Sahel States’ withdrawal from ECOWAS undermines accountability
4/2/2025: Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have officially left the Economic Community of West African States. Since 2005, the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice has had jurisdiction to hear human rights cases brought by citizens of member states. This important path for accountability and justice is now closed.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Potential UN clash with US over Greenland and the Panama Canal
4/2/2025: US President Donald Trump’s ominous threat to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland sets the stage for a new political battle with the UN. Any takeover will be in defiance of the UN charter and in complete violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of UN member states.
Source: Inter Press Service
G7 countries spend record sums on fossil fuel subsidies
3/2/2025: G7 countries pledged in 2016 that they would reduce harmful fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 – but tax subsidies for coal, oil and gas in these countries have increased by 15 percent over that period. Italy and Germany are the worst offenders.
Source: Greenpeace International
How Africa can benefit from its mineral wealth
3/2/2025: The African Green Minerals Strategy is a blueprint for the continent’s role in the global scramble for minerals. A more equitable future will however depend on the member states of the African Union uniting under a shared vision.
Source: African Arguments
Trump’s aid freeze shuts down global famine-monitoring system
31/1/2025: The famine early warning systems network (Fews Net) for monitoring global food crises appears to have been suspended after President Donald Trump’s executive order froze US foreign aid. Fews Net helps humanitarian organisations decide how to distribute food aid to tens of millions of people around the world.
Source: The Guardian
Diplomacy key to ending crisis in eastern DR Congo
31/1/2025: The head of UN Peace Operations has underscored the need for continued diplomatic efforts to end the crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and avert the potential for triggering wider regional conflict. The M23 rebel group and Rwandan Defence Force have taken control of the provincial capital, Goma.
African countries called upon to improve data collection
30/1/2025: The recent Forum on Statistical Development in Africa has highlighted the continent's lack of robust evidence-based data, essential to effective development policies. This comes at a time when many African governments are struggling to adequately fund their national statistical agencies, resulting in unreliable data in vital areas such as population.
Source: Inter Press Service
Confusion, fear as PEPFAR partners suspend HIV services
30/1/2025: Hundreds of service providers in sub-Saharan Africa and across other countries that are supported by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief have been ordered to stop their work, as a consequence of Trump’s executive order pausing foreign development assistance for 90 days.. Any interruption of lifesaving antiretroviral drugs is dangerous for people who are living with HIV.
Source: Devex
UNRWA ‘continues to deliver’ as Israeli ban comes into effect
30/1/2025 The UN Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA) has upheld its commitment to support millions across the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Last October, the Israeli parliament passed two laws that called for ending UNRWA’s operations in its territory.
Source: UN News
How Africa may lose from US leaving World Health Organization
29/1/2025: President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization will be keenly felt across the globe, with profound implications for health in Africa - where increases in mortality and morbidity could be a consequence of closed programmes.
Source: The Conversation