‘There was a group of us for cooking, cleaning or marry the Al Shabaab bosses and if you looked like a monkey they killed you’
Our job [during captivity] was to find food and water for them. If you refused you were punished or killed. They were also forcing women to have sex, and when they were pregnant, they were taking babies out of their bellies.
Al Shabaab to raped Mozambican women: ‘There is no food for monkeys and dogs, you are not a person to us’
Hundreds – and possibly thousands – of women and girls have been kidnapped by the group known locally as al-Shabab (“the youth” in Arabic), which began a rebellion in the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province in 2017. Many of them have been forcibly married and repeatedly raped in military camps.
Scientists attribute adverse impact of recent torrential rains in East Africa to climate change, rapid urbanisation
The downpours caused floods that killed hundreds of people, displaced thousands of others, killed thousands of livestock and destroyed thousands of acres of crops in Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.
How Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains influenced recreation of butterfly forest by an Italian museum
With at least 2,500 plant species, more than 120 mammals, and thousands of invertebrate species, Udzungwa Mountains is rich in biological diversity. It’s part of the Eastern Arc Mountains of Kenya and Tanzania that are a proposed UNESCO Heritage site. It has more than 40 endemic species of butterflies.
MUSE’s work here is vital because of this variety, said Sevgan Subramanian, principal scientist and head of environmental health at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi.
After space missions on Mars and Moon, NASA plans to land on Uranus in 10 years and wants EPA on board
The mission has been under discussion for some time, and it will be exciting to see it begin to take shape. But, to make sure it is successful and happens as quickly and cost-effectively as possible, we would like to see others involved in its design, too. As a first step, we call for the European Space Agency (ESA) to join the project by, for example, building the entry probe, a possibility that was foreseen in the decadal report and has been assessed by ESA but has not yet been agreed.
How River Nile migrated eastward: Long-lost branch of the Nile finally located near Egypt’s Giza pyramids
River Nile is prone to migrating, and in the past, populations have had to relocate to keep up. Over the past few hundred years, the Nile has moved several kilometres to the east, possibly owing to shifting plate tectonics.
How Mali’s historic city and world’s oldest mud-brick Grand Mosque of Djenné are starved of tourists
The Grand Mosque, built in 1907 on the site of an older mosque dating back to the 13th century, is re-plastered every year by local residents in a ritual that brings together the entire city. The towering, earth-coloured structure requires a new layer of mud before the rainy season starts or it would fall into disrepair.
Rising number of African gay migrants seek asylum in Europe to escape stiff penalties at home
No comprehensive data exists about how many migrants seek or win asylum in the EU on LGBTQ+ grounds. Based on estimates reported by NGOs working with would-be refugees, the numbers in individual EU countries ranged from two to three in Poland in 2016 to 500 in Finland from 2015-2017 and 80 in Italy from 2012-2017, according to a 2017 report by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.
How a patient in rural Ugandan village known to be a hot spot for sickle cell disease gives hope to others
Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited disorders in which red blood cells – normally round – become hard, sticky and crescent shaped. The misshapen cells clog the flow of blood, which can lead to infections, excruciating pain, organ damage and other complications.
Rigidly controlled gun ownership in UK gives rise to ‘knife-enabled’ attacks, stoke public anxiety
“Knife-enabled” crime – in which knives were used to commit crimes or someone was caught illegally possessing one — rose seven per cent in England and Wales last year,” the government said last month, noting some localities were not included. In London, such crimes jumped 20 per cent. The other two UK countries, Scotland and Northern Ireland, keep their own statistics.
