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Le drame a eu lieu ce samedi aux environs de 18 heures, dans le traditionnel village Lébou du Sénégal, Yeumbeul. Mais que s’est-il donc passé ? D’après le journal Les Echos, Daga G., âgé de 50 ans et Songué Nd, 30 ans, se seraient retrouvés face à face dans une ruelle trop étroite pour pouvoir faire […]

L’article Sénégal : un charretier en tue un autre pour une histoire de priorité ! est apparu en premier sur Afrik.com.

By External Source
Jun 22 2020 (IPS-Partners)

For generations, elephants have been inextricably tied to the lands of Mondulkiri in Cambodia.

The people who call this place their home — the indigenous Bunong community — share a unique bond with the gentle giants of the land.

It is a relationship that has been tried and tested over the years and pressure to make ends meet has pushed some villagers to rent out elephants at high prices to companies with a record of mistreating animals.

Some villagers have even sold the elephants to companies. There is also a taboo about elephants giving birth within the community.

However, there are sanctuaries such as Mr Tree’s that attempt to breed, rescue and care for elephants which were either kept in captivity or were sold off.

To know more about the elephants of Mondulkiri and their stories, watch the video.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post A look into the lives of Cambodia’s gentle giants appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Am Samstag erstach Bamir T. (56) mutmasslich seine Schwiegertochter Adelina T. in Pratteln BL. Der Ehemann des Opfers versucht die Tat seiner Vaters zu verstehen – und nimmt ihn teilweise in Schutz.

SDGs SDGs:  16 - Peace, justice and strong institutions

VIENNA, 22 June 2020 – The Chair of the OSCE Permanent Council, Ambassador Igli Hasani, and OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger expressed their deep concern about a recent serious incident involving threats to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) personnel and assets.

On 22 June, the SMM camera in government-controlled Shyrokyne was damaged. The SMM is currently following up on the incident to gather further details. Hasani and Greminger urged the sides to ensure the security of SMM equipment as well as its staff, so the SMM can continue to operate according to its mandate.

“There is no excuse for the deliberate destruction of OSCE equipment. This provides an essential tool for monitoring the implementation of commitments by the sides,” said Ambassador Hasani. “This is not an isolated incident. We have seen a range of incidents involving threats to the SMM’s staff, as well as the regular obstruction of its work and freedom of movement. This must stop.”

Secretary General Greminger said that this is another example of the disregard for the security of staff and equipment of the SMM. “We have seen too many cases where SMM patrols were exposed to shots and explosions, often breaching specific security commitments. More than ever, it is essential to ensure safe and unimpeded access for the Mission throughout Ukraine and respect for the equipment it needs to do its work.”

The incident follows the apparently deliberate targeting, at a relatively close range, of a camera located in non-government-controlled Petrivske on 2 June 2020.

SMM patrols have been exposed to explosions and shooting in their near vicinity on frequent occasions. SMM UAVs have also been regularly jammed and shot at and, on occasion, lost on both sides of the contact line.

Photo: AFP

By Nilima Jahan
Jun 22 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The life of sex workers on the streets, hard as it is during normal times, has taken a worse turn after the coronavirus pandemic hit the country.

Many floating sex workers have been pushed into begging, as their regular means of income has almost disappeared.

They are also facing assault and harassment at the hands of local goons, law enforcers and other people, living on the streets.

Mukta, 40, a floating sex worker, shared how she was attacked and wounded while looking for clients near Golap Shah Mazar at Gulistan in the first week of April.

She said three young men availed her service and were about to leave without payment. When she asked for money, they berated her for sex work amidst the shutdown and then beat her mercilessly. One of them hit Mukta on her nose with a shard of blade.

“The wound required six stitches and I think the scar will never heal,” said Mukta, who now begs on the streets.

At least five other sex workers shared similar experiences with this correspondent.

They said they are compelled to come out on the street risking coronavirus infection as many of them have children to feed and families to support.

Mukta said for the last three months she could not pay the monthly fee of Tk 2,000 for her two kids, who live at a private shelter for sex worker’s children.

“The shelter in-charge has been calling and yelling at me for the money. How can I make her understand that I’m in such a condition that I am having to skip most of my meals?”

Aleya Begum Lily, general secretary of Sex Workers’ Network (SWN), a platform for 29 sex workers’ organisations, said, most of the around 1,02,000 sex workers including the 5,000 registered in the 10 brothels of the country are jobless now.

In the capital, there are almost 20,000 sex workers, of whom 8,000 sell sex on the streets, hotels and rented apartments, she added.

Those who lived in hotels or failed to pay house rent are now living on the streets, in the parks, mausoleums, railway stations or under the bridges, Aleya said.

A large number of sex workers, who work under brokers, have also been suffering due to a sharp decline in their clientele.

Nazma, who lived and worked along with five other girls at the capital’s Rayer Bazar area, was facing routine abuse at the hands of their drug addict broker.

“It was his responsibility to manage clients for us. Yet, he would hit me on my head as I couldn’t give him money [due to decline in business],” said Nazma.

“I escaped in April after a physical assault. Currently, I am begging and sleeping at the Gulistan Golap Shah Mazar,” she mentioned.

Drop-in-centres (DICs) for sex workers are also becoming difficult to run because of the pandemic, informed officials of Light House, an NGO funded by the international development agency Save the Children.

Across the country, Light House has 27 DICs, where sex workers usually stay from 9am to 5pm.

Md Zalkad Ali, coordinator of the NGO’s Chankharpul DIC, said, “It has been difficult to continue our work because of constant pressure to shift the office. Many [landlords and neighbourhood people] treat them [sex workers] as suspected Covid-19 positive cases since they have roam the streets and mingle with unknown men.”

“My landlord sent us a notice to vacate the flat immediately, and restricted the access of the sex workers. We disinfect the stairs, maintain social distance and hygiene, yet they have been harassing us in different ways,” he added.

Another DIC coordinator Rina in Gopibagh also mentioned getting an eviction notice during the shutdown.

They, however, managed the landlord by limiting the number of sex workers who can enter and use the facility at a time, she said.

Beforehand, 15-20 sex workers used the DIC per day, but now a maximum of ten people are allowed, she added.

Nazma said she and others like her now use the DICs only to take showers.

Though the registered sex workers living in the brothels received some aid from the government, the floating ones didn’t receive any, said Aleya Begum.

Of the 29 organisations under the Sex Workers’ Network, 19 were provided Tk 3,50,000 during April-May for distribution of food and other essentials among their members, Aleya informed.

“Few may have received some relief as a distressed woman but not as a sex worker,” she added.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

 

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The post Broke and broken, sex workers ending up homeless appeared first on Inter Press Service.

SDGs SDGs:  16 - Peace, justice and strong institutions

At 08:10 on 22 June, the SMM lost the video feed from its daylight camera located 1km south-west of Shyrokyne (government-controlled, 100km south of Donetsk). The camera is generally directed northwards along the contact line.

At 08:15, a Ukrainian Armed Forces officer of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) told the Mission that the camera had sustained damage.

Between 10:20 and 11:42, during multiple flights, an SMM unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) spotted that the camera was lying on the ground within the camera site perimeter (near its south-eastern corner) and that the upper part of the camera mast was lying outside the site (along its western edge) with an antenna still attached to it. The UAV also spotted that a power cable and a data transmission cable were hanging alongside the portion of the mast which remained standing.

The SMM will continue to follow up on this incident.

COMMUNIQUE FINAL DE L'ATELIER DE BOHICON

Le Bloc Républicain a organisé ce dimanche 21 juin 2020 à l'hôtel Miracle de Bohicon un atelier d'immersion à l'intention des élus Républicains. Ce rendez-vous politique majeur s'inscrit dans l'agenda du Bloc Républicain qui a prévu une série d'activités post-électorales.
Aussi, la mise en route de la 4ème mandature de la décentralisation, donne-t-elle l'opportunité au BR de fournir à ses élus communaux des outils politiques et techniques qui les préparent à une gouvernance moderne des communes à leur charge. Ainsi, la rencontre de Bohicon a permis de donner des orientations politiques et des éléments qui préparent les membres des exécutifs communaux du BR à assumer avec responsabilité leur mission.
Les différentes communications présentées ont rappelé :
les exigences politiques pour l'élu Républicain de respecter les 10 engagements du Bloc Républicain défendus pendant la campagne,
le cadre juridique de la décentralisation au Bénin,
les missions et rôles des maires,
la nécessité de se donner les moyens et outils pour accroître et diversifier les ressources locales en vue de faire de nos communes des espaces attractifs et viables.
Enfin, les élus BR ont pris devant le bureau politique, l'engagement solennel, de respecter les grandes orientations politiques du Bloc Républicain afin de faire des communes sous leur gouvernance, des modèles.
Le Bloc Républicain réaffirme son attachement aux idéaux de la décentralisation, de la gouvernance locale moderne, gage du développement de notre pays.

Abdoulaye BIO TCHANÉ
Le Secrétaire Général National

Les pluies qui s'abattent sur les villes du Bénin rendent la vie dure aux populations. Des voies sont impraticables dans plusieurs localités surtout à Abomey-Calavi.

A Togba dans la commune d'Abomey-Calavi, c'est la croix et la bannière pour les motocyclistes, les automobilistes et autres. Les travaux de construction du pont sur le bas-fond de Togba n'étant pas encore toujours achevés, les usagers sont soumis au calvaire en cette saison pluvieuse.
Seuls quelques motocyclistes arrivent à prendre des risques pour traverser la voie inondée. Dans la majorité des cas, beaucoup d'entre eux tombent en panne.
Cette saison de pluie crée beaucoup de désagréments aux populations.

A.A.A

L’Arabie Saoudite a annoncé, ce lundi 22 juin, le maintien du Hajj 2020, prévu en juillet prochain, avec des conditions drastiques. En effet, le ministère saoudien du Hajj a annoncé, dans un communiqué, l’organisation du hajj 2020 avec un nombre très réduit de pèlerins; en raison de la pandémie du coronavirus (Covid-19). « Le hajj est […]

L’article L’Arabie Saoudite décide maintenir le Hajj 2020 avec des conditions drastiques est apparu en premier sur .

By External Source
Jun 22 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Ed Conway and Sajid Javid talk to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund about the global economic outlook, the level of support it’s providing during the pandemic, how globalisation can help ease inequality and how she sees the shape of economic recovery.

Ascolta “MD of the International Monetary Fund – Kristalina Georgieva” su Spreaker.

The post MD of the International Monetary Fund – Kristalina Georgieva appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Lugano-Coach Maurizio Jacobacci (57) findet nach dem 1:1-Remis in Genf viele lobende Worte für Servette. Gerüchten zufolge soll er dort die Nachfolge von Alain Geiger (59) antreten. Was ist dran?

Le président du parti Jil Jadid, Soufiane Djilali a réagi, ce lundi 22 juin, à la condamnation de la militante du Hirak, Amira Bouraoui, à une année de prison ferme. Dans un communiqué rendu public aujourd’hui, Soufiane Djilali a estimé que Amira Bouraoui ne mérite pas cette condamnation. « La sentence prononcée par la justice […]

L’article La réaction de Soufiane Djilali à la condamnation de Amira Bouraoui est apparu en premier sur .

MTI: Az euró jegyzése a kora reggeli 346,06 forintról 347,17-re emelkedett este hét órára, a svájci franké pedig 324,87-ről 325,33 forintra ment fel. A dollár jegyzése ugyanakkor egy kissé csökkent, a kora reggeli 308,93 forintról 308,31 forintra.

TV5 MONDE - Du Mali à Moscou, de New York à Canton, les territoires de vie d'Abderrahmane Sissako ponctuent, comme autant d'espaces...

Les autorités suisses ont contrôlé 589 étals de marché et food trucks en 2019. Lavage des mains insuffisant et allergènes inconnus sont dans le viseur.

By Sonja Davidovic, Delphine Prady and Herve Tourpe
Jun 22 2020 (IPS)

The practical challenge of quickly getting financial support in the hands of people who lost jobs amid the COVID-19 economic crisis has baffled advanced and developing economies alike. Economic lockdowns, physical distancing measures, patchy social protection systems and, especially for low-income countries, the high level of informality, complicate the task. Many governments are leveraging mobile technology to help their citizens.

Togo, a small West African nation of 8 million, was able to quickly distribute emergency financial support to half a million people in less than two weeks using mobile phones. The technology helped deliver benefits to women in particular, and it supported a transparent rollout of the program. Informal workers in Morocco are also receiving government help through their phones quickly and efficiently.

Social assistance and cash transfers

Many emerging and low-income countries are scaling up direct support to households and individuals because they cannot directly protect jobs. Missing data on employment status and blurry lines between corporations and individuals in the informal sector hinder the effectiveness of labor market policies. Therefore, governments bet on cash transfers when trying to boost their social protection systems, while trying to expand their coverage.

In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of measures announced since the beginning of the pandemic are in the form of transfers, and only 4 percent were labor market policies. Globally, 30 percent of all the initiatives taken by countries are cash transfers.

Typically, the delivery of income support targeted to the most vulnerable households relies on a robust national identification (PDF) system linked to socioeconomic information, and requires a variety of approaches in distributing cash to those most in need. Missing any one of these components in their immediate response to the crisis can generate difficult challenges (PDF): for instance, if a government cannot target beneficiaries due to the lack of socioeconomic information, it may have to choose between either spending more to cast a wider safety net or keeping the budget in check and excluding households in need of support.

Effective cash transfer mechanisms

Mobile money is as an effective and physical-distancing-friendly option to deliver cash transfers in large scale, given that ownership and use of mobile phones in emerging and developing economies is very high, and globally, there are 228 mobile money agents (the small retailers where customers can deposit or withdraw cash in and out of mobile accounts, buy phone airtime cards, etc.) per 100,000 adults compared to only 11 banks and 33 ATMs. Mobile money can therefore help rural and remote populations gain access to government transfer programs without traveling long distances or waiting in lines, or even having a bank account—a critical advantage in a world where 1.7 billion still don’t have access to formal financial institutions.

The pandemic has led many countries to strengthen their mobile money ecosystems and address specific constraints. Governments with more developed operations were able to react faster.

Ecuador doubled the number of licensed cash agents in two weeks. Malaysia expanded free mobile internet access. Nigeria partnered with mobile network operators to identify vulnerable informal workers in urban areas through airtime purchase patterns. Saudi Arabia reduced mobile usage fees to encourage mobile payments. Some years ago, Peru fostered the creation of a platform that allows transfers across three leading mobile operators and 32 banks.

Mobile money does have risks and limitations. People in rural and remote areas may lack mobile coverage, easy access to money agents, or simply electricity. Exchanging mobile money for cash can still be expensive. And digital and financial illiteracy are known to hinder adoption of digital mobile services.

In many countries, the pandemic has forced policymakers to react quickly to reduce regulatory weaknesses around mobile money issued by telecom or fintech firms, whose customers are often not protected by regulation in the same way as banks’ clients. It’s important to ensure that the risks of accelerating mobile money, including cyber-risks and digital fraud, don’t outweigh the benefits.

A mobile-money framework

Beyond the crisis horizon, many countries have sought to boost mobile payment platforms to reduce corruption, improve efficiency and budget transparency, and broaden financial inclusion, especially for the informal sector and women.

While scaling mobile cash transfers quickly to help alleviate the impact of the pandemic, governments should take a broad approach that goes beyond the technology and consider the whole ecosystem behind a robust and resilient mobile program.

A holistic approach should be considered by policymakers and the industry to integrate all the “building blocks” of a sustainable mobile-money platform, including stakeholders and design and policy elements that help maximize benefits against risks.

As countries move from crisis mode to a new normal, it’s a good time to also take note of the impediments they encountered in expanding support to people suffering the economic consequences of lockdowns. At the same time, they can build on solutions that worked best to make up for income losses, focusing on sustainable solutions instead of workarounds deployed at the height of an emergency. This should be part of broader government strategies to strengthen social protection systems in the medium term through technology.

 

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The post You’ve Got Money: Mobile Payments Help People During the Pandemic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Le canton du Tessin a porté à douze mois, au lieu des seize semaines, la protection dont bénéficient les femmes après la naissance de leur enfant.

MTI: Mintegy száz nap elteltével először a hétvégén nem történt a koronavírus-járványhoz köthető haláleset Hollandiában – írta hétfőn a helyi sajtó.

Les pluies diluviennes qui s'abattent depuis quelques jours sur le pays créent de nombreuses nuisances aux populations. Dans la commune d'Abomey-Calavi, de nombreuses voies sont impraticables et des habitations inhabitables à cause des inondations. Les populations sinistrées sont contraintes de déménager de leurs maisons avec quelques biens de première nécessité.

En images l'ampleur des inondations à Abomey-Calavi

Le calvaire des usagers de la voie Kpota-Ouèdo-Hèvié (Abomey-Calavi)

L'Université d'Abomey Calavi également sous les eaux

US Open – ja oder nein? Viele Stars brauchen noch Bedenkzeit – auch die Schweizer. Serena Williams sagt zu. Und Novak Djokovic überrascht mit einer Kehrtwende.