Africa

Zakarie Ali was scouted in Finland after moving there with his family at the age of three.

The opposition rejects results that give Emmerson Mnangagwa the presidency with 50.8% of the vote.

Striking scenes from a trek through the Sinai desert

A picture of a former prime minister meeting ex-military ruler Mengistu spurs controversy in Ethiopia.

By Fernanda Baumhardt and Amanda Nero
Aug 2 2018 (IOM)

“I want to talk about my journey. Three years ago, I came alone all the way from Darfur, Sudan. I left my family who still live in a refugee camp in Chad.” Abas, 23, a participant from our filmmaking workshop in Geneva, Switzerland.

This year, we wanted to take the Global Migration Film Festival one step further and directly engage with migrant communities.

We held participatory video workshops in Jordan, South Sudan and Switzerland leading up to the start of the Film Festival on the 5 of December. The workshops used the art of filmmaking as a tool to foster social cohesion and empowerment.

The method of Participatory Video promotes community-to-community learning, with our team of trainers acting mostly as facilitators. After providing a few tips to start the process, they stepped back so participants could learn filmmaking at their own pace. Allowing the group to evolve with minimum interference is key to capacity and team building.

The workshop tour kicked off in Amman, Jordan, in October. Since the beginning of the Syria crisis, this small country in the Middle East with a total population of 7.6 million has been hosting over 630,000 Syrians fleeing war and dismay. Jordan has also welcomed migrants, including refugees, from other countries in the region as well as African nations.

Teaching the basics of operating a professional camera with participants in Amman, Jordan. Photo: Amanda Nero/UN Migration Agency (IOM) 2017

Youth participants in Jordan discussing how to film the closing scene. Photo: Amanda Nero/UN Migration Agency (IOM) 2017

The workshop brought together young migrants from Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Eritrea for a full week of filmmaking and discussions about the power of compassion and humanity to transform sadness into hope.

Unexpectedly, a Bedouin and his camel passed by when the participants were shooting one of their scenes, and he kindly agreed to take part in the film! Photo: Amanda Nero/UN Migration Agency (IOM) 2017

“I learned how to use the camera and microphone. I also learned that each person has a point of view and I have to respect it.”
Abukar, 20, from Somalia. Photo: Amanda Nero/UN Migration Agency (IOM) 2017

“I learned how to use the camera and microphone. I also learned that each person has a point of view and I have to respect it.”
Abukar, 20, from Somalia. Photo: Amanda Nero/UN Migration Agency (IOM) 2017

In November, our team went to Malakal, South Sudan, to work with communities that have fled war and violence. With all they had been through, we knew they would have a lot to share.

Along with IOM’s Psychosocial Support Team, we helped a group of 14 community members who lived in the Malakal protection of civilians (PoC) site for the last four years to come together and make a short film based on their experiences and challenging life stories.

Deborah, 21, gaining confidence operating a camera. Photo: Amanda Nero/UN Migration Agency (IOM) 2017

Despite the difficulties they have been through, none of the participants showed any resentment or anger in their filmmaking. Instead, they wanted to demonstrate the importance of rising with forgiveness, compassion and unity. As they repeated many times during the week: “All we want is peace.”

“If you are alone you cannot move forward. But if we are together we are stronger, we can achieve a better future, have a better community and build better relationships between the peoples of our country,” Augustino Dak, 30. Photo: Amanda Nero/UN Migration Agency (IOM) 2017

In the first week of December, our team hosted its final workshop for this year in Geneva, Switzerland. Well known for being the world’s humanitarian capital, Geneva also hosts many migrant communities.

In such a setting, it was a must for our project to give voice to migrants who make the long journey to Geneva. Some come to reunite with their families, others come to study, but many come fleeing conflict and poverty in their homelands.

To enable migrants living in Geneva to film their stories, the Festival partnered with the Centre de la Roseraie, an institution that welcomes, trains and supports migrants to build a better future.

Group photo of the Geneva workshop participants. Photo: Fernanda Baumhard/NORCAP 2017

Group photo of the Geneva workshop participants. Photo: Fernanda Baumhard/NORCAP 2017

Photo: Fernanda Baumhard/NORCAP 2017

Photo: Fernanda Baumhard/NORCAP 2017

The second edition of the Film Festival provided a unique opportunity for global audiences to see short films on the perils of forced and voluntary migration from migrants themselves.

The participatory videos produced in Geneva and Jordan were shown during two of our screenings in Geneva. The video produced during our South Sudan workshop was screened in Juba, South Sudan, itself.

Participatory Video screening in Malakal, SouthSudan. Photo: Fernanda Baumhardt/NORCAP (2017)

The workshops were made possible through the generous support of the IOM Development Fund and NORCAP (Norwegian Refugee Council’s expert deployment capacity).

The post Social Cohesion Through Filmmaking appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The Global Migration Film Festival is about more than just film screenings

The post Social Cohesion Through Filmmaking appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: iHub/Kenya

By Robert Pasicko
ISTANBUL, Turkey, Aug 2 2018 (IPS)

Hardly a day goes by in the development world without hearing the term “platform”. Like in the business world, it’s becoming harder for any development organization to provide a single service or product that will make broad impact. Airbnb doesn’t build homes, it creates a network that brings together host and guests.

Likewise, it’s impossible to eradicate poverty – a complex phenomenon – without connecting different areas of expertise and partners across a wide range of thematic issues. And it’s often the case that the people we’re trying to pull out of poverty are closer to the problem and entitled to have a say about the solution.

While building platforms doesn’t happen overnight, it’s highly likely you’re already working in ways that resemble that. Take crowdfunding: it helps diversify funding, involves target groups, and mobilizes experts from all walks of life. I’ve led 35 crowdfunding campaigns at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 2015 and mobilized $1.2 million. Our field offices are working on $7 million worth of campaigns. So here’s my take-away:

• Think broad. Turning old development methods on their head, crowdfunding enables development institutions to sit at the same table with everybody else –people from poor neighborhoods, governments, startups, banks and large donors, and of course crowdfunding marketplaces. To survive in the 21st century, development organizations must diversify their contacts with partners that are ready to research, test and scale up solutions to complex problems.
• Build your ecosystem. Get a better understanding of the national context. Study the legislation and bring on board national partners who already have local connections to crowds. The more partners are able to latch on and add value, the higher the chances of success. Think of yourself as the app store: when developers come in and launch their own apps, you’ve created a virtuous circle in which the parts bring exponentially more value into the whole.
• Link up with tech platforms. Through crowdfunding we’ve supported lots of UNDP tech-based platforms, like LiveLebanon.org, GreenCrowds in Ecuador, or YemenOurHome. We’re working with them to move away from online donations, towards building communities that can deliver long-term impact. It’s not enough just putting a “donate” button on your page. These online communities can be powerful starting points for continuing to rally investors and partners.
• Partner with cities to achieve quick wins. London is creating a city for all Londoners through crowdfunding. Madrid has its own crowdsourcing platform. We’re transferring these practices to some unlikely places like Somalia, working with the diaspora to help people in Mogadishu create revenue, and withstand violence and disaster.
• Go solar: it’s the ultimate platform initiative. It’s not development if it isn’t green. Funding solar is the ultimate way to hit multiple SDG targets. We teamed up with over 30 crowdfunding platforms to deliver Citizenergy, which helped invest € 40 million into clean energy. With UNDP Moldova and Sun Exchange, we are also developing a $1 million solar plant using cryptocurrencies.
• Support small businesses – It’s hard for SMEs to get and repay their credit. But our experience in Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Morocco and Turkey has shown that crowdfunding can be a great way to get new businesses off the ground. By the same token, development organizations should intensify their work to bring crowd-funders, businesses, third party verifiers and others together to make business more inclusive.
• Use new sources of financing. In the Muslim world, Zakat (donations) are worth 200 billion to 1 trillion. We’re now working with the Islamic Development Bank on a proposal to fund NGOs. In Indonesia, UNDP is designing a brand new platform that will – among other things – use Islamic finance to help the country achieve the SDGs.
• Build networks to help people recover from disaster. Campaigns such as GoFundMe and YouCaring are putting a face on individuals affected by disasters and mobilizing global funding. The Connecting Business Initiative is taking that approach further, mobilizing business networks so they too can get involved.

Crowdfunding is the originator of all modern development platforms. When we turn to platforms, we direct money where it is most needed. People can crowdsource the best ideas and vote for them. Governments and donors can match the funds collected, financing projects citizens actually support.

In an increasingly networked age, it’s not only capable of unleashing significant impact. It can also inspire thousands of development organizations around the world to rally partners and contribute to global causes more effectively.

The post From Crowdfunding to Development Platforms: 8 Ways to Make Use of a Networked World appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Robert Pasicko works for UNDP’s Alternative Financing Lab

The post From Crowdfunding to Development Platforms: 8 Ways to Make Use of a Networked World appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The redistribution of asylum seekers from Italy and Greece, which are the main landing territories of migrants heading to Europe, was stopped mainly because of opposition to the refugee quotas from some EU member countries. Credit: Ilaria Vechi/IPS.

By Maged Srour
ROME, Aug 2 2018 (IPS)

Thousands of migrant minors placed in reception facilities upon arrival in Italy, as a first step in identification and later relocation into other structures for asylum seekers, are untraceable and feared trafficked.

A report, Tiny invisible slaves 2018, released this week by the non-governmental organisation Save the Children, states that 4,570 minors migrating through Italy are untraceable as of May.

Once they escape the facilities, their vulnerable position—having no money, not knowing the language and being often traumatised after their trip to Italy—places them at the mercy of traffickers and exploiters.

Many of these children end up in networks of sexual exploitation, forced labour and enslavement. Save the Children reported that some girls are forced to perform survival sex—to prostitute themselves in order to pay the ‘passeurs’ to cross the Italian border or to pay for food or a place to sleep.

“I left Nigeria with a friend and once we arrived to Sabha (Libya) we were arrested,” Blessing, one of the victims, told Save the Children.

“I stayed there for three months and then I moved to Tripoli. For eight interminable months I was forced to prostitute myself in exchange for food,” she added.

Blessing then reported that her nightmare continued in Italy where she was sexually exploited by a compatriot. She ultimately was able to enter a protection programme thanks to Save the Children. But her story is a rare case of rescue as many other children find themselves enslaved with no end in sight.

According to testimonies collected by the NGO, minors leave reception facilities because they judge the processes of entering the child protection system as a useless slowing down towards the economic autonomy they aspire to and usually leave the centres a few days after identification.

This has been occurring largely in the southern regions of Italy.

But according to the report, “the flow of minors in transit through Italy to northern Europe is, by its own nature, difficult to quantify.” Though it noted that minors transiting through Italy between January and March, make up between 22 percent and 31 percent out of the total transitioning migrants across the country. The minors are mostly Eritrean (14 percent), Somalis (13 percent), Afghans (10 percent), Egyptians (9 percent) and Tunisians (8 percent).

“The fact that the European Union relocation programme was blocked in September 2017, has contributed in an important way to forcing children in transit to re-entrust themselves to traffickers, or to risk their own lives to cross borders, as well as it continues to happen for those minors who transit through the Italian north frontier with the aim of reaching the countries of northern Europe,” Roberta Petrillo, from the child protection department of Save the Children, Italy, told IPS.

The redistribution of asylum seekers from Italy and Greece, which are the main landing territories of migrants heading to Europe, was stopped mainly because of opposition to the refugee quotas from the EU member countries of Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary.

The EU’s initial plan provided for the relocation of 160,000 refugees from Italy and Greece to other European countries within two years. As of May, 12,690 and 21,999 migrants were relocated from Italy and Greece respectively. To date, the Czech Republic has accepted only 12 refugees, Slovakia 16, with Hungary and Poland having taken no refugees.

According to estimates from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), almost 10 million children and youth across the world were forced into slavery, sold and exploited, mainly for sexual and labour purposes in 2016.

They make up 25 percent of the over 40 million people who are trafficked, of which more than seven out of 10 are women and girls. According to the ILO estimates, nearly one million victims of sexual exploitation in 2016 were minors, while between 2012 and 2016, 152 million boys and girls aged between five and 17 were engaged in various forms of child labour. More than half of these activities were particularly dangerous for their own health.

“When we talk about data of this kind we must be very cautious because we are dealing with numbers that only concern the emergence of the phenomenon, without keeping track of the submerged data,” Petrillo added.

There were 30,146 registered victims of trafficking and exploitation in 2016 in the 28 EU countries with 1,000 of them minors.

However, according to 2016 figures from the ILO, 3.6 million people across Europe were reportedly modern day slaves.

According to the Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force, human trafficking is the second-largest criminal industry in the world, second only to the illegal drug trade. It is estimated to be an industry worth USD32 billion annually.

The most targeted

Nigerian and Romanian girls are amongst the most targeted by the trafficking networks.

According to Save the Children, for the journey that will take them to Italy, the Nigerian girls contract a debt between 20,000 and 50,000 euros that they can only hope to repay by undergoing forced prostitution.

Like their peers from Romania, they enter a mechanism of sexual exploitation from which they cannot get free easily.

While Nigerians escape mainly for security issues and political instability, Romanian girls flee their country because of a total lack of opportunities and economic autonomy there. Their deep economic deprivation makes them highly vulnerable and easy targets for traffickers, who deceive or coerce them to enter into networks of sexual exploitation. 

According to the Save the Children Report, in 2017 there were a total of 200 minor victims of trafficking and exploitation who were put into protection programmes. The vast majority of these, 196, were girls with about  93.5 percent Nigerian girls aged between 16 and 17 years.

In addition, almost half of the minors were sexually exploited 

Riccardo Noury, spokesperson for Amnesty International Italy,  told IPS that migrant men were welcomed with open arms because they were useful for working under exploited conditions.

However, migrant women were welcome only because they were used for prostitution.

“By not guaranteeing legal and safe paths for those fleeing wars and persecution, by not organising and recognising the presence of migrant workers, we just do a favour to the criminal groups, who build real fortunes on trafficking in human beings,” Noury told IPS.

While Petrillo said that “the Italian and the EU legal framework is solid and a good one,” she cautioned that  “what is needed, instead, is a unitary intervention that closely links the issue of anti-trafficking reality with that of minors in transit. And we must be able to guarantee universal protection for the victims.”

Related Articles

• Latin American Migrants Targeted by Trafficking Networks
• Benin – the Launchpad and Home for African Migrants

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Senegal striker Moussa Sow announces his retirement from international football to focus on his club career with UAE side Shabab Dubai.

Algeria's football federation appoint former international Djamel Belmadi as their new manager, after he agrees a four year deal.

The UN and former colonial power the UK call for calm amid a post-election government crackdown.

The post The Sun Powers a Women’s Bakery in Brazil’s Semi-arid Northeast appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Residents of the Libyan city of Sirte say they feel "abandoned" nearly two years after Islamic State fighters left.

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Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association

By Kelsey Davenport
WASHINGTON DC, Aug 1 2018 (IPS)

Rhetoric escalated between the United States and Iran when U.S. President Donald Trump irresponsibly tweeted July 22 that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani must “NEVER EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN” or else suffer consequences the likes of which “FEW HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.”

The meeting for a Comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear program in 2015. Attendees included John Kerry of the United States, Philip Hammond of the United Kingdom, Sergey Lavrov of Russia, Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, Laurent Fabius of France, Wang Yi of China, Federica Mogherini of the European Union and Javad Zarif of Iran.

In response to Trump’s threat, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted July 23 that Iran is “UNIMPRESSED” by the bluster and ended his message with the warning “BE CAUTIOUS.”

The Trump tweet was likely prompted by Rouhani warning July 22 that the United States should know that “war with Iran is the mother of all wars” and if Iran’s oil exports are blocked, “no other country in the region” will export oil.

The sanctions that Trump reimposed May 8 when he violated and withdrew from the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), include measures penalizing states if they fail to significantly reduce imports of Iranian oil every 180 days.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated in a July 22 speech that the U.S. focus is to get states importing Iranian oil to “as close to zero as possible” by the Nov. 4 180-day deadline (see below for details).

Pompeo said little about the JCPOA in his speech, which criticized the Iranian regime and reiterated that the United States is engaged in a “diplomatic and financial pressure campaign” to cut off funds used by the government to “enrich itself and support death and destruction.”

While Trump’s tweet prompted pushback from some policymakers, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton July 23 reiterated and appeared to broaden the vague and reckless threat, saying “if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before.”

Secretary of Defense James Mattis said July 24 that Trump is making “very clear” that Iran is “on the wrong track” and called for Tehran to “shape up and show responsibility.”

The exchange of threats between the United States and Iran is taking place as the P4+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom) are looking for options to sustain sanctions relief and keep Iran in the JCPOA (see below for details).

The P4+1 face a ticking clock, as the first U.S. sanctions re-imposed by Trump will be enforceable Aug. 6, when the 90-day wind down closes. These measures target certain banking activities, trade involving certain metals, coal, and the automotive sector, and the purchase of U.S. dollars by the Iranian government.

The Treasury Department will also revoke authorizations allowing carpets and Iranian foodstuffs to be exported to the United States and revoke licenses issued for the sale of commercial aircraft parts and services to Iran.

The remaining sanctions penalties, including those that target Iran’s oil sales, will be effective Nov. 4.

The post Trump Escalates Rhetoric on Iran appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association

The post Trump Escalates Rhetoric on Iran appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Troops open fire in the capital Harare after opposition MDC Alliance supporters go on the rampage.

Radish production at West Africa Farms, in Northern Senegal. Credit: Sarah Farhat / World Bank

By Alice Lloyd
WASHINGTON, Aug 1 2018 (IPS)

The world’s food systems face two immense challenges today. One, to produce enough food to nourish a global population of seven billion people without harming the environment. Two, to make sure food systems deliver nutrition to everyone, particularly the world’s poorest, many of whom suffer from chronic under-nutrition.

Like the Economist’s 2017 Food Security Index, a new report released earlier this summer looks at the complex connections between the ways we organize and produce our food, and the implications for the environment, human health, and social wellbeing.

With input from over 150 experts from 33 countries, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) for Agriculture and Food: Scientific and Economic Foundations Report, a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) project, makes the case for a global agri-food systems transformation. It argues that our agri-food systems today are being viewed and evaluated through a narrow, incomplete and distorted lens by focusing on per-hectare-productivity. To fix our food system, our food metrics need to be fixed.

The way we are currently producing food is negatively impacting climate, water, top soil, biodiversity and marine environments. If we do not change course, we will seriously undermine our ability to deliver adequate food for future populations. In addition to the negative environmental impacts, we are struggling to deliver nutritious and healthy diets in an equitable way. Diet-related chronic diseases are on the rise even as we fail to deliver nutritious food to millions of poor people around the world.

The consequences of our current food systems outlined in the report include:
• Agricultural production alone contributes over one-fourth of global GHG emissions.
• However, when considering the entire ‘agri-food value chain’ (including agriculture-related deforestation, farming, processing, packaging, transportation and waste), this number climbs to a staggering 43 to 57 percent of GHG emissions.
• 70 to 90 percent of global deforestation is from agricultural expansion.
• If women had the same access to resources (land, credits, education, etc.) as male farmers, they could raise yields by 20 to 30 percent, and lift as many as 150 million people out of hunger.
• Approximately one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year gets lost or wasted, enough to feed the world’s hungry six times over.
• Around 40 percent of available land is used for growing food, a figure that would need to rise to an improbable 70 percent by 2050 under a “business-as-usual” scenario.
• 33 percent of the Earth’s land surface is moderately to highly affected by some type of soil degradation mainly due to the erosion, salinization, compaction, acidification, or chemical pollution of soils.
• Diets have become the main risk for human health. Six of the top eleven risk factors driving the global burden of disease are diet-related.
• The World Health Organization estimates the direct costs of diabetes at more than US$827 billion per year, globally.
• Unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemical substances causes more than 200 diseases. An estimated 600 million people fall ill after eating contaminated food, while 420,000 die every year.
• 61 percent of commercial fish populations are fully fished and 29 percent are overfished.
• In a “business-as-usual” scenario, the ocean will contain more plastic than fish (by weight) by 2050.

The agricultural revolution is still very strongly influencing our food production. While food production has successfully been increased, the environmental impacts have received a lot less attention. They have been either been ignored or been considered as a necessary trade-off.

The Economist’s 2017 Food Security Index for example, in considering how resilience to natural resource and climate related risks pose long term threats to food systems across countries, includes a tool to explore how individual countries perform on a natural resources and resilience adjustment factor.

“If you look at food production only from a price perspective, and the old paradigm of the cheaper the better, you run into a trap because the long-term sustainability of our food production system is not a given,”says Alexander Müller, Study Leader of TEEBAgriFood.

“The task for agriculture and food systems in the years to come is huge, says Muller: ‘feeding a population projected to reach 10 billion in 2050, achieving the four dimensions of food security (FAO 1996) for all people by providing healthy food, drastically reducing the impacts of different types of agricultural production on the world’s ecosystems, reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit climate change and to adapt to it, developing rural areas to create jobs and to improve livelihoods of poor people, maintaining ecosystem services such as clean water and air for a rapidly urbanizing planet are only some of the challenges.”

Tackling these challenges requires a systematic approach. This report looks at all the impacts of the value chain, from farm to fork to disposal, including effects on livelihoods, the environment, and health. It identifies theories and pathways for transformational change in government, business, farming, and consumer contexts while providing a framework for evaluation that supports the comprehensive, universal and inclusive assessment of eco-agri-food systems.

Recognizing the interlinkages, in terms of impacts and dependencies that food systems have with our economies, societies, health, and environment is a crucial first step. Using the report’s Framework and its language can allow for the next generation of agricultural and food research to provide a more comprehensive basis for decision-making and together with the 2017 Food Security Index, provides a comprehensive assessment of food systems as well as natural resource availability and resilience.

The post Transforming Food Systems: Today’s Realities and Tomorrow’s Challenges appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By International Organization for Migration
KABUL, Aug 1 2018 (IOM)

It is with profound sadness that the United Nations family in Afghanistan confirms that an employee of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was killed in yesterday’s attack on the Department of Refugees and Returnees in Jalalabad.

Our immediate thoughts are with her family and friends.

The United Nations expresses its deep sense of revulsion at this senseless attack that claimed the lives of at least 13 civilians. Among the 20 others injured was another IOM colleague. The UN wishes him and all the injured a speedy and full recovery.

“I condemn this heinous crime which has already taken the life of one of our brave IOM colleagues in Jalalabad yesterday and left another grievously injured. It is a loss for IOM, our partners and Afghanistan,” said IOM Director General William Lacy Swing.

“Equally tragically the attack claimed the lives of at least 13 civilians, including an IRC colleague. My heart goes out to the families of all the victims. Everyone in IOM is thinking of our colleagues working in difficult conditions across the country on behalf of the Afghan people in the aftermath of this senseless attack,” added DG Swing.

Our colleague’s life was taken while she was working in the noble cause of assisting some of the most vulnerable communities in Afghanistan. There is no justification for such acts of terror. She is one of thousands of Afghans who form the backbone of the daily work of the United Nations in the country to help the most in need, supporting development and contributing to the restoration of peace and stability.

This young woman, who was 22, lost her husband in a bombing in Kabul three years ago. She leaves behind a six-year old daughter, now an orphan.

“We mourn the loss of our colleague and, in tribute, commit ourselves to re-double our work to serve Afghanistan and its peoples,” said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

The deliberate targeting of civilians and the places where they work, such as the department in Jalalabad, is an appalling crime. The architects of this crime must be brought to justice.

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