Somaliland clashes, pandemic treaty talks, and US refugee double standards: The Cheat Sheet
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In case you missed it CHILE: Twenty-six people have died in hundreds of wildfires that have consumed nearly 460,000 hectares of land and destroyed more than 2,400 homes since late January. While large tracts of forest land continue to burn, local authorities worry that emergency housing won´t be ready in time for winter. The wildfires are the worst in living memory in Chile, which has been gripped by recurrent drought and rising temperatures over the past decade. CLIMATE LAW: More than 100 countries are backing Vanuatu’s bid to bring climate change to the International Court of Justice. Some 105 nations are co-sponsoring a resolution to be tabled at the UN General Assembly – the key step to nudge the issue before the UN’s top court. Among the notable omissions: big polluters and economic engines like Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa, and the United States. CYCLONE FREDDY: Nearly 400,000 people have been affected by a tropical cyclone that hit Madagascar and Mozambique last month, according to the UN’s aid coordination agency, OCHA. Tropical Storm Freddy has led to significant rainfall and displaced tens of thousands of people. ETHIOPIA: The Ethiopian government is seeking support for a motion to terminate the mandate of a UN-ordered inquiry into abuses committed during the Tigray conflict, news outlets reported this week. Eritrean soldiers have, meanwhile, been accused of massacring hundreds of civilians in Tigray in the days before a peace agreement was signed in November 2022. ITALY: Nearly 70 people have been confirmed dead following a shipwreck in rough water just off a beach in southern Italy on 26 February. The boat set sail from Türkiye four days earlier, taking a more dangerous route that has become increasingly popular as hardline policies – including pushbacks – have made it harder for asylum seekers and migrants to reach Greece. The shipwreck also comes as Italy’s far-right government has been cracking down on search and rescue NGOs. NIGERIA: Bola Tinubu, political “kingmaker” and former governor of Lagos state, has been declared the winner of a high-pressure presidential election. However, his two main rivals – Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi – have rejected the result and are heading to court amid concerns over poll fraud and the ineptitude of the electoral commission. SRI LANKA: Thousands of Sri Lankan workers across a range of sectors held demonstrations and strikes on 1 March in protest of government spending cuts imposed to access an IMF bailout. An ongoing economic crisis has turned into a humanitarian one, with a new survey from Save the Children revealing that 50% of families have reduced the amount they feed their children. For more on Sri Lanka’s economic decline, read our August 2022 story, launching our Emerging hunger hotspots series. TUNISIA: Racist and xenophobic comments about sub-Saharan African migrants made by President Kais Saied have touched off protests and drawn condemnation from the African Union. In a speech on 21 February, Saied claimed sub-Saharan African migration to Tunisia was part of a conspiracy to change the country’s demographics to be “purely African” and blamed migrants for crime and violence. Reports of attacks on Black migrants and Tunisians have skyrocketed, and Saied has also been cracking down on political opponents as Tunisia’s economy and democratic transition flounder. UK MISSING: More than 500 potential or confirmed victims of trafficking were categorised as missing between 2020 and 2022, according to UK Home Office data obtained by the Guardian. The majority of the children who went missing were Albanian boys, and the majority of missing adults were Vietnamese men. In January, the UK admitted that some 200 child asylum seekers had gone missing since 2021 from hotels where they were under the care of the government. WFP: American Cindy McCain will be the next head of the World Food Programme. The current chief, David Beasley, confirmed the news in a congratulatory tweet that headed off the announcement from the UN agency itself. McCain, whose appointment was first reported by Devex, begins her term in April amid spiralling global food insecurity. YEMEN: Aid groups are warning of “donor fatigue” after a 27 February pledging event raised $1.2 billion for Yemen – a quarter of what humanitarian responses will cost in 2023 for a conflict stretching into an eighth year. Two thirds of Yemen’s population need emergency aid. “The money pledged today is nowhere near enough,” said Ferran Puig, Oxfam’s country director in Yemen. Weekend watch In May 2017, government forces began besieging Marawi, a provincial capital on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. It took five months of heavy shelling and street-by-street fighting to root out Maute rebels linked to so-called Islamic State – at the cost of more than 1,000 lives, and of forcing some 360,000 people from their homes. It has now been almost six years since the country’s longest urban battle, so why have so few civilians returned? Travelling to Marawi in mid-2022, filmmaker Frederick Gillingham found hundreds of families still in temporary accommodation, and many potential returnees locked in long ownership disputes due to their lack of title deeds. Most couldn’t afford costly rebuilding permits, while others were frightened to proceed with reconstruction work in case the promised compensation never came. Gillingham’s short film exposes the harsh realities those still marooned outside their home city face, and explores how survivors and former fighters have been enduring an awkward co-existence in dire economic circumstances. And finally… Why are pregnant Russian women flying to Argentina to give birth? A new phenomenon is worrying Argentinian authorities: Since the Ukraine invasion, a rising number of pregnant Russian women are travelling to Buenos Aires to give birth. Russian citizens don't need a visa to enter the country as tourists and babies born on its soil automatically get citizenship. Additionally, their parents are given permanent residency and work permits. Official data shows that in the past year, 10,777 Russian women entered the country, and that 5,800 of them declared being in the third trimester of their pregnancy. In early February, Florencia Carignano, director of the National Migration Department, confirmed the trend, after 33 expectant women arrived on the same flight. She said these women and their families often leave after the birth, giving local lawyers the task of regularising their situation and obtaining Argentine passports for them. While fear of persecution for opposing President Vladimir Putin appears to be the main motivation, Argentinian authorities are investigating whether the trend could also be linked to transnational organised crime.