Category Archives: Global development

Sudanese refugees in Chad unable to access medical care for war injuries

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Some people in Ambelia camp waiting for treatment to wounds resulting from ethnic violence last year

Hundreds of displaced Sudanese people living in a refugee camp across the border in Chad have been unable to access vital medical care for injuries sustained during fierce battles in the Sudanese city of Geneina in the past year.

Some of those in the vast Ambelia camp near the city of Adré have permanent disabilities that could have been avoided had they undergone surgery, according to the refugees themselves and activists who are trying to arrange travel to Port Sudan in eastern Sudan, where they say medical facilities are relatively better than in Chad.

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‘We searched for ladies over 70’: on the trail of Jordan’s forgotten folk music

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An arts organisation has been seeking out and recording the region’s traditional music and is teaching the lyrics to young singers

In the Jordanian town of Tafilah, a six-year-old boy softly hummed a song. His family were astonished, and his 82-year-old great-grandmother, Jawaher Al Ahmad, overheard and began to cry. She asked the child who had taught him the “hajini”, or Bedouin folk song, and said: “The last time I heard that song was at my wedding.”

Her great-grandson, Ahmad, had learned the tune as part of the I’m My Voice project run by Tajalla for Music and Arts, a cultural organisation founded by Russol Al Nasser.

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‘It is simply best not to get pregnant’: women left terrified as Haiti’s maternity services collapse

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Delivering a baby was already risky, but an unprecedented surge in gang violence has forced clinics and hospitals to close

The worst fears of midwives at Heartline Haiti were realised last week. As they prepared the maternity clinic for patients that evening, armed men laid siege to their neighbourhood in eastern Port-au-Prince, spraying bullets at police and rival gangs, setting cars on fire and ransacking houses.

“All of our staff were huddled in an interior hallway hearing the noises outside the gates and walls, afraid they may be next,” says Tara Livesay, the NGO’s executive director. “A gang member was shot dead outside, just two doors over.”

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Malawian journalist arrested over article accusing businessman of corruption

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Rights groups condemn arrest of Macmillan Mhone, who was charged with ‘publication of news likely to cause fear and alarm’

Human rights watchdogs have condemned the arrest of a journalist in Malawi in connection with an article accusing a wealthy businessman of corruption.

Police in Blantyre detained Macmillan Mhone on Monday over a story that was published online last August on the Malawi 24 news site.

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Students in Iran threatened with prosecution for graduation dance video

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Al-Zahra University in Bushehr will pursue legal action, says its president, in a move labelled ‘absurd’ by human rights lawyers

A group of Iranian students have been threatened with prosecution after a video of them dancing after their graduation emerged on social media this week.

In the now viral video, a group of about 11 female students from Al-Zahra University in the coastal city of Bushehr, in south-west Iran, were seen dancing and riding a motorcycle.

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Fears of violence grow as Somalia scraps power-sharing system

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Semi-autonomous state of Puntland refuses to recognise changes to the fragile country’s constitution and has withdrawn from the federal system

An overhaul of Somalia’s constitution, scrapping its power-sharing system and handing the president increased control, is threatening to destabilise the fragile country, as its wealthiest and most stable state refuses to recognise the changes.

The amendments risk worsening violence, the information minister from the semi-autonomous state of Puntland has warned. Mohamud Aidid Dirir told the Guardian that “almost a totally new constitution” had been introduced without input from the state’s leaders. He accused the Somali president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, of using parliament to “gather authority into his hands”.

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Food charity demands independent inquiry into Israeli killing of aid staff

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World Central Kitchen asks countries of workers who died to join its call, as Biden and Netanyahu hold first phone call since attack

The international food charity World Central Kitchen has called for an independent investigation into the Israeli strikes that killed seven of its aid workers in Gaza on Monday, as Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu held their first phone call since the attack.

WCK asked Australia, Canada, Poland, the US and the UK, whose citizens were killed, to join it in demanding “an independent, third-party’’ inquiry into the strikes.

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Having the right glasses could boost earning power by a third, Bangladesh study shows

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Researchers find that in low and middle-income countries owning spectacles can help people over 35 increase their income

Owning a pair of reading glasses might help people increase their earnings by a third, according to new research.

The study, conducted in Bangladesh, is the first to examine the impact of having a decent pair of spectacles, and researchers found monthly median earnings among one group of people increased from $35.30 to $47.10 within eight months, a rise of 33.4%.

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Global rainforest loss continues at rate of 10 football pitches a minute

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Despite major progress in Brazil and Colombia, deforestation led by farming still cleared an area nearly equal to Switzerland

The destruction of the world’s most pristine rainforests continued at a relentless rate in 2023, despite dramatic falls in forest loss in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon, new figures show.

An area nearly the size of Switzerland was cleared from previously undisturbed rainforests last year, totalling 37,000 sq km (14,200 sq miles), according to figures compiled by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the University of Maryland. This is a rate of 10 football pitches a minute, often driven by more land being brought under agricultural cultivation around the world.

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UN names veteran EU official Astrid Schomaker as new biodiversity chief

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German’s appointment to head Convention on Biological Diversity follows global failure to meet any targets on protecting ecosystems

The next UN biodiversity chief will be Astrid Schomaker, an EU civil servant who will be entrusted with helping the world confront the ongoing catastrophic loss of nature.

Schomaker has been a career official with the EU commission for 30 years. A surprise appointment, she will be tasked with corralling governments to make good on their commitments to protect life on Earth – something they have not done in more than 30 years since the UN biodiversity convention was created.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features

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Venezuela arrests YouTuber for ‘terrorism’ amid pre-election crackdown

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Detention of influencer Oscar Alejandro Pérez at Caracas airport en route to southern national park raises free speech concerns

A popular Venezuelan YouTuber has been arrested in Caracas on terrorism charges as President Nicolás Maduro’s government steps up its crackdown on free speech ahead of upcoming elections.

Oscar Alejandro Pérez was detained in the capital’s main airport on Sunday by police on accusations of terrorism, his family said.

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Extortionate Easter eggs and shrinking sweets: fears grow of a ‘chocolate meltdown’

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Poor harvests in extreme weather conditions have led to a tripling of cocoa prices – but farmers have seen no benefit

Around the world this holiday weekend, people will consume hundreds of millions of Easter eggs and bunnies, as part of an annual chocolate intake that can exceed 8kg (18lb) for every person in the UK, or 5kg in the US and Europe. But a global shortage of cacao – the seed from which chocolate is made – has brought warnings of a “chocolate meltdown” that could see prices increase and bars shrink further.

This week, cocoa prices rose to all-time highs on commodity exchanges in London and New York, reaching more than $10,000 a tonne for the first time, after the third consecutive poor harvest in west Africa. Ghana and Ivory Coast, which together produce more than half of the global cacao crop, have been hit by extreme weather supercharged by the climate crisis and the El Niño weather phenomenon. This has been exacerbated by disease and underinvestment in ageing plantations.

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Taliban edict to resume stoning women to death met with horror

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Afghan regime’s return to public stoning and flogging is because there is ‘no one to hold them accountable’ for abuses, say activists

The Taliban’s announcement that it is resuming publicly stoning women to death has been enabled by the international community’s silence, human rights groups have said.

Safia Arefi, a lawyer and head of the Afghan human rights organisation Women’s Window of Hope, said the announcement had condemned Afghan women to return to the darkest days of Taliban rule in the 1990s.

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‘Staggering’ rise in women with reproductive health issues near DRC cobalt mines – study

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Investigation reveals reports of miscarriages, infections and birth defects among women and girls in mining communities

Women and girls living in cobalt-mining communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are reporting a “staggering” rise in serious reproductive health issues, including miscarriages and birth defects, according to a new report.

An investigation published by the UK-based human rights group Rights & Accountability in Development (Raid) and the Kinshasa-based NGO Afrewatch said that women and girls living around cobalt mines reported experiencing irregular menstruations, urogenital infections, vaginal mycoses and warts.

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Argentina: trans women among victims of ex-officers guilty of dictatorship-era crimes

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Eleven found guilty of crimes against humanity after trial that heard testimony on torture, rape and forced disappearances

A court in Argentina has convicted 11 former military, police and government officials of crimes against humanity committed during the country’s last dictatorship in a sprawling trial that heard, for the first time, about atrocities suffered by trans women.

The three-year case focused on the forced disappearances, torture, rapes and homicides that occurred at or were connected to three clandestine detention and torture centres located in police investigative units on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. They were known as the Banfield pit, the Quilmes pit and “El Infierno” – or “hell” – by the officials who worked there.

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Recruitment of nurses from global south branded ‘new form of colonialism’

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African nurse leaders say poorer nations face severe shortages despite rules intended to stop wealthy countries poaching staff

The UK and other wealthy countries have been accused of adopting a “new form of colonialism” in recruiting huge numbers of nurses from poorer nations to fill their own staffing gaps.

International nursing leaders said the trend was leading to worse patient care in developing nations, which were not properly compensated for the loss of experienced healthcare staff.

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Foreign Office merger has diminished UK’s aid capability, finds watchdog

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National Audit Office says merging DfID with Foreign Office has led to loss of dedicated senior roles

Britain’s capability and expertise on foreign aid has been diminished since international development was merged into the Foreign Office, the UK’s public spending watchdog has found.

The National Audit Office, which reports to parliament on public spending, said the transfer of the department to the Foreign Office, overseen by Boris Johnson, had caused a loss of dedicated senior roles in development.

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Onions sell for 50 times usual price in Gaza as Palestinians scramble for food

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Reports of exorbitant cost of basic vegetables, as well as oil and flour, come amid warnings that Gaza is on the verge of famine

People living in Gaza are facing exorbitant food prices as more than 1 million residents of the Palestinian territory face famine.

Since Israel’s invasion in October, it has become common for Gaza’s displaced population to share pictures of their shopping baskets and document how high prices have risen amid food shortages.

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Another World Cup will be tainted by worker deaths if Fifa fails to act, say rights groups

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Saudi Arabia is likely to host the 2034 tournament, but a Guardian investigation has revealed there are already a high number of ‘unexplained’ migrant worker deaths in the Gulf kingdom

Human rights organisations are warning that another World Cup will be tainted by the deaths and suffering of low-paid workers if Fifa does not take urgent steps to ensure that Saudi Arabia deals with the widespread abuse of its migrant workforce.

As the sole bidder, Saudi Arabia is almost certain to be anointed by Fifa this year as host of the World Cup in 2034, but rights groups said “workers cannot afford a repeat of Qatar 2022”.

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Move to overturn FGM ban in the Gambia postponed

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Committee will examine for at least three months a bill proposing repeal of ban on female genital mutilation

A decision on whether to overturn a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Gambia has been postponed for three months after MPs called for more consultation.

FGM was outlawed in the country eight years ago and is punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment.

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