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In this Global Dispatch, I’d really like to highlight the goodness of strangers, inspired by Guardian readers.

It was unexpected this week when readers reacted to our story about the US drone attack on civilians in Somalia by raising money to help one of the surviving victims. Seven-year-old Abdiqadir Salah (pictured above) was left with shrapnel injuries in the attack, which also wounded his brother and sister.

The operation that would help him recover cost more than his mother could possibly raise – a story reported on by Mohamed Gabobe on the ground in Somalia in collaboration with Mark Townsend in London. We are all hoping Abdiqadir makes a good recovery now the equivalent of £750 is on its way to the family.

“What’s worse than being a mother who can’t do anything for her wounded children?” his mother, Marian Haji Abdi Guled, had said at the time she talked to Mohamed.

It is no surprise that the US did nothing to help. After all, our leaders – not just Trump but others across Europe and Africa – continue to be mealy-mouthed in calling out some of the terrible suffering of children in entirely avoidable conflicts.

See Mark’s story this week about the UK’s continuing “diplomatic” response to the utter horror being unleashed on the people of Sudan and the UN’s report on Israeli targeting children in Gaza – two genocidal conflicts which it seems to be beyond the international community to even decisively condemn, never mind to act on.

Putting politics before people and warmongering before peacemaking are exactly why inhumanity thrives in parts of our world, where children like Abdiqadir become merely collateral damage.

Tracy McVeigh, editor, Global development

The world in brief

Global health | African and Asian midwives were denied visas to attend a conference in Portugal on preventing deaths in childbirth. As politicians, donors and UN agencies gathered for the International Confederation of Midwives congress in Lisbon, eminent midwives were excluded from countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Kabul | The Taliban began destroying smartphones after the Islamist regime ordered a sweeping ban on their use by government officials. Analysts say the move could lead to broader restrictions with civilians including women, medical workers, schoolteachers and students targeted in some provinces.

FGM | The first lady of Sierra Leone was forced to deny reports that she supported female genital mutilation amid rising anger around her perceived approval of the practice. However, Fatima Maada Bio said she would not condemn FGM until she saw “reliable data” that the practice was harmful, prompting concern among medics, survivors and human rights activists.

Education | Violent attacks on schools, pupils and staff rose around the world by 40%, according to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. Cases were reported in 83 countries, with at least 10,600 students and staff killed, injured, abducted or arrested, the report found.

Spotlight

The family were sitting down for breakfast when the drones struck. A grandfather rushed to the wreckage of their home in Jamaame to find his pregnant daughter-in-law and her two small children dead. The most deadly US attack in the east African country for 18 years killed at least 12 civilians, including eight children. Washington has never acknowledged their deaths. The Guardian has pieced together what happened that day.

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Read this: The Sisters of Serendib

Ayesha Inoon’s novel begins on a boat on the ocean and follows three sisters settling in a new land, in a book that glosses over Sri Lanka’s darker moments and trauma in favour of hope. A compassionate story of community and the bloom of new life, The Sisters of Serendib is published by HarperCollins.