The Trump administration has quietly ramped up a vicious bombing—and covert raiding—campaign in Somalia amid a global coronavirus pandemic. Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has provided any explanation for the deadly escalation of a war that Congress hasn’t declared and the media rarely reports. At stake are many thousands of lives.
US military base in Somalia. Reuters
The public statistics show a considerable increase in airstrikes from Obama’s presidency. From 2009 to 2016, the U.S. military’s Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced 36 airstrikes in Somalia.
19 May 2020 (UN Environment)* — With the world in waves of COVID-19, the issue of health has dominated public attention.
Photo by Unsplash/ kelly sikkema
Of all the issues exposed by this pandemic, perhaps the most poignant is the fact that having neglected the elements that surround us for much of the last century, we have inadvertently made our world a less healthy place to live.
Evidence indicates that our lifestyles and behaviours have affected our living environment; and consequently, undermined our health.
More and more people struggle to have access to or enough food in fragile countries.
In Syria, FAO continues supporting farmers to build vegetable nurseries.
ROME, 18 May 2020 (FAO)* – The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is seeking $350 million to scale up hunger-fighting and livelihoods-boosting activities in food crisis contexts where COVID-19’s impact could be devastating.
19 May 2020 (UN News)* — A Brazilian filmmaker is hoping that the uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic will generate more empathy and solidarity towards others, including refugees, an optimistic position also held by the UN Refugee Agency in the South American country.
Juan Sarmiento | During one year the documentary followed the lives of Syrian student Ibrahim (left) and Iraqi physiotherapist Qutaiba (right).
Karim Aïnouz is the director of “Central Airport THF”, a documentary which describes the situation of asylum seekers sheltered in the former Tempelhof Airport, in Berlin, and is now available on streaming platforms.
Built in the 1920s, the airport of gigantic proportions was renovated in the 1930s by the Nazi regime. Decommissioned in 2008, it served as a shelter for asylum seekers between 2015 and 2019, and has since been transformed into a public park.
(UN News)* — The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on the world’s indigenous peoples that stretches well beyond the immediate threat to their health, the new UN independent expert on the rights of indigenous peoples said on Monday [18 May 2020].
B.R. Villacruel | Lumads, a people indigenous to the Philippines, housed at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, after being forced off their ancestral lands
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“I am receiving more reports every day from all corners of the globe about how indigenous communities are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and it deeply worries me to see it is not always about health issues”, said José Francisco Cali Tzay.
(IWGIA)* — The spread of COVID-19 in Africa, so far,has reportedly been lower and caused fewer fatalities than onother continents, but the World Health Organisation (WHO) fears arapid acceleration of the spread of the pandemic in the coming months.i
Thiswould have a devastating outcome due to the region’s fragile health-care systems and particularly devastating consequences for themarginalised and vulnerable Indigenous communities on the continent.
”Now we hear that Corona virus is in town; that we cannot go there anymore. We fear to go to town. And if the disease cannot be treated traditionally, it will be a threat to our life,”OloshuroSaruni, a member of theAkiecommunity in Tanzania, said.
