Category Archives: Global development

The young taxi bikers killed in Freetown’s fuel blast died trying to scrape a living | Jonah Lipton and James B Palmer

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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.

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‘Unacceptable’: migrants face ‘desperate situation’ at Poland-Belarus border

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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.

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‘She did not deserve to die like this’: family seeks justice for Kenyan woman allegedly killed by UK soldier

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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.

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Greek minister urges victims to ‘speak up’ amid wave of domestic violence

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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.

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‘I will never get my eyes back’: the Chilean woman blinded by police who is running for senate

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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.

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A wealth of sorrow: why Nigeria’s abundant oil reserves are really a curse

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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.

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Malawian campaigner makes history as country’s first elected MP with albinism

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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.

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Hit $100bn target or poor countries face climate disaster, the Gambia tells Cop26

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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.

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Lagos building collapse: those still missing now believed dead

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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.

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Nigeria unlikely to reach ‘impossible’ 40% Covid vaccine target

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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.

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‘A moment in history’: making a perilous sea-crossing with refugees – photo essay

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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.

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Kenya’s water crisis leaves villagers at risk of violence and disease – in pictures

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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

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Greece accused of ‘biggest pushback in years’ of stricken refugee ship

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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.

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‘It is what girls need’: the FGM activist hoping to be the Gambia’s president

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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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Noma: the hidden childhood disease known as the ‘face of poverty’

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This little known and preventable disease disfigures those it does not kill – and a new campaign hopes to raise awareness and eradicate it entirely

Warning: this article includes graphic images some readers may find disturbing

Fidel Strub was three when the inside of his cheek started to itch. After a few days, it felt like it was burning, then it began to smell as if it was rotting. A splitting headache came next before his whole body started to feel uncomfortably hot.

“I remember darkness came,” he says. “I had a hammering headache and a burning body. When I opened my eyes, any light stung them and it burned like hell. It was easier to close my eyes for less pain. I could do nothing but lie on the floor.”

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Vaccine certificates-for-sale scam undermines Lesotho’s Covid effort

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The documents, necessary for entry into bars and sporting venues, are being sold by unscrupulous health workers for less than £20

The Lesotho government’s plans to implement a Covid passport system this week are being undermined by widespread fraud involving certificates being sold to unvaccinated people.

Covid-19 vaccination certificates are being sold for less than £20 by unscrupulous health workers to the largely vaccine-averse population in Lesotho, where there has been little positive campaigning around the jabs.

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‘We run from men only to meet crocodiles’: Kenya’s drought is deadly for women

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As poverty and lost livelihoods fuel threats in the home, those who have found refuge still risk their lives walking miles in search of water

The setting sun brings a warm glow to the huts in the village of Umoja in Samburu county, Kenya. Christine Sitiyan sits outside her home with her beadwork, carefully running the thin thread through tiny bead holes, hoping she can finish the colourful belt she is making before darkness sets in. The traditional belt can fetch 3,000 Kenyan shillings (£20), enough to cover her needs for a month.

This tranquil scene is very different from her troubled past. Like many girls in her community, Sitiyan never finished school but was married off as a young teenager. Seven years later, with two children, she left her husband, unable to endure the beatings from a man she says could no longer fend for the family in an increasingly harsh environment.

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‘We will be homeless’: Lahore farmers accuse ‘mafia’ of land grab for new city

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The futuristic Ravi Riverfront City development, championed by Imran Khan’s government, has been met with determined opposition

It has been called Pakistan’s answer to Dubai, a brand new multitrillion-rupee development of towering skyscrapers, futuristic domes and floating walkways.

But Ravi Riverfront City, described as the “world’s largest riverfront modern city” also faces accusations of rampant land grabs by prime minister Imran Khan’s government, which has championed the project. Hundreds of thousands of farmers who could never afford to live in the modern urban utopia are now at risk of eviction.

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Nearly two-thirds of those who died young in 2019 were male, research finds

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Boys and young men neglected in efforts to tackle mortality in 10- to 24-year-olds, Lancet report says, with a failure to address violence, substance use and accidents

Boys and men are more likely than women to die as teenagers or young adults, according to new research that warns the gender gap in mortality rates for that age group is widening in many countries.

In 2019, boys and young men aged 10 to 24 accounted for nearly two-thirds (61%) of all global deaths.

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