This Week in Conflict and Crisis
- International Crisis Group
- 9 hours ago
- 4 min read
International Crisis Group Newsletter
Sept. 8, 2025
In Focus
Israel’s Gaza campaign has entered an even more nightmarish phase. The world must press Israel harder to stop the war regardless of “day after” questions – lest its offensive destroy Palestinian life in the strip beyond hope of recovery.
On Our Radar
Democratic Republic of Congo
During a second meeting of the Joint Oversight Committee in Washington on Wednesday, Rwanda and the DR Congo reaffirmed their commitment to the June 27 peace agreement, while acknowledging that progress has been limited. Kigali and Kinshasa also agreed to establish military and intelligence channels for information exchange. Meanwhile, clashes continued, particularly around the town of Uvira in South Kivu, even as talks between the M23 and the DRC resumed last week in Doha under Qatari mediation. Both sides traded accusations of ceasefire violations and missed an August 18 deadline for a formal agreement. Crisis Group expert Onesphore Sematumba says the parties' continued engagement is encouraging, but real, time-bound progress is needed to prevent the effort from unravelling. Otherwise, there is a risk of a return to full-scale war, which would further worsen an already disastrous situation for populations trapped in a sprawling conflict.
Haiti
The U.S. and Panama last week circulated a draft resolution at the UN Security Council that proposes to transform the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), deployed in Haiti to combat spiralling gang violence but hampered by understaffing and underfunding, into a new “Gang Suppression Force”. The new force would consist of 5,500 uniformed personnel and 50 civilian staff, backstopped by a new UN support office in Port-au-Prince for logistics. It would also carry a broader mandate than the MSS, notably the freedom to conduct counter-gang operations independent from the Haitian police. Crisis Group expert Daniel Forti says Washington’s heightened focus on Haiti is welcome, but other Council members will ask tough questions about the proposed mission’s leadership, funding, troop contributions, and coordination mechanisms.
Ukraine
Leaders of the “coalition of the willing”, an ad-hoc group of 35 primarily European backers of Kyiv, met in Paris Thursday to work out security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia. President Emmanuel Macron said 26 countries had committed support for a ‘reassurance force’ to deploy once a ceasefire is agreed and that the shape of U.S. involvement would be finalised in the coming days. Crisis Group expert Lucian Kim says the pledges mark an important signal of continued Western support for Ukraine, though it is difficult to imagine Washington making a firm commitment given President Trump’s shifting stance toward Kyiv. The plan also remains contingent on a ceasefire, which Moscow shows little sign of accepting as it presses battlefield advances and strikes against Ukrainian cities
You can find previous editions of On Our Radar here.
Analyst's Notebook
Crisis Group experts share first takes, reporting and analysis on global events as they happen:
Shewit Woldemichael on the paramilitary force’s creation of a rival administration based in western Sudan.
Ahmed Nagi on the latest exchanges of fire between Israel and the Houthis in Yemen.
You can find previous Analyst’s Notebook entries here.
CrisisWatch
The latest edition of our monthly conflict tracker highlights conflict risks in Guinea, Iran, Israel/Palestine, Ukraine and Yemen in September. In August, it spotlighted deteriorations in eight countries and conflict areas and improvements in two locations.
Publications
Upcoming Event
Join International Crisis Group for a special event unveiling our new early warning platform, the Early Action and Risk Tracking Hub (eEARTH). In this webinar, Crisis Group experts examine the ways natural resources and climate hazards shape modern conflicts, and demonstrate how eEARTH’s integrated approach – combining satellite and other data with on-the-ground political analysis – offers a powerful framework for anticipating risks in the Horn of Africa and beyond.
The panel discussion will be held in English and will be live-streamed on YouTube.Please register here if you would like to attend this online event.
Crisis Group in the News
“[T]here is a global decline in international aid. And to suddenly see that crumble overnight has a shocking effect”.
– Comfort Ero, President & CEO, The Big Take (Bloomberg podcast)
“[The U.S. is] repurposing the ‘war on terror’ for entirely new sets of supposed enemies in a way that is radically inappropriate. Now the supposed terrorists are ... in the Caribbean, and now they say they’re drug smugglers”.
– Brian Finucane, Senior Adviser for the US Program, Al Jazeera
“Because India does not believe in formal alliances, its approach has been to strengthen its relationship with the U.S., maintain it with Russia, and manage it with China”.
– Praveen Donthi, Senior Analyst for India, AP
“The lack of public reaction to China’s display of military might reflects both the limits of Beijing’s intimidation campaign against Taiwan and the longstanding concern of Taiwanese people becoming desensitized”.
– William Yang, Senior Analyst for North East Asia, AP
Contact Details
For media requests, please contact media@crisisgroup.org
For general enquiries, please contact info@crisisgroup.org
If you'd like to learn more about ways in which to support our work, please visit our website or email philanthropy@crisisgroup.org
Subscribe here to receive updates and new publications from different regions across the world.