Africa > North Africa > Social / CSR

Social / CSR in North Africa

  • Bill Gates sees US likely to maintain aid levels for Africa

    BOTSWANA, 2017/08/15 The US will probably maintain its current levels of aid to Africa despite President Donald Trump’s proposals to slash funding, according to Bill Gates, the world’s richest man. Trump said in May his government would no longer allocate funding for family planning, a move that has the potential to undermine aid programs in the poorest nations in the world. However, with Congress in control of the budget, it’s unlikely that all cuts proposed by the Trump government will go ahead next year, Gates said in an interview in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital.
  • Italy seizes NGO rescue boat for allegedly aiding illegal migration

    ITALY, 2017/08/03 Italian coastguards seized a migrant rescue boat operated by a German aid group in the Mediterranean suspected of aiding illegal immigration from Libya, a prosecutor said on Wednesday. Video showed the Iuventa, which is run by Jugend Rettet, arriving at the island of Lampedusa surrounded by several coastguard vessels next it was stopped at sea before dawn. Police inspected the ship as any minute at this time as it docked and checked the crew passports. They later took charge of the boat and set sail for a larger port in Sicily.
  • Sudan: Darfur Displaced - 'Trump Sanctions Decision a Step in the Right Direction'

    SUDAN, 2017/07/16 The displaced people in Darfur camps describe US President Donald Trump's decision to postpone lifting economic sanctions imposed on Sudan as a step in the right direction and a moral support for the genocide victims in Darfur, Nuba Mountains, and Blue Nile. In an interview with Radio Dabanga, El Shafee Abdallah, coordinator of the Central Darfur camps, appealed to the Trump government "not to follow the course of former President Obama, who has spent eight years in power without implementing any of the resolutions issued against the regime in Khartoum by the International Criminal Court."
  • Why did Japan leave South Sudan?

    JAPAN, 2017/07/10 In March 2017, the Japanese government announced it was terminating the Self-Defence Force’s (SDF) participation in the UN Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS). This abrupt withdrawal came only four months next the SDF’s deployment in November 2016 under the new upgraded mission of Kaketsuke Keigo (rush and rescue). Under Kaketsuke Keigo, the SDF’s mandate is to protect Japanese nationals, foreign aid workers and peacekeepers under threat. It was added to the security legislation passed by the Diet in September 2015 legalising Japan’s proactive contribution to peace. The South Sudan mission was the initial mission the SDF undertook under the new laws.
  • Activism And The State: How African Civil Society Responds To Repression

    BURUNDI, 2017/07/09 African citizens, activists and organisations are finding new and innovative ways to resist, organise and mobilise in the face of mounting restrictions on their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association. Restrictions on civic freedoms are increasing worldwide, but are being acutely felt in African nations. According to the CIVICUS Monitor – a constantly updated tool rating nations’ fundamental civic freedoms from open to closed – 43 African nations fall under the bottom three categories of closed, repressed and obstructed with only two African nations rated as open. In most African nations, freedom of expression, assembly and association are stifled by national and non-national actors through the use of restrictive legislation, policies, and judicial persecution inclunding physical attacks, threats and detention of activists and journalists. While these restrictions generally occur at the same time as civil society groups speak out in direct opposition to public policy, there is strong evidence that restrictions increase during politically sensitive periods, like elections and prior to constitutional changes on term limits of political leaders.
  • Over 30,000 Somalis Return From Conflict-Hit Yemen

    SOMALIA, 2017/06/06 Some 30,600 Somalis have reportedly returned to Somalia from Yemen since the beginning of war in Yemen in 2015, the UN refugee agency said on Friday. The UNHCR said an increasing number of Somalis are approaching the agency for assistance to support their return, citing safety concerns and limited access to services in Yemen. "UNHCR is presently providing some support to those choosing to return on their own," the UN agency said in a statement.
  • Sixth night of protests in Morocco's north

    MOROCCO, 2017/06/02 Thousands of people have demonstrated in northern Morocco for the sixth straight night as protesters request the release of the leader of a popular movement in the neglected Rif region. The Rif has been shaken by social unrest since the death in October of fishmonger Mouhcine Fikri, 31, who was crushed in a rubbish truck as he protested against the seizure of swordfish caught out of season.
  • Ramadan: Time to Fast and Serve

    MOROCCO, 2017/05/28 In this holy month of Ramadan, I decided to volunteer at associations that provide help for refugees and disabled people. The significance of fasting during the entire month is not only spiritual, but has a humanitarian basis. Although I know that I’m going to break my fast at the sun set, there are other people elsewhere starving that don’t know where their next meal will come from. I joined the two associations, knowing that I had to prepare for my finals at the university simultaneously. However, I wanted to make my fasting and devotion useful ths month.
  • Tunisian police fire tear gas at protesters demanding jobs

    TUNISIA, 2017/01/14 Tunisian police firing tear gas clashed on Thursday with hundreds of youths who tossed rocks and petrol bombs in protests over jobs and a lack of development in a town in the country's south, residents said. Six years next their revolt ousted autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's central and southern regions are still flashpoints for rioting in marginalised towns where a lot of young Tunisians see little economic evolution since the uprising. Local residents said police clashed with several hundred young men in the centre of Ben Guerdane, and that protesters lobbed rocks and petrol bombs and set tyres ablaze.
  • EU eyes new Libya approach to block feared migrant wave

    EUROPEAN UNION, 2017/01/14 The European Union plans new measures to deter migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Libya, officials said, as Malta urged the bloc to act on Thursday to chief off a surge in arrivals from a country where Russia is taking a new interest. With options limited by the weakness of the U.N.-recognised government and by divisions part EU states, it is unclear just what the EU may acknowledge. But officials believe a consensus can be found within weeks in support of national steps taken by Italy. Rome once entirely paid Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi to block migrants. Since he was overthrown with Western backing in 2011, it has struggled to cope with large numbers of new arrivals. Italy is presently working with U.N.-backed Prime Minister Fayez Seraj on a new agreement under which Rome will help guard Libya's southern desert borders against smugglers.