Archive for ‘Africa’

12/07/2023

Sudan Crisis: ‘You Don’t Dare Ask Refugees Where the Men Have Gone’

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — As conflict continues to rage in Sudan, UN humanitarians expressed alarm on Tuesday [] at a surge in the number of people fleeing across the border to Chad.

A Sudanese family take shelter at a refugee entry point close to the Chadian border with Sudan.
© WFP/Eloge Mbaihondoum | A Sudanese family take shelter at a refugee entry point close to the Chadian border with Sudan.

Speaking to journalists via Zoom from the Zabout refugee camp in Goz Beida, Mr. Honnorat described desperate scenes: “We can see that they have suffered, many lost family members, and we don’t even dare ask them, ‘Where are the men?’ The answer from the mothers is often that they were killed. So, you just see many women, many children.”

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11/07/2023

Temperatures Off the Charts, But More Records Imminent: World Meteorological Organization

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN NEWS)* — Global sea surface temperatures reached a record high in May, June, and July – and the warming El Niño weather pattern is only just getting started – experts at the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday [].

Global sea surface temperatures were at a record high in May and June 2023.
Unsplash/Rafael Garcin
Global sea surface temperatures were at a record high in May and June 2023.

Alarm bells have been rung at the UN agency in particular because of an “unprecedented peak” in sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic.

10/07/2023

Extremist Ideology in Europe: ‘Leave Everyone Behind’ (Except Us)

Human Wrongs Watch

MADRID, Jul 10 2023 (IPS)* – A quick glance at the current European political map would clearly show how far the extremist ideology has been installed in European countries –those who still wave the French Revolution’s flag of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.”

Credit: United Nations

According to the Napoleonic French Revolution’s three pillars, Liberty means freedom for an individual to do what he/she wants to do without harming others’ Liberty. Equality means equal opportunity to all the citizens irrespective of their caste, religion, race, gender.

Fraternity means an environment of brotherhood among the citizens of a nation.

“Not true” that “all humans are equal”

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10/07/2023

As Drought and Floods Threaten Millions in Ethiopia, Midwives Are a Lifeline for Pregnant Women and Newborns

DUDUMACAD, Ethiopia, 7 July 2023 (UNFPA)* – “Saving the life of this baby was a miracle and a blessing for my family. I am immensely grateful,” said Amino Bashir, 25, as she held her newborn.

In Ethiopia’s Somali region, a camp in the village of Gabi’as shelters hundreds of households displaced by drought. Over 260,000 women are currently pregnant in the Somali region alone, many of them internally displaced from recurrent, multiple crises and at dire risk of acute undernourishment, without access to even the most basic health care. © UNFPA Ethiopia/Paula Seijo

Ms. Bashir lives in Dudumacad in the Somali region of Ethiopia – one of the areas devastated by a gruelling drought across the Horn of Africa that has affected more than 36 million people so far.

10/07/2023

Nearly 3 Million Displaced by Conflict in Sudan in Less than Three Months

People fleeing the ongoing fighting in Sudan arrive in Chad. Photo: IOM/F. Ada Affana

In addition to the more than 2.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), nearly 700,000 others have fled into neighbouring countries, according to the latest figures by the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM).

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10/07/2023

Hunger Grows as Sahel Crisis Spills into Coastal West Africa

Human Wrongs Watch

By Richard Mbouet

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Youlka (R) buys food for dinner at a market in Togo's Savanes region, where many displaced people are seeking shelter from violence. Photo: WFP/Richard Mbouet.jpg
Youlka buys food for dinner at a market in Togo’s Savanes region, where many displaced people are seeking shelter from violence. Photo: WFP/Richard Mbouet

She heaves a sigh of relief. With her national identity and ration cards in hand, she hurries to the distribution point for World Food Programme (WFP) cash. She already knows what she’ll spend it on.

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10/07/2023

UN Space Agency Vigilant over Threat Posed by ‘Near-Earth Objects’

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN NEWS)* — With over 18,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs) lurking beyond the stratosphere, 2,000 of which are classified as potentially hazardous, the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) is using Friday’s International Asteroid Dayto raise awareness across the planet.

Asteroid tracks among the stars.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA | Asteroid tracks among the stars.
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NEOs are asteroids or comets that come relatively close to the Sun, to about 50 million kilometres from Earth’s orbit. Some of them, ‘potentially hazardous objects’ (PHOs), come even closer – in interstellar terms – with a minimum distance of less than 7.5 million kilometres.
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Measuring more than 140 meters across, the PHOs have the potential to cause regional devastation with possible global consequences.

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07/07/2023

Why Is Europe the Epicenter of World Wars?

Human Wrongs Watch

By David Adams | Transition to a Culture of Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service*

Europe was the epicenter of World Wars I and II, and now it threatens, with its war in the Ukraine, to kindle World War III.

As usual in history, overt warfare is the fruit of a constant, underlying culture of war. And in the case of Europe, it was the culture of war developed over many centuries to maintain the profits of colonialism.

David_Adams_peace_activist-298x300-1-e1583365714293

Dr. David Adams

To understand this, let us first turn to that old critic, Vladimir Lenin.

In his essay War and Revolution of May, 1917, Lenin wrote, “Peace reigned in Europe, but this was because domination over hundreds of millions of people in the colonies by the European nations was sustained only through constant, incessant, interminable wars, which we Europeans do not regard as wars at all, since all too often they resembled, not wars, but brutal massacres, the wholesale slaughter of unarmed peoples.”

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07/07/2023

Tunisia: Crisis as Black Africans Expelled to Libya Border

Human Wrongs Watch

By Human Rights Watch*

Tunis – Tunisian security forces have collectively expelled several hundred Black African migrants and asylum seekers, including children and pregnant women, since July 2, 2023 to a remote, militarized buffer zone at the TunisiaLibya border, Human Rights Watch on 6 July 2023 said.

202307mena_tunisia_women_explled_libya_border.jpg

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07/07/2023

‘Social Media Has Become a Major Vehicle in Spreading Hate Speech at an Unprecedented Speed’

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — The UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect launched a new policy paper on Wednesday [] aimed at countering and addressing hate speech online. 

Governments and Internet companies are failing to meet challenges of online hate.
Unsplash/Priscilla du Preez
Governments and Internet companies are failing to meet challenges of online hate.

The policy paper, Countering and Addressing Online Hate Speech: A Guide for Policy Makers and Practitioners, was developed jointly by the UN Office with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Human Rights, Big Data and Technology Project, at the UK’s University of Essex.

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