By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | ACCRA (IDN) – Environmental groups in Ghana are waging an eleventh-hour battle to stop the government of Ghana from opening the Atewa Forest Reserve – a crown jewel of biodiversity and a source of three rivers – to commercial large-scale bauxite mining. Their resistance conforms to […]
Gambia’s Ex-President Plundered Nearly One Billion Dollars
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Experts who follow the money are still scratching their heads as to how a quarter of a billion dollars vanished from the national coffers along with former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh at roughly the same time. Before his flight into exile in 2017, Jammeh ruled […]
Why a White Christian Isn’t Called a Terrorist
By Kalinga Seneviratne This article is the 31st in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous series. SYDNEY (IDN) – After a White Australian of Christian background Brenton Tarrant gunned down 50 Muslims praying at a Christchurch mosque on a Friday, […]
UN Expert Demands from Saudi Arabia Public Trials of Khashoggi’s Accused Killers
By Jamshed Baruah GENEVA (IDN) – Six months after veteran Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has in a report criticised Riyadh’s closed-door trials of accused killers, which have thus far fallen short of […]
EU and International NGOs Exploit Aid to Fortify Forced Labour in Eritrea
Viewpoint by Makeda Saba BRUSSELS (IDN) – The Dutch Foundation Human Rights for Eritreans, an organization of exiled Eritreans, is taking legal action against the European Union. It is demanding of the EU to immediately stop funding a project in Eritrea which involves use of forced labour and enslavement. The European Union has allocated €20 […]
Senior Malian Officers Removed from Posts After Massacre of Fulani Herdsmen
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Jihadist groups dislodged from Middle East battlegrounds are reportedly regrouping in West Africa, exploiting longstanding grievances between the Dogon farmers and the Puelh-Fulani nomadic herdsmen of Mali over access to limited supplies of land and water. A militia in Dogon attire entered Ogossagou, a Fulani […]
Aid Slow to Come to the Rescue of Mozambicans Hard Hit by Idai
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Since Cyclone Idai roared into the Mozambican port city of Beira on March 14, devastating losses are mounting exponentially yet international aid has been slow to reach all survivors. Severe flooding produced by Idai’s strong winds and heavy rains caused the rivers Pungwe and Buzi […]
Women’s Unpaid Work Needs Factoring In for Fairer ASEAN Economies
By Jose Ramon Albert This article is abridged from a version that appears in the latest issue of East Asia Forum Quarterly, ‘Investing in Women‘. Jose Ramon Albert is a Senior Research Fellow at the Philippine government think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS). MANILA (IDN-INPS) – The Philippines and other ASEAN economies are […]
New Global Initiative to Ensure the Future of Congo Basin Forest
By J C Suresh TORONTO (IDN) – Stretching from the Gulf of Guinea in the west to the Rift Valley in the east, the Congo basin is the beating heart of African biodiversity. Spanning 530 million hectares across six countries – Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and […]
Aid Access the Biggest Challenge in Aftermath of Cyclone Idai
By Lisa Vives and Sean Buchanan NEW YORK | LONDON (IDN) – An estimated 1.7 million people in Mozambique were in the path of Tropical Cyclone Idai when it hit southern Africa on March 15, with upwards of 900,000 people affected in Malawi and thousands more in Zimbabwe. With the World Food Programme (WFP) reporting […]