Instrumental in decriminalising abortion in France, Halimi spent her life fighting for women’s rights
The Tunisian-born French feminist MP and lawyer Gisèle Halimi, described as a “trailblazer” and a “rebel”, has died one day after her 93rd birthday.
Halimi was instrumental in the decriminalisation of abortion in France and spent her life fighting for women’s rights. “Injustice is physically intolerable to me. All my life can be summed up with that,” she once said.
Continue reading...Photographer James Oatway of MSF witnessed the misery caused by this preventable disease, as vaccination programmes are disrupted around the world
Continue reading...The onset of Covid-19 has devastated immunisation programmes, leaving huge numbers of infants unprotected from deadly diseases
Tens of millions of children around the world have been denied life-saving vaccines against measles in both rich and poor countries due to Covid-19 disruptions, with fears of further outbreaks this year.
Since March, routine childhood immunisation services have been disrupted on a scale unseen since the 1970s, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Data collected by Unicef, the Gavi Alliance, WHO and Sabin Vaccine Institute found in May that immunisation programmes had been substantially hindered in at least 68 countries, leaving 80 million children under the age of one unprotected from diseases including measles, tetanus, polio and yellow fever.
Continue reading...Global Witness campaigners warn of risk of further killings during Covid-19 lockdowns
A record number of people were killed last year for defending their land and environment, according to research that highlights the routine murder of activists who oppose extractive industries driving the climate crisis and the destruction of nature.
More than four defenders were killed every week in 2019, according to an annual death toll compiled by the independent watchdog Global Witness, amid growing evidence of opportunistic killings during the Covid-19 lockdown in which activists were left as “sitting ducks” in their own homes.
Continue reading...No liability admitted over deaths of two children at NGO run by Renee Bach and her organisation Serving His Children
Lawyers for US missionary Renee Bach have reached an out of court settlement with two mothers whose children died after being treated at a centre she ran in Uganda.
Without admitting liability, Bach and the organisation she founded, Serving His Children (SHC), have agreed to pay Zubeda Gimbo and Annet Kakai 35,000,000 Ugandan Shillings each (£7,335), according to a judgment on Tuesday.
Continue reading...UN warns coronavirus restrictions prevent access to most vulnerable and rising prices are leaving many going hungry
Almost a quarter of the population of Sudan are going hungry as conflict, rising food prices and the coronavirus take their toll.
About 9.6 million people now face severe food shortages, the highest number recorded in the country’s recent history.
Continue reading...NGO chief and Catholic sister Marie-Stella Kouak is no stranger to crisis, but fears a ‘catastrophic’ disruption of HIV/Aids drugs
Dapaong is a buzzing, multi-religious city, 13 miles south of Togo’s border with Burkina Faso and more than 300 miles (500km) north of the capital, Lomé.
In and around the town, Marie-Stella Kouak is well-known. One of the few female community leaders, she is easily recognised by her booming laugh and the white nun’s veil on her head.
Continue reading...Evelyn Namulondo and Eric Mutasiga were killed by officers enforcing Covid-19 movement restrictions – and their families want justice
The last words Evelyn Namulondo said to her elder sister, Jennifer, were: “It’s over, I am going to die.” It was 15 May and the 30-year-old was in a hospital bed in Jinja, Uganda, two days after being shot by unidentified men apparently trying to enforce Uganda’s 7pm to 6am coronavirus curfew.
Namulondo was on a motorcycle taxi at 5am, heading to the restaurant she co-founded, when men she thought were police officers asked the driver to stop. When the taxi sped off instead, they fired, hitting Namulondo.
Continue reading...170 of 178 MPs back motion against Hassan Ali Khaire for failing to move towards democratic elections
Somalia’s parliament removed the prime minister, Hassan Ali Khaire, from his post in a vote of no confidence on Saturday for failing to pave the way towards fully democratic elections, the speaker said.
A whopping 170 of parliament’s 178 MPs backed the no-confidence motion, and Khaire’s ouster was immediately endorsed by the president, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, who had appointed him as prime minister in February 2017.
Continue reading...Hopewell Chin’ono is in jail awaiting trial on charges he rejects of inciting violence
A prominent investigative journalist in Zimbabwe has said the struggle against corruption in the country must continue as he was sent back to prison to await trial on charges of incitement of public violence.
Hopewell Chin’ono, an internationally respected reporter, recently published documents raising concerns that powerful individuals in Zimbabwe were profiting from multimillion-dollar deals for essential supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...New research suggests that the global peak may be lower than expected. But the challenges will still be immense
In 1798, Thomas Malthus wrung his hands as he contemplated the growing mass of humanity, warning: “The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race.”
A few years after he wrote that essay, the global population hit 1 billion. Now, thanks to the exponential growth which he described, it is closing in on 8 billion. The scholar’s direst warnings, echoed by others through the years, have not come to pass. But his concerns about the strain on resources have been multiplied by the climate crisis, with greenhouse gas emissions rising, and global heating in turn causing land loss and deterioration.
Continue reading...After an historic election victory, Lazarus Chakwera explains his desire to give Malawians ‘dignity and development’
Promising to “clear the rubble” of corruption within the government, Malawi’s new president is beginning his term by raising the country’s minimum wage in an attempt to win over both doubters and international donors.
In an interview with the Guardian, Lazarus Chakwera, who won a historic victory over Peter Mutharika in June, urged Malawians to trust that he will deliver on his promises.
Continue reading...Hopewell Chin’ono arrested after reporting on alleged profiteering in deals for coronavirus supplies
Lawyers for a prominent investigative journalist in Zimbabwe who was arrested this week have accused authorities of persecution after magistrates postponed a decision on bail for 24 hours, blaming a Covid-19 curfew.
Hopewell Chin’ono, an internationally respected reporter, recently published documents raising concerns that powerful individuals in Zimbabwe were profiting from multimillion-dollar deals for essential supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Group arrested during Kampala lockdown and later released allege horrific abuse during the 50 days they were on remand in prison
Twenty LGBTQ+ men and women have filed lawsuits against the Ugandan authorities over alleged torture after they were arrested and imprisoned on charges related to the coronavirus lockdown.
The group were held on remand for more than 50 days and according to a statement from the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), the legal organisation defending them, endured “taunting, flogging, scalding … as well as denial of access to food, sanitary facilities and medication”.
Continue reading...Omar al-Bashir could face death penalty if convicted of orchestrating coup that put him in power for 30 years
Omar al-Bashir, the authoritarian former ruler of Sudan ousted amid a popular pro-democracy uprising last year, has gone on trial in Khartoum on charges of orchestrating the military coup that brought him to power more than three decades ago.
The trial of Bashir, who has been held in detention since being convicted of money laundering and corruption in December, comes at a time of massive change in the country of more than 40 million people.
Continue reading...Government accused of hypocrisy for backing scheme while claiming to be leading on climate
The UK government could face a legal battle after offering more than $1bn in financial support to help build a gas project in Mozambique despite its commitment to tackling the climate crisis.
Under the deal, UK taxpayer funds will be used to help develop and export Mozambique’s gas reserves, in one of the largest single financing packages ever offered by a UK credit agency to a foreign fossil fuel project.
Continue reading...Hopewell Chin’ono had reported on profiting in deals for coronavirus supplies
Authorities in Zimbabwe have detained a prominent journalist known for his reporting on the country’s endemic corruption in the latest in a series of abductions of government critics.
Hopewell Chin’ono was taken from his home in Harare on Monday by eight “state security agents” who broke windows to gain entry and did not produce any warrant, his lawyer said.
Continue reading...Nigel Lawson’s thinktank is pushing dirty energy on the continent with the greatest capacity for creating clean fuel
The power of climate science denial in the UK, thankfully, has been in retreat over the past decade. Nigel Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) may still boast a prime Westminster address, but its influence has waned. In fact, its decline aptly mirrors the fortunes of the coal industry, including US titans such as Peabody Energy, which saw its share price plunge 99% between 2008 and 2016 before filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy.
With countries rightly phasing coal out of their energy mix, the GWPF has turned its sights on Africa to peddle its misinformation about the merits of burning fossil fuels. It has published a new report, derisively titled Heart of Darkness: Why Electricity for Africa is a Security Issue, and launched a glossy website for “energy justice”, which uses the language of climate justice campaigners to try to undermine renewable energy.
Continue reading...The 17-year-old South African tennis star on climbing the world rankings, meeting Nick Kyrgios and finding his self-belief
Khololwam Montsi has always been a dreamer. Before he had ever entered a tennis tournament, he was imagining himself winning Wimbledon. In lieu of any role models or a path trodden before them, dreams are what black African tennis players have. They are to be held on to and guarded. So when people have attempted to tread on Montsi’s aspirations, questioning whether a 5ft 5in player like him can succeed, he simply used it as further motivation.
“Me wanting to prove people wrong, I was like: ‘OK, I’m gonna do this thing and I’m gonna work hard every day. I’m gonna beat everyone that I can,’” he says. “If I lose, I lose, I go back to the drawing board. But I’m on a mission, really.”
Continue reading...Mahmoud Dicko has emerged as a key player in a country in crisis. But is he a zealot or a pragmatist?
A fragile calm has returned to Bamako. The debris has been cleared from the streets and the barricades around the Salam mosque in the neighbourhood of Badalabougou are gone. For the moment, a bloody confrontation between security forces and demonstrators in the capital of Mali appears to have been averted.
But the pause is likely to be temporary. Leaders of the landlocked west African nation’s protest movement have promised to go “right to the bitter end” to force through dramatic political change, after six weeks of rising unrest. “We will wage this battle until we bring in a new democratic era in Mali. We have lost too many killed to retreat now,” Mohamed Salia Touré, a prominent protest leader and young politician, told the Observer.
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