Like much of the sector, the International Rescue Committee increasingly operates not in camps, but in cities and towns. The urban environment presents a markedly different operating environment, to which the traditional humanitarian response architecture is not well suited. With estimates that more than half of the world’s displaced are in urban settings, the question of how we best respond to meet the needs of people who have fled natural disaster or conflict to urban settings has become critical

Iraqis who fled ISIS describe the brutality and oppression they suffered under the extremist group’s rule.

In many ways Yakeen is like any little girl. She’s approaching her second birthday. Her cheeks are flushed a rosy red by the winter chill. The sudden appearance of strangers in her house leaves her clinging to her mother’s long skirt.

Days of intense bombings have destroyed or damaged the last remaining hospitals in East Aleppo, including three supported by the IRC. Below is a first-person account from one of the many Syrians who live under constant gunfire and barrel bombs.