“With the increase in food prices across the world, many refugee families are struggling to meet their basic needs on a daily basis,” said Dominik Bartsch, UNHCR Representative in Amman. “There is of course food assistance provided, but overall, household incomes are declining rapidly and we’re seeing the level of poverty increasing in the camp.”
Debt woes
According to UNHCR, two in three refugee families in Za’atari say they are in debt and 92 per reported having to resort to negative coping strategies, such as reducing food intake or accepting high-risk jobs. These numbers have been going up at a worrying pace.
And after UN-led constitutional talks between Syria’s warring sides were postponed at the start of the week, a geopolitical casualty of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, humanitarians remain particularly worried for Syrian children housed at Za’atari, for whom the camp “has become their world”, said Mr. Bartsch.
“Prospects for return for the time being do not look promising. We are not seeing an environment in Syria that would be conducive to returns, but it is nonetheless reassuring that refugees when asked would they consider returning back home, overwhelmingly respond positively.”
Unsustainable pressure
More than 20,000 births have been recorded in Za’atari camp since its opening, Mr. Bartsch noted, before pointing to the “limited opportunities for the many children who are born in the camp and have seen no other environs than the camp itself”.
Crediting the camp with “saving thousands of lives and providing work and opportunities “for Jordanians and Syrians alike”, the UN refugee agency official warned that the situation was not sustainable, with its weather-beaten temporary shelters increasingly showing their limitations.
“The caravans, which replaced tents in 2013, have a normal life span of six to eight years meaning most of them are now in need of urgent repair…In 2021 alone, over 7,000 refugees requested support for maintenance as roofs and windows cracked and walls warped, leaving some residents exposed to the elements,” he explained.
Electricity is another area of concern. While a solar plant was opened to power the camp in 2017, its capacity was only able to meet the needs of all residents for 11.5 hours a day.
In recent months, as electricity demand increased for summer, UNHCR had to reduce this to nine hours per day to be able to cope with the additional electricity costs incurred, as the solar plant does not provide for all the camp’s needs.
UN Photo/Mark Garten
An aerial view of Zaíatri refugee camp near Mafraq, Jordan, host to tens of thousands of Syrians displaced by conflict. 7 December 2012.
Welcoming tradition
Jordan hosts 675,000 registered refugees from Syria, who began fleeing in 2011 when civil war erupted, causing terrible suffering, death and economic destruction. Most Syrian refugees in Jordan live in its towns and villages among local communities. Only 17 per cent live in the two main refugee camps, Za’atari and Azraq.
“It is a testimony, a testimony to the generosity of the Government of Jordan, which at the time 10 years ago, 11 years ago, allowed Syrian refugees access to its territory and then set up facilities that really are remarkable by global standards,” said Mr. Bartsch of Za’atari, speaking via video link from Amman to journalists in Geneva.
Humanitarian support for refugees in the camp is spearheaded by the Jordanian government and UNHCR, which has almost 1,200 staff from 32 different international and Jordanian organizations working there.
Start-up philosophy
“This humanitarian assistance would not have been possible without support from the international community,” said Mr. Bartsch, who also emphasised the determination and resilience of the camp’s residents that have seen almost 1,800 shops and businesses start from nothing.
“From cell phone stores to restaurants, bridal shops to mechanics, these businesses employ an estimated 3,600 refugees,” the UNHCR official continued. “But they do not operate in isolation.
Refugee entrepreneurs regularly engage with companies and clients in the nearby city of Mafraq and contribute to the Jordanian economy and host society.”
Za’atari has 32 schools, 58 community centres and eight health facilities that operate alongside civil defence and community police.
In addition to co-managing the camp with the authorities, UNHCR and its partners provide protection, health and cash assistance to the women, men, and children in the camp.
“In the long run, our projection is that a continued approach of gradual inclusion of refugees in national assistance is the pathway to follow,” Mr. Bartsch said, praising Jordan for allowing “from early very”, access of refugees to education, health and the labour market.
“Tragically, it is also a problem that is growing worse – especially for women and girls, who represent the majority of detected trafficked persons globally”.
Separated and vulnerable
Conflicts, forced displacement, climate change, inequality and poverty, have left tens of millions of people around the world destitute, isolated and vulnerable.
And the COVID-19 pandemic has separated children and young people in general from their friends and peers, pushing them into spending more time alone and online.
“Human traffickers are taking advantage of these vulnerabilities, using sophisticated technology to identify, track, control and exploit victims,” explained the UN chief.
IOM Port of Spain
Venezuelan migrant Manuela Molina (not her real name) was promised a decent job in Trinidad, but minutes after her arrival she was forced into a van and taken to a secret location.
Cyber space trafficking
Often using the so-called “dark web”, online platforms allow criminals to recruit people with false promises.
And technology anonymously allows dangerous and degrading content that fuels human trafficking, including the sexual exploitation of children.
This year’s theme – Use and Abuse of Technology – reminds everyone that while it can enable human trafficking, technology can also be a critical tool in fighting it.
Join forces
The Secretary-General underscored the need for governments, businesses and civil society to invest in policies, laws and technology-based solutions that can identify and support victims, locate and punish perpetrators, and ensure a safe, open and secure internet.
“As part of 2023’s Summit of the Future, I have proposed a Global Digital Compact to rally the world around the need to bring good governance to the digital space,” he said, calling on the everyone to “give this issue the attention and action it deserves and work to end the scourge of human trafficking once and for all”.
Tech dangers
In her message for the day, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Ghada Waly, spoke more about the theme.
Acknowledging that digital technology has been “a vital lifeline” during pandemic restrictions, she warned that they are “being increasingly exploited by criminals”.
The borderless nature of information and communications technologies (ICT) enable traffickers to expand their reach and profits with even greater impunity.
More than 60 per cent of known human trafficking victims over the last 15 years have been women and girls, most of them trafficked for sexual exploitation.
And as conflicts and crises increase misery, countless others are in danger of being targeted with false promises of opportunities, jobs, and a better life.
Safeguard online spaces
To protect people, digital spaces must be shielded from criminal abuse by harnessing technologies for good.
“Partnerships with tech companies and the private sector can keep traffickers from preying on the vulnerable and stop the circulation of online content that amplifies the suffering of trafficking victims,” said Ms. Waly.
With the right support, law enforcement can use artificial intelligence, data mining and other tools to detect and investigate trafficking networks.
“On this World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, let us commit to preventing online exploitation and promoting the power of tech to better protect children, women and men, and support victims”, she concluded.
Trafficking in conflict
A group of UN-appointed independent human rights experts underscored that the international community must “strengthen prevention and accountability for trafficking in persons in conflict situations”.
Women and girls, particularly those who are displaced, are disproportionately affected by trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced and child marriage, forced labour and domestic servitude.
“These risks of exploitation, occurring in times of crisis, are not new. They are linked to and stem from existing, structural inequalities, often based on intersectional identities, gender-based discrimination and violence, racism, poverty and weaknesses in child protection systems,” the experts said.
Structural inequalities
Refugees, migrants, internally displaced and Stateless persons are particularly at risk of attacks and abductions that lead to trafficking.
And the dangers are increased by continued restrictions on protection and assistance, limited resettlement and family reunification, inadequate labour safeguards and restrictive migration policies.
“Such structural inequalities are exacerbated in the periods before, during and after conflicts, and disproportionately affect children”, they added.
Targeting schools
Despite links between armed group activities and human trafficking – particularly targeting children – accountability “remains low and prevention is weak,” according to the UN experts.
Child trafficking – with schools often targeted – is “linked to the grave violations against children in situations of armed conflict, including recruitment and use, abductions and sexual violence,” they said.
“Sexual violence against children persists, and often leads to trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy and forced marriage, as well as forced labour and domestic servitude”.
Heat waves increase the risks of crop failures, threatening food security for billions of people. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS
Opinion by Esther Ngumbi (urbana, illinois, usa)
Inter Press Service
URBANA, Illinois, USA, Jul 29 (IPS) – Across the U.S., and around the world, particularly Europe, heat records are being shattered. Accompanying these extreme temperatures are fires caused by the heat that are burning both homes and forests. While extreme heat is impacting some areas of the world, flooding is impacting other areas including Colorado and Virginia in the U.S., and in other countries around the world including Brazil and Ecuador.
These climate-linked events that are occurring in regions and areas that have never been impacted before send the signal that no one is immune to climate change. All countries and citizens must act with urgency to mitigate this existential threat.
Indeed, these historical catastrophes create an important moment for all of us, including policy makers at both the state and federal level, to roll out bold reforms on many issues, including heat and agriculture.
As countries consider climate mitigation initiatives, they need to be sure to strengthen agricultural crops’ resilience to extreme heat, drought, insect herbivory and flooding, that have become increasingly common. These crops include maize, rice, soybeans, wheat and tomatoes.
Like humans, crops are sensitive to extreme heat. When temperatures increase, crops wither, their health deteriorates, and normal development is affected. Studies have shown that crops and crop varieties that are susceptible to heat stress are impacted the most.
Heat stress causes the deterioration of several important plant physiological processes including photosynthesis, respiration, and transpiration. Further, it causes the accumulation of toxic substances in plant cells including phenolic compounds and reactive oxygen species.
Plants’ ability to grow is affected and their life cycle is shortened. Ultimately, crop yields are reduced with consequences for food supply and agriculture, an important sector of the economies of many countries including the US, the UK, Spain, France and many African countries.
In the US, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, agriculture and related industries contributed $1.055 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020. In the UK, in 2021, agriculture contributed around 0.5% to the economy.
Heat waves increase the risks of crop failures, threatening food security for billions of people.
Indeed, scientists around the world have generated evidence of the crop and yield losses associated with heat waves and extreme temperatures. A 2017 study that examined extensive published results showed that temperature increase reduces global yields. Similarly, a 2018 study that examined more than 82,000 yield data from 17 European countries also found the same trend.
Crop failures and productivity losses due to excessive heat, drought and flooding are taking place in many countries. The magnitude of these crop failures, however, varies enormously depending on the region and its wealth.
It’s clear that as governments begin to strategize on how to mitigate heat waves, and other climate change brought about extremes, they must not forget agriculture.
Strengthening agricultural resilience can include developing disaster preparedness and response plans, continuing to fund agricultural research and other climate change research and accelerating outreach and education about climate-smart practices.
Climate-smart practices that can alleviate crop failures when extreme temperatures arise are diverse and include:
Planting heat and drought tolerant crop varieties that have been bred to enhance their photosynthetic capacities and water use efficiencies when periods of stress occur
Using inoculants made from naturally occurring beneficial soil microbes that can confer tolerance to heat and drought among other stressors.
Thankfully science researchers around the world continue to advance our understanding of crops response to climate-linked stresses. We can learn from them.
In the race to mitigate climate change brought about heat waves, we must not forget strengthening agriculture.
Dr. Esther Ngumbi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and a Senior Food Security Fellow with the Aspen Institute, New Voices.
LONDON, Jul 29 (IPS) – Until Russia went to war on Ukraine in February, Ukraine was known as the “breadbasket of Europe”. One of the largest grain exporters in the world, it provided about 10 per cent of globally traded wheat and corn and 37 per cent of sunflower oil, United Nations figures show. The yellow and blue of its flag mimic its rolling golden fields under blue summer skies.
The war has darkened this picture beyond recognition.
Despite the conflict, Ukrainian farmers are still growing grain, at levels estimated to be around three-quarters of a normal year. But, with Russia blockading the Black Sea ports through which Ukraine would usually export about 5 million tonnes a month, the country is now struggling to get just 2 million tonnes a month out westward by choked road, rail and river routes.
This is not only an existential problem for Ukraine, whose grain exports are one of the biggest contributors to its economy, but also for the millions of people worldwide who would normally import and eat this grain. The World Food Programme (WFP) says that as many as 47 million people, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, are at risk of acute hunger.
Addressing this food security risk is a double challenge for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which works both in Ukraine and neighbouring countries affected by the war, and in southern and eastern Mediterranean countries which are struggling to import food.
Vanora Bennet. Credit: EBRD
Inside Ukraine, 18 million tonnes of grain from last year’s crop are waiting in siloes for export. Space is at a premium and the squeeze is getting worse. The figures become still more dizzying once you add in the winter wheat and barley crop now being harvested, and the spring crop including sunflower and corn that will also join the queue in a couple of months’ time.
“The biggest issue is storing the grain. There is some warehouse and silo capacity free, but not enough for the harvest taking place now. We’ve been told they are missing 15 million tonnes of capacity, even before the spring crop harvest that’s coming in in two months’ time,” says Jean-Marc Peterschmitt, EBRD Managing Director for Industry, Commerce and Agribusiness. “It is unclear how it will play out.”
“For now, the only solution is temporary storage – silo bags or floor storage or even storage in the field with some basic covers, which obviously will deteriorate the quality of grain,” says Natalia Zhukova, EBRD Director, Agribusiness. “Silo bags can pretty much preserve the quality for 12 months because they are hermetically sealed so infections or pests cannot develop inside. But simple silos without proper drying or ventilation will obviously have problems.”
“Getting grain out of the country and being able to store the harvest inside the country are the mirror image of each other, because whatever you get out is freeing up storage capacity for the next harvest,” adds Peterschmitt. “Getting it out so far has been not a great experience. But it’s vital to find more ways to do that.”
As the quantity of Ukrainian crops waiting for export and potentially rotting in siloes and fields increases, hopes that Ukraine could soon resume exports in something like their usual quantities rose briefly last week when a tenuous U.N.-brokered deal to lift the blockade on the key Ukrainian port of Odessa was agreed in Turkey on 22 July.
Less than 24 hours later, however, Russian cruise missiles hit Odesa. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, saying the attack cast serious doubt on the credibility of Russia’s commitment to the deal, accused Russia of “starving Ukraine of its economic vitality and the world of its food supply.”
Yet, by 25 July, Ukraine said it still hoped to start implementing the deal within as little as a week, and was making preparations including demining essential sea areas, and setting up naval corridors for the safe passage of merchant vessels and a coordination centre in Istanbul.
Still, for now, amidst the uncertainty, it’s back to working within the limits of wartime.
Within Ukraine, a significant part of the €1 billion of EBRD investment pledged for this year is earmarked to support domestic food security. As part of the EBRD’s Resilience and Livelihoods Framework (RLF), a €200 million multi-instrument Food Security Guarantee works across the food chain in Ukraine, both helping farmers buy fertiliser and retailers get food into the shops.
And there are other, smaller, freight transport options out of Ukraine for grain export if access to Black Sea ports continues to be blocked. The Danube River, whether in Ukraine or neighbouring Moldova or Romania, could be one option.
Throughput at Moldova’s Giurgiulesti Port on the Danube has already doubled in 2022. Another possibility might be supporting improvements to road and rail exports to help carry more freight overland.
In the southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region where the EBRD also works, meanwhile, all countries rely on imports to make enough dietary energy available domestically. The level of reliance on Russian and Ukrainian grain is unusually high.
Food prices are currently at an all-time high, making sourcing scarce imports from elsewhere ruinously expensive.
As the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s senior economist, Katya Krivonos, told a panel discussion at the EBRD Annual Meeting in May, Egypt, which has 5.4 million undernourished people, usually sources more than 40 per cent of its calorie imports from Russia and Ukraine.
“Climate conditions in SEMED don’t really allow them to grow grain. In arid countries, the question is how in the longer term to become more food secure, in a more sustainable way. We are looking at ways to help these countries find the commodities that they need,” says Iride Ceccacci, the EBRD’s head of Agribusiness Advisory.
In this region, the Bank is looking at expanding its work on agribusiness and food security beyond its current focus on the private sector to support SEMED countries to secure import of grains in this context of unprecedented high prices.
In Tunisia, 50 percent of all food calories are imported. Jordan imports approximately 90 percent of wheat and barley, which are essential staples and water intensive crops to produce. Morocco, which is generally less reliant on imports, is facing one of the worst droughts in decades.
In May, the EBRD joined forces with other international financial institutions – the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group – to formulate an IFI Action Plan to Address Food Insecurity.
“People in SEMED are very frustrated that they came out of the COVID-19 pandemic, having coped with it with a lot of resilience, and were looking forward to some positive growth.
But instead, they’re now getting this massive new hit, mainly through high food prices but also through high energy prices, which affect fertiliser prices so will also have an impact on domestic food production,” says Heike Harmgart, Managing Director, SEMED, at the EBRD.
She adds: “Now middle-class people in Egypt are buying less meat because food price inflation has been so high in the supermarket. And governments are worried because high food prices were one of the triggers of the Arab Spring in 2011, and there’s a very clear connection between political unrest and high bread prices”.
“What everyone wants to avoid is social unrest. The EBRD has been working on urgent food security response projects to support SEMED countries, with a first transaction now Board approved for Tunisia. These investments include technical assistance designed to promote sustainable solutions for grain supply chains in the region.”
Gérald Theis, Chairman of CereMed UK Ltd, a big grain trader, vividly describes working first with the supply problems of the Covid era, which raised prices and the threat of protectionism, and then the war on Ukraine, which began on 24 February.
“February 24 was like 9/11, or a tsunami,” he told the EBRD Annual Meeting’s food security panel. “We didn’t sleep much for a while. In eight days, we saw a move of nearly US$ 200 dollars per tonne – a percentage rise of 160 per cent.”
Asked what his sense was of where food security was heading next season, he replied: “I’m sorry to say I don’t know, if we speak about long-term. Today I would say a day is like a month used to be before. Nobody knows when this war will end or how it will end.”
“Even if it stopped tomorrow, we traders don’t think that things will go back to normal – there are too many issues with logistics, broken bridges and railways, silos and sanctions. In this environment, we believe prices will stay at a high level and it’s going to be extremely volatile.”
Source: EBRD
Vanora Bennett is EBRD Green spokeswoman / Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Georgia and Armenia
Nazeri Bin Lajim, a Malay Singaporean national, was arrested in April 2012 for trafficking more than 33 grammes of diamorphine. He was executed last Friday.
“Under international law, States that have not yet abolished the death penalty may only impose it for the ‘most serious crimes’, involving intentional killing,” the experts said. “Drug offences clearly do not meet this threshold.”
Discrimination against minorities
They also noted the sharp rise in execution notices issued in Singapore this year.
“We are concerned that a disproportionate number of those being sentenced to death for drug-related offences are minority persons and tend to be from economically disadvantaged backgrounds like Mr. Nazeri Bin Lajim,” the experts said.
“The practice amounts to discriminatory treatment of minorities such as Malays and vulnerable persons.”
The experts said enforcement of Mr. Bin Lajim’s execution proceeded despite claims that he had been suffering from long-term drug addiction, and that most of the diamorphine would have been for his personal use.
Activists intimidated
Additionally, the rest of the narcotics in his possession would not have met the 15 gram threshold for imposing Singapore’s mandatory death penalty.
“We are also extremely concerned by reports about increasing pressure and acts of intimidation by the authorities against activists, journalists, legal professionals and human rights defenders who peacefully advocate against the death penalty and/or represent persons on death row, and the chilling effect such acts have on civic space,” they said.
“The act of expressing one’s opinion and protesting against the death penalty should be tolerated in a democratic country.”
Suspend further executions
The experts urged Singapore to suspend the further execution of individuals on death row for drug offences and instead commute their sentences to imprisonment, consistent with international human rights law and standards.
They also called for the authorities to immediately establish a moratorium on all executions with a view to fully abolishing the death penalty.
The Government was also urged to review the scope of the death penalty, particularly with regard to drug-related offences, in order to ensure that its imposition and implementation are strictly limited to cases involving intentional killing.
“We reiterate that the mandatory use of the death penalty constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of life, since it is imposed without taking into account the defendant’s personal circumstances or the circumstances of the particular offence,” the experts said.
“Mandatory death sentences are arbitrary in nature and not compatible with the limitation of capital punishment to the ‘most serious crimes.’”
The 11 experts who issued the statement were appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor and report on specific thematic issues such as extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
They are independent of any government, serve in their individual capacity, and are neither UN staff nor are they paid for their work.
EXPERT PERSPECTIVE —MI5 Director General, Ken McCallum’s, joint address on 6th July with the FBI Chief saw a welcome rebalancing of the Security Service’s focus towards nation-state threats. Counter Terrorism is an important function but it was allowed to dominate for two decades while Russia, China and some other belligerent states were insufficiently monitored.
The 9/11 attack was so huge that it blew Western foreign policy off course for two decades. 9/11’s impact did not merely derive from the large number of deaths (almost ten times the next largest terrorist incident) but also because it was viewed as a new form of particularly dangerous Islamist terrorism. The extraordinary television footage, both enthralling and horrifying, together with the iconic targets produced a vision of terror in a league of its own.
Until 9/11, the world had regarded terrorism like crime or poverty, as something we would wish to eradicate but might have to endure and manage forever. The main factors which distinguish terrorism from crime are the political motive, the intention to kill and maim, and, often, the covert hand of foreign countries behind the terrorists. That is why security services around the world take the lead on counter-terrorism (CT) with police forces in support.
We tend to forget that spectacular terrorist attacks did not begin with 9/11. Before 2001, there were two extraordinary decades from the early 1970s onwards which saw several major attacks each year. For example, the blowing up in September 1970, of four airliners in Jordan by Palestinian terrorists, the kidnapping in December 1975, of 60 officials at an OPEC conference in Vienna by the terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal and the downing of an Air India Boeing 747 over the Atlantic in June 1985, by Sikh extremists that killed 329 people.
Some of the most high-profile attacks were carried out by the Abu Nidhal Organisation (ANO) and other Palestinian groups. There were also Sikh and Latin American organisations, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), the German Baader Meinhof gang, and the Japanese Red Army. Attacks in the 1970s and 80s received front-page and prime-time coverage but only for a few days each. The exception was the destruction of a Pan Am aircraft over Lockerbie in December 1988, which broke through an invisible barrier to become a repeated news item for several years.
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Behind these organisations we occasionally caught glimpses of nation states. In many cases it was Iran, Syria or Libya but there were other less visible actors. The French deal with the ANO (revealed in 2019) was particularly cynical but there was also Irish-American (NORAID) assistance to the PIRA and all those other countries which paid ransoms for the release of their citizens. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the extent of East Germany’s systematic involvement in anti-Western terrorism was laid bare.
Occasionally, there would be successes for security services. In the UK alone there were operations which exposed Libyan arming of PIRA and the meticulous work which attributed the Lockerbie bombing to Libya. At the time, CT work was always secondary to operations against nation-state threats; primarily the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. In 1970, 105 Soviet intelligence officers were expelled from London, the fruit of thousands of hours of scrutiny and from that moment onwards, a coordinated effort was maintained to expel Soviet bloc spies thereby disrupting their operations.
It was the end of the Cold War in 1989/90, which ushered in the unipolar world of just one superpower. In April 2001, the Hainan Island incident involving a US spy plane off the Chinese coast, raised a question-mark about the potential future threat from a more assertive China. But a mere four months later, the 9/11 attack took place and China was all-but-forgotten.
Allies in South East Asia would repeatedly warn Western counterparts of the dangers of ignoring the rise of China and of focussing too heavily on CT in general and Iraq and Afghanistan in particular; but to no avail. Understandably, the destruction of Al Qa’ida and the capture of its leader, Osama Bin Laden, became a US strategic objective involving massive intelligence resources. Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama both put pressure on their agencies to prevent any future attacks on US soil. When 30 British tourists were killed at a Tunisian beach resort, then Prime Minister David Cameron described terrorism as “an existential threat”.
For some countries with weak governments, such as Somalia and Mali, terrorism can indeed be existential. Terrorism can also be deeply corrosive to civil society. However, for Western democracies, the only circumstance in which terrorism could become an existential threat is if a group succeeded in obtaining weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
There have been several moments of concern. The Japanese cult Aun Shinrikyo tried to use the nerve agent Sarin on the Tokyo subway in March 1995. Al Qa’ida tried several times to obtain WMD. There have long been concerns that the collapse of a country such as Pakistan or North Korea could result in terrorists getting their hands on chemical; biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) weapons.
The alteration of the planning for 9/11 after the British first got wind of the plot turned a conventional hijacking of an airliner to obtain the release of a prisoner, into a novel concept which used fully-fuelled aircraft as flying bombs. In essence, 9/11 became a borderline case between conventional and WMD terrorism.
For this reason, CT will remain a major concern of security services around the world. Furthermore, for as long as nation states continue to support terrorist organisations, we will need to devote the energies of our intelligence services to discover the plans of terrorist groups and their sponsors.
The statistics show that terrorism is a small threat compared to crime and disease, even in the UK, which has been one of the hardest hit countries. Between 1970 and 2019, the UK lost a total of 3,416 lives to terrorism but 84% of those were linked to Northern Ireland and 271 to the Lockerbie incident. Between 2005 and 2022, 93 people have died from terrorism, an average of under 6 people per annum. This compares to 695 homicides in 2020, about 1,500 deaths each year from traffic accidents and some 25,000 from influenza and pneumonia.
The terrorism figures are low partly because of the successes of MI5. Operation Overt in 2006, alone prevented up to ten passenger aircraft being destroyed over the Atlantic. At the same time, the international (particularly US) successes against Islamic State (IS) and Al Qa’ida terrorists have reduced the ability of those organisations to mount large-scale attacks in the West.
Increasingly, CT has become focussed on the ‘Lone Wolf’ phenomenon; young men who become radicalised online and are persuaded to build a basic bomb or just take a knife from the kitchen drawer. For security services to address this threat, it requires a disproportionate use of their limited resources. Dealing with this threat needs to involve mental health provision, social services, education and police.
One result of the years since 9/11, is that security services have shouldered too much of the CT burden. Sometimes they have been tempted to bid for generous CT funding while the caring services have remained uncomfortable playing a CT role. However, the Lone Wolf phenomenon (whether Islamist or right-wing) should be addressed as a ‘whole of government’ effort as envisaged in the original British CONTEST plan. The precious resources of security services need to be focussed on the most strategic threats; which not only threaten our way-of-life but our very existence.
This piece was first published by our friends at RUSI.
Read more expert-driven national security insights, perspective and analysis in The Cipher Brief
Reki Jimu (51) has lived with HIV for nearly two decades. Here he shows a container of antiretroviral drugs to HIV/AIDS support group members at Chitungwiza government hospital outside Harare, the Zimbabwean capital. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS.
by Jeffrey Moyo (chitungwiza, zimbabwe)
Inter Press Service
CHITUNGWIZA, Zimbabwe, Jul 29 (IPS) – In 2001, when Reki Jimu was 30 years old, his wife died aged 27.
The now 51-year-old Jimu said the couple’s two sons died prematurely. Both were underweight and frail, although the couple had been previously blessed with a baby girl, Faith Jimu, who is now a 29-year-old mother of three.
Jimu was born in Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland Central Province in Mazowe Citrus Estate, with his rural home located in the province’s Mukumbura area in Chigawo village.
Two years after his wife, Tendai Goba, died following a very long illness, which he said eroded her weight, Jimu was tested for HIV and found to be positive.
“My wife Tendai died in 2001, succumbing to AIDS, although then we had no proof she suffered from it. She had Kaposi’s sarcoma – a cancer associated with AIDS,” Jimu told IPS.
His diagnosis did not dampen his zeal to live – although he encountered a lot of discouragement from relatives, friends, and colleagues.
“When I started losing weight, people said I was being bewitched by my brother whom they claimed had goblins that were sucking out my blood,” Jimu said.
He said the back-biting started when his wife and two sons were still alive.
“Some naysayers were even blunt in their statements during the early days when my wife was sick, at the time our sons were alive. People said my sons were very thin because they had AIDS. We would hear this and never say anything in return. But of course, our sons died prematurely because they were all underweight (but) before we knew they had HIV,” said Jimu.
But thank God, said Jimu, the couple’s daughter, who was born before the couple contracted HIV/AIDS and has lived on without the disease and is now a parent.
Yet Jimu, even as his first wife kicked the bucket, has never given up on life.
Now residing in Chitungwiza, a town 25 kilometres southeast of Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, in 2003, soon after testing positive for HIV, Jimu immediately started taking antiretroviral treatment, and that has kept him going for almost two decades.
In fact, for close to two decades, 51-year-old Jimu has lived with HIV/AIDS, sticking to his antiretroviral treatment without fail.
Thanks to his belief in ARV treatment, now Jimu looks like any other healthy person.
“Look, I’m looking good. Nobody can tell I’m HIV positive. Nobody can even tell I’m taking ARV drugs unless I tell them myself,” bragged Jimu.
He has soldiered on with life despite being HIV positive.
In 2007, Jimu became the founder, leader and pastor of the Christian Fellowship Network Trust, a support group that he said has become pivotal in supporting people living with HIV and AIDS in Chitungwiza.
He has not stopped embracing life, and through the help of HIV/AIDS support groups, Jimu said he married again a year after he had tested positive.
Francisca Thomson, his second wife of the same age as him, is also living with HIV.
“Francisca is my queen, very beautiful girl, I can tell you, and we are so happy together,” boasted Jimu.
Jimu said he, like any other average person, has become a beacon of hope to many living with HIV.
He said he became open about his HVI/AIDS status at a time when the public loathed people like him and when HIV/AIDS stigma was rife.
“I am one of those people who used to appear on national television on an HIV/AIDS advert clip in which I was saying I didn’t cross the red traffic light… I am a pastor… I am HIV positive, adverts of which were sponsored by Population Services International,” said Jimu
Now a known fighter against HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, Jimu cannot hold back his gratitude for the Chitungwiza General Hospital here, which he said made him what he is today- an epic HIV/AIDS peer educator.
Zimbabwe has about 1,4 million people living with HIV/AIDS.
Living with HIV has not forced Jimu into a cocoon.
Instead, he said the condition has merely turned him into an ardent defender of many others.
“I’m now very active in offering routine counselling services and spiritual guidance to many who newly test positive for HIV and seeing me with the positive mindset I have. Many are adjusting quickly to their HIV-positive status and moving on with their lives,” said Jimu.
Yet, for Jimu, it has not been easy getting where he is now.
He said over the years, he has come face to face with stigma, saying many people around him were disgusted at merely seeing him sick.
Jimu said landlords quickly evicted him when they heard of his status.
“As a tenant at the many houses I have lived in, I would be quickly given notices to leave because people were afraid to live with me thinking I would just one day wake up dead in their homes or infect them with HIV. I would hear people gossiping about my sickness, some saying I was now a moving skeleton, some urging me to visit prophets for healing, some saying I must go back to the village and die there,” said Jimu.
Over the years, however, things have gotten better, with Jimu saying his relatives have begun to embrace him.
Yet, in the past, he had to contend with all the sneering and discrimination from both kith and kin.
“Being loathed and discriminated against were the things I have encountered in church, work and many other places. At many gatherings we would attend with my late wife, we would be made to take back seats as people were ashamed of having us occupying the front seats, obviously ashamed of how we looked because of the signs of sickness on us,” recalled Jimu.
But that is now a thing of the past.
As more and more people living with HIV are beginning to find it easier to live with the disease, Jimu has a message for them.
“I urge people who are HIV positive to take their medication during prescribed times without defaulting even when they feel they are now healthy and fit,” he said.
And he also carries an almost similar message for those on the brink of marriage.
“I urge couples to get tested for HIV before engaging in sex. If one is found positive, they can be assisted by health experts to live healthy lives without infecting each other with the disease,” said Jimu.
An image of an endangered Malaysian tiger, pictured by a camera trap.
UN News
The Malayan tiger is a critically endangered species, at a real risk of extinction, mainly as a result of illegal poaching and wildlife trafficking: according to the Malaysian authorities, fewer than 200 are left.
But a fight to save the tigers is underway: in the last two years, more than 1,000 tiger traps have been destroyed, and a team supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) conducts patrols in illegal hunting hotspots.
Rangers are involved in monitoring, intelligence gathering, and enforcement activities, and successfully cutting wildlife crimes.
You can read the whole article, released to mark International Tiger Day, celebrated on July 29, here.
Mandeep Dhaliwal, the director of HIV and health at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) is concerned that the proliferation of such laws is hampering the UN’s response to the virus, which is also being hit by a host of interconnected global crises.
Mandeep Dhaliwal:It is a pivotal time and opportunity to galvanize people around getting the AIDS response back on track. For the UNDP, the HIV/AIDS response is all about reducing inequalities, improving governance, and building resilient and sustainable systems, and this is really where we need to step up action if we’re going to regain lost ground.
UNDP
UN News What are the links between HIV/AIDS and development?
Mandeep Dhaliwal:HIV and other health issues are drivers and indicators of human development. For example, the war in Ukraine is having a dramatic effect on the cost of living, and 71 million people in the developing world have fallen into poverty in just three months.
That has consequences on everything from the financing of HIV/AIDS programs, to access to services, prevention, and treatment.
We’re seeing widening inequalities within and between countries, and we know that, in these kinds of crises, the impact is disproportionately borne by the most vulnerable and marginalized in our communities.
We’re seeing the cascading effects of multiple overlapping crises: the COVID pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the financial crisis, the food and energy crisis, and the climate crisis.
All of these are contributing to backsliding on HIV, and a decline in the resources available to countries. There is an incredible strain on already fragile, weak, and often fragmented health systems, and COVID has just deepened that.
There are 100 million displaced people. It’s a global record, and they’re at increased risk of acquiring HIV. They face barriers to accessing HIV and health services and are often cut off from support networks.
Economic growth prospects are down. The World Bank projects that 52 countries will face a significant drop in their spending capacity through 2026.
These 52 countries are important because they’re home to 43 per cent of the people living with HIV worldwide. But now, the HIV response, especially in Africa, is in jeopardy.
UN News:Do you think we can eradicate AIDS?
Mandeep Dhaliwal: I think we can get to the end of AIDS as a public health threat, but that’s going to require an urgent scale up of efforts in the next five years, to really address some of the persistent challenges in the AIDS response, particularly around young and adolescent women in sub-Saharan Africa, and marginalized populations globally.
This includes men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, and people who use drugs, who’ve always been more vulnerable and at greater risk of acquiring HIV.
And that requires removing punitive and discriminatory laws which keep these people away from services, and away from accessing prevention. The data demonstrates that countries that have removed these kinds of laws do better in terms of HIV responses.
Unfortunately, that’s not the norm, and most of the countries with these laws are not on track to reforming their legal and policy environments.
So this conference is also an opportunity to bring attention to the historic targets which were adopted by Member States in the 2021 political declaration on HIV [these targets involve major reductions in reducing HIV/AIDS related stigma, criminalization, gender inequality and violence]
If we can achieve that, we can get to the end of AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
UN News:When the theme for this conference – re engage and follow the science – was chosen, was that a message to those governments who put these laws in place?
Mandeep Dhaliwal: Yes. There’s a lot of science out there now which shows that decriminalization yields public health and HIV benefits. Prevention is more effective particularly in marginalized populations. It leads to better access to services and social support.
It is also a message to not forget about HIV. There’s still a job to be done, and we have to regain the ground we’ve lost over the last couple of years.
A family undergoes a HIV screening test at home in southwest Côte d’ivoire.
UN News: Against the backdrop of this very difficult international landscape, what do you think is the best-case, realistic outcome of this conference?
Mandeep Dhaliwal:One is a commitment to drive action on removing punitive and discriminatory laws, eliminating stigma and discrimination, and protecting people from violence.
The other is a commitment to follow the science. Science is moving at a pace that we’ve not seen before. For example, there is now a long acting anti-retroviral, which would be very good for prevention in key populations. But it needs to be priced at a point that makes it affordable and accessible in developing countries.
I’m hoping that the conference addresses this issue because it’s a theme that has run through the COVID pandemic, certainly around COVID vaccination, and it’s a theme that the HIV community is familiar with, especially when it comes to access to treatment.
We’ve had 40 years of the HIV pandemic and we were making progress, but you can’t take progress for granted.
We are entirely capable of dealing with multiple pandemics at the same time: HIV, TB, malaria, COVID, and now Monkeypox, which has been declared a public health issue of international concern.
We can do it, but it requires investment, action, and commitment. We should all be advocating for the full replenishment of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which will take place at the end of September in New York.
We really have to step up our investment, our action, and our commitment to finish the job on HIV because the best way to be better prepared for future pandemics is to deal with the ones that you’ve already facing.
New World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines advise countries to use the new potentially game-changing drug which is not yet available for sale, as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV, and as part of a comprehensive approach to prevent the virus from spreading.
Those using most PrEP medications on the market, have to remember to take their medication daily, a greater challenge for what is a preventative medicine.
“Long-acting cabotegravir is a safe and highly effective HIV prevention tool, but isn’t yet available outside study settings,” said Meg Doherty, Director of WHO’s Global HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections Programmes.
The drug was approved in the United States last December, and the United Kingdom the following month.
Critical moment
Key populations – including sex workers, men having sex with men, intravenous drug users, people in prisons, transgender individuals, and their sexual partners –accounted for 70 per cent of global HIV infections last year.
Moreover, 4,000 new infections that occurred every day in 2021, were within that group.
As HIV prevention efforts have stalled, the new guidelines were released ahead of the 24th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2022) – which officially begins on Friday – with 1.5 million new HIV infections last year, the same as in 2020.
“We hope these new guidelines will help accelerate country efforts to start to plan and deliver CAB-LA alongside other HIV prevention options, including oral PrEP and the dapivirine vaginal ring,” said the WHO official.
Game-changer drug
CAB-LA is an intramuscular injectable, long-acting form of PrEP.
The first two injections are administered four weeks apart, followed thereafter by an injection every eight weeks.
In randomized controlled trials, the antiretroviral was shown to be safe and highly effective among cisgender women, cisgender men who have sex with men, and transgender women who have sex with men.
Together, these landmark studies found that use of CAB-LA resulted in a 79 per cent relative reduction in HIV risk compared with oral PrEP, where adherence to taking daily oral medication was often a challenge, according to WHO.
Long-acting injectable products have also been found to be acceptable and sometimes preferred in studies examining community PrEP preferences.
A woman is tested for HIV in Uttar Pradesh, India.
Coalition force
The UN health agency also launched a new coalition to accelerate global access to the drug.
Convened by WHO, Unitaid, UNAIDS and The Global Fund, the coalition will identify interventions needed to advance near and long-term access to CAB-LA, establish financing and procurement for the drug, and issue policy guidance, among other activities.
“To achieve UN prevention goals, we must push for rapid, equitable access to all effective prevention tools, including long-acting PrEP,” said Rachel Baggaley, WHO’s Lead of the Testing, Prevention and Populations Team at Global HIV, Hepatitis and STI Programmes.
“That means overcoming critical barriers in low and middle-income countries, including implementation challenges and costs.”
Key actions
WHO will continue to support evidence-based strategies to increase PrEP access and uptake, such as through adopting and including CAB-LA in HIV prevention programmes.
It is also working with Unitaid and others to develop projects that answer outstanding safety issues and implementation challenges.
And the WHO Global PrEP Network will host webinars to provide up-to-date information on CAB-LA to increase awareness.
In April, it was added to WHO’s list of Expressions of Interest for prequalification evaluation by the health agency.
Prevention choices
Both oral PrEP and CAB-LA are highly effective.
The new CAB-LA guidelines are based on a public health approach that considers effectiveness, acceptability, feasibility and resource needs across a variety of settings.
They are designed to help CAB-LA delivery and the urgently needed operational research on address implementation and safety and will inform decisions on how to successfully provide and scale up CAB-LA.
The guidelines highlight critical research gaps, and also recognize that accessing current PrEP services are challenging for some.
“Communities must be involved in developing and delivering HIV prevention services that are effective, acceptable and support choice,” WHO spelled out.
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