Africa

Zimbabwe's Blessing Muzarabani may have a permanent smile on his face, but he will pose a serious threat to England at Trent Bridge this week, writes Stephan Shemilt.

M23 rebels in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The group has been accused of gross human rights abuse of civilians. Credit: Wambi Michael/IPS

By Wambi Michael
KAMPALA, May 21 2025 (IPS)

Political instability and conflicts in the Great Lakes, the Horn of Africa, Sudan, and South Sudan have led to massive displacements and civilian suffering, and because the whole region is in crisis, the civilian population has few places to find refuge.

In the Great Lakes, Africa faces its most severe political crisis in more than 20 years; the M23 crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has displaced more than 3.7 million people—many of them for the second time.

Recently, researchers and humanitarian workers have reported at various forums that civilians caught in the middle of this conflict are facing a humanitarian crisis.

“We have faced unprecedented atrocities. There has been mass rape of women in Khartoum, apart from the abduction of girls to be sold as slaves in Darfur,” said Dr. Faiz Jamie, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Bahri-Sudan.

“The aim behind atrocities against the villagers is so that they can loot comfortably,” argues Jaime.

The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began on April 15, 2023, after a breakdown in the transition to civilian rule, following the overthrow of long-time President Omar al-Bashir.

“RSF is now in control of the Darfur region. But the region is the most devastated as far as civilians are concerned. Genocidal activities were identified against the Masalit ethnic group, where people were buried alive, as documented by videos uploaded by the very perpetrators (the RSF),” said Jaime.

He said civilians are bearing the brunt of the conflict because the rationale behind the war is to drive them out of the cities and villages into settler-like camps.

For the last two years, the conflict has mainly been in the capital, Khartoum. But more recently, the fighters have spread to other towns and regions.

Attacks on civilians have been reported in ZamZam camp, Abu Shouk camp, Al Fasher, and North Darfur.

On April 25, the UN Human Rights Office said that it had listed at least 481 civilians killed in North Darfur since April 10 and that “the actual number is likely much higher.”

In the statement, UN rights chief Volker Turk said, “The suffering of the Sudanese people is hard to imagine, harder to comprehend, and simply impossible to accept.”

“Deliberately taking the life of a civilian or anyone not or no longer directly participating in hostilities is a war crime.”

The RSF is accused of deliberate assaults on medical facilities and the killing of nine Sudanese aid workers from Relief International.

Sudan INGO Forum, a coordination and representation body, added, “What is happening in ZamZam, Abu Shouk camp, and Al Fasher is not just a tragedy—it is an atrocity. Civilians are being starved, slaughtered, and prevented from fleeing. Aid workers and local volunteer responders are being hunted (down).”

Over 13 million had been internally displaced as of April 2025, and 3.3 million had fled to neighboring countries, namely Chad, South Sudan, and Ethiopia.

Displacement from Sudan’s conflict has left well over 13 million people displaced. Credit: UNHCR/Reason Moses Runyanga

“Ending the suffering of the suffering Sudanese civilians requires regional and international pressure on the United Arab Emirates to stop arming and funding the RSF,” suggests Jamie.

Alon Ben-Meir, a retired professor of international relations, said both sides are entrenched, with external backers.

“The United Arab Emirates (UAE) backs the RSF, while Egypt supports the SAF, which prolongs the conflict. These divisions led to the failure of the peace talks in Jeddah in late 2023 because of mutual distrust and competing regional interests,” he observed in an article titled A Nation Bleeds While The World Watches: The Tragedy In Sudan Must End.

Alex De Waal, Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation and Research Professor, Tufts University, has studied the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region for close to 40 years. He said what is being witnessed in that region is a catastrophe on an even greater scale than earlier conflicts.

“All famines are man-made and, in general language, deliberate. Political decisions have triggered every famine. We have had deliberate starvation or reckless indifference to human life. That is what is happening in Darfur,” said De Waal.

According to De Waal, the conflict in Sudan is the biggest by magnitude and the war in the Horn of Africa threatens what he describes as a mass mortality event in more than a generation.

“We have never before had a situation in which all the countries of this region are in the same kind of crisis at the same time,” he said

“In the past, if we had a humanitarian emergency in South Sudan, people would move from there to Northern Sudan; if we had a crisis in Darfur, they could move to Chad or Khartoum; and in the 1984 famine in Ethiopia, many people from Tigray moved to Khartoum as refugees. Those things are not possible when the whole region is in crisis,” he added.

He suggested that immediate response needs to be informed by an effort to address the political and economic causes of the conflicts in the Horn of Africa.

“It didn’t happen overnight. We need to call out the men. I repeat, men made these famines. And we need to look out for the economic breakdown preceding this.  Sudan, for instance, will need an enormous bailout. Ethiopia is going to need some fundamental economic restructuring.”

The Horn of Africa faces a humanitarian crisis as some 90 million people are in danger of famine. War continues to rage in South Sudan and Sudan, while a fragile peace has taken hold in Ethiopia after the Tigray War of 2020-2022.

Observers have noted that the region’s borders, unlike those in the rest of Africa, are in flux, as secessionist movements have successfully given birth to new states in South Sudan and Eritrea and a de facto state in Somaliland.

Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Director of Columbia SIPA’s Kent Global Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution, said the Horn of Africa is a victim of geopolitics at the moment.

“Where every country is looked at through the prism of geopolitical competition. Ethiopia has connections with the west, it also has strong connections with China. And every country is looking at how it is going to position itself,” observes Guéhenno, a former UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping.

He has noted that the divisions among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council—China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America—in a way empower regional actors who may not necessarily want to support a peace process.

“So the division in the security council turns into the divisions in the regional divisions. And we see it certainly in the Horn, where you have different perspectives from different African countries, and you also have countries from the Gulf, which all have different interests. And so the situation is incredibly more complicated and, I would say, more fragmented,” notes Guéhenno.

The Gulf States stand accused of indulging in destabilizing political patronage of African actors, creating perverse incentives that undermine the foundations of peace.

The burden of the conflicts in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region countries like DRC, among others, is disproportionately borne by women and children.

In the East of the mineral-rich DRC, in North Kivu and South Kivu, fighting between Congolese security forces and militant groups led by M23 escalated, culminating in M23’s capture of Goma. The fight has forced thousands of people to flee, sometimes multiple times.

“They are living in difficult conditions, often in extreme vulnerability. The multiple frontlines and the use of heavy artillery have led to many casualties, including an increasing number of civilians,” said Francine Kongolo, the spokesperson of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

ICRC said from the beginning of February 2025, more than 1400 weapon-wounded civilians had been treated at its surgical projects in the North and South Kivu provinces.

The United Nations Human Rights Office has documented more than 200 cases of rape and sexual violence in Eastern DRC since the start of the violence, some of which allegedly were perpetrated by M23.

“Reports from health facilities indicate a rise in rape cases, with children accounting for 30 percent of those treated,” the office said in a statement.

“As offensives intensify, more than 700,000 people, 41 percent of whom are school-aged children, have been displaced, and the number of casualties, including among children, is mounting at an alarming rate. A majority of cases remain unreported, and this may only be the tip of the iceberg.”

Meskerem Geset Techane, a human rights lawyer based in Ethiopia, has observed that the crisis in the Horn of Africa is a human rights crisis itself.

“Be it the food crisis or a peace crisis, it has taken a heavy toll on the protection of human rights across the region. We have seen the peace crisis in Ethiopia, Sudan, and South Sudan. It has not only violated the right to peace itself but also a range of fundamental human rights,” said Techane.

Jackline Nasiwa, Executive Director of the Center for Inclusive Governance, Peace, and Justice, said people of South Sudan are tired and traumatized.

Assefaw Bariagaber, a professor of diplomacy and international the readiness of these countries to amass such weapons without punishment from the international system is worrying.

“The availability of not only large amounts of armaments but also much more modern armaments, devastating armaments, needs to be checked; that is what has increased violence and civilian suffering. More than 150,000 people have lost their lives, and over 25 million have been displaced, including me,” he said.

There is a feeling that the institutions under the African Union and the leaders have not done what they should to protect the civilians from the disturbing increase in violence by the armed combatants.

Dr. Sabastiano Rwengabo, a Ugandan Political Scientist suggested the need to pressure states to strengthen institutions so they can  “bite,” including, where necessary, against states.

“It is because of some of these dishonesties and vested interests that member states don’t allow regional or continental bodies to act in a way that would prevent or reverse civilian victimization in armed conflicts,” Rwengabo told IPS.

Last month the DRC and Rwanda-backed M23 in April agreed to pause fighting as they work towards a broader peace deal.

Critics of the African Union processes said the truce wouldn’t have been possible if Qatar had not arranged a meeting between Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Felix Tshisekdi of the DRC.

In a diplomatic tone, Kagame did not attribute the truce to the Qatar meeting but to what he described as several efforts at the same time.

“You look at the whole continent, and you find many trouble spots in different areas in different areas. There are all kinds of efforts going on back and forth. Succeeding in some places and not succeeding in others. These are some of the problems of the past and how we have handled our affairs,” said Kagame while addressing the Africa CEO Forum 2025 in Abidjan.

Part of the African-led efforts in resolving the conflict in DRC involved the deployment of South African troops participating in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The South African troops were withdrawn as the M23 captured the conflict zone in Goma.

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa explained that the processes under the Nairobi accord, the Luanda process and the African Union process have been essential in building a foundation of peace-making and also confidence-building.

 

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Credit: Joseph Barrientos on Unsplash
 
The Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) will be held in Nice, France, from June 9 to 13, 2025. This event will bring together world leaders, scientists, and stakeholders to discuss the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans. The conference's overarching theme is "Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean".

By Peter Thomson
NICE, France, May 21 2025 (IPS)

The United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) takes place every three years and in just a few weeks, the international community will gather in Nice, France, at a time when the International Science Council has called for the world to address the new reality of a disrupted Earth system.

Research has found that global human health is intrinsically linked to the health of the ocean, but consequences predicted by science are beginning to confront us, with the current global coral bleaching and mortality event being the most intense on record, sea surface temperatures continuing to skyrocket and microplastics found in 60 percent of fish, it is now impossible to ignore that climate change and associated environmental stressors are impacting the ocean system and human wellbeing.

Credit: Pexels – Pixabay

Despite this linkage, UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14), which is meant to support the conservation and sustainable use of ocean resources, remains the least funded of any SDG—receiving just 0.01 percent of all development funding.

UNOC is therefore a crucial moment for the world to come together and take bold action in support of sustainable ocean economies.

Three special events will be held in the days before the conference: the One Ocean Science Congress which will gather the world’s leading ocean scientists to deliberate on the science we need for the ocean we want; the Blue Economy and Finance Forum, which will focus on transformative financing for ocean action; and the third will launch a coalition of cities and coastal communities to advance global and local response to sea level rise.

Climate change has already led to a four-inch rise in sea level since satellite measurement began in 1993 and the UN has calculated that 900 million people living in low-lying coastal areas are going to be placed in acute danger.

All three special event subjects demand concerted international attention in these challenging times.

Thankfully, important work has already begun. In 2022, the world agreed that in order to prevent a massive loss of biodiversity on this planet, we must set about protecting 30% of the planet by 2030 through the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

In pursuance of that goal, a 30×30 Ocean Action Plan will be presented at UNOC to give attention to new funding models for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), and with the opportunity to ratify the High Seas Treaty enabling of protected areas in the High Seas.

It is hoped that by the time the Nice conference is underway that the required number of national ratifications of the High Seas Treaty will have been received, thus allowing the treaty to come into force this year.

However, our management of the ocean must be as interconnected as the ocean itself—the 100% Alliance, is a crucial opportunity where countries commit to sustainably manage 100% of their national waters through evidence-based Sustainable Ocean Plans. By joining this initiative, countries can show their ambition and commitment to a more sustainably productive and prosperous ocean economy that benefits both people and nature.

The Alliance’s comprehensive management approach, coupled with the 30×30 goal, will ensure that new MPAs are not only established, but are effectively managed and financed as part of an integrated ocean stewardship agenda.

Meanwhile, a commitment to science-based sustainable management of fish-stocks must extend to the cessation of harmful fisheries subsidies. The latter are largely enjoyed by industrial fishing fleets, busy depleting the ocean of its declining resources.

At the WTO in Geneva the necessary agreement to end harmful subsidies is very close to reality, with the salutary effect of the UN Ocean Conference likely to facilitate the desired WTO consensus.

The conference will work towards the curtailment of marine pollution and will in tandem be urging the attainment this year of a robust, internationally-binding plastics treaty. In this task we must not stumble, for agreement on the proposed treaty is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to control plastic production and pollution.

There is no doubt that control is required, for it is estimated that somewhere between one and three million tonnes of microplastics enter the ocean in a year.

Scientific evidence is clear that these particles can absorb and accumulate toxic pollutants, and that they can cross biological barriers, posing risks to the health of oceanic food webs. I emphasise the word health, for emerging evidence of the harm being done to humans by the unregulated chemicals present in many plastics, is of growing concern to us all.

At the conclusion of the 10th Our Ocean Conference (OOC) in Busan, Korea, at the end of April, it was announced that the annual meetings have generated $160 billion over the past decade in voluntary commitments to improve the ocean. An important achievement in mobilizing the necessary finance, but a much greater global ambition is required to address the urgent challenges.

As we prepare for the 3rd UN Ocean Conference may we all dedicate ourselves to the true course set by multilateralism and the observance of international law. Without further delay, may we commit ourselves to a just transition to net zero, to an equitably electrified world powered by renewable energy.

Let us find hope in progress and allow reason and innovation to overcome the mounting challenges ahead. Let us take the tide while it serves, and through faithful implementation of SDG14, may we bequeath a healthy ocean to our children and grandchildren.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

Ambassador Peter Thomson is UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean

Augustin Ponyo Matata is found guilty of his part in embezzling about $245m.

The judge orders the migrants to be kept in US government custody, holding the plane on the tarmac if necessary.

It is the latest sign of victory from the military who have made gains against the RSF since March.

Despite having around 159 health facilities, including hospitals and clinics, much of Helmand Province’s population remains without access to essential healthcare services. Credit: Credit: Learning Together.

By External Source
MARJA DISTRICT, HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan, May 20 2025 (IPS)

Bibi Gul, a pregnant woman from Helmand’s Marja District, walked two hours to reach the nearest health center in search of treatment for her moderate malnutrition.

“Our economic situation is not very bad,” she said upon arrival. “But the doctors told me that if I don’t treat my malnutrition or eat fortified foods during pregnancy, my children will also be born malnourished. Still, we dare not talk about this at home.”

Her story is far from unique in Afghanistan, where hunger continues to devastate millions. According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), an estimated 15 million Afghans urgently need food assistance to survive. Yet the agency is severely underfunded and unable to meet the growing demand.

Afghanistan’s largely rural and agrarian population depends on subsistence farming. With limited access to healthcare and a weak transportation infrastructure, food insecurity and poor health outcomes are widespread—particularly for women and children.

“I’ve been working to prevent malnutrition in this province for nearly five years,” says Dr. Esmatullah, a health inspector overseeing nutrition programs in Helmand. “Ignorance is a major driver. In remote areas, most mothers don’t know how to change their diets during pregnancy, and often, the male head of the household doesn’t understand the issue either.”

The situation in Helmand Province reflects a nationwide crisis. Home to around 1.5 million people, Helmand is one of Afghanistan’s largest provinces. Most families rely on small-scale farming, and many cannot afford the cost of traveling long distances to reach medical care.

Recent data paints a bleak picture: one in four children in Helmand suffers from moderate to severe acute malnutrition. An estimated 40 percent of pregnant and lactating women are also moderately malnourished. Experts attribute the crisis to food shortages, infectious diseases, and low awareness of basic nutritional needs.

Staffing shortages further complicate the response. Although nearly 2,500 people work in Helmand’s health sector, only 310 are dedicated to nutrition services. As a result, many malnutrition cases go undetected or untreated. A recent study found that, on average, just 10 children and eight women receive nutritional support each day in clinics across the province—a fraction of those in need.

Helmand has approximately 159 health facilities, including hospitals and primary clinics. But long distances, a lack of vehicles, and limited resources prevent many families from accessing them.

Acute Malnutrition (GAM) level among children under five in Helmand is 18 percent, which is above the World Health Organization’s critical threshold of 15 percent.

Officials are nevertheless trying to bring the situation under control in spite of the acute lack of resources and the gravity of the situation, says Dr. Madina, who works in the maternal and child nutrition department at a health centre in the Gereshk district of Helmand province.

“We implement nutrition programs to manage moderate acute malnutrition and severe acute malnutrition”, she says.

Dr. Madina says they distribute ready-to-use food supplements to manage the dietary requirement of children under six months and older suffering from moderate acute malnutrition.

Ready-to-use supplementary food and super cereals are also supplied to pregnant and lactating mothers. They also conduct awareness programmes on proper nutrition and healthcare in health centres, according to Madina.

“Malnutrition rates are alarmingly high here,” says Dr. Madina. “It’s heartbreaking when women come from remote areas with their children, hoping for help, while our resources remain limited.”

To reduce the problem, inter-sectoral cooperation and the implementation of comprehensive nutrition and support programs are essential, experts say.

Excerpt:

The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasons

A panel on nuclear disarmament held ahead of the 2026 Review of the Treaty of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, May 20 2025 (IPS)

The argument for nuclear disarmament is perhaps more relevant than it has been since the end of World War II, especially in a world where there is a growing gulf between nuclear states and between nuclear states and those who don’t have the weapons.

In an event held at the sidelines of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) (April 28-May 9), a panel of experts deliberated over how nuclear disarmament must be achieved in the modern day. The panel was co-organized by Soka Gakkai International (SGI) and the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the United Nations in New York.

As new conflicts break out and pre-existing conflicts seem to drag on and escalate, there is a greater need for global parties to reach consensus on security matters, including the place of nuclear weapons in a post-Cold War era. William Potter, the director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, expressed concern about the “erosion” of the norms for nuclear weapons.

“To say the least, the world is in a state of disarray. It’s hard to distinguish traditional allies from adversaries,” said Potter.

Potter remarked on a “growing gulf” between nuclear states—countries that possess nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction—and non-nuclear states when it comes to the urgency with which the issue of nuclear disarmament needs to be addressed.

“It is not the nuclear weapon itself… rather, the true adversary lies in the thinking that rationalizes and justifies the use of nuclear weapons,” said Chie Sunada, SGI’s Director of Disarmament and Human Rights. “It’s the dangerous mindset to annihilate others when they’re perceived as a threat or an obstacle to their objective. It is that way of thinking that disregards the sanctity of life, [which] we must collectively defend.”

Even as some global powers debate over relaxing the restrictions on nuclear weapon deployment, there are still effective, diplomatic tools that are being employed to promote disarmament. One such example is the Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zones, as codified in region-specific treaties.

Countries across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Pacific, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia agree not to possess nuclear arms or conduct testing. For non-nuclear states, these zones allow them to “[assert] their agency” and “the right to dictate how their regional security is formulated,” according to Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova, Japan Chair for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (VCDNP). She further added that these nuclear-free zones limit the freedom of action of nuclear states by forcing them to respect the treaties that protect them.

The panel also advocated for giving more credence to a ‘no first use’ policy, in which a nuclear power refrains from using nuclear weapons when engaged in warfare with another nuclear power.

So far, China is the only nuclear power and P5 Member State that has a ‘no first use’ policy, meaning they would only use nuclear weapons in retaliation against a nuclear attack. 

India has a ‘no first use’ policy, but it includes a caveat that allows for a response to biological or chemical weapons.

Meanwhile, the other P5 members—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France—along with other nuclear powers, such as Pakistan and North Korea, maintain policies that permit the first use of nuclear weapons in a conflict.

By giving further credence to a ‘no first use’ pledge that countries can adopt, this could prevent misunderstandings and miscalculations that could lead to a devastating result. In such deliberations on nuclear treaties, there need to be what Director and Deputy to the High Representative of the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), Adedeji Ebo, referred to as “confidence-building dialogues,” which can be achieved through enhancing reporting and transparency measures.

This year’s PrepComm began with a discussion on the issue. Alexander Kmentt, Director of the Disarmament, Arms Control, and Non-Proliferation Department of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, argued that in NPT deliberations, nuclear states seemed to have greater political priority and are more inclined to maintain the status quo because their possession of nuclear weapons provides them a sense of security. This presents a power imbalance.

Meetings like this year’s NPT PrepComm and the Meeting of State Parties on the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons must also create environments where delegations and other stakeholders are well-informed and can speak with authority.

Ebo argued that non-nuclear states are “indispensable” for “achieving meaningful progress in nuclear disarmament.”

Umbrella states—countries that have nuclear protection agreements with nuclear powers—should leverage their positions and extend support to non-nuclear states in their nonproliferation stances.

There is a need to “demystify the nuclear conversation,” Ebo remarked. Diplomats and other experts that will deal with nuclear issues need to be properly informed about this matter. He also spoke of the potential power that comes from regular citizens and grassroots movements to hold their elected leaders accountable on the matter of nuclear disarmament. By bringing this issue to the attention of their elected officials, it becomes “difficult to ignore.”

“The nuclear issue is too important to be left to the states alone,” he said.

Disarmament and nonproliferation education is being carried out through nongovernmental organizations and advocacy groups, such as SGI.

Since 1957, nuclear disarmament has been part of SGI’s broader agenda for promoting the culture of peace. Sunada remarked that education plays a role in fostering “powerful, transnational solidarity” among people. To that end, SGI has organized and facilitated speaking engagements with hibakusha—survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings—to share their experiences with both Japanese and foreign audiences, along with workshops that reach over 10,000 people a year.

The panel recognized efforts toward nuclear disarmament through global diplomacy and grassroots movements. For nuclear treaties to be upheld and respected, perhaps at their core there should be a shared understanding of what constitutes a nuclear taboo, whether it prohibits the first use of nuclear weapons in warfare or if it is a complete prohibition.

Mukhatzhanova pointed out that understanding seems to vary among different groups, from policymakers and diplomats to academia and the general public and suggested that it could be beneficial to deliberate and debate on common ground for the NPT 2026 Review Conference.

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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• FEATURED TRANSLATION – ITALIAN

Videos of mud-covered wrestling fights from a Ugandan town have racked up over 500 million hits on social media.

Videos of mud-covered wrestling fights from a Ugandan town have racked up over 500 million hits on social media.

Linnet Ochieng, the lab manager, conducts AMR testing at the International Livestock Research Institute. Credit: ILRI

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, May 20 2025 (IPS)

More people are dying from once treatable infections because the medicines we rely on are no longer working as they should. The culprit? A growing health threat called antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

What is AMR?

AMR happens when bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites evolve and become resistant to the drugs meant to kill them—this makes common infections harder and sometimes impossible to treat. Without effective drugs, diseases last longer, spread more easily, and cause more deaths. Why? Antimicrobials are becoming less effective in treating infections because disease-causing germs are becoming resistant.

“AMR is a global crisis that is already here,” Dr. Arshnee Moodley, a microbiologist and team leader for Antimicrobial Resistance at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), told IPS via email.

“It makes infections in people, animals, and even plants harder—or sometimes impossible—to treat,” Moodley says. “Without working medicines, illnesses that were once routine can become life-threatening.”

The rise in AMR has made it more difficult to prevent and treat infections with medicines like antimicrobials.

What are antimicrobials and are they important for health?

Antimicrobials are very important medicines and include antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, and antiparasitics, which are used to either prevent or treat infections in humans, animals, and plants. They are essential to modern medicine and veterinary care. Without them, we risk losing the ability to treat infectious diseases and protect our food systems.

Why is this happening? Should we be worried about AMR?

Imagine not having medicine that works when you get an infection. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the world scrambled to find ways to treat and manage a new disease.

AMR is largely driven by the overuse and misuse of antimicrobials in humans, animals, and agriculture. They are often used when they’re not needed or in the wrong doses. In farming, they are sometimes used to promote growth or make up for poor hygiene rather than treat disease. This overuse gives microbes more chances to adapt and become resistant, turning these life-saving medicines into useless tools.

The World Bank, the World Organisation for Animal Health, and AMR all warn that without action, AMR could cause significant economic harm on the scale of the 2008 global financial crisis. The World Bank estimates that by 2050, AMR could wipe away 3.8 percent of global gross domestic product each year and push 28 million people into poverty. The loss of productivity in agriculture, especially livestock systems, could severely affect food systems and livelihoods.

Who is most affected?

While AMR is a global burden, low- and middle-income countries like Kenya bear the greatest burden. Limited access to diagnostics, vaccines, and appropriate treatment means that drug-resistant infections often go undetected or are treated incorrectly. Farmers can lose entire herds or flocks due to untreatable infections, leading to food insecurity and loss of income. According to recent estimates, AMR directly causes 1.27 million deaths annually and contributes to nearly 5 million more. That’s on par with HIV/AIDS and malaria.

Researchers at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) use waste bins to collect empty containers, packaging, and used vials as a simple and effective way to monitor what antimicrobials are used on farms. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

Does climate change have a role in AMR?

Yes, climate change is an emerging factor in the spread and worsening of AMR. Rising temperatures, extreme weather, and flooding can alter the spread of pathogens and the application of antimicrobials, according to a recent review in which ILRI participated. For example, warmer conditions help bacteria grow faster and share resistance genes more easily. Floods can spread drug-resistant pathogens from sewage into water supplies, increasing the risk of infections in both people and animals. Animals stressed by heat may become more vulnerable to disease, leading to increased use of antimicrobials.

“There is also another link between AMR and climate change,” Moodley told IPS. “Residues of antimicrobials in manure can disrupt microbial processes in soil, potentially affecting greenhouse gas emissions. And we at ILRI are studying how antibiotics in livestock manure—because of treatment—affect greenhouse gas emissions and soil health.”

Can we fight AMR?

Yes. AMR is preventable, but it requires urgent action across all sectors. Vaccination can prevent infections and reduce the need for antibiotics. Improved diagnostics can ensure the right drug is used only when necessary. Better hygiene and infection prevention in hospitals, farms, and communities can reduce disease spread. Responsible antimicrobial use in both animals and humans is key to slowing AMR.

“While drug-resistant infections are a concern,” Moodley says, “We must not forget that many people still don’t have access to the basic health and veterinary services they need—including the very medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics that could save lives and prevent AMR.”

The bottom line

AMR threatens the future of healthcare, agriculture, and global development. It undermines progress toward Universal Health Coverage and Sustainable Development Goals like zero hunger (SDG 2) and good health and well-being (SDG 3). This silent pandemic is unfolding now and without urgent, coordinated action, the world risks entering a post-antibiotic era where even the smallest infections can once again kill.

Note: This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres prioritizes reform at 'UN80 Initiative' launch. 1 May 2025. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías

By Simone Galimberti
KATHMANDU, Nepal, May 20 2025 (IPS)

How would the UN80 Initiative, designed to mark the 80th Anniversary of the United Nations, turned out to be, if Kamala Harris had won the American presidential election in November last year?

As more details are emerging on plans being drawn by Secretary General António Guterres to drastically restructure and re-organize the whole United Nation system, I could not stop thinking about this question.

The UN has become a real “galaxy” of agencies, programs and offices, often with overlapping mandates and functions. Yet without a second Trump Administration, it is very likely that the UN80 Initiative would have taken a much different shape.

After all, the UN 2.0 blueprint, a timid proposal to reform and modernize the United Nations, developed in 2022 as a key pillar of the ambitious Our Common Agenda, never really took off.

A frank assessment would consider the UN 2.0 as a blueprint full of hype and catchy words but profoundly lacking substance.

Yet at least the UN 2.0 talked, even if in generic terms, about an important need that the United Nations should have taken care of: change its internal culture.

But instead of focusing only on the UN turning itself into a “forward thinking” organization as proposed in the blueprint, the cultural shift at the UN should be much more ambitious and radical.

Does the UN have to start to think and act as a startup organization? Perhaps it can help get rid of a red tape culture but at the same time, some caution might be welcome, considering also all the negative consequences stemming from embracing a venture capitalist approach to organizational culture.

That’s why the profound rethinking that now is under place at the UN should be grounded on simple values of humbleness and humility.

As shocking as they might seem, these two elements are the cornerstone of principled leadership and the UN, if it really wants to be a “lighthouse” in situations in which humanity and the planet face troubling dark times, these should be embedded in any new restructuring.

Over the years the UN has become aloof and remote even in places like in the so-called Global South where it has a strong presence and its mandate is generally well received by locals.

This situation can be emblematically thought of as a working culture that lacks responsiveness and does not do enough to reach out to the locals.

This is partly due to the UN’s mandate to work and assist with national governments but it has become an excuse to not engage civil society and the citizenry.

The problem, instead, is deeper and it starts with the fact that UN staff ended up, even unconsciously and involuntarily, as a “caste” of special “ones”.

I do not doubt the seriousness and commitment of the vast majority of UN personnel but the system is so flawed that it is inevitable that, no matter your good intentions, you end up being isolated from the ground reality.

As naïve as it might look, why do not we start from the basics? Are the highly paid jobs at the UN morally justified?

One thing is to have a good salary but another thing is to have perks and facilities that only the privileged “ones” are supposed to be entitled to. Then, why not tax the salaries of UN personnel?

These issues do snowball and become bigger and influence an entire working mindset and, at the end, they become deeply entrenched in the organizational culture of the UN.

Why is it so difficult to secure appointments with the UN officials or getting an answer for some ideas that have been proposed to them?

It is certainly impossible for the UN agencies and programs to entertain any requests, but, I do believe it would make sense for the UN to have a much more responsive approach.

Another example: why running events in four or five star hotels?

Again, this question could be shot down with disdain and as a trivial matter but, it is just a symptom of a much broader malaise that has a real outcome: a lot of wasted resources that could be better spent.

There is a broader acceptance, even if it will be hardly admitted, that the UN are neither responsive nor accountable. The discussions being prioritized at the moment by the UN SG are not tackling these underlying issues.

The ongoing debate is more about eliminating the vast amount of inefficiencies through merging and elimination of overlapping entities. It is not that these potential shake ups do not make sense.

It is actually welcome but, unless there is a deep reflection on how the UN can be really more accountable and transparent and accessible, the change won’t be as powerful as many hope.

Right at the top, most of the executive heads of agencies and programs are very well-meaning and committed professionals but many of them are former high level officials in their country of origin.

They have been accustomed to high offices that often are far removed from the ground reality. Therefore, they are not well suited to try to create efficiencies and re-tool the entire working approach. But the problem is also with the mandate of the United Nations.

Rather than focusing exclusively on assisting its member nations, the UN should also reposition its functions to do a much better job at partnering with civil society organizations. This also makes sense because freedoms are shrinking both in the North and in the South and overall democracy is in decline.

A more agile and humble UN could have a core mandate of supporting grassroots organizations and the whole civil society. A practical way to start doing it is for the UN to engage and consult more and better with the society at large, even when the hosting nations would not appreciate it.

I do often think that the UN as a system is oftentimes too submissive to the host governments even if the latter are recipients of huge amounts of assistance. It acts and obliges as if it did not have any negotiating powers.

To bring in efficiencies, moreover, the UN agencies and programs should stop being implementers on behalf of other donors.

It often happens that, at country levels, the offices of major UN agencies sign partnership agreements with bilateral agencies.

There are better practices to implement development assistance rather than relying on the “technical’ expertise of UN Agencies.

Why can’t bilateral agencies directly support civil society or why can’t the UN agencies only play a much more limited role? Instead of setting up whole teams made up by contracted officials, in effect long term consultants, why not truly support local NGOs in terms of organizational development and technical knowledge through a much more nimble approach?

All these proposals might be easily dismissed by those who have been thriving throughout the years in a system whose potential of real impact has been trimmed by a working culture that does not any more meet the thresholds set by the high purposes for which the UN were created.

But the status quo cannot continue.

Unfortunately, only Donald Trump could trigger a bold restricting of the UN. Merging and cutting agencies and programs should be one side of the revolution that Mr. Guterres has been forced to tackle.

Let’s not forget the less visible, perhaps softer side of the coin. Without eradicating a mindset that ended up self-justifying and self-promoting, the UN will cease to exist.

And this will be a real problem for our humanity.

That’s why the status quo at the UN must be defeated.

https://press.un.org/en/2025/sgsm22644.doc.htm

Simone Galimberti writes about the SDGs, youth-centered policy-making and a stronger and better United Nations.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 20 2025 (IPS)

With President Trump’s efforts to end the Ukraine war, Europeans are now mainly responsible for prolonging it. Despite lame protestations of peace, Europe seems committed to fighting ‘to the last Ukrainian’.

Unsustainable peace
As Europe celebrated the end of the Nazi-initiated Second World War earlier in May, it does not seem to know how to sustain peace after war.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Both ‘world wars’ of the 20th century started in Europe as inter-imperialist wars, killing millions. In 1884-5, the Berlin Conference divided Africa among the dominant European powers.

After attending the Versailles palace negotiations following WW1, the young John Maynard Keynes’ The Economic Consequences of the Peace warned the agreement’s terms undermined a sustainable peace, almost anticipating Nazism’s later rise.

Towards the end of World War II (WW2), FDR’s Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, insisted Germany should not be allowed to re-industrialise after the War.

After starting and losing two world wars, German military aggression seemed unavoidable. For Morgenthau, reindustrialisation would inevitably lead Germany to war again.

For FDR, only postwar recovery for all would ‘win the peace’, not subjugating and destroying the loser.

His WW2 generals, famously Eisenhower, Marshall and MacArthur, imposed ‘pacifist’ constitutions and reforms for postwar growth on Germany and Japan.

Imperial oversight?
Despite his brilliant contemporaneous insights into the unsustainability of the peace secured at Versailles, Keynes ignored its outcome for China.

At Versailles, the Shandong peninsula, previously ruled by the Germans, was not returned to China, but given to Japan instead!

The resulting May 4th (1919) movement culminated in the Chinese revolution. Keynes was as blind to this as to WW2’s three million lives lost to the Bengal famine.

Although invisible in movies, tens of thousands from China were involved in WW1, mainly digging trenches for European troops in a war primarily remembered for trench warfare.

German possessions in southern Africa were not returned to Africans, but instead held ‘in trust’ by European powers, including the white South African regime.

While there have not been more ‘world wars’ since the end of the Cold War, there have been many more wars in the supposedly unipolar/multipolar world.

NATO v the UN
At the UN General Assembly, 141 countries condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But many also oppose North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expansion via Ukraine to threaten Russia.

This is reminiscent of broad international support for President John F Kennedy in 1962 when he insisted Soviet missiles be withdrawn from Cuba, just off Florida.

NATO was established for the Cold War and should have been dissolved at its end. Its raison d’être, the rival Warsaw Pact, was gone. Worse, NATO expansion continues while it conducts unlawful wars not sanctioned by the UN Security Council.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande have both confessed that the 2014 Minsk deal with the Russians was intended to buy time to arm Ukraine for war later, not to secure peace.

Similarly, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson successfully blocked negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in the last half-year of his tenure. A peace deal would have ended hostilities and saved hundreds of thousands of lives, mainly Ukrainian.

Europe has continued to insist on war despite worsening odds. And when NATO allies blew up the gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, no protests followed.

NATO should have been dissolved at the end of the Cold War, once its raison d’être, the rival Warsaw Pact, was gone.

Despite Europe’s pretensions of leading worldwide efforts against global warming, it quickly reversed earlier commitments, even abandoning its 2021 Glasgow commitment to reject coal less than half a year later.

Unsurprisingly, the Global South remains sceptical of the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), perhaps only the latest form of European trade protectionism.

The EU has already worsened world economic conditions by raising interest rates, imposing illegal sanctions, insisting on fiscal austerity and cutting social spending in favour of military expenditure.

European leaders now proudly announce military Keynesian policies, expecting growth from more war spending. Thus, the turn to war has meant less growth and more inequality.

A non-aligned South?
FDR envisaged a peaceful new multilateral order offering progress for all. But such hopes have been squelched by political pressures for informal empire abetted by a resurgent military-industrial complex.

A different world is needed based on much stronger commitments to peace, freedom and non-alignment. It may be time for the West, the Global North and others to learn from the South-East.

In 1955, Indonesia hosted the Afro-Asian summit in Bandung, which boldly spoke for the post-colonial South and made the case for non-alignment as the Cold War began.

Over half a century ago, in 1973, the Association for South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), set up in 1967, committed to creating a zone of peace, freedom and neutrality (ZOPFAN).

Creating the enabling conditions for ongoing cooperation, development, and progress can help sustain the bases for a peaceful and progressive new world order.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By CIVICUS
May 19 2025 (IPS)

 
CIVICUS speaks with Eric Bjornlund, President and CEO of Democracy International, about the impacts of the US foreign aid freeze and the resulting legal challenges the Trump administration is facing. Democracy International is a global civil society organisation (CSO) that works for a more peaceful and democratic world.

Upon taking office, Trump immediately suspended all foreign aid and dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), blocking over US$40 billion in congressionally approved funding. This halted crucial global work in democracy, development, health and human rights. In February, several CSOs, including Democracy International, filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s legal authority to freeze these funds. Despite a court ruling ordering the release of the money and the restoration of foreign assistance, legal proceedings continue.

Eric Bjornlund

What are the most severe consequences of the funding freeze?

The impact on vital international work on democracy, healthcare, human rights and international development has been devastating and far-reaching. The government has even refused to honour invoices or reimburse legally authorised expenses, including those incurred under the previous administration. With 83 per cent of programmes cancelled, many organisations have been forced to shut their operations.

Health services were among the first to collapse: thousands of healthcare workers were dismissed, with essential medicine and food aid left stockpiled and expiring, being damaged or stolen. This has increased deaths from HIV/AIDS and malaria and left reproductive health needs unmet.

Beyond healthcare, the damage spans multiple sectors: education for girls cut, demining operations suspended, Ukrainian refugee shelters compromised, protection for minors from gang recruitment in Central America terminated, cybersecurity in Ukraine halted and support for civil society opposing authoritarian violence in Myanmar ended. Even efforts tracking zoonotic diseases in Bangladesh have ceased.

How has Democracy International been affected?

With 98 per cent of our 2024 revenue from USAID, we’ve been crippled. Despite a federal court declaring the terminations unlawful, all our programmes have been cancelled, forcing staff furloughs, office closures and delayed payments.

The human cost has been immense. In Bangladesh, we’ve discontinued medical assistance to students injured during protest crackdowns. In Burkina Faso, the lives of human rights defenders documenting violence against Christian communities are at risk because we can no longer relocate them. The same lack of crucial support is affecting Nicaraguan political prisoners, state violence victims in Mozambique, government critics in the Philippines and democracy advocates in Tanzania. In Jamaica, over 500 vulnerable young people risk being recruited by gangs without our counselling services, apprenticeship opportunities and vocational skills-building training.

We’ve also been forced to abandon critical governance initiatives. We’ve suspended support for Bangladesh’s post-authoritarian transition, legal assistance for civil society navigating foreign agent laws in Kyrgyzstan, funding coordination for displaced Armenians and democracy leadership in Libya.

Beyond immediate harms, this has broken the trust of communities we’ve supported for years, undermined civil society credibility and surrendered significant political influence to authoritarian powers such as China and Russia.

What collective action has civil society taken?

The freeze blindsided us, but we quickly recognised the need for a coordinated response. We’ve partnered with former USAID officials – particularly those whose work focused on democracy and human rights – to advocate for foreign aid restoration and defend democracy and the rule of law in the USA. We’ve also worked with USAID implementing partners, consulted global experts and sought to identify new funding opportunities.

But our strongest strategy has been legal action. We joined a coalition of USAID partners to file a lawsuit that secured a temporary restraining order in February and a preliminary injunction in March, ordering the government to resume payments and restore funding.

Despite our case reaching the Supreme Court, the administration has largely failed to comply, creating a constitutional crisis that’s testing the judiciary’s ability to check executive power. While legal action remains central to our strategy, we recognise the need for congressional involvement to achieve a sustainable solution.

What are your legal arguments?

We challenge the government on multiple grounds. First, we argue the blanket termination of foreign assistance under the Administrative Procedure Act is both arbitrary and unlawful. Second, we contend this action fundamentally breaches the constitutional separation of powers. Neither the President, Secretary of State nor USAID Administrator has legal authority to unilaterally withhold appropriated funds or dismantle a statutory agency.

The administration has violated both Congress’s exclusive power over spending and its shared foreign policy role. The Impoundment Control Act explicitly prohibits defunding programmes based merely on policy preferences without following strict procedural requirements.

The court has agreed with our position that no rational basis exists for such a sweeping freeze if the stated purpose was merely to review programmes’ efficiency and consistency. The government has also disregarded organisations’ significant reliance on these funds, forcing many to close permanently.

How can democratic institutions be strengthened against such overreach?

Constitutional checks and balances function only when all branches respect them. Congress must defend its spending authority, courts must continue asserting their oversight role and ultimately, the executive must respect the rule of law. But whether it will do so remains uncertain.

If this situation persists unresolved, the humanitarian toll will continue mounting globally while the security, prosperity and global standing of the USA deteriorate. Robust accountability mechanisms and institutional safeguards are essential to protect aid systems globally and democracy at home.

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Tech leaders cosy up to Trump CIVICUS Lens 20.Feb.2025

 

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United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC)
 
The Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) will be held in Nice, France, from June 9 to 13, 2025. This event will bring together world leaders, scientists, and stakeholders to discuss the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans. The conference's overarching theme is "Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean".

By Ted Danson
NICE, France, May 19 2025 (IPS)

Seafood is a staple in my house – fish tacos, paella, sushi. But no matter how good it tastes, I can’t help but wonder: was my fish caught responsibly? Or did something go horribly wrong before it ever reached my plate?

Next month, as world leaders gather in Nice, France for the third United Nations Ocean Conference, they must confront a hard truth: a lack of transparency at sea is enabling illegal fishing and undermining efforts to protect our oceans.

Too often, bad actors exploit the vastness of the ocean to fish illegally and launder their catch into the seafood supply chain – with devastating consequences for marine life, coastal communities, and legitimate fishers.

This means the seafood at your local grocery store or favorite restaurant might be tied to these illicit activities — and you’d have no way of knowing. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Ted Danson

In 2023, Oceana – where I serve on the Board of Directors – analyzed fishing activity near Ecuador’s iconic Galápagos Islands, a marine protected area since 1998. What we found was alarming: hundreds of industrial fishing vessels – mostly flagged to China, but also Spain, Panama, and Ecuador, clustered near the border of the protected area – only to disappear from view after disabling their public tracking devices.

This kind of behavior often signals something is wrong. A vessel might be trying to hide its location to fish illegally, operate in another country’s waters without permission, or offload its catch under the radar.

Even in places with rules, those rules are often flouted. The European Union, for instance, requires vessels over 49 feet to keep their tracking systems on at all times, unless there’s a genuine safety issue. Yet in our analysis of fishing around the Galápagos, 24 Spanish-flagged vessels disappeared for more than 35,000 hours combined.

Fifty-three Chinese-flagged vessels vanished for nearly 27,000 hours – and nearly all had a potential encounter or transshipment activity, where fishing vessels transfer their catch to refrigerated cargo ships at sea. While not illegal, this practice is often used to mix legal and illegal seafood, making it nearly impossible to trace.

If these practices continue unchecked, local fishers may soon find themselves coming home empty-handed.

But there’s a better way.

In 2023, small-scale mahi-mahi fishers in San Mateo, Ecuador – where 90% of the community relies on artisanal fishing – pioneered a program to build trust and traceability. Their boats were equipped with cameras and digital tracking systems.

The catch data was embedded in QR codes, allowing buyers to trace each fish back to the boat and the people who caught it.

Peru is also stepping up. The government is working to ensure that every vessel fishing for human consumption is tracked and reporting its catch. This isn’t just a top-down regulation – small-scale fishers are helping lead the way, alongside groups like Oceana.

And at the end of April, the governments of Cameroon, Ghana, and South Korea all endorsed the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency at the Our Ocean conference. But more must be done.

The upcoming United Nations Ocean Conference is a prime opportunity for other governments around the world to follow suit and commit to greater transparency and accountability in global fishing.

That means requiring all vessels to keep tracking systems on at all times, cracking down on those who disappear at sea, and supporting programs that help fishers prove they’re following the rules.

We already have the tools. Platforms like Global Fishing Watch let anyone track fishing vessels in near-real time using satellite data. But to close the loopholes, we need governments to act.

Our oceans are not the Wild West. They are a shared resource – and a shared responsibility. By committing to transparency, we can protect marine ecosystems, ensure a level playing field for honest fishers, and give consumers confidence that their seafood is safe, legally caught, and honestly labeled.

The decisions made in Nice could shape the future of our oceans. We can’t lose sight of what’s at stake.

Ted Danson is an actor, advocate, and Oceana Board Member

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Representatives of the Maasai community in Longido receive a mock check from the Soil for the Future company as a payout to limit their grazing land in September 2024. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

By Kizito Makoye
DAR ES SALAAM, May 19 2025 (IPS)

As global demand for carbon credits rises, Tanzania has become a magnet for carbon offset projects. From Loliondo in Arusha to Kiteto in Manyara, foreign firms and conservation groups are looking for land to capture carbon and sell credits to polluting industries in the Global North. The growing interest in carbon trading has sparked hope, confusion, and concern— putting millions of hectares of village land and the livelihoods of people who depend on it at risk.

What is carbon and carbon trading?

Carbon is commonly referred to as pollution from oil, gas, and coal, whereas carbon trading is a global tool to fight climate change. It allows companies or countries that emit a lot of carbon to “offset” their emissions by paying for projects that reduce carbon elsewhere, like protecting forests or improving land use through sustainable grazing. So, big polluters sell their pollution to areas where there is low pollution and balance their books through it. Everybody has to decrease their carbon limit global warming to 1.5°C, global emissions need to be reduced by 45 percent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050, according to the Paris Agreement.

Who are the main players? 

Tanzania has become a key player in the carbon market, thanks to its vast forests and efforts to conserve them. Foreign investors and carbon credit firms from Europe and North America partner with local NGOs to manage swathes of village land often used by Maasai communities for grazing. Major players include Soils for the Future Tanzania Ltd, backed by Volkswagen Climate Partners and The Nature Conservancy, active in Longido, Monduli, and Simanjiro districts.

How are carbon credit schemes regulated?

Tanzania’s carbon market is growing fast but lacks regulation. Backed by the government, foreign firms and conservation groups are luring local communities to use their land for carbon credit projects. In the Arusha and Manyara regions, such schemes increase, promising income, better infrastructure, and environmental benefits. But while investors call it a win-win, the reality on the ground is complicated.

What are communities agreeing to?

Most villagers don’t understand how carbon markets work. Many sign 30–40-year contracts without knowing what rights they’re giving up or what they’ll get in return. Villages usually get a one-time “signing fee”—sometimes called dowry money—that critics say leads to rushed, secretive agreements.

The contracts are in English— not Swahili— and often exclude women and youth from decision-making. In Loliondo, pastoralist leaders say they were asked to agree to carbon credit deals without clear information on how long the land would be locked and what would happen if terms changed.

What exactly does the deal entail?

Under the Longido Monduli rangelands carbon project, a conservation group called Soil for the Future Tanzania—which works to restore degraded rangelands and savannah ecosystems—is managing a deal on behalf of Volkswagen Climate Partners. The project spans 970,000 hectares and pays 59 villages between 40 and 130 million Tanzanian shillings (about USD 15,000–50,000) over a 40-year period, from January 2024 to December 2063, in exchange for carbon credits. In return, communities must limit activities such as grazing and burning grasslands, raising concerns among some residents about losing access to land they have used for generations.

Whom does the law protect?

Tanzania’s land laws recognize both statutory and customary ownership, but there are no clear rules for carbon trading—leaving rural communities exposed to exploitation.

Although the Village Land Act of 1999 protects customary tenure, problems arise when carbon offset contracts are signed without the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of everyone affected.

Often, traditional grazing land is reclassified for conservation without compensation.

In Loliondo and Ngorongoro, where land disputes and evictions are rife, residents fear more land loss.

The contracts are often difficult to cancel and unclear about how benefits will be shared. With no national guidelines on transparency or accountability, communities are left in the dark.

Is carbon trading undermining Maasai traditions?

Traditional Maasai pastoralism depends on mobility—moving herds across vast rangelands for water and pasture. But carbon projects often enforce rotational grazing and land-use rules aimed at storing carbon, which can clash with pastoral survival strategies, especially during droughts.

Are villagers stakeholders or just bystanders?

Though marketed as “community-based,” many carbon projects sideline rural Tanzanians in decisions that affect their land for decades. The government backs carbon trading to boost revenue and conserve nature, but without clear policies, critics warn it could repeat old patterns of exploitation—this time under a green label.

What is the situation elsewhere?
Tanzania’s experience reflects a broader trend across Africa, where Indigenous communities are being drawn into carbon deals that may offer quick cash but raise lasting concerns about land rights, sovereignty, and justice.

Note: This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The aftermath of a Russian attack on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv on July 8, 2024. Credit: Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, May 19 2025 (IPS)

The international community must take action to uphold international humanitarian law, say healthcare and rights advocates, as attacks on healthcare in war zones reached a record high last year.

A new report from the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) released today (May 19) documented more than 3,600 attacks on doctors and health care workers, hospitals, and clinics in zones of armed conflict in 2024—up 15 percent from 2023 and 62 percent since 2022.

The report’s authors say attacks on healthcare in war zones are not only more numerous but are also more destructive and involve heavier weapons—there was a growing use of explosive weapons in attacks against healthcare, rising from 36 percent of incidents in 2022 to 48 percent in 2023. Perpetrator use of drones against health care facilities drove much of the increase, as their use nearly quadrupled, according to the report.

Meanwhile, more than 900 doctors were killed last year—a rise of 21 percent from 2023—and almost 500 were arrested. More than 100 were kidnapped.

However, the report suggests attacks on healthcare in war zones may be even more widespread, as the collection of data on violence is impeded by insecurity, communications blockages, and the reluctance of some entities to share data on violence.

It also says the rise in attacks has come alongside attempts by perpetrators to limit legal protections for health care and civilians in war.

It highlights how Israel has “sought to dilute legal requirements of precaution and proportionality during conflict” while “campaigns to delegitimize the International Criminal Court (ICC) are underway,” with US president Donald Trump imposing sanctions on ICC staff and their families for having charged Israelis with war crimes, Russia criminalizing cooperation with the ICC or any foreign court seeking to hold Russians to account, and other countries announcing plans to leave the ICC.

The authors say regimes around the world are increasingly flouting international human rights laws, and action must be taken to bring actors behind these attacks to justice or risk a proliferation of military targeting of healthcare.

Christina Wille, Director of Insight Insecurity, an SHCC member, told IPS that the international community has a role to play.

“International humanitarian law, which says that healthcare in conflict must be protected, is not being respected. The international community should come together to ensure that there is accountability for these attacks and the people responsible for them are brought to justice. But if nothing is done and this continues, other states may see the targeting of healthcare as a tactic that they can use in conflict without risk of censure or sanction and will go ahead with it,” Wille said.

While the report documented more countries last year reporting attacks on healthcare, the majority of recorded incidents occurred in a handful of states.

By far the largest number of attacks on health care—more than 1,300—took place in Gaza and the West Bank, but there were also hundreds of attacks in other countries that have seen brutal conflicts, including Ukraine (544), Lebanon (485), Myanmar (308), and Sudan (276), where there has been evidence of systematic targeting of local healthcare facilities and workers by attacking, or both attacking and opposing, forces.

The results of these attacks have been dire, not just in terms of the immediate casualties among healthcare workers and civilians from such strikes but also the knock-on effects on the local civilian population from the destruction of facilities, as in some cases even the most basic of medical services subsequently become unavailable.

The report points out that in Gaza, every hospital has been hit, and many multiple times, with dire impacts on their capacity to address the massive number of traumatic injuries, treatment for chronic and infectious disease, and safe childbirth.

“The health system in Gaza has collapsed. Hospitals and clinics have been completely destroyed, like the of the civilian infrastructure. Today, only 22 out of 36 hospitals are partially functioning, and that can mean only being able to treat a few patients a day. Most of the labs are not running, there is very little material available, the staff is exhausted, and some are still detained,” Simon Tyler, Executive Director of Doctors of the World, the UK chapter of the international human rights organization global Médecins du Monde network, told IPS.

A charity organization working in Gaza, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), said that devastating attacks on two hospitals – the European Gaza Hospital (EGH) and Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza—in the last week had worsened the situation.

“The attacks put the EGH out of service and increased the pressure on services at Nasser, as well as destroying parts of the hospital, including the burns unit. EGH was the only hospital in Gaza providing cancer services following the destruction of the Turkish Friendship Hospital in March,” MAP communications manager Max Slaughter told IPS.

Israeli forces have often claimed that hospitals in Gaza were being used as bases for Hamas military operations.

But the UN has said Israeli forces’ attacks on healthcare in Gaza are a war crime.

Doctors in Myanmar who spoke to IPS on condition of anonymity for security reasons said the intensified use of drones by government forces fighting rebel groups in the last 18 months “posed grave threats to the provision of humanitarian aid and healthcare services.”

“Deliberate attacks on healthcare facilities, including hospitals, rural health centers, and other related infrastructure, have resulted in severe damage to health facilities, injuries, fatalities, and, in some cases, permanent disabilities among healthcare workers,” one said.

The doctors added that a combination of people being afraid to travel and frequent displacement of healthcare service sites has significantly disrupted access to essential medical care, and drone attacks targeting group activities, such as the provision of humanitarian aid, hinder effective delivery by deterring gatherings of people and creating logistical challenges.

Meanwhile, the risk posed to humanitarian workers by these attacks has reduced the presence of organizations on the ground, diminishing aid availability for affected populations.

In Ukraine, the healthcare system has faced similar widespread destruction.

Earlier this month, Ukraine’s Health Ministry said that Russian forces had damaged or destroyed more than 2,300 medical infrastructure facilities since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In some areas near the line, healthcare systems have all but disappeared, with people having to either rely on local aid groups and NGOs for basic care and essential medicines or travel long distances in difficult conditions to facilities that are still functioning.

But it is not hospitals that have come under attack, as Russian troops regularly target ambulances—since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 116 ambulances have been damaged, 274 destroyed, and 80 seized.

But hospitals and clinics in areas far from the fighting have not been spared. In one of the worst attacks on healthcare since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital, one of the largest of its kind in Europe, was hit by a missile on July 8 last year. Two adults were killed and at least 34 people, including nine children, were injured.

Despite initial denials by the Kremlin that its forces had hit the hospital, evidence showed the building had been deliberately struck with a hypersonic missile.

Another problem faced in many conflict zones is how attacks on other infrastructure, such as energy facilities, are impacting healthcare.

Volodymyr Hryshko, Senior Legal Counsel with Ukrainian group Truth Hounds, told IPS more intense Russian targeting of energy infrastructure in 2024 had had a devastating impact on healthcare. In a survey by the group, 92 percent of doctors reported such attacks had experienced power cuts at work, and 66 percent said medical procedures had been affected. The attacks had led to deaths from oxygen deprivation as life support systems failed and staff at some hospitals were forced to work in complete blackouts.

“But the impact is not only immediate risk to patients but also long-term system degradation, staff burnout—reported by over 80 percent—and psychological trauma among both patients and healthcare providers,” he said.

However, despite the death and destruction caused by such attacks, the report shows they are increasing in number.

Wille said the reasons for this are varied and that not all strikes on medical facilities documented may be deliberate.

“Weapons may not be as accurate as believed, and heavy weapons can also have a ‘wide area’ effect—attackers may not have been aiming to hit a hospital, but the impact of the strike still damaged it,” she said.

However, she pointed out that militaries are aware they can gain an advantage in conflict by targeting healthcare systems.

“Health systems are often seen by conflict parties as a system that can help keep the enemy going—treating injuries, helping them recover, and providing a place for them to rest and recuperate.

“Attacks on health systems can also damage morale significantly because health facilities and workers supply the services the population, especially very young and old people, desperately need,” she explained.

But groups working to provide medical and humanitarian help in war zones believe the fact that the regimes behind these attacks are carrying them out with seeming impunity is fueling continued attacks on healthcare in war zones.

“The principle that civilians and aid workers should be protected is being violated time and again. In recent times, we’ve seen clinics bombed, convoys attacked, and our colleagues targeted simply for doing their job in Gaza, the West Bank, and Ukraine. We can no longer rely on or guarantee protection for our staff and services. Civilians, humanitarian workers, health workers, and infrastructure should never be targets. We firmly condemn all attacks on healthcare and call for independent investigation and accountability for the perpetrators,” said Tyler.

“The continued inaction of… some of the most powerful governments in the world in the face of the Israeli authorities’ deadly blockade is indefensible—and could be judged as complicity under international humanitarian law and human rights law. We must hold all responsible for violations accountable to ensure justice for victims, deter further violations, and prevent future escalations,” he added.

MAP’s Slaughter warned that Israel’s “… deliberate blockade of aid and continued attacks on healthcare, all with no real accountability or impunity, are setting a precedent that the international community will permit such atrocities to be committed with no recourse.”

The SHCC report calls for UN states to take action to ensure healthcare is protected in conflicts, including ending impunity by encouraging investigations, data sharing, prosecutions through the International Criminal Court and empowering monitoring bodies.

Wille admitted, though it may be difficult to get a powerful international consensus that would lead to such attacks being stopped, or at least significantly reduced.

“I have little optimism that governments can prevent such attacks in the current climate. When major powers that should uphold the rules-based international order instead question its legitimacy—and even erode the rule of law at home, as in the US—it becomes nearly impossible to build the international consensus needed to enforce those rules,” she said.

“Yet it remains essential to keep calling for these attacks to stop and for perpetrators to be held accountable because even a fractured international order can be repaired, and justice demands persistence,” she added.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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