Aid organizations and international organizations have failed to commit to their donations in recent years. The United Nations noted that in 2019 the international community donated $3.6 billion of the requested $4.2 billion, nearly reaching the funding goals, considering that the amount of people reached by international aid organizations in 2019 was roughly 15 million per month.
Tensions at the Sudanese-Ethiopian Border: Conflating New and Pre-Existing Concerns
The Tigray crisis, along with several other interrelated events, have exacerbated pre-existing disputes, including the status of the Sudanese-Ethiopian border itself, the disputed al-Fashaga triangle, which was only marked with a compromise arrangement in 2008. There are reports of troop deployments into each States’ territory, with reports of violent clashes between each military. Meanwhile, Sudan has been hosting thousands of Ethiopian refugees that have fled violence in Tigray, putting additional strain on Sudan’s precarious economy.
Extractivism, Neoliberal Governance and Environmental Racism in the Maghreb
Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia are witnessing regular heat-waves, droughts, water-scarcity and an advancing desert. Seawater intrusion into groundwater reserves, in parallel to the overexploitation of groundwater, will soon lead to the Maghreb’s categorization as extremely water-poor. These factors overwhelmingly affect the countries’ poorest regions, in which, ironically, most of natural wealth is located
Enacting Security Sector Reform in Iraq: The Naivety of International Actors
The international actors that operate in Iraq face many challenges. In recent months there have been profound requests to end international involvement in the country (mainly referring to the United States) which have been seen through demands of the protesters as well as recurring attacks on military bases hosting international troops and the US embassy in Baghdad. Further, the desire to end international involvement from within Iraq has also come from various militia groups, some aligned with different factions of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), seen through multiple attacks on international bases hosting US and international troops and staff.
The Libyan Ceasefire: Is 2021 Finally the Year for Elections?
Acting head of the UNSMIL, Stephanie Williams, said in December that an estimated 20,000 foreign fighters were still in Libya, despite the agreed deadline for their withdrawal being 23 January 2021. These fears on 4 January 2021 led to neighbouring Tunisia, current president of the UN Security Council, calling for international monitors to be installed in Libya to support the ceasefire.
