The latest integrated food security phase classification (IPC) analysis, reported on Sunday that of the total number of affected people, 1.8 million are in an emergency-level phase of need.
This means that households face large food consumption gaps resulting in high acute malnutrition and excess mortality, or are forced to adopt negative coping mechanisms to cover food needs, such as selling off assets or eating seeds instead of planting them, increasing their vulnerability, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), one of the report’s global partners.
With 75 per cent of Haiti’s population living in rural areas, urgent measures are needed to save lives and quickly restore the agricultural livelihoods of vulnerable farmers, FAO warned.
For example, investing $125 in a market-gardening seed package can generate 20 times its value in the production of vegetables, enabling families to have access to food and generate income through the sale of part of the product obtained, according to the agency.
Under the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan, FAO is appealing for $61.7 million to assist 700,000 people to improve their access to food. Activities will focus on the provision of such agricultural inputs as seeds and fertilizer to increase staple food and vegetable production during the 2023 spring and winter seasons as well as to protect livestock assets, through the provision of poultry and goats alongside vaccines and veterinary treatment.
Hunger ‘hotspots’
Acute food insecurity is set to increase in magnitude and severity in 18 hunger “hotspots” around the world, according to a new FAO and World Food Programme (WFP) report published on Monday.
The report found that many hotspots are facing growing hunger and highlights the worrying multiplier effect that simultaneous and overlapping shocks are having on acute food insecurity. Conflict, climate extremes, and economic shocks continue to drive more and more communities into crisis.
The report warned that Burkina Faso and Mali, Sudan, and Haiti have been elevated to the highest concern levels.
“All hotspots at the highest level have communities facing or projected to face starvation, or are at risk of sliding towards catastrophic conditions, given they have already emergency levels of food insecurity and are facing severe aggravating factors,” WFP said.
“These hotspots require the most urgent attention,” the report warns.
Learn more about what the UN is doing to help the people of Haiti here.
WFP’s Country Director in Sudan, Eddie Rowe, told reporters in Geneva that in a major breakthrough, the agency distributed food assistance to 15,000 people in both Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) controlled areas of Omdurman, part of the Khartoum metropolitan area, beginning on Saturday.
Speaking from Port Sudan, Mr. Rowe highlighted other recent food distributions, in Wadi Halfa in Northern State to reach 8,000 people fleeing Khartoum and on their way to Egypt, as well as to 4,000 newly displaced people in Port Sudan.
In total, WFP has been able to reach 725,000 people across 13 states in the country since it resumed its operations on 3 May, following a pause brought on by the killing of three aid workers at the start of the conflict.
Mr. Rowe said that WFP was rapidly scaling up its support, which they expected to expand depending on progress in negotiations for humanitarian access for all regions, including the Darfurs and Kordofans, strongly impacted by violence and displacement.
Hunger on the rise
In addition to the 16 million Sudanese who were already finding it “very difficult to afford a meal a day” before the fighting started, Mr. Rowe warned that the conflict compounded by the upcoming hunger season, could increase the food insecure population by about 2.5 million people in the coming months.
With the lean season fast approaching, WFP’s plan was to reach 5.9 million people across Sudan over the next six months, he said.
He stressed that WFP needed a total of $730 million to provide required assistance as well as telecommunications and logistics services to the humanitarian community, including all of the UN agencies operating in Sudan.
17,000 tonnes of food lost to looting
He also reiterated the humanitarian community’s call on all parties to the conflict to enable the safe delivery of urgently needed food aid, and deplored that so far, WFP had lost about 17,000 metric tonnes of food to widespread looting across the country, particularly in the Darfurs.
Just two days ago, he said, the agency’s main hub in El Obeid, North Kordofan, came under threat and looting of assets and vehicles was already confirmed.
Some 10,000 people are due to receive food aid in a first distribution in Omdurman, Sudan.
Over 13 million children in need
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that “more children in Sudan today require lifesaving support than ever before”, with 13.6 million children in need of urgent assistance. “That’s more than the entire population of Sweden, of Portugal, of Rwanda,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva.
According to reports received by UNICEF, hundreds of girls and boys have been killed in the fighting. “While we are unable to confirm these due to the intensity of the violence, we also have reports that thousands of children have been maimed,” Mr. Elder said.
‘Death sentence’
He also pointed out that reports of children killed or injured are only those who had contact with a medical facility, meaning that the reality is “no doubt much worse” and compounded by a lack of access to life-saving services including nutrition, safe water, and healthcare.
Mr. Elder alerted that “all these factors combined, risk becoming a death sentence, especially for the most vulnerable”.
UNICEF called for funding to the tune of $838 million to address the crisis, an increase of $253 million since the current conflict began in April, to reach 10 million children. Mr. Elder stressed that only 5 per cent of the required amount had been received so far, and that without the therapeutic food and vaccines which this money would allow to secure, children would be dying.
Healthcare under attack
The dire situation of healthcare in the country has been aggravated by continuing attacks on medical facilities. From the start of the conflict on 15 till 25 May, the World Health Organization (WHO) verified 45 attacks on healthcare, which led to eight deaths and 18 injuries, the agency’s spokesperson Tarik Jašarević said.
He also cited reports of military occupation of hospitals and medical supplies warehouses, which made it impossible for people in need to access chronic disease medicines or malaria treatment. Mr. Jašarević recalled that attacks on healthcare are a violation of international humanitarian law and must stop.
Keep borders open: Grandi
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, concluded a three-day visit to Egypt on Tuesday, with an urgent call for support for people fleeing Sudan – and the countries hosting them – insisting that the borders must remain open.
More than 170,000 people have entered Egypt since the conflict started – many through Qoustul, a border crossing that Grandi visited close to the end of his trip. The country hosts around half of the more than 345,000 people who have recently fled Sudan.
Mr. Grandi met newly arrived refugees and Egyptian border officials, to get a sense of the hardships being endured.
Loss ‘on a huge scale’
“I heard harrowing experiences: loss of life and property on a huge scale,” Grandi said. “People spoke of risky and expensive journeys to arrive here to safety. Many families have been torn apart. They are traumatized and urgently need our protection and support.“
The UNHCR chief also held talks with the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, and discussed how best to support refugees and mobilize resources for host countries, not least Egypt.
“I commend Egypt for its long-standing commitment to providing a safe haven to those fleeing violence,” Mr. Grandi said. “The Government, the Egyptian Red Cresent and the people, have been very generous in supporting arrivals. We urgently need to mobilize more resources to help them to maintain this generosity.”
Prior to this conflict, Egypt was already host to a large refugee population of 300,000 people from 55 different nationalities.
After registering with UNHCR, refugees and asylum-seekers have access to a wide range of services including health and education. UNHCR’s emergency cash assistance programme started during the last week.
WMO warned on Tuesday that glaciers and ice sheet melt in Greenland and Antarctica accounts for some 50 per cent of sea level rise, which is accelerating, with disastrous impacts on small island developing states (SIDS) and densely populated coastal areas.
The average thickness of the world’s glaciers has plummeted by almost 30 metres since 1970.
“The cryosphere issue is a hot topic not just for the Arctic and Antarctic, but it is a global issue,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
The irreversible changes in the global cryosphere will affect well over a billion people who rely on water from snow and glacier melt, WMO said.
‘Sleeping giant’ of carbon emissions
The agency also called melting Arctic permafrost a “sleeping giant” of greenhouse gases, as it stores twice as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere today.
WMO said it has made this burning issue one of its top priorities and called for better predictions and intensified research, data exchange and investment.
Sea level rise, ice and glaciers are among the climate indicators monitored by WMO and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The WMO State of the Global Climate 2022 report highlighted the shocking extent of change.
So-called “reference glaciers” which WMO is monitoring in the long-term, experienced an average thickness change of over −1.3 metres between October 2021 and October 2022. This loss is much larger than the average of the last decade, the agency said.
Alpine record
The European Alps smashed records for glacier melt, exacerbated by a winter of little snow: in Switzerland, six per cent of the glacier ice volume was lost between 2021 and 2022 – and one third between 2001 and 2022.
The Greenland Ice Sheet ended with a negative total mass balance for the 26th year in a row.
Sea ice in Antarctica dropped to 1.92 million km2 on February 25, last year – the lowest level on record and almost one million km2 below the long-term mean – measured from 1991 to 2020.
Arctic sea ice in September at the end of the summer melt tied for the 11th lowest monthly minimum ice extent in the satellite record.
The rate of global mean sea level rise has doubled between the first decade of the satellite record, said WMO.
India has the longest railway bridge in the world and the bridges are quite impressive. About 29 meters higher than the Eiffel Tower, the Chenab Bridge stands 359 meters above the Chenab River in the Jammu and Kashmir region of India.
After the decade of citizenship, the power in North India will be open for visitors till the end of December 2023 or January 2024. This was made clear by the announcement of the Ministry. on the railways.
The bridge is 1,315 meters long and is part of a larger project that aims to make the Kashmir valley accessible to the Indian railway network. In addition to the bridge, the project for the railway USВRL also includes the future longest tunnel in the city, writes CNN.
It is believed that the connection of the region of Kashmir with the Indian railway line will give impetus to the industrial and economic development in the region, allowing the railway in Because of all the meteorological conditions between the valley and the eastern part of India, they are called the fifth.
At the moment, the only cyclo-road route connecting the Indian counties of Kashmir with the eastern part of the country is the 300-kilometer magnetic line, which, however, Closed for the winter months and the place of many quests.
That’s all – according to Cyshant Singh, a senior journalist at the Center for Policy Studies in India, he said that the government will also look at “the progress of Kashmir’s integration into India”.
However, it remains to be seen whether the better connection and the railway will be positively received by the locals, considering that “in recent years, Kashmir has been It is supported by the policies promoted by Prime Minister Modi and his leadership, which in fact has led to the death of the nation.” , the eĸcpept comment.
In 2019, India rescinded the order that gave the Indian government part of Kashmir its own laws. The southern and eastern parts of the region are two separate tapestries, which Modi’s goal was to build stability, reduce corruption and give a boost to the economy.
Although the entire railway project was built in 2002, before Modi became the prime minister, the Chenab Bridge is now said to be a prime example of the PM’s commitment to development. that in the city.
In fact, India is investing millions in modernizing its infrastructure. In February, Modi inaugurated the first section of the 1,380-kilometer magnetic cable connecting the capital city of Delhi with the financial center of Mumbai. Only one 250-kilometer section of the magnet palace contains 1.4 million square meters of geological data.
The President of the Government during the appearance in which he announced the call for general elections La Moncloa, Madrid 29.5.2023
According to EL MUNDO, the scale of the defeat and the loss of socialist territorial power have forced the president of the government to “assume the defeat in the first person”. The president summons and forces progressives to decide whether to mobilise to prevent a PP-Vox government, or go massively to the voting date and maintain a socialist government at national level.
Institutional statement by the President of the Spain Government calling for new national elections.
Good morning, I will be brief and I will also try to be very clear.
I have just had a meeting with His Majesty the King, in which I have informed the Head of State of the decision to call a Council of Ministers this very afternoon to dissolve the Cortes and proceed to call general elections, using the prerogative attributed to the President of the Government by the Constitution.
The formal call for the elections will be published tomorrow, Tuesday, in the Official State Gazette, so that the elections will be held on Sunday 23 July, in accordance with the deadlines established by law.
I have taken this decision in view of the results of yesterday’s elections.
The first consequence of these results will be that magnificent regional presidents and socialist mayors will be displaced with impeccable management. And this is despite the fact that many of them have seen their support increase yesterday.
The second consequence will be that many institutions will be administered by new majorities formed by the Popular Party and VOX.
And although yesterday’s votes were municipal and regional in scope, the sense of the vote sends a message that goes beyond that.
And that is why, as President of the Government, and also as Secretary General of the Socialist Party, I take the results personally and I believe it is necessary to respond and submit our democratic mandate to the will of the people.
Spain is on the verge of overcoming a period of crisis resulting from the emergence of Covid-19, and also from the war in Ukraine. We are on a clear path of growth, job creation and social cohesion. And at this point in the legislature, the Government has pushed ahead with the major reforms committed to in the investiture speech, in the government programme and also in our agreement with the European Commission.
Furthermore, our country is about to take on a very important responsibility in this geopolitical context that Europe is experiencing, and that is the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
All these reasons, I believe, make it advisable to clarify the will of the Spanish people. A clarification of the policies that the Government of the Nation must apply and a clarification of the political forces that must lead this phase.
There is only one infallible method to resolve these doubts. That method is democracy and, therefore, I believe that the best thing is for Spaniards to take the floor, to speak out without delay in order to define the political direction of the country.
Members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light. Kapikule border crossing, the gateway between Turkey and Bulgaria on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. Pictures owned by Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light. Used with permission.
Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) calls upon the UN, the EU and the OSCE to ask Turkey to annul a deportation order for 103 Ahmadis
Today, a Turkish court has released a deportation order concerning 103 members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light from seven countries. Many of them, especially in Iran, will face imprisonment and may be executed if they are sent back to their country of origin.
Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) in Brussels calls upon
the United Nations and in particular the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ms Nazila Ghanea
the European Union and in particular the EU Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Mr Frans Van Daele, as well as the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief
the Special Envoys on Freedom of Religion or Belief appointed in the United Kingdom and in a number of EU Member States
the OSCE/ ODIHR
to urge the Turkish authorities to cancel on appeal today’s decision of deportation. The deadline for the appeal is Friday 2 June.
Media outlets all over Europe are raising the issue as an emergency situation as it can be seen in a few of many more articles in
The advocate and spokesperson of the 103 Ahmadis is Hadil Elkhouly. She is the author of the article hereafter and can be joined at the following phone number for interviews: +44 7443 106804
Members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light. Kapikule border crossing, the gateway between Turkey and Bulgaria on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. Pictures owned by Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light. Used with permission.
On the May 24, 2023, over 100 members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, a persecuted religious minority, were denied entry and faced violent treatment while seeking asylum at the Turkish–Bulgarian border. Women, children, and the elderly were among those targeted by aggression, gunshots, threats, and the confiscation of their possessions.
Among those individuals was Seyed Ali Seyed Mousavi, a 40-year-old real estate agent from Iran. A few years ago, he attended a private wedding where his life took an unexpected turn. Seyed Mousavi found himself at the mercy of undercover police officers who abruptly grabbed him, forced him down, and subjected him to a severe beating. He was left to bleed for 25 minutes before someone finally sought medical assistance.
Seyed Mousavi’s only “crime” was his affiliation with this religious minority, which led to his persecution by the authorities in Iran. The incident forced him to make a difficult decision to leave his homeland behind, abandoning everything he knows in order to preserve his life.
The Ahmadi Religion, not to be confused with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, is a religious community that was founded in 1999. It received church status in the USA on 6 June 2019. Today, this religion is practiced in more than 30 countries around the world.It is headed by Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq and follows the teachings of Imam Ahmed al-Hassan as its divine guide.
State sponsored persecution
Since its inception in 1999, the Ahmadi Religion minority has been subjected to persecution in numerous nations. Countries including Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Iran,Iraq, Malaysia, and Turkey have systematically oppressed them, imprisoned, threatened, and even tortured their members. This targeted discrimination is based on a belief that they are heretics.
In June 2022, Amnesty International called for the release of 21 members of the Ahmadi Religion in Algeria who were charged with offenses including “participation in an unauthorized group” and “denigrating Islam.” Three individuals received one year prison sentences, while the remaining were sentenced to six months in prison along with fines.
Similarly, in Iran, in December 2022, a group of 15 followers of the same religion, including minors and women, were detained and transferred to the notorious Evin Prison, where they were coerced to denounce their faith and defame their religion, despite not committing any crimes, nor preaching their faith openly. The charges brought against them were based on their opposition to “Wilayat Al Faqih,” (the guardianship of the Islamic jurist) which grants authority to jurists and scholars who shape and enforce Sharia law in the country. The Iranian authorities even aired a propaganda documentary against the religion on national television.
Ahmadi Religion members have also reported violence and threats by state-sponsored militias in Iraq, leaving them vulnerable and unprotected. These incidents involved armed attacks targeting their homes and vehicles, with assailants openly declaring they are considered apostates deserving death, effectively denying them of any form of protection.
The persecution of this religious minority has escalated significantly following the release of “The Goal of the Wise,” the official gospel of their faith. The scripture was authored by Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq, the religious leader who asserted to fulfill the role of the promised Mahdi awaited by Muslims to appear towards the end of times.
Braving the unknown towards freedom
Having gradually traveled to Turkey, over 100 members of the Ahmadi Religion received support from fellow members who had already settled there, fostering a sense of unity through their online connections. Despite the challenges they faced, they persevered in their quest to find a persecution-free home amidst their shared experiences of trauma.
Faced with this dire situation, they turned to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bulgaria, the State Agency for Refugees (SAR), and the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the hopes of securing a safe haven. Unfortunately, their plea for humanitarian visas was met with disappointment as all avenues proved unfruitful.
In light of their challenging circumstances, the group decided to gather at the official Kapikule border crossing, the gateway between Turkey and Bulgaria on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, to request asylum directly from the Bulgarian Border Police. Their course of action aligns with the provisions set forth in Article 58(4) of the Law on Asylum and Refugees (LAR) which affirms that asylum can be sought by presenting a verbal statement to the border police.
The Border Violence Monitoring Network, along with 28 other organizations, issued an open letter urging the Bulgarian authorities and to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) to fulfill their obligations under European Union law, and international human rights law. These laws include Article 18 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Their desperate bid for safety was encountered with oppression and violence, as they were forcibly blocked by the Turkish authorities, subjected to beatings with batons, and threatened with gunshots. Now detained, their future remains uncertain. Their greatest fear is to be deported back to their homes, where death might be waiting for them, due to their religious beliefs.
The perilous journey undertaken by this minority group raises crucial questions about the integrity of borders and the commitment of EU member states to uphold human rights. Their struggles serve as a reminder of the need for solidarity to protect basic human rights and preserve the dignity of everyone, regardless of their religious affiliation.
Video by Hadil El-Khouly, Ahmadi Human Rights Coordinator
Council of Europe in Strasbourg, a primary human rights body in Europe. Photo credit: THIX Photo
The Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) review on the deinstitutionalisation of persons with disabilities acknowledged in a written comment the Council’s decision-making body, the Committee of Ministers (CM) for its reply to the Assembly’s Recommendation of April 2022. At the same time, Ms Reina de Bruijn-Wezeman also pointed out the problem that the CM continue to maintain outdated viewpoints, reinforcing a human rights divide with the United Nations and civil society at large in regards to persons with mental health problems.
The Parliamentary Assembly with its Recommendation 2227 (2022), Deinstitutionalisation of persons with disabilities had reiterated the urgent need for the Council of Europe, “to fully integrate the paradigm shift initiated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) into its work.” And secondly recommended the Committee of Ministers to “prioritise support to member States to immediately start transitioning to the abolition of coercive practices in mental health settings.”
The Assembly as a final point had recommended that in line with the unanimously adopted Assembly Recommendation 2158 (2019), Ending coercion in mental health: the need for a human rights-based approach that the Council of Europe and its member states “refrain from endorsing or adopting draft legal texts which would make successful and meaningful deinstitutionalisation, as well as the abolition of coercive practices in mental health settings more difficult, and which go against the spirit and the letter of the CRPD.”
With this final point the Assembly pointed to the controversial drafted possible new legal instrument regulating the protection of persons during the use of coercive measures in psychiatry. This is a text which the Council of Europe’s Committee on Bioethics has drafted in extension of the Council of Europe Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine. The convention’s article 7, which is the main relevant text in question as well as its reference text, the European Convention on Human Rights article 5 (1)(e), contain viewpoints based on outdated discriminatory policies from the first part of the 1900s.
The Rapporteur, Ms Reina de Bruijn-Wezeman, in the written comment of the Assembly’s Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development stated she was content that the Committee of Ministers “agrees with the Assembly on the importance of supporting member States in their development of human rights-compliant strategies for deinstitutionalisation of persons with disabilities.”
And at the same time she could not but reiterate a paragraph of the Assembly’s Recommendation to the Committee of Ministers: “[…] refrain from endorsing or adopting draft legal texts which would make successful and meaningful deinstitutionalisation, as well as the abolition of coercive practices in mental health settings more difficult, and which go against the spirit and the letter of the CRPD – such as the draft additional protocol […].”
“Unfortunately, the CM does not seem to agree that this should apply to persons with mental health problems confined to institutions, since it considers “persons with disabilities” to be a group “distinct from [,] persons with mental health problems,” Ms Reina de Bruijn-Wezeman noted.
She stressed that, “Herein lies the crux of the matter. The Assembly has, since 2016, adopted three recommendations to the CM, underlining the urgent need for the Council of Europe, as the leading regional human rights organisation, to fully integrate the paradigm shift initiated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) into its work, and to thus support ending coercion in mental health.”
Ms Reina de Bruijn-Wezeman clarified the point, “Instead, the CM, as it points out itself in this reply, “has replied to several Assembly recommendations by reaffirming the mandate it gave to the Committee on Bioethics to draft an Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine concerning the protection of human rights and dignity of persons with regard to involuntary placement and involuntary treatment within mental healthcare services.”
Additional Protocol is “not fit for purpose”
Ms Reina de Bruijn-Wezeman when she presented her report on deinstitutionalization to the PACE
“I want to be very clear here,” Ms Reina de Bruijn-Wezeman added. “While I welcome the decision to draft a (soft-law) recommendation promoting the use of voluntary measures in mental healthcare services, as well as the plans of the CM to prepare a (nonbinding) declaration affirming the commitment of the Council of Europe to improving the protection and the autonomy of persons in mental healthcare services, this does not make the draft Additional Protocol – which will be a binding instrument – any more palatable.”
The drafted of this possible new legal instrument (additional Protocol) within the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers level has been severely criticized as despite its stated seemingly important intend of protecting victims of coercive brutalities in psychiatry potentially amounting to torture it in effect perpetuate a Eugenics ghost in Europe. The viewpoint of regulating and preventing as much as possible such harmful practices against persons with disabilities or mental health problems is in stark opposition to the requirements of modern human rights, that simply ban them.
Ms Reina de Bruijn-Wezeman finally pointed out that, “Creating a “package” of desirable and undesirable legal instruments should not and cannot distract from the fact that the draft Additional Protocol is not fit for purpose (in the words of the Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner), and is incompatible with the CRPD (in the view of the CRPD Committee and the responsible UN Special Rapporteurs).”
Chili peppers, fake medicine, fuel, gold, guns, humans, and more are being trafficked via millennia-old trade routes crisscrossing the Sahel, and the UN and partners are trying out new, collaborative ways to thwart those attempting the illegal practice, a growing problem in this fragile African region.
In the first of a series of features exploring the fight against trafficking in the Sahel, UN News takes a closer look at what’s behind the growth of the phenomenon.
A tangled trafficking web has been woven across the Sahel, which spans almost 6,000 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, and is home to more than 300 million people, in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal.
The Sahel is described by the UN as a region in crisis: those living there are prey to chronic insecurity, climate shocks, conflict, coups, and the rise of criminal and terrorist networks. UN agencies expect that more than 37 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2023, about 3 million more than in 2022.
Security has long been an issue in the region, but the situation markedly degraded in 2011, following the NATO-led military intervention in Libya, which led to the ongoing destabilization of the country.
The ensuing chaos, and porous borders stymied efforts to stem illicit flows, and traffickers transporting looted Libyan firearms rode into the Sahel on the coattails of insurgency and the spread of terrorism.
Armed groups now control swathes of Libya, which has become a trafficking hub. The terrorist threat has worsened, with the notorious Islamic State (ISIL) group entering the region in 2015, according to the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee’s Executive Directorate (CTED).
MINUSMA/Harandane Dicko – The G5 Sahel Force headquarters was destroyed by a terrorist attack in 2018 in Mopti, Mali.
Markets across the Sahel can be found openly selling a wide range of contraband goods, from fake medicines to AK-style assault rifles. Trafficking medication is often deadly, estimated to kill 500,000 sub-Saharan Africans every year; in just one case, 70 Gambian children died in 2022 after ingesting smuggled cough syrup. Fuel is another commodity trafficked by the main players – terrorist groups, criminal networks, and local militias.
Closing corridors of crime
In order to fight trafficking and other evolving threats, a group of countries in the region – Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad – formed, with the support of the UN, the Joint Force of the Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel).
Meanwhile, cross-border cooperation and crackdowns on corruption are on the rise. National authorities have seized tons of contraband, and judicial measures have dismantled networks. Partnerships, such as the newly signed Côte d’Ivoire-Nigeria agreement, are tackling the illegal drug trade.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is a leading player in efforts to bolster security by stopping trafficking attempts.
In 2020, for example, KAFO II, a UNODC-INTERPOL operation, successfully choked off a Sahel-bound terrorist supply route, with officers seizing a bounty of trafficked spoils: 50 firearms, 40,593 dynamite sticks, 6,162 ammunition rounds, 1,473 kilograms of cannabis and khat, 2,263 boxes of contraband drugs, and 60,000 litres of fuel.
Sting operations such as KAFO II provide valuable insights into trafficking’s increasingly complex and interwoven nature, demonstrating the importance of connecting the dots between crime cases involving firearms and terrorists across different countries, and taking a regional approach.
These insights are backed up in a raft of new UNODC reports, mapping out the actors, enablers, routes, and scope of trafficking, reveal common threads amongst the instability and chaos, and provide recommendations for action.
One of those threads is corruption, and the reports call for judicial action to be bolstered. The prison system also needs to be engaged, as detention facilities can become “a university for criminals” to broaden their networks.
“Organized crime is feeding on the vulnerabilities and also undermining stability and development in the Sahel,” says François Patuel, head of the UNODC Research and Awareness Unit. “Combining efforts and taking a regional approach will lead to success in addressing organized crime in the region.”
Crisis poses ‘global threat’
Fighting organized crime is a central pillar in the wider battle to deal with the security crisis in the region, which UN Secretary-General António Guterres said poses a global threat.
“If nothing is done, the effects of terrorism, violent extremism, and organized crime will be felt far beyond the region and the African continent,” Mr. Guterres warned in 2022. “We must rethink our collective approach and show creativity, going beyond existing efforts.”
How the UN supports people of the Sahel
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has provided direct support to the G5 Sahel Force to operationalize and implement measures to reduce civilian harm and respond to violations.
UNODC routinely joins national and global partners, including INTERPOL, to choke supply routes.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) crisis response plan aims at reaching almost 2 million affected people while addressing the structural causes of instability, with a specific focus on cross-border fragility.
WHO launched an emergency appeal to fund health projects in the region in 2022, and works with 350 health partners in six countries.
The UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel (UNISS) provides direction for on-the-ground efforts in 10 countries.
The UN Support Plan for Sahel continues to foster coherence and coordination for greater efficiency and results delivery related to the UNISS framework, in line with Security Council resolution 2391.
Using a mobile phone to talk can increase the risk of high blood pressure by up to 12%, scientists say. Depending on the duration of the conversations, the risk may be lower or higher.
Over three-quarters of people in the world over the age of 10 own a mobile phone. Phones emit low levels of radio waves. It has been found that there is a link between these waves and an increase in blood pressure after exposure to the waves.
Hypertension is another name for a condition of high blood pressure. In this condition, the blood in the arteries moves under pressure that is higher than normal. The presence of hypertension damages the blood vessels, thereby increasing the risk of stroke, heart attack and diseases of the cardiovascular system. Over 1 billion people between the ages of 30 and 79 have high blood pressure.
The study, presented in the European Heart Journal – Digital Health, took data on phone use from a database of more than 200,000 volunteers without hypertension. They completed a survey about their weekly mobile device usage, as well as yearly.
The average age of the participants was 54 years, and 88% of them used their mobile phone to receive or make calls at least once a week. The study found that when the same participants were asked again 12 years later, mobile device users had a 7% higher risk of high blood pressure.
Proportionality was also found between the time spent talking and the risk of hypertension. Those who spent between 30 and 60 minutes talking on the phone in a week had an 8% increased risk of hypertension. Spending between 1 and 3 hours talking was associated with a 13% increased risk, and between 4 and 6 hours with a 16% increased risk. More than 6 hours of time spent on the phone talking increases the risk of hypertension by 25%.
Hypertension can be caused by many other factors, which include genetic traits that predispose to high blood pressure. The scientists included this factor in their study and found that if someone is genetically predisposed to high blood pressure and at the same time spends more than 30 minutes a week on the phone, they will have a 33% increased risk of hypertension.
Professor Xianhui Chin, from Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, is the lead author of the study. She says: “Our results show that talking on a mobile phone may not affect the risk of high blood pressure as long as weekly talk time is less than half an hour. Further research is needed to replicate the results, but until then it seems reasonable to keep cell phone conversations to a minimum to preserve heart health.”
References:
European Society of Cardiology. (2023, May 4) Mobile phone calls linked with increased risk of high blood pressure. Retrieved 2023, May 5 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05-mobile-linked-high-blood-pressure.html
Qin, X. (2023, May 4) Mobile phone calls, genetic susceptibility, and new-onset hypertension: results from 212,046 UK Biobank participants. Retrieved 2023, May 5 from https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztad024
Note: The material is informative and cannot replace consultation with a doctor. Before starting treatment, you must consult a doctor.
Photo by Kerde Severin: https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-person-using-iphone-x-1542252/
It is important to clarify that the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light is a faith community different from the better known Ahmadiyya Muslim Community – Muslims who believe in the Messiah, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) of Qadian. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founded the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in 1889 as a revival movement within Islam, emphasizing its essential teachings of peace, love, justice, and sanctity of life. Today, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the world’s largest Islamic community under one Divinely appointed leader, His Holiness, Mirza Masroor Ahmad (b. 1950). The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community spans over 200 nations with membership exceeding tens of millions.
Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light is calling all the people of the world from all walks of life, all nationalities and all backgrounds to acknowledge the Supremacy of the absolute one true God and promotes the ideals of peace, justice and humanity.
International human rights organization Amnesty International has released a statement calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the Algerian believers in the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, who were unlawfully imprisoned on 6 June 2022.
“Algerian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release, and drop all charges against, three members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, who were arrested earlier this week solely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of religion, said Amnesty International today.
The authorities must also drop all charges against 21 other members of the group who are currently released pending investigation.”
– Amnesty International
Basic religious beliefs and moral views of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light faith community from their official website:
We believe that there is no deity but God, alone, with no partners. We believe in the truth of Prophet Muhammad (pbuhahf), the Twelve Imams (pbut), and the Twelve Mahdis (pbut), whom are mentioned in the Will of Prophet Muhammad (pbuhahf). We believe that Muhammad (pbuhahf) and his Ahlulbayt (his daughter Fatima Al-Zahra, the Twelve Imams, and the Twelve Mahdis (pbut)) are all the closest creation to the one true God.
We believe that in every age there must be a divinely appointed leader who is an infallible Vicegerent of God, and is fully inspired and guided by Him, to whom submission and obedience would be obligatory, as he would be the one who perfectly fulfills the will of our Creator and guides humanity to the path of righteousness and true monotheism.
We believe that Imam Ahmad Al-Hassan (fhip) is the infallible rightly guided Successor of God whom has been prophesied not only by the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), but also by all the other major religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, etc.), to come in the End Times in order to uphold the word of the one true God, establish His Supremacy upon the Earth and fill the Earth with justice and equity as it has been filled with oppression and tyranny.
We believe that the soul never dies, and that the reincarnation of the soul in different bodies is true. We believe in Paradise and Hell Fire, and that one of them will be where the soul resides after completing all of its rounds as ordained to it by God Almighty. We also believe that God created us in His image, and that every soul’s purpose is to truly realize that it is far more than this physical body, that its boundaries are far further than this physical world, to break its attachments to them, and ultimately to spiritually elevate in order to reflect all the divine attributes and perfections – each according to the rank they attain through their sincerity.
We believe that there were 124,000 Prophets and Messengers whom were sent to the people of the Earth throughout history by the one true God. We believe in their infallibility and sacredness, as well as that they were all manifestations of God on Earth, whom were sent to guide the people towards the perfect complete absolute divine. Those Prophets and Messengers include Abraham, Krishna, Zoroaster, Buddha, Zeus, Moses, Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato, Noah, Hermes, Jesus Christ and Muhammad (pbut). We also believe that the teachings, messages and holy books which they all came with, without exception, have been greatly distorted throughout history, and that the real message of love, peace, justice and mercy which they had come with, and the true holy scriptures inspired by God Almighty to them, will all be revealed by Imam Ahmad Al-Hassan (fhip) in this time.
We believe that we are living in the great age of the Raja’a, when all the Prophets and Messengers, the Ahlulbayt and all the righteous believers throughout history, incarnate once again, to support and give victory to Imam Muhammad Al-Mahdi (pbuhahf) and his Vicegerent and Messenger Imam Ahmad Al-Hassan (fhip) in their mission, which is the same mission that all the Prophets and Messengers have always come with; Establishing the Supremacy of God, spreading monotheism all over the Earth, exposing falsehood and tyranny and putting an end to them, feeding the hungry, supporting the widows, taking care of the orphans and spreading mercy, justice and the truth, until the Divine Just State is established on the Earth.
It is upon every person to carefully investigate the path which leads them to God.
We say: Aba Al-Sadiq (fhip) is the Qa’im of the Family of Muhammad (pbut), and Imam Ahmad Al-Hassan (fhip) is the leader of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light. However, it is upon the truth-seeker himself to investigate the matter and return to God.
Imam Ahmad Al-Hassan (fhip) has clarified many times, that he is not looking for blind followers, and warned people to use their own minds, research and scrutinize the matter in order to find the truth:
“We do not call upon anyone to believe through ignorance, without awareness or knowledge, rather research and examine closely our matter and our call. I do not want anyone to enter into this Call without knowledge and without awareness or research.”
– Sayings of Imam Ahmad Al-Hassan (PBUH), p. 14, hadith 2
The Quran states: {Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood.} Quran 2:256
