More than a dozen LGBTQ people arrested in Tunisia

This week, we start in Ethiopia, where sexual violence in Tigray is being met with troubling silence. Next, we head to Tunisia, where over a dozen queer people were arrested in Tunis and Djerba. Finally, we stop in Uganda, where local groups and refugees are working to keep GBV support alive despite major aid cuts.

But first, in Mozambique, since 2017, Cabo Delgado has been rocked by violence spurred by years of socioeconomic marginalisation and rising inequalities. The province, once rich in natural gas and rubies, is now marked by mass graves, abandoned villages, and children growing up without homes or education.

Following the fresh wave of attacks in December 2023, civilians in the area have learned that the only way to live is to flee fast and hope they have somewhere to return to

Read an excerpt here👇🏽:

“Left at the mercy of chance”: Inside Mozambique’s seven-year insurgency.

For 60-year-old João Manhique*, life is bleak. A schoolteacher in Macomia, a district in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, he has watched loved ones make the heart-wrenching decision to leave after a fresh wave of attacks in December 2023.

“They won’t come back. It’s too dangerous. You never know when new attacks will happen again, even with the constant presence of Mozambican security forces,” he says quietly.

The violence,  which began in 2017 with attacks on police stations in the port town of Mocímboa da Praia, marked the beginning of a seven-year insurgency that has left hundreds of thousands displaced, traumatised, and largely forgotten.

For Manhique’s family, the invasions have left deep scars.

“I had one of the worst moments of my life,” he says of the attacks. “They always come by surprise, and the last attack was no different. It’s sad because you only have a short time to grab the essentials and escape with your family. You try to lock the door or keep things safe, but when you come back, the house is often empty, ransacked by the attackers or left in ruins after the security forces drive them out.”

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While many countries are debating abortion rights, there is another reproductive right that is being overlooked: the right to survive childbirth. Sadly, the plight and challenges of disabled mothers are often ignored.

Four months ago, I lost my friend Diana, a woman with a disability, who died during childbirth. It’s been four months since Diana never got to experience motherhood, a role she had been yearning for since she learned she was expecting. Diana’s life was cut short in her prime for something that could have been prevented and regrettably, she is not the only woman with a disability we have lost.

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“Living in constant fear”: PWDs are paying a hefty price in Nigeria’s raging war with bandits

It is a little past two on a June afternoon. Aisha Muhammed holds her four-year-old son, Ahmad, in her left hand as he assists her to a green plastic chair. She leans against a nearby tree so he can clean the dust on the chair and then she settles.

Every day, Muhammed, who is blind, scours through Gusau, the capital of Nigeria’s northwestern state of Zamfara, for alms. That Saturday afternoon, she had learnt about a nonprofit distributing food item to displaced people. An hour earlier, she was at Tudunwada, another part of the city begging for alms as well.

The mother of three, who currently stays at the camp for internally displaced persons in Tsunami, has been struggling to fend for her family and take care of herself without a source of employment.

“Life has not been easy since we left our village,” she tells Minority Africa. “Although there are times people come here to distribute food and money to us, we mostly go out to look for what to eat.”

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A Quick Read Before You Go

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Offering women a cash bonus isn’t the way to boost birth rates

As policymakers and pundits clamour to solve the riddle of slowing fertility rates, one idea in particular seems to crop up again and again: What if we hand out “baby bonuses”? In other words, let’s offer lump sum payments – often thousands of dollars – to encourage more women to have more babies.

Baby bonuses aren’t actually a new creation; it’s an approach that’s been tried, tested, and recycled over many years, in countries around the world. That means there is a mountain of evidence as to whether they work. Spoiler alert: They don’t.

For those not swayed by academic studies, young people are delivering the same message. Young women, it turns out, are telling us exactly what they need to feel secure enough to have children – and it’s not a one-off cash bonus.

What they want is paid leave, family-friendly workplaces, affordable housing and childcare, access to quality reproductive healthcare, and the ability to believe that their children will be born into a safe world where they can thrive.