Month: September 2024

 With the onset of the rainy season, severe flooding across Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria has significantly worsened the situation of refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) in the region. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, emphasizes the importance of including forcibly displaced people in national response plans.  The floods have devastated communities, destroyed homes and infrastructure and heightened protection risks for the most vulnerable, severely affecting forcibly displaced populations who […]

 Top human rights investigators into Sudan’s brutal war called on Friday for a country-wide arms embargo as they recounted harrowing testimony of victims of horrific sexual attacks whose bodies are treated as a “theatre of operation” by fighters acting with total impunity. “Since mid-April 2023, the conflict in Sudan has spread to 14 out of the 18 states impacting the entire country and the region, leaving eight million Sudanese internally […]

 The Department of Political Affairs, Peace, and Security of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, in collaboration with the National Peace Council of Ghana, is holding an interactive training workshop with political actors and stakeholders in Ghana from 4 to 11 September 2024. The workshop aims to create an opportunity for stakeholders to take cognizance of and appreciate the ECOWAS Constitutional Convergence Principles (as provided in the […]

 Human Resources managers from all ECOWAS institutions held a four-day hybrid working session from 27 August to 30 August 2024 at the ECOWAS Training Centre. This meeting aimed to validate the Human Resources Procedures Manual with the effective participation of the ECOWAS Commission’s Legal Department and staff representatives from all institutions. It should be remembered that the ECOWAS Staff Regulations were finalised and approved by the Council of Ministers in […]

 The Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development today held a lengthy, thorough and frank engagement with the Justice and Constitutional Development Minister, Ms Thembi Simelane, on the allegations relating to a VBS Mutual Bank loan. Committee Chairperson Mr Xola Nqola said members of the committee take their responsibility of holding the executive to account extremely seriously. “You could see from the engagement that members are robust, aggressive in line […]

 As a new school year begins for millions of children worldwide, across crisis-affected contexts there are 72 million children out of school and another 127 million in school but unable to learn key skills. The IRC reiterates its call for proven and scalable solutions focused on education and early childhood development as a core part of humanitarian response plans worldwide.  Education has long been chronically underfunded throughout the humanitarian sector, […]

 Moscow hosted the BRICS Climate Agenda in Modern Conditions Forum focused on the development of public-private and inter-country partnerships within the BRICS climate agenda. More than 250 delegates took part in the forum, including members of government authorities, the corporate sector, and expert and scientific communities from BRICS countries. The event was held under the auspices of Russia’s chairmanship of BRICS. One of the key discussion tracks was the role […]

 Nigerian authorities have charged 10 protesters who were arrested during protests across Nigeria in August 2024 with treason, which carries a possible death penalty, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should drop the charges. According to legal sources consulted by Human Rights Watch, the 10 protesters are among the 124 people arrested in Abuja and other states, including Kano and Kaduna, after civil society-led protests, tagged #EndBadGovernance, began on August 1, […]

 Tahani Hamid, 35, remembers her former life as a housewife in Sudan’s Darfur region as peaceful and happy, caring for her three young children and preparing meals for them and her husband, a local policeman. But as rivalry between two Sudanese military factions erupted into full-blown conflict in April last year, a series of calamities shattered that tranquil life, changing it forever. In the weeks before the outbreak of the […]