These Nigerian content creators want to change perceptions about albinism
This week, we start in Kenya, where nationwide vigils were held on Valentine’s Day to demand government action against the killings of women in the country. Then, travel to Djibo, Burkina Faso, where community leaders are urging the government to dialogue with the jihadists to end the two-year conflict. Finally, we turn to Greece, where it hit the historic milestone of being the first Christian Orthodox-majority country to legalize same-sex marriage.
But first, in Ethiopia, where 45 civilians in the Amhara region are reported to have been killed in door-to-door raids by the Ethiopian troops.
The ongoing conflict in Amhara can be traced back to 2022 when the Ethiopian government signed a peace deal with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to end the civil war and disarm the Fano and other militias in the region. However, the Fano militia, a paramilitary group, felt slighted by this deal and even described it as a “war pact.” This discontent and suspicions eventually resulted in armed conflict between the militia and the Ethiopian military in April 2023.
Unfortunately, the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, despite his reputation as a peacemaker, has relied heavily on using military force to quell opposition, which has led to many deaths and widespread atrocities. According to the UN, civilian targets, including a school compound and a bus station, were hit by drones in December.
Amhara experienced a month-long internet blackout in January, resulting in a complete communication shutdown. This has led many to assume that the victims from the door-to-door raids by the government troops may surpass 45. While the Ethiopian government has not yet addressed the killings, it is looking to extend the region’s state of emergency by four months in addition to the initial six-month declaration in August.
This move has caused many to frown and express their concerns over the government’s intentions. But in the meantime, the US and EU are calling for independent investigations into the actions of the Ethiopian troops in the Amhara region.
Stories to Read
The New Humanitarian
To end the siege on my Burkinabé town, we must open a dialogue with the jihadists
The Guardian
‘Dark Valentine’ day in Kenya, as nationwide vigils mark grim toll of murdered women and girls
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Eswatini’s LGBTQ community is “mounting and waving their flags”
From pride marches to legal advocacy, Eswatini Sexual and Gender Minorities (ESGM), a youthful LGBTIQ organisation is determined to break new grounds and challenge broader Swazi society’s ultra conservative attitudes.
On the evening of July 2 2018, Mapezu Kunene was filled with anxiety and anticipation for the Pride march happening the next day at the Prince of Wales sports ground in Mbabane, Swaziland. The thirty-one-year-old found herself caught in the uncertainty about the reactions of authorities. However, she held on to hope.
“[That] night I posted my outfit on social media showing everybody who cared that I was ready,” Kunene recalls. “I couldn’t wait for tomorrow!”
On the morning of the march, she received numerous calls from fellow LGBTIQ friends and allies as early as 6 o’clock offering transport to the venue.
“I arrived early in Mbabane. I met excited Pride members and allies. We hugged and kissed and hurried to Prince of Wales where we mounted our flags and banners,” Kunene narrates.
Kunene, an activist and member of the LGBTQ+ community, embarked on her journey of advocacy shortly after finishing high school. Witnessing the enduring stigma and discrimination faced by LGBTQ+ individuals, she felt compelled to take action and sow the seeds of change.
These Nigerian content creators want to change perceptions about albinism
Media content around albinism is ridden with various misconceptions and myths, and many of them are dangerous. Can these content creators change that?
As a child, Jessica Hyacinth, who lives with albinism, was frequently scrutinised and dehumanised.
“I went to the market with my mum one day and children followed us singing oyibo pepper, adults were asking if I could see and arguing among themselves that I was actually a doll and not a real person,” Hyacinth recalls.
The experience, one of many others, spurred the Nigerian content creator to begin to make educational content about albinism.
“The biggest challenge is that people don’t have the right knowledge about the condition. If they all knew better, life would definitely be easier,” Hyacinth says about the necessity of her voice and platform.
She shares a story. “I was in a bus one day riding to Lekki Phase 1 and some people got off; then a person with albinism was about to enter the bus and occupy [one of] the empty seats when the driver yelled at him to get off that he doesn’t carry Afins [a Yoruba word meaning White Skin].
“I froze where I sat in the last row. I was so sad and felt guilty that I couldn’t do or say anything. So I just sat there and cried.”
Stories from Around the world
Reuters
In bid to curb immigration, France to scrap birthright citizenship in Mayotte
Children of immigrants born in Mayotte, the French overseas territory situated between Madagascar and the African mainland, will no longer automatically become French citizens, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said late on Sunday.
Located close to the impoverished Comoro islands off the East African coast, the former French colony has become the centre of fierce social unrest, with many residents blaming undocumented immigration for the deteriorating conditions.
Much poorer than mainland France, Mayotte has been shaken by gang violence and social unrest for decades. The situation has recently worsened amid a water shortage.
Since January, island residents have been staging strikes and erecting roadblocks to protest against what they say are unacceptable living conditions, paralyzing large parts of local infrastructure.
BBC
Greece legalises same-sex marriage
Greece has become the first Christian Orthodox-majority country to legalise same-sex marriage.
Same-sex couples will now also be legally allowed to adopt children after Thursday’s 176-76 vote in parliament.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the new law would “boldly abolish a serious inequality”. But it has divided the country, with fierce resistance led by the powerful Orthodox Church. Its supporters held a protest rally in Athens.
Many displayed banners, held crosses, read prayers and sang passages from the Bible in the capital’s Syntagma Square. The head of the Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos, said the measure would “corrupt the homeland’s social cohesion”.
The bill needed a simple majority to pass through the 300-member parliament.
Mr Mitsotakis had championed the bill but required the support of opposition parties to get it over the line, with dozens of MPs from his centre-right governing party opposed. “People who have been invisible will finally be made visible around us, and with them, many children will finally find their rightful place,” the prime minister told parliament during a debate ahead of the vote.
Aljazeera
‘Killed by police bullets’: Deadly clash scars Muslims in India’s Haldwani
At about 6:45pm on February 8, Mohammad Arif called his brother Zahid. A mosque and an Islamic school had been razed by government officials in their town of Haldwani in northern India, and violence had broken out. The 52-year-old Arif wanted his brother, seven years younger, to return home immediately from the iron and cement shop he worked in.
Zahid rushed home on his motorbike and parked it outside the house. Unaware that the protest had become violent, Zahid hurried to buy milk for his infant grandchild.
When Zahid’s 16-year-old middle son Mohammad Anas learned that his father had gone out again, he went looking for him in the cramped, dingy lanes of Haldwani’s Banbhoolpura area, a Muslim ghetto. The police shot the son in the stomach in the lane, and the father in the chest 200 metres along the same road.
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The beekeepers of Sine Saloum: How all-women team tends to Senegal mangrove
Clutching a purse and clad from head to toe in white protective gear, Bintou Sonko removes a small metal kettle from her purse and releases smoke into one of the 50 beehives nestled in the dense mangrove outside her town in Senegal. Pacifying the bees, the 53-year-old extracts a dark golden liquid from within.
In 2022, she, her sister, and several others in the 67-strong women’s cooperative in Joal-Fadiouth, a town 100km (62 miles) south of Dakar, spent a month learning how to make honey, build hives and interact calmly with the bees. Despite an initial fear of being stung, she is in no doubt of their importance in the mangrove.
For Sonko and her colleagues who have long been shellfish gatherers, their newfound occupation as beekeepers provides additional income. But as climate change and deforestation threaten the mangrove, many say beekeeping is good for the invaluable biodiversity haven and carbon sink that stores up to five times more carbon than tropical rainforests