Category Archives: Global development

Avian flu outbreak in the Gambia threatens birds on East Atlantic Flyway

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Hundreds of dead birds found in past three weeks as conservationists call for international funding to help stop the disease spreading on migration routes

An outbreak of avian influenza in seabirds in the Gambia could affect vast numbers of birds migrating along the East Atlantic Flyway, unless international funding is secured, warn conservationists.

Teams from the West African Bird Study Association (Wabsa), the Gambia’s Department of Parks and Wildlife Management, and UK-based NGO Conservation Without Borders have buried hundreds of dead birds over the past three weeks, including some ringed birds from Europe.

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Hit TV drama sparks calls for reform of Egypt’s oppressive guardianship law

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Under Guardianship, broadcast during Ramadan, highlights the issues faced by women and children after the death of a father

Two Egyptian MPs have called for a review of the country’s guardianship law, prompted by the success of a TV drama broadcast during Ramadan.

On thursday, House representatives Amira El Adly and Mohamed Ismail submitted separate requests to the speaker of the house and to the justice minister to examine the impact of a law that critics say unfairly targets women and harms families.

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Uganda’s president refuses to sign new hardline anti-LGBTQ+ bill

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Yoweri Museveni sends bill imposing death penalty for homosexuality back to parliament for reconsideration

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has refused to sign into law a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill that imposes the death penalty for homosexuality, requesting that it be returned to parliament for reconsideration.

The decision was announced on Thursday after a meeting between the president and ruling party MPs who resolved to return the hardline bill to the national assembly “with proposals for its improvement”.

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‘Burhan and Hemedti are both genocidaires’: activists despair as Sudan violence surges

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Sudanese campaigners describe their fears amid escalating clashes between forces loyal to the two generals, as well as their anger over warnings ignored

The Sudanese people will continue to resist military forces that usurped the transition to democratic rule, says the protester who has become known as “the Spiderman of Sudan”.

The young teacher, who became known as “Spidey” for the costume he wore to protests against the military coup in 2021, said a friend had already been killed in heavy fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which erupted on Saturday.

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UN ready for ‘heartbreaking’ decision to pull out of Afghanistan

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Officials say it will leave in May if Taliban cannot be persuaded to let local women work for organisation

The UN is ready to take the “heartbreaking” decision to pull out of Afghanistan in May if it cannot persuade the Taliban to let local women work for the organisation, officials have said.

The warning comes after UN officials spent months negotiating with the group’s leaders in the hope of persuading them to make exceptions to a hardline edict this month barring local women from working for it, according to the head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Achim Steiner.

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IMF calls for ‘another Gleneagles moment’ on debt relief and aid

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Package similar to 2005 deal needed as struggling African countries suffer severe funding squeeze, says official

Western countries need to put together a debt relief and aid package to match that of the landmark Gleneagles summit deal in 2005 in order to counter a severe funding squeeze affecting struggling African countries, the International Monetary Fund has said.

Abebe Selassie, the director of the IMF’s African department, said without a scaling up of financial support some of the world’s poorest countries would have no chance of meeting the 2030 UN goals for poverty reduction.

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‘Terrifying’: Critics decry US plan to stop migrants at Darién Gap

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Deal with Colombia and Panama aims to halt refugees crossing the lawless jungle region, but some say dangers will only increase

A US-backed plan to stop migrants from crossing the lawless Darién Gap will likely fail and only push desperate people further into the hands of merciless people-trafficking organisations, migration experts have warned.

The US Department of Homeland Security announced on Tuesday that it had brokered a deal with the Colombian and Panamanian governments to halt migrants crossing the land bridge on their journey northward to the US.

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Ghana is first country to approve Oxford malaria vaccine

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Breakthrough hailed as highly effective R21 vaccine is cleared by west African country but questions remain over funding

Ghana has become the first country to approve a highly effective malaria vaccine developed at Oxford university in the UK.

The R21/Matrix-M vaccine, the first to exceed the World Health Organization’s target of 75% efficacy, has been cleared for use by Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority in children aged 5-36 months, the group at highest risk of death from malaria.

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Tories hail Greek migration policies as an example. Instead, they should serve as a warning

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Experience in eastern Mediterranean proves deterrence and harsh conditions do little to discourage refugees

Prominent Conservatives openly view Greece’s self-described “strict but fair” migration policies as a model to emulate. The former home secretary Priti Patel told MPs last week that “we would not be in this current situation” had she been allowed to replicate “Greek-style reception centres”.

British interest in the Greek model dates back to May 2021, when the former immigration minister Chris Philp made an “urgent” – as internal documents seen by the Guardian called it – trip to Greece. This was followed by an official visit by Patel in August 2021, who toured a newly constructed Greek camp, went out on patrol with the Greek coastguard and spoke of working “closely with Greek partners” on migration.

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Gun battles erupt in Ethiopia as PM axes Amhara region’s security force

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The country’s second-biggest state has been riven by mass street protests, armed clashes between local police and the federal military as well as the fatal shooting of two aid workers

Gun battles and mass protests have engulfed parts of Amhara, Ethiopia’s second-biggest region, after a move to centralise the regional security forces of the country’s 11 states.

The federal government announced the policy last Thursday, in pursuit of building “a strong centralised army”. People from several towns in Amhara responded with protests, while some units of the region’s security forces refused to disarm and clashed with the federal military.

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Swimming pools of the rich driving city water crises, study says

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Pools and well-watered gardens at least as damaging as climate emergency or population growth

The swimming pools, well-watered gardens and clean cars of the rich are driving water crises in cities at least as much as the climate emergency or population growth, according to an analysis.

The researchers said the vast difference in water use between rich and poor citizens had been largely overlooked in seeking solutions to water shortages, with the focus instead on attempts to increase supply and higher prices for water. They said the only way to protect water supplies was by redistributing water resources more equally.

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African film-makers reimagine folktales as dark fantasy dramas for Netflix

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The six films include the tale of an ogre who preys on women, a sci-fi Nigeria taken over by AI, and a girl on a mission to end drought

Traditional African tales of monsters, genies and malevolent spirits have been reworked for a contemporary audience in a new Netflix series.

Film-makers from Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Mauritania and Uganda have turned six traditional stories into dark fantasy dramas that cover topics including domestic violence, suicide and child marriage.

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Water ban in drought-stricken Tunisia adds to growing crisis

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Risk of unrest rises amid fourth dry year, poor grain harvest, weak economy and likely food subsidy cuts

Tunisia has introduced water rationing as the country suffers its fourth year of severe drought.

The state water distribution company, Sonede, has already begun cutting mains water supplies every night between 9pm and 4am. The agriculture ministry has now banned the use of water for irrigation, watering green spaces and other public areas, and for washing cars.

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Ugandan president calls on Africa to ‘save the world from homosexuality’

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Museveni says homosexuality is ‘danger to procreation of human race’ at Entebbe conference hosted by US anti-LGBTQ+ hate group


The Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, has called on African leaders to reject “the promotion of homosexuality”, suggesting he will sign into law a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which was passed by parliament last month.

The bill, which imposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and life imprisonment for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”, has been widely criticised internationally, with the UN high commissioner for human rights urging the president not to sign it.

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Abusive working conditions endemic in Spain’s strawberry farms, report claims

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UK supermarkets heavily reliant on strawberries from southern Spain, where workers allege they are regularly underpaid, have passports withheld and are forced to live in unsanitary shacks

Abusive conditions are endemic in parts of Spain’s fruit sector, a new report alleges, with workers telling the Guardian they have been regularly underpaid and forced to live in dilapidated shacks.

During the winter, at least 60% of strawberries eaten in the UK are likely to be from vast farms across the south-west Spanish province of Huelva. In 2020, the UK imported €310m (£272m) worth of the fruit from the Andalucia region, of which 91% is believed to be grown in Huelva.

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Brazil may sue VW amid claims firm used ‘slave labour’ under military rule

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Prosecutors seek compensation for workers kept on cattle ranch owned by German carmaker during dictatorship from 1973 to 1987

Brazil is threatening to take the German carmaker Volkswagen to court over allegations that it used slave labour on a vast ranch in the Amazon, after talks on compensating workers ended without agreement.

Public prosecutors in Brazil are seeking compensation for men who they say were forced to work in “humiliating and degrading” conditions, with no clean water or sanitation, on the Fazenda Vale do Rio Cristalino cattle ranch, which was owned by the company in the northern Pará state, between 1973 and 1987.

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Victory over big pharma opens door to cheaper tuberculosis drugs

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India’s patent office turns down bedaquiline extension to Johnson & Johnson, clearing the way for generic versions

People with drug-resistant tuberculosis in India could soon have access to critical medication at a far lower cost after the authorities rejected US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson’s application to extend a patent.

The firm wanted to extend its patent on bedaquiline, which expires in July, until 2027, which would have prevented cheaper generic versions reaching the market.

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Security guards in Qatar still being paid as little as 35p an hour

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Fifa and Qatar claimed the World Cup would transform workers’ rights, but 100 days on from the final, the Guardian has found that for some it has become worse

Security guards employed by a company with contracts at sites linked to the World Cup in Qatar are allegedly still being paid as little as 35 pence an hour, four months after the Guardian first revealed their plight.

In a Guardian investigation, published on the eve of the World Cup, the guards alleged they were being subjected to abusive practices, including overtime pay below the legal minimum. Interviews this month with security guards employed by Al Nasr Star Security Services at multiple sites suggests the issue of illegal pay remains.

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Founder of Afghan girls’ school project arrested in Kabul

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Matiullah Wesa, head of Pen Path, beaten and arrested outside a mosque after prayers

The founder of a project that campaigned for girls’ education in Afghanistan has been detained by Taliban authorities in Kabul, his brother and the UN have said.

The Taliban government last year barred girls from attending secondary school, making Afghanistan the only country in the world where there is a ban on education.

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Haiti faces ‘hunger emergency’ amid escalating gang violence and surging inflation

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Acute hunger is affecting 4.9 million Haitians, according to a UN report, which outlines the increased need for humanitarian aid

Haitians are increasingly desperate for humanitarian aid as gang violence engulfing the country has left nearly half the population regularly going hungry, a World Food Programme (WFP) report has found.

“These are the worst conditions on record,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP’s Haiti director. “Food insecurity in Haiti has been going downhill and Haiti is sliding into a hunger emergency.”

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