'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
From sophisticated spyware attacks to mass phishing via smartphones and the rise of facial recognition technology, the range and reach of surveillance threats to human rights defenders is growing.
Sebastien Thibault/agoodson.com (Image from Amnesty International).
Ravenous swarms threaten entire East Africa subregion – FAO scales up its emergency response
Shilabo, Ogaden, Somali region – Ethiopia – A herd of camels is trying to find its way through an invasion of locust.
Rome/Nairobi (FAO)* – Desert Locust swarms in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia – already unprecedented in their size and destructive potential – could swell exponentially and spill over into more countries in East Africa if efforts to deal with the voracious pest are not massively scaled up across the region, FAO warned today [20 January 2020].
Çeşme, Western Turkey 14 January 2020 (IOM)* – “I saw some light of hope in people’s eyes hoping that their children or wives were alive but I had to give them the terrible news that some of their family members had died. Then I saw the deepest level of helplessness and desperation in their eyes. I had to inform a recently wed man that his wife and baby had died. I cannot find words to express how he hugged his deceased wife and child as a last farewell.’’
A father and son huddle to keep warm in a Turkish Coast Guard rescue boat waiting to reach land last month. IOM’s Mediterranean Response Team has provided humanitarian assistance to migrants rescued in the Aegean Sea since 2016. © IOM 2019 /Bekir ERDİNÇ’
Speaking at a major, high-level summit on Libya, held in the German capital Berlin on Sunday [20 January 2020], UN Secretary-General António Guterres evoked the disastrous humanitarian situation faced by thousands of civilians, as conflict in the North African country grows deeper and more destructive. (*).
