Wildlife and environmental campaigners have called for international action as concerns grow over a project to create a massive oilfield in one of Africa’s last wildernesses.
A large part of the oil exploration areas in both Botswana and Namibia falls within the Okavango River Basin which flows into the Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Fracking is banned in some countries and has been blamed for serious water pollution, among others, and threats to the regional water supply are among environmentalists’ biggest concerns.Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS
ReconAfrica, a Canadian oil and gas company, has licensed drilling areas in over 34,000sq km of land in parts of northern Namibia and Botswana that overlap with Africa’s Kavango-Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area (KAZA), which includes land in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
A large part of the exploration areas in both Botswana and Namibia falls within the Okavango River Basin which flows into the Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which supports the world’s largest remaining population of endangered savanna elephants, as well as dozens of other endangered or vulnerable species such as rhinos, wild dogs, and pangolins. It is also home to 200,000 people.
At least 43 migrants drowned in a shipwreck off Tunis while trying to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy, while 84 others were rescued, the Tunisian Red Crescent told Reuters on Saturday.
The ship had set sail from Zuwara, on Libya’s northwest coast, carrying migrants from Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Bangladesh, the humanitarian organization said.
In recent months, there have been several drowning incidents off the coast of Tunisia, with an increase in the frequency of attempts to cross into Europe from Tunisia and Libya into Italy as the weather has improved.
“The navy rescued 84 migrants and another 43 drowned on a ship that left Zuwara in Libya for Europe,” said Mongi Slim, a Red Crescent official.
Hundreds of thousands of people have made the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean in recent years, many of them fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.
Arrivals in Italy, one of the main migrant routes to Europe, had declined in recent years, but the numbers rose again in 2021.
Almost 19,800 immigrants have arrived since the beginning of the year compared to just over 6,700 in the same period last year, figures from the Italian Interior Ministry show.
Al menos 43 migrantes se ahogan en un naufragio frente a Túnez, dice la Media Luna Roja
Al menos 43 migrantes se ahogaron en un naufragio frente a Túnez cuando intentaban cruzar el Mediterráneo desde Libia a Italia, mientras que otros 84 fueron rescatados, dijo el sábado la Media Luna Roja tunecina a Reuters.
El barco había zarpado de Zuwara, en la costa noroeste de Libia, transportando migrantes de Egipto, Sudán, Eritrea y Bangladesh, dijo la organización humanitaria.
En los últimos meses, se han producido varios incidentes de ahogamiento frente a la costa de Túnez, con un aumento en la frecuencia de intentos de cruzar a Europa desde Túnez y Libia hacia Italia a medida que el clima ha mejorado.
«La marina rescató a 84 migrantes y otros 43 se ahogaron en un barco que partió de Zuwara en Libia hacia Europa», dijo Mongi Slim, funcionario de la Media Luna Roja.
Cientos de miles de personas han realizado la peligrosa travesía del Mediterráneo en los últimos años, muchas de ellas huyendo de los conflictos y la pobreza en África y Oriente Medio.
Las llegadas a Italia, una de las principales rutas de inmigrantes a Europa, habían disminuido en los últimos años, pero las cifras volvieron a aumentar en 2021.
Casi 19.800 inmigrantes han llegado desde principios de año frente a poco más de 6.700 en el mismo período del año pasado, según muestran las cifras del Ministerio del Interior italiano.
The Serious Annoyance has returned to occupy the empty Camberwell Police Station, Camberwell Church St SE5, as we continue in our fight to #killthebill and highlight the destructive role of the police.
This week, the draconian PCSC Bill passed its third reading in the commons as the state continues to enforce the expansion of police powers that do nothing but increase the ruling class’s ability to repress us. We know the cops don’t protect us – their resources aren’t focused on catching so-called “criminals”, but on protecting the wealth and power of the capitalist class.
Today, July 8, 2021, the Dutch state rejected my request to stop the extradition by sending an email and formally issued an extradition order.
I intend to appeal the regime’s decision by making an appeal and take the case to the court, but it has become clear that bourgeois justice intends to extradite me to Greece anyway.
The charity noted global military spending increased by $51bn during the pandemic — an amount that exceeds by at least six times what the United Nations needs to stop hunger
About 155 million people around the world live at crisis levels of food insecurity, 20 million more than last year, a new report says.
Oxfam identified countries including Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan and Venezuela as places where existing food crises had been worsened by the onset of the pandemic and its economic consequences [File: Mohammed Huwais/AFP]
Eleven people die every minute of hunger, according to a new report by Oxfam, which also found the number of those facing famine-like conditions globally has increased by six times over the past year.
Published on Friday, “The Hunger Virus Multiplies” report (PDF) said the death toll from famine outpaces that of COVID-19…
Most of us lack the vital benefits of vitamin D because it’s absorbed in our skin through sunlight.. nowadays we wear clothes and live indoors! Just taking a cheap vitamin D supplement gives your immune system a big boost and wards off Covid 19 and many other illnesses. The ”authorities” discourage vitamin D and zinc campaigns (and other excellent remedies) to promote vaccines which can only be legally Certified for Emergency Use if nothing else is available. see also.. ‘Emergency Use’ vaccine Fraud’
The Effects of Vitamin D and COVID-Related Outcomes
Researchers investigated the effects of Pulse D therapy — daily high-dose supplementation (60,000 IUs) of vitamin D — for eight to 10 days, in addition to standard therapy, for COVID-19 patients deficient in vitamin D
Vitamin D levels increased significantly in the vitamin D group — from 16 ng/ml to 89 ng/ml — while inflammatory markers significantly decreased, without any side effects
Informal settlements have sprung up across the country amid Brazil’s ongoing COVID-19 crisis and its economic fallout, symbols of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s failure to effectively soften the coronavirus pandemic’s blow.
Itaguai, Brazil – Miani Cristina once considered herself lucky. Her employer had kept her on during Brazil’s devastating first wave of COVID-19 infections in 2020. Her monthly income of just over 1,000 reais ($190) and a monthly handout from the government of 41 reais ($8) had kept her and her three children afloat — barely.
Then the country’s devastating second COVID-19 wave hit. Cristina lost her job. The informal work her elder 20-year-old and 18-year-old daughters relied upon vanished. Food and gas prices soared.
“I lost all of my income and could no longer pay rent,” Cristina, a 46-year-old former general services assistant, told Al Jazeera.
The government of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro froze the monthly emergency aid packages of 600 reais ($114) it had been offering, and Cristina would have to wait three months until they resumed.
![Oxfam identified countries including Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan and Venezuela as places where existing food crises had been worsened by the onset of the pandemic and its economic consequences [File: Mohammed Huwais/AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/000_9B733G.jpg?resize=770%2C513)
