Category Archives: Global development

Lagos’s poor lament Covid fallout: ‘we don’t see the virus, we see suffering’

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Lockdown has tipped many working-class Nigerians from struggle to crisis

Drawing open the curtains in Alapere, Lagos, unveils a sea of shanty roofs and watery-coloured housing blocks. “We don’t see any virus but we see suffering,” says Juliana Chokpa, a 38-year-old cleaner.

This working-class Lagos community has been reeling from job losses, a collapse in informal services, and rising food and transport costs. The pandemic, Chokpa says, has wrought a swift descent from struggle into crisis.

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Hidden survivors of sexual violence during Syria’s war must not be left behind

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Support for abused men, trans women and non-binary people is urgently needed

Yousef, a 28-year-old gay man, was raped by Syrian intelligence agents who had detained him for participating in protests during the conflict in Syria. He fled to Lebanon, but found only limited services to help him deal with the traumatic aftermath. By the time I interviewed him, he was resettled in the Netherlands. Geographically speaking, he was away from all the violence, but it still haunted him. “I look behind me when I am walking,” he told me. “I still wake up at night. It [the trauma] is not over.”

Yousef is one of dozens of sexual violence survivors from Syria whom I interviewed for Human Rights Watch. I found that since the beginning of the Syrian conflict men and boys – in addition to women and girls – have been subjected to sexual violence, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, by both government agents and non-government actors.

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‘Peace where rights aren’t trampled’: Afghan women’s demands ahead of Taliban talks

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With negotiations set to begin, women have been sharing their ‘red lines’ on the progress they refuse to see negotiated

Farahnaz Forotan was three when the Taliban had arrived in Kabul. It was 1996. “I have this memory of a snowy day, I was sitting on my mother’s lap, in a minibus, and she was crying. I didn’t understand why she was crying,” Forotan says. It was the day her family became refugees.

“It was the civil war, and we had to leave our home and country to live in Iran – alive, but living in pain and facing discrimination,” she says.

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Polio vaccinations resume in Pakistan and Afghanistan after Covid-19 delays

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Fight to eradicate disease getting ‘back on track’ after surge in cases due to pause in vaccination campaigns

Polio vaccination campaigns have resumed in Afghanistan and Pakistan – the last two polio-endemic countries in the world – after a “surge” in cases.

The pandemic halted campaigns in both countries in March and confirmed cases have now reached 34 in Afghanistan and 63 in Pakistan – where cases are being recorded in areas of the country previously free of the disease.

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‘Entire families are arriving at our shores’: Covid drives Tunisian exodus

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Italy is facing an influx of people trafficked on fishing boats, desperate to escape Tunisia’s deepening economic crisis

Unsurprisingly for a coastal town perched upon Tunisia’s border with Libya, it’s hot when Ahmed climbs into the back of the car outside the petrol station in Zarzis.

It’s clear from the outset he feels uncomfortable talking to a journalist. Nevertheless, he’s here.

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Covid to displace more than a million across the Sahel, new tool predicts

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Software hailed as a ‘game-changer’ in providing early warning for humanitarian relief efforts as virus fuels conflict

Coronavirus is predicted to push more than 1 million people from their homes across the Sahel, creating havoc in an already highly fragile region, according to new forecasting software.

Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria in west Africa are predicted to see displacement as a result of the increasing conflict, unemployment and human rights abuses brought on by fallout from the coronavirus, the analytical tool developed by the humanitarian group Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has found.

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Fighting for breath: how the medical oxygen industry is failing African hospitals

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Sub-Saharan hospitals are dependent on costly oxygen from multinational suppliers. As Covid-19 spreads, doctors are being forced to make terrible choices

As Covid-19 spreads throughout Africa, a potentially deadly lack of oxygen is leaving doctors unable to offer essential treatment.

Some experts put considerable blame on two multinational gas suppliers that dominate the market for oxygen cylinders across much of the continent, saying that their high prices and systems make the treatment unaffordable.

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Mexican families mourn workers claimed by Covid in the US – photo essay

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In July, the remains of nearly 250 migrant workers were repatriated to Mexico City. Two grieving families share their stories and loss

  • Text and photographs by Alejandra Rajal

On Saturday 11 July, a plane arrived in Mexico City with the remains of nearly 250 Mexican migrant workers who had died of Covid-19 in the US. A solemn ceremony was held with the participation of the consul general for New York, Jorge Islas López, who had helped organise the repatriation flight.

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Nobel Women’s Initiative founders ‘shaken’ as seven staff resign

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External review launched following collective resignation, which cited need for ‘profound organisational reforms’

Five women Nobel laureates said this week they were “profoundly shaken and saddened” by the resignation of seven staff at the organisation created to promote peace, justice and women’s rights.

Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Leymah Gbowee, Tawakkol Karman and Jody Williams said while they were aware of challenges within the Nobel Women’s Initiative, they “deeply regret not recognising the depth of their broader impact on staff”. They have launched an external review.

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Monsoon rains driven by high winds bring flooding misery to Mumbai

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India’s commercial capital grinds to a halt after heaviest August rainfall in 47 years causes widespread flooding

The heaviest monsoon downpour in nearly 50 years has brought Mumbai to a standstill, with stranded passengers at railway stations having to be rescued by dinghies from waist-high water.

People who live in areas normally unaffected by the annual monsoon flooding looked out from their high-rise flats at new swirling rivers outside caused by the heaviest single day’s rain recorded in August in 47 years.

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German Protestant church to send migrant rescue boat to Mediterranean

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Sea-Watch 4 is result of crowdfunding and is set to leave from Spain in few days

The German Protestant church will send a ship to the central Mediterranean to rescue migrants attempting to reach Europe from north Africa.

The boat, named Sea-Watch 4, will depart in a few days from the seaport of Burriana, near Valencia, in Spain, where volunteers are finalising preparations, the crew has said.

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Malawi human rights groups warn of Covid deaths in packed prisons

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Government urged to reduce overcrowding with cases rising fast in prisons accommodating many elderly and terminally ill inmates

Human rights campaigners in Malawi are calling on the government to urgently release people from its notoriously overcrowded prisons as cases of Covid-19 are rising among both staff and inmates.

Currently, 86 inmates and 21 members of staff have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the Malawi prison authority’s spokesperson, Chimwemwe Shaba. There are 71 cases in one prison in Blantyre alone.

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Covid outbreak exposes dire conditions at Guatemala factory making US brands

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More than 200 workers tested positive at garment factory supplying Amazon, Gap and American Eagle

A garment factory supplying Gap, American Eagle and Amazon was at the centre of one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in Guatemala, the Guardian can reveal.

More than 200 people tested positive for Covid-19 at the KP Textil factory, exposing the dire working conditions inside the country’s maquila system of free trade zones. At the time of the outbreak, the factory was making masks for export to the US.

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Almost half of UK charities for world’s poorest set to close in a year – survey

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Demand for services overseas has risen during Covid-19 but lack of financial support will force 45% to shut their doors

Nearly half of the UK’s small charities working with the world’s poorest people expect to close within the next 12 months due to lack of financial support, a survey has found.

Despite most of them seeing a spike in demand for their services during Covid-19, 15% of the charities will be forced to shut their doors within the next six months, and 45% within a year, according to data from the Small International Development Charities Network (SIDCN).

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How renamed streets in Mumbai’s slums are encouraging children to study

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A mobile school helped Rehmuddin Shaikh become a rugby star. Now a street named after him is inspiring a new generation

No map of Mumbai mentions Rehmuddin Shaikh Road. But a local taxi driver would find the narrow lane between the huts in Ambedkar Nagar, Colaba, behind Mumbai’s elite Cuffe Parade. Despite not being officially named by the city authorities, the road boasts a new signpost.

Rehmuddin Chittasahab Shaikh grew up and still lives here. Today, he is a rugby star, winning national gold and silver medals and and now coaching the Indian women’s team. He is one of the only four coaches in India to qualify for the World Rugby Level 3 coaching course.

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#ZimbabweanLivesMatter: celebrities join campaign against human rights abuses

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Stars and politicians including Ice Cube and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf have spoken out adding to pressure on President Emmerson Mnanagwa’s regime

A campaign drawing attention to human rights abuses in Zimbabwe is attracting international celebrities and politicians as pressure mounts on President Emmerson Mnanagwa’s government to act.

The #ZimbabweanLivesMatter campaign, which originated in South Africa this week, is currently No 1 on the list of trending topics on Twitter and prominent on other social media platforms.

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‘Guajirío culture is dying’: Mexican dam poised to displace living and flood ancestors’ graves

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Experts say indigenous group has been pressured and cheated into surrendering its land

High in the Sierra de Alamos of Mexico’s northern Sonora state, towering pillars of rock loom above thermal springs where for thousands of years, the indigenous Guarijío people would gather to commune with their ancestors.

Now the springs – and the land around them – have been submerged beneath rising waters trapped behind an enormous dam across the Mayo River. The 25-storey Bicentenario-Los Pilares barrier threatens to displace the living, and leave the graves of their forefathers deep under water.

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‘Water is sacred’: 10 visual artists reflect on the human right to water

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The UN declared access to water and sanitation a human right a decade ago, but 785 million people worldwide still have no water close to home

Ten photographs marking the 10th anniversary of access to water and sanitation being declared a human right by the UN have been commissioned from 10 visual artists by the charity WaterAid to show the impact of clean water on people’s lives.

Globally, 785 million people – one in 10 – still lack access to water close to home and 2 billion people – one in four – don’t have a toilet of their own.

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‘We drink from the toilet’: migrants tell of hellish Saudi detention centres

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Kingdom urged to rethink mass deportation policy as crowded and insanitary conditions spark Covid-19 fears

Ibraahin’s* first week of work at a market in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was also his last. As the sun set on the fifth day, the police descended upon the crowds and rounded up the 40-year-old Somali, along with several other undocumented migrant workers. They were transported to the nearby al-Shumaisi detention centre where many, including Ibraahin, remain months later, awaiting deportation.

Saudi authorities regularly arrest those found to be working illegally in the kingdom without a visa. Many are held in al-Shumaisi, a huge complex designed to hold 32,000 inmates. It has four grey-walled wings for male inmates, two for females and one for children. Detainees are held in a crowded series of bunk bed-filled halls, which each hold around 80 people.

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How a musician’s death unleashed violence and death in Ethiopia

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160 people have died following the killing of Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, leaving the ethnically and politically riven country more divided than ever

The figure holding a gun stepped beside the car in which Haacaaluu Hundeessaa was sitting in Addis Ababa, and pulled the trigger. The cold-blooded killing on the night of 29 June cut short the young life of one of Ethiopia’s most popular musicians and activists. It was also the start of some of the most consequential few days in recent Ethiopian history.

Hours later, in the lakeside town of Ziway in Ethiopia’s Oromia region – from which Haacaaluu came – Selas Russell woke to the sound of gunfire and shouting. Soon a friend rang her. “Get up, grab your passport, leave your belongings and run for your life,” he told the Ethiopian-born British citizen who owns a hotel in the town.

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