Category Archives: Global development

Trump’s first 100 days supercharged a global ‘freefall of rights’, says Amnesty

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World now in era of repressive regimes’ impunity, climate inaction and unchecked corporate power, says report

The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have “supercharged” a global rollback of human rights, pushing the world towards an authoritarian era defined by impunity and unchecked corporate power, Amnesty International warns today.

In its annual report on the state of human rights in 150 countries, the organisation said the immediate ramifications of Trump’s second term had been the undermining of decades of progress and the emboldening of authoritarian leaders.

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Lifesize herd of puppet animals begins climate action journey from Africa to Arctic Circle

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The Herds project from the team behind Little Amal will travel 20,000km taking its message on environmental crisis across the world

Hundreds of life-size animal puppets have begun a 20,000km (12,400 mile) journey from central Africa to the Arctic Circle as part of an ambitious project created by the team behind Little Amal, the giant puppet of a Syrian girl that travelled across the world.

The public art initiative called The Herds, which has already visited Kinshasa and Lagos, will travel to 20 cities over four months to raise awareness of the climate crisis.

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Tanzania opposition officials arrested as Tundu Lissu refuses to appear in court

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Chadema spokesperson says party’s vice-chair John Heche and secretary general John Mnyika held on way to protest over treason charges

Tanzania’s main opposition party said on Thursday at least two of its officials had been arrested on their way to a rally to support the leading government opponent Tundu Lissu, who refused to appear at a virtual court hearing to face a charge of treason.

Authorities in the east African country have increasingly cracked down on the opposition Chadema party ahead of presidential and parliamentary polls in October.

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Move over, Med diet – plantains and cassava can be as healthy as tomatoes and olive oil, say researchers

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Findings from Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region indicate traditional eating habits in rural Africa can boost the immune system and reduce inflammation

Plantains, cassava and fermented banana drink should be added to global healthy eating guidelines alongside the olive oil, tomatoes and red wine of the Mediterranean diet, say researchers who found the traditional diet of people living in Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region had a positive impact on the body’s immune system.

Traditional foods enjoyed in rural villages also had a positive impact on markers of inflammation, the researchers found in a study published this month in the journal Nature Medicine.

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EU will struggle to fill gap left by USAID as European countries cut their budgets

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NGOs warn of ‘some difficult years’ ahead as increasing humanitarian needs meet shrinking finances

The dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has captured headlines, but “very regrettable” reductions in European aid budgets are also contributing to a void in support for some of the poorest people in the world’s most fragile states, according to MEPs and NGOs.

Isabella Lövin, a deputy chair of the European parliament’s development committee, said USAID cuts would have “very dramatic consequences around the world”. But she also criticised recent decisions by EU member states to reduce their aid budgets as “very regrettable” and “wrong”. It would be impossible for the EU to fill the gap, she added.

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Leaked UN experts report raises fresh concerns over UAE’s role in Sudan war

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As crucial London peace talks set to begin, report seen by the Guardian raises questions over ‘multiple’ flights into bases in Chad

Pressure is mounting on the United Arab Emirates over its presence at a crucial conference in London aimed at stopping the war in Sudan after a leaked confidential UN report raised fresh questions over the UAE’s role in the devastating conflict.

The UAE has been accused of secretly supplying weapons to Sudanese paramilitaries via neighbouring Chad, a charge it has steadfastly denied.

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Sudan’s news blackout stokes fear and confusion after refugee camp attacks

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Families of those displaced wait for news from Darfur amid reports of hundreds killed by paramilitary RSF

Sudan’s information blackout has left relatives of those in Sudan’s Zamzam refugee camp struggling for news of their safety after it was overrun by militiamen at the weekend.

As leaders across the globe prepared to meet for peace talks in London to pressure the backers of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army to agree a ceasefire, the RSF launched a deadly assault, seizing Zamzam after weeks of tightening its siege.

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Bobi Wine to run for president in Uganda’s 2026 election ‘if I am still alive and not in jail’

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Exclusive: Opposition leader says he has ‘no choice’ but to challenge Yoweri Museveni’s regime, despite threats and previous attacks

The musician turned opposition leader Bobi Wine has said he will stand again against Uganda’s authoritarian leader, Yoweri Museveni, in next year’s presidential elections. Despite being jailed, attacked, shot, and facing threats of violence, including from Museveni’s son, Wine said he felt he had little choice but to try to advance the hope for change that was energising Ugandans, especially the young.

“We cannot just give the election to General Museveni,” he said, in an interview with the Guardian.

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‘Shame’ on world leaders for neglect of displaced civilians in DRC, says aid chief

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US and Europe criticised by head of Norwegian Refugee Council for ‘neglect’ of people living ‘subhuman’ existence

World leaders should be ashamed of their neglect of people whose lives were “hanging by a thread” at a time of surging violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the international charity leader Jan Egeland has said.

In a stinging attack on aid cuts and the “nationalistic winds” blowing across Europe and the US, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s head told the Guardian how people were living out in the open, in overcrowded, unsanitary displacement encampments around the city of Goma, where 1.2 million people have had to flee from their homes as the M23 rebels advanced through the DRC’s North and South Kivu provinces.

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World Bank announces multimillion-dollar redress fund after killings and abuse claims at Tanzanian project

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Communities in Ruaha national park reject response to alleged assault and evictions of herders during tourism scheme funded by the bank

The World Bank is embarking on a multimillion-dollar programme in response to alleged human rights abuses against Tanzanian herders during a flagship tourism project it funded for seven years.

Allegations made by pastoralist communities living in and around Ruaha national park include violent evictions, sexual assaults, killings, forced disappearances and large-scale cattle seizures from herders committed by rangers working for the Tanzanian national park authority (Tanapa).

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India trains thousands of medics to promote vaccine in huge push to end cervical cancer

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Vast scheme aims to counter disinformation and increase awareness in country where low HPV vaccine take-up means many die from the preventable disease

Tens of thousands of doctors across India are being trained to promote the HPV vaccine, in a push to eliminate cervical cancer in the country.

They will check with mothers attending medical appointments that they intend to vaccinate their daughters, and visit schools and community centres armed with facts and slideshows to counter vaccine disinformation.

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New images reveal extent of looting at Sudan’s national museum as rooms stripped of treasures

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Only a few statues remain, with thousands of priceless artefacts from Nubian and Kushite kingdoms missing

Videos of Sudan’s national museum showing empty rooms, piles of rubble and broken artefacts posted on social media after the Sudanese army recaptured the area from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in recent days show the extent of looting of the country’s antiquities.

Fears of looting in the museum were first raised in June 2023 and a year later satellite images emerged of trucks loaded with artefacts leaving the building, according to museum officials. But last week, as the RSF were driven out of Khartoum after two years of war, the full extent of the theft became apparent.

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Charity faces legal action after relocated elephants in Malawi allegedly kill 10 people

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People living near Kasungu national park say they are living in fear after translocation of 263 elephants by International Fund for Animal Welfare

People living on the edge of a protected area in Malawi are taking legal action against an NGO that moved more than 250 elephants into the area, which they say have killed at least 10 people.

Villagers near Kasungu national park, which is Malawi’s second largest and crosses the Zambian border, say they are living in fear for their livelihoods and safety after 263 elephants were introduced in July 2022, causing a sharp spike in human-wildlife conflict. Ten people claiming to be affected by the translocation from Liwonde national park have begun legal action against the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), demanding that the conservation NGO construct adequate fencing to protect the 167 villages around the park and compensate local people for the damage caused by the elephants.

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Violence and sexist harassment against female MPs ‘rife across Asia-Pacific’

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Report reveals scale of abuse faced by women in politics from countries such as Australia, India, Laos and Mongolia

Sexism, harassment and violence against women are rife in parliaments across the Asia-Pacific region, according to a damning report published on Tuesday that lays bare the scale of abuse faced by women in politics.

Based on interviews with 150 female MPs and parliamentary staff across 33 countries across the region – including Australia, Mongolia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Fiji and Micronesia – the study found that 76% of MPs and 63% of staff had experienced psychological gender-based violence, with 60% of MPs saying they had been targeted online by hate speech, disinformation and image-based abuse. An equal number of women were interviewed from each country.

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Drones, informers and apps: Iran intensifies surveillance on women to enforce hijab law

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Iranian police are using digital tools to identify and punish women who defy the Islamic state’s harsh dress code

Like many women in Iran, Darya is used to feeling under surveillance. Yet in recent months, the 25-year-old finance analyst from northern Tehran says that she never knows who could be watching her every move.

She says she has received messages from the police before warning her of suspected violations of the country’s strict hijab laws, but last November she was sent an SMS message containing her car registration plate that stated the exact time and place that she had been recorded driving without her head properly covered. Next time it happened, the SMS warned, her car would be impounded.

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Power struggle leads to coup in Tigray as war looms between Ethiopia and Eritrea

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Tigray’s interim leader flees as rival faction seizes control, while Ethiopian tanks and troops move to border of Eritrea

Aregawi was building a tour-guiding business when war struck Ethiopia’s Tigray region in 2020. He spent the next two years fighting on the frontline. Now he is among those who fear Tigray is on the brink of conflict once more.

“We don’t want to become a battleground, but it seems like war is near, maybe even inevitable,” he said.

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Women in business held back by mobile data’s cost in developing world – report

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Nearly half of female entrepreneurs surveyed by Cherie Blair Foundation for Women do not have regular internet access

The cost of a mobile data package is all that is holding back many female entrepreneurs in developing countries, according to recent research.

While social media marketing is reported to be crucial by female business owners who have access to it, 45% of women in business in low- and middle-income countries said they did not have regular internet access because of the expense and connection issues.

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Fears for human rights as Peru passes ‘simply brutal’ anti-NGO law

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Experts say legislation will prevent vulnerable people from accessing justice in latest government-backed crackdown

Human rights groups in Peru have voiced alarm over a controversial anti-NGO law that prevents civil society organisations from taking legal action against the state for human rights abuses – a move that activists say will prevent the vulnerable from accessing justice.

Peru’s deeply unpopular congress added a harsher amendment to an existing bill which was fast-tracked through the chamber with 81 votes in favour, 16 against and four abstentions on Wednesday.

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Israeli attacks on Gaza maternity wards and IVF clinic ‘genocidal acts’, says UN

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Israeli forces have used sexual violence as weapon to ‘dominate and destroy’ Palestinian people, report also says

Israel’s systemic attacks on women’s healthcare in Gaza amount to “genocidal acts”, and Israeli security forces have used sexual violence as a weapon of war to “dominate and destroy the Palestinian people”, a UN report states.

The 49-page report on sexual and gender-based violence was drawn up by the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem, and presented to the UN human rights council.

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Biased laws and poverty driving huge rise in female prisoners – report

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First such study finds laws on abortion, debt and dress help increase rate of women being jailed twice as fast as for men

Poverty, abuse and discriminatory laws are driving a huge rise in the number of women in prison globally, according to a new report.

With the rise of the far right and an international backlash against women’s rights, the research said there was a risk that laws would increasingly be used to target women, forcing more behind bars.

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