Last week, states bordering the Caspian Sea signed a deal agreeing upon a legal framework for sharing the contested body of water. After twenty years of negotiations, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan have taken a landmark step towards regional peace. Under the agreement, the Caspian partners settled on 15
On Monday 30 July, Zimbabweans went to the polls for Zimbabwe’s general elections. They hope for free and fair elections, as these are the first ones since the resignation of Robert Mugabe, now 94, as President of Zimbabwe, following the successful November 2017 coup. According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission,
The outgoing Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos has granted two-year temporary residency permits to 440,000 Venezuelan refugees. The emergency residency scheme will allow refugees to work, study and receive medical care. Colombia is the main destination for Venezuelans fleeing political and economic instability at home. Over 1.5 million Venezuelans have
UN member states have released the final draft of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). This comes after the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, which was created in 2016. The new Global Compact focuses on migrants and aims to address migration issues in a
Jean-Pierre Bemba was welcomed home to the Congo this week by tens of thousands of cheering citizens. Mr Bemba, recently freed after a 2016 conviction for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the ICC, returned home to file his candidacy for President. The crowd was the DRC’s largest politically-related
North and South Korea have renewed dialogue on Tuesday the 31st of July in the Korean demilitarised zone (DMZ) as a follow up to their summit in April, Reuters reports. The talks are aimed at furthering the agreement stemming from the historic meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and
“Mama, mama, forgive me.” The students sob in front of the camera, tears running down their young faces. Their choked voices are briefly drowned by the sound of a gunshot in the background. “To my mother who I haven’t seen since April when I left home, I want her to
At the end of July 2018, Zimbabwe held its first elections that did not include former long-term President Robert Mugabe on the ballot. Mugabe had been president of the Southern African nation since he led the liberation war against the white minority rule that ended in 1980, and once famously
On August 1st, 2018, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) confirmed an outbreak of Ebola. This outbreak occurred only a week after the government declared Ebola defeated in the Equateur province on the other side of the country. So far, four deaths have been confirmed to have
In an effort to put pressure on foreign residents living in the Palestinian territories, the Israeli government has enforced a series of visa restrictions. To maintain their legal residency status in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, foreign residents must regularly renew their visas with the Palestinian Interior Ministry, which
On July 17, two days after undergoing a traditional Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) operation, 10-year-old Deeqa Dahir Nuur bled to death, in the first confirmed fatality from FGM in years. Nuur was taken to a traditional cutter in her village of Olol on 14 July to undergo the surgery. In Somalia,
The second draft of the Indian National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published on Monday 30th July, adding further tension to relationships between government officials and Bengali Muslims living in Assam. The NRC included 29 million (2.9 crore) of the 32.9 million (3.29 crore) applicants in Assam, leaving 4 million
On the 23rd of July, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a report detailing how the already struggling Venezuelan Bolívar will surge to 1,000,000 percent inflation by the end of 2018. These are only the most recent markers of a steadily worsening economic crisis for the once developing nation. Since the
Thousands located in Kenya’s largest slum have recently experienced days of demolition by government bodies for which human rights groups have called a violation of the law. The demolition of illegal structures through the Kibera slum in Nairobi, is to usher a new $20m dual-carriageway through the capital – approved
