Category Archives: Global development

Catastrophic conditions greet refugees arriving on Lesbos

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EU countries need to act urgently to support Greece with ‘unmanageable’ levels of arrivals, UN warns

It’s just getting light on the north coast of Lesbos and in an olive grove by the side of the road a group of refugees are breaking up branches and feeding a fire to keep the children warm. They are a small group, 25 people, all of them from Afghanistan. They climbed out of a boat on the shore at 1.30am and lit the fire while they called for help.

Jalila is 18 and has travelled to the Greek island alone from Afghanistan. “But these people in the boat are my new family” she says cheerily. She is in good spirits, though shivering uncontrollably.

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UN sounds alarm over unprecedented levels of hunger in southern Africa

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Women and children bear brunt as drought and extreme weather leave tens of millions short of food

Southern Africa is in the throes of a climate emergency, with hunger levels in the region on a previously unseen scale, the UN has warned.

Years of drought, widespread flooding and economic disarray have left 45 million people facing severe food shortages, with women and children bearing the brunt of the crisis, said the World Food Programme (WFP).

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One in four countries beset by civil strife as global unrest soars

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Researchers predict worldwide turmoil will continue in 2020, with Venezuela, Iran and Libya at greatest risk

A quarter of all countries experienced a dramatic surge in civil unrest last year in a worrying trend that is likely to continue into 2020, researchers have found.

Verisk Maplecroft, a leading risk analysis and strategic forecasting company, said in a report published on Thursday that 47 countries experienced a significant rise in the number of protests over the course of the past year. Hong Kong, Chile, Nigeria, Sudan, Haiti and Lebanon were among the states affected.

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Nigeria’s child development crisis is a tragedy. Here’s how we can end it

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Investment in health and education and an end to early marriage could transform Africa’s most populous country

If you want a window on the condition of children in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, there is no better vantage point than the Katanga health centre in the impoverished northern state of Jigawa.

In a hut that passes for a nutrition clinic, a group of 25 women wait with their children. Tiny bodies bearing the hallmarks of acute malnutrition – distended stomachs and twig-thin limbs – are lifted into a weighing harness and their arms measured to check for signs of wasting. Ali, who has just reached his first birthday, weighs only 5kg – the average age of a two-month-old in the UK. His mother is 14.

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How vegetarianism is going back to its roots in Africa

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Health and climate concerns are behind the growth of plant-based diets which were once prevalent on the continent

In the meat-loving capital of Burkina Faso, customers at a small roadside joint eat bean balls, grilled tofu skewers and peanut butter rice while a report about chickens unfit for consumption being dumped on the street airs on the midday news.

A sign above the door proudly welcomes customers: “Vegetarian restaurant Nasa. Food for the love of health.” In Ouagadougou’s first plant-based restaurant, there are no knives on the tables.

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‘The dates are drying’: profits shrivel for farmers as the heat rises in Tunisia

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Irrigation systems and oases in the arid south are failing to keep up with the demands of thirsty palm plantations

Mansour Rajeb is wrapping a plastic protective sheet around the branch of a date palm in his oasis near the village of Bchelli, in southern Tunisia. Tying it up, he lingers.

“I’m worried,” he says. “The quality is getting worse. The dates are getting drier.”

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Malawi police face legal action over failure to investigate alleged rapes

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Lawyers move to make headway with inquiry into accusations of police abuses during post-election violence

A group of lawyers in Malawi is taking legal action against the police for failing to investigate allegations of rape against their officers during post-election protests.

Mphatso Iphani, a spokesperson for the Women Lawyers Association of Malawi, said that three months since the alleged attacks, “no concrete action has been taken, despite the sheer amount of evidence that the girls and women were assaulted”.

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US states move to stop prisons charging inmates for reading and video calls

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Draft bill aims to curb rise of pay-per-minute ebooks and costly facetime calls in prisons where visits are banned or restricted

Lawmakers in three US states are drafting a bill that they hope will end the growing trend of prisons charging inmates high fees for reading ebooks or making video calls to their families, while paying under a dollar an hour for prison labour.

State prisons in nine states have struck deals with private equity telecom companies to introduce pay-per-minute reading and video conferencing services in their facilities.

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‘No debate, no democracy’: journalists in Nepal fight new threat to press freedom

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Bills introduced by ruling Communist party will bring in heavy fines and the threat of jail to stifle debate, say critics

Jail terms of up to five years could be imposed on people in Nepal who post “offensive” comment on social media sites, including Facebook and Instagram in the latest move by the government to crack down on dissent.

The information technology bill, introduced at the end of December, imposes fines of up to 1.5m rupees (about $13,000) for anyone posting content deemed to promote hate crime or ridicule. It would apply to all social networking sites.

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Trapped on Lesbos: the child refugees waiting to start a new life

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Thousands of children are living in appalling conditions on the Greek island. At the Moria camp, one Syrian teenager tells of trying to join his family in the UK

Outside the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos, a shanty town made of tarpaulin strung between olive trees is getting bigger every week. There are now 18,000 people living in this second camp, designed for just over 2,000.

Ahmed (not his real name), 17, and his friend Musa wind their way up muddy tracks towards their tent, swerving to avoid groups of children running in flip-flops through the dirt.

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Uganda’s thirst for hydropower raises fears for environment

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Murchison Falls is a magnet for tourism but energy projects, not least a possible dam, threaten the wildlife haven

Along the road that takes you into Murchison Falls national park, animals once roamed freely. Narrow roads provided the perfect environment for them, so “they [didn’t] feel like they are in a foreign land”, says tour operator Everest Kayondo.

But not any more. The park’s lush forest is being uprooted and red trucks and yellow diggers stand ready to pave the road – and the way for new energy projects.

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Ballooning debt forces poor countries to cut public spending

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Congo-Brazzaville and Chad among hardest hit as campaigners warn spiralling repayments could trigger disaster

Poorer countries are cutting public spending in response to a “growing debt crisis”, campaigners have warned.

Debt in some countries has trebled according to new figures that calculate debt reimbursements, and their impact on government expenditure, in 60 countries.

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Police in Bangladesh make arrest in connection with alleged rape of student

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Dhaka University demonstrators demand prompt action following reported rape of 21-year-old woman

Police in Bangladesh have arrested a man in connection with the alleged rape of a student at Dhaka University amid angry protests on campus.

More than 2,000 students and human rights activists – some brandishing placards asking: “Tell me, am I next?” – demonstrated this week following the alleged rape of the 21-year-old student. They demanded the death penalty for anyone found guilty of rape.

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Norway opens its doors to 600 people evacuated from Libya to Rwanda

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Refugees and asylum seekers who found respite in Rwanda camp after escaping conflict in Libya will be resettled in Norway

Hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers evacuated from Libyan detention centres to a transit camp in Rwanda are to be resettled this year in Norway, according to Rwanda’s foreign minister.

Speaking at a news conference in Kigali on Wednesday, Rwanda’s foreign minister Vincent Biruta said the African nation was currently hosting more than 300 refugees and asylum seekers at the Gashora transit centre south of Kigali, most of whom hail from Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea, according to CGTN Africa.

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Britain must spearhead action against sexual violence or relinquish the reins

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Only with senior government backing can the inertia gripping the global fight against sexual abuse in conflict be arrested

Rape and other forms of sexual violence in conflict are deliberate crimes against humanity, employed as a tactic of war and terrorism to systematically brutalise entire populations.

They are entirely preventable, which is why I launched the preventing sexual violence in conflict initiative (PSVI) in 2012 with UNHCR special envoy Angelina Jolie. From the start, we emphasised the crucial importance of addressing impunity. Without a realistic chance of justice being done, potential perpetrators of these crimes are unlikely to be deterred and the cycle of violence will continue.

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Aid workers toil amid crisis and corruption to give Venezuelans the drugs they need

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In Venezuela, hospitals lack the basics and medicine shortages are common, forcing humanitarian groups to pick up the slack

Feliciano Reyna masterminds a drug running network that spans Venezuela. His organisation moves substances through ports, trucks them across the country, and deliver them into customers’ hands. But he is not on any DEA watchlist.

“I am the biggest dealer in Venezuela,” says Reyna – though he is quick to qualify the remark – “If we’re talking about legal drugs.”

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‘They don’t help’: refugees condemn UN over failures that drove them to sea

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Pregnant women and children among dozens forced into perilous Mediterranean crossing to escape overcrowded centre in Libya

Dozens of people who were put under pressure to leave a failing EU-funded UN refugee agency centre in Tripoli have used smugglers to cross the sea to Italy in the last month, according to refugees and aid workers.

One Somali man who spoke to the Guardian said he was among a group of more than 50 who left Libya in November and December and were rescued by ships including the Ocean Viking, the Médecins Sans Frontières and SOS Méditerranée ship, in the Mediterranean. He is now in Italy.

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Hague and Jolie’s sexual violence scheme ‘letting survivors down’

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MPs blame failure to sustain momentum following William Hague’s departure from Foreign Office for project falling ‘far short’

A high-profile UK government programme to tackle sexual violence in conflict zones – launched by former foreign secretary Lord William Hague and Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie – has been criticised for falling far short of its ambitions and letting survivors down.

A review, published on Thursday by the aid watchdog, found that waning ministerial interest, severe funding cuts and a lack of senior leadership meant the scheme “never had a strategic vision” and as a result “nothing [was] done to translate … pledges into practical action”.

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Water wars: early warning tool uses climate data to predict conflict hotspots

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Tension over water scarcity is increasing across the globe. A new system flags up where this threatens to erupt into violence

Researchers from six organisations have developed an early warning system to help predict potential water conflicts as violence associated with water surges globally.

The Dutch government-funded Water, Peace and Security (WPS) global early warning tool, which was presented to the UN security council before it was launched formally last month, combines environmental variables such as rainfall and crop failures with political, economic and social factors to predict the risk of violent water-related conflicts up to a year in advance.

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