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Február végére egy havas bejegyzés kerül, januári fotókkal. A hónap közepén Kecskeméten még bőven volt hó, ilyen körülmények között éppen 12 éve fotózhattam itt.

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[...] Bővebben!

Dans plusieurs marchés modernes de Cotonou, des étals ont été scellés pour non-paiement des redevances. Entre la mévente persistante et l'obligation de s'acquitter des frais dans les délais, de nombreux commerçants disent être à bout de souffle et appellent les autorités à revoir à la baisse les droits d'occupation.

Le constat effectué, lundi 23 février 2026, dans les marchés de Wologuèdè et de Cadjèhoun laisse transparaître une ambiance peu reluisante. Dans ce marché, les alliées sont presque vides de clients. Les vendeuses, assises derrière leurs étals, attendent désespérément des acheteurs. « La vente est très difficile. Les clients viennent au compte-gouttes. On ne vend pas comme il faut », confie l'une d'elles.

Même son de cloche à Cadjèhoun, où une dizaine d'étals de produits divers sont scellés. Des rubans rouges de balisage sont apposés sur certains étals pour non-paiement de redevances. Pour plusieurs commerçants, cette situation aggrave davantage leurs difficultés financières.

Un étal scellé dans le marché moderne de Wologuédé (Cotonou)

Depuis juin 2024, le gouvernement béninois procède à l'ouverture des infrastructures marchandes construites aux normes et standards internationaux. Les occupants y exercent leurs activités économiques dans un cadre plus moderne, sain et sécurisé.

Dans les marchés urbains de Cadjèhoun, Aïdjèdo, Gbégamey, Mènontin, Midombo, Tokplégbé, Wologuèdè, Ganhi et Hlazounto, les occupants d'étals doivent s'acquitter d'une redevance de 600 FCFA par jour, soit 18 000 FCFA par mois. Ce montant couvre également l'eau, l'électricité, la sécurité, le nettoyage et l'assurance.

Après quelques mois de gratuité, le paiement des redevances a démarré en 2025. Face à la baisse des taux de recouvrement, l'Agence nationale de gestion des marchés (ANaGeM) a renforcé les mesures disciplinaires. Par une décision en date du 28 janvier 2026, portant renforcement des mesures disciplinaires, de contrôle et de sécurisation de la collecte des redevances dans les marchés urbains et régionaux, l'ANaGeM a durci les sanctions.

L'article 2 de ladite décision stipule : « Tout étal ou espace marchand scellé pour non-paiement de redevances est strictement interdit d'exploitation, d'occupation ou d'utilisation commerciale directe ou indirecte jusqu'à la régularisation complète de la situation administrative et financière de son titulaire. Toute activité commerciale exercée sur un étal scellé est réputée d'occupation frauduleuse et constitue une infraction grave aux procédures de l'ANaGeM ».

« Si on ne vend pas, comment payer ? »

Sur le terrain, les commerçants disent comprendre la nécessité de payer les redevances, mais dénoncent un manque de flexibilité face à la réalité économique actuelle. « Si on ne vend pas, ce sera difficile pour nous de payer les redevances. C'est 18 000 FCFA et même si tu restes devoir 1 000 FCFA, ta marchandise est scellée », explique une vendeuse sous anonymat.

Un étal scéllé dans le marché moderne de Cadjèhoun (Cotonou)

« Ils avaient déjà scellé mon étal. Après avoir payé, ils ont enlevé le ruban rouge de scellés. Nous sommes même endettés. On ne vend pas. Eux-mêmes peuvent descendre pour voir si nous vendons ou pas », suggère-t-elle. Certains marchands disent espérer une amélioration dans la vente avec l'installation progressive des occupants du grand marché Dantokpa dans les nouveaux marchés.

D'autres évoquent les charges supplémentaires liées au transport. « Je quitte Abomey-Calavi pour Wologuèdè. Tu prends le transport pour venir ici, mais tu ne vas rien vendre. J'ai des produits périssables et si on scelle ma marchandise comment vais-je faire ? », s'interroge B. A, vendeuse de produits divers.

Les doléances des marchands

Face à cette situation, les occupants d'étals formulent plusieurs doléances. Ils demandent principalement une diminution des redevances ou, à défaut, une révision progressive des montants. « Nous proposons qu'ils fixent un prix plus abordable et qu'ils augmentent à la longue », suggère dame Vignon.

Pour eux, le scellement systématique n'est pas la solution. « Si on scelle ton étal, comment peux-tu vendre et trouver de l'argent pour payer ? », déplore-t-elle. En attendant une réaction des autorités, les occupants des étals continuent de lutter, chaque jour, pour concilier survie économique et obligations administratives.

The RSF's capture of the city in October was one of the most brutal chapters of Sudan's nearly three-year civil war.

By UN Women
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26 2026 (IPS)

International Women’s Day 2026 comes at a defining moment: Women and girls have never been closer to equality, and never closer to losing it. Legal protection against domestic violence has expanded in many countries. Yet, the rights of women and girls are being rolled back in plain sight, and across the world, women still do not enjoy the same legal rights as men.

On 4 March, ahead of the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), UN Women will launch a report warning that the systems meant to protect women and girls are failing, leaving millions exposed to discrimination, violence and impunity as backlash against gender equality intensifies and violations of fundamental rights rise worldwide.

From 9–19 March, the world will gather at United Nations Headquarters for CSW70 – the United Nations’ largest annual forum dedicated to gender equality and women’s rights. What happens at CSW influences laws, policies, funding and accountability across countries and generations.

This year’s focus is clear: rights, justice and action for all women and girls.

CSW70 is a defining test: whether the world choses to act together and deliver equality before the law for all women and girls or allow injustice to persist with impunity. UN Women calls on governments, partners, institutions and communities everywhere to stand up, show up and speak up for rights, justice and action – so all women and girls can live safely, speak freely and exist equally.

Meanwhile, four years into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, more than 5,000 women and girls have been killed and 14,000 injured, with 2025 being the deadliest year yet – and the real toll likely far higher.

As the war intensifies and energy attacks cripple daily life, a third crisis is tightening its grip on women and girls: collapsing funding for women-led and women’s rights organizations, the very lifeline keeping women and girls alive, protected and supported.

As humanitarian needs surge, women’s rights and women-led organizations across Ukraine are being driven toward collapse, with deep funding cuts dismantling front-line protection systems and forcing lifesaving services for women and girls to scale back or shut down.

A new UN Women report, The Impact of Foreign Assistance Cuts on Women’s Rights and Women-Led Organizations in Ukraine, documents the scale of the funding crisis and its impact on the lives of women and girls.

One in three women’s rights and women-led organizations surveyed warn they may only survive six months or less with current funding levels. Due to cuts in 2025 and 2026, women-led organizations in Ukraine are projected to lose at least USD 52.9 million by the end of the year.

Women’s rights and women-led organizations surveyed warn they will be forced to stop life-saving services to at least 63,000 women and girls in need in 2026. Those hit first and hardest are those already most at risk: women and girls in front-line and rural areas, older women, women-headed households, and women and girls with disabilities will be cut off from protection, humanitarian aid, and recovery at a time of escalating danger.

As shown in the report developed by the Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) Working Group in Ukraine – co-chaired by UN Women, NGO Girls and CARE Ukraine – the effects of the funding cuts are compounded by a growing nationwide energy crisis and an increase in attacks.

While Ukrainian women’s organizations continue to deliver on their mandates, their operational capacity, access to populations in need, and the well-being of their staff are severely impacted by energy cuts. This is especially urgent today when millions of Ukrainians are deprived of essential services, including electricity, heating and water.

“Women’s organizations in Ukraine are the first to stand with women and girls in crisis – and the force behind sustaining protection, dignity and hope. The current funding cuts are severing their life-saving operations. While UN Women continues to work with and invest in women’s organizations in Ukraine, more sustained funding is needed so that they can keep delivering essential services”.

“This is the only way women and girls can have a full and meaningful role in shaping gender-responsive recovery and building a just and lasting peace,” said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2012 granting Palestine the status of non-member observer State in the United Nations. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26 2026 (IPS)

The 193-member General Assembly, the highest-ranking policy-making body at the United Nations, is most likely to elect Palestine as its next President in an unprecedented move voting for a “non-member observer state”—a state deprived of a country to represent.

The Secretariat has received three nominations for the position of President of the General Assembly beginning mid-September. In accordance with the established regional rotation, the President of the 81st session will be elected from the Asia-Pacific Group.

The election will be held on June 2, with three nominations so far: Md. Touhid Hossain (Bangladesh), Andreas S. Kakouris (Cyprus) and Riyad Mansour (Palestine).

According to geographical rotation, it will be the turn of the Asia-Pacific Group to nominate a candidate– with the final election by the General Assembly.

The current front-runner, according to diplomatic sources, is Palestine. In virtually all UN resolutions relating to Palestine, it has continued to receive an overwhelming majority of votes in the General Assembly.

The political support for Palestine among member states has always remained constantly strong. And the election of Palestine will also defy a hostile White House.

In November 2012, the General Assembly voted to upgrade Palestine to a “non-member observer state” with a majority of 138 votes in favor, 9 against, and 41 abstentions.

• Votes in Favor (138): Supported by a majority of UN member states.
• Votes Against (9): Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, Palau, Panama, and the United States.
• Abstentions (41): Countries that did not vote for or against.

Last December the General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a draft resolution reaffirming the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, including the right to an independent State of Palestine.

The draft resolution was approved by a majority of 164 member states (out of 193), with eight countries voting against it, namely Israel, the US, Micronesia, Argentina, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Palau, and Nauru.

Nine countries abstained: Ecuador, Togo, Tonga, Panama, Fiji, Cameroon, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, and South Sudan.

Dr Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco and director of Middle Eastern Studies, told IPS a broad international consensus in support for the establishment of a viable independent Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and naming a Palestinian as the next president of the UN General Assembly would send a strong message to the Israeli government and its supporters in Washington that the State of Palestine, now recognized by 164 of the UN’s 193 states, should be treated like any other nation.

It would also underscore that Palestine is represented by the Fatah-led Palestine Authority, not by Hamas, which forcibly seized power in Gaza in 2007, he said.

“If Palestine is elected to the General Assembly presidency, the position would likely go to Riyad Mansour, a U.S.-educated diplomat who currently serves as the country’s UN ambassador”.

Mansour, he pointed out, has spent most of his life in the United States, has worked with Youth4Peace and other groups promoting peacebuilding, has no association with terrorism, and is generally considered a moderate.

“Nevertheless, his selection will likely result in an angry backlash from Washington, which opposes any formal role by anyone representing Palestine”.

In 2017, during his first term, the Trump administration blocked the appointment of former prime minister Salam Fayyad, also a well-respected moderate and reformer, from leading the U.N. political mission in Libya to try to end that country’s civil war simply because he was Palestinian, declared Dr Zunes.

Dr Ramzy Baroud, a Palestinian-American author and editor of The Palestine Chronicle, told IPS
two international campaigns are unfolding simultaneously: a US-led effort aimed at legitimizing Israel while it is still actively attempting to exterminate the Palestinian people, and a General Assembly–championed track aimed at legitimizing Palestine, Palestinian rights, and the Palestinian struggle.

The push to elect Palestine as the next UN General Assembly president — though the State of Palestine remains an observing member and lacks actual sovereignty on the ground — is taking place against this stark backdrop: one campaign normalizing and shielding a genocidal state, the other seeking to affirm the rights and political standing of a dispossessed nation, he pointed out.

“Nothing could be more immoral than Washington’s attempt to rehabilitate Israel diplomatically amid genocide. And nothing could be more just than the effort by Palestine’s allies to anchor Palestinian rights within international legitimacy” he said..

Yet a difficult question remains: while the US is gradually chipping away at Israel’s isolation, is much of the international community offering Palestinians little more than symbolic victories?, he noted.

“If the legitimization of Palestine at the General Assembly is to move beyond symbolism, it must translate into concrete recognition of Palestinian territorial rights, sovereignty, and freedom. Legitimacy must not remain rhetorical; it must become political and material,” Dr Baroud argued.

“This requires that the UN General Assembly states that support Palestine in international forums carry that support onto the ground — by isolating Israel diplomatically, severing ties, imposing sanctions, and adopting meaningful accountability measures. While some states have taken such steps, others continue to pursue a precarious “balance,” appeasing Washington and Tel Aviv while paying lip service to Palestine.”

Palestinians are winning what Richard Falk, the former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, has called the legitimacy war. But legitimacy as an intellectual or moral category is not enough. At this historical juncture, it must be transformed into enforceable political reality — into sovereignty, protection, and freedom on the ground, said Dr Baroud.

“We hope that the continued centering of Palestine at the UN and across global institutions strengthens the growing current of solidarity worldwide. More importantly, we hope that symbolic recognition will soon give way to decisive and tangible action,” he declared.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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When Khalid, Julia and Benjamin won their immigration cases last year, they were all given a similar message by the judge: You can now can live freely. Congratulations. Welcome to America. The three are now being held by armed guards in Equatorial Guinea, a small, authoritarian petro-state in Central Africa, after being secretly d .

The soft singing of workers rings out at daybreak in the Congolese village of Romee, whose wooded haven is threatened by a scramble for forest land that has sparked deadly violence. In one of the world's biggest and most precious forests, these locals have so far escaped the clutches of investors seizing concessions in the Democratic Republic of .

Paris Saint-Germain advanced to the last-16 of the Champions League on Wednesday night following a 2-2 draw with Monaco at the Parc des Princes in Paris. The defending . . . .

Brazil has suspended the import of dried and fermented cocoa beans from the world's largest producer, Ivory Coast, where the sector is in crisis amid falling exports. Brazil's agriculture ministry published a decree this week ordering the suspension, citing the risk of pests or diseases in cocoa beans coming from the West African nation, claimin .

Many people are again leaving the region of Tigray just over three years after the civil war there ended.

The Member of Parliament for the Hemang Lower Denkyira Constituency, Hon. Lawrence Agyinsam, has outlined a series of infrastructural and social intervention projects undertaken within his first year in office as an opposition legislator.

As geopolitical tensions rise in the Horn of Africa, Cairo is flaunting its military might.

Anthropic doesn’t trust this administration with its technology—and it has a point.

The Indian leader has made a strategic bet on the bilateral relationship.

Many regional leaders worry that the U.S. oil embargo on Cuba will have spillover consequences.

Many regional leaders worry that the U.S. oil embargo on Cuba will have spillover consequences.

How a dispute between Afreximbank and Fitch Ratings is challenging financial orthodoxy.

Targeting oil infrastructure that recalcitrant Hungary relies on lets Kyiv hit two birds with one drone.

This is the first time that a pope will visit Algeria, whose population is mostly Muslim.