Pro-democracy violence deepens economic crisis in Africa’s absolute monarchy
The pro-democracy demonstrations and deadly violence that erupted in Eswatini last month and continued into July have deepened the southern African nation’s economic and humanitarian crisis, but without forcing any reform of the royal establishment. The people of Eswatini have never lived under a democratic system of government. King Mswati...
Historians making permanent digital copies of every document of United Nations predecessor
Rising populism, fake news, and the ending of a global pandemic – the international challenges of almost 100 years ago uncannily echo the present, a unique archival project in Geneva reveals. Archivists and historians are making a permanent digital copy of almost every document, letter, memo, photo and map from...
China: Farming having become more mechanised, ecotourism inspires people to live in villages
Terry Townshend, a wildlife conservationist and biodiversity adviser to Beijing’s government, has since 2017 been training yak herders in Qinghai in the kinds of skills that ecologists hope could be a model for sustainable development. In 2016, he met the official responsible for Zaduo, a county in Qinghai Province where...
Asylum seekers: Ignored by international community, we’re left with the only option – to cross the sea
The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says people released from Zintan refugee detention centre in Libya were given emergency cash assistance and other support from UN partners, including cash cards that can be used at over 4,000 shops in Tripoli, but did not specify when the support was provided....
Donors question UN aid in Tigray, which ‘appears to put rocket fuel into the agency engines’
A series of donor letters that question how international support in conflict-weary Tigray, Ethiopia, is managed lay the blame more squarely on UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which they accuse of having failed to ensure the presence of experienced, senior staff members in the camps and transit sites. The...
