US to help journalists globally defend against legal threats
United Nations Reuters The United States on Tuesday launched a program to defend journalists around the world from legal threats aimed at silencing critical voices, a growing tactic that top US aid official Samantha Power described as “lawfare”. US Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power speaks as she participates in a Peace, Security and […]
African Union chair calls for Ethiopia truce, peace talks
Nairobi, Kenya Reuters The chair of the African Union on Sunday called for an immediate ceasefire in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and urged parties in the two-year-old conflict to agree to direct peace talks. The Ethiopian Government and its allies have been fighting Tigray forces on and off since late 2020. The violence has killed thousands […]
USAID pledges Kenya $US255 million to fight drought, appeals to rich countries to help
Nairobi, KenyaReuters The US development agency USAID on Friday said it would give Kenya $US255 million in emergency assistance to tackle severe drought. Some 4.1 million people in the East African nation are facing acute food shortages, the government says, while the number of cases of child malnutrition has surged by half in parts of […]
COVID-19 concerns force UN to prepare tsunami-hit Tonga relief aid at a distance
Reuters The United Nations is preparing to carry out relief operations for Tonga at a distance to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak in the Pacific island nation reeling from a volcanic eruption and tsunami, an official said on Wednesday. All the homes on one of Tonga’s small outer islands have been destroyed and three people have […]
Wow!: Loans keep women afloat as they plant fast-vanishing mangroves in Kenya
DOMINIC KIRUI, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports from Pate Island off Kenya’s east coast…
Climate change, COVID-19 and conflict drive ‘alarming’ rise in aid need
Bogota, ColombiaThomson Reuters Foundation One in 29 people worldwide needs humanitarian assistance, the United Nations said last week, as under-funded aid agencies struggle to keep pace with rising human suffering driven by the climate crisis, COVID-19 impacts and conflict. The number of people in need continues to rise “at an alarming rate”, with a total […]
US agency says Tigrayan forces looted aid warehouses in Ethiopia’s Amhara region
Addis Ababa, EthiopiaReuters Forces from Ethiopia’s Tigray region in recent weeks looted warehouses belonging to the US Government’s humanitarian agency in the Amhara region, USAID’s Ethiopia director said on Tuesday. War broke out in the mountainous region last November between Ethiopian troops and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which controls the region. The conflict has […]
Taliban rule presents aid agencies with moral, fiscal dilemma
Washington DC, USReuters As foreign governments, aid institutions and companies scramble to evacuate staff from Afghanistan, a crucial question is emerging: should they engage with the ruling Taliban or abandon years of investment in the country and 38 million Afghans? The Taliban in the past week has pledged peaceful relations with other countries, women’s rights […]
US aid chief says emergency food in Ethiopia’s Tigray to run out this week
Nairobi, KenyaReuters For the first time in nine months of war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, aid workers will this week run out of food to deliver to millions of people who are going hungry there, the head of the US Government’s humanitarian agency said. “USAID and its partners as well as other humanitarian organisations have […]
Haiti quake death toll surges to nearly 2,000, survivors clamor for aid
Les Cayes, HaitiReuters The preliminary death toll from the major earthquake that struck south-western Haiti last weekend surged to 1,941 on Tuesday as the search for survivors resumed after a tropical storm passed and quake-hit Haitians clamored for food, shelter and medical aid. Hospitals struggled to tend to all those injured, the official tally of […]