Archive for ‘Africa’

14/04/2022

Drugged Water: A New Global Pandemic Hiding in Plain Sight?

Human Wrongs Watch

MADRID, Apr 13 2022 (IPS)* – People around the world are unknowingly being exposed to water laced with antibiotics, which could spark the rise of drug-resistant pathogens and potentially fuel another global pandemic, warns a new report.

Credit: WHO

The study, elaborated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), found that, globally, not enough attention is being focused on the threat posed by antimicrobial resistance with most antibiotics being excreted into the environment via toilets or through open defecation.

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13/04/2022

Kenya’s Ticking Bomb as Unemployed Youth Lured into Traffickers’ Dens

Human Wrongs Watch

Nairobi, Kenya, Apr 13 2022 (IPS)* – Ahmed Bakari’s ill-fated journey to ‘greener pastures’ started with a social media private message from a stranger back in 2017. The message said an international NGO was recruiting teachers and translators to work in Somalia.

Traffickers target unemployed youth in Kenya. While the government is working to combat this crime, COVID-19 impacted their efforts. Here a police officer is in discussion with a community policing committee that works together to combat criminal activities, like trafficking. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

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13/04/2022

Record Heat Sends Sea Ice Into Retreat, Worrying Scientists

12 April 2022 (UNEP)* — The recent collapse of a 1,100km2 ice shelf in Antarctica came at a time of record high temperatures and is a symptom of a planet in climate crisis, experts say.
A penguin stands on an iceberg in Yankee Harbour, Antarctica

A penguin stands on an iceberg in Yankee Harbour, Antarctica, February 18, 2018. Reuters/Alexandre Meneghini

The Conger ice shelf, which cleaved away from the eastern side of Antarctica in March, is the latest victim of rising temperatures at the Earth’s poles.

Experts say as the polar regions warm, more ice is likely to melt, potentially pushing up sea levels and inundating coastal communities.

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13/04/2022

The Threat of Famine Is ‘Very Real’ in Somalia and South

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* – The threat of famine is very real in Somalia and South Sudan and urgent action is needed now to avoid a catastrophe, UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday [12 April 2022].

© UNICEF/Sebastian Rich | A child of seven months is being examined for malnutrition due to the severe drought in Somalia.
 

The alert from the World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) followed the latest food security assessments which showed that six million people in Somalia will face acute food insecurity in the coming months, unless the rains come.

12/04/2022

The Corporate Push for Synthetic Foods: False Solutions That Endanger Our Health and Damage the Planet

Human Wrongs Watch

By Prof. Vandana Shiva | Navdanya International– TRANSCEND Media Service*

Fully artificial food is an increasingly popular trend focused on developing a new line of synthetically produced, ultra-processed food products by using recent advances in synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology.

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These new products seek to imitate and replace animal products, food additives, and expensive, rare, or socially conflictive ingredients (such as palm oil).

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12/04/2022

Protection of Older Persons’ Rights Needed Now ‘More than Ever’

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — The basic rights of older persons need to be protected today, more than ever before, said the UN human rights chief on Monday [11 April 2022], but existing legal safeguards render them, in effect, “invisible”.

© Unsplash/Raychan | Long-term care systems enable older persons to receive the care and support that allow them to live a life consistent with their basic rights.

Michelle Bachelet was addressing the Working Group on Ageing, at UN Headquarters in New York, the first to do so in person, since it began its “vital role”, in 2011, she said.

11/04/2022

School Feeding Is Now the World’s Largest Social Safety Net

Human Wrongs Watch

KATHMANDU, Apr 4 2022 (IPS)* – When Canada and Nepal are used in the same sentence it’s usually because the former is supporting development efforts in the latter. Not when it comes to feeding children at school.
School feeding - Students eating lunch at Shivbhawani Primary School, Deulekh, Bajhang, Nepal. Credit: Marty Logan

Students eating lunch at Shivbhawani Primary School, Deulekh, Bajhang, Nepal. Credit: Marty Logan

Worldwide 388 million students, or 1 in 2 schoolchildren, received at least one meal or snack per day at school before the COVID-19 pandemic in what the World Food Programme (WFP), quoting the World Bank, calls the world’s “most extensive social safety net.”

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11/04/2022

Sub-Saharan Africa under Threat from Multiple Humanitarian Crises – Number of Hungry People in the Sahel and West Africa Quadrupled in Just Three Years

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — The number of hungry people in the Sahel and West Africa has quadrupled over the last three years, currently reaching 41 million, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Friday [8 April 2022].

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WFP Ethiopia | World Food Programme (WFP) convoys loaded with relief and nutritious foods stand by to deliver to communities in Ethiopia’s Tigray and Afar.

Issuing the alert, WFP said that the figure rose to 43 million when the Central African Republic was included in the food insecurity estimate.

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11/04/2022

South Sudan: Climatic Shocks, Conflict, Displacement Are Driving the Worsening Trend in Food Security – Over 62% of the Population Slated to Face Crisis

JUBA, 9 April 2022 (WFP)* – Food insecurity is likely to rise by seven percent across South Sudan in the coming months, compared to last year, according to a new United Nations report on food security. UN organizations are renewing the call for more humanitarian and livelihoods assistance to stave off looming hunger and enhance resilience.
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07/04/2022

Ethiopia: Crimes Against Humanity in Western Tigray Zone

Human Wrongs Watch

By Human Rights Watch*

Immediate Humanitarian Access, Protection of Communities Key