The world over, people in crisis suffer sexual violence – this scourge must end

Tackling gender violence in crises requires changes of response and focus – as delegates in Oslo for a major summit will be told

Nomtaz Begum had lived all her life in Myanmar. Two years ago, men in uniform came to her village. They killed the men there, including her husband and three small children, boys aged two, five and 11.

She was raped by six of the soldiers, one after the other. They left after setting her house on fire. Badly burned, Begum and her daughter hid in the forest for four days before they were able to flee, making their way to a refugee camp.

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Julianna Margulies on her shocking Ebola drama: ‘I panicked in my hazmat suit!’

The star of ER and The Good Wife is back – as a doctor fighting to save humanity. She gives her bodyguard the slip to talk about our imperilled planet – and her love of Sussex A-roads

Before I meet Julianna Margulies, I spend three days staring at her bodyguard. He’s impossible to miss: one of those men whose every attempt to blend in flounders. Margulies and I are in Lille, judges at the Series Mania television festival, although our experiences differ a little. My cloak of anonymity allows me to roam the city unpestered. Margulies, however, has been a TV mainstay for 25 years, with roles in two juggernaut shows, ER and The Good Wife. Everybody knows who she is, hence Muscles.

He’s even there at the start of our interview, looming in the doorway of our room at the Chamber of Commerce. As I ease past and close the door, I ask if it isn’t a pain being constantly tailed. She smiles and says: “Three years ago, I was the guest of honour when they held this festival in Paris. When I get there, they say, ‘We have detail for you.’ I say, ‘Guys, I don’t need a bodyguard.’ But they won’t budge. We get to the hotel and I say to my bodyguard, ‘My husband and I are going out to lunch. You go home, please.’ So we left the hotel and I’ve never seen anything like it. People were everywhere. We backed into the hotel and my husband called the bodyguard and said, ‘We made a mistake!’ He said, ‘I know – I’m just around the corner.’”

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‘Go and we die, stay and we starve’: the Ethiopians facing a deadly dilemma

In the rarely visited town of Gedeb, fears are rife over state plans to return 150,000 people to areas they fled because of ethnic violence

Last week, a car rolled through the town of Gedeb in southern Ethiopia, flanked by federal police. A local official made an announcement to roughly 150,000 people who, displaced from their homes, have sought sanctuary in makeshift camps in the town and across the surrounding farmland.

In two days’ time, they were told through a loudspeaker, their shelters – mostly built of firewood, banana leaves and the odd tarpaulin sheet – would be demolished. Food aid, medical treatment and other humanitarian assistance would soon stop.

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Ebola in the DRC: everything you need to know

Key facts about the second largest outbreak of the disease in history

With more than 2,577 confirmed cases and more than 1,803 confirmed deaths, the outbreak in the eastern DRC is the second largest in history. It has a 67% fatality rate and 11 months after it began, the case numbers are still escalating. It is disproportionately affecting women (55% of cases) and children (28%).

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UN urges worldwide withdrawal of support for Myanmar military

World must ‘cut off money supply’ to commanders accused of war crimes and genocide against Rohingya, say investigators

The international community must cut off all support to Myanmar’s military as part of efforts to hold army commanders to account for crimes against humanity and genocide, UN investigators have said following a fact-finding mission in the country.

In a statement, the UN said there had been no progress in protecting the Rohingya minority, more than a million of whom have fled military “clearance operations” in the Rakhine region.

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Aid funding must recognise climate change emergency, say MPs

‘Extreme, huge, and existential’ threat posed by climate change must be a central consideration when distributing aid

The British government’s aid spending is failing to recognise the “scale and urgency” of the climate change challenge facing the world, MPs warn.

Climate change must be placed at the centre of aid strategy and funding, if it is to address the seriousness of threats facing developing countries, the committee said. It urged a minimum spend of £1.76bn annually and a halt to funding fossil fuel projects in developing countries, unless they can demonstrate they support transition to zero emissions by 2050.

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Rory Stewart defends UK aid target and vows to tackle climate ’emergency’

New development minister mounts staunch defence of 0.7% commitment and says DfID will keep spending on climate change

Rory Stewart, the new secretary of state for international development, has reiterated his support for the government’s commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid.

Stewart, the former prisons minister, who was appointed to his new role on Wednesday night after Penny Mordaunt replaced the sacked Gavin Williamson as defence minister, also pledged to put climate change at the heart of his work.

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Will the UK commitment to development become another casualty of Brexit? | Preet Kaur Gill

Uncertainty and the falling pound are jeopardising aid that millions of people worldwide rely on, says the shadow development minister

Since the 2016 referendum we have all learned a lot more about the depth of the relationship between the UK and the EU; whether it’s joint cooperation on research, or the potential impact of leaving the EU on agriculture exports.

When considering the effects of Brexit, parliamentarians have focused their attention on our constituencies and the country as a whole. International development has only raised its head in discussions of post-Brexit trade deals.

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Kalashnikovs and no-go zones: east Burkina Faso falls to militants

Locals say they live in fear of violence and face harsh punishment for breaking rules

When a stranger arrives in Bartiébougou, the Kalashnikov-wielding men in charge check his ID. But first they check his forehead. They are looking for the indent left by a beret – an instant indication he is a soldier and therefore an enemy spy.

Like much of eastern Burkina Faso, the government has no control over what happens in Bartiébougou; local militants, backed by west African extremist groups, do.

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‘We’re excluded from the table’: Somali UN staff say they struggle in ‘two-tier’ aid sector

International organisations accused of ignoring local people’s knowledge and expertise and promoting foreigners to top jobs

When Sahra Koshin first returned to Somalia from the Netherlands in 2008, she was full of hope and courage.

Eager to use her expertise in gender development to rebuild her wartorn country, she immediately started work with one of the many UN agencies in Mogadishu.

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Red Cross aid to Venezuela to triple as Maduro stance softens

International Committee of the Red Cross to increase budget to $24m after president approves humanitarian assistance

The International Committee of the Red Cross is to triple aid to Venezuela, a day after the crisis-riven country’s leader approved the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

The organisation announced the increase in the face of mounting calls for the UN to recognise the scale of the crisis facing Venezuela, and amid continued moves by the Trump administration to persuade other countries to back its calls for the removal of President Nicolás Maduro.

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Poorest countries bear the brunt as aid levels fall for second successive year

Experts warn of ‘step backwards’ in fight against global poverty as latest figures show 3% drop in aid to most vulnerable states

Experts have warned that the fight against global poverty has taken a backward step after the publication of new figures showing foreign aid has fallen for a second successive year.

Aid levels dropped last year by 2.7% from 2017, with the poorest countries worst hit, according to figures published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

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Venezuela: Red Cross brokers Maduro-Guaidó deal to allow aid delivery

  • First shipment for 650,000 could reach Venezuela in two weeks
  • Red Cross says aid must be ‘neutral, impartial and unhindered’

The Red Cross has brokered a deal with representatives of Venezuela’s embattled leader Nicolás Maduro and his rival Juan Guaidó to allow humanitarian aid into the country, indicating a seldom-seen middle ground between the two men that contest the presidency.

The first shipment of aid for about 650,000 vulnerable people could reach Venezuela in two weeks, Francesco Rocca, the president of the International Federation of the Red Cross told a press conference on Friday.

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‘The water took everything’: Buzi evacuees tell of Cyclone Idai ordeal

People rescued by boat are arriving at Beira in hope of first aid, shelter and reunion with their families

Standing in the fishing port in Beira, Mozambique, Jose Mala scans the faces of those evacuated by boat from Buzi – one of the towns hardest hit by Cyclone Idai – searching for anyone he knows.

He had hopeful news the day before, says Mala, 27. He met a neighbour at the port who told him his sister and two nephews had survived the cyclone that destroyed large parts of their hometown.

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UN to explore wave of deaths linked to food aid porridge in Uganda

World Food Programme halts distribution of fortified cereal as four people die and hundreds suffer suspected food poisoning

The World Food Programme and Ugandan government have launched an investigation into deaths linked with the distribution of fortified porridge to refugees and people suffering from malnourishment.

The health ministry was alerted to reports of possible food poisoning among people who had consumed Super Cereal, a blended food designed to prevent malnutrition, in the north-east region of Karamoja on 12 March.

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Self-interest must not guide UK aid | Letters

Britain’s aid budget must be about altruism, not narrow self-interest say the Rt Rev John Arnold and the Rt Rev Dr Christopher Cocksworth

Your article (Aid budget: Ex-minister joins calls for shake-up, 18 March) on the report by the TaxPayers’ Alliance offers an opportunity to reflect again on what we want and expect from our government.

In the suffering of men, women and children caught up in conflict, dealing with the worst effects of climate change or leaving their homes in search of a safer future, we see the face of Jesus Christ.

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Priti Patel’s brazen anti-aid agenda is ultimately all about Brexit | Peter Beaumont

Backing calls from the TaxPayers’ Alliance to face down ‘NGO cartels’ shows a profound misunderstanding of how the aid system works

Priti Patel is not known for her transparency or her subtlety.

The former international development secretary was forced to resign over misleading prime minister Theresa May over an undeclared “family holiday” to Israel that – among other things – saw her fail to tell the British embassy that she would be meeting with Israeli politicians and visiting the occupied Golan Heights, against all British government conventions for a serving minister.

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Shadow falls over Ethiopia reforms as warnings of crisis go unheeded

Having fled violence, a million Ethiopians now face hunger and disease. Yet Abiy Ahmed seems intent only on their return

In southern Ethiopia, tens of thousands of people are enduring what aid workers say is a full-blown humanitarian crisis. But the government of the new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, appears not to be listening.

It is a stain on the record of an administration that, since Abiy’s appointment last April, has been lauded for opening up Ethiopia’s political space and making peace with neighbouring Eritrea. Last month, Abiy was nominated for a Nobel peace prize. His government has also been praised for passing a new refugee policy hailed as a model of compassion and forward-thinking. Yet the dire situation facing millions of people forced from their homes by conflict, and the new regime’s approach to their plight, has invited a more sceptical response from some observers.

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UK policy on migration ‘disconnected and incoherent’, MPs warn

Report says aid to displaced people in Africa undermined by Home Office approach to asylum seekers and refugees

The UK government’s migration policy is “disconnected and incoherent” and involves the pitting of one government department against another, a report by MPs has said.

The international development committee (IDC) urged the government to double the number of vulnerable refugees offered resettlement in Britain, up to 10,000 a year.

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Aid worker stranded in Syria after British citizenship revoked

Tauqir Sharif calls on UK to distinguish between humanitarian workers and potential security threats

A British aid worker and his family say they are stuck in Syria after his UK citizenship has been revoked and his eldest daughter refused a passport.

Tauqir Sharif, 31, from Walthamstow, who lives and works in Idlib alongside his British wife, Racquell Hayden-Best, had his citizenship revoked in May 2017. Speaking to the Guardian this week, he called on the UK government to review its revocation policy for those engaged in humanitarian work in conflict zones.

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