Category Archives: Global development

Despair in Chad camps as violence and hunger in Sudan drive 25,000 across border in a week

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Warning of ‘lost generation’ in Adré and Farchana camps as Sudan’s civil war drives huge numbers across border

Refugees and aid agencies have warned of deteriorating conditions in overcrowded and severely underfunded camps in Chad, as intensifying violence and a hunger crisis in Sudan drive huge numbers across the border.

About 25,000 people – the vast majority women and children – crossed into eastern Chad in the first week of October, a record number for a single week in 2024. Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries, hosts 681,944 Sudanese refugees – the highest number globally.

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Somali security agents arrest journalist in night-time raid

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Abduqadir Mohamed Nur’s reported abduction from home and detention is latest attack on press freedom for critical writing on regime, media union says

A Somali journalist was abducted from his home by intelligence agents early on Friday, according to press freedom campaigners.

The journalists’ union Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) said the detention of Abduqadir Mohamed Nur was a “brazen attack” on the reporter and his news outlet, Risaala Media Corporation, for critical reporting of state security forces.

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Mother of 16-year-old girl allegedly killed by Iran’s security forces arrested

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Regime is punishing families of Woman, Life, Freedom protesters who died at hands of security forces, say activists

The mother of a 16-year-old Iranian girl who became one of the faces of the unprecedented nationwide protests against the regime has reportedly been arrested.

Nasrin Shakarami, the grieving mother of Nika Shakarami, who was allegedly killed by the security forces in September 2022, had been outspoken in her criticism of the regime over the death of her daughter.

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Negative stereotypes in international media cost Africa £3.2bn a year – report

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Focus on conflict, corruption and poverty heightens perception of risk, raising interest on sovereign debt, authors say

Africa loses up to £3.2bn yearly in inflated interest payments on sovereign debt due to persistent negative stereotypes that dominate international media coverage of the continent, according to a new report.

Research by consultants Africa Practice and the advocacy non-profit Africa No Filter suggests that media portrayals, especially during elections when global coverage is heightened, focus disproportionately on conflict, corruption, poverty, disease and poor leadership, widening disparities between perceived and actual risks of investing in the continent, and creating a monolithic view of Africa.

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Iranian journalists who covered Mahsa Amini’s death face five years in prison

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Hopes of pardon dashed for Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who were cleared of collaboration with US

Two young female journalists who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for reporting on the death of Mahsa Amini have been cleared of charges of collaborating with the United States government but will still spend up to five more years behind bars, the Iranian authorities have announced.

Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi were arrested in 2022 after reporting on the death and funeral of Amini, the young Kurdish woman who died in police custody in 2022, sparking the nationwide Women, Life, Freedom protests.

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Europe’s medical schools to give more training on diseases linked to climate crisis

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New climate network will teach trainee doctors more about heatstroke, dengue and malaria and role of global warming in health

Mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria will become a bigger part of the curriculum at medical schools across Europe in the face of the climate crisis.

Future doctors will also have more training on how to recognise and treat heatstroke, and be expected to take the climate impact of treatments such as inhalers for asthma into account, medical school leaders said, announcing the formation of the European Network on Climate & Health Education (Enche).

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UK overseas aid budget faces £900m raid to pay for housing asylum seekers

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With the amount spent on refugees and asylum seekers this year on course to hit £3.6bn, the sum available for international projects must be cut again, warns thinktank

Ministers have been warned that £900m will have to be raided from UK overseas aid projects to meet the costs of supporting asylum seekers in Britain this year.

Projections seen by the Observer show that the amount of overseas aid set to be spent in the UK on refugees and asylum seekers this year is still on course to reach £3.6bn, despite a big fall in the costs of housing people from Ukraine.

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EU unable to retrieve €150m paid to Tunisia despite links to rights violations

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Concerns are growing that funds from the migration deal are connected to abuses by the repressive regime in Tunis

The EU will be unable to claw back any of the €150m (£125m) paid to Tunisia despite the money being increasingly linked to human rights violations, including allegations that sums went to security forces who raped migrant women.

The European Commission paid the amount to the Tunis government in a controversial migration and development deal, despite concerns that the north African state was increasingly authoritarian and its police largely operated with impunity.

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Haitian gangs recruiting starving children to fight security forces, rights group finds

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Hundreds of poor and desperate children targeted in anticipation of long and bloody battle, says Human Rights Watch

Haitian armed gangs are recruiting starving children to swell their ranks ahead of an anticipated long and bloody battle with international security forces, a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) has found.

Armed groups – which control most of Haiti – are enticing hundreds, if not thousands, of impoverished children to take up arms with offers of food and shelter, the rights groups said.

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Myanmar military kills dozens in heaviest airstrikes since 2021 coup

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Ten children reportedly among those killed during intense aerial campaigns last month

Myanmar’s military has launched some of its heaviest aerial campaigns since the 2021 coup in recent months, killing at least 26 people in a series of attacks in early September.

The military, which has repeatedly been accused of indiscriminate aerial bombardments, launched at least seven airstrikes in four days between 3 and 6 September. According to Unicef, 10 children were among those killed. A pregnant woman also lost her unborn child.

A camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in Pekhon township, southern Shan state, was one of the seven locations targeted. Daw Ohn Mar Khaing, a volunteer teacher at the camp, known as “Bangkok”, told the Guardian it was struck despite there being no fighting in the township, or opposition fighters nearby.

“We only have helpless women and children, who were displaced from the war in their villages,” she said.

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‘A slap in the face to victims of abuse’: UN urged to reject Saudi Arabia’s bid to join Human Rights Council

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Riyadh accused of killing hundreds of Ethiopian migrants, jailing women’s rights advocates and murdering critics

Saudi Arabia is on the brink of being elected on to the United Nation’s Human Rights Council, warn campaigners, in a move they say would undermine its ability to demand justice for rights violations and would feel like a “slap in the face” to the many victims of the Saudi regime.

While the Saudi Arabian government has attempted to present itself as a reformed country that has made progress on gender equality and human rights, its record on both has been fiercely criticised by activists.

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Arab spring dreams in ruins as Tunisia goes to polls against backdrop of repression

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Critics of incumbent Kais Saied say he has increasingly bent the country’s institutions to his will

Tunisia will hold a presidential election on Sunday against the backdrop of a crackdown on dissent and human rights violations committed against undocumented migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

The incumbent, Kais Saied, whose most prominent critics are behind bars, is expected to sail to an easy win after a campaign with few rallies and public debates, marking a significant step back for a country that long prided itself as the birthplace of the Arab spring uprisings of 2011.

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At least 78 dead and dozens missing after ferry disaster in DR Congo

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Overcrowded boat on Lake Kivu capsizes as it was about to dock near Goma, with death toll likely to rise significantly

At least 78 people have drowned and many more are missing after a boat belived to be carrying 278 passengers capsized on Thursday morning just a few hundred metres from the shore of Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The accident happened just as the vessel, MV Merdy, was about to dock at the port of Kituku, just outside the city of Goma, after crossing the lake from the town of Minova.

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Gang violence leaves Haiti facing ‘worst hunger emergency in the western hemisphere’

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Half the country’s population now struggling to find food as lawlessness and inflation cause ‘full-blown crisis’, say aid agencies

Half of all Haitians are struggling every day to find food as rampant gang violence and lawlessness are causing “the worst hunger emergency in the western hemisphere”, a report has found.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and its partner organisations estimate that 5.4 million Haitians are now regularly finding it hard to get enough to eat, a record for the Caribbean nation and the largest proportion of acutely food insecure people anywhere in the world, WFP said. The figure suggests another 600,000 people have fallen into “crisis” level hunger since the previous peaks recorded earlier this year and in 2023.

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Race to combat mpox misinformation as vaccine rollout in DRC begins

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Poll suggests half of Congolese have not heard of deadly disease, as conspiracy theories and rumours spread

For doctors and nurses fighting mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the virus itself is not the only enemy. They are also facing swirling rumours and misinformation.

The first of millions of promised doses of mpox vaccine have finally started to arrive. Now the focus is on ensuring that people who need them will take them when the vaccination campaign begins next month, and teaching wider communities how to protect themselves.

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South Sudan medics trial AI app to identify snakes and improve bite treatment

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Software with database of 380,000 pictures aims to aid quick and accurate identification and ensure correct use of antivenoms

The race to treat snakebite patients in time to save them could be eased by the development of software powered by artificial intelligence.

The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is trialling AI snake detection in South Sudan using a database of 380,000 pictures of snakes to identify venomous species.

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Healthier rice variety could counter rise in diabetes, Philippine scientists say

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Researchers develop grain with lower glycaemic index and more protein that ‘could have big impact in Asia and Africa’

Scientists in the Philippines have created a new variety of rice that could help reduce the growing burden of diabetes.

More than 537 million adults worldwide are living with the chronic disease – a number that is expected to grow to 783 million by 2045. Being overweight, genetics and a lack of exercise contribute to type 2 diabetes, which is the most common form. Type 2 occurs when the pancreas fails to produce enough of the insulin hormone, leaving too much glucose in the blood, and cells develop a resistance to insulin.

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Europe has questions to answer over migrant abuse in Tunisia, say MEPs and activists

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EU Commission says it will be sending independent observers to the country to investigate allegations of human rights violations

The European Commission can no longer ignore mounting evidence of the gross human rights violations against migrants and refugees in Tunisia, say MEPs and activists.

The EU has given millions of pounds to Tunisia to reduce migration from north Africa into Europe in a deal that pledges “respect for human rights” and piqued the interest of the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer.

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Global alliance buys half a million mpox vaccines for Africa

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Gavi uses newly established First Response Fund to secure doses, but 10 million are needed to meet demand on the continent

A batch of 500,000 mpox vaccines has been bought by the vaccine alliance Gavi, for delivery this year to virus-affected countries in Africa, where until now doses have been scarce.

It is estimated that 10 million vaccines are needed to meet demand, but the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which accounts for most cases, only received 100,000 vaccines earlier this month despite having had more than 700 deaths this year and 22,000 cases of the new Clade 1b strain. Neighbouring countries Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya have each reported a handful of cases.

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Superyacht and private jet tax could raise £2bn a year, say campaigners

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Oxfam says ‘commonsense solution’ would reduce emissions and raise urgently needed climate finance

Fair taxes on superyachts and private jets in the UK could have brought in £2bn last year to provide vital funds for communities suffering the worst effects of climate breakdown, campaigners say.

Private jet use in the UK is soaring. It was home to the second highest number of private flights in Europe last year, behind only France, according to figures from the European Business Aviation Association.

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