Archive for ‘Africa’

14/06/2024

Forced Displacement Surged to Historic New Levels across the Globe: 120 Million

Human Wrongs Watch

UNHCR warns against apathy and inaction amid spike in forced displacement.

GENEVA, 13 June 2024 (UNHCR)* — Overall numbers rise to 120 million by May 2024; conflicts from Sudan to Gaza and Myanmar are creating new displacement and urgently require resolution.

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Habiba Shoaib, a community representative and internally displaced person from Sudan’s Blue Nile State.© UNHCR/Ala Kheir

Forced displacement surged to historic new levels across the globe last year and this, according to the 2024 flagship Global Trends Report from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. 

The rise in overall forced displacement – to 120 million by May 2024 – was the 12th consecutive annual increase and reflects both new and mutating conflicts and a failure to resolve long-standing crises.

The figure would make the global displaced population equivalent to the 12th largest country in the world, around the size of Japan’s.

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12/06/2024

Pakistan’s Dirty, Open Secret —Manual Scavenging

Human Wrongs Watch

KARACHI, Jun 12 2024 (IPS)* A dark head emerges, followed by the torso. The balding man heaves himself up, hands on the sides of the manhole, as he is helped by two men. Gasping for breath, the man, who seems to be in his late 40s, sits on the edge, wearing just a pair of dark pants, the same color as the putrid swirling water he comes out from.
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A sewer worker who is popularly known as Mithoo emerges from the sewer. Credit: Zofeen T. Ebrahim/IPS

A sewer worker who is popularly known as Mithoo emerges from the sewer. Credit: Zofeen T. Ebrahim/IPS

This is an all-too-familiar sight in Karachi, with its over 20 million residents producing 475 million gallons per day(MGD) of wastewater going into decades-old crumbling sewerage-systems.

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12/06/2024

Sudan: International Criminal Court Prosecutor Appeals for Evidence of Darfur Atrocities

Human Wrongs Watch

11 June 2024 (UN News)* —  The Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched a campaign on Tuesday to address the unfolding crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan, amid the going war between rival military forces that erupted last April.

Children shelter in the shade in Tambasi centre in El Fasher, North Darfur.
© UNICEF/Mohamed Zakaria | Children shelter in the shade in Tambasi centre in El Fasher, North Darfur.

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In a video posted on social media, Karim Khan urged victim groups, civil society organizations, national authorities, and international partners to engage with his Office and provide any evidence and material relating to the ongoing atrocities being inflicted on civilians.

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12/06/2024

Once Again, Burkina Faso Is the World’s Most Neglected Crisis

Human Wrongs Watch

By the Norwegian Refugee Council*

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“My biggest worry as a mother is that my children are hungry, and I don’t have enough food to feed them,” said Mariam, a displaced mother now living in Kongoussi, Burkina Faso.

The annual list of neglected displacement crises is based on three criteria: lack of humanitarian funding, lack of media attention, and a lack of international political and diplomatic initiatives compared to the number of people in need.

The crisis in Cameroon is listed second, having featured on the list every year since 2018.

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11/06/2024

UN Refugee Agency Urges Global Response to Neglected Humanitarian Crisis in the Sahel

Human Wrongs Watch

 

 

 

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Displaced families arrive in Gao, Mali, after being forced to flee their homes because of violence. | © UNHCR/Abdoulatif Halido

GENEVA – (UNHCR)* — UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is deeply concerned about the fast-growing humanitarian crisis in the Sahel Region.

In the Central Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, over 3.3 million people are forcibly displaced due to relentless conflict, exacerbated by the worsening effects of the climate crisis, according to April 2024 data. This staggering forced displacement of civilians demands immediate international action to prevent it worsening.

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11/06/2024

Healing Invisible Scars on a Journey to Rebuild

Human Wrongs Watch

Benin-City, Edo State, Nigeria, 11 June 2024 (IOM)* – Frederick could barely hold back tears as he recounted his story. Six years after his return, he is still healing from the trauma of his experience in Libya.

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Frederick poses in his barbershop in Benin-City, Edo State. Like him, thousands of Nigerians have returned home and with IOM’s support, they’re slowly rebuilding their lives. Photo: IOM/François-Xavier

“When I came back, I had nothing,” he says in a low, breaking voice, sitting outside his modest barbershop in a suburb of Benin-City, in Nigeria’s Edo State. “But today, at least I have a business and I am healthy. I was in hell in that country, but I am happy to be back home.”

Hell, for Frederick, was Libya.

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10/06/2024

Millions of Migrant Farm Workers Exploited in Europe’s Fields: Oxfam

Human Wrongs Watch

By OXFAM*

  • Approximately 1 in 4 workers in Europe’s agriculture sector are migrants. 
  • Migrant workers face violence, long working hours, and routine underpayment. 
  • The new EU supply chains law, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, is a tool to combat this exploitation.

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Photo by USGS on Unsplash

Europe’s agriculture industry is exploiting the at least 2.4 million migrants who harvest Europe’s fruits and vegetables. This is according to a new report published on 4 June 2024 by the University of Comillas and Oxfam researchers titled “Essential but invisible and exploited.” 

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08/06/2024

‘Unimaginable Trauma’ Haunts Sudan’s Displaced While Violence, Famine Threaten Millions

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Horrific violence and the risk of famine continue to stalk the people of Sudan, UN humanitarians warned on Friday [], as they echoed condemnation by UN Secretary-General António Guterres of an attack on a village south of Khartoum two days ago that is now believed to have left more than 100 dead.

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A woman feeds a child at a school used as a gathering point for displaced people in Port Sudan. (file)
© WFP/Abubaker Garelnabei | A woman feeds a child at a school used as a gathering point for displaced people in Port Sudan. (file)

“The UN Secretary-General strongly condemns the attack reportedly carried out on 5 June by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the Wad Al-Noura village, Jazira state, which is said to have killed over 100 people,” his Spokesperson said in a statement overnight, which also underscored “the immense suffering of the Sudanese population as a result of the continued hostilities”.

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07/06/2024

Global Public Debt Hits Record $97 Trillion in 2023 – UN Urges Action

Human Wrongs Watch

The alarming surge in global debt burden calls for urgent reforms to the international financial systems to safeguard a prosperous future for both people and the planet.

A classroom in Uganda.
Default image copyright and description © Shutterstock/Boxed Lunch Productions | 769 million Africans live in countries where debt interest payments outweigh investments in either education or health – areas critical for human development.

(UNCTAD)* — In a new report released on 4 June, the United Nations sounded the alarm over the escalating debt burdens to global prosperity.

Titled ”A world of debt 2024: A growing burden to global prosperity”, the report highlights the unprecedented surge in public debt – comprising both domestic and external general government borrowing – which reached a historic peak of $97 trillion in 2023, up by a notable $5.6 trillion from the previous year.

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07/06/2024

1 in 4 Children Globally Live in ‘Severe Child Food Poverty Due to Inequity, Conflict, and Climate Crises – UNICEF

Human Wrongs Watch

Children experiencing this level of food poverty are up to 50 per cent more likely to suffer from life-threatening malnutrition, new analysis finds.

Child sits and eats nutritious plate of food, looking at camera.
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NEW YORK, 6 June 2024 (UNICEF)* -– Around 181 million children worldwide under 5 years of age – or 1 in 4 – are experiencing severe child food poverty, making them up to 50 per cent more likely to experience wasting, a life-threatening form of malnutrition, a new UNICEF report reveals today.

For the first time, Child Food Poverty: Nutrition Deprivation in Early Childhood analyses the impacts and causes of dietary deprivation among the world’s youngest people in nearly 100 countries, and across income groups.

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