Africa

Seven spots at the 2026 Fifa World Cup remain up for grabs as the group stage of African qualifying reaches its climax.

Seven spots at the 2026 Fifa World Cup remain up for grabs as the group stage of African qualifying reaches its climax.

Cette décision surprenante intervient 26 jours après sa nomination, à la suite de la chute du précédent gouvernement de François Bayrou.

Cette décision surprenante intervient 26 jours après sa nomination, à la suite de la chute du précédent gouvernement de François Bayrou.

HALO coordinating with the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal Department (RSIPF EODD) to record the location of UXO in Dunde area, Munda, Western Province. Credit: HALO TRUST.

By Catherine Wilson
SYDNEY, Australia , Oct 6 2025 (IPS)

Last century the remote Solomon Islands was the stage for some of the most intense battles fought during the Pacific campaign of the Second World War. But while Allied troops departed on the heels of victory, the military forces of both sides left a massive legacy of unexploded ordnance (UXO) which is still scattered across the country and others in the region.

In September, ageing UXO was highlighted as a “multidimensional threat to sovereignty, human security, environment and economic development” by Pacific Island leaders during their annual summit held in Honiara, the Solomon Islands’ capital.

Maeverlyn Pitanoe would agree with that. Four years ago, she was with a church youth group organizing a fundraising event in Honiara.

“We wanted to raise some funds by selling boxes of locally cooked food,” Pitanoe, the 53-year-old youth mentor told IPS. Large holes were dug in the ground and fires lit to make ovens for cooking. Late in the day, Pitanoe and two youths, aged in their 30s, had been cooking for several hours.

“We were standing around the pot on the fire. I was putting the cabbage into the hot boiling water as the two boys held the pot from both ends,” Pitanoe recounted. “Then the bomb exploded on us from under the pot. The boys, I can see them rolling down the hill, struggling to pull their legs together because it blasted their legs. I was thrown backwards, then I realised I was twisting, like there was a whirlwind throwing me around.”

Maeverlyn Pitanoe. Credit: Bomb Free Solomon Islands-Honiara 2025

Both young men died within a week following the incident. One left behind a wife, who was also injured, and four children. Pitanoe, who is married with a family, lost fingers on her hand and spent nearly two months in hospital being treated for injuries to her legs, thighs and abdomen.

“What happened to me has been very, very devastating and it has changed my life and my family’s life one hundred percent. I used to have a very free life, but after the accident I don’t feel free,” she said, explaining her anxiety now of going out to social gatherings or walking along the beach.

Unexploded ordnance, or UXO, are explosive weapons and devices that did not detonate when they were used in a conflict. They are often buried in the ground or lodged in places where they can remain hidden from view and undetected for decades. Yet their capacity to explode can be triggered at any time by physical pressure or disturbance.

Not all the country’s more than 900 islands, that are today home to more than 720,000 people, were affected by the war. But, at the time, they were a British Protectorate and geopolitically crucial after World War II spread to the Pacific region in 1941. The year after attacking Pearl Harbour, Japanese forces advanced in the Pacific and troops allied with Britain and the United States converged on the islands to wage a counteroffensive.

 

Abandoned WWII Japanese knee mortars awaiting disposal in Munda, Western Province. Credit: HALO TRUST

Major battles were waged on the main Guadalcanal Island. But there was fighting on land, sea and in the air across central and northern areas of the country until the Japanese retreated in 1943. Solomon Islanders, with their local knowledge of the terrain, were vital partners in the conflict, working alongside Allied forces.

Today the islands harbour abandoned tanks and fighter planes and sunken battleships in tropical waters attract diving tourists. But every year islanders are killed and injured by the accidental detonation of ageing ordnance.

In 2023, the Solomon Islands government partnered with The Halo Trust to begin a nationwide survey and collect comprehensive data of where UXO are located. Emily Davis, Halo Trust’s Programme Manager in the country, told IPS that investigations are currently focused on Guadalcanal Island and Western Province to the northwest, with extensive consultations taking place with local communities aided by historical records.

“We’ve reported over 3,000 items so far, but that doesn’t take into account over ten times that amount that has already been destroyed by the Solomon Islands police,” she recounted. When ordnance is discovered, the explosives ordnance disposal team in the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force is notified to conduct its safe removal. Last year alone, they removed 5,400 potentially lethal items, including a large buried cache of projectiles in the grounds of a school in Honiara.

The Trust’s work in the country, which is funded by the United States, also extends to educating local communities about the risks and what to do if any devices are found. Schools are a particular focus, as “there are young children who have been known to play around and discover these things and sometimes they accidentally handle ordnance,” Peter Teasanau, a Halo Trust Team Leader in Western Province told IPS.

HALO Surveyor taking coordinates of UXO found near Betikama Power House, Guadalcanal Province. Credit: HALO TRUST

But organizing clearance of unearthed ordnance can take longer in remote rural areas, Teasanau explained. In Honiara, resources are close to hand, but in the outer islands, the police face the logistical challenges of difficult terrain and fewer roads and infrastructure.

Yet, wherever it happens, the human toll of explosions can be crippling, whether in injuries and disability or loss of livelihoods. Before the incident, Pitanoe had a job in the distance education department of the Solomon Islands National University, but afterwards she could no longer endure the arduous travel to rural areas.

“Physically, I am not fit for that now,” she said. Instead, she decided to turn her plight into an opportunity. “I have experienced something that no one would like to experience in their life, but I came out of it and I’d like to raise awareness,” she said.

This year, Pitanoe launched a civil society organization, called Bomb Free Solomon Islands, to support UXO victims and “feed hope and fund recovery.”

Despite still seeking funding, the organization has 20 members, all of whom are facing hardships. Some are widows who struggle to find the money to continue sending their children to school. Others face disability and have less money to pay for food and living expenses.

There are broader impacts of UXO in the country, too. The Solomon Islands is a developing country that has been striving to recover and rebuild following a civil conflict, known as the ‘Tensions,’ which occurred from 1998-2003. Ageing UXO contamination is an extra burden that can restrict access to agricultural land, diminishing rural incomes and food security, and disrupt national development.  And as ordnance decays, it can leak toxic substances, such as heavy metals, into the surrounding soil and waterways with detrimental consequences for human, plant and aquatic life.

However, Davis says that, while there is a lot of work ahead, it will be impossible to find and remove every piece of ordnance in the country. “The scale [of contamination] is too severe, but we are supporting the reduction of risk,” she said. And the UXO map they are completing “will guide future efforts to more systematically clear ordnance and this can help develop infrastructure or community development projects,” she continued.

It is difficult and painstaking work that requires specialized expertise and major funding, and securing access to the resources needed is an issue facing other countries in the region as well. Papua New Guinea and Palau, for instance, are also grappling with UXO contamination and regional leaders argue that, as the ordnance was imposed on their nations, the responsibility of dealing with it should be shared.

Speaking at the United Nations in New York in June, Benzily Kasutaba, the UXO Director of the Solomon Islands’ Ministry of Police, called for increased international assistance to low-income affected nations, so that “together we can create safer communities, protect our environments and build a more secure future for generations to come.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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HALO Surveyor taking coordinates of UXO found near Betikama Power House, Guadalcanal Province. Credit: HALO TRUST

By External Source
NEW YORK, Oct 6 2025 (IPS-Partners)

As we celebrate this year’s World Teachers’ Day – with the central theme of recasting teaching as a collaborative profession – Education Cannot Wait (ECW) calls on people everywhere to provide teachers and the communities they serve with the resources they need to succeed in their crucial profession.

Today’s teachers need holistic teaching and learning methods, training on technology and the use of Artificial Intelligence, and other cutting-edge practices. And teachers cannot do their work without safe working conditions, fair pay and integrated support at the local, national and international level.

On the frontlines of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises – in places like Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Sudan – teachers face unimaginable challenges, low pay – and sometimes no pay – overcrowded classrooms, limited technology, inadequate financial support and life-threatening violence.

To address these interconnected challenges, ECW and its donors are investing in teachers across the globe.

In 2023 and 2024, ECW invested in our strategic partners to train over 144,000 teachers (56% of them female) on topics including pedagogy, gender and disability inclusion, disaster-risk reduction, and mental health and psychosocial support services. 35,000 teachers (48% female) were also financially supported with salary assistance, renumeration of volunteer teachers and social provisions such as health care insurance or daycare facilities for teachers with children.

Together with national and international investments in education, ECW supports crisis-affected girls and boys with the foundational skills – such as reading, writing and mathematics – needed to become productive members of society.

Together, we must create enabling policies and provide adequate funding to ensure teachers everywhere have the safety, training and support they need to thrive in their profession. Teachers are frontline heroes tasked with educating our next generation of leaders.

 

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Willkommen bei Rapporteur! Jeden Tag liefern wir Ihnen die wichtigsten Nachrichten und Hintergründe aus der EU- und Europapolitik. Need-to-knows: Tschechien: Die populistische Milliardärspartei ANO von Andrej Babiš gewinnt die Parlamentswahl. Frankreich: Bruno Le Maire kehrt als Verteidigungsminister in das neue Kabinett von Lecornu zurück. Gaza: In Ägypten treffen sich Unterhändler zu indirekten Friedensgesprächen zwischen Hamas […]

A young boy was standing in front of a flooded area in Thuamul Rampur, Odisha, India. Disaster shelters are vital to ensure the normal livelihood in disaster-prone areas. Credit: Pexels/Parij Photography via ESCAP

By Rajan Sudesh Ratna, Jing Huang and Sanjit Beriwal
BANGKOK Thailand, Oct 6 2025 (IPS)

South Asia is home to nearly two billion people and ranks among the most disaster-prone subregions in Asia and the Pacific. Every year, millions face exposure to floods, cyclones and other extreme events. The Bay of Bengal alone accounts for nearly 80 per cent of global cyclone-related deaths, with storms striking Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka with growing frequency.

Although South Asia hosts one-quarter of the world’s population, it also contains nearly half of the global population living in poverty conditions that magnify vulnerability across the subregion. Building disaster resilience is therefore not only urgent but existential.

Odisha, with its long coastline, has repeatedly faced severe cyclones that have taken lives and destroyed property. The devastation of the 1999 super cyclone, which exposed the absence of coordinated warning systems, resilient shelters, and effective relief mechanisms, became the turning point for the state.

When Cyclone Phailin struck in 2013, the state evacuated more than one million people, saving thousands of lives compared to 1999. In 2019, Cyclone Fani brought extensive destruction, but fatalities remained under 100. These outcomes illustrate Odisha’s transformation from one of India’s most disaster-affected states into a pioneer of anticipatory disaster governance.

This success did not occur by chance. Odisha pursued a “zero casualty” model and created the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) in 2000, invested in cyclone shelters, early warning systems and a specialized disaster response force. Most importantly, Odisha placed communities and local governance at the center of its approach.

The state redefined preparedness by integrating local governments into disaster planning, building resilient infrastructure and mobilizing social capacity through women’s groups, village committees and trained volunteers. This people-centered model turned disaster management from a top-down directive into a community movement.

Comparative cyclone outcomes in Odisha

Sources: Government of Odisha (2013); OSDMA (2019; 2025c); UNDRR (2019); Pati (2019).

Building disaster resilience and beyond

The Odisha experience is more than a local success, it offers a global lesson. Climate change is intensifying storms, floods and heatwaves across Asia and beyond, and countries from Bangladesh to the Philippines face similar risks. Odisha demonstrates that resilience depends not only on high-tech forecasting systems but also on empowered local institutions, trust and participation.

Learning from Odisha highlights two critical aspects for disaster risk management:

(i) Local leadership and community group support: Local leaders draw on their knowledge of terrain, vulnerable groups and community networks to act as effective first responders in emergencies. Community groups extend this reach by mobilizing people, building trust, and ensuring that warnings translate into collective action.

(ii) Resilient infrastructure with rapid response and technology support: A combination of robust infrastructure, a specialized rapid response force, and technology-driven early warning systems enables faster evacuations, safer shelters, and timely relief during major cyclones.

The way forward: From local action to global responsibility

Odisha’s story shows that resilience is strongest when every actor plays a role. National governments, local authorities, communities, international organizations and the private sector each contribute in distinct ways, and together they can turn effective practices into global standards.

● Governments build the backbone of resilience. They establish strong policies, legal frameworks and sustained investments in disaster infrastructure. Governments must lead by setting “zero casualty” goals, funding cyclone shelters, expanding early warning systems and empowering local institutions. Local governments then serve as the frontline implementers, ensuring that policies translate into action and communities receive the support they need.
● Local communities provide the foundation of disaster preparedness. Villages, self-help groups and local councils translate official warnings into action by mapping evacuation routes, training volunteers and strengthening trust so that alerts are followed without hesitation.
● International organizations connect local success to global progress. By financing early warning systems, facilitating South–South knowledge exchange and scaling up community-based models, organizations such as ESCAP and UNDRR can amplify the impact across borders.
● The private sector drives innovation and investment in resilience. Telecom operators, fintech companies and clean energy providers can enhance disaster communications, enable mobile payments for relief, and power shelters through renewable energy. Insurance providers can design affordable products that help households and businesses recover more quickly.

Odisha’s experience illustrates how deliberate reforms, paired with strong community participation, can save thousands of lives. As climate change intensifies hazards across Asia and the Pacific, Odisha’s model demonstrates that resilience depends not only on technology and infrastructure but also on trust, participation and local capacity.

Rajan Sudesh Ratna is Deputy Head, ESCAP Subregional Office for South and South-West Asia; Jing Huang is Economic Affairs Officer, ESCAP Subregional Office for South and South-West Asia; and Sanjit Beriwal is Research Intern, ESCAP Subregional Office for South and South-West Asia

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Photos capture the joy and unity present at this year's Irreecha festival.

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