activities in Iraq, which aim to protect civilians from explosive remnants of war in the country.

The eastern districts of the city of Aleppo, in northern Syria, have been the target of sustained bombing for almost two weeks now. The damage to the civilian population is truly devastating. According to the United Nations, 320 civilians have been killed, including around one hundred children. Prohibited weapons, including cluster bombs, have been used.