WORLD - The African Mirror

Aug

28

2024

Geneva Conventions commemoration hears urgent call to respect laws of war

WORLD

SEVENTY-FIVE years since the ratification of the Geneva Conventions, a former child soldier-turned-foreign minister of Sierra Leone urged greater international support for the key accords, highlighting their importance in rehabilitating him and tens of thousands of his fellow compatriots following the country’s bitter civil war. “I stand here today as a former child soldier, forcefully recruited during the civil conflict that decimated over 50,000 of my compatriots… I wouldn't be the person I am today without the critical support of the ICRC and the international community,” Musa Timothy Kabba told Members of the Security Council, referring to UN partner the…

Aug

28

2024

By JAMIE PRINGLE; KRISTOPHER WISNIEWSKI and VIVIENNE HEATON

Bayesian yacht disaster: how specialist search and rescue teams work underwater

WORLD

SEARCH and rescue for missing persons is always challenging for the specialist recovery teams involved, regardless of the environment they’re working in. But the teams looking for the missing aboard the Bayesian yacht which sank off the coast of Sicily leaving several people dead, have faced particularly challenging conditions. Even though the boat lies in relatively shallow water of 50 metres, underwater operations are affected by numerous factors which make them the most complex of search and rescue efforts. Best practice shows that searches should be coordinated, with areas that are being searched expanding outwards from the last known location.…

Aug

27

2024

By JASMINE MITHANI and CANDICE NORWOOD

Harris walked a delicate line on Gaza. Was it enough to appeal to activists?

WORLD

HEADING into the final night of the Democratic National Convention, questions loomed over if — and how — Vice President Kamala Harris might address the Israel-Hamas war in her historic speech accepting the party’s nomination. The buildup to Gaza and Israel in her remarks was clear as she switched to discussing American foreign policy and military strength. Then, she addressed the war head-on. “The scale of suffering is heartbreaking,” Harris said from the DNC stage. “President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and…

Aug

27

2024

By CAROLINE GLUCK

Harvesting honey in Afghanistan raises hopes for a sweeter future

WORLD

DRESSED in a white protective suit, gloves, and a hat with mesh netting covering her face, Hadia, a young mother of three, carefully lifts a wooden frame from a beehive. Hundreds of bees swarm around her as she gently brushes others off the comb that has formed inside and places the frame in a box, which she will take home to extract her first honey harvest. She allows herself a nervous smile. Hadia and her husband were refugees in Iran who have been struggling to support their family in Dehzaq village, in western Herat province, since returning to Afghanistan several…

Aug

24

2024

By DANIEL JOHNSON

Gaza: Vital aid supplies running low as schools hit in further strikes

WORLD

THERE are enough chlorine reserves to last just one month, said the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, while double the amount of purifying solution needs to be used to be effective now. Children are particularly at risk of waterborne diseases, and the danger is set to rise during the winter months if Gazans continue to be forced to live in overcrowded shelters lacking adequate water and sanitation facilities, OCHA noted. Shortages of everything The UN agency added that acute shortages of soap for handwashing, laundry powder/liquid and shampoo and a lack of disinfectants, continue to allow diseases to spread easily. “Even…

Aug

23

2024

By RITA BAROUD

I have been forcibly displaced 12 times by Israel’s war in Gaza

WORLD

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian. By Rita Baroud AS I write this, I’m sitting in a bare, grey room surrounded by the stifling August heat in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The sun’s harsh morning rays pierce through the windows. There are no curtains. Those, like so much else that should be mundane, have become a luxury. In fact, there are no furnishings in this room at all. Just the worn-out floor and my notebook beside me. This is the second time I have come to Deir al-Balah as a displaced person during Israel’s…

Aug

23

2024

By AMANDA BECKER

The DNC asks: What if men led with empathy?

WORLD

TIM Walz was an admired high school football coach who also advised a nascent gay-straight alliance. The Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee wears outdoorsy flannel shirts but also sews his own buttons onto them. He is governor who made menstrual products available at public schools and, when conservative critics later dubbed him “tampon Tim,” didn’t balk as his supporters quickly reclaimed the moniker as a badge of honor. The portrayal of manhood on stage in Chicago this week has already been a marked departure from the one conveyed when Republicans met last month for their convention. Walz on Wednesday both gave a football metaphor when talking…

Aug

23

2024

By UMAR ALTAF and SHOWKAT NANDA

Border closures and intensifying conflict worsen Myanmar’s healthcare crisis

WORLD

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Umar Altaf and Showkat Nanda IN the poorly lit hallway of the RHI Hospital in Rikhawdar, a border town in western Myanmar’s Chin State, 20-year-old Chhanhim holds his bandaged head, grimacing from the pain. The only noise breaking the silence of the night is the buzz of a generator. Chhanhim, who – like many people in Myanmar – uses only one name, is a fighter for an ethically aligned armed group that has been battling the nation’s military junta since the February 2021 coup. He looks out of a tiny window…

Aug

22

2024

By The African Mirror

Michelle Obama emphasizes hope — and doesn’t hold back

WORLD

Former First Lady Michelle Obama called Vice President Kamala Harris “one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency” and went after former President Donald Trump in a speech met with an enthusiastic reaction at the Democratic National Convention. On Tuesday, Obama took the stage in her hometown to remind voters of a feeling they had during her husband’s campaign for president.“America, hope is making a comeback,” Obama told the cheering crowd. Obama is experienced at pitching historic candidates to the American public. She’s spoken at every DNC since former President Barack Obama’s first nomination…

Aug

21

2024

By The African Mirror

Europe can defeat mpox and must support Africa in vaccine access, says UN health agency

WORLD

MPOX is “not the ‘new COVID’” and European governments need to show strong political commitment to eliminate it while standing in solidarity with Africa, a top official of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. Briefing journalists in Geneva, Dr Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, insisted that the risk from mpox to the general population was “low”. He rejected comparisons between the fast-spreading viral disease which the agency determined to be an international public health emergency last week, and the COVID-19 pandemic, “regardless of whether it’s mpox clade 1, behind the ongoing outbreak in east-central Africa,…