Archive for ‘Africa’

01/08/2025

A Chance to Breathe: How Life-Saving Incubators Are Transforming Newborn Care in Somalia

Human Wrongs Watch

By the United Nations Population Fund*

MOGADISHU, Somalia – “I didn’t know if she would make it.” When Faduma Mohamed gave birth to her daughter at Banadir Hospital in Mogadishu, the silence that followed was terrifying. Her premature daughter was tiny, underweight and barely breathing. 

A health worker in a white UNFPA medical coat smiles as she holds two newborn babies in a hospital ward.
A midwife holds twins at a UNFPA-supported neonatal care health facility in Baidoa, Somalia. © Reado
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The doctors quickly transferred her to the neonatal intensive care unit, a place Faduma feared her newborn might not return from.

Just months earlier, she might not have; the hospital’s newborn intensive care unit was severely under-resourced, lacking essentials such as incubators and oxygen support machines.

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31/07/2025

Forests, Fossil Fuels, and the Fight for the Future: DR Congo’s Oil Expansion Sparks Global Alarm

Human Wrongs Watch

SRINAGAR, India & KINSHASA, DRC, Jul 29 2025 (IPS)* The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) stands on the precipice of a profound environmental and social crisis, as the government prepares to auction 55 new oil blocks that cover more than half the country’s landmass.
Activists march in the street of Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo to demand climate justice and an end to oil exploration in the Virunga National Park. Credit: MNKF Creatives

Activists march in the street of Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo to demand climate justice and an end to oil exploration in the Virunga National Park. Credit: MNKF Creatives

Touted as a pathway to economic growth, the move has triggered fierce backlash from scientists, civil society groups, Indigenous leaders, and international conservationists, who warn that the proposed fossil fuel expansion threatens some of the most ecologically and culturally significant landscapes on Earth.

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31/07/2025

Six Months into Congo’s War, Cholera Is Killing More than Four People… Every Day

Human Wrongs Watch

By OXFAM International*

Francoise lost six children in the conflict in DRC. She has been displaced to a camp in Bunia with her five remaining children after their village was attacked. Photo: John Wessels/Oxfam

Francoise lost six children in the conflict in DRC. She has been displaced to a camp in Bunia with her five remaining children after their village was attacked. Photo: John Wessels/Oxfam

Six months since the renewed war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a full-blown public health emergency is accelerating, Oxfam warned on 24 July 2025

Since January, more than 35,000 suspected cholera cases and at least 852 related deaths have been reported – an average of more than four deaths every day and a 62 percent increase compared to 2024.

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31/07/2025

Cholera Outbreak in West and Central Africa: 80,000 Children at ‘High Risk’  

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Some 80,000 children are estimated to be at high risk of cholera in West and Central Africa as the rainy season begins across the region, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday []. 

A cholera awareness session is held for young students in Bweremana, in the DR Congo's North Kivu province.
© UNICEF/Jospin Benekire | A cholera awareness session is held for young students in Bweremana, in the DR Congo’s North Kivu province.

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30/07/2025

American Inhumanity on Full Display to the World

Human Wrongs Watch

ATLANTA, USA, Jul 30 2025 (IPS)* – Why is a grinning Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, wildly cheered by both Democrats and Republicans whenever he addresses the US Congress, while at the same time in Gaza countless innocent civilians are being killed by American bombs and bullets—and now babies are starving?

Rescue workers line up body bags in Tal Al Sultan, in Rafah, in southern Gaza. Credit: UNOCHA

Shamefully, Israel’s leader, a certified genocidaire, is one of the few global leaders to have ever been granted the privilege of speaking to Congress, which he has done frequently.

But the world sees and will remember his Big Lie that “There is no starvation in Gaza.”

The mantle of righteousness that once adorned the American flag after WW II is shredded, perhaps beyond repair.

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30/07/2025

Lured by Hope, Trapped by Lies: Healing after Being Trafficked

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — The promise seemed simple: a job, a fresh start, a way out. Instead, Maria* stepped off a boat onto a picture-perfect Trinidadian beach with hope in her heart and into a nightmare that would shadow her for years. 

Maria left Caracas, Venezuela, in search of better opportunities in Trinidad and Tobago.
© IOM/Gema Cortés | Maria left Caracas, Venezuela, in search of better opportunities in Trinidad and Tobago.
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On the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, observed on 30 July, follow the journey of a woman who escaped.
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Eight years ago, Maria left Caracas, Venezuela, driven by dwindling opportunities and the hope of completing her veterinary studies.
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At just 21, she accepted an offer from an acquaintance who promised work in Trinidad and Tobago, cleaning homes, waiting tables. It seemed like a lifeline, a way to support herself and her family back home.
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She didn’t know then that she was stepping into a well-laid trap.

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30/07/2025

In Just One Year, Victims from 162 Nationalities Were Trafficked to 128 Different Countries

Human Wrongs Watch

Human Trafficking Is Organized Crime: World Day Against Trafficking in Persons
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outline of figure standing in empty basement

Trafficking for forced criminality into online scams is an emerging form of exploitation. In this photo, a rescued former scammer stands in a raided scam farm in Bamban, to the north of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. | PHOTO:© UNODC / Laura Gil

30 July 2025 (United Nations) — Human trafficking continues to be a global threat driven by organized crime. More and more victims are being trafficked every year, across greater distances, with greater violence, for longer periods of time and for greater profit.

From 2020 to 2023, there were more than 200,000 detected victims globally, which is just the tip of the iceberg.

The actual number of unreported cases is believed to be significantly higher.

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29/07/2025

Pollution, Melting Glacier Microbes, Undamming Rivers, Risks for Elders: 4 Key Climate Issues

Human Wrongs Watch

By Eileen Travers

 (UN News)* — In a world increasingly shaped by climate extremes, environmental experts are delivering a blunt warning: four rapidly emerging threats could reshape life for millions unless urgent action is taken.

A man gives his grandson a drink of water amid a drought in Kenya. (file)

© UNEP/Nayim Ahmed Yussuf | A man gives his grandson a drink of water amid a drought in Kenya. (file)

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29/07/2025

Bullying Southeast Asia with Tariff Threats

Human Wrongs Watch

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jul 29 2025 (IPS)* US President Trump has successfully used tariff threats to achieve economic, political and even personal goals. These threats, reminiscent of colonialism, have secured submission and concessions.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

After hearing the 2024 US elections, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto respectfully stood up in his Jakarta office to call to congratulate the winner.

Trump bragged about his tariff offer to Indonesia in mid-July 2025, flattering its president profusely. After hesitating initially, former General Prabowo had agreed to join BRICS, despite Trump’s clear disapproval.

“I spoke to their really great president, very popular, very strong, smart. And we made the deal. We will pay no tariffs…they are giving us access to Indonesia … the other part is they are going to pay 19% and we are going to pay nothing.”

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29/07/2025

Amid Worsening Starvation in Gaza, Sudan, UN Chief Slams Hunger ‘as a Weapon of War’

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — As starvation worsens in war-torn Gaza, UN agencies repeated warnings on Monday [] that Israel’s decision to support a “one-week scale-up” of aid is far from enough to reverse deadly malnutrition rates in the enclave. 

Women in Gaza desperately seek food.
© UNICEF/Mohammed Nateel | Women in Gaza desperately seek food.
 
The development comes as UN Secretary-General António Guterres cautioned that conflict-driven hunger is spreading “from Gaza to Sudan and beyond”.

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