Africa

Islamist groups appear emboldened by the fall of Afghanistan, sparking concern in African countries.

Washington's aid chief says food is set to run out, with hundreds of thousands at risk of famine,

A family runs across a dusty street in Herat, Afghanistan. Credit: UNAMA/Fraidoon Poya

By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Aug 20 2021 (IPS)

President Biden’s decision to finally withdraw US forces from Afghanistan was the correct decision and certainly overdue. However, the lack of preparation to do so orderly and safely was yet another terrible mistake in a string of mistakes that have plagued the US from day one.

Righting the wrong

In his address to the nation last Monday, President Biden used the majority of it to try to justify the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, which needed hardly any justification given that after 20 years the US has not come any closer to defeating the Taliban permanently.

The vast majority of the American people supported his decision when he first announced his intention to end the war based on the agreement concluded between Trump and the Taliban last February.

Biden’s decision to withdraw was certainly the right one and was overdue by 19 years. His determination not pass the war onto a fifth president was wise, as it would spare the country from continuing to invest blood and treasure in an unwinnable war.

The problem was not the need to withdraw, but the manner in which it was conducted. Why on earth did he begin to pull out troops without the proper preparation to ensure that US and other foreign diplomats and civilians, along with thousands of Afghan interpreters and other support staff and their families, departed orderly and safely?

To subsequently dispatch thousands of troops to secure the airport to ensure safe passage for the departees was certainly necessary. But this happened only following the chaos that swept Kabul and sent shivers down the spines of tens of thousands of Afghans and foreign diplomats and civilians.

As I see it, this last sorry chapter is continuing a string of mistakes committed by Biden’s predecessors Bush, Obama, and Trump. They have learned nothing about the nature of Afghan society nor from the Soviet Union’s experience in the 1980s, when it departed Afghanistan after ten years of fighting with its tail between its legs.

Miscalculation from the onset

Following the defeat of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in less than a year, former President Bush rushed to invade Iraq in 2003 through the concerted effort of his Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney. He failed to make any arrangement with the then-transitional government led by Hamid Karzai over the prospect of continuing Taliban resistance.

He lost focus on the unfinished Afghanistan campaign and subjected American troops to an uncertain future, as neither he nor his military brass had any plans as to how to conclude the campaign once the main objective of removing the Taliban from power was accomplished.

Imposition of democracy

The decision to introduce democracy and engage in nation-building was doomed from the start. Yes, progress was made, a democratically-elected government was installed, and human rights and social reforms provided the hallmark of the American enterprise. But then the US ignored the fact that the imposition of a western-style democracy on a country that lived for millennia as a tribal society would be short lived at best.

The US should not be in the business of spreading democracy by force. We seem to have learned nothing from Vietnam, let alone the US’ long history of instigating and interfering in regime changes. Instead of providing a model of a functioning democracy and human rights through the use of soft power to influence other countries, we come in charging with massive military to change the political landscape, only to end up retreating and delivering the country straight to insurgent forces.

Military miscalculation

Three successive presidents before Biden made their decision on the continuing efforts in Afghanistan based on the recommendations of military leaders who insisted that the war was winnable and wanted to secure a total victory.

Troop surges have continuously been sent on the promise that victory over the Taliban was in sight, which obviously was proven to be completely misguided. In addition, the military strength of the Afghan National Army was grossly overstated; thousands deserted over the years and many sold their weapons to the Taliban. Over 2,300 American soldiers were killed and more than a trillion dollars were spent with little to show for it.

Mis-assessing the source of the Taliban’s resiliency

All three administrations preceding Biden’s never fully appreciated or understood the nature of this tribal country, its culture and history, and the Taliban’s resolve to resist regardless of the heavy toll it would sustain. The Taliban are indigenous to Afghanistan, fighting for their country and their culture guided by a deeply religious way of life, following Sharia law using a strict interpretation of the Quran.

As they see it, no power would be allowed to exercise any prerogatives in their land and they have no reason to tolerate any foreign intrusion, not to speak of conquest. They are patient and know how to persevere.

Sadly, Biden has shown no better understanding of the Taliban’s resolve and tenacity. In his press conference only a week and a half ago, Biden declared that the Taliban’s takeover was not inevitable, as “the Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped [soldiers] and an air force against something like 75,000 Taliban,” later stating that “the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”

However, Biden’s announcement of the withdrawal three months ago only gave the Taliban time to prepare for their takeover. Intelligence agencies warned the administration of the rapid collapse of the Afghan military and the extreme likeliness of a Taliban victory, and the Afghan government itself was simply unprepared for the Taliban’s onslaught.

Failure to engage the tribal chiefs

Another mistake common to all four administrations is that they did not involve the chiefs of the Afghan tribes, who hold tremendous sway in the country, alongside the central government. A tribal leader with whom I spoke a while ago was adamant that without the tribal chiefs’ participation, the war will go on.

After all, the Taliban come from these tribes and tribal leaders can pose a much greater influence on their tribespeople than the Taliban. Had the US engaged the chiefs in the negotiations, the outcome might have been different.

Rampant corruption

In spite of the US’ efforts to reform the country and establish a legitimate government that responds to the public’s needs, corruption by top officials and the military consumed the country from within. The US knows only too well that unless corruption is weeded out, little social, economic, or political reforms can be made and sustained.

Sadly, the US did not insist that the government make every effort to systematically weed out corruption. Billions of dollars have been squandered, bribes were rampant, and as a result many social programs have suffered.

No cohesive and goal-oriented policy

Through mission creep, the US’ goal became to create a functional and stable democracy, but there was no mechanism in place to secure this outcome once the US withdraws from the country. Although several sets of negotiations took place between Taliban representatives and US officials regarding the eventual withdrawal, the US failed to establish a policy of carrot-and-stick.

The US could have committed to providing the Taliban financial assistance should they adhere to a certain level of human rights, especially in regard to girls and women, yet failed to implement any sort of arrangement in this regard.

Now that the US is coming to the end of a war that should have ended 19 years ago, the question is, what have we learned from this bitter experience. Leadership bears major responsibility and foresight. We should not be the policeman of the world, but must use our soft power to address injustices and human right abuses wherever they may occur. Our experiment in democracy should be emulated voluntarily, and not forced down the throats of other nations.

Finally, now that the Taliban will govern Afghanistan once again, it’s time to heal the wounds and extend to them a helping hand, which may well be the only way we can persuade them to treat their people humanely and with dignity. If nothing else, if we can affect even such a limited outcome, we can look back and take comfort that the longest war in American history and our sacrifices were not totally in vain.

 

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Excerpt:

The writer, a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU), teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

Dr Shafi Bhuiyan is pictured here with a team of ITMDs. Foreign-trained doctors are underutilized in Canada despite shortages of trained personnel.

By Shafi Bhuiyan and team of ITMDs
Toronto, Canada, Aug 20 2021 (IPS)

Canada is ranked number one out of 78 countries globally, with the highest marks in social purpose indicators, emphasizing human rights, social justice, and racial equity commitment, according to a recent U.S. News & World Report survey.

The country follows the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) principles, incorporating them into research and workplace environments, and it acknowledges challenges vulnerable populations face. Adopting these principles in every aspect of people’s lives makes Canada one of the most attractive places for numerous immigrants worldwide, with more than 13 000 internationally trained medical doctors (ITMDs) calling Canada home.

Canada’s health care is based on social equity fundamentals, having universal health coverage for essential medical services free of charge. Nevertheless, in 2019, about 4.6 million Canadians claimed that they do not have regular medical practitioners to seek advice or help.

In 2020, the highest record of 10.5 weeks waiting time from a family physician referral to specialist consultation was documented, with additional 12.1 weeks interval before treatment was initiated.

The COVID-19 pandemic aggravated these issues resulting in about 16 million healthcare services backlogs in Ontario alone. These will need up to almost two years to be resolved.

At the same time, Canada possesses significantly underutilized skilled healthcare professional resources trained abroad. According to the survey conducted among recent ITMDs graduates, 35% have passed the required licensing exams, including Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination Part I (MCCQE1), the National Assessment Collaboration Objective Structured Clinical Examination (NAC OSCE). This means they are eligible to enter the residency.

Very few will secure a residency position. The residency quotes retrieved from the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) website showed that only 325 out of 3,365 (less than 10 %) spots were available for international medical graduates (IMGs) for the first iteration of the 2021 matching process.

Out of 1,358 IMGs participants, 948 (almost 70%) were unmatched this year partly due to a lack of transparency and understanding of the process rules.

Not to mention the cost associated with licensing examination, the CaRMS application process is a significant financial burden and even a barrier in many cases for the newcomers. According to Statistics Canada report, 47% of foreign-educated health professionals are either unemployed or employed in non-health-related positions that required only a high school diploma.

Nevertheless, internationally trained medical doctors play a significant role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting the vaccination clinics, working as contact tracing managers and mental health advisors.

Another issue that needs an urgent solution is physician wellbeing. A recent study in Vancouver showed that the burnout rate reaches 68% among doctors, with 63% feeling emotionally exhausted and 39% depersonalized. Moreover, 21% of them had resigned or have thoughts about leaving their career.

On top of that, the aging population required complex care, along with a growing diverse population of Canada, underserved racialized, and newcomers’ communities need a considerate strategy to encompass community-based, culturally sensitive approaches to health care.

The ITMDs is a culturally diverse group with rich experience in different fields of medicine and research. Thus, foreign-educated health care professionals are fit perfectly to engage underprivileged communities, promote health and disease prevention, and manage multiple health priorities. Hence, the integration of internationally trained health care professionals could be a turning point to solve the current and prospective issues.

Moreover, 80% of Canadians stated that they feel comfortable being cared for by doctors who obtained mainly their training outside Canada, with 83% claimed that it should be more action to ensure fairness and opportunities for IMGs to practice medicine.

The question is: Why are internationally trained medical doctors still sidelined? The action is for the government to bring Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) principles into the Canadian health care system.

Thus, a clear roadmap to integrate internationally trained healthcare professionals is necessary to address all existing challenges and strengthen Canada’s health care system. A move considered to be highly beneficial for all stakeholders (patients, physicians, ITMDs, government).

Collaboration is vital to move forward and make the ‘no one left behind ‘strategy a reality.

• The authors are from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South American countries.   
• The co-authors are: Drs Bhuiyan S, Krivova A, Orin M, Azam S., Shalaby Y, Tasnim N, Badran H, Al-Chetachi W, Radwan E, Tazrin T, Biswas M, Min K. S, Mehrotra M, Anuradha, Quintanilla E, Begum N, Adhikary I, Fatima N

 

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The fast-evolving conflict reached, Kabul, the centre of Afghanistan’s social and political life. Credit: UNAMA/Fardin Waezi

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 20 2021 (IPS)

As the 20-year-old occupation of Afghanistan came to an inglorious end last week, there were heavy losses suffered by many– including the United States, the Afghan military forces and the country’s civilian population.

But perhaps there was one undisputed winner in this trillion-dollar extravaganza worthy of a Hollywood block buster: the military-industrial complex which kept feeding American and Afghan fighters in the longest war in US history.

US President Joe Biden, in a statement from the White House last week, was categorically clear: “We spent over a trillion dollars. We trained and equipped an Afghan military force of some 300,000 strong. Incredibly well equipped. A force larger in size than the militaries of many of our NATO allies.”

“We gave them every tool they could need. We paid their salaries, provided for the maintenance of their air force, something the Taliban doesn’t have. We provided close air support. We gave them every chance to determine their own future.”

“What we could not provide them was the will to fight for that future,” he declared.

Of the staggering $1 trillion, a hefty $83 billion was spent on the military, at the rate of over $4.0 billion annually, mostly on arms purchases originating from the US defense industry, plus maintenance, servicing and training.

The Afghan debacle also claimed the lives of 2,400 US soldiers and over 3,800 US private security contractors, plus more than 100,000 Afghan civilians.

Norman Solomon, Executive Director, Institute for Public Accuracy and National Director, RootsAction.org told IPS that in drastically varying degrees, the real losers are everybody but war profiteers.

The U.S. military-industrial complex thrives on the organized killing that we call “war,” and the 20-year war on Afghanistan, waged courtesy of U.S. taxpayers, was a huge boondoggle for a vast number of military contractors and wealthy investors, he pointed out.

The colloquial phrase “making a killing” is all too apt here, he argued, because that’s what many U.S. corporations did over the course of the last two decades as part of the so-called “war on terror” that the U.S. government launched in October 2001 with its attack on Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, “the high-ranking officials and rich looters in the Afghan government who fled the country in recent days were also the big winners.”

“They lived high on the hog for two decades, and now have absconded with what they’ve been able to siphon off and retain as personal wealth, said Solomon author, “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death”.

All in all, it’s an unspeakably vile and truly obscene reality that George W. Bush and his bipartisan accomplices in Washington set in motion during the autumn of 2001. They “won” a vastly pernicious game for themselves while so many people have suffered tremendously as a direct result, said Solomon.

“Unfortunately, NATO countries served as enablers in this terrible protracted massacre that ravaged so much of Afghanistan and its people. By any other name, the blend of warfare and purported statecraft that accompanied the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan turned out to be a long-term sadistic exercise in narcissism, stupidity and greed,” he declared.

Since Fiscal Year (FY) 2010, the United States provided over $3.2 billion for the Afghan Air Force (AAF), including nearly $1 billion for equipment and aircraft. Still, equipment, maintenance, logistical difficulties, and defections continued to plague the Air Force, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which prepares reports for members and committees of the US Congress.

The AAF was equipped with about 104 aircraft including four C-130 transport planes and 46 Mi-17 (Russian-made) helicopters. The target size of its fleet was 140 total aircraft. US Defense Department purchases for the AAF of 56 Mi-17s was mostly implemented.

The AAF also took delivery of the first eight out of 20 A-29 Super Tucano aircraft plus MD-530 helicopters, and 3 Cheetah helicopters donated by India—all of which will be inherited by the Taliban.

Asked about winners and losers, Alon Ben-Meir, professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU), told IPS: “Needless to say, the Taliban are the ultimate winners”.

In the process of the 20-year-old war, however, there’s no doubt that the military-industrial complex certainly benefitted from the ongoing war, which to some extent explains why the US military continued to support the continuation of the war despite the string of mistakes that plagued the US from day one, he said.

He also pointed out that the military-industrial complex also benefitted especially because “traditionally our military likes to win wars rather than end them indecisively or lose them entirely”.

Another winner at this juncture, he said, would be China, which will unquestionably capitalize on the United States’ retreat and will engage the Taliban without demanding any kind of domestic reform.

Unlike the United States, he noted, China never conditions its support to any shift in domestic policies of the countries involved. The biggest loser, however, in this sad situation is obviously the Afghani people, especially girls and women.

“We can only hope that the Taliban modifies its traditional position on restricting girls and women from schools and the workplace, and allow them to seek an education and job opportunities, and become contributors to the welfare and well-being of the country” declared Dr Ben-Meir.

The longstanding 20-year-old battle pitted an estimated 75,000 Taliban fighters against more than 300,000 Afghan forces armed and trained by the US.

As a fighting force, Taliban captured the besieged country without the traditional weapons of war, including sophisticated fighter planes, combat helicopters, missiles or warships, which are an integral part of most militaries engaged in conflicts.

A ragtag guerrilla force, the Taliban depended heavily on small arms, AK-47 assault rifles, artillery, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) – and multiple suicide bombers.

The US-trained Afghan military forces were virtually beaten to a standstill or fled their posts abandoning their arms, including US-made M-16 rifles and Humvees which fell into hands of the Taliban.

Dr. Natalie J. Goldring, a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Full Professor with the Security Studies Program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, told IPS the US government invested immense time and treasure in its invasion of Afghanistan, a war that should never have been fought.

“US weapons manufacturers have profited from selling weapons that were used in Afghanistan. Yet these weapons suppliers are not held responsible for the use – and abuse – of the weapons they sell’, she noted.

Because of the lack of accountability, they may seem to be the only “winners” on the US side of the conflict. They sell the weapons to the US government without apparent consideration of the risks of doing so, make their money, and go on to the next sales opportunity, said Dr. Goldring, a Visiting Professor of the Practice in Duke University’s Washington DC program.

Yet the arms manufacturers “winning” is at the expense of US military and civilian personnel. Years before the recent collapse of the Afghan government, for example, Taliban forces routinely captured US military equipment and used it against our forces.

With the Afghan government’s fall, some of those weapons are also likely to be sold or given to forces outside Afghanistan, exacerbating the risk of US weapons being used against our own military or civilian personnel, said Dr Goldring, who also represents the Acronym Institute at the United Nations on conventional weapons and arms trade issues.

Meanwhile, an analysis of social media footage, corroborated by the New York Times, shows that since the beginning of the Taliban’s offensive in May, they captured at least 24 of the Afghan Air Force’s roughly 200 aircraft, including U.S.-supplied helicopters and a light attack aircraft.

It is unlikely the Taliban will be able to operate these aircraft without an air force of their own. Most of the abandoned helicopters are damaged or mechanically unable to fly. Experts say the ones that can fly require extensive maintenance and skilled pilots, the Times said.

What may be more advantageous for the Taliban are the hundreds of Humvees and pickup trucks they captured, along with countless caches of weapons and ammunition. In social media videos, Taliban insurgents showed off their newly acquired weapons and vehicles.

Thalif Deen, Senior Editor at the UN Bureau of Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, is a former Director, Foreign Military Markets at Defense Marketing Services; Senior Defense Analyst at Forecast International; and military editor Middle East/Africa at Jane’s Information Group.

 

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Madrelle, Loubiere, Dominica 2017, a few days after Category 5 Hurricane Maria struck the island. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS

By Alison Kentish
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 19 2021 (IPS)

Just over six months after launching its Youth Engagement Plan, the NDC Partnership, the coalition assisting governments with their climate action plans, has brought together youth climate advocates for its inaugural NDC Global Youth Engagement Forum.

NDCs, or Nationally Determined Contributions, refer to governments’ commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, an integral part of the Paris Climate Agreement. NDCs are scheduled for revision every five years and are expected to be increasingly ambitious to tackle the climate crisis effectively.

Countries and the NDC Partnership want to ensure that, as agents of implementation, young people have platforms for engagement and a say in national climate action.

The Partnership recently brought youth together in 3 regional groupings: Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The young people engaged with representatives of partners such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) through sessions like ‘agriculture and climate change,’ and ‘equipping young people to engage in the NDC process.’

The NDC Partnership, the coalition assisting governments with their climate action plans, has brought together youth climate advocates for its inaugural NDC Global Youth Engagement Forum. Credit: NDC Partnership

The participants say the teaching element was bolstered by the opportunity to be heard, as the organizers asked for their input in areas that include NDC enhancement, structures needed to strengthen youth involvement, and ways young people are already impacting climate action.

For youth like Natalia Gómez Solano of Costa Rica, the forum provided a space to share experiences and ideas.

“Working for a more resilient and a more just, low-emissions world moves us, and that is why we are here today,” she told the virtual event.

“We are already experiencing the impacts of climate change, and they are worsening. We need increased adaptation and mitigation action, and the NDCs are the key instruments to achieve that. The NDCs are the roadmaps for climate ambition in which young people are key in bringing new climate solutions to the conversations and to raise action.”

Jamaica’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment, and Climate Change, Dr Alwin Hales, told the Latin America and Caribbean forum that the virtual event and Youth Engagement Plan hope to leverage the ‘leadership and power’ of youth into NDC implementation and enhancement.

“Today’s children and young people are caught in the center of climate change, for it is they who have to live with and manage its consequences,” he said.

“The NDC Partnership launched the Youth Engagement Plan (YEP). It aims is to build young people’s capacity on climate change matters and engage the youth in global NDC partnership activities. This is in direct support of our mission to increase alignment, coordination, and access to resources to link needs with solutions.”

The forum was proposed by the NDC Partnership’s Youth Task Force but is a priority of the NDC Partnership’s Steering Committee and Co-Chairs, Jamaican Minister of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment, and Climate Change Pearnel Charles Jr. and U.K. Minister Alok Sharma, who also serves as President of COP 26.

Noting that young people are vital to effective action on climate change, NDC Partnership Global Director Pablo Vieira Samper reminded them that their input also ensures that action is inclusive.

“We want to hear about what capacity or technical support is still needed and what learning you are eager to share with your peers,” he said.

“The Youth Engagement Plan was the starting point for greater action for youth engagement in NDCs. Today the NDC Partnership is thrilled to be turning this plan into concrete steps for more meaningful engagement and bringing new ideas to this framework to inspire action. We look forward to your insights as we collaborate across the Partnership to build a low carbon, climate-resilient future by supporting sustainable development.”

The youth attending the forum have described it as an important platform for highlighting the challenges faced by young climate activists.

“It is important to increase climate finance to support projects that are led by children and youth and integrate a rights-focused education curriculum in schools and universities,” said Xiomara Acevedo, the Founder and Chief Executive of Barranquilla+20, an NGO run by young people who empower their peers to tackle issues of biodiversity, sustainability, policy inclusion, and climate change.

Acevedo’s NGO has reached over 2,000 young people. She says it is clear that youth have a unique role to play in climate activism.

“We have seen that involving young people at the local and subnational level has also helped to ensure that a lot of citizens are seeing that climate action is not something beyond their territories, or is not only a topic that is managed at the national level. They can relate our message to their narrative, to their realities. We engage climate action as an important topic in the local agendas,” she said.

According to UNICEF, including youth in climate change action is important to achieving Sustainable Development Goals 13,2 which urges urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts; 16,3 which calls for the promotion of peaceful, inclusive societies for sustainable development and 17,4 with its target of assistance to developing countries in attaining debt sustainability.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) released its NDCs scorecard in February. It applauded countries for strengthening their commitments to the Paris Agreement but encouraged them to further step up their mitigation pledges, adding that greenhouse gas emissions targets were falling ‘far short’ of what is required to achieve the Agreement’s goals.

Young people like Natalia Gómez Solano say as custodians of the planet, youth must be mobilized, and their voices amplified to arrive at the deep emissions reductions needed in the NDCs.

“We need to integrate more voices and reach more places. As the Latin America and Caribbean Region, we need to keep working, keep asking, keep demanding, and doing more. Not all youth know how to be involved in climate action, and we need to work with more young people, for example, in the rural areas,” she said.

The delegates at the NDC Partnership’s inaugural Youth Engagement Forum say they are hoping for more opportunities at the table.

They say it takes persistence, organization, time, and passion to achieve climate goals. It also takes an empowered, well-connected, and financed global network of youth.

 

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Angélica María Posada, teacher and principal of the school in the village of El Guarumal, in the municipality of Sensembra, in the department of Morazán, in eastern El Salvador, poses with some of her primary school students in front of the tank that supplies drinking water to the school and also to 150 families in this and other neighboring villages. Rainwater is collected on the tin roof and channeled into an underground tank. It is then pumped to a station where it is filtered and purified, before flowing into the tank, ready for consumption. Credit Edgardo Ayala

By Edgardo Ayala
SAN SALVADOR, Aug 19 2021 (IPS)

Access to water is a constant struggle in Central America, a region with more than 60 million people, many of whom live in rural areas where conditions for good quality water and enough for food production are becoming increasingly difficult.

Climate change has further deepened water scarcity in Central America, especially in the so-called Dry Corridor where some 11 million people live, but instead of sitting back and do nothing, they have sought ways of obtaining water.

Rural communities living within this 1,600-kilometer-long strip of land “harvest” rainwater: first, it is collected in the roof of the houses and then channeled to water storage tanks, or to large ponds to grow fish, irrigate home gardens and produce food.

Local residents of El Guarumal, a hamlet near Sensembra, a municipality in the eastern department of Morazán, in El Salvador, have done exactly that.

Other villages have had access to a piped water supply, but have lacked electricity.

Those communities, settled on the banks of the rivers, have set up then their own community hydroelectric projects, such as the one built in Joya de Talchiga and Potrerillos, hamlets located in eastern El Salvador, as well as those in the Zona Reyna Ecoregion, in the northwestern department of Quiché, Guatemala.

IPS has been following all these efforts in the region for several years, as shown in the images we display now, which reveal the resolution of these poor and rural communities to gain access to increasingly scarce water resources.

An innovative and efficient system for collecting and purifying rain water has been installed in the school of El Guarumal, a hamlet in eastern El Salvador. Teachers report that gastrointestinal ailments have been significantly reduced since the students started to drink purified water. The initiative is part of the Mesoamerica Hunger Free programme, implemented since 2015 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and financed by the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (Amexcid). Similar projects have been promoted in five other countries out of the nine that make up the programme. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

A system for collecting and purifying rainwater, similar to the one installed in El Guarumal, in eastern El Salvador, was built in Mata Limón, a small town in the province of Monte Plata, north of Santo Domingo, in República Dominicana, one of the six countries that are part of an initiative promoted by FAO and Mexican cooperation. Thanks to this effort, the students can drink purified water, which is stored not in a tank, as in El Salvador, but in smaller containers. Credit: FAO

 

Santos Henríquez, from the village of El Guarumal in El Salvador, checks his net to see if he has caught any tilapia from the reservoir built on his 1.5-hectare land. In addition to aquaculture, this farmer harvests green peppers, tomatoes, cabbages, a local variety of bean called “ejote” and fruits such as mangoes and oranges, among others. “We grow a little bit of everything,” Henríquez, 48, said proudly. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

The reservoir that Santos Henríquez has set up on his parcel of land, in the hills of the hamlet of El Guarumal, in eastern El Salvador, provides him with tilapias to feed himself and his family, and the surplus production, both of fish and vegetables, is sold it in the village of Sensembra, a town located in the so-called Dry Corridor, a 1,600-kilometer-long belt that crosses Central America where water is scarce and food production, a challenge. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

Tilapia farming is one of the activities that provide quality protein to families in El Guarumal, in eastern El Salvador, located in the Central American Dry Corridor. The fish multiply in the reservoirs as fry are born, which means that production is not only enough for family consumption but can also produce a surplus that can be sold in the village or in neighboring areas. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

Some families living in coastal hamlets near San Luis La Herradura have dug ponds for sustainable fishing, which was of great help to local residents during the quarantine period imposed to prevent the spread of covid-19 in this coastal area of southern El Salvador. The pond is regularly filled by the tide. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

Pedro Ramos, Víctor de León, Ofelia Chávez and Daniel Santos (from left to right), from La Colmena, a hamlet in the Salvadoran municipality of Candelaria de la Frontera, in the western department of Santa Ana, show the huge collective reservoir built in their village to irrigate their home gardens and corn crops, as well as to water their livestock. The reservoir, with a capacity of 500,000 litres, is a rectangular pond dug into the ground, 2.5 m deep, 20 m long and 14 m wide, covered by a polyethylene membrane that prevents filtration and retains the water. It was built as part of a climate change adaptation project implemented by FAO. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

Víctor de León serves himself freshly purified water from a seven-litre container fitted with a filter that purifies rainwater collected from the roof, given to his family and to 12 others as part of a project designed to address the effects of climate change in his village, La Colmena, located in the so-called Central American Dry Corridor. The extreme climate, characterized not only by prolonged droughts but also by heavy rains, makes it difficult to produce food and keep alive the few head of cattle that some families own. But rainwater “harvesting” provides water to drink and to fill the two reservoirs built in the community, to irrigate their gardens and water their cows. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

Corina Canjura loads a jug of water that she has just filled from a system of rainwater collection located on the ground next to her house, in the village of Los Corvera in the municipality of Tepetitán, in the central Salvadoran department of San Vicente. Here, 13 families benefited from this project promoted in 2017 by the Global Water Partnership, the Australian cooperation and the Ford Foundation. The rainwater that falls on the roof of Canjura’s house is then channeled through a pipe into a huge polyethylene bag, with a capacity of 25,000 liters. From there, it is manually pumped into a tank with a faucet used collectively by all of the families. “Now we just pump, fill the tank and we have water ready to use,” said the 30-year-old woman to IPS, during a tour around the area in 2018. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

Drip irrigation from rainwater “harvesting” is one of the most efficient and therefore one of the most used in the communities settled in the Central American Dry Corridor. International organizations have supported these families to set up this irrigation system to be able to produce food during the severe climate that hit this area: prolonged droughts and extreme rains. Credit: FAO

 

Women play an important role in the efforts of rural communities in El Salvador to gain access to water and to set up drip irrigation systems to ensure food production, and thus people can cope with the impacts that climate change is having on the territory. IPS has witnessed how women have played a leading role in the search for food security in villages and towns across the country. Credit: FAO

 

Dennis Alejo is a Salvadoran who was deported while trying to cross into the United States from Mexico. Once in his country, he began growing tomatoes for a living in his town, Berlín, in the department of Usulután, in eastern El Salvador. Producing food in regions of Central America is becoming increasingly difficult with the impacts of climate change, and access to water is vital to prevent crops from drying up. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

Several villages located near San Luis Talpa, a municipality in the central department of La Paz, in El Salvador, have for years denounced the burning and logging of the forest in that area by the sugar industry in its quest to expand sugar cane fields. In this photograph, Judge Samuel Lizama, of the Environmental Court of San Salvador, verifies in June 2016 the damage in a deforested area in the Santo Tomás Cooperative, in that municipality. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

A woman in the hamlet of Las Monjas, in the municipality of San Luis Talpa, in central El Salvador, tries to draw some water from her well, which is increasingly running dry because groundwater in the area is scarce due to intensive sprinkler irrigation used by the sugar industry in a 209-hectare sugar cane field that surrounds the village of 800 people. The study Situation of water resources in Central America, published by Global Water Partnership, already warned in 2018 that of the total water available, only 30.6 percent goes for human consumption, while 70 percent is distributed in irrigation (50.6 percent), industrial (3.7 percent), thermoelectric power generation (13 percent), aquaculture (1.8 percent) and hotel (0.02 percent). Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

Over the years, IPS has run stories of communities affected by the country’s sugar industry, which blocks streams to build small dams to irrigate their sugar cane crops with irrigation systems. This has impacted the flow of many rivers in the country, as shown in this image by activist Silvia Ramírez, in the hamlet of San Fernando, near San Marcos Lempa, in eastern El Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

According to official figures published in 2020, 89.7% of Salvadoran households have direct access to a piped water supply, a definition including faucets inside or outside the home, a neighboring sink or communal faucet. This data shows that 5.4% of homes are supplied by wells, and the remaining 4.8%, obtain water from other sources, including: springs, rivers and streams; water truck, ox cart or waterpipe; protected and unprotected springs; rainwater harvesting; and other means. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

Nearly 5% of the Salvadoran population relies on rivers or springs to meet their needs of water, and that´s why it is still common to see families washing clothes or doing the dishes in streams and creeks, like this woman and her children, submerged waist-deep in the Aguas Calientes river, part of the Lempa river basin, near San Marcos Lempa, in the department of Usulután, El Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

Juan Benítez, president of the Nuevos Horizontes Association of Joya de Talchiga, rests on the edge of the dike built as part of the El Calambre mini-hydroelectric dam. The 40 plus families in the village have had electricity since 2012, thanks to the project they built themselves, in the mountains of eastern El Salvador. The small dike dams the water in a segment of the river, and part of the flow is directed through underground pipes to the engine house, 900 metres below, inside which a turbine makes a 58-kW generator roar. Credit: Edgardo Ayala

 

Carolina Martínez and her children stand in front of their house, lit inside by a light bulb, in the village of Joya de Talchiga in the eastern Salvadoran department of Morazán. The 36-year-old teacher is one of the beneficiaries of the community hydroelectric project, which since 2012 has provided electricity to more than 40 local families. The small hydroelectric plant was built by local residents in exchange for becoming beneficiaries of the service. The total cost of the mini-dam was over 192,000 dollars, 34,000 of which were contributed by the community with the many hours of work that the local residents put in, which were assigned a monetary value. Credit: Edgardo Ayala

 

Local residents of Potrerillos, a hamlet located in northeastern El Salvador, check the turbine and generator of the community mini-hydroelectric plant installed by the families of the village, which supplies them with cheap and sustainable energy. The mini power plant, with a capacity of 34 kilowatts (kW), harnesses the waters of the Carolina River to move a turbine that activates a generator to produce enough electricity for 40 beneficiary families, not only in Potrerillos, but also in another nearby community: Los Lobos, in the neighbouring municipality of San Antonio del Mosco. The initiative was carried out with the assistance of the Basic Sanitation, Health Education and Alternative Energies (Sabes) association. Credit: Edgardo Ayala

 

The powerhouse installed on the banks of the Carolina River, whose water puts in motion the mini-hydroelectric plant built in the Potrerillos hamlet, near the municipality of Carolina, in the eastern department of San Miguel. The mini power plant, with a capacity of 34 kilowatts (kW), produce enough electricity for 40 beneficiary families that had to work hard to get their village electrified, after being marginalised by the private electricity distribution companies in El Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

A man shows the 27-cubic-meter tank of the La Taña community hydropower system, one of four installed in this remote mountainous region populated mostly by indigenous people in the northwestern department of Quiché, Guatemala. This village followed the example of the first project in the area, the 31 de Mayo power plant, called Light of the Heroes and Martyrs of the Resistance, consists of a turbine that generates 75 kW and is powered by the waters of the Putul River, channeled by a two-kilometer concrete channel into a 40-cubic-meter tank. Credit: Edgardo Ayala

Surface water talks to groundwater and vice versa. A holistic conjunctive approach to the utilisation of these co-existing resources is indispensable to build resilience. Credit: Bigstock.

By James Sauramba
BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa, Aug 19 2021 (IPS)

Even as COVID-19 ravages communities across the continent, climate change is widening the gap between those who have access to water and sanitation – key elements in fighting the pandemic.

We know that only about 61% of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) population has access to safe drinking water and only 39% has access to adequate sanitation facilities.

Climate change continues to widen those gaps in SADC communities where an estimated 44 million people are food insecure. Climate change may have been a looming disaster in the past, but it has now materialised, ravaging our communities in the COVID-19 pandemic. We are compelled to act prudently, fast and sustainably.

If strategies are not followed by implementation, then all our efforts would be futile. Sadly, we have seen a regional trend where a lot of projects in SADC countries are piloted – and remain pilot projects, year after year. We cannot afford to have designs that gather dust.

This year’s World Water Week, held from 23-27 August under the theme “Building Resilience Faster”, recognises the need to find solutions to counter climate change and other water-related challenges.

The sustainable use of groundwater offers us a way to build resilience.

The majority of sub-Saharan Africans live in rural areas, and regionally, at least 70% of SADC inhabitants rely on groundwater. This calls for sustainable management of groundwater resources to protect vulnerable communities and strengthen them to build resilience during climate change.

However, there cannot be a silo response in our fight to build water resilience. Surface water talks to groundwater and vice versa. A holistic conjunctive approach to the utilisation of these co-existing resources is indispensable to build resilience.

As you would know, when there’s no surface water, you just see soil, but it does not mean that there is no more water. It just means the water has receded into groundwater. We can build resilience if we have well streamlined and robust strategies to manage these two water resources conjunctively.

Strategies are an integral part of realising our goals. However, if strategies are not followed by implementation, then all our efforts would be futile. Sadly, we have seen a regional trend where a lot of projects in SADC countries are piloted – and remain pilot projects, year after year.

We cannot afford to have designs that gather dust. We have pilots that demonstrate the viability of certain innovative principles and methodologies that have not reached the level of being upscaled or replicated. This means that these innovations do not reach the point of application where they could contribute to water security for the communities’ livestock, industrial development and other human settlement activities that support people’s livelihoods.

Yes, some challenges impede the successful implementation of projects including the lack of capacity and finances. However, the challenge of supporting the region’s growing population of impoverished communities amidst dwindling resources is a daunting task that we need to overcome.

SADC-GMI has seen the tangible impact of safeguarding and uplifting communities through our pilot projects implemented at community level to provide groundwater. In Chimbiya Trading Centre, in the Dedza District, Malawi, a 100-metre deep borehole was drilled and equipped to supply potable water to about 15 000 people who benefit from the groundwater for their livelihood activities. This project boosted the economy of the local trading centre. The vision is to upscale this project model in Malawi to other communities across the SADC region to help build resilience.

Besides Malawi, we have also piloted innovative infrastructure projects to benefit communities in eight other SADC Member States. SADC-GMI constantly strives to demonstrate groundwater’s invaluable role in building resilience through its sustainable use in the communities’ livelihood and WASH activities.

Development is a collaborative process. SADC-GMI has partnered with River Basin Organisations and national water ministries across the SADC region to drive their mandate of promoting sustainable groundwater management and provide solutions to groundwater challenges in the SADC region.

At the core of our strategy is the continued endeavour to involve the very community members that we serve. Communities’ customs and traditions have been around much longer than any strategy that SADC-GMI may hope to implement to serve them. We, therefore, leverage citizen science and the knowledge that they have in supporting their communities in changing conditions.

Capacity-building is an integral part of building resilience in communities. SADC-GMI partnered with World Vision Zimbabwe to offer groundwater relief in the drought-prone Dite and Whunga communities in Zimbabwe.

The communities have committees that are greatly involved in the management of the borehole infrastructure and growing vegetables in the community gardens to support their local economy and livelihoods. Collaborative efforts such as these provide holistic and sustainable management of water resources.

SDG 6 is summarised by the United Nations (UN) as ensuring “availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Our work in the water sector – including groundwater should ensure pivotal contributions to the achievement of SDG 6.

If COVID-19 has taught us anything, is that we need to proactively respond to the challenges we face. It has also taught us that we can successfully overcome these difficulties. Our actions need to be fast yet measured and should be inclusive of the people we intend to serve. That way, we can build water resilient communities.

James Sauramba is the Executive Director of the Southern African Development Community Groundwater Management Institute (SADC-GMI)

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid looks on as he addresses the first press conference in Kabul on Aug. 17, 2021 following the Taliban stunning takeover of Afghanistan. Credit: Voice of America (VOA) News

By Naomi Zeveloff
NEW YORK, Aug 19 2021 (IPS)

Steven Butler describes it as “mass panic.” As the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator has been fielding “hundreds and hundreds” of daily pleas from journalists asking for help to flee the country.

Butler, along with CPJ Asia research associate Sonali Dhawan and the organization’s Emergencies team, are now in the process of vetting those requests.

Many Afghan journalists told CPJ they are too afraid to speak on the record. To get a picture of what’s happening on the ground, I spoke to Butler and Dhawan via video about what they have learned. Their interview has been edited for length and clarity.

CPJ contacted Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid for comment via messaging app but received no response. CPJ also emailed the U.S. State Department for comment but received no response; several calls to the U.S. military failed to connect.

When did CPJ begin getting requests for help from Afghan journalists?

Butler: The requests for help from journalists who wanted to leave Afghanistan because they saw the Taliban coming started early this year. It was a trickle at the time and then it started to crescendo in July and increased by early August.

We are getting hundreds and hundreds of requests for help every day now. Many of them are journalists and some of them are not journalists, they are just trying to find a way out. It has completely flooded our system. We are doing the best we can. We have four people working on analyzing and looking into individual cases.

We value our reputation for thorough documentation on everything we do and are applying our same standard to this — we are trying to document the cases as the best we can, because we are recommending them to the U.S. government for emergency evacuation.

What can you tell us about the chaotic scenes at the airport and what it means for journalists?

Butler: As of Tuesday the area has been secured and there is a perimeter. Anytime you have a military perimeter you have a problem, because there is an outside and there is an inside, and the outside is going to be controlled by the Taliban in one way or another, so the challenge has been to figure out how to get people through an insecure situation on the streets of Kabul, how to get them checked in through this military perimeter including additional checks by the U.S. military, and then get them on to flights. We have had people that have failed to get through.

Why are Afghan journalists so desperate to leave?

Butler: As the Taliban have extended their control over the provinces, we have seen them close down media outfits and substitute their own personnel. That hasn’t always led to people being killed or put in prison necessarily, but nonetheless journalists in Afghanistan are concerned that they are going to be pushed out of their profession — at the minimum. There are a number of very prominent journalists who have been harassed or chased by the Taliban and who have gone into hiding.

What specific threats against journalists are you hearing about?

Dhawan: Journalists who identify as women and ethnic minorities, specifically the Hazara, are at particular risk. The Hazara are an ethnic minority group who were subject to mass killings during the Taliban regime in the late 1990s. Journalists who have critically covered the Taliban are also terrified.

I spoke to a journalist who was covering the Taliban takeover of a northern province — the Taliban came to his home after his reporting and they chased him out of the home. He ran away and they fired shots behind him and he managed to escape and get to Kabul. In the days after he escaped, he continued to receive calls that said, “We will find you.” Another prominent female journalist told me she received threatening calls in recent days from the Taliban that said, “Your time is over.”

One other case that I want to highlight is the takeover of the TOLO News compound, which is arguably the most prominent news channel in Afghanistan, a 24-hour channel that has covered a wide range of events and produced very critical coverage as part of this post-2001 media boom in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have interestingly taken over the compound but are still allowing journalists to broadcast, and female journalists actually came back on the air today. But we are seeing that a number of women and ethnic minority journalists are continuing to be threatened and the Taliban are showing up at their homes.

What is the Taliban presence like at TOLO News? How are the journalists there continuing to report?

Butler: It looks like the Taliban have stationed armed people around the outside of the compound mainly. When they entered the premises [on August 16] they took away government issued weapons from TOLO security but they allowed privately purchased weapons to remain.

People who have watched the recent news broadcast say it is much toned down. The women are appearing with headscarves and more conservative dress. It is really unclear what is going to happen and why the Taliban have taken what seems to be a softer approach to TOLO compared to other radio or broadcast operations in the provinces.

Are they trying to create a kind of appearance for the international community because TOLO is the best known? That is one possibility. Have they changed? They say they welcome press freedom and they are allowing women to operate in certain professional positions. I don’t think that people are taking what they say at face value. There is a lot of skepticism given the documented history of brutality by the Taliban.

What specifically did the Taliban say about press freedom?

Dhawan: The Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, conducted a press conference [yesterday] and it really goes to show how brave Afghan journalists are because they were asking really tough questions, particularly about women in the country.

He said the Taliban will allow all media outlets to continue their activities on three conditions, the first being there should be no broadcast that will contradict Islamic values, the second that they should be impartial, the third that no one should broadcast anything against the national interest. What we are seeing on the public platform is not matching the realities on the ground, because several radio stations in provinces, newspapers, and news outlets have shut down amid fighting as the Taliban took over.

What is the Taliban trying to convey with these comments about press freedom?

Butler: I would look on it pessimistically. Governments use this kind of double talk all over the region and all over the world to find ways to restrict what journalists do. It could well be that the Taliban have seen what other countries are doing in terms of rhetoric and are imitating it.

It is a fact that democracy and press freedom are values that are universally spoken about but only rarely fully embraced. I think that we may see that pattern repeat itself in Afghanistan. Hopefully not. Hopefully they actually believe what they are saying, but we will have to see.

You mentioned that female journalists are at particular risk. What else are you hearing from women?

Dhawan: Most of the female journalists I have spoken to are absolutely terrified and have left their homes and gone into hiding somewhere. This is because there are several local reports of women journalists who have had their homes searched or the Taliban have showed up at their homes. And that is a particularly traumatizing experience.

A lot of women journalists who work in the fields of arts and culture or education are equally terrified. I know of several women journalists that work in these fields and are actively receiving threats from the Taliban. The Taliban did show up at the home of one very prominent journalist and said they would come back to her home and are looking for her.

What other journalistic beats could draw the attention of the Taliban?

Butler: Journalists have a history of their own work that lives on social media. I have been told that many journalists are now trying to scrub their social media profiles and deleting articles to try to hide that past. It is hard to say going forward what are going to be the sensitive issues, but journalists who were highly critical of the Taliban in the past could face a kind of reckoning.

There’s a journalist I have been in touch with quite a lot. He and his wife were able to get out. But they are desperate now to get their families out. They say that the Taliban is going to go after their families because of their highly critical reporting on the Taliban in the past. I don’t know if that is going to be the case. I hope it is not. But they are convinced that their families will be killed.

You described a “media boom” in Afghanistan after 2001. Can you say more about what is at risk of being lost at this moment?

Dhawan: Afghan journalists have done incredibly thoughtful and diligent work over the past 20 years to build a thriving press. They have braved the dangers of a military occupation, the presence of militant groups in the country and they have reported critically during these extremely dangerous times.

The precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan has led to a complete collapse of the government and security forces, leaving journalists at severe risk of violence. There are simply no avenues for journalists to seek protection from authorities and they are essentially relying on their own community, their neighbors, and family members for protection at this point.

As much as there is a need for journalists to get out of the country and CPJ is doing its best to do that work, journalists who want to remain in the country must be allowed to freely report on the extent of a humanitarian crisis that is about to occur.

Butler: The international community totally failed to create a stable democracy, but they did succeed in creating a thriving press. There was a lot of money – U.S. government money, USAID, private foundation money — to support and get these operations going because of course a free press is the absolute foundation of democracy. It stuck.

We had a case a couple of weeks ago of people being forced into an interview with a Taliban local commander and made to promise that they would broadcast the interview. They came back and refused to do it because it wasn’t good journalism just to broadcast one side, so they went into hiding in Kabul.

They got some of the lessons of what good journalism consists of and if you look at TOLO News, all these news outlets, a lot of it is quality journalism. And, of course, the international press relied heavily on local journalists. This is really a remarkable achievement and it would be a terrible shame for it to disappear completely. It would be wonderful for some of that spirit of press freedom and quality journalism and reporting to live on even if the previous government, the collapsed government of Afghanistan, no longer exists.

Before I let you get back to your work, is there anything else that has struck you from this past week that you’d like to share?

Dhawan: I was in contact with a journalist who is being actively threatened by the Taliban. She has been messaging me every day, afraid for her life. She is sheltered in a hotel right now and I told her we are working with the U.S. government to evacuate her and will continue to provide updates about her case as soon as we receive them. She said, “I may not be alive by that time.”

Source: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Features Editor, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

The BBC is told they were forced to fight for Tigray's rebels, but were words put into their mouths?

When Djamel Ben Ismail went to fight forest fires in Algeria, his life was cut short by a raging mob.

By Marty Logan
KATHMANDU, Aug 18 2021 (IPS)

Do you think it’s possible to transform communities that are stagnating from a lack of currency into places where people’s income-generating activities create a vibrant, self-sustaining circular economy?  It is in parts of Kenya that are using the community currency Sarafu, according to today’s guest.

Shaila Agha is Director of Grassroots Economics, which developed Sarafu. She tells us how coupling the currency—which is traded via wallets on mobile phones—with a development initiative, like more sustainable farming techniques, can transform communities. They go from places where a shortage of Kenya shillings can squelch economic activity to being communities where each person is given an equal chance to participate and is rewarded for being an active member.

This is such an intriguing initiative and seems so full of promise. That probably explains why the number of users has jumped 500% since January 2020, and why Sarafu could soon be expanding from Kenya into Cameroon. A bonus is that the currency works on blockchain technology, making it fully transparent, a feature that attracted a recent investment from UNICEF’s Innovation Centre.

If you enjoyed this episode of Strive, please help spread the word by rating or reviewing the show on Apple podcasts. You can also subscribe, follow or favourite Strive on any podcast app.

Stay up-to-date with us between episodes on Twitter and Facebook, at IPS News. You can email me at mlogan@ipsnews.net.

Resources

Grassroots Economics

 

Adama Dieng (centre), visited Yei River State in South Sudan while he was the United Nations Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide. He now calls for urgent action to alleviate the humanitarian crisis. Credit: UN Photo/Isaac Billy

By Alison Kentish
NEW YORK, Aug 18 2021 (IPS)

Despite a June 30 unilateral ceasefire declaration by Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed, United Nations agencies say a recent escalation in fighting has been ‘disastrous’ for children, amid reports of over 100 children being killed in an attack on displaced families.

It follows continuing reports of human rights abuses and warnings that over 400,000 face famine. Recently, a group of renowned peace leaders wrote to the President, urging him to take immediate action to end the crisis in the northern Tigray region.

The region has been embroiled in conflict since November 2020, when long-standing tensions between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) came to a head, with the Prime Minister launching a military operation he described at the time as a ‘law and order operation.’ He had accused the TPLF of targeting government military units and holding illegal elections.

“Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was praised as a great reformer when he assumed office in 2018. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for a peace deal that ended a two-decade war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. But today, he is presiding over a civil war that has escalated out of control, with reports of mass atrocities committed by Ethiopian forces, and no end in sight,” former president of East Timor-Leste and Nobel Peace Laureate José Ramos-Horta wrote in Newsweek.

The group of concerned peace leaders includes Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former Slovenian President Danilo Turk, Former President of Finland Tarja Halonen, former UN and Arab League Special Envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, Former Member of the Nobel Peace Committee, Chair of Religions for Peace Emeritus Bishop of Oslo Dr Gunnar Stålsett and former UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng.

They called on the leader to end this war – along with the suffering on the people of the region ‘which has already been too great.”

The following is an interview with Adama Dieng.

Inter Press Service (IPS): What are some of your biggest concerns regarding the situation in Tigray?

Adama Dieng (AD): What is happening in Tigray is a tragedy. It is a reminder that conflict is never a solution to any dispute! Dialogue is the way out of any such situation.
My biggest worry is the well-being and safety of the people of Tigray. Innocent lives have been lost unnecessarily. Women and children, and people with disabilities have been clamped into IDP makeshift camps with little or no access to vital humanitarian support.

Humanitarian access is a challenge that warring parties need to address. The United Nations and other partners should be granted unequivocal access to deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance to the population in need.

But also, the looming, indeed actual famine that is threatening the livelihood of the local population. All reports we get from the region indicate that famine is looming. How do we avert this?

This is a farming/planting season in the region. Yet, people are in camps, unable to go back to their homes ready for planting season. Without addressing the conflict, it is evident that there is a looming catastrophe because people cannot go back to their homes.

(IPS): The UN Secretary-General expressed shock at the murder of 3 humanitarian workers in Tigray, stating that this was ‘an appalling violation of International Humanitarian Law.’ With this development, along with the casualties over the past eight months, is it time for the international community to take a firmer stance?

(AD): As you may know, very well, the Secretary-General and the United Nations family have called for an unconditional ceasefire to allow free and unhindered access to humanitarians. These voices should be heeded by both parties.

Any death is tragic. Leave alone humanitarian workers who sacrifice their comfort and life to work in such dangerous and insecure areas. People who commit such heinous crimes should be held to account and face the full force of the law.

The warring parties should know very clearly that there are consequences for the ongoing and continued violations of international humanitarian law and human rights. I have no doubt that those responsible will be held to account for these violations. Unfortunately, accountability will come when people have suffered and continue to endure suffering. It is critical that the conflict stops.

I understand, some member states and regional organizations continue to put pressure on the government of Ethiopia to stop this war. By ensuring the full withdrawal of foreign forces and ensure safety and security of the people in Tigray.

The priority should be to stop the war and guarantee peace and safety for the people to resume their normal lives. As we speak, The United Nations in Ethiopia has reported a spiraling number of IDPs running to seek sanctuary in other areas of Ethiopia and indeed in Sudan. We need to return to normal to allow people to return to their homes. And people can’t return without a guarantee of peace and security.

(IPS): Many aid agencies have expressed concern over the plight of Eritrean refugees in the Region. What must be done now to do right by the thousands of refugees in urgent need of assistance?

(AD): Of course, I share this concern. However, Eritrean refugees are protected under the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1969 OAU Convention. Ethiopia has an inherent obligation to ensure that these refugees on its territory are afforded protection as required under international law. I believe, Ethiopia as a signatory to these critical documents, understands this obligation and will ensure that Eritrean refugees are afforded requisite protection under national and international law.

(IPS): Do you support calls for independent investigators to probe allegations of human rights abuses?

(AD): Certainly. Ethiopia is a signatory to a wide range of international and regional human rights treaties. It is a headquarter of the African Union and other regional institutions. It has an obligation to ensure that those who commit crimes on its territory are investigated and punished in accordance with these international laws and standards, which are part of Ethiopian laws. I am therefore confident that the Ethiopian government is willing and will be fully supportive of independent investigations for alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law that may have been committed on its territory.

(IPS): Does the declaration of a ceasefire bring hope to this situation?

(DG): This ceasefire gives me hope. But again, as you know, declaring the ceasefire and respecting the ceasefire are two different things. My primary concern is whether, both parties will respect the ceasefire. The key aspect is that we need to support all efforts that end this war which, has tragically led to the loss of life, livelihood, and dignity of innocent people in the region. If warring parties feel that they may need external support to action this, I am sure the international community, through wide range of tools and mechanisms, would be happy and ready to support them to ensure that the ceasefire endures!

(IPS): As someone who has helped establish mechanisms like early warning systems to prevent genocide and atrocity crimes, what comes to mind when you assess this situation?

(AD): The situation in the Tigray reminds us that early warning can be successful only if it is linked to early action. If we are serious about prevention, we must be prepared to act earlier, when we see the first signs of concern. One can say that we are failing the populations in Tigray.

The primary responsibility to protect the Tigrean populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, as well as their incitement, lies first and foremost with the State of Ethiopia. Such responsibility to protect was reaffirmed by the United Nations Member States when adopting, in 2005, the World Summit Outcome Document. They committed to assisting each other to fulfill this responsibility and to act collectively when States “manifestly failed” to protect their populations from these crimes. This was the first such international commitment to protect populations from atrocity crimes. It is deplorable that many states use the principle of sovereignty to resist external assistance to their affected populations.

In case leaders are serious about preventing violent conflict, they must be open to seek assistance to protect their populations in the framework of the Summit Outcome Document. Failure or unwillingness to seek such assistance, may imply that the state is either implicitly or explicitly responsible for the violence. That is why I always caution leaders around the world that if they don’t take demonstrable action to prevent atrocities against their own citizens, then under the principle of command responsibility, they could be held accountable.

It is urgent also to remind African leaders that the African Union, under its Constitutive Act, has one of the most developed early warning mechanisms with a requisite legal framework for prevention. The Act under Article 2 obligates AU Member states to intervene in situations to prevent genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. This legal framework, if put into practice, goes way ahead of the United Nations to prevent armed conflicts. The serious crimes being committed in Tigray could have been prevented as there were credible assessments of imminent threats to populations.

It would mean that our governments, regional and international organizations build resilient and cohesive societies. And when we see signs of fragility, we should take early preventative actions. We should be open to mediation, dialogue, and technical assistance in areas that could trigger conflict, for example, in electoral processes or constitution-making.

 

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A person browsing through social media on a laptop computer (content blurred to protect privacy). Meanwhile, a group of UN-appointed experts called for a moratorium on the sale of surveillance technology, warning against the danger of allowing the sector to operate as “a human rights-free zone.” August 2021. Credit: World Bank/Simone D. McCourtie

By David Balaban
AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands, Aug 18 2021 (IPS)

Ransomware is deploying its encryption right on your computer. The malicious process runs in the background as you continue your everyday activities suspecting no cyber disaster ahead.

Out of the blue, a message appears reading something like this:

“Your files are encrypted. Don’t worry, you can get your files back. If you want to have your data decrypted, send 0.5 BTC to the following wallet: [Wallet address].

Once you pay, send the payment details to [email].”

How are you going to respond to such an attack? To pay or not to pay? That is the question. You may resort to negotiating a paid decryption with the ransomware operators or run a data recovery campaign.

The latter is preferable and should involve enough IT security skills. Industry professionals have been fighting ransomware for quite a while. Their key suggestion is that victims should never panic and learn some basics on the threat they face instead.

Encryption for ransom is on the rise

Ransomware evolved to a top threat back in 2013 as the hackers figured out they could apply sophisticated yet quite accessible encryption and collect a good deal of money for the decryption key.

According to CNBC, in 2020 the cybercrooks operating encryption campaigns collected $350 million from their victims.

Ransomware deploys two basic scenarios. One targets the files that are the most critical for their holder. This saves time avoiding early detection.

The other does not bother with any selection encrypting all the files it can reach. This takes time but ensures all your important data get locked.

Once the ransomware completes its encryption, its removal does not help in recovering your data. All your business processes may get stuck if critical data is inaccessible.

Ransomware common infection vectors

The extorters keep on refining propagation methods for the malware that encrypts computer data for ransom. The majority of the tactics leverage a deception whereby the users get lured into enabling ransomware installation.

That is to say, they use social engineering scams. Other techniques resort to vulnerabilities in the software and OS and require no human intervention at all.

Phishing messages

Email attachment is a common source of encrypting ransomware. A spoofing email looks like a routine message. A user does not suspect any fraud and either downloads the content attached or follows the link included. This entails ransomware installation that executes its encryption payload and comes up with its demands.

Highly targeted phishing campaigns are the most popular among these scams. Also known as spear phishing, such fraudulent practices avoid spamming and mass-mailing. They target specific persons while impersonating somebody they know or would trust.

To increase the credibility of their messages, the phishers use data available through open-source inelegance (OSINT). LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social accounts tell a lot about their owners, and the hackers take advantage of that. On the other end, the attackers draw up their email as if it were dispatched by your current counterparty or client.

Encryption-for-ransom coming from the pages you visit

Certain pages host a malicious script that exploits your browser and other software vulnerabilities or use a variety of drive-by download tactics enticing users to enable the ransomware installation.

The misleading letters circulated by the fraudsters may contain links to such websites. Your browsing also gets redirected to the corrupted web pages as you click hyperlinks, banner ads, or pop-ups.

Vulnerabilities in data sharing and networking

Not a single operating system is flawless. Bugs and security breaches in cyber environments and software provide a range of options for viruses and trojans to propagate without user participation.

A recent example is Qlocker ransomware exploiting vulnerabilities in QNAP apps to compromise NAS devices.

Impacts and scale of vulnerability-based attacks are critical. A malicious executable can spread across computer systems and networks infecting a great number of devices in a very short time.

Best practices of preventing ransomware

Ensure your staff members acquire security skills and awareness.

Drive-by downloads and other prevailing methods of ransomware propagation exploit a human factor. A rule of thumb is to provide security training to your personnel that would include insights into encryption-for-ransom.

The key point is to teach every person in your company to verify and examine contents and links in the emails and on the websites before opening them. Pay special attention to training your staff on dealing with the letters that look like spam or sent by persons unknown to them.

This will help to mitigate the risks of ransomware attacks originating from contaminated email attachments and spear phishing.

Update your apps and OS in time

Did you know that the most successful extorters exploited the same security flaw in Windows back in 2017? Their ransomware campaigns distributed NotPetya and WannaCry encryption viruses. They affected the greatest number of computers at the end of the spring and the beginning of summer.

Meanwhile, the patch for the vulnerability was made available already in March. The businesses affected had two months to apply the patch. That only required them to allow Windows update, but they ended up with multi-billion losses.

So. the best practice here is to not reinvent the wheel. Just enable automatic updates for your apps and OS. Yes, I also hate those update alerts and forced relaunching. This is but a slight annoyance compared to the damages this routine prevents.

Keep your data backed up

Maintaining backups is a sure way to avoid any fund transfers to ransomware accounts even if they encrypt every bit of data on your computer. Some items that you would love to retain might remain beyond this measure as backing up all the data bulk is not feasible.

So, make sure you secure your critical files at least. These usually are the files that your business cannot operate without.

Restrict your staff data access privileges to what is required

People tend to underestimate the impacts of this routine. Meanwhile, it can reduce the exposure of your business to encryption dramatically. If there is no truly critical data to encrypt, there is no truly critical encryption.

Even if you have your data available in backup copies, restoring all the files might take too long and still result in significant outages and losses.

Does this particular employee need all the data available for the account? Perhaps, you can restrict the amount of data available at times while most of the staff members would not even notice that. They will still be able to do their job without any inconvenience.

Dealing with encrypting malware and conclusions to be made

You will recover from ransomware in no time if you have your data backed up and response measures implemented.

Upon eliminating intimidate impacts of the attack, it’s time to learn your lessons. Let’s figure out why and how the malware managed to infect your system and encrypt your data. Have your staff members handled an infected message without due caution?

Or maybe one of your employees visited a website that contained a malicious redirect? Have you checked your software for bugs and vulnerabilities? This checklist is not exhaustive. In any case, apply the best practices laid down above to avoid further instances of successful ransomware attacks.

In most cases, the malware manages to encrypt files due to the user’s oversight or lack of awareness. That is why cybersecurity training is a must-do.

Do not try to blame it all on a particular person. Even if there is one, the key reason is the lack of IT skills and information provided in a way that meets each employee’s skills and behavior. Scapegoating is a bad idea as that would not let you duly review the accident and derive valuable conclusions.

Where you deal with a human factor behind the encryption scam, notify your employees of the mishap, and invite cybersecurity experts to redesign and maintain the IT infrastructure of your business.

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is a computer security researcher with over 17 years of experience in malware analysis and antivirus software evaluation.