Girls were allegedly told they were to have Covid-19 vaccinations but were cut by doctor after being sedated
Egypt’s public prosecutor has ordered the immediate trial of a father on charges of forcing his three young daughters to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM), after he told them they were going to be vaccinated against coronavirus. The doctor involved will also go on trial.
The procedure was banned in 2008 and criminalised in 2016.
Continue reading...From children in Kabul to Taliban chiefs, the sweet, caffeine-heavy drinks are wildly popular, defying fears on nutrition
They are sold outside schools, in hospital lobbies, on street corners and in every supermarket; served at wedding receptions and ministerial meetings, while television adverts and billboards praise their qualities.
Energy drinks have taken over Afghanistan, and the high-caffeine sweet beverages are enjoyed by all ages – including toddlers and pregnant mothers – without much attention being paid to potential health risks.
In a busy Kabul neighbourhood, Salim Wahidi, 22, has dozens of different brands stacked up next to his small roadside stand. The supplies run out fast.
“We sell a couple of hundred each day, but that’s not even much because there are so many vendors like me,” he says, sharing one of the drinks with his 13-year-old cousin, Mustafa, who works with him. “People love energy drinks, it’s often their first choice. Every child drinks them, every adult.”
Awareness of potential health hazards is low
Continue reading...Reports of Covid-19 cases and allegations of withheld medical treatment have sparked concern for those held in al-Ha’ir prison
Relatives of prisoners held in a sprawling complex outside Riyadh say they fear prison conditions and denial of medical treatment are risking the lives of detainees including members of the Saudi royal family.
Two sources close to the family of Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al-Saud say the senior royal, known as an outspoken advocate for reform, is in a life-threatening condition inside al-Ha’ir prison south of Riyadh. Concerns grew following the death in a Riyadh hospital last month of prominent rights activist Abdullah al-Hamid, formerly held in al-Ha’ir.
Continue reading...Based on true stories, Rubaiyat Hossain’s Made in Bangladesh challenges stereotypes while revealing the relentless pressure of fashion’s supply chain
Rubaiyat Hossain’s latest film, Made in Bangladesh, opens with a scene of pure, visceral panic: young garment workers trapped in a burning factory. Alarms blare, women scream and smoke fills the stairwells.
“A fire or a building collapse is every garment worker’s greatest fear,” says Hossain. When filming the scene, the women seen desperately running for their lives didn’t need much direction.
Continue reading...Several accounts reactivated after protests with social media giant blaming ‘technical error’
The Facebook accounts of several high-profile bloggers and activists in Tunisia were among those deactivated without warning over the weekend.
Up to 60 accounts are understood to have been deactivated, including that of journalist and political commentator Haythem El Mekki.
Continue reading...Threatened job losses follow announcement of 1,500 redundancies internationally and closure of offices in 18 countries
More than 200 UK jobs could be lost at Oxfam, after the charity’s funding plummeted during the coronavirus pandemic.
The threatened UK job cuts are in addition to the loss of almost 1,500 staff roles internationally and the closure of offices in 18 countries, announced by the aid organisation in May.
Continue reading...Campaigners say coronavirus is compounding problem of domestic and gender violence
It has been five years since pent-up fury over staggering levels of violence against women erupted in a wave of public protest across Argentina under the slogan Ni Una Menos (Not One Less).
What started as a hashtag quickly grew into a movement, pushing women’s rights to the top of the agenda in Argentina, before quickly spreading across South America as millions of women took a stand against gender violence.
Continue reading...A bicycle scheme is shaving hours off long journeys to get milk fresh to market, boosting women’s incomes and benefiting their whole community
Shooting of Lamin Sisay, son of former UN diplomat, last week prompts outrage as family and friends reject police version of events
The Gambia has demanded the US investigate the police killing one of its citizens, a former UN diplomat’s son.
The shooting of Lamin Sisay, 39, in Atlanta last week prompted anger in the Gambian community, who have described it as another example of the police brutality against black Americans that has prompted country-wide protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
Continue reading...When his sister Rahila was killed by a bomber, Hamid Rafi was inspired by her diaries to set up an education centre in her name
The night before she died, Rahila Rafi felt too tired for homework; uncharacteristic for the studious 17-year-old. When her brother Hamid asked what was wrong, she told him she had a strange feeling in her heart and couldn’t bring herself to look at her books.
Hamid kissed his sister’s forehead and asked her what she wanted to do after she passed the Kankor exam – Afghanistan’s standard university admissions test.
Continue reading...Bangladesh has battled the twin perils of a super-cyclone and Covid-19. We can offer lessons for others facing similar dangers
There was no time to lose when Cyclone Amphan began forming over the Indian Ocean in May.
But shelters are not built with social distancing in mind in Bangladesh and the country faced a challenge: how to move 2.4 million people from the destructive path of the storm without delivering them into an even greater danger – Covid-19.
Continue reading...UN says country is on cliff edge after fundraising summit raises only $1.35bn for the year
Yemen remains on the brink of “a macabre tragedy”, the UN has warned after a humanitarian fundraising summit raised only $1.35bn (£1.05bn) for this year, around $1bn short of the target and only half the sum raised at the equivalent pledging conference last year.
The UN’s humanitarian chief, Mark Lowcock, said unless more money was raised Yemen “will face a horrific outcome at the end of the year”.
Continue reading...Carmen Arestegui’s battle to stay on the airwaves is the subject of a film highlighting the risks of exposing corruption and crime
When Mexican news anchor Carmen Aristegui was fired from a popular radio show after revealing a presidential scandal on air, it sparked an outpouring of anger and protests.
For millions of listeners Aristegui is a trusted voice cutting through government spin and corruption, and her absence left a void.
Continue reading...Brutality of 22-year-old Vera Uwaila Omozuwa’s killing has shocked the country amid a chorus of demands for justice
Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 22-year-old microbiology student, sought the quiet of her empty church in Benin City, southern Nigeria, as a place to study. Hours later she was raped and killed in a crime that has sparked outrage across Nigeria.
Last Wednesday evening, a church security guard found Uwa, as she is known, unconscious in a pool of blood, according to her family.
Continue reading...Authorities are forcing people from homes they say were unlawfully built during a nationwide quarantine
Don Pacho has been running from the rival factions of Colombia’s civil war his whole life. Now, he’s running from the police, as authorities in the country’s capital push on with a wave of evictions despite a strict coronavirus lockdown.
Hundreds of Bogotá’s poorest residents are caught between two brutal forces: a nationwide quarantine that makes working impossible and authorities forcing people from homes they say were unlawfully built.
Continue reading...Refugees face violence and disease as they travel across the Red Sea hoping to find work in the Gulf states
Yellow and purple headscarves and patterned dresses made a jarring contrast with the camouflage uniforms worn by soldiers milling around a bullet-ridden checkpoint in the southern Yemeni city of Aden.
It was 8am, and the sun was already hot. The family of six – four women and two men from Ethiopia, across the Red Sea – had already walked eight miles (13km) so far that morning. They stopped to ask the soldiers for water before continuing on their journey.
Continue reading...Record-breaking rainfall has devastated communities – and with thousands displaced and more rain predicted the picture is bleak
Using a short piece of nylon line with a hook at one end and a long thin stick on the other, a mechanic and a nightclub doorman have only caught one small fish all day.
“I’ve never been a fisherman before,” says Erick Ochieng on the edge of a flooded creek in the port city of Kisumu on the banks of Lake Victoria. “I used to work as a bouncer but nightclubs have closed. Sometimes my family sleeps without eating.”
Continue reading...Officials voice concern as coronavirus halts annual programme in country already struggling against resurgence in cases
In April, almost 40 million children missed their polio drops in Pakistan after the cancellation of the nationwide vaccination campaign.
Alongside Afghanistan, Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world where polio is still endemic. It was very close to becoming polio free, with only 12 cases in 2018, but last year the number of cases rose to 147. In the same year, Pakistan was accused of covering up the resurgence of the P2 strain of the virus, which was thought to have been eradicated in 2014.
Continue reading...The Bangladeshi capital has had coronavirus restrictions since 26 March. Photographer Noor Alam, who lives in the city, has been documenting life in neighbourhoods where people can’t afford to stay at home
A deceptive calm has fallen over Dhaka. In this densely populated city of 21 million, the main roads are empty, the sounds of horns have disappeared and the polluted sky has cleared. But social distancing within our neighbourhoods is an illusion. We are all packed into the same bazaars and homes.
Continue reading...Jeanine Áñez has postponed elections, and her government, which mixes militarism with religious zeal, is accused of persecuting political opponents
As locked-down Bolivians looked to the skies this Easter, they were met with an unusual sight. Cassock-wearing priests, some wielding statues of the apostles, sprinkled holy water and blessings over four cities from circling air force helicopters.
The episode encapsulated the uneasy mix of militarism and religious zeal that has defined six months of the caretaker presidency of Jeanine Áñez. A little-known evangelical politician from Bolivia’s tropical lowlands, Áñez was catapulted to power last November with one job: to hold new elections as soon as possible.
Continue reading...