WORLD - The African Mirror

Mar

02

2025

What is Navalny’s legacy for Russia?

WORLD

This is the best day of the past five months for me … This is my home … I am not afraid of anything and I urge you not to be afraid of anything either. These were Alexei Navalny’s words after landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport on January 17 2021. Russia’s leading opposition figure had spent the past months recovering in Germany from an attempt on his life by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Minutes after making his comments, Navalny was detained at border control. And he would remain behind bars until his death on February 16 2024, in…

Mar

02

2025

By The African Mirror

Brutal toll: Myanmar crisis reaches deadly heights in 2024

WORLD

VIOLENCE in Myanmar has reached catastrophic levels, with 2024 marking the deadliest year since the 2021 military coup, according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. At least 1,824 documented deaths, including 531 women and 248 children, likely represent only a fraction of the actual casualties. "Conflict, displacement and economic collapse have combined to cause pain and misery across the country. Civilians are paying a terrible price," Türk reported, describing a campaign of terror characterized by "beheadings, burnings, mutilations, executions, torture, and the use of human shields." The military's indiscriminate airstrikes and artillery attacks have deliberately targeted schools,…

Mar

01

2025

By ALI ASGARY

Why Trump’s Gaza reconstruction proposal is unlikely to work

WORLD

THERE have been many conversations around U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal to permanently displace Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring countries and turn the strip into a luxury resort development. Criticisms of Trump’s comments often focus on the proposal’s illegality, immorality and impracticality. However, little has been discussed from the perspective of post-disaster and post-war reconstruction. Post-conflict reconstruction, as part of post-disaster reconstruction studies, has a very long history, scholarly literature, lessons learned and is one of the well-studied phases of disaster and emergency management. Where to rebuild When it comes to where to rebuild or reconstruct after disasters, including…

Mar

01

2025

By The African Mirror

Haiti: Massive surge in child armed group recruitment – UNICEF

WORLD

THE ongoing emergency in Haiti is crushing children’s chances of education and a better future as scores of youngsters are recruited by heavily armed and violent gangs, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday. UNICEF’s representative in Haiti, Geetanjali Narayan, told journalists that just last month, armed groups destroyed 47 schools in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, adding to the 284 schools destroyed in 2024. “The relentless attacks on education are accelerating, leaving hundreds of thousands of children without a place to learn,” she said. Speaking in Geneva, Ms Narayan described reports of “yet another attack” on Thursday. “Videos capture piercing…

Mar

01

2025

By The African Mirror

UNHCR condemns forced returns from Thailand

WORLD

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, deeply regrets the deportation of some 40 Uyghurs after more than 10 years in Thailand’s detention centres. UNHCR had received reports that a group of Uyghurs detained in Bangkok faced imminent deportation. The agency repeatedly sought access to the group and assurances from Thai authorities that these individuals, who had expressed a fear of return, would not be deported. No such access was granted, and when contacted for clarification, the Royal Thai Government authorities stated that no decision had been made to deport the group. “This is a clear violation of the principle of…

Feb

28

2025

By LINGGONG KONG

How Elon Musk’s deep ties to – and admiration for – China could complicate Trump’s Beijing policy

WORLD

ELON Musk holds an outsized influence in the new Trump administration. As head of his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the world’s wealthiest man has enjoyed nearly unfettered political power in slashing and refashioning the federal government as he sees fit. And it has quickly become clear that he has the president’s ear on issues beyond that brief. But on one topic, Musk stands somewhat apart from others in the coterie of aides and advisers around Trump: China. In contrast to the many hawks in the new Trump cabinet who call for a hard-line approach on China, Musk is…

Feb

28

2025

By The African Mirror

People still being forced to flee as Ukraine’s war continues

WORLD

AS Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its fourth year, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, reminded the world this week that incessant aerial attacks are continuing to kill, injure and displace Ukrainians every day. “In the last six months alone, more than 200,000 people have been evacuated from frontline areas in the east and north,” said Grandi on the three-year anniversary of the war. He added that since the start of the war, around 10.6 million people have been forced from their homes. While most fled during the early stages of the Russian invasion, the displacement and suffering continues. Daily displacements…

Feb

28

2025

By MITCHELL GALLAGHER

China flexes its media muscle in Africa – encouraging positive headlines as part of a soft power agenda

WORLD

EVERY year, China’s minister of foreign affairs embarks on what has now become a customary odyssey across Africa. The tradition began in the late 1980s and sees Beijing’s top diplomat visit several African nations to reaffirm ties. The most recent visit, by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, took place in mid-January 2025 and included stops in Namibia, the Republic of the Congo, Chad and Nigeria. For over two decades, China’s burgeoning influence in Africa was symbolized by grand displays of infrastructural might. From Nairobi’s gleaming towers to expansive ports dotting the continent’s shorelines, China’s investments on the continent have surged, reaching…

Feb

27

2025

By The African Mirror

Full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has sown ‘psychological terror’, warns top aid coordinator

WORLD

IN the nearly three years since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country’s people have endured continuous attacks, “psychological terror…displacement and hardship”, top UN aid coordinator Matthias Schmale said on Friday. Briefing from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv after another night of “air sirens and more loud explosions”, Mr. Schmale noted that the crisis began in 2014, with Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. “So, all children that were born since - all children up to the age of 11 - have never experienced their country at peace,” he said. According to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, 2024 saw a…

Feb

27

2025

By The African Mirror

Gaza: Polio campaign reaches target, additional medical corridors needed, says WHO

WORLD

THE second mass polio vaccination campaign in Gaza has reached almost 548,000 children under the age of 10, according to the UN health agency (WHO). That represents 92 per cent of the 591,000 due to be vaccinated, said Dr Rik Peeperkorn, Representative of the World Health Organization in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT) to journalists in Geneva via videolink from Gaza. The first round of this campaign, which started on 22 February and will end tomorrow, was planned after environmental samples collected in December and January in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis confirmed that the poliovirus was still circulating. The first campaign was…