Category Archives: Global development

Djibouti: scores feared dead after two migrant boats overturn

Posted on by

Coastguard warns death toll will rise, as UN reveals six migrants die at sea each day

Scores of people are feared to have drowned off the coast of Djibouti after two migrant boats capsized, amid new warnings from the UN that six people a day die on maritime smuggling routes to Europe and elsewhere.

According to the International Organization for Migration, the alarm was raised over the latest incident after two survivors were recovered. As the search for more survivors continued, the IOM said on Wednesday that 38 people had been confirmed dead.

Continue reading...

The miracle method for sustainable rice that scientists dismissed | John Vidal

Posted on by

A technique developed by a Jesuit priest is producing bigger harvests – and reducing emissions of a crop responsible for 1.5% of greenhouse gases

The fragrant jasmine rice growing on the left side of Kreaougkra Junpeng’s five-acre field stands nearly five feet tall.

Each plant has 15 or more tillers, or stalks, and the grains hang heavy from them. The Thai farmer says this will be his best-ever harvest in 30 years and he will reap it four weeks earlier than usual.

Continue reading...

Indonesia to let UN workers into West Papua as violence continues

Posted on by

UNHCHR wants access after Indonesian military crackdown in response to guerrilla attack

Indonesia has agreed in principle to allow the UN office of the human rights commissioner into West Papua amid continuing violence in the region.

The long-running low-level insurgency violently escalated late last year, after West Papuan guerrillas attacked a construction site in Nduga, killing at least 17 people they claimed were Indonesian military but who Jakarta insists were civilian workers.

Continue reading...

Arrests made in Sicily over suspected sex trafficking of girls from Nigeria

Posted on by

Authorities believe trafficking ring lured young women to Italy to force them into prostitution

Sicilian authorities have made a series of arrests after a suspected sex trafficking ring was believed to have forced at least 15 Nigerian girls into prostitution in Italy.

Among those arrested were two Nigerian women, Rita Ihama, 38, and Monica Onaigfohe, aged 20, who police believe organised the trafficking of the women from Libya to Italy. An Italian national, Giovanni Buscemi, was also arrested on suspicion of helping facilitate the trafficking and exploitation of the girls.

Continue reading...

Breast-ironing: British peer to raise issue in parliament

Posted on by

Leading QC Alex Carlile hopes to force wider scrutiny of the practice after Guardian revealed ‘dozens’ of girls subjected to abusive custom

A British peer is to table questions in parliament on the secretive practice of “breast-ironing”, after the Guardian revealed that the abusive intervention is spreading in the UK.

Alex Carlile, one of the UK’s leading QCs who is a former deputy high court judge and a member of the House of Lords, told the Guardian that he hoped to trigger a wider scrutiny of the practice in the UK.

Continue reading...

‘It kills within hours’: two die as cholera outbreak spreads in Ugandan capital

Posted on by

Health officials battle to stop disease spreading in Kampala slums with lack of toilets and poor sanitation made worse by heavy rains

Two people have died in a new cholera outbreak in the overcrowded slums of Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

The ministry of health confirmed at the weekend that there were 43 suspected cases of cholera in the city and that two people had died. It said an emergency isolation unit had been set up.

Continue reading...

Leading UK child health body under fire over baby milk sponsorship

Posted on by

Royal College of Paediatrics urged to rethink conference funding amid claims deal contravenes World Health Organization code

The Royal College of Paediatrics has been accused of breaching World Health Organization guidance after it accepted sponsorship funding from baby formula companies.

More than 100 medics and 13 health groups have written to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), urging it to drop Nestlé, Nutricia and Danone from the list of sponsors for its first international conference, to be held in Cairo on 29 January.

Continue reading...

‘We are afraid’: Brazilian women alarmed at relaxation of gun laws

Posted on by

Bolsonaro’s move allowing more people to own firearms is causing unease in a society where domestic violence is rife

A pledge to make it easier for “good citizens” to buy guns for self-defence helped sweep Jair Bolsonaro to power. But there is alarm that the Brazilian president’s decree loosening firearms laws will make pervasive violence against women even worse – and more deadly.

“I believe this is a very negative measure that will lead more women to be threatened by violence,” said Maria da Penha, the women’s rights activist whose case changed Brazil’s domestic violence laws. “This decree should be reviewed.”

Continue reading...

Breast-ironing: ‘the whole community needs an education’

Posted on by

Practice that aims to slow girls’ physical development is both ineffective and dangerous, say doctors

In a quiet suburban house on the outskirts of a city in northern England, Maureen* – a mother of two in her late 30s – sits cradling a large dark stone in the palm of her hand.

She had just been using it to crush spices for a family meal. But a few years ago, she was using it for a very different purpose.

Continue reading...

Revealed: ‘dozens’ of girls subjected to breast-ironing in UK

Posted on by

Perpetrators consider it a traditional measure to stop unwanted male attention

An African practice of “ironing” a girl’s chest with a hot stone to delay breast formation is spreading in the UK, with anecdotal evidence of dozens of recent cases, a Guardian investigation has established.

Community workers in London, Yorkshire, Essex and the West Midlands have told the Guardian of cases in which pre-teen girls from the diaspora of several African countries are subjected to the painful, abusive and ultimately futile practice.

Continue reading...

Does the Home Office really think the migration crisis is a laughing matter? | Rod Austin

Posted on by

In a giggle-strewn radio interview, MP Victoria Atkins struggled to explain Britain’s inaction over people arriving by boat

When is a crisis not a crisis? Perhaps when no one takes it seriously. The minister for crime, safeguarding and vulnerability, Victoria Atkins, fumbled for words in an interview when asked to explain the Home Office’s inability to tackle the rise in people using dinghies in an a bid to reach Britain from France.

The lack of clarity in Atkins’ response as to why border force boats were still in their respective ports three weeks after the crisis began was peppered with bouts of nervous laughter as she announced: “They are on their way!”

Continue reading...

‘These children are crucial’: teaching forgiveness in CAR’s besieged camps

Posted on by

With peace talks starting this week in Khartoum, a quarter of the population of the Central African Republic have had to leave their homes – some into camps where makeshift teaching facilities offer hope to a potentially lost generation

Marie was fast asleep when the rebels came. “They wanted to kill all the men,” she says, “and to destroy our homes.”

Three militants burst into her room then moved to the next house, leaving her screaming in terror but unscathed. In a conflict zone where rape is routinely used as a weapon of war, other girls were less fortunate that night. She was just 12.

Continue reading...

Police arrest 19 people over FGM gang attacks on women in Uganda

Posted on by

Critics say police should have acted earlier on reports of forceful mutilation of more than 400 women in a month by armed groups

Sixteen men and three women have been arrested for allegedly aiding and abetting female genital mutilation (FGM) in eastern Uganda after reports of gangs attacking women in the region.

The suspects were taken into custody earlier this week after joint police and military operations in Kween district. The arrests followed local media reports of more than 400 women, some as young as 12, being mutilated by force by local gangs in the past month.

Continue reading...

Tiger poachers arrested by Thai police were part of Vietnamese gang

Posted on by

Police investigating discovery of animal’s remains warn of organised crime threat to Thailand’s tiger population

Thai authorities investigating the discovery of the remains of a wild tiger in a taxi have warned that organised crime gangs are behind the capture and slaughter of Thailand’s endangered tiger population.

Police, acting on a tip-off from a cab driver, arrested two men suspected of being members of a Vietnam-based syndicate involved in the trafficking of animal parts. The tiger was found in their luggage along with mobile phones containing photographs of the animal being killed.

Continue reading...

Omar al-Bashir launches media crackdown as Sudan protests continue

Posted on by

Five journalists held at undisclosed locations and dozens more arrested and released, with media blackout expected to worsen

The government of Omar al-Bashir in Sudan has launched an “alarming” crackdown on journalists covering weeks of protests against the regime.

At least five reporters have been detained by the national intelligence security services and are being held at undisclosed locations. Dozens of others have been arrested and held before being released.

Continue reading...

MPs pass counter-terror bill amendments to protect aid workers

Posted on by

Move follows calls to exempt people working in conflict zones from bill that would make it an offence to visit terror hotspots

MPs have passed amendments to the government’s latest counter-terrorism bill to try to protect British aid workers and journalists from facing criminal charges in conflict zones.

The controversial draft bill, aimed at tackling Isis fighters travelling abroad, allows the home secretary to declare somewhere a “designated area” and make it an offence for UK nationals and residents to be there. The bill orginally allowed individuals – including humanitarian workers, journalists and academics – to be investigated by the police and ultimately face 10 years in prison.

Continue reading...

Tired of dark fields and jeering men: the bride who led a ‘toilet revolution’ | Amrit Dhillon

Posted on by

Komal Hadala’s hellish treks to relieve herself inspired a campaign that left her Indian village flushed with success

The day after her wedding, Komal Hadala was shaken awake at 4am by her mother-in-law. They joined a group of women who were waiting outside the house, in Nithora village, Uttar Pradesh.

“It was the time when they went outdoors to relieve themselves in the fields before men started appearing. I couldn’t believe it. It was total darkness outside. And it had been raining,” says Hadala.

Continue reading...

Record private jet flights into Davos as leaders arrive for climate talk

Posted on by

Experts predict up to 1,500 individual private flights in and out of airfields serving Swiss ski resort for World Economic Forum

David Attenborough might have urged world leaders at Davos to take urgent action on climate change, but it appears no one was listening. As he spoke, experts predicted up to 1,500 individual private jets will fly to and from airfields serving the Swiss ski resort this week.

Political and business leaders and lobbyists are opting for bigger, more expensive aircrafts, according to analysis by the Air Charter Service, which found the number of private jet flights grew by 11% last year.

Continue reading...

How can we take power away from criminal gangs? Legalise drugs | Martin Drewry

Posted on by

Prohibition makes our world a more dangerous place, trapping people in poverty

I have spoken out on many issues during my career, but there is one that leaders in poorer countries passionately lobby me to campaign on: the prohibition of drugs.

The “war on drugs” is harming the most vulnerable and criminalising poverty. It is not a war on drugs – despite decades of prohibition, drug production and consumption is on the increase globally – it is a war on the poor. Prohibition damages people and the planet.

Continue reading...