‘We’re joined at the hip’, Kenya and Somalia presidents say as they rejig turbulent diplomatic ties
Somalia’s newly-elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has recommitted to peaceful co-existence with neighbouring Kenya, telling his host, President Uhuru Kenyatta, that the two countries were joined at the hip, hence the need to put behind them recent diplomatic turbulence. During Friday meeting in Nairobi, which may as well be the...
In some parts of Myanmar teachers and students regularly hide in the forest for days to attend school
The Myanmar military has since last May retaliated against rising armed resistance in Karenni state with airstrikes and artillery fire, repeatedly targeting civilians and their homes and at times bombing displacement camps. More than 170,000 people, or half of the state’s population, are now internally displaced, according to civil society...
How Myanmar children are defying bombs to attend schools run by striking civil servants and volunteers
When Biak* walked into a classroom on June 1, the first day of Myanmar’s school year, it bore no resemblance to the one he had last set foot in more than two years prior, when he was in fourth grade. Then, he wore a green-and-white uniform and sat at a...
Man United’s Marcus Rashford tells American basketball icon LeBron racism is rife in English football
Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford believes England stars would not have received abuse after the Euro 2020 final if three white players missed penalties against Italy last summer. Rashford was targeted by trolls with vile racist messages on social media after he failed with his spot kick at Wembley Stadium,...
South Africa’s fractured ruling party ANC has created room for social media to stoke fear
Last July South Africa was hit by a wave of devastating violence that left over 350 people dead and caused massive economic damage. Different people have used different terms to describe what happened: civil unrest, looting, food riots, uprising, rebellion or counter-revolution. Even government ministers were initially divided about what...
Too young to kill: New UN report singles out African countries for recruitment of child soldiers
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Somalia are the two African countries singled out by a United Nations (UN) report on children and armed conflict where there is “devastating impact” on the younger generation. Dangers outlined in the annual report on children and armed conflict range from conflict escalation,...
Experts say ‘Kamikaze drones’ in use in Russis vs Ukraine war is a preamble of future battlefields
An attack on a Russian oil refinery this week highlighted the use of loitering munitions by both sides in the Ukraine war to inflict targeted losses using cheap technologies capable of waiting for targets to emerge. When a Russian oil refinery worker pointed his camera phone into the sky earlier...
US Senate to amend Electoral Count Act to clarify vice president’s role in confirming presidential poll winner
A bipartisan group of senators has agreed on a series of provisions to reform the Electoral Count Act, a move aimed at clarifying the role of the vice president and Congress in confirming the winner of a presidential election in the wake of January 6 chaos at Capitol Hill. The...
DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania populations projected to grow fastest by 2050
More than half of the projected increase in the global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries, the UN has said, five of which are in Africa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, the new UN report – World Population Prospects 2022...
World population to hit eight billion mark in November with China and India retaining lead
The United Nation’s latest global population projection predicts there will be eight billion people on the planet by November and that the population will gradually increase to 8.5 billion by 2050 and to more than 10 billion by 2080. That growth will come with significant economic and environmental implications. The...
