The United Nations warns that amid other concerns about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the impact on wheat and food supply reaches far beyond its borders and has the potential to make matters worse in countries like Somalia that are already challenged by a hunger crisis. “For months now, developing…
Three African nations have had their voting rights suspended by the United Nations because of their failure to pay the required financial contributions for member states. Sudan and Congo-Brazzaville, along with the Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros, are among 10 nations that have failed to pay their dues in…
Zambia, Sudan and Cameroon are just a few of the nations that United States President Joe Biden mentioned during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, as world leaders gathered in person after last year’s virtual UNGA because of the COVID crisis. Speaking on the values of…
Leaders of the African Union and United Nations have called for the immediate release of President Alpha Condé following a coup attempt in the West African nation of Guinea. Moussa Faki Mahamat, the AU Commission chief, and Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi, the current head of the AU member nations, issued…
World leaders are speaking out against the violence in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, which has escalated since a first attack in October 2017 made clear that Islamic extremists were active in a region where foreign energy investments have helped to make it a target. President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe said…
Access to water has long been recognized as a basic human right, but the ways in which women and girls bear the brunt of water scarcity is often overlooked by those who seek to address the issue. Now, climate change and coronavirus are combining forces to wreak havoc on African…
Although Khalifa Haftar and his eastern Libyan forces have rejected the call for a ceasefire put out by Government of National Accord (GNA) leader Fayez Al-Sarraj, the United Nations says it continues to back diplomacy in resolving the long-standing crisis. “I’ve just read out a rather comprehensive humanitarian update, which…
The head of the African Union Commission has called on Malian activists to remain peaceful, as the country enters another week of protests calling for an end to President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta’s administration. The appeal from AU Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat follows demonstrations on Friday, when thousands of people in…
More than 200 million migrants across the globe send remittances to their home countries, many of them on the African continent, and that means some 800 million family members depend on them. In low- and middle-income countries, that amounted to US$554 billion last year, more than either the world’s official…
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres addressed the UN Security Council during the body’s first meeting on the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday, and urged members to understand the shocks that exacerbate conflict as well as the public health crisis impacts. “The world faces its gravest test since the founding of…
By Dr. Jemimah Njuki A man and a woman are heading to a flood plain in Zambia. They part ways upon arrival: he disappears on a boat to go fishing, and she makes her way to collect firewood to fry fish by the roadside. He will earn much higher wages…
As progress on a Libyan ceasefire inches forward, experts warn of a new challenge: land mines. An international meeting on mine action wraps up today in Geneva, and one of the renewed concerns is the recontamination with unexploded ordnance (UXO) on land in and around Tripoli since the April 2019…
Ioane Teitiota of the Pacific Island nation of Kiribati lost his individual case, but the landmark ruling on the rights of climate refugees from the United Nations Human Rights Committee means he may have changed the future for people seeking to escape the extreme impacts of a warming world. That…
Central African Republic, Lesotho and The Gambia have had their United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voting privileges suspended because of a failure to pay required member dues. The decision is in line with rules under the UN charter that withhold the voting privileges when a nation meets or exceeds the…
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres honored on Monday the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide, with remarks that urged early intervention at the first warning signs of the threat. “Across the world, we are seeing an alarming surge in xenophobia, racism,…