By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – For the first time ever, the UN Security Council has put human traffickers on an international sanctions list by imposing sanctions on six leaders operating networks in Libya. Four are Libyans, including the head of a regional coast guard unit, and two Eritrean nationals. By resolution 1970 […]
Ivory Coast President’s Agenda 2030 Evokes Protests
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YOK (IDN) – In a recent interview with a French magazine, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara revealed his vision of two more terms in office despite having repeatedly said he would step down at the end of his second term in 2020. The news throws cold water on […]
Infighting Delays a ‘New Dawn’ in South Africa
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – South Africa’s former leader Jacob Zuma is among those said to be impeding efforts by his successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, to create a “new dawn” for citizens and foreign investors – free of corruption and cronyism which became associated with the Zuma regime. Zuma was […]
Mamadou and Ramatoulaye Opt Out Of Migrating To Europe
Following is the text of an epilogue in Chapter 6, titled ‘recommendations and conclusions’ of Economic Development in Africa Report 2018: Migration for Structural Transformation, published on June 1, 2018 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). – The Editor. GENEVA (IDN | UNCTAD) – The news on the radio about Libya […]
Grassroots India Beginning To Beat Plastic Pollution
By Sudha Ramachandran BANGALORE (IDN) – A 32-year-old Rajeswari Singh launched on a six-week marathon mission on World Earth Day setting out to walk some 1,100 kilometres from Vadodara in western India to reach New Delhi on World Environment Day on June 5, spreading a simple message ‘Stop using plastic’, and accentuating it by forgoing […]
Gambia Ex-President Tied to 2005 Murders of Refugees
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | ACCRA (IDN) – Strong evidence has been gathered linking the former president of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, to the murder of 44 West African migrants mostly from Ghana by operatives of the ex-president. The sole survivor of the mass killing, also from Ghana, promised himself not […]
Me Too Movement Challenges African Halls Of Power
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – A promised investigation into gender discrimination at the African Union appears to be idling on the back burner, according to the South African Mail & Guardian. Some 37 women employees at the African Union Commission (AUC) have complained of “ill-treatment and humiliation”, investigators […]
Governments Do Little as West African Countries are Plundered
By Will Fitzgibbon In the region’s largest-ever journalism collaboration, reporters from 11 countries expose the financial secrets of some of West Africa’s most powerful politicians, moguls and corporations. The following article first appeared on the website of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on 22 May 2018 with the headline WEST AFRICA LEAKS: How Officials, […]
China Extending Capabilities In Reengineering Global Opinion
Viewpoint by Zi Yang* SINGAPORE (IDN) – On March 21, 2018, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) released its ‘Plan for Deepening Reform of Party and State Organs’. Among the 60 items added to China’s reform agenda, four were related to state media. That month, the CCP greatly increased the power of China’s so-called ‘Ministry of […]
China Is Making Friends With Five Mekong States
Viewpoint by Nguyen Khac Giang* HANOI (IDN) – Since Chinese President Xi Jinping took over power in 2012, Southeast Asia has become a focal point of China’s geopolitical ambitions. Instead of the clandestine and illegal tactics seen under Mao Zedong, the current strategy combines two major approaches: building Chinese-led institutional mechanisms and buying support with […]