Archive for January, 2025

06/01/2025

The ‘Most Secret Memory of Men’ and the Disgraceful Condemnation of Two African Authors

Human Wrongs Watch

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Jan 6 2025 (IPS)* – In 2021, the Senegalese novelist Mohamed Mbougar Sarr became the first writer from sub-Saharan Africa to be awarded the Prix Goncourt, France’s oldest and most prestigious literary prize.

Literature

His novel, La plus secrète mémoire des hommes, The Most Secret Memory of Men, tells the story of a young Senegalese writer living in Paris, who by chance stumbles across a novel published in 1938 by an elusive Senegalese author named T.C. Elimane.

This author had once been hailed by an ecstatic Paris press, but had then disappeared from view. Elimane had before every trace of him had vanished, been accused of plagiarism.

After losing a legal process connected with the plagiarism charge, Elimane’s publisher had been forced to withdraw and destroy all available copies of The Labyrinth of Inhumanity.

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05/01/2025

Palestine: Hope, Evaporating: Climate Change Resilience under Occupation in the West Bank

Human Wrongs Watch

By the Norwegian Refugee Council*

Text and graphics: Simon Randles | Research: Farah Bayadsi

“Look at the olives,” says Adlah Taha Abdallah Ali, 66, in the fields of her home village of Al Khadr, Bethlehem, in the southern West Bank. “See how they are dry … they did not get their share of water. Because of the high temperatures, there is not much oil in them.”

Adlah, like her fellow farmers across the region, is battling with the effects of a warming planet.

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05/01/2025

Tanzania’s Disaster Preparedness: A Nation on Edge

Human Wrongs Watch

DAR ES SALAAM, Jan 3 2025 (IPS)* As the dust settled over Kariakoo’s bustling streets, Halima Abdallah’s voice trembled through the cracks of a collapsed four-story building.

“Help me, please! I don’t get air,” she gasped, trapped under the rubble.

The recent collapse of a high-rise building in Dar es Salaam, killing 16 people and injuring more than 80, has reignited concerns about the city’s disaster preparedness. Credit: Kizito Makoye Shigela/IPS

The recent collapse of a high-rise building in Dar es Salaam, killing 16 people and injuring more than 80, has reignited concerns about the city’s disaster preparedness. Credit: Kizito Makoye Shigela/IPS

For four hours, rescue workers scrambled to locate her. Their efforts, hampered by the lack of proper equipment, relied on tools hastily borrowed from a private company. By the time they reached her, it was too late. Abdallah had died.

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05/01/2025

IOM Deeply Alarmed by the Devastating Impact of Winter Rains and Freezing Temperatures on Displaced Palestinians in Gaza

Human Wrongs Watch

By the International Organization for Migration (IOM)

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A Palestinian woman in Gaza city receives a bedding kit, distributed by UN partners, as part of IOM’s shelter winterization effort. ©UNRWA 2024

Geneva, 03 January 2025 (IOM)* – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is deeply alarmed by the devastating impact of winter rains and freezing temperatures on displaced Palestinians in Gaza, adding to the unparalleled humanitarian catastrophe.  

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