Broken bread: How Ukraine war is fuelling a global wheat crisis that will have weighty impact on lives of the poor
Six boxes of wheat seed sit in our cold store. This is the first time in a decade that my team has not been able to send to Ukraine the improved germplasm we’ve developed as part of the Global Wheat Programme at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre in...
Why before total solar eclipse temperature drops, birds and insects sing and ambient light becomes otherworldly
In the final moments before a total solar eclipse, the temperature drops, birds and insects sing, and the ambient light becomes otherworldly. Daytime morphs into a 360-degree dusk, and where the sun once hung, a blackhole punches through the sky wreathed by a white ethereal glow. That glow is the...
Mandate of reconstituted African Union Mission in Somalia includes ‘degrading’ Al Shabaab
Top of a four-item mandate list for the reconstituted African Union (AU) mission in Somalia is “degrading Al Shabaab and other terrorist groups” active and operating in the troubled East African country. The reconstituted mission will be known as ATMIS (AU Transition Mission in Somalia) replacing AMISOM (AU Mission in...
Facing extreme hunger: How Madagascar’s children are paying the price for drought and deforestation
Southern Madagascar has been hammered by two years of drought that has left 1.5 million people – half the region’s population – facing extreme hunger. Children are particularly at risk. An estimated 500,000 children under the age of five are suffering acute malnutrition and 110,000 of them are severely malnourished,...
Tightening noose: US Treasury allows Russia’s $117 million bond payment as Moscow’s credit rating teeters on junk
Russia says it made a $117 million bond payment – a move to avoid defaulting on its debt – and the US Treasury Department said it would allow the instalment. Russia’s finance minister told state-run media Thursday that the country fulfilled a debt obligation, and noted that it’s up to...
Hate speech: Weaponisation of social media in Ukraine war should push UN into creating a body to fight the crime
Online hate speech and disinformation have long incited violence, and sometimes mass atrocities. When this has happened in the Global South, from Ethiopia to Myanmar, much of the world has looked away. But the war in Ukraine means no one can now ignore how social media is being weaponised in...
Sudan’s rapid economic collapse shifts attention to role of Russian mercenaries in gold smuggling
Sudan’s military rulers last week announced an emergency committee to address the country’s collapsing economy and pointed to its gold mining as a possible boost. Sudan’s ambassador to Russia has denied reports that Moscow has been smuggling gold from Sudan in preparation for sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. But...
ICC case against Kenyan lawyer Gicheru: It matters, but not for victims of the violence
The ongoing International Criminal Court (ICC) case against Kenyan lawyer Paul Gicheru has raised several questions about how the ICC should pursue and deliver justice with focus on victims. On the one hand, procedural justice is central to the ICC’s work as a court, where parties must work within the...
Covid’s death real figures: Pandemic killed population the size of Zambia’s 18 million people
The number of people who have died because of the Covid-19 pandemic could be roughly three times higher than official figures suggest, according to a new analysis1. The study, published on March 10 in The Lancet, says that the true number of lives lost to the pandemic by December 12,...
Child terrorists: Violent extremist group Boko Haram turns boys into ‘fodder of war’ as it spreads tentacles beyond Nigeria
In January, the violent extremist group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) released a video showing young boys undergoing strenuous combat training. As the clip ends, some children are seen executing soldiers captured from the battlefield. One of the instructors explains that the boys are being prepared for graduation and...
