WORLD - The African Mirror

Mar

19

2026

Why developing nations could be the first to suffer as the Middle East conflict raises food prices

WORLD

GEOPOLITICAL tensions rarely stay confined to the battlefield. They ripple through global markets – particularly energy and food. The war between the US, Israel and Iran is a reminder of how quickly conflict can affect food security far beyond the region. One of the most consequential developments of this conflict has been the disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas normally passes. Iran has also targeted energy infrastructure in neighbouring Gulf states. Oil and gas facilities in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar have reportedly halted…

Mar

19

2026

By RODRIGO PRAINO

Trump’s war language is aggressive and extreme. It also offers some insight into his thinking

WORLD

US President Donald Trump speaks in a way unlike any of his predecessors. His distinctive and highly recognisable style may even play a role in his appeal to his political base. Since the infamous Access Hollywood tapes, he has got away with saying things none of his predecessors would have ever dreamed of saying in public. This is particularly striking in a country that was shocked to learn in the 1970s that Richard Nixon used dirty words in the Oval Office. Scholars have described Trump’s rhetorical style as “unbalanced vituperation”, stressing his constant use of demeaning language, false equivalences and…

Mar

19

2026

By JASMIN LILIAN DIAB

Displaced but uncounted: The people aid is leaving behind in Lebanon’s war

WORLD

TWO weeks into Israel’s rapidly escalating bombardment and ground incursion in Lebanon, more than one million people have been forced to flee their homes. Entire villages across south Lebanon have emptied, while neighbourhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs have once again watched residents pack belongings into cars and flee under mass evacuation orders. Much like in late 2024, when nearly a million people in Lebanon were forced into displacement by fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, schools, municipal halls, and public buildings have been converted into emergency accommodation. But as authorities and aid groups scramble to absorb the sudden wave of displacement yet again, a familiar problem is already emerging.…

Mar

18

2026

By The African Mirror

UN Rights Council hears evidence of mass civilian deaths as US-Israel bombing campaign against Iran enters third week

WORLD

THE United Nations Human Rights Council convened in Geneva to confront what independent experts are calling an accelerating humanitarian catastrophe in Iran, now nearly three weeks into a military campaign launched by the United States and Israel that has claimed more than 1,000 civilian lives and displaced three million people. Sara Hossein, chair of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, told the Council that the aerial campaign — initiated on 28 February and ostensibly targeting military installations and nuclear facilities — has struck residential neighbourhoods, oil depots and a desalination plant, causing what she described as "severe harm" to…

Mar

18

2026

By AMIN SAIKAL

As the war drags on, what does victory look like for the US, Israel and Iran?

WORLD

AS the Middle East war enters its third week, there is no sign from either Iran or the United States and Israel that they will stop the fighting any time soon. It is getting more violent and nasty by the day. The Iranian Islamic regime is fighting for its survival, while the US and Israel want to substantially degrade or destroy it. The Iranian side lacks the US and Israeli firepower, yet it has proved to be more resilient than its adversaries may have expected. It has resolved to fight for as long as possible and inflict as much economic…

Mar

18

2026

By CANDICE HELFAND-ROGERS, THE STORY EXCHANGE

Women are reviving a historic resistance tactic at protests: singing

WORLD

ON a cold early-February evening in New York City, the first of what would become several “ICE Out Sing-Ins” was held. Co-hosted by two ensembles – the Resistance Revival Chorus and the Jerriese Johnson Gospel Choir – as well as New York City’s Interfaith Alliance, the event’s purpose was singular: Teach the hundreds who assembled at Manhattan’s Middle Church a set of songs to sing at protests against the Trump administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. When the Resistance Revival Chorus led the crowd in singing a particularly poignant piece – “Hold On,” by Vermont song leader Heidi Wilson – a ripple began to visibly spread.…

Mar

17

2026

By ARIYA FARAHMAND*

In war-struck Iran, fleeing Tehran is a luxury few can afford

WORLD

DURING the morning rush hour of 28 February, Tehran was rocked by loud explosions as the United States and Israel made good on months of threats against the nation’s Islamic Republic government. US President Donald Trump had been warning Iran’s leadership that he would strike if their crackdown on protests that began in late 2025 was too harsh or violent, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Iran was weeks or months away from producing nuclear weapons. Over the first two weeks of the war, the US and Israel have repeatedly been accused of striking civilian and commercial areas, including a direct…

Mar

16

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS

Flight from fire: 3.2 million Iranians torn from their homes as US-Israeli war enters its fifteenth day

WORLD

WHEN the first American and Israeli warplanes thundered over Tehran on the night of 28 February, Maryam — a schoolteacher in the city's eastern Narmak district — packed two bags, grabbed her three children, and drove north through the night. She did not know where she was going. She only knew she was leaving. Thirteen days later, she is one of up to 3.2 million Iranians who have been internally displaced since the launch of joint US-Israeli military operations against Iran — a campaign that has, in less than two weeks, remade the human geography of one of the world's…

Mar

17

2026

By The African Mirror

Schools without pupils: Lebanon’s crisis displaces 667,000 as donor world looks away

WORLD

IN a school in Beirut's Burj Hammoud neighbourhood, the desks have been pushed aside. Mattresses line the floors. Plastic bags stuffed with belongings hang from the pupils' coat hooks. The children who once sat in these rows are now among the displaced - part of a swelling tide of humanity that, in less than two weeks, has transformed Lebanon's education infrastructure into the country's primary humanitarian shelter network. This is Lebanon in March 2026: a country being shelled into displacement for the second time in eighteen months, its schools pressed once more into emergency service, and its humanitarian response system…

Mar

16

2026

By The African Mirror

SA vs Israel divides world at the ICJ

WORLD

THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE became the latest arena for the fracture lines of global power when four countries — the United States, Namibia, Fiji, and Hungary — filed formal declarations of intervention in South Africa's genocide case against Israel, just as Israel submitted its counter-memorial to the world court after months of extensions. The filings, made under Article 63 of the ICJ Statute, bring the total number of states seeking to participate in the landmark proceedings to 22 — an exceptional figure for a case that has drawn more sustained international legal attention than any dispute in the court's…