Study identifies DRC, India and South Sudan among countries where women are at greatest risk of attack
Sexual violence is on the increase both inside and outside of wartime contexts and women remain the primary victims, warns new research.
In their report, researchers from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (Acled) analysed data gathered from 400 recorded sexual violence events that occurred between January 2018 and June 2019.
Continue reading...The onus is on MPs to ensure the government respects a legal ruling criticising the export of weapons used in Yemen
This week’s legal decision by the appeal court that UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia are unlawful finally opens the door to accountability for Britain’s role in the war in Yemen and the humanitarian disaster it has caused.
But while Thursday was a day of celebration for campaigners, now the hard work begins of trying to get the government to respect the decision.
Continue reading...The National Liberation Army (ELN) is Colombia’s last rebel army and one of the oldest guerrilla groups in Latin America. It has been involved in the continuing Colombian armed conflict since 1964 and is classified as a terrorist organisation by several governments, including the EU
Continue reading...Report outlines the war’s impact on civilians as well as fighters as the researchers call for resolution to conflict
As the court of appeal prepares to rule on the legitimacy of the British government’s continued supply of weapons to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, new figures show the conflict’s total death toll is fast approaching the 100,000 mark.
With no clear resolution in sight, the extent of civilian casualties caused by direct targeting has also been outlined in a report by the the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (Acled) as the war with Houthi rebels enters its fifth year.
Continue reading...Further 42 people wounded as three people detonate devices in Konduga, Borno state
Thirty people were killed when three people blew themselves up on Sunday night in a busy market in north-east Nigeria, which has seen a recent increase in attacks by militant groups.
Many were watching the evening news and waiting for the football to come on when the bombs went off in the village just outside Konduga, Borno state, wounding a further 42 people.
Continue reading...Foreign involvement in Africa is far from unique to Russia (Leaked documents reveal Russia’s efforts to exert influence in Africa, 12 June). The new scramble for Africa involves more powers than the first round over a century ago. This time it’s in part about securing resources such as oil, gas and rare earth metals crucial for military and civilian digital technology, and denying these resources to rival powers.
The United States Africa Command (Africom) now has 7,500 American troops active in all but one African country, up from 6,000 in 2017. Apart from its huge base in Djibouti, controlling the narrow strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, a vital chokepoint through which all shipping using the Suez Canal has to pass – most importantly (for the Americans) Chinese shipping – the US has constructed small “lily pad” bases, whose presence gives the US a strong military capability.
Continue reading...Increased airstrikes and shelling by Syrian regime claim lives of an estimated 40 civilians in 48 hours
The recent escalation in the Syrian regime bombardment of Idlib has killed at least 10 more civilians.
The deaths were reported on Wednesday, 24 hours after a senior UN official had warned the security council that aid efforts in the enclave were in danger of being “overwhelmed”.
Continue reading...As MPs thank Jeremy Hunt for his efforts in securing peace in the war-torn country, the UK’s attempts to justify its weapons sales are ever more absurd
After more than 1,500 days of war in Yemen, in the midst of the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, reports of the Houthi withdrawal from Hodeidah port are a welcome but extremely fragile development, surrounded by suspicion and fear.
A Houthi pullout from Hodeidah, Saleef and Ras Issa ports would be one step in the implementation of the Stockholm agreement, but a very small step. There are much wider conflict dynamics to be addressed before we can talk confidently of moves towards peace.
Continue reading...Top official condemns lack of focus on record 41 million people left homeless in their own countries after fleeing violence
Record numbers of people have been forced from their homes by conflict in a crisis that has received “pitiful” international attention, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council has said.
A total of 41.3 million people were living in a state of internal displacement by the end of 2018 due to violence, researchers for the organisation found, with increasing numbers unable to return home for protracted periods. This is a rise of more than a million on the previous year.
Continue reading...Rescuers and medics in rebel-held Syrian province fear increased airstrikes will curtail their work
The familiar sound of warplanes was heard across towns and villages in north-west Syria this week as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad intensified their bloody assault on the country’s last major rebel stronghold.
Asem al-Yahiya, a volunteer with the White Helmets rescue organisation, was on call when the bombardment of Muhanbel, his hometown, started on Sunday.
Continue reading...Alaa Salah’s role in Sudan’s protests was not unique, African women have long led change – and Libya’s precedent is especially relevant
At the same time that images of female Sudanese revolutionaries were going viral, the citizens of Tripoli were preparing for an assault on their city. The contrast between the two experiences – jubilation and determination in Khartoum, weary resilience in Libya – could not be greater. But the parallels between the uprisings in Sudan and Libya are much closer that one might think, with hard lessons to be learned.
Having protested against the regime of Omar al-Bashir for 16 weeks, Sudanese women like Alaa Salah became icons almost overnight. In much of the global coverage, the sight of an African woman leading crowds chanting for freedom and democracy was seemingly regarded as novel, even groundbreaking.
Continue reading...Roughly 20,000 people have been detained by Nigeria’s military over the past decade, leaving their families fraught with anxiety
It was on a chilly morning in October 2011 that Hajja Gana Suleiman’s world began to unravel.
The news came that her son had been arrested by military men. Mustapha “Saina” Abdulkareem had been saying his morning prayers at a nearby mosque when he was taken away.
Continue reading...Fierce fighting for control of Libya’s capital that has already displaced tens of thousands of people threatens to create a greater humanitarian crisis, a senior UN official has warned
Continue reading...As a voluntary agreement is struck for forces to withdraw from the port city, two friends recount the horror of conflict in their neighbourhood in Yemen
Friends Majed Al-Wahidi and Ali Al-Zazai remember the constant buzzing of drones overhead in Hodeidah on 18 November last year.
Majed, a teacher and father of six daughters, had left Ali’s house to return to his home nearby, but went back because he had forgotten his lighter. It was about 5pm and Majed’s daughters were in their bedroom, having taken a break from studying to pray in their modest, corrugated iron-covered home.
Continue reading...More than 2,000 new cases reported every day, with 25% of those affected being children under five
Yemen is facing a massive resurgence of cholera in what was already one of the world’s worst outbreaks, with more than 137,000 suspected cases and almost 300 deaths reported in the first three months of this year.
With well over 2,000 suspected cases being recorded every day – a doubling since the beginning of the year – aid agencies fear they could be facing a major new health crisis.
Continue reading...Four years into the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crisis, three Yemeni women ask – exactly what is required of people living in warzones?
A news report from December 2018 lays bare the depths of the crisis gripping Yemen. Mothers watch doctors measure the arms of their children. “When the tape shows red,” the TV correspondent narrates, “it means they’re severely malnourished.” After more than four years of a civil war and proxy conflict, these Yemeni children, mothers, and doctors are trapped in what the UN has called “the worst man-made humanitarian crisis of our time”.
Continue reading...In the last two weeks, 1,000 young people a day have been infected with the disease
Yemen is seeing a sharp spike in the number of suspected cholera cases this year, with 1,000 children a day infected in the last two weeks alone, agencies said.
More than 120,000 cases have been reported, with 234 deaths in the country, which has been at war for four years this month. Almost a third of the 124,493 cases documented between 1 January and 22 March were children under fifteen. Increasing rates of malnutrition among Yemen’s children have left them more prone to contracting and dying from the disease.
Continue reading...As a funding appeal languishes, conflict, poverty and the worst drought for a decade have left millions facing desperate hunger
Shafiqa watches closely over her six-month-old niece. Lying on a bundle of fabric, Maryam’s legs jut out, thin and pale. When they arrived at hospital two weeks ago, she could hardly breathe. Her body was swollen with malnutrition, her lips and fingers were blue.
There are 24 children being treated at Mofleh paediatric hospital’s malnutrition ward, on the outskirts of Herat city, western Afghanistan. Mothers and aunts lean next to hospital beds, some rocking tiny babies back and forth.
Continue reading...As ministers and weapons manufacturers alike shun the body that oversees UK arms exports, its authority is at risk of being eroded
As Britain’s foreign secretary warns of “a shortening window of opportunity” for peace in Yemen, the hours are also counting down for weapons manufacturer Raytheon UK to explain its activities to the government’s committees on arms export control (CAEC).
Raytheon, the world’s third largest manufacturer, was called upon to give live evidence on Wednesday. However, the company has effectively avoided face-to-face scrutiny by simply declining to attend.
Continue reading...Since the Stockholm deal in December, airstrikes on Hodeidah have decreased but casualties have doubled elsewhere
Yemen is continuing to experience a steady stream of violence, claiming at least one life every eight hours – despite the agreements reached between the internationally recognised government and the Houthis at talks in Sweden just over three months ago.
According to figures compiled by two international aid agencies, in some areas of the country the number of casualties, far from falling, had doubled where the conflict was flaring up.
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