By Zipporah Musau, Africa Renewal NEW YORK (IDN) – Realising a conflict-free Africa is the dream of every African. In this edition, we highlight the current hotspots; the root causes of conflicts; the various efforts in search of peaceful co-existence and development and the African Union’s quest for silencing the guns by 2020. In 2013 African Union […]
Shantytowns Housing Thousands Demolished in Ivory Coast
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Bulldozers have begun demolishing homes built in the shantytowns of Abidjan, the commercial capital of the Ivory Coast, leaving thousands without shelter as authorities carry out plans to build a buffer zone around an international airport. This comes as large numbers of Ivorians are leaving […]
Sri Lanka Committed to Non-Proliferation and Disarmament
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA | COLOMBO (IDN) – In an exceptional move, Germany has granted funds to Sri Lanka’s Forum on Disarmament and Development (FDD) for the translation of the texts of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty (CTBT) to the island state’s official languages Sinhala and […]
Emergency World Bank Meeting on Tanzania Focuses on Women’s Rights
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) –The World Bank’s executive board cancelled expected action on a $500 million loan to Tanzania where teenage girls can be expelled from school because they are pregnant. The Bank had been under pressure from rights activists and held a last-minute emergency meeting on January 27 with […]
UN Report Condemns Missile Attacks Against Civilians and Migrants in Libya
By Jamshed Baruah GENEVA (IDN) – A United Nations report has condemned a missile attack against Mitiga Airport, near Tripoli’s centre. At least two civilians were injured, while the tarmac and several buildings were damaged. The joint report of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the UN human rights office in Geneva, published […]
Australia Battling Devastation Wrought by Worst Ever Bushfires
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) – Australia’s worst summer in living memory has burnt over 18 million hectares. The UN Environments Programme (UNEP) estimates that more than 5,900 buildings including over 2,800 homes have been destroyed as of mid-January. In addition to a death toll of 33 people so far, about one billion animals, and […]
World Powers Come to Woo Sri Lanka
By Kalinga Seneviratne COLOMBO (IDN) – Two months after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa assumed office on November 18, 2019, the Indian ocean island republic of Sri Lanka has had the unique distinction of hosting top diplomats of three world powers – the United States, China and Russia. One of the president’s first significant announcements was that […]
New Currency Stemmed as Six West African Countries Object
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – French-speaking countries will have to put the cork back in the champagne bottle after six member countries of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) comprising Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, have rejected the adoption of ‘Eco’ as the name of the proposed […]
Morocco Fails to Mobilize Rural Communities to Advance SDGs
Viewpoint by Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir The writer is a sociologist and president of the High Atlas Foundation, a Moroccan-U.S. not-for-profit organization dedicated to sustainable development in Morocco. MARRAKECH (IDN) – In recent years, Morocco has put in place the right frameworks for mobilizing rural communities to advance the nation’s Sustainable development Goals (SDGs), yet it […]
Tanzania Passes Law on HIV Self-Test to Tame the Deadly Virus
15-Year Old Children Can Self-Test Without Parental Consent By Kizito Makoye DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (IDN) – Perched on a plastic chair at his shop in the bustling Sinza suburb in Dar es Salaam, Abdul* is anxiously looking at a small kit containing liquid and a stick. “I want to know my HIV status,” says […]