The 32nd African Union (AU) summit kicked off on Thursday last week in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. According to the African Union website, 2019 is “the year of refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons.” Leaders from the 55 member states will gather to find sustainable solutions to forced displacement in […]
According to The Guardian, 110 people have been confirmed dead with 238 still unaccounted for after a dam collapsed at the Córrego de Feijão iron ore mine in Brumadhino, Brazil. The 86-metre-high dam released a flood of 12 million cubic metres of liquid mining waste and debris, which buried buildings […]
Let’s be blunt about it- the situation in Venezuela is dreadful. On January 10, President Nicolás Maduro began his second term following a controversial, widely-disputed election. Last year, Maduro’s campaign survived violent protests across Caracas, nationwide marches led by the opposition, and even a drone assassination attempt, The Guardian reports. […]
Last week the UN announced that 890 lives were claimed over three days in mid-December in ongoing ethnic violence acts in north-western Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as Al Jazeera reports. This death toll is more than double the estimate reported by a local priest and civil society activist, […]
Last week, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) published an exposé on the Jewish National Fund (JNF), a Canadian charity which has been audited by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). According to a complaint filed in October 2017, JNF put donations toward building infrastructure for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), including […]
The United Nations Security Council, led by the Netherlands, recently adopted a resolution to sanction perpetrators of human trafficking and sexual abuse in Libya, CNN writes. The sanctions require countries to freeze the assets of individuals committing these crimes and prevent them from travelling. This is a timely strengthening of […]
On Wednesday 19 December, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his plan to withdraw all 2,000 American troops from Syria over the next 100 days, Al Jazeera reports. Initially, his justification for this sudden decision was the alleged defeat of ISIL. Yet, just 24 hours later, he changed his reasoning, citing […]
Hakeem al-Araibi, an Australian-based refugee and semi-professional soccer player, remains detained in Thailand following his arrest three weeks ago, Al Jazeera reports. His arrest followed a Red Notice (an Interpol alert to find and temporarily detain an individual awaiting extradition), issued by Bahrain. The notice was then withdrawn, as notices […]
UN-directed peace talks between Houthi delegates and members of the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi began Thursday in Rimbo, Sweden. They were influenced by mounting pressure from Western countries to end nearly four years of conflict, writes Voice of America. The talks mark the first negotiations between both […]
As the conflict wages on, the UN is making a conscious effort to employ more women as peacekeepers in their Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The push for gender equality is not only to empower local women but also to improve conflict resolution. Force Commander Lieutenant General Gyllensporre […]
