No love lost: In Hollywood movies vultures are evil and in Africa they’re harbingers of death not treasured for gift of ‘killing’ diseases
Vultures also have extremely strong stomach acid, don’t get food poisoning and are able to consume and neutralise anthrax, botulism and other bacteria and toxins in carcasses that would kill other animals, removing deadly threats from the environment. Just this week, more than 50 hippos died from suspected anthrax poisoning in a reserve in Congo.
Unbeknown to world, Ethiopia is war again and the rebellion in one of its most powerful regions is devastating
Amhara’s large population has long created pressure to expand, and the ethnic group has claimed the western part of Tigray. The Fano and Amhara regional forces seized it during the Tigray conflict, but they were left out of peace negotiations. They were angered to learn that western Tigray’s fate might be left up to a referendum, which has not been held.
Livestock rights: Chinese voracious craving for donkey meat, skins decimating African populations
Emmanuel Sarr, the West Africa regional director of the international animal welfare group Brooke, argues that the illegal trade in donkey hides persists due to the high demand from the ejiao industry. “The situation is further exacerbated by weak enforcement and the vulnerability of local farmers,” he says
UAE come under scrutiny for breaching genocide convention as Sudan accuses it of funding rebels
Sudan descended into a deadly conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary rebels broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions. Both the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces have been accused of abuses.
Doomed to live in penury due to disability and stabbed with knife by sister, poor Maasai mom defies the odds to fend for her children
Nevertheless, everything did not move as smoothly as she had hoped. The worst happened when Pisoi lost her father who was the pillar of their family when she was a teenager. The big loss forced the family into struggling for basic needs like housing, food and clothing.
Save the Children warns Haiti humanitarian crisis worsening as violence escalates
On Thursday, Fritz Alphonse Jean, the current head of the transition council, announced that the council was teaming up to tackle gangs with members of an armed paramilitary group who once tried to overthrow the government, in a sign of authorities’ increasing desperation to bring violence under control.
Powerful Iran-backed militia groups in Iraq ready to disarm to avert deadly US airstrikes
Izzat al-Shahbndar, a senior Shi’ite Muslim politician close to Iraq’s governing alliance, says discussions between Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and several militia leaders were “very advanced”, and the groups were inclined to comply with US calls for disarmament.
Kidnapped Kenyan officials released as Somali capital comes under heavy shelling by Al Shabaab
Gunmen believed to be from the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group abducted the village chiefs, who were government-appointed local officials, in Mandera County in February near the border of Somalia, where the insurgents are based.
While Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwest Kenya is already bigger than many African cities, UN thinking of evolving it into a city
Now the Kenyan government and humanitarian agencies have come up with an ambitious plan for Kakuma to evolve into a city. Although it remains under the United Nations’ management, Kakuma has been re-designated a municipality, one that local government officials later will run.
US slams doors on South Sudanese as it revokes all visas while drums of civil war beat at home
Five years of civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people. A peace deal reached in 2018 has been fragile and not fully implemented, to the frustration of the US and other international backers. Notably, South Sudan still hasn’t held a long-delayed presidential election, and Kiir remains in power.
