Global military spending surges amid war and insecurity
22/4/2024: Total global military expenditure reached $2,443 billion in 2023, an increase of 6.8 per cent in real terms from 2022. This was the steepest year-on-year increase since 2009 according to new data on global military spending published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Europe’s indifference to Rwanda’s atrocities is costing Congolese lives
19/4/2024: A decade ago, Europe responded to Rwanda’s incursions into the Democratic Republic of Congo with sanctions. Today, it’s turning a blind eye – with devastating consequences for the Congolese. Rwanda continues to receive unprecedented sums from Europe and the UK for development, despite evidence that the M23 rebel group has again led a military assault in eastern DRC.
Source: African Arguments
War in Sudan is ‘a crisis of epic proportions’ as atrocities abound
19/4/2024: Top UN and African Union officials have warned the Security Council that the world must rethink the way it supports the Sudanese people. Efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the year-long war have been hampered by the support that rival armies obtain from outside Sudan, flouting the Council’s sanctions regime. Meanwhile, extreme food insecurity has prompted UN agencies to launch a famine prevention plan.
Source: UN News
Mixed results in UN Decade of Sustainable Energy for all
19/4/2024: The global population with access to electricity has increased from 87 per cent to 91 per cent since 2015 but this progress has not been shared equitably. The goal of energy for all requires more funding and international cooperation.
Source: UN News
Libya: UN envoy’s resignation diminishes hopes for democracy
19/4/2024: The UN Support Mission in Libya was launched in 2011 to facilitate a political process that would lead to elections. After 18 months as UN special envoy, the Senegalese diplomat Abdoulaye Bathily has been unable to make progress, as the country remains divided by two rival governments.
Source: DW
World Bank aims to bring electricity to 300 million Africans
18/4/2024: By doubling its spending to $6 billion per annum and working in partnership with the African Development Bank, the plan would halve the 600 million people currently living without electricity on the continent by 2030. All new power generation will come from renewable energy sources. Campaigners question how the plan will be any different from similar past World Bank initiatives.
Source: Devex
The UN Pact for the Future needs something old, new, borrowed and blue
17/4/2024: UN member states will gather in New York in September to negotiate a Pact for the Future, a possible blueprint for multilateral cooperation in the 21st century. The initial “zero draft” of the Pact is a timid text that lacks many of the sensible ideas proposed by the UN Secretary-General.
Source: PassBlue
Congress stalls US Farm Bill that governs international food aid
16/4/2024: The five-year US Farm Bill expired in 2023 and was extended into September 2024. As lawmakers struggle to agree the next round, numerous programs governing international food aid hang in the balance. As many as 783 million people around the world face chronic hunger, according to the World Food Programme, and that number is on the rise.
Source: Devex
UK ‘double counting’ humanitarian aid as climate finance
16/4/2024: The UK government has reclassified nearly £500m of humanitarian aid for nations including Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia as “climate finance”. The chair of the Least Developed Countries group at UN climate talks says the UK’s actions are a “clear deviation from the path to climate justice”.
Source: Carbon Brief
82 Chibok girls still in captivity ten years since abduction
14/4/2024: It is 10 years since 276 girls were abducted from Chibok secondary school in Nigeria by Boko Haram fighters. Parents and relatives of the girls who remain in captivity say they have been abandoned. Amnesty International says the Nigerian authorities have not learned any lessons or taken effective measures to prevent attacks on schools.
Source: Amnesty International