Africa

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Giraffes have always been thought to be one species, but scientists now say there are four.

Giraffes have always been thought to be one species, but scientists now say there are four.

Attacks were carried out in more than a dozen villages last month, Human Rights Watch says.

Un porte-parole militaire israélien a déclaré que les troupes allaient intensifier les frappes contre les « infrastructures terroristes » détenues par le Hamas.

Southampton and Nigeria midfielder Joe Aribo says playing cage football growing up in London made him the player he is today.

By External Source
Aug 21 2025 (IPS-Partners)

Dr. Faiza Hassan is the Director of the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). A chemical engineer who transitioned into education leadership, Dr. Hassan brings close to 20 years of diverse experience in education, social policy reform and humanitarian response. She has a proven track record in strategic management, technical leadership and driving impactful, large-scale complex programmes.

ECW: With international aid shrinking across the world, why should public and private sector donors continue to prioritize investment in quality education for children living through the world’s most severe humanitarian crises?

Dr. Faiza Hassan: Education is a fundamental human right. Every girl and boy, in every country, is entitled to it. States hold the primary responsibility for ensuring its provision, but in humanitarian crises, governments are often unable to fulfil this role – leaving millions of children without access to learning. Today, more than 234 million children and adolescents have their education impacted by crises worldwide.

During conflict or crisis situations, education becomes more than a classroom activity. It offers safety, stability and hope. It provides children with psychosocial support, helping them process trauma and rebuild a sense of normalcy. Schools often serve as community hubs, connecting children and their families to other critical services like school meals, vaccinations and health care.

Education is also the foundation for achieving peacebuilding, economic recovery, climate resilience, public health, gender equality and stronger governance. Education equips young people with the skills and knowledge to adapt to climate change, lead in their communities and challenge harmful norms. Without it, interventions in health, livelihoods and governance will always be less effective, less sustainable and less equitable.

Education is always what local communities in crisis are prioritizing. Parents in refugee camps, teachers in conflict zones, community leaders facing displacement – they consistently choose to invest what little they have in keeping children learning. Not because it’s easy, but because they know it is the single most powerful tool for securing their children’s future. In 2022, household contributions accounted for 25.8% of education spending in low-income countries and, in comparison, donor funding accounted for 12% of total education spending in low-income countries. So, for donors (both public and private sector), this isn’t about leading the way; it’s about getting behind and supporting communities who are already showing us what matters most.

In a time of shrinking aid budgets, protecting and expanding investment in education is not optional; it is the most strategic and cost-effective investment we can make. If we want to solve the world’s greatest challenges, from climate change and public health to economic inequality, we must stand behind communities to invest in education. Failing to act now will deepen instability, escalate humanitarian needs and undermine progress across all global priorities.

ECW: INEE and Education Cannot Wait (ECW) share a commitment to ensuring that all children affected by crises have access to quality, relevant and safe education. What practical steps are needed to turn this shared vision into reality?

Dr. Faiza Hassan: The Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) was founded in 2000 on the fundamental right to education. Today, it is a global network of more than 22,000 members affiliated with 4,000 organizations across 190 countries, bringing together practitioners, governments, local and regional civil society, teachers, youth, students and researchers working to secure safe, quality, relevant and equitable education in emergencies and protracted crises.

Together with other partners, INEE helped build the case and momentum for a global fund dedicated to education in emergencies, leading to the creation of ECW. INEE and ECW therefore share not only history, but a complementary role within the EiE architecture. INEE convenes the EiE community, sets shared norms and standards, and builds evidence and capacity; ECW mobilizes and deploys finance to scale delivery. Together, we turn commitments into funded action with partners.

To continue to turn our shared commitment into a lived reality for every girl and boy, I think we need to double down on:

• • Centering local leadership. Communities already know what quality, relevant and safe education looks like in their context. We hear this from INEE members – from a teacher in Uganda, to a grassroots organization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a youth-led network in South Sudan – all leading the way in shaping education for their communities. Our role as global actors is not to prescribe, but to back their vision with resources, technical support and political advocacy. That means partnering with national governments, teacher unions, youth-led networks and grassroots education groups as leaders who set the agenda, not as downstream implementers.

 

• • Breaking the humanitarian-development divide. Education in emergencies cannot be a parallel track. It must be embedded into national education planning, policy and financing from day one of a crisis. This is how we ensure that children don’t just have access to school in the short term, but to pathways for lifelong learning.

 

• Financing that matches the scale and duration of the need. While ECW supports fast and flexible funding, we also need to think about flexible financing mechanisms that can adapt to protracted crises and support national systems, while also resourcing the local organizations who are often the first and last responders.

ECW: Localization is essential in delivering on the Grand Bargain Agreements, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Pact for the Future. How can we reinforce stronger enabling environments to empower local actors in the education sector?

Dr. Faiza Hassan: To answer this question, we need to start by being clear about what localization is and what it is not.

Localization is not about bringing local actors into the existing humanitarian system; it is about rewiring the system to serve and center them. That distinction matters because the current architecture was never built with local leadership in mind; it was built to manage donor risk, uphold donor priorities, and control resources and decision-making.

We must be honest that retrofitting a system never designed for community-led response will only take us so far. We need to stop asking how to make space for local actors within global structures, and start asking: What would this system look like if it were built from the ground up by the communities we claim to serve?

To create enabling environments in the education sector, we must let go of old assumptions that international actors are best placed to assess, coordinate, define or lead. We must let go of funding models that entrench dependency, and coordination structures that exclude the very people doing the work. Many of INEE’s members speak about rigid compliance frameworks, limited direct access to funding, and an over-reliance on international intermediaries that sideline local leadership. Changing this requires political will and a full structural redesign; technical tweaks will not suffice.

This is where the power of a diverse network matters. When ministries, local authorities, teachers and school leaders, youth and parent groups, grassroots organizations, researchers, funders and the private sector come together, we unlock our shared expertise. Collectively, we can redesign institutions, financing pathways and accountability mechanisms so they serve local actors.

With a diverse coalition, this is a moment of real possibility. The humanitarian reset, the UN at 80, and the global stock take on aid effectiveness offer an opening. We must be bold enough to use it. Our goal cannot be to diversify participation in a system that continues to marginalize; it must be to design one that stands behind and is led by local actors.

ECW: How do investments in girls’ education support efforts to build global security, ensure economic resilience and create more fair and equal societies?

Dr. Faiza Hassan: Investments in girls’ education drive healthier families, stronger economies and more stable societies. Educated girls are healthier, their children are healthier, and they are more likely to participate in the workforce and civic life – which strengthens economic resilience and more equal governance. In crisis contexts, the returns are even greater. Education can delay early marriage, reduce vulnerability to exploitation, and provide skills and networks that help communities recover.

Without education, investments in health, livelihoods, and protection deliver less and do not last. That is why INEE’s Guidance Note on Gender and other gender-responsive tools stress the need to integrate equity and inclusion into every aspect of emergency education planning, from safe learning environments to curriculum, teacher support and community engagement. These resources provide practical ways to ensure that girls’ education in crisis is not only accessible, but relevant, protective and transformative.

Families and communities already understand this, which is why they make sacrifices to keep girls in school. The least we can do is match their commitment with investments that uphold every girl’s right to learn, even in the most challenging circumstances.

ECW: We all know that ‘readers are leaders’ and that reading skills are key to every child’s education. Which three books have most influenced you – personally or professionally – and how have they shaped your perspective on education and resilience?

Dr. Faiza Hassan: Stories help children make sense of the world and find their place in it. They can spark imagination, nurture curiosity and offer comfort. They also build the confidence and continuity that help keep learning alive during times of upheaval.

I have always loved reading. I’ve read thousands of books across different genres, but fantasy and sci-fi have a special place in my heart. Over the years, there are some books that stand out to me, not because of their content, but because of what they gave me at key moments in life.

• •

Majalat Majid:

• A weekly Arabic children’s comic magazine that I read growing up in Yemen, where my family found a new home after leaving Somalia. It was my introduction to stories with familiar characters, humor and adventure, planting the seed for a lifelong love of reading.

 

• •

De Vijf:

• The Dutch translation of Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five. I read it shortly after my family was displaced from our home in Taiz and resettled in a small Dutch village. I was ten, and it was the first book I picked up in our local library. More than just a story, it gave me confidence, a foothold in a strange new place, and the sense that maybe things would be okay.

 

• •

And Then There Were None

by Agatha Christie: I read it as a teenager, adapting to yet another new environment. Turning each page without having to stop or translate gave me a quiet but lasting confidence that shaped my belief in my own ability to adapt and thrive.

These books, and so many others, were more than entertainment; they were anchors during moments of transition and a reminder of why access to books can be life-changing for children facing disruption today. Access to age-appropriate storybooks, comics, fantasy series, adventure tales, mystery novels, poetry collections, graphic novels, and even simple magazines help children and adolescents regulate, belong and learn. Books are not just tools for literacy, they are sources of managing uncertainty, connection and hope. If we want girls and boys in crisis to thrive, investments must include access to stories alongside safe schools, trained teachers and predictable financing.

 

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Kalpana Rai, Rachana Sanani, Anita Rana -- members of Ruru Multipurpose Cooperative, Nepal. Credit: Heifer International

By Neena Joshi and Balasubramanian Iyer
KATHMANDU, Nepal / NEW DELHI, India, Aug 21 2025 (IPS)

“The future of agriculture lies not in the hands of a few giants, but in the joint hands of many.”

This quote captures the spirit of farmer cooperatives—values-driven, collectively run enterprises rooted in solidarity and self-help. As global food systems grow more fragile and inequitable, cooperatives offer a compelling model: putting people before profits, and communities before corporations, while advancing social equity, economic empowerment, and environmental sustainability.

Globally, more than 1 billion people—about 12% of the world’s population are members of over 3 million cooperatives. The largest 300 cooperatives report an annual turnover exceeding USD 2.4 trillion, nearly 2.3% of global GDP.

These cooperatives provide job opportunities for 280 million people—roughly 10% of the world’s employed population (World Cooperative Monitor, 2023). Notably, 105 of the top 300 cooperatives operate in the agriculture sector, operating across the agricultural value. chains.

By organizing through cooperatives, smallholder farmers amplify their voice and bargaining power. By pooling resources, they build collective capital and reduce dependence on external funding—especially vital in today’s shrinking development-aid landscape. The cooperative model enables farmers to emerge as a thriving, resilient workforce, thereby transforming food systems.

India’s iconic Anand Milk Union Limited (AMUL) illustrates this well. Formed in 1946, AMUL played a central role in India’s White Revolution and is now part of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF). AMUL ensures 80% of prices paid by consumers go directly to the farmers—empowering over 3.6 million milk producers, many of them women who’ve gained financial independence and acquired leadership roles.

Rashida Begum, member of Nawdagram Nari Agrogoti Samity in Bangladesh. Credit: Heifer International

Other powerful examples in Asia include Japan’s National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Association, known as Zen-Noh, and South Korea’s National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) or NongHyup. Zen-Noh represents over 1,000 agricultural cooperatives in Japan and plays a central role in procuring inputs, distributing products, and exporting Japanese rice and other produce internationally.

It exemplifies how cooperative federations can integrate vertically and optimize logistics, marketing, and innovation to serve their members.

In South Korea, NongHyup serves around 2.5 million farmer-members across more than 1,100 local cooperatives. As one of the world’s largest multipurpose cooperatives, it combines agricultural marketing, banking, insurance, and technical support.

Through its financial services arm alone, NongHyup supports over 70% of the country’s population, making it a linchpin of rural development and economic security.

Nonprofit organizations also play a critical role in enabling farmer cooperatives to thrive. Heifer International in Asia, active in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Cambodia, supports farmer cooperatives through training, market integration, and financial access as the core of its program model. These efforts not only boost productivity but also position farmers as agents of change.

Heifer’s work with apex cooperative bodies like Nepal’s Social Entrepreneurs Women’s Alliance (SEWA) and Cambodia’s Social Entrepreneurs Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (SEUAC) is transforming the agricultural landscape. SEWA represents women-led cooperatives, advancing inclusive policy advocacy, innovation, and market access.

In Cambodia, SEUAC, formed with government support in 2021, unites 22 cooperatives across six provinces, benefiting over 12,000 farmers through improved services, infrastructure, and representation.

Tulsi Thapa, President of Bihani Social Entrepreneurs Women’s Cooperative in Nepal and SEWA’s Central Joint Secretary, is one such changemaker. “I come from a humble farming family and never imagined I’d lead hundreds of women,” she says. A Heifer initiative in 2012 catalysed her journey from subsistence farming to cooperative leadership.

Today, Bihani has over 1,400 members and an annual turnover exceeding USD 540,000. The cooperative has diversified into dairy, goat trading and livestock feed, with access to over USD 198,000 in affordable loans.

Yet challenges remain—from limited access to insurance and fair markets to deep-rooted gender norms. “Progress starts with agriculture,” Tulsi says. “Farmer-friendly cooperatives can spark rural economic revolutions.”

Smallholder farmers do more than feed the world—they help heal it. As climate change continues to destabilize agriculture, cooperatives foster climate-smart, regenerative practices that build community resilience.

Their impact directly advances the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work), and SDG 13 (Climate Action).

The global community is beginning to recognize the cooperative potential. The United Nations has designated 2025 as the International Year of Cooperatives under the theme “Cooperatives Build a Better World.”

In response, Heifer in Asia, in collaboration with the International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP), has launched a regional campaign: Seeding Strength: Empowering Farmer Cooperatives.

Spanning Cambodia, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, the campaign showcases cooperatives as drivers of the three P’s – people, profits and planet, with a clarion call to attract resources in strengthening the cooperative model in Asia.

Nevertheless, cooperatives cannot transform food systems alone—they need an enabling ecosystem. Governments must design supportive policies, while financial institutions create inclusive products tailored to smallholders, especially women.

The private sector can modernize supply chains and introduce sustainable technologies, and NGOs play a vital role in building local capacity and visibility. Media, academia, and engaged citizens also have a role in championing cooperatives—not merely as business units, but as transformative forces for rural upliftment.

As we commemorate the International Year of Cooperatives 2025, now is the time to recognize and resource farmer cooperatives as essential players in building a just, food-secure, and climate-resilient future where no one is left behind.

Neena Joshi is the Senior Vice President – Asia Programs at Heifer International. With over 20 years of experience, she leads initiatives to build inclusive, sustainable agrifood systems and empower smallholder farmers, especially women and youth, across Asia.

Balasubramanian (Balu) Iyer is the Regional Director of the Asia-Pacific office of the International Cooperative Alliance. He has over three decades of experience in international development, with a focus on cooperative development and regional operations across Asia.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: UNICEF/Michele Sibilon

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury
NEW YORK, Aug 21 2025 (IPS)

After taking oath of office in December 2016 as Secretary-General, Mr. Antonio Guterres described the eradication of sexual offenses by UN peacekeeping and all other UN personnel as the first item on his reform agenda.

During his first year in office in 2017, he convened a high-level meeting on combatting sexual exploitation and abuse and established a task force to address sexual harassment within the UN system.

But the saga of inaction continues and the situation on the SEA, as the phenomenon of the Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) is acronymized by the UN to avoid saying clearly what it stands for, remains totally appalling and unacceptable, eroding the credibility of the world’s most universal global body.

The UN’s so-called new approach to sexual offenses by UN personnel has proven to be little more than a public relations campaign marked by cosmetic adjustments that fail to address the systemic flaws that sustain a culture of impunity.

Helplessness of the UN is pitifully described in its latest report covering the year 2024 when it says that “Since 2017, we have continued to devote considerable attention and effort to improving the way to addresses the issue … However, challenges persist, and we remain committed to addressing these.” Nearly a decade has gone by and still there is no perceptible result in putting its own house in order by punishing the perpetrators and compensating the victims.

The latest UN report helplessly admits that “Since 2017, there has been an increase in the number of incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse reported …” It continues to share the bad news informing that “In 2024 alone, 675 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse were reported in connection with United Nations staff and related personnel (292) and implementing partners (383), with 27 per cent of those allegations involving child victims.”

It is shocking that more than one-fourth of the victims are children. What kind of child-abuser staff the UN authorities are recruiting, supervising and monitoring?

The UN report says, “Since 2017, senior United Nations officials have reported on their personal responsibility to address sexual exploitation and abuse through annual attestations in their compacts or management letters.”

And, unfortunately, the same report shockingly admits that “However, alarmingly, in 2024, the survey on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse revealed a significant rise in distrust towards leadership, with 6 per cent respondents in the United Nations system (approximately 3,700 individuals) expressing a lack of confidence in the ability of leaders to address sexual exploitation and abuse, doubling from 3 per cent in 2023.”

It is so hugely embarrassing for the leadership of the UN!

Its much-touted zero-tolerance and no-impunity policies have not improved the situation, according to longtime UN watchers. Zero-tolerance has become synonymous with zero-effectiveness. Zero-tolerance policy is applied by the UN system entities as if they are using a zebra-crossing on a street which does not have any traffic lights.

The labyrinthine rules, regulations, procedures, channels of communication of the UN make the mockery of the due-process and timely justice. These have been taken advantage of by the perpetrators time and again.

Unjust UN policies and practices have, over decades, resulted in a culture of impunity for sexual “misconduct” ranging from breaches of UN rules to grave crimes. As most of the SEA incidents happen at the field levels, nationalities and personal equations play a big role in delaying or denying justice.

The UN takes credit by underscoring that “Our approach, which prioritizes the rights and dignity of victims, remains a key objective of the Secretary General’s strategy. Efforts are ongoing to ensure victims have a voice and better access to assistance and support.” How about victims’ access to justice and due process?

The victim-centred approach of the UN in handling SEA cases has been manipulated by the perpetrators and their organizational colleagues to detract attention from their seriousness. Not only should the victims get the utmost attention, so should the abusers because upholding of the justice is also UN’s responsibility.

Also, UN watchers become curious whenever media publish such SEA related reports, the UN authorities invariably mentions the concerned staff is on leave or administrative leave. When these cases are in the public domain, the abusers are merrily enjoying the leave with full pay, even during the world body’s on-going dire liquidity crisis.

It is also known that during the leave the abusers have tried to settle the matter with the victims or their families with lucrative temptations. The leave has also been used to wipe off the evidence of the crime. These have happened in several cases with the full knowledge of the supervisors.

What a travesty of the victim-centred approach!

The head of the UN peace operations where the SEA cases take place should be asked by the Secretary-General to explain the occurrence as a part of his or her direct responsibility. Unless such drastic measures are taken the SEA will continue in the UN system.

Another unexpectable dimension of the victim-centred approach is that the abuser-peacekeepers are sent back home for dispensation of justice as per the agreement between the troops contributing countries (TCC) and the UN. Sending the perpetrators home for action by national authorities is one of the biggest reasons for the continuation of SEA in the peace operations.

The victim is not present in that kind of varied national military justice situation, and no evidence are available except UN-cleared reports to show or suppress the extent of abuse.

Again, a travesty of justice supported by the upholder of the global rule of law!

The UN Secretary-General would be well advised to propose to the Security Council a change in the clause of the agreement that UN signs with the TCCs which incorporates for repatriation of abuser-peacekeepers to their home countries. If a TCC refuse to do so, the agreement will not be signed.

A functional, quick-justice global tribunal should be set up with the mandate to try the peacekeepers as decided by the UN. If the International Criminal Court (ICC) can try heads of state or government for crimes against humanity, why can’t the UN peacekeepers be tried for SEA?

That would be a true victim-centred approach!

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury is former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations; Initiator of the UNSCR 1325 as the President of the UN Security Council in March 2000; Chairman of the UN General Assembly’s Main Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Matters and Founder of the Global Movement for The Culture of Peace (GMCoP)

IPS UN Bureau

 

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On August 7, a tar-like slurry glistened on the roads leading up to the gate of the Palais Des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. For fear of sticky substances sticking to tires, no vehicles were allowed to go inside for a while, forcing officials arriving from different parts of the world to disembark and walk through […]

This is the 10th anniversary of the prize set up in honour of the Ghanaian journalist who died at the age of 41.

John Hume was allegedly part of an international rhino horn trafficking syndicate, prosecutors say.

Two teens, aged 16 and 18, have been arrested over the attack as police search for a third suspect.

Zimbabwe experienced a drought in 2019 and livestock farmers were hit hard. Cattle crossing a dry river in Nkayi District, Nov. 2019. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Aug 20 2025 (IPS)

My family lost six herds of cattle during the devastating El Niño-driven drought that swept Zimbabwe in 2024. The loss was as emotional as it was financial. Guilt gnawed at me.

Drought was nothing new—the past three years had made it painfully clear that I needed to supplement the cows’ feed and ferry water from kilometers away just to keep them alive. But I was fighting a losing battle, desperately trying to sustain emaciated, skeletal animals. Eventually, I had to accept the inevitable: climate change had killed our cattle, and I had been complicit in their suffering.

Have I moved on? Not really. At first, I told myself my distress was an overreaction. After all, countless farmers lost hundreds of livestock and watched their crops wither to nothing. They had suffered more and lost more than I was crying over. Stress, I reasoned, was simply part of the job.

Journalists report on climate change without being personally affected—or so I thought. I was wrong.

Climate change doesn’t just destroy landscapes and livelihoods; it takes a psychological toll on journalists who highlight its horrors.

A groundbreaking study by Dr. Antony Feinstein, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, reveals a hidden crisis: journalists covering the climate crisis are suffering profound emotional and mental health consequences. The research presented during a discussion organized by the Oxford Climate Journalists Network (OCJN) surveyed 268 journalists across 90 countries, spanning Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

The findings are staggering and spoke to me. Forty percent of journalists reported experiencing depression, while one in five exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), often linked to the “moral injury” of bearing witness to environmental destruction. More than half (55 percent) of the journalists said they lacked access to psychological support, and 16 percent had taken time off work for mental health reasons as a result of covering climate change stories.

The numbers grow even grimmer: nearly half of the journalists surveyed reported moderate to severe anxiety (48%) and depression (42%). Around 22% showed prominent PTSD symptoms. Worse still, 30% had been directly impacted by climate change—losing family, friends, or homes to the crisis. I counted myself in that statistic. I may not have lost a family member, a friend or a home but if cattle count as part of my life, I was affected.

As a journalist reporting on climate change in Zimbabwe—one of the world’s most vulnerable nations—these findings hit close to home. They exposed a fragility I had long dismissed as just part of the job.

Journalists need psychological support. Stigma about mental health runs deep and how do I tell friends and family that I am not okay reporting a story on the impacts of droughts, worse that I have witnessed the loss of six cattle because I could not save them when the drought decimated pastures and dried water supplies? So what? negative events are normal and feeling bad is, I guess, normal too? I have had a lingering question. Surely I can be unsettled by the deaths of cattle and listening to the desperate narratives of farmers about how climate change has upended their lives?

I was depressed, sad, and guilty. I could not do anything to stop cattle dying nor could I pacify farmers in pain. The trauma in covering catastrophe after catastrophe is numbing. Journalists who report on climate change are witnessing a global crisis of our time, and they need support to deliver the news without sacrificing their mental health.

Witnessing tragic events carries a heavy burden for journalists who report on them. I recall covering a story about the impact of drought on livestock farmers in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe’s northern province, where farmers were sharing their staple maize with their cows to keep them alive. Many lost more, some three, five and six cattle between them, but they did give up, though despair was scrawled on their faces. I was shocked and numbed by listening to their sad narrations, but I had to get the story out. I felt hopeless.

Getting a “good” story out of bad experiences means I have to make a tough choice of putting my feelings aside and getting the job done. I have not acknowledged the mental load of witnessing the trauma of covering disasters, yet journalists are supposedly resilient to disturbing news and they soldier on. But no. I have experienced depression at the thought of how people bounce back from personal loss when climate change hits. It is a horror movie that continuously plays in my mind as I go about reporting.

Journalists would benefit from a comprehensive support programme to help them step away from the pressure of being witnesses to catastrophic events. The trauma is beyond comprehension; there is no justification to suffer in silence, especially when mental stress is not talked about in public but endured in private. As a journalist, I have been a victim.

How do I separate myself, my mind and my emotions from the sad stories I cover? I do not have an answer. I am convinced that journalists should tell climate change stories but not be forced to live the reality, although that is almost impossible. Many like me are living the stories they tell with deep scars of mental fatigue and regret.

I believe that newsrooms can offer support in terms of preparing journalists to have the mental agility to report on crises without taking strain from reporting them. Moreover, the impacts of climate change, which is a defining story of the century, affect everyone. Those who say so are at the forefront of agitation, anguish, and hopelessness.

The climate crisis is breaking more than just ecosystems—it’s breaking the journalists who tell its story.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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IPS UN Bureau Report

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Rescuers carry children away from their flood-devastated village in the Buner region in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. The region Credit: Al Khidmat Foundation

By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Aug 20 2025 (IPS)

Intense rainfall over small areas in Pakistan’s mountainous regions caused massive destruction, sweeping away entire villages.

On August 15, the district of Buner in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province experienced a weather anomaly in which glacier melt and intense monsoon rains caused floods that buried villages under mud and rock.

“I’ll never forget what we saw as we crested the last hill—no life, no homes, no trees—just grey sludge and massive boulders,” recalled Amjad Ali, a 31-year-old rescuer from Al-Khidmat Foundation, the charitable arm of the Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami, and the first to reach the village of Bishonai, 90 percent of which had been washed away.

It took Ali and his team of 15 volunteers, including two paramedics, four hours to reach the once-forested village—now buried under mud and rock.

Since June, northern valleys across Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir, and KP have faced repeated climate disasters. Between June 26 and August 19, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) reported over 695 deaths—53 percent from flash floods, 31 percent from house collapses, and nearly 8 percent from drowning.

Villagers, including women and children, led to safety. Credit: Al Khidmat Foundation

More Extreme Weather is Expected

“The weather is on a rampage—it’s not going to improve,” warned Sahibzad Khan, Director General of the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

He explained that delayed and reduced snowfall until March left little time for accumulation of snow.

“Temperatures rose steadily from April, with northern regions seeing a 7°–9°C spike in August,” he said.

Khan cautioned against labeling the recent events as “cloudbursts,” noting that these typically involve over 100 mm of rain in an hour. For him, what stood out in Buner was the unusual collapse of massive boulders—a sign of glacial disintegration.

“This was inevitable,” said Khan. “Rising temperatures are wreaking havoc on glaciers. Huge boulders falling from the mountains suggest ancient glaciers are breaking apart.”

He warned that warming of the Third Pole (mountainous region located in the west and south of the Tibetan Plateau) could lead to loss of the ice towers—the lifeline of the Indus Basin.

As scientists warned of long-term consequences, communities on the ground are grappling with the immediate aftermath.

Rescue workers pray during evacuation and rescue operations in the district of Buner, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Pakistan. Al Khidmat Foundation

 

Rescue trucks line up to enter the district of Buner, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Pakistan devastated by floods. Al Khidmat Foundation

Rescuer’s Tale

“People were in a state of shock but from what little we learned, it had been raining gently all through Thursday night (Aug 14). Then around 8:30 am on Friday (Aug 15), a ferocious torrent swept through, destroying everything in its path,” said rescuer Ali, speaking from Sawari Bazar, 30-minutes from Bishonai village.

Every survivor shared the same story—it struck suddenly, leaving no time to save anyone.

“I pulled a man from the sludge with a broken leg and one eye missing,” said Ali. “He was the sole survivor of 14 family members. Their three storey home was gone.”

He adds, “Everyone who survived had a dozen or so family members missing that day.”

Though he had led rescue teams for five years, Ali said he had never witnessed such horror. It wasn’t the eight-hour trek to and from Bishonai that drained them, but the emotional toll of retrieving bodies and injured survivors buried in the sludge.

With help from over 100 volunteers, they were able to bury over 200 men, women and children – some headless, others with limbs missing. Over 470 missing villagers were presumed dead. They returned home at 2 am, but the work was far from over.

The official death toll across Pakistan stands at 695: 425 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 164 in Punjab, 32 in G-B, 29 in Sindh, 22 in Balochistan, 15 in Kashmir and 8 in Islamabad—and the number continues to rise.

Nearly 958 injuries have been recorded until Aug 19 by the NDMA with 582 in Punjab, 267 in KP, 40 in Sindh, 37 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 24 in Kashmir, 5 in Balochistan and 3 in Islamabad.

Official figures report 17,917 people rescued—over 14,000 from KP alone.

The floods damaged 451 km of roads, 152 bridges, and 2,707 homes—833 completely destroyed—mostly in KP and G-B. Floods also claimed 1,023 livestock, with KP the worst hit.

The KP government has released PKR 800 million in relief funds for the affected districts and an additional PKR 500 million for Buner, the worst-hit area.

Gilgit-Baltistan in Ruins

Gilgit-Baltistan, like KP, is reeling from similar climate disaster of flash floods

“Not a single part of G-B has been spared,” said Khadim Hussain, head of the region’s Environmental Protection Agency. He reported widespread destruction of farmland, homes, hotels, restaurants, and entire riverbank hamlets. Several villages remain cut off due to collapsed bridges and face critical drinking water shortages.

The situation turns critical when the Karakoram Highway—G-B’s link to the rest of the country—is blocked. “It’s been flooded multiple times in just 10 days,” he said. Glacier collapse and district-wide floods submerged sections, stranding travelers for up to 12 hours.

Essential services have also collapsed. Gilgit, the region’s capital, has had no electricity for three days. “The main hydropower station is severely damaged; smaller micro-hydro units were washed away,” added Hussain. Communication networks are also down.

Rescue workers in a house wrecked by floods in the district of Buner, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Pakistan. The water rages below them. Credit: Al Khidmat Foundation

Cloudburst Crises

Hamid Mir, coordinator with WWF Pakistan, who has been studying weather patterns for over a decade, explained that warmer air holds more moisture.

“With every 1°C rise in temperature, air holds 7 percent more water vapor, increasing rainfall intensity.”

Rapid glacier melt adds humidity to local microclimates, feeding convective clouds, which are responsible for short, intense rainfall events, including cloudbursts, he said.

“What we are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg!” warned Mir, explaining that G-B’s steep terrain accelerates condensation and torrential downpours

A weather map for August 15 shows the cloud cover. Credit: National Emergency Operation Centre

Pakistan’s Climate Wake-Up Call

Mir also pointed to deforestation as a major factor. Native pine and oak trees at high altitudes have been replaced with moisture-releasing broadleaf species, altering weather patterns. Northern Pakistan holds 45 percent of the country’s forests and 60 percent of its coniferous cover, but deforestation has reduced natural carbon and moisture sinks.

“If we can put an end to the timber mafia stripping our mountain slopes, there’s still hope,” said PMD’s Khan.

Babajan, president of the Awami Workers Party’s G-B chapter, said illegal timber trade continued with “tacit support from government and security agencies.” He urged regional climate action: promoting electric vehicles, reducing fossil fuel use, and rethinking environmentally harmful construction practices.

He also blamed excessive mining and mountain blasting for resource depletion. “These are finite resources—we must take only what we truly need.”

Mir supported Babajan’s concerns, citing Buner’s transformation: once known for its stream fish, it now lacks clean drinking water due to marble industry expansion. “It’s a stark example of how ruthless development and unchecked industrialization can destroy once-pristine landscapes,” he said.

Absence of Local Leadership

Dr. Ghulam Rasul, former Director General of the PMD, emphasized the urgent need for improved early warning systems, stronger district-level disaster management, and greater community awareness around climate disasters, drawing on not just regional but global best practices.

“We urgently need an elected and functioning local government in place, which was dismantled two decades ago,” said 60-year-old Safiullah Baig, a member of the Progressive Gilgit Baltistan, a popular progressive social media page on G-B, which raises common people’s issues, human rights violations, and gender discrimination, as well as matters related to colonial governance, climate change and land capture.

“The bureaucrats ruling us are not from here, don’t understand our geography or culture, and have no empathy,” he said.

“As always, the floods will once again give them a perfect opportunity to profit—appealing for funds locally and internationally by showcasing our suffering,” he said. “The aid rarely reaches those who need it the most.”

With events such as cloudbursts and their increased intensities, Sobia Kapadia, a climate resilience expert, said it was unfair to put the blame on climate alone.

“From siloed development strategies to weak management, lapses in governance, myopic vision, and persistent corruption are intensifying the fragility,” she said, speaking to IPS over the phone from London.

Kapadia, who has worked extensively in Pakistan post-2010 ‘super’ floods, said the land-use management plans were ignoring the health of ecosystems, and large-scale infrastructure projects were leaving the most at-risk vulnerable communities dangerously exposed.

These events highlight an urgent opportunity to transform crisis into resilience, she said, giving “us a chance to safeguard our future” against increasingly intense climate shocks.

Endorsing Kapadia, EPA-GB’s Hussain said the toughest yet most crucial decision for the provincial governments is to remove encroachments along the rivers. “Illegally built structures must be dismantled to allow floodwaters a natural path and protect lives and property,” he said, stressing the need for coordinated multi-agency action and, above all, a strong political will.

“The solution goes beyond technical fixes; Pakistan needs deep systemic change and transformative adaptation to effectively confront these growing climate crises and termed it a whole-of-society approach integrating policy reforms, cross-sectoral collaboration and locally led adaptation, rooted in the context of indigenous knowledge,” agreed Kapdia.

Babajan agreed the crisis is man-made and fixable. “We must focus on prevention—finding local solutions before the damage occurs. We must draw on the wisdom and technologies of our elders to build resilience.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The Trusteeship Council Chamber at UN Headquarters. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

By Ingeborg Breines
OSLO, Norway, Aug 20 2025 (IPS)

Many feel desperation and anger that the genocide of the Palestinians is not being stopped. How can the US, Germany and others continue to pour funds and weapons into Israel despite decisions in the UN’s highest bodies indicating complicity in accordance with the Convention against Genocide?

How can countries maintain trade agreements with Israel and allow big funds to continue investing in a country that violates all international law and normal decency? How can the countries of the world accept giving the great powers, in this case the US, so much power also in the UN that UN decisions are blocked by veto?

Could the solution be to revitalize the UN Trusteeship Council, with a mandate to help former colonies or trust territories achieve independence and thereby also contribute to peace and security?

The Trusteeship Council is one of the central organs of the UN, with a mandate and representation enshrined in Chapter 13 of the UN Charter. The Council has been inactive since 1994 when the last trust territory, Palau, became a member of the UN.

The Council has accumulated many years of experience in helping colonies/trustees to function independently after that the colonial powers have had to let go of them. The Council can and should use expertise and experience from the rest of UN system in its work, not least from the specialized agencies. In this case, it will also be necessary to involve a larger contingent of the UN peacekeeping forces.

The situation in Palestine is different from that in the old colonies, but not so different. When the UN in 1947, after strong pressure from England and under doubt, decided to divide Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state (resolution 181), the Trusteeship Council was given responsibility for dealing with the difficult questions surrounding Jerusalem, which was seen as a corpus separatum.

The Trusteeship Council was to ensure that the situation was reassessed after a 10-year trial period and the people were to be allowed to express their views via referendum.

The current and intolerable situation in the area, the many wars that followed the decision in the UN, the brutal displacement of Palestinians and the violations of a number of agreements have fully demonstrated that the partition of the old Palestine was an untenable decision.

The so-called two-state solution is also no longer a possible solution to the problem, given the overall situation on the ground. Could the Trusteeship Council be The Body, that last hope to help end the atrocities and the genocide and also contribute to creating peace and security in the area?

The most effective would be to establish a UN protectorate for the entire area, with both Israel and Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, for example for a 10-year period. If the experiences after the trial period will result in a new Palestine with equal democratic rights for Jews, Muslims, Christians and others, only time will tell.

Israel will of course protest being placed under UN control and will be supported by the USA and probably some US allies. However, the decision to establish a protectorate/trusteeship area does not necessarily have to be taken by the Security Council where a US veto must be expected, but by the General Assembly.

People around the world cannot bear to see more suffering and destruction in Gaza and the West Bank. To get out of this terrible situation and avoid someone choosing to use military force to stop the madness, it is worth trying such a drastic diplomatic solution as soon as possible.

The UN is the only body that can end this situation. The intelligent and far-sighted people who established the UN Charter 80 years ago have given us the tools we need. It is up to the international community to use them.

Ingeborg Breines is a former director UNESCO, and a former president of the International Peace Bureau.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The minister faces calls to resign and an investigation after previously using offensive language.

Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa during an interview with IPS in Bilbao (Spain). Recently returned from Gaza, this Basque aid worker has spent three decades in the field of humanitarian work. Credit: Andoni Lubaki/IPS

By Karlos Zurutuza
BILBAO, Spain, Aug 19 2025 (IPS)

It’s 8am when Nasser Hospital in Gaza opens its doors. Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, Doctors Without Borders’ emergency coordinator in the besieged territory, has already been at work for more than three hours.

“The first thing is to check online where the explosions or gunfire I heard overnight actually took place. That’s when we start organising the day,” says the 61-year-old MSF staffer, during an interview with IPS in Bilbao —400 kilometres north of Madrid. He has just returned home after two months in Gaza.

“By half past eight, the hospital has already reached its daily capacity. Children, women, the wounded… many are left outside because the system is overwhelmed. It’s incredibly hard to manage,” Zabalgogeazkoa explains.

That has been the reality since October 2023, when Israel launched its military offensive on the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave bordering Egypt but cut off from the West Bank, where most Palestinians live.

 

Gazans living in tents set up on the beach fetch water in jerrycans. Access to even the most basic supplies has become a daily ordeal during the war. Credit: MSF

 

According to Gaza’s health ministry, the campaign has so far left more than 60,000 dead and 145,000 injured. The vast majority are civilians, including thousands of women and children.

Israel argues its operation is aimed at destroying Hamas’s military capacity — the Palestinian militia and governing authority in Gaza — following the 7 October 2023 attack in which around 1,200 people were killed in Israel and more than 240 taken hostage. Fifty remain in captivity, though only about 20 are thought to be alive.

The UN has warned of an “unprecedented humanitarian crisis,” with more than 90% of the population displaced and swathes of the enclave reduced to rubble. Numerous governments, international organisations and UN human rights experts have called it “genocide.”

“It’s two million people trapped between bombs and hunger, in 365 square kilometres where conditions deteriorate by the day,” says Zabalgogeazkoa.

“Other than the war injuries, the most ordinary things can kill”: if you’re diabetic you’ll lose your foot because there’s no insulin; if you’re malnourished you can’t care for your children… Even being coeliac can kill you.”

 

A healthcare worker tends to a newborn in an incubator. The lack of fuel also affects hospitals, which rely on generators for electricity. Credit: MSF

 

“An orchestrated massacre”

The MSF coordinator notes that only two of the four food distribution points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) — an organisation backed by the US and Israel but heavily criticised — are still operating.

“Other than the war injuries, the most ordinary things can kill”: if you’re diabetic you’ll lose your foot because there’s no insulin; if you’re malnourished you can’t care for your children… Even being coeliac can kill you.”
“People have to cross war zones to get there, and then chaos breaks out. Many are injured in the stampedes of desperation. In the end, it’s thousands fighting for a few sacks of flour,” he recalls.

A Doctors Without Borders investigation published on 7 August, titled This is not aid, this is an orchestrated massacre, described the centres as “death traps”, called for the programme to be scrapped, demanded the reinstatement of the UN-coordinated mechanism, and urged governments and donors to cut support for GHF.

“Distributions start at nine, but two hours earlier you already hear the gunfire. Israel says there’s no other way to control the crowds, but we come across people with bullets in the head or chest,” explains Zabalgogeazkoa.

Since the offensive began, at least eight health facilities in Gaza have been targeted by the Israeli army, most of them bombed from the air.

“At Nasser Hospital they killed patients by firing a missile through a window on two occasions. Soldiers also stormed the building and we had to evacuate. We couldn’t return for weeks. It was one of the hospitals where babies were left in incubators, and nothing more was ever heard of them,” he laments.

Fuel shortages to power hospital generators have forced doctors in Gaza to take extreme measures, such as placing several babies in a single incubator. MSF staff have reported cases of up to six infants in one unit.

Even water supply is a major struggle. Zabalgogeazkoa notes that 70% of the urban network is destroyed, so much of the water never reaches its destination.

Israel maintains that Gaza’s hospitals often conceal military targets, including “Hamas command centres” and “tunnel networks.”

The MSF staffer rejects this outright: “They always use the same narrative, also when they kill journalists living in tents set up inside hospitals. For Israel, everyone is Hamas. Were all the journalists they killed Hamas too?”

 

Gaza residents in a district bombed by the Israeli army. After nearly two years of offensive, the territory has been reduced to rubble. Credit: MSF

 

“Inconvenient witnesses”

The UN reports that at least 242 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the offensive began — the highest number ever recorded in a conflict. The vast majority were Palestinian, as Israel has barred international press access. The few foreign correspondents who entered did so embedded with Israeli troops and were unable to work independently.

Nothing seems to stem the chain of attacks on local journalists, who bear the responsibility of documenting the horror.

On 30 June this year, an Israeli airstrike destroyed the al-Baqa café, killing at least 41 people, among them Palestinian photographer and filmmaker Ismail Abu Hatab. The café had been a popular meeting place for young people, journalists and artists, and one of the few places where residents could access the internet and charge their phones during the war.

On 11 August, four Al Jazeera reporters and a local fixer were killed when a bomb struck al-Shifa Hospital. The head of UNRWA accused Israel of “silencing the voices exposing atrocities in Gaza.”

“They’re killing journalists one by one. Now almost everything is left to 16-year-olds posting videos on social media with their phones,” says Zabalgogeazkoa, describing it as a “systematic elimination of inconvenient witnesses.”

With Hamas’s leadership decimated and no local government to manage resources or administer justice, the Strip is descending into chaos. “Israel is doing everything it can to bring about the complete breakdown of Gazan society,” he warns.

“Besides, medicines, food, fuel… they are manipulated in a cruel game. Just when supplies are about to run out, Israel allows enough for another three or four days. People are so consumed with survival that they cannot think about anything else,” adds the MSF staffer.

He is due to return to Gaza in mid-September, though he fears conditions will have worsened by then.

On 10 August, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the approval of a plan for a full takeover of Gaza as “the fastest way to end the war, eliminate Hamas and free the hostages.”

The announcement drew widespread international condemnation. Few doubt the already dire humanitarian situation will deteriorate even further.

 

Fishermen in the LNG rich Afungi Peninsula in the Palma District of Cabo Delgado Province, northern Mozambique. The area is the site of major LNG projects, including the Mozambique LNG project. Credit: Justica Ambential

By Maina Waruru
NAIROBI, Aug 19 2025 (IPS)

Environmental campaign groups are confident that a suit filed in the United States, seeking to stop the country’s Export-Import Bank (EXIM) from the ‘unlawful’ lending of nearly USD 5 billion to the controversial Mozambique Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project, will succeed.

The groups, including Friends of the Earth U.S. and Justiça Ambiental/Friends of the Earth Mozambique, with representation from EarthRights International, filed a lawsuit and believe the financial transaction in March in a deal with the project owners, TotalEnergies, was rushed through to avoid going through requisite requirements.

It alleges that EXIM rushed through approval without conducting required “environmental reviews, economic assessments, and the required input by the public and US Congress.

“EXIM failed to follow its own Charter and federal law, setting a dangerous precedent for future decisions,” they said in papers filed on 14 July.

They allege that in February, President Donald Trump ‘illegally’ constituted EXIM’s acting Board of Directors without the US Senate’s consent, and weeks later, in March, EXIM’s improperly constituted “acting” board of directors announced final approval of the massive USD 4.7 billion loan.

The bank, they charged, entered the transaction despite the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Mozambique and the fact that the project operator, TotalEnergies, declared force majeure more than four years ago after a violent uprising.

The French oil giant has been unable to resume operations since.

“EXIM’s Board charged ahead with subsidizing the project, without considering the conflict and the harms the project will inflict on the environment and local communities, and despite multiple nations’ open investigations into allegations of serious human rights violations at the project site,” they added.

An EXIM spokesperson would not comment on the ongoing legal proceedings.

“The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is aware of recent reports, letters, and inquiries regarding ongoing legal proceedings. As a matter of longstanding policy, EXIM does not comment on pending litigation,” the spokesperson said in an email. “EXIM remains committed to its mission of supporting American jobs by facilitating the export of U.S. goods and services. The Bank continues to operate in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”

According to Hallie Templeton, Legal Director of Friends of the Earth, EXIM is bound by a number of different federal laws that govern its actions and financing, including the Export-Import Bank Act, which is its charter.

“The US Congress placed a number of important limitations and procedural protections on EXIM’s activities, given the sensitive foreign policy, economic, and human rights issues that lending to foreign corporations for foreign projects can entail,” he explained.

“Among other things, this includes numerous notice and comment procedures, particular economic considerations to ensure EXIM isn’t harming the US economy, limitations on over-subsidization, the requirement that a quorum of Senate-confirmed members of the Board approve major transactions, and consideration of environmental and social impacts,” he told IPS News.

At the direction of Congress, EXIM also has put in place a number of important policies and procedures that govern the projects it finances and the conditions on which it does so. These include compliance with a number of important environmental and social standards and other safeguards.

“The acting board lacked legal authority to approve this loan. EXIM also failed to conduct mandated procedures and analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act and overall acted contrary to multiple provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirements on process and sound decision-making in the federal government,” Templeton explained.

Exim’s Act is clear as to how members of the Board are to be appointed. Those procedures weren’t followed in appointing the acting board, he said, adding that it was not clear whether President Trump’s intention for the appointments was so as to approve the loan.

“We cannot speak to the intent behind the way the President proceeded or the individuals he selected, but it was unlawful to bypass the Senate and appoint ‘acting’ members to the Board,” he noted.

He observed, “Likewise, rushing through the loan without federally mandated notice and comment or complying with the other legal requirements for final approval of a loan of this size was unlawful. EXIM should have taken these steps in any scenario.”

The financier’s “disregard of the law,” he said, is worsened by the ongoing conflict, allegations of grave human rights violations, and the numerous pending investigations, some of which specifically concern forces providing security to the project and the role of the project operator itself.

Friends of the Earth-US has the utmost confidence in the case’s success, especially given that EXIM has “violated multiple federal laws, with the board acting contrary to the ‘plain text’ of its Charter and other federal laws, ‘acting as if they are above the law.’”

“We are confident that they will be held accountable,” he added.

Through the US’s Freedom of Information Acts, it has been revealed that EXIM ignored the risks of Mozambique LNG when they approved the project in 2019/2020, and in 2025, they have not only ignored the risks but have also failed to follow the proper process, Kate DeAngelis, Economic Policy Deputy Director for Friends of the Earth US told IPS News.

Exim bank, she complained, did not want to provide the Congress or the public the time to comment because they know that this is a bad deal for American taxpayers.

“There are legal procedures and processes in place to ensure the U.S. Export-Import Bank does not waste taxpayer dollars on risky projects plagued by violent insurgencies.”

“Yet Exim—like the rest of the Trump administration—believes that it can operate outside the law. We will not stand by while it cuts health care and disaster aid so that it can give handouts to fossil fuel companies,” the official added.

“Exim’s Board’s illegal decision to subsidize this project, without even considering the risks to local people, let alone the serious allegations that project security committed a massacre at the project site, is beyond reckless. EXIM needs to do its job and actually consider the harms this project will inflict on local people,” said Richard Herz of EarthRights International

An Islamist insurgency in the Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique since 2017 has led to thousands of deaths and displacement of the civilian population in one of the bloodiest conflicts in Africa in the recent past.

While the Jihadist violence has diminished after intervention by regional forces, an attack was reported in the Meluco district of the gas region last March, indicating a province that is far from safe.

TotalEnergies suspended operations in the Mozambique LNG project in April 2021 due to the insecurity, leading to the withdrawal of personnel and a halt to construction, a decision directly linked to the escalating attacks by the militants in the province.

Last December, climate and environmental activists from Japan criticized the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) for financing the LNG project to the tune of USD 3 billion in a loan signed in July 2024.

The groups, in a report, revealed that the bank supports the Mozambique LNG project directly with a USD 3 billion loan and through a loan of USD 536 million to Mitsui, a Japanese corporate group that is involved in the development.

“The Mozambique LNG Project is linked to violent conflict, has resulted in social injustices among Mozambican citizens, and is a potential source of massive carbon emissions,” the report noted.

It concluded that if it proceeded, despite becoming the biggest gas project in Africa, it would deliver low revenues to its host country and place the country at risk of liability if it failed.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Nang, 28, a mother of three, is pictured with her son, Tun Lin, at their home in Namsang Township, Shan State. Credit: UNICEF/Nyan Zay Htet

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 19 2025 (IPS)

Myanmar’s security situation has deteriorated significantly, with the nation still reeling from the devastating earthquake in March last year, and continued military offensives driven by the ongoing civil war. In 2025, the humanitarian crisis reached a critical turning point, with the United Nations (UN) underscoring a litany of severe human rights abuses inflicted on civilians by the military and armed groups.

On August 12, the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) released its annual UN-mandated report, stating that it had made significant progress in documenting human rights violations and identifying perpetrators. The report details ongoing atrocities, including the torture of civilians in military-run detention facilities, coordinated aerial strikes on schools, hospitals and homes, and the continued ethnic-cleansing of Rohingya refugees.

“We have uncovered significant evidence, including eyewitness testimony, showing systematic torture in Myanmar detention facilities,” said Nicholas Koumjian, Head of the Mechanism. “We have made headway in identifying the perpetrators, including the commanders who oversee these facilities, and we stand ready to support any jurisdictions willing and able to prosecute these crimes. Our Report highlights a continued increase in the frequency and brutality of atrocities committed in Myanmar.”

The report covers developments in Myanmar from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, drawing on more than 1,300 sources—including 600 eyewitness testimonies, substantial photographic and video evidence, as well as forensic material. Since the 2021 coup, the Myanmar military has detained a large number of civilians, many of whom were arbitrarily arrested on suspicion of opposing the regime, and subjected them to brutal, systematic torture.

According to 2024 figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), since 2021, there have been approximately 6,000 civilian deaths as a result of violence, including nearly 2,000 civilians who died in military custody. Humanitarian experts have expressed alarm over the military’s use of enforced disappearance, arbitrary arrests, and physical torture to silence opposition.

“Thousands of Myanmar detainees are suffering in silence in interrogation facilities and prisons across the country, where health care, access to legal services, and food are inadequate,” said Joe Freeman, a Myanmar researcher at Amnesty International. “Torture and other ill-treatment in Myanmar detention facilities is common, but few people have a way to lodge complaints or stop the abuse without risking serious retribution, from beatings to solitary confinement to sexual violence.”
Eyewitnesses have described several of these detainees as children, some as young as two years old, with many acting as “proxies” for their parents. Detainees have experienced varying forms of physical torture, such as beatings, electric shocks, strangulations, killings, and even the removal of fingernails with pliers, particularly during the interrogation process.

Numerous detainees have also endured sexual and gender-based violence, including rape—both individual and gang assaults—forced insertion of objects into orifices, burning of sexual body parts with cigarettes or heated objects, forced nudity, invasive body searches, sexualized touching, and denial of access to menstrual hygiene and postnatal care products. Eyewitness accounts also describe detainees being targeted with homophobic and misogynistic slurs, as well as threats of physical violence.

In the report, the Mechanism confirmed that the list of perpetrators include many high-level commanders. Myanmar’s military responded to the international criticism by reaffirming its priorities of ensuring peace and stability while blaming “terrorists” for the recent hostilities.

Additionally, the Mechanism underscores a significant rise in hostilities in the Rakhine State as a result of clashes between the military and the Arakan army ethnic armed group. According to the report, the Mechanism has found evidence linking Arakan army members to a host of human rights abuses targeting the Rakhine, Rohingya, and other civilian communities, including summary executions, beheadings, and torture.

The Mechanism has also linked the military and its affiliated groups to indiscriminate killings of civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. They have also documented incidents of indiscriminate aerial bombardments and shellings in Arakan-controlled areas in Southern and Northern Rakhine. Furthermore, the report states that the military has blocked critical entry points in Sittwe, severely restricting civilian movement and the flow of humanitarian aid and other essential supplies.

During the reporting period, the Mechanism also conducted a thorough investigation of crimes associated with the 2016 and 2017 clearance operations that resulted in the destruction of several Rohingya villages, the displacement of thousands of Rohingya civilians into Bangladesh, and widespread insecurity and gender-based violence in Rakhine State. According to the figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), recent hostilities have displaced over 150,000 Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh in 2025.

The Mechanism focused on interviewing members of the Rohingya population in displacement shelters and the most violence-affected villages, aiming to “canvass the entirety of a survivor’s experience” and gain more direct, witness-based evidence that links specific individuals to the crimes. Currently, the Mechanism is collaborating with civil society groups, non-governmental organizations, media outlets, and governments to identify perpetrators and end impunity for human rights violations. In an effort to promote ethical investigations, the Mechanism is only providing evidence to local authorities with informed consent from affected communities.

Investigators have warned of continued access challenges due to insecurity, as well as recent UN budget cuts threaten to undermine fact-finding operations. This year’s reduction of UN aid has slashed the Mechanism’s 2025 budget to 73 percent, requiring a 20 percent reduction of regular-budget staff in 2026 in order to continue operations. Koumjian states that funding for witness security and research on sexual violence and crimes against children is projected to run out by the end of the year.

“It’s very important that perpetrators believe that somebody is watching, somebody is collecting evidence,” said Koumjian. “All of this would have a very substantial effect on our ability to continue to document the crimes and provide evidence that will be useful to jurisdictions prosecuting these cases.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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