April 4th marks International Mine Awareness Day and Assistance for Action, which recognizes the physical and psychological dangers of living in an area where mines remain a deadly risk. “Peace without mine action is incomplete peace,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a statement yesterday. “No one should have to
A series of successful meetings between the presidents of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, have been hailed as a landmark event. Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev went to Turkmenistan on official state invitation over several days from March 6th. The event was his first foreign diplomatic trip after being sworn in late last
Peace talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides indicate that the 40-year conflict is drawing closer to an end. Geneva is the backdrop for the negotiations, reports The Guardian. The Swiss diplomatic hub is “psychologically less charged” than Cyprus, ideal for navigating land swaps and the dilemmas of an ethnic divide that has, for a
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been raging for nearly 23 years, and there is hardly a glimmer of hope for straight-forward resolution. At the 23rd Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which took place in Hamburg on the 8-9th December this year, Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov,
Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq have found two mass graves in north-western Iraq, Reuters reports. At least 18 bodies of people from Iraq’s Yazidi minority were found inside the graves underneath the loose earth, which appeared to have been filled in by a bulldozer. The graves, located at a junction
On Saturday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a landmark meeting in which economic and geopolitical matters between the two powerful nations were discussed. Central in the discussion, however, was the future of the Kuril Islands in the western Pacific Ocean, which had been
An attack on a Sufi shrine in Pakistan has taken 52 lives and injured at least 100 more. ISIL soon claimed responsibility for the attack which was carried out against devotees during a significant time of the Sufi year. The remoteness of the shrine’s location in Pakistan’s Balochistan region made
On Sunday, November 6, two bombs detonated in the Iraqi cities of Samarra and Tikrit. The attacks killed 21 people and were claimed to have been carried out by Islamic State militants. It is believed that the attacks were planned jointly as the assailants used ambulances filled with explosives
A few weeks ago, the tiny East African nation of Burundi made headlines by withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was an unprecedented move, which was risky and brazen in the eyes of many. It was not, however, unexpected. South Africa and Gambia left a week after
Since September 22, when Syria’s government announced an offensive to reclaim eastern Aleppo from anti-government rebels, up to 500 people have been killed by bombardment and a further 82 people caught by gunfire in ground clashes. 2,000 people have since been wounded and hospitals are under high pressure. On Tuesday,
The Ethiopian government has declared a state of emergency after deadly protests sprung up across the nation. At least 500 people (rough figure due to conflicting reports) have been killed in anti-government protests which began over a land rights dispute in the southern Oromia region, later spreading to the Amhara region. Al-Jazeera reports that
A vicious attack on a refugee camp in Niger left 22 dead on October 6. In broad daylight, 30 to 40 heavily armed assailants descended upon Tazalite, a refugee hosting area, located 35 km west of the closest township, Tassara, and 525 km from the capital, Niamey. According to
With an estimated population of 35 million, Kurdish people remain the world’s largest ethnic group without a set of recognized boundaries inside which to call home. Since the European-influenced division of the Middle East after World War I and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, which neglected to set aside
The death toll of Kashmir’s unrest continues to climb. Since July, protests in all corners of the territory have rekindled tensions between civilians and security forces in the Jammu and Kashmir region. The most recent wave of conflict originated in response to civilian reaction to the death of Kashmir military
Air raids instigated by the Turkish military outside the Syrian border city of Jarablus killed as many as 40 civilians at dawn on Sunday. This operation marked the fifth day of the campaign in which the Turkish military plans to extend their power further into Northern Syria. These Turkish attacks
