Armed Conflicts

War Zones Littered with More than Just Land Mines

By Lyndal Rowlands
Land mines are not the only type of explosive devices that families returning home after conflicts risk stumbling across, representatives from the UN’s Mine Action Service (UNMAS) told journalists here Monday.

International Community Falls Short on Syrian Resettlement

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
“We cannot respond to refugee crises by closing doors and building fences,” said UN High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi in his opening address to a high-level event in Geneva. By the end of the meeting, however, the international community remained reluctant to welcome refugees.

UN Chief Lauds Oman for Discreet Role in Peace Talks

By Thalif Deen
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has singled out Oman as perhaps the only Arab country in the Gulf playing a discreet role – mostly behind-the- scenes – in helping resolve some of the military and political conflicts in the war-ravaged region.

HUMANISTANBUL: World Humanitarian Summit

By Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu
Despite worldwide shock and indignation, it looks like little Aylan Kurdi's tragic death last summer changed little. This is a sad – but brutal – comment on our collective humanity, if such a thing still exists.

Yemen’s Health Crisis is “Critical,” Says WHO

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
The health situation in Yemen has severely deteriorated and is critical, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported.

Peace in Colombia, Shielded by International Support

By Constanza Vieira
“It was not possible” to reach a final agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Colombian government’s lead negotiator, Humberto de la Calle, announced in Havana on Wednesday Mar. 23 – the deadline set for a peace deal.

Western Powers Unlikely to Impose Arms Embargo on Saudi Arabia

By Thalif Deen
As hundreds of civilians continue to be killed in the ongoing conflict in Yemen, one of the leading human rights organization is calling for an arms embargo – specifically against Saudi Arabia which is leading a coalition of eight countries battling Houthi rebels in the war-ravaged neighbouring country.

Will Children of Colombia Know Peace at Last?

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
“No child in Colombia today knows what it is like to live in a country at peace,” said UN Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) Representative in Colombia Roberto De Bernardi during the launch of a new report.

Women`s Revolution

By Bina Shah
For as long as I can remember, people have been talking about the possibility of revolution in Pakistan. They were originally inspired, or perhaps frightened, by the Iranian Revolution in 1979, when ordinary Iranians rose up under the leadership of the clergy and overthrew Western-backed Reza Shah Pahlavi.

Food Insecurity in the Far North

By Mbom Sixtus-Yaounde
“They have reduced the quantity of food they used to give us and we still do not know why. But we are managing. We are refugees and we have no choice. All they give us is rice and some soya beans” John Guige, a Nigerian resident and primary school teacher in the Minawao refugee camp in Cameroon’s Far North region, told IPS.

Will the EU Become a Criminal Union Tomorrow?

By Jan Oberg
The EUropean Union – a criminal? The EU that has peace as its top goal and received Nobel’s Peace Prize? The EU with Schengen and Dublin?

A “Colombian Triangle” for Daesh in Libya?

By Baher Kamal
Besieged by US, UK, French, Russian and Syrian war crafts and ground intelligence, both in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (Daesh from its original acronym in Arabic) has reportedly been searching for a new base in the North of Africa, specifically in Libya, in what has been called the “Colombian Triangle.”

Civil Wars Threaten to Break up a Volatile Middle East

By Thalif Deen
As civil wars and cross-border military conflicts continue to escalate in the Middle East, Syria, Iraq and Libya are in danger of breaking up —even as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) continues to make territorial gains in the volatile region.

‘Worse Than World War I’

By Baher Kamal
When the leaders of 28 European states enjoy again this week their exclusive flights, luxurious suites and official limousines, to meet for a new summit in Brussels to adopt a final decision on their proposed plan of using refugees as bargaining chips, 20.000 Syrians will most probably be still starving in the Idomeni camp in Greece, in a situation that has been described as “worse than World War I.”

Turkey’s Crackdown on the Press

By Joris Leverink
On the evening of March 4, heavily armed police forced their way into the headquarters of the Turkish daily Zaman. The hundreds of protesters that had gathered in front of the building in an Istanbul suburb in solidarity with their newspaper were violently dispersed.

“Take My Iraqis and Give Me Some Syrians” – Europe to Turkey

By Baher Kamal
In a yet another violation of international laws and their own human values, 28 European countries have just agreed with Turkey to open a new “bazaar” of refugees, this time using the old barter system. i.e. Iraqis and Afghans in exchange of Syrians.

CTBTO to Install Two Nuclear Monitoring Stations in Ecuador

By Thalif Deen
The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), based in Vienna, will soon install two new monitoring stations in Ecuador. CTBTOs Executive Secretary Dr Lassina Zerbo told IPS the two stations in Ecuador, RN 24 and IS 20, “will brings us an important step closer to the completion of the International Monitoring System – the network that monitors the globe 24/7 for signs of nuclear explosive testing.”

Anti-Mining Protests in Turkey Book Temporary Victory

By Joris Leverink
Over the past weeks, thousands of people across Turkey have protested against the planned construction of a gold mine in Cerattepe, close to the town of Artvin in the northeast of the country. Protesters fear that the mine will cause irreparable damage to the unique natural environment of the region.

Tanzania Farmers, Pastoralists Launch Forum to Resolve Water Conflicts

By Kizito Makoye
At a remote village of Itunundu in Iringa, farmers and pastoralists recently met to discuss the best way to share land resources while charting out a strategy to prevent unnecessary fights among themselves. No one in the village ever imagined that this meeting would ever take place as the two groups had for long considered themselves enemies: they often clashed for water and pastures to feed their animals thus causing deaths and loss of property.

Toys of Violence

By Mohammad Ali Babakhel
In this age of advanced technology, where violent forms of entertainment thrive on the screen and in cyberspace, parenting becomes a challenging task, as children want to emulate what they see. The adoption of a resolution last year by the Sindh Assembly demanding a ban on the manufacturing, import and sale of toy guns often used in actual hold-ups was a step in the right direction.

Exorcising Stalin

By Mahir Ali
In one of his books, Mohamed Heikal, the Egyptian journalist who died last month at the age of 92, records an extraordinary encounter in 1964 between Gamal Abdel Nasser and Nikita Khrushchev.
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