News

South Sudan: South Sudan Government to Blame for Famine, Still Buying Arms: UN Report

Mar 17, 2017 | Michelle Nichols, Reuters

South Sudan's government is mainly to blame for famine in parts of the war-torn country, yet President Salva Kiir is still boosting his forces using…

China/Philippines/South China Sea: China Plans Station on Disputed South China Sea Shoal

Mar 17, 2017 | Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press

China plans to build an environmental monitoring station on a South China Sea shoal at the heart of a territorial dispute with the Philippines, potentially…

Water and War

Mar 16, 2017 | Mark Zeitoun

Water is a human right, but too often one of the causes and tools of today’s wars. If we confront the politics behind the scenes…

In the Face of Colombia’s Coca Boom, Coffee and Cocoa Farming Offer a Remedy

Mar 16, 2017 | Huffington Post

Colombia, still in a delicate phase of its history as it struggles to revive from five decades of war, is seeing a dramatic rise in…

Myanmar: Dam Projects Must Be Suspended until Peace Achieved, Say Environmental Orgs

Mar 16, 2017 | Aong Jaeneh and Laignee Barron, Burma News International

In downtown Mawlamyine Capital of Mon State, a crowd of 200 gathered on March 14 to stage a protest against hydropower projects in conflict zones.…

India/Pakistan: Delhi Returns to the Table after Water War Threats

Mar 16, 2017 | Express Tribune

Pakistan and India are set to resume stalled water-sharing talks later this month under a 1960 treaty that the Indian prime minister had threatened to…

Sierra Leone: Pastor Unearths 706-Carat Giant Diamond in Sierra Leone

Mar 16, 2017 | Agence France-Presse

A pastor working in the mines of eastern Sierra Leone has unearthed a 706-carat diamond. The large stone was discovered by Emmanuel Momoh, one of…

Iraq: Meet the Iraqi Firefighters Battling ISIS' Oil Fires [Photos]

Mar 16, 2017 | Olivier Laurent, Time

For almost a year now, oil fields around Mosul have been on fire. As Iraqi forces launched an assault on Islamic State-held cities, retreating militants…

Iraq/Kurdistan: Analysis: Iraqi KRG Faces Obstacles to Maintain Crude Oil Export Quality

Mar 16, 2017 | Platts

The regional government of semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan appears to be struggling to maintain the quality of its oil exports, just as it has signed a…

Conflict Minerals: Parliament Adopts Binding Law on Conflict Minerals

Mar 16, 2017 | Cécile Barbière, EURACTIV

After two and a half years of debate, the European Parliament on Thursday definitively adopted the new rules on mineral imports from conflict zones, which…

Liberia: Amid Delays, Citizens Increase Pressure on Lawmakers to Pass Land Right Act

Mar 16, 2017 | Gbatemah Senah, Bush Chicken

Just over two years since the proposed bill was submitted to the Legislature for passage into law, the Liberian Land Rights Act has continued to…

Afghanistan: Could New Poppy Strain Be Boosting Afghanistan's Opium Crop?

Mar 16, 2017 | Gul Ahmad Ehsan, Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Karam Khan, an opium poppy farmer from Helmand, is delighted that business is booming. New strains of seeds mean that poppy could be sewn and…

Expand the Indus Waters Treaty to Make Peace

Mar 15, 2017 | Ashok Swain

Water scarcity is a serious and growing security challenge for South Asian countries. The twin pressures of population growth and climate change are further intensifying…

Conflict Minerals Rule Legal Challenge: Done and Done

Mar 15, 2017 | Dynda Thomas

“Hear ye, Hear ye.”  The parties to the legal challenge of the SECs conflict minerals rule have agreed that no further court proceedings are necessary…

Myanmar: Battling for Blood Jade

Mar 15, 2017 | Hannah Beech, Time

While conflict diamonds have yielded Hollywood scripts and rap lyrics, jade has largely escaped international scrutiny. Last October, then U.S. President Barack Obama lifted sanctions…

Timor-Leste: Timor-Leste Could Be 'Architect of Its Own Demise', Gas Treaty Inquiry Told

Mar 15, 2017 | Australian Associated Press

Timor-Leste’s decision to rip up a treaty with Australia on the carve-up of future revenue from Greater Sunrise oil and gas reserve in the Timor…

Russia/US: Trump's Russian Connections May Kill 'Peace Park'

Mar 15, 2017 | Corbin Hiar, E&E News

With increased scrutiny of the Trump administration's possible ties to the Kremlin, a long-running National Park Service effort to promote cultural and scientific connections between…

Liberia: Chief Justice Korpkor Vows to Protect Property Rights in Liberia

Mar 15, 2017 | FrontPageAfrica

Chief Justice Francis S. Korkpor says the Supreme Court has taken steps to protect the property right of citizens and has therefore warned judges of…

Myanmar’s Toxic Legacy of Large Dams

Mar 14, 2017 | Beth Walker

In September spectacular drone footage revealed the beauty of the waterfalls, rapids, ancient temples and islets of the Nam Pang River, a tributary of the…

The Streetlight Effect in Climate-Conflict Research on Africa

Mar 14, 2017 | Cullen Hendrix

Climate change research on Africa has a streetlight problem: researchers tend to invest more attention on former British colonies and countries with relatively open, stable political…

How Trump Can Understand the Dangers We Face in the "Age of Consequences"

Mar 14, 2017 | Jordan Brunner

The Climate Security Act of 2007 was introduced by Senator Joe Lieberman and Senator John Warner, both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee keenly…

Colombia: Colombia's Coca Production Soars to Highest Level in Two Decades, US Says

Mar 14, 2017 | Associated Press

Coca production in Colombia has surged to levels unseen in two decades of US eradication efforts, according to a new White House report. Cultivation of…

Afghanistan: Funding Terrorism: Taliban Earns $15M a Year from Pistachios in Afghanistan

Mar 14, 2017 | John Walsh, International Business Times

The Taliban has earned $15 million annually from pistachio crops in the Afghanistan's northwestern Kushki Kuhna District. The terror group profited from the region’s two…

15 Years of Environmental Peacemaking: Overcoming Challenges and Identifying Opportunities for Cooperation

Mar 13, 2017 | Sreya Panuganti

As the 1990s drew to a close, there was a sense that much of the momentum gained at the first Earth Summit on sustainable development, a positive,…

New Data on Ukraine Conflict's Environmental Risks Supports Calls for Comprehensive Assessment

Mar 13, 2017 | Toxic Remnants of War Network

With the threats that the Ukraine conflict poses to the environment once again in the news, Zoï Environment Network has released new maps on the…

Trump's Case for Taking the Oil and Obama's State-Building Failure in Iraq

Mar 13, 2017 | Carlo Jose Vicente Caro

A few weeks ago General Jim Mattis was in Baghdad to analyze the security and political situation there. While there, he told reporters, "We're not in…

Uganda: General Angina Orders Arrest of UPDF Captain over Land Grabbing

Mar 13, 2017 | The Monitor

The deputy coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation (OWC), Lt Gen. Charles Angina has ordered the arrest of the OWC coordinator for Mbarara Municipality, Captain David…

Iraq/Kurdistan: Intrepid Skiers Break New Ground

Mar 13, 2017 | Will Coldwell, Guardian

In January, Untamed Borders ran what was “probably the first ever commercial ski trip” to the country, taking a group of six intrepid travellers to…

Ecocide: The Need for a New International Law to Criminalise the Destruction of the Environment

Mar 12, 2017 | Harry Wright

In 2015, our planet witnessed one of the worst environmental crimes in history, the burning and incineration of the Indonesian rainforest perpetrated allegedly by palm…

EU: 2017 Anti-Corruption Focus on Mines, Security, Courts

Mar 12, 2017 | Tamim Hamid, TOLOnews

The European Union’s anti-corruption drive for 2017 in Afghanistan will focus on key sectors such as the illegal extraction of minerals from mines and corruption…