Over 660,000 Displaced During Pandemic

FILE PHOTO: A general view of trucks carrying belongings of displaced Syrians, is pictured in the town of Sarmada in Idlib province, Syria, January 28, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of trucks carrying belongings of displaced Syrians, is pictured in the town of Sarmada in Idlib province, Syria, January 28, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo
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Over 660,000 Displaced During Pandemic

FILE PHOTO: A general view of trucks carrying belongings of displaced Syrians, is pictured in the town of Sarmada in Idlib province, Syria, January 28, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of trucks carrying belongings of displaced Syrians, is pictured in the town of Sarmada in Idlib province, Syria, January 28, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo

More than 660,000 people have been displaced from their homes in conflict zones around the world since March, despite a UN call for a global ceasefire during the coronavirus pandemic, a top international aid group said Friday.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said its figures showed that armed conflict around the world had continued during the pandemic, even as much of globe went into lockdown.

This was despite a call on March 23 by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a global ceasefire for the pandemic.

The NRC said a total of 661,000 people have been displaced in 19 countries since then, with the highest number by far in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"At a time when health experts tell us to stay at home, men with guns are forcing hundreds of thousands out of their homes and into extreme vulnerability," said the NRC's Secretary-General Jan Egeland.
"This not only hurts those who are forced to flee, it seriously undermines our joint efforts to combat the virus."

According to Agence France Presse, the NRC accused the UN Security Council of failing to show leadership to encourage peace talks.

"While people are being displaced and killed, powerful members of the UN Security Council squabble like children in a sandbox," Egeland said.

He called on world leaders to "rise to the occasion" and jointly push parties to put down their weapons and unite in protecting all communities from COVID-19.

"Now is not the time for kindergarten politics," he added.

The NRC said it was appealing to UN Security Council members to issue a "clear call" to warring parties to halt the conduct of hostilities and to "settle their conflicts through talks and allow for a systematic response to the pandemic."

In DR Congo alone, clashes between armed groups and the country's military forced 482,000 people to flee their homes, it said.

Meanwhile fighting in Yemen resulted in the displacement of 24,000 people since March 23.

Africa's Lake Chad region has also experienced a surge of displacement, the NRC said, with Chad and Niger worst affected.

Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Syria, Somalia and Myanmar all saw more than 10,000 people displaced in the same period, the group added.



Netanyahu Says he Believes Trump Can Help Seal Ceasefire Deal

FILE PHOTO: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement in the central city of Rehovot, Israel June 20, 2025. JACK GUEZ/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement in the central city of Rehovot, Israel June 20, 2025. JACK GUEZ/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Netanyahu Says he Believes Trump Can Help Seal Ceasefire Deal

FILE PHOTO: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement in the central city of Rehovot, Israel June 20, 2025. JACK GUEZ/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement in the central city of Rehovot, Israel June 20, 2025. JACK GUEZ/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he believed his discussions with US President Donald Trump on Monday would help advance talks on a Gaza hostage release and ceasefire deal that Israeli negotiators resumed in Qatar on Sunday.

Israeli negotiators taking part in the ceasefire talks have clear instructions to achieve a ceasefire agreement under conditions that Israel has accepted, Netanyahu said on Sunday before boarding his flight to Washington.

"I believe the discussion with President Trump can certainly help advance these results," he said, adding that he was determined to ensure the return of hostages held in Gaza and to remove the threat of Hamas to Israel.

It will be Netanyahu's third visit to the White House since Trump returned to power nearly six months ago.

Public pressure is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire and end the war in Gaza, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. Others, including Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, have expressed support.

Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a "positive spirit", a few days after Trump said Israel had agreed "to the necessary conditions to finalize" a 60-day truce.

But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.

Netanyahu's office said in a statement that changes sought by Hamas to the ceasefire proposal were "not acceptable to Israel". However, his office said the delegation would still fly to Qatar to "continue efforts to secure the return of our hostages based on the Qatari proposal that Israel agreed to".

Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a demand the militant group has so far refused to discuss.

Netanyahu said he believed he and Trump would also build on the outcome of the 12-day air war with Iran last month and seek to further ensure that Tehran never has a nuclear weapon. He said recent Middle East developments had created an opportunity to widen the circle of peace.

On Saturday evening, crowds gathered at a public square in Tel Aviv near the defense ministry headquarters to call for a ceasefire deal and the return of around 50 hostages still held in Gaza. The demonstrators waved Israeli flags, chanted and carried posters with photos of the hostages.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Gaza's health ministry says Israel's retaliatory military assault on the enclave has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, displaced the population, mostly within Gaza, and left the territory in ruins.

Around 20 of the remaining hostages are believed to be still alive. A majority of the original hostages have been freed through diplomatic negotiations, though the Israeli military has also recovered some.