Category Archives: Governance

Guinea protests turn bloody in fight to stop president’s third term

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‘We have to keep going,’ say family of teenager killed in west African country’s capital

On the morning of 14 November Abdourahmane Diallo set out on his motorcycle taxi along the pothole-laden roads of Conakry, the bustling capital of Guinea. By nightfall he was dead.

His family said the 16-year-old orphan was shot in the ear by police who were targeting opposition supporters in the Bomboly neighbourhood where the Diallos live. With blood pouring from the wound, Diallo was shuffled between government hospitals, family members said. One hospital said it had no capacity for new patients, another said it had no equipment to treat him. He died that evening.

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UN #MeToo whistleblower sacked for alleged sexual and financial misconduct

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Martina Brostrom, who accused senior UNAids official of sexual harassment, claims her dismissal is an act of ‘retaliation’

A high-profile UN whistleblower, whose claims of sexual assault at the main agency dealing with Aids prompted a long-running scandal, has been sacked along with another colleague for alleged sexual and financial misconduct.

Martina Brostrom publicly accused a senior director at UNAids of forcibly kissing her and trying to drag her out of a Bangkok elevator in 2015. She also said he had sexually harassed her on other occasions.

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Sudan will never prosper while it is on the US terrorism blacklist

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If Washington wants to be on the right side of history, it must open the way for Sudan to receive economic support

Over the past year, the Sudanese people have staged a near miraculous revolution, overthrowing the 30-year dictatorship of President Omar al-Bashir.

Following mediation led by the African Union and Ethiopia, a transitional government consisting of civilians and military generals is headed by Abdalla Hamdok, a veteran economist untainted by the decades of corruption and misrule. It is the best compromise: the army, and especially the paramilitary Rapid Support Force, are simply too powerful to be removed from politics in one fell swoop.

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The UN’s fight for Palestinian refugees goes on – but its key agency needs help

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From Israel’s hostility to Trump’s withdrawal of US funding, the UNRWA faces unprecedented challenges. Timely financial and diplomatic support is key

Today, on the 70th anniversary of its founding, the UN Relief and Works Agency, the UN’s main refugee agency serving Palestinians, is facing unprecedented challenges.

It has become a key battleground in Donald Trump’s war against multilateralism and his unilateral attempts to redefine the Middle East peace process along a track proposed by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Killers lurk in the shadows as Haiti chaos takes a sinister turn

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Mired in poverty, corruption and violent unrest, Haiti faces a fresh problem in the form of paid gunmen out to settle scores

At the barricaded junction next to the international airport in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, protesters burn tyres and block the road with stones and a large truck.

Cars and commercial vehicles that approach turn back or risk being stoned, while pedestrians wade on through the smoke.

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‘The clock is ticking’: race to save 2 million from statelessness in Assam

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A team of volunteer paralegals are fighting to stop Indians without proof of citizenship being sent to detention camps

When she was one, Suro Devi was rescued by a sewer cleaner from a rubbish dump in Assam, northeast India. When the state of Assam started a massive exercise to register its citizens in 2015, Suro Devi did not have a birth certificate, information about her parents, a voter list with her name on it, or anything to prove that she had lived in Assam before 25 March 1971. She seemed destined to be left off the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and become stateless, and perhaps spend the rest of her days in a detention camp.

But Zamser Ali, a citizenship rights activist based in Assam’s capital, Guwahati, heard about Devi’s case. He knew that documents were not the only thing that could prove your origins. He managed to track down five eyewitnesses to her rescue from the dump. And in August, when the draft NRC was published, Devi’s name appeared on it.

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Tanzania president Magufuli condemned for authoritarian regime

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Amnesty and Human Rights Watch raise concerns over rising levels of abuses against activists, opponents and the press – including arrest of journalist Erick Kabendera

Tanzania’s president John Magufuli is presiding over an escalating campaign of repression that has targeted journalists, human rights defenders and political opponents ahead of his plans to run for re-election next year, two reports claim.

Magufuli – nicknamed “the Bulldozer” – is accused in two independent reports, by the human rights organisations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, of presiding over rising levels of abuses against activists and opponents since his election in 2015.

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The Nobel peace prize can inspire Abiy Ahmed to new heights in Ethiopia

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Global acclaim for the peace he forged with Eritrea should buoy a leader facing the persecution of ethnic minorities at home

The Nobel prize awarded last week to Ethiopia’s prime minister, Dr Abiy Ahmed, honoured his achievements as a peacemaker. Most widely recognised was his success in thawing relations with Eritrea, the breakaway republic with which Ethiopia had remained on a war footing since the country gained independence in 1993.

No less significant, however, was his management of the internal conflict between the Ethiopian government and protesters in Oromia, the region surrounding Addis Ababa, the capital. Rather than attempting to shut down the protests by force, Abiy acknowledged their grievances, and opened up political space. He freed political prisoners jailed by previous administrations, and restored the legitimacy of parties formerly branded as terrorist organisations.

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Kashmir families live in fear as loved ones are detained far from home

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Relatives tell of 1,000km bus journeys to Agra where prisoners are held after Modi crackdown

The last time he saw her, Mehraj-ud-din Wani assured his wife that he would soon be a free man.

Wani was speaking to his wife, Gulshan, from behind bars in Srinagar jail in Kashmir. “He was certain that he would be released,” she said. “He said that he will be home in a matter of days.”

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Presidential reprieve for the ‘idle and disorderly’ of Uganda

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Yoweri Museveni calls for repeal of ‘colonial’ law grounded in ‘fear of Africans’ as he orders immediate release of people arrested for ‘nonsensical crime’

Uganda’s president has ordered a reprieve for street vendors arrested in a recent “idleness” crackdown, saying the law was the result of a colonial “fear” of Africans.

Yoweri Museveni signed a directive to the attorney general and the chief of police for the immediate release of people jailed for being idle and disorderly.

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‘Words, not guns’: learning brings hope to Haiti’s most notorious slum

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Swamped by sewage and prone to floods, Cité Soleil is a hotbed for gangs and violence. But for a lucky few, an education initiative offers a glimpse of a better future

Billy Lafalaise has spent much of his 16 years avoiding the allure of gang life in one of the world’s most notorious slums. He was born in Cité Soleil, the sprawling shantytown of Haiti’s downtrodden and chaotic capital, Port-au-Prince.

“Everyone wants to be in a gang here,” Billy says, his mother Jinette nodding in agreement. “And every gang is always looking for recruits.”

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Workers at Dubai’s Expo 2020 likely to have suffered dangerous heat stress

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Exclusive: ‘World’s greatest show’ could be linked to cardiorespiratory failures in labourers building infrastructure

Thousands of migrant construction workers employed on huge infrastructure and building projects ahead of next year’s Expo 2020 exhibition in Dubai are likely to have been exposed to dangerous levels of heat stress, a Guardian investigation has found.

Dubai will host the Expo 2020 next year, in which 190 countries will come together to celebrate themes of mobility, innovation and sustainability in a series of bespoke, themed pavilions across a 4.38 sq km site in Dubai South economic zone.

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UK stance on Khashoggi murder betrayed by unlawful arms sales to Saudis

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The UK government’s continued loyalty to Saudi Arabia is causing its ‘rigorous and robust’ arms export control regime to descend into tatters

Wednesday marked the anniversary of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Outrage at his death at the time served as a trigger for public reckoning over US and UK support for Saudi Arabia and its involvement in the war in Yemen.

At that point, the war was three and a half years old, notable for airstrike attacks on civilians and a blockade that has pushed millions into famine – violations of international law, some of which that may amount to war crimes. The murder of a prominent western-friendly journalist seemed to be the final straw.

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Revealed: hundreds of migrant workers dying of heat stress in Qatar each year

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As construction boom hits its peak ahead of Fifa World Cup, Guardian analysis shows workers toiling in potentially fatal temperatures

Dead at 24: did heat kill Doha World Cup worker Rupchandra Rumba?

Migrant labourers are being worked to death in searing temperatures in Qatar, with hundreds estimated to be dying from heat stress every year, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

This summer, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers toiled in temperatures of up to 45C for up to 10 hours a day as Qatar’s construction boom hit its peak ahead of the Fifa World Cup 2022.

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Gambia’s joy gives way to sinking distrust as Barrow clings to power

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When he ended the brutal 22-year presidency of Yahya Jammeh, he was hailed as a hero. But the hope inspired by Adama Barrow’s ascent has long since faded

Almost three years ago, Yahya Jammeh’s 22-year rule over the small west African nation of the Gambia came to a shock end. Fed up with the constant fear and human rights abuses, a floundering economy and endemic corruption, Gambians voted out one of Africa’s most notorious strongmen.

The man who beat him, estate agent, businessman and one-time Argos security guard Adama Barrow, was a political nobody who united a divided opposition in a coalition, promising to create jobs, repeal bad laws and create a level political playing field. He also promised to be only a transitional president, resigning after three years.

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‘We will fight to the last drop of blood’: embattled Kashmiris target freedom – video

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Determined to prevent security forces from entering their community, people in the suburb of Anchar, in the disputed region of Kashmir, stand united in their desire to achieve freedom from India. Defying teargas and pellets, they are the last remaining pocket of resistance in the country's only Muslim-majority state


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Nigeria detained children as young as five over ‘Boko Haram links’ – report

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Human Rights Watch says thousands of children were detained in distressing conditions by military over last six years

The Nigerian military arrested thousands of children it suspected of involvement with Boko Haram, holding them in squalid conditions for years in some cases, according to a new report.

Some of the children detained were as young as five, and others described being crammed into overwhelmingly hot, crowded cells in a notorious military facility in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri called Giwa barracks, said a report released by Human Rights Watch.

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Leak suggests UN agency self-censors on climate crisis after US pressure

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International Organization for Migration apparently amends programme documentation to avoid conflict with US ‘political sensitivities’

Leaked communications suggest that the UN’s migration agency is censoring itself on the climate crisis and the global compact on migration, following pressure from the US government.

An email sent by a US-based official of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on 28 August to colleagues around the world relayed that the US state department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) told the agency documents related to programme activities it funds “must not be in conflict with current [US government] political sensitivities”.

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Ugandan student sues President Museveni for blocking him on Twitter

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Lawsuit brought by Master’s student at Harvard, who was blocked after referring to head of state as a ‘dictator’

A Ugandan student living in the US is suing President Yoweri Museveni for blocking him on Twitter after he referred to the head of state as “a dictator” and said he had to go.

In the lawsuit, Hillary Innocent Taylor Seguya, a global youth ambassador and master’s student of international relations at Harvard University, contends that by blocking him on Twitter, Museveni bars him from online conversation. It leaves him unable to see or respond to tweets on the president’s official handle, @KagutaMuseveni, used as a public forum to disseminate information relating to the activities of his public office in his official capacity and to get feedback from citizens.

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