New Strategy to Tackle Ancient and Brutal FGM tradition

F.A. Cole was hoping to feel ‘whole’ again when she was flown to Los Angeles for clitoral reconstructive surgery last September. She never knew such a procedure was possible – not since she was taken at the age of 11 to “the local cutter” in Sierra Leone, where she was stripped, blindfolded and had her hands tied behind her back.  To contain her screams, she was gagged. ... Read More

Africa’s Fight Against Illegal Fishing

In a series of reports for radio, print and television, we track illegal industrial fishing in East and West Africa, and its disastrous consequences for the environment and food security. The scramble for fish is making the Atlantic Ocean more dangerous:  Senegalese finding fewer fish at home are forced to venture further out – but are shot by the Mauritanian Coast Guard... Read More

Kenya Takes on the Pirates

Local fishers near Kizingitini, near Kenya’s northern coast Coastal states in East and West Africa are host to rich fisheries, and to the hundreds of foreign fishing vessels they attract. But environmental groups and local fishermen say they are finding habitats damaged, dead fish washed up on the shore and netshotstar app download and equipment destroyed.  But African coastal... Read More

First Steps to Brussels Crackdown on Illegal Fishing

The European parliament has voted overwhelmingly to bring in new rules cracking down on illegal fishing, which could help coastal states confront criminal activity in heavily fished African waters. Thursday’s vote to overhaul Europe’s external fleet legislation could deter commercial operators from encroaching on waters relied upon by local fishing communities.  (This article... Read More

Good Samaritans or criminals? France wrestles with fate of those helping migrants

IT WAS A SPLIT-SECOND DECISION that would land Pierre-Alain Mannoni in court facing charges normally associated with human trafficking. Returning home from an evening out in La Roya — rugged, mountainous back country near his home in Nice, inland from the Mediterranean Sea — his friends invited him to see an old building appropriated by activists and NGOs. Read More  Read More

Paris Attacks one year on: ‘I live with this every day’

Gregory Reibenberg held his wife’s hand until she drew her last breath, assuring her that he would look after their daughter, and himself. Surrounded by dead bodies and shattered tables that had been shot up or thrown aside by people running for their lives, he then closed Djamila Houd’s eyes. After kissing her for a final time, the rest, he says, is a blur.  Read More  Read More

What happens to Migrant kids after Calais?

CALAIS, FRANCE—Peering through the gates that separate converted shipping container housing from the sprawling migrant camp known as The Jungle, Tony and Abdul, both 16 and from Sudan, are deciding what to do next. They have been stuck in the squatter camp outside Calais for seven months despite frequent attempts to get to the U.K.   And France’s biggest slum is about... Read More

A bid for freedom: Rescuing Trafficked Fishermen as they Dock

Less than a mile from Cape Town’s picturesque waterfront shops and cafes, dozens of fishermen work on docked vessels on the other side of the port, unseen by tourists strolling down the boardwalk.  Many of the men are victims of abuse and forced labour. As published in the Guardian 11 August, 2016. Read More  Read More

A growing climate of fear

It was meant to be one of the “biggest civil disobedience events” ever, and spur on effective political action on climate change, but the protests in Paris on Sunday were muted and marred by tit-for-tat violence between masked youths and riot police.    Read More  Read More

Homeless migrants leave French shelters for the streets

Waking at dawn to the shouts of police and the bright headlights of buses waiting to take them away, Yacoub Mansour and more than 300 other migrants living under a bridge were becoming aware that their time in this part of Paris was up. In the early hours of June 2, 27-year-old Mansour, a Libyan, and the others – mainly from Sudan and Eritrea – were told by police to... Read More