Despite talk of a Taliban ban, in Helmand’s poppy fields farmers and traders say they are not the only ones who depend on the drug to survive
The Taliban’s announcement that it plans to ban the production of opium in Afghanistan does not faze seasoned dealer Ahmed Khan*.
“They could not fund their war if there were no opium,” says Khan, who operates out of Baramcha, close to the border with Pakistan.
Continue reading...Malls, restaurants and arcades in the Philippines capital are packed with children as Covid curbs ease
Ten-year-old Gabriel Estrella beams as he talks about T-shirts he bought on his first day out at a shopping mall after nearly two years of staying away due to coronavirus restrictions in the Philippines.
“Before the pandemic, buying T-shirts used to be boring,” he said, sweaty after playing with his eight-year-old sister. “Now, it’s exciting! I bought four shirts. They’re anime shirts.
Continue reading...Lax punishments, police inaction and inadequate laws serve to embolden abusers, say campaigners – and stark figures bear them out
When a woman reported domestic violence in her building in the Athens suburb of Dafni in July, it took 25 minutes for the police to arrive. All the neighbours could hear Anisa’s husband abusing her but the police officers did not bother to get out of the patrol car. “They just rolled down their car windows and left,” Anisa’s neighbour angrily wrote on Facebook that evening. “No stress, guys. Television only cares about the bodies. So when he kills her, I’ll tell a television channel to call you.”
Less than three weeks later, Anisa was dead, murdered by her husband. Neither can be named in full as the case has yet to reach trial. In a statement to police, the perpetrator described how he was overcome with jealousy after Anisa allegedly cheated on him. “I took the knife with my right hand and entered her room. She was sleeping, and I rushed to her and lay on her, stabbing her with the knife in her neck,” he said. He later retracted his claim that Anisa was asleep when he killed her.
Continue reading...Cop26 summit focusing on slowing down global heating at expense of current impact on water-stressed regions, says head of WaterAid
A global water crisis is being ignored at Cop26 to the detriment of billions of people’s lives, according to the charity WaterAid.
Water had not had “nearly enough” attention at the climate conference in Glasgow, with urgent action needed, said Tim Wainwright, chief executive of WaterAid.
Continue reading...The dwindling flow of the Euphrates River combined with Turkey’s occupation of Alouk water station has disrupted access to water for 460,000 people
Riders trying to get fuel from a leaking tanker were among 100 killed when it exploded. It’s part of a bigger story of the struggle for survival in Sierra Leone, a country exploited by rich nations
More than 100 people were killed by an explosion in Freetown, Sierra Leone, last week, after a leaking fuel tanker collided with a lorry on a busy road in the capital city.
Many of those who died were young motorbike taxi drivers, after dozens of riders rushed to the leaking tanker to collect free petrol and were caught in the blast. The tanker and lorry drivers tried to keep people away but could not stop the crowd. Half an hour later, it was too late.
Continue reading...Children and families among those being warned to ‘go back to Minsk’ as police hostility and humanitarian crisis worsens
For two days the same looped recording has been blaring out from speakers on the Polish border: “Attention! Attention! Crossing the Polish border is legal only at border crossings.”
The ominous warning is directed at the thousands of asylum seekers massed in Belarus on the opposite side of the barbed wire running between the two countries.
Continue reading...Reports that British soldier confessed to Kenyan woman’s murder in 2012 have deeply affected relatives in Nanyuki
A vibrant sisal plant in a public cemetery on the outskirts of Nanyuki in Kenya marks the grave of Agnes Wanjiru, the woman allegedly murdered by a British soldier in March 2012.
It is easy to miss the grave due to heavy undergrowth in the unkempt cemetery.
Continue reading...New campaign will encourage survivors to access help and support in response to spate of femicides and rise in reports of abuse
Greece is to launch a public campaign urging victims of domestic violence to “speak up” after a spate of femicides whose ferocity has stunned the nation.
The country has seen a rise in domestic violence cases so far in 2021, accentuated by a number of brutal murders of women that have dominated media coverage as people from the arts and sports worlds – including the Olympic gold medallist Sofia Bekatourou – have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse.
Continue reading...Fabiola Campillai was shot in the face by a teargas canister as she walked to work in 2019 amid nationwide protests against social inequality. Now she is running for office as an independent
On a November evening two years ago, Fabiola Campillai stepped out into the fading sunshine to head for her night shift at a food processing plant.
For weeks, Chile had been racked by a wave of mass protests against social inequality, but there were few signs of demonstrators in Cinco Pinos, the quiet neighbourhood on the outskirts of Santiago where Campillai lives.
Continue reading...It is known as the resource curse: assets that should bring wealth and stability but instead lead to corruption and poverty. And for Nigeria, oil is the culprit
In Nigeria, oil has been more of a curse than a blessing. Weak institutions of state and poor governance in managing the vast revenues have led the country to fail to realise its full potential in a textbook example of what academics know as the “resource curse”.
First coined by Prof Richard Auty in 1994, the term refers to the inability of nations to use their windfall wealth to improve their population’s lot and bolster their economies. The rich natural resources bring corruption and poverty to a nation, rather than positive economic development and, counterintuitively, these countries end up with lower growth and development than those without natural resources.
Continue reading...Overstone Kondowe’s election hailed as ‘giant step forward’ in continent where people with albinism face stigma and attacks
The first Malawian with albinism to become an elected MP took his seat in the new parliament on Monday, making history in the southern African country. It also marks a significant milestone in a continent where people with the hereditary lack of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes face severe discrimination and physical attacks.
Overstone Kondowe, the 42-year-old son of a teacher, grew up in a village without any help to ease the pain in his sun-sensitive skin or glasses to aid his poor eyesight.
Continue reading...West African nation’s environment minister says richer countries must finally honour funding commitment made at Cop15 in 2009
Rich countries must hit their $100bn climate finance target in the last week of Cop26 or it will be catastrophic for the poorest nations suffering the most from the climate crisis, the Gambian environment minister has warned.
In an interview with the Guardian as he prepared to leave for Glasgow, Lamin B Dibba urged developed countries to finally honour the annual funding commitment that was made 12 years ago at the Copenhagen climate summit (Cop15) – but which has never been achieved.
Continue reading...More than 40 people have been found dead so far in disaster that has caused outrage in Nigeria
Several people still missing after the collapse of a partly constructed luxury apartment building in Lagos a week ago are now thought by officials clearing the debris to be dead – to the anguish of families at the site still searching for answers.
Only 15 people have survived, with 42 people found dead as of Sunday morning, in yet another deadly building collapse that has caused outrage in Nigeria and calls for recriminations against government and regulatory authorities.
Continue reading...Lack of doses and a reluctant public make government programme unfeasible, say health experts, with malaria and conflict posing greater risk to life
It will be “impossible” for Nigeria to meet its target of vaccinating 40% of its population by the end of the year because Covid is not being taken seriously, health experts have warned.
Fewer than 1.5% of the country’s 206 million population has been fully vaccinated. But with more people killed in conflict last year and substantially more recorded deaths from malaria than Covid in Nigeria, experts believe it is further down the list of concerns for many in the country.
Continue reading...Ahead of a UK exhibition of her photo series Journey in the Death Boat, Güliz Vural describes travelling with Syrians being smuggled to Greece from Turkey
Standing on a Turkish beach ready to join a group of Syrian refugees on an inflatable boat bound for Greece, the photojournalist Güliz Vural’s biggest fear was that the people traffickers organising the illegal crossing would not let her onboard.
If she had known that within a few hours of leaving Turkey she would be under arrest, accused of people trafficking herself, she would have thought twice about the journey.
The migrants carry the inflatable boat they will travel in down to the beach. They had to leave all their possessions as they crammed themselves in. Nearly 50 Syrians made the crossing in a boat designed to carry 12 people, adding to the anxiety felt by the children in particular.
Continue reading...A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Hong Kong to Khartoum
Continue reading...As rivers run dry, the desperate search for water has led to a rise in domestic abuse, conflict and illness
All photos by Cyril Zannettacci/Agence Vu for Action Against Hunger
Continue reading...Cargo ship, carrying 382 migrants, was towed across the seas for four days before Athens was forced into a rescue after mayday call
It was hailed as the biggest search-and-rescue operation in the eastern Mediterranean for a decade. But the bid to save hundreds of refugees on a stricken ship in the Aegean Sea has led to allegations that the operation bore all the hallmarks of an illegal pushback before the Greek coastguard was forced to change tactics.
Only days after 382 asylum seekers disembarked on the island of Kos, criticism has mounted over their “unnecessarily prolonged” ordeal at sea.
Continue reading...Despite inexperience and few allies, Jaha Dukureh is offering people change and a break with the past in December’s election
Jaha Dukureh was a young mother of three with little campaigning experience when she started a movement in the Gambia to end female genital mutilation, backed by the Guardian.
In the seven years that followed she advised Barack Obama in the US, where she was then living, helped have FGM banned in her home country, was nominated for a Nobel peace prize and became a UN ambassador.
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