Category Archives: Global development

‘I ran, my heart was broken’: inside Mozambique’s evolving Cabo Delgado conflict

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The oil firms have fled and an Isis-affiliated insurgency has engulfed the region. As foreign troops begin to arrive, hundreds of thousands face desperate journeys to try to find safety

  • Photographs by Ed Ram/The Guardian

Pencils scratch as students in year eight feverishly work through an exam paper. At the back of the classroom, Clara Edna Chevambo, 37, a minute figure in hand-me-down clothes, finishes first and hands her paper to the teacher. As she leaves, her 11-year-old daughter is arriving for afternoon class. A vegetable farmer who supported, clothed and fed five children, her mother and her grandmother, Chevambo is now living in a borrowed tent in a camp, one of the ones with something to do to fill a few hours.

“I’m in school every day, and I don’t want to miss class. I send my daughter to school every day.”

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Tropical Storm Grace’s heavy rains pour misery on Haiti earthquake survivors

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  • Flash flood and landslides complicate relief efforts
  • Power remains out with 50mm of rain an hour falling

Tropical Storm Grace has lashed southern Haiti with drenching rains, piling on misery for survivors of a powerful earthquake as flash floods and landslides further complicate relief efforts.

Related: Naomi Osaka to donate prize earnings to Haiti earthquake relief efforts

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Stop the east African oil pipeline now | Bill McKibben, Diana Nabiruma and Omar Elmawi

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The fate of a planned line from Uganda to Tanzania will be the first test of whether anyone was listening to António Guterres’ call to end fossil fuels

If there is one world leader trying to look out for the planet as a whole, not just their own nation, it’s the UN secretary general. Last week, António Guterres was resolute in the wake of the damning report from the IPCC on the perilious climate crisis. It should, he said, sound “a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet”.

He called for an end to “all new fossil fuel exploration and production”, and told countries to shift fossil fuel subsidies into renewable energy.

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‘The wounds won’t heal’: Kenya’s agonising wait for justice on killings by police

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Five years after Willie Kimani’s death, his father is still waiting for a resolution. But as killings continue, cases like his pile up within a crippled justice system

Paul Kinuthia will never forget the moment he saw his son’s body lying on the bank of the river he played in as a child. He threw his hands up in despair and begged God to intervene.

It has been five years since Kinuthia’s son, Willie Kimani, a lawyer, was murdered along with his client, Josephat Mwenda and driver, Joseph Muiruri, in Nairobi in June 2016. At the time, Kimani was representing Mwenda in court, after Mwenda had been shot and injured by police.

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‘Hidden pandemic’: Peruvian children in crisis as carers die

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With 93,000 children in Peru losing a parent to Covid, many face depression, anxiety and poverty

When Covid-19 began shutting down Nilda López’s vital organs, doctors decided that the best chance of saving her and her unborn baby was to put her into a coma.

Six months pregnant, López feared she would not wake up, or that if she did, her baby would not be there.

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Afghan women’s defiance and despair: ‘I never thought I’d have to wear a burqa. My identity will be lost’

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As city after city falls to the Taliban, women fear that the freedoms won since 2001 will be crushed

In a market in Kabul, Aref is doing a booming trade. At first glance, the walls of his shop seem to be curtained in folds of blue fabric. On closer inspection, dozens and dozens of blue burqas hang like spectres from hooks on the wall.

As the Taliban close in on Kabul, women inside the city are getting ready for what may be coming. “Before, most of our customers were from the provinces,” says Aref. “Now it is city women who are buying them.”

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Bollywood’s Kareena Kapoor subject to online abuse over baby’s name

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Supporters say attacks over choice of name similar to 17th-century Muslim Mughal emperor rooted in prejudice against inter-faith marriage

Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor has received abuse online from extremists over her new baby’s name.

Kapoor has been attacked on social media for calling her second son Jehangir, the imperial name of the 17th-century Mughal emperor, which means “conqueror of the world”. Kapoor, a Hindu, and her husband, Saif Ali Khan, a Muslim and also a Bollywood star, have faced abuse for their marriage.

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‘Maestro of humanity’: Italian surgeon Gino Strada dies at 73

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Tributes paid to doctor whose NGO set up world-class hospitals in war zones such as Iraq, Yemen and Sudan

Tributes have been paid to Gino Strada, the Italian surgeon and “maestro of humanity” known for setting up world-class hospitals for the victims of war, who has died aged 73.

The medic, who in 1994 co-founded the humanitarian organisation Emergency to provide free, quality healthcare for those injured in conflict, died on Friday in France, reports said.

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Pakistan police drop blasphemy charges against eight-year-old

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Hindu boy, accused of urinating in madrassa library, was youngest Pakistani to be charged for the crime

Police in Pakistan have dropped blasphemy charges against an eight-year-old Hindu boy after media and government pressure over his arrest.

The boy, the youngest Pakistani ever to be charged with the crime, was accused of intentionally urinating on a carpet in the library of a madrassa, where religious books were kept, in July.

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Zambia’s democracy at ‘tipping point’ as army deployed on polling day

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Fears grow that military presence and alleged restrictions on opposition campaign could tarnish reputation for fair elections

As Zambia goes to the polls today, fears are growing that political meddling in the process could push its long-treasured democracy towards a “tipping point”.

Zambia has long been considered a model of democracy for its neighbours. But today’s vote has been accompanied by a military deployment, while the run-up to the election has been marred by political violence and restrictions on opposition campaigning, analysts and human rights monitors have said.

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Lesotho’s PM isolating with Covid as cases ‘go unrecorded’

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Medics fear government is failing to gather data as ‘social media conspiracies’ slow vaccination take-up

Lesotho’s prime minister, Moeketsi Majoro, has said he is isolating after testing positive for Covid-19, as doctors warned that the true tally of cases in the country was going unrecorded.

Majoro tweeted that he had taken a travel-related test that came back positive.

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‘I’m scared of being killed’: sex worker activists speak out

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Rights defenders describe threats and abuse while working to protect their communities

A report has found that sex worker activists are among the most at risk human rights defenders in the world. Published on Thursday by Front Line Defenders following a four-year investigation, it found activists face multiple threats and violent attacks. Their visibility within their communities makes them more vulnerable to abuse, the report said.

Here, sex worker activists from Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and El Salvador share their experiences.

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Sex workers fighting for human rights among world’s most ‘at risk activists’

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Exclusive: Front Line Defenders report says rights defenders working in sex industry face ‘targeted attacks’ around the world

Sex worker activists are among the most at risk defenders of human rights in the world, facing multiple threats and violent attacks, an extensive investigation has found.

The research, published today by human rights organisation Front Line Defenders, found that their visibility as sex workers who are advocates for their communities’ rights makes them more vulnerable to the violations routinely suffered by sex workers. In addition, they face unique, targeted abuse for their human rights work.

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‘I worry my daughters will never know peace’: women flee the Taliban – again

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Families fearful of what will happen to girls and young women as the Islamist militants gain ground are joining the tens of thousands of displaced Afghans

It was an exceptionally hot summer morning, on 13 July, when people in Malistan district, in the southern Afghan province of Ghazni, woke up to find that the conflict that had swirled around them for weeks had reached their small town and Taliban fighters were closing in.

By noon that day, 22-year-old Fatima, seven months pregnant, was seeking shelter from bullets raining down on her home in the village of Qol-e Adam, which was caught in the vicious crossfire between Taliban militants and government forces.

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‘Sometimes I have to pick up a gun’: the female Afghan governor resisting the Taliban

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Salima Mazari, one of only three female district governors in Afghanistan, tells of her motivation to fight the militants

It is early morning in Charkint, in the northern Balkh province of Afghanistan, but a meeting with the governor is already well under way to urgently assess the safety of the 30,000 people she represents. Salima Mazari has been in the job for just over three years, and for her, fighting the Taliban is nothing new, but since July she has been meeting with the commanders of her security forces every day as the Islamist militants’ attacks across the country increase.

As one of only three female district governors in Afghanistan, Mazari has attracted attention simply by being a woman in charge. What sets the 40-year-old apart, particularly amid the recent wave of Taliban violence, is her hands-on military leadership. “Sometimes I’m in the office in Charkint, and other times I have to pick up a gun and join the battle,” she says.

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Efforts to pardon Chileans imprisoned during mass protests gathers pace

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Pardons bill gains significant support among Chileans who credit for 2019 protest for galvanising important reforms

Maribel Gaete could not shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen to her son, 19-year-old Bastian Campos, when he went to a protest in Antofagasta, Chile, in November 2019.

“Police were firing teargas; you couldn’t breathe. As soon as he shut the door, I began to worry,” recalled Gaete.

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‘Like I wasn’t a person’: Ethiopian forces accused of systematic rape in Tigray

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Mutilation, slavery and torture of women and girls detailed in accounts published by Amnesty, in what organisation says could amount to war crimes

  • Warning: this article contains graphic details of sexual violence that readers may find upsetting

Ethiopian government forces have been systematically raping and abusing hundreds of women and girls in the current conflict in Tigray, according to a new report from Amnesty International.

Adding to a growing body of evidence that rape is being used as a weapon of war in the northern region of Ethiopia, Amnesty’s research offers a snapshot of the extent of the crimes in an area where communications with the outside world have been deliberately restricted by federal authorities.

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‘Please pray for me’: female reporter being hunted by the Taliban tells her story

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A young female journalist describes the panic and fear of being forced into hiding as cities across Afghanistan fall

Two days ago I had to flee my home and life in the north of Afghanistan after the Taliban took my city. I am still on the run and there is no safe place for me to go.

Last week I was a news journalist. Today I can’t write under my own name or say where I am from or where I am. My whole life has been obliterated in just a few days.

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Canada: pressure on Catholic church to compensate victims of residential schools abuses

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  • Scale of church’s assets revealed in string of investigations
  • Discovery of unmarked graves prompts fresh reparations calls

The Catholic church in Canada has come under growing pressure to compensate victims of the country’s residential school system after the scale of its assets were revealed in a string of media investigations.

As part of a 2007 agreement, the church agreed to pay C$29m in compensation to survivors, but distributed only a fraction of that figure, citing poor fundraising efforts.

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Concern grows in Kenya after alarming rise in suicide cases

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Mental ill-health and ‘warped’ notions of masculinity among reasons mooted for rise of nearly 50% in a year

There is growing alarm in Kenya over a shocking rise in the number of suicides in the country.

Almost 500 people are reported to have killed themselves in the three months to June this year, more than the whole of 2020, according to the Kenyan police.

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