Alarm bells in Horn of Africa are tolling about unprecedented drought with some 20m people at risk of famine
Already struggling after three seasons of failed rains, farmers and pastoralists in the Horn of Africa are facing an unprecedented fourth drought – a catastrophe that will tip more than 20 million people into extreme hunger and, for some, possibly starvation. Rains were expected across the region in March or...
Fallen Eric Boerlert was often candid: We created the mess we’re in today because the Press didn’t ask ‘Why?’
The media can be conspiratorial. Coverage of politics in America – and by extension the so-called democratic world – is often biased. Eric Boehlert had the rare gift of serving readers whole news. By the time Al Gore crushed Bradley in the January 2000 Iowa caucuses, the solons of the...
Transition: How journalist Eric Boehlert refused to swim with the stream to give American voter unvarnished truth
From his early coverage of political reporters’ savaging Al Gore to his incisive critique of their Joe Biden coverage right before he died, he got it. And Eric Boehlert will be missed. I am broken-hearted over the news of Eric Boehlert’s death in a bicycle accident this week, at 56....
To reclaim ‘soil justice’ Diné Nation in US taxed junk food and used proceeds to fund community wellness
In 2014, Denisa Livingston, a Navajo tribal member, public health expert and organiser with Diné Community Advocacy Alliance (DCAA) and other members of her organisation successfully lobbied the Navajo tribal government to pass the Healthy Diné Nation Act, which imposed a two per cent tax on junk food – the...
From soil justice to social justice: How neglected Indigenous communities in US are using land to fight racism
A half-hour drive south of Gallup, New Mexico, the elevation rises and the sprawling desert turns to a hilly, mint green landscape covered in piñon trees and fields of wild sage – staple plants in Navajo traditional medicine and spirituality. Unlike many Native American tribes forced to resettle permanently in...
How Ethiopian rebels’ scepticism in government’s truce is killing innocent civilians in Tigray region
The response to the conflict in Ethiopia’s Afar region is constrained by a lack of funding and the limited presence of aid organisations, which are stretched across three conflict-hit northern regions where more than nine million people need assistance, relief organisations say. The need remains highest in Tigray, where no...
How Ethiopian rebels’ scepticism in government’s truce is killing innocent civilians
The response to the conflict in Ethiopia’s Afar region is constrained by a lack of funding and the limited presence of aid organisations, which are stretched across three conflict-hit northern regions where more than nine million people need assistance, relief organisations say. The need remains highest in Tigray, where no...
My brothers and sisters are dying: Inside the killing fields in Ethiopia’s Afar Triangle region
There is only one referral hospital in Ethiopia’s north-eastern Afar region, and its doctors are overwhelmed. Patients have been arriving with bullet wounds and blast injuries in recent weeks. A lack of beds means many end up on bare mattresses on the ground. “We don’t know who died and who...
Billionaire Elon Musk’s acquisition of huge stake in Twitter has ratcheted up hopes and fears over free speech
Elon Musk is one of the tech sector’s most inscrutable individuals – as evidenced by his recent decision to become Twitter’s largest shareholder. On Tuesday, four weeks after he bought a 9.2 per cent stake in the social networking platform through the purchase of nearly 73.5 million shares at a...
Theatre of hybrid warfare: Why Africa is rapidly gaining reputation as new ‘Wild West’ of the world
Africa is rapidly becoming a theatre for hybrid threats. Allegations of state-backed information campaigns designed to ramp up divisions in Mali and cyber-attacks on humanitarian relief organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are examples. The use of drones as weapons in the Horn of Africa,...
