India: Why are women seeking unsafe abortions?

Although abortion is legal, over two-thirds of abortions in India are considered to be risky. Barriers to safe abortion include a shortage of doctors in rural areas, a lack of confidentiality and widespread stigma.



Women often attempt to carry out abortions at home due to stigma in doctors' offices

Chitra (name changed) had to travel more than 40 kilometers (25 miles) from her home to the city of Gurgaon to get an abortion so that her family members would not find out.

"The contraceptive failed, and I did not wish to have a child," she said. "I was repeatedly questioned and treated rudely by the doctors as well as nurses and other staff at the clinic," the 20-year-old student told DW.

"My boyfriend was there to support me, but I was afraid they would force me to ask for my family's permission. I would never want to go through this ordeal again," she said.

Abortions have been legal in India since 1971. An amendment to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act last year expanded women's access to safe and legal abortions from 20 to 24 weeks, among other changes.

It also added a confidentiality clause, and added failure of contraception as a reason to seek termination of pregnancy, regardless of a woman's marital status.

"As the next step, we need to work towards advocating a more rights-based approach by giving women greater autonomy and choice," said Dr. Nozer Sheriar, who serves on the technical advisory committee for the World Health Organization (WHO) , following the amendment.

Watch video02:47 India's female lawyers fight for equality and basic rights

Women die 'every day' due to unsafe abortion

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)'s State of the World Population Report 2022 has stated that about 67% of abortions in India were unsafe.

It also said that eight women die each day due to unsafe abortions, which were the third most common cause of maternal mortality in the South Asian nation.

Chitra's experience sheds light on what many women go through, and on one of the reasons why they may opt for illegal methods of abortion.

The report, titled "Seeing the Unseen: The case for action in the neglected crisis of unintended pregnancy," said that one in every seven unintended pregnancies occurs in India.

An abortion is considered safe if it is done using a method recommended by the WHO. The UNFPA report noted that the amendment to the MTP Act in 2021 appears encouraging, but added that a lot more needs to be done to prevent unsafe abortions and maternal mortality.

A lack of privacy with doctors

In India, a woman does not require her husband's, partner's or family member's approval if she is an adult of sound mind and wishes to get an abortion.

Despite this, there are several hurdles that women face in accessing safe abortions. "In a society that is highly patriarchal, women find it difficult to access abortion," Kajal Jain, program coordinator at the Pune-based Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal (MASUM) NGO told DW.

"Healthcare providers often ask women to get the permission of their husband, or family members, even though it is not required by law. Often, the privacy and confidentiality of the woman is not protected."

"Marginalized women, such as sex workers, HIV positive women, tribal women, single women, and youths find it even more difficult to access abortion. And a lack of access is what leads to unsafe abortions," Jain added.

Watch video 12:00 World Stories - Girls: The unwanted daughters of India

Another issue which many women face is that of geographical access. About 66% of India's population lives in rural parts of the country, where there is a severe shortage of obstetrician-gynecologists, according to the 2019-20 Rural Health Statistics Report of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As a result, many abortions are often performed by midwives, auxiliary nurses, or birth attendants and are therefore considered unsafe.

The 2015-16 National Family Health Survey (NFHS) showed that only 20% of abortions took place in public sector healthcare facilities. Private clinics and hospitals, which are concentrated in urban India, were responsible for 52% of the abortions.

Dr. Rupali Mishra, who runs a medical and diagnostics center in New Delhi, told DW that many patients come to the center after purchasing illegal at-home abortion kits or getting surgical abortions from fraudulent doctors.

"There are many complications and risks with such patients," she said.
'Recognize abortion as a reproductive need'

The WHO says that the average maternal mortality rate is three times higher in countries with more restrictive abortion laws (223 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births) compared to countries with less restrictive laws (77 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births).

The UNFPA report added that girls between the ages of 15 and 19 were at the highest risk of dying from an abortion-related complication. Unintended pregnancies are heavily correlated to lower education and income levels, especially for younger women and girls.

"If comprehensive sexuality education is not offered in her school, she may lack accurate information. Pregnancy may be her default option because she has few opportunities and choices in her life. Without a chance to finish her education, for instance, she may not see a reason to postpone childbearing," the report said.

According to Section 312 of the Indian Penal Code, "causing a miscarriage" is considered to be an offense, so the MTP act was then introduced to protect doctors who provide abortions. "The MTP bill only protects the doctor from criminalization of abortion services," said Jain.

"The act, which comes from a legal standpoint, needs to be more women-centric. It needs to recognize abortion as a genuine reproductive need, and not punish women," she added.

Watch video 04:38 India: Why are female community health workers on strike?

Edited by: Leah Carter

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Kenya: Safety concerns for political aspirants

As Kenya gears up for its general election in August, the safety of politicians is coming under scrutiny. But Kenyan analysts are optimistic that there will be no repeat of the violence that defined the 2007 elections.

Kenya has a history of election-related violence

The run-up to Kenyan elections, such as the August 9, 2022, general election, carries a certain sense of foreboding for aspiring politicians and their staff. Winning an election may be the goal, but facing threats, kidnappings, assault, and even death is not out of the question.

Recently, Kisii politician Thomas Okari was found dead with stab wounds at his home in Kisii County near Lake Victoria. Across the country, in Mombasa, United Democratic Alliance member and local politician Ali Mwatsahu survived an attack when unknown gunmen sprayed his vehicle with bullets. Mwatsahu is running for member of parliament of Mvita, a hotly contested seat in the coastal city.

But it's not just local politicians targeted. In 2017, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission ICT manager Chris Msando was tortured and strangled. His remains were found in the Maguga forest in Kiambu County.

According to political scientist Brian Wanyama Singoro of Kibabii University, even presidential candidates are not out of the woods, referring to a recent incident where rowdy youths stoned the helicopter of opposition leader Raila Odinga.

"The security agencies and the government came in very strongly," Wanyama told DW.

"They arrested the culprits. The following day, [Deputy President] William Ruto apologized on behalf of his people [supporters] because this incident took place in his political stronghold. If this incident had been ignored, I'm very sure it would elicit a lot of revenge from Raila Odinga's followers."

President Uhuru Kenyatta will be succeeded by either William Ruto (L) or Raila Odinga (R)

Big shots battle for the top job

The 2022 elections see two Kenyan stalwarts go toe-to-toe for the country's top office. Deputy President William Ruto faces opposition leader Raila Odinga. But, in a twist of loyalties, outgoing president Uhuru Kenyatta ditched his deputy and has thrown his weight behind the opposition leader Odinga to succeed him. This election would mark the fifth time Raila Odinga has been vying for the presidency.

Kenya's multiparty electionshave historically not always gone smoothly. The 2007-2008 general election between incumbent Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga descended into chaos, ushering in one of the darkest chapters of the country's political history since independence in 1963. The post-election violence claimed the lives of more than 1,300 people and displaced up to 600,000.
The trauma of 2007 lives on

Joyce Chepkemoi, 39, barely survived the 2007 elections after she and her husband were brutally attacked and mutilated by a mob carrying machetes. Her husband was killed. Chepkemoi recalled that she was so severely injured that she was left for dead, regaining consciousness in a morgue:

"I won't vote again in the Kenya elections. I am against tribalism, elections, violence and protests. I urge especially the youth not to be violent in the elections like what we went through in 2007. Whoever is in power, let them rule, let us just have peace with our children," she told DW.

Ten years later, the 2017 election witnessed a lesser degree of violence.

Gladys Muchiri, 29, who runs her own small business, experienced the 2017 elections in Kisumu county. She believes politicians tend to exploit ethnic divisions: "We all know elections in Kenya are tribe-oriented," she said, adding that leaders abuse Kenya's diverse ethnicity by "using the divide and rule technique."

However, Kenyan political pundit and cartoonist Patrick Gathara argues that because this year will see a new leader in power, he's optimistic there will be less violence.
No incumbent, no problem

"I don't expect anything along the scales of 2007/2008," Gathara told DW, adding, "the state is the number one perpetrator of violence when it comes to elections. It is not just politicians sort of going out and inciting people."

He said the police killed the vast majority of people in 2007. "And once the state doesn't have as much of a stake, there is much less incentive for people to shoot people."


Kenyan security forces are blamed for the majority of violence during election time

Human Rights Watch also singled out Kenyan policeas acting with impunity. The rights organization sees this as a cause for concern in the East African state, noting that security forces' multiple cases of abuse, including killings, go unpunished.

Ironically, this dynamic might help decrease election violence perpetrated by security forces, according to Gathara.

"When there is no incumbent, the state is trying to hedge their bets because they're not sure who's going to come in next. It might be Odinga, it might be Ruto. They don't want to be on the wrong side of that historical divide."

Improved judicial independence

Wanyama also points to the state of Kenya's courts as a reason for optimism.

"We have also seen the independence of the Supreme Court," he told DW, citing the court's opposition to President Kenyatta's Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), which was seen as a blow to the ruling elite. He argued that no group would sway the court, which has boosted ordinary Kenyans' confidence.

"Our hope is that the court will do a good job, unlike in 2007 and those other years where the courts were easily manipulated by government. It looks like now things have changed and everybody has to play ball."

Observers say Kenya's judicial independence has improved

Wary of political "theater"

Gathara is still wary of taking accusations of political targeting at face value. While acknowledging the dangers for local politicians and the deadly precedents for politically motivated violence around elections.

"Many times, claims are made for the purpose of garnering the attention and sensationalizing differences and issues," he says. However, Gathara added that the problem is bigger, in terms of occurrence and seriousness, at a local political level than at the national level.

Wanyama also points out that acts of violence targeting politicians have the opposite effect and "galvanizes" support for the opponent.

"Unfortunately, some of our politicians have perfected the art of using force to their advantage. It does not create unity; it just helps creating divisions that are not healthy to any of our citizens."

Still, Nairobi residents like 35-year-old Jay Maina, who lives in an informal settlement, are already wary of the upcoming months. Many Kenyans leave the urban areas around election times. With a sense of worry, he told DW: "There is some tension, there is some panic before the elections. There might be some intimidation, so people have tried to go back to their ancestral land."


THE POLITICS AND CONTROVERSIES OF KENYA'S 2017 GENERAL ELECTION
NASA's attempt to oust ruling party
The National Super Alliance (NASA) has announced former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, 72, as its presidential candidate. Odinga, a veteran opposition leader, will face his last shot at the presidency after losing three past elections. NASA agonized over which flag-bearer will attract the most votes from key ethnic groups.
1234567

Andrew Wasike in Nairobi contributed to this article.

Edited by: Chrispin Mwakideu

Germany: Over 1 in 4 people have 'migrant background'

The number of people with "migrant background" — foreigners and people with foreign roots — keeps rising in Germany, with Turkey, Poland and Russia the top three countries of familial origin.


Almost one half of people with migrant background spoke mostly or exclusively German at home

A new survey has found that well over one-quarter of people currently living in Germany are either foreign-born or have at least one immigrant parent.

The latest numbers, published by Germany's statistics agency Destatis on Tuesday, show that "people with migrant background" make up 27.2% of Germany's population.

With some 82 million people living in the EU country, officials estimate that about 22.3 million are foreign-born or people with foreign roots — the highest number since the survey was first conducted in 2005.

'A little bit of acceptance' toward migrants still missing in Germany: MP
Where are the immigrants coming from?

Most of the people with migrant background trace their origin to Europe and Asia. Around 7.5 million have links to other EU nations, 3.5 million to the Middle East and 1.1 million to Africa.

When looking to individual countries, Turkey remains the largest point of origin with 12% of the group, followed by Poland with 10% and Russia with 6%.

Which languages do they speak?

The pollsters also found that in 46% of cases, people with migrant background spoke exclusively or mostly German in their home. Turkish is the second-most popular language, with 8% of people with migrant background speaking it at home, followed by Russian with 7% and Arabic with 5%.
What about Ukrainian refugees?

The report does not include changes triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February which displaced millions. The 2021 numbers found around 308,000 Ukrainians were living in Germany, most of them for many years. In a separate announcement on Tuesday, however, German police said 335,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived to Germany since the invasion started, more than doubling the number of Ukrainian nationals in the country. The real number is likely greater as the Ukrainians can travel to Germany without a visa.

It is estimated that around half of the Ukrainian refugees in Germany are children and young people.

Germany's massive economy has been heavily reliant on migrant workers for decades, with politicians in recent years working to entice even more migration into the country.

At the same time, however, German and EU politicians have been trying to clamp down on illegal immigration from Africa and the Middle East, prompting accusations of racism in the light of solidarity offered to refugees now arriving from Ukraine.

Edited by: Farah Bahgat

UN warns of 'great finance divide' as Covid shocks, debt, hits poorest hardest

While rich countries borrowed at low rates and saved their economies, poorer nations have spent billions servicing debt. The war in Ukraine will only worsen the pressures on core product prices, officials warn.



Aid flowing from richer donor countries has reduced since the pandemic

Rich countries avoided the worst economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic but poorer ones continue to deal with debilitating debt, the UN said in a report released on Wednesday, contributing to a global "great finance divide."

According to the report, 77 million people slipped into poverty in 2021 as governments struggled to service debts and secure early vaccine access.

Soaring food and fuel prices amid the Ukraine war are already impacting import-dependent countries, UN officials had previously said.

UN Under Secretary-General Liu Zhenmin, head of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs who led the report.

Amina Mohammed, the UN Deputy Secretary-General said the new findings were "alarming" and called for "collective responsibility to ensure hundreds of millions of people are lifted out of hunger and poverty."

The UN say richer countries should intensify debt relief efforts and ensure better vaccine distribution

Unequal borrowing rates worsening pandemic recovery

Produced by the UN's Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development, Wednesday's report found that significantly higher borrowing rates for poorer countries had particularly hamstrung pandemic recovery and development spending there.

The poorest countries pumped billions into servicing debts and were forced to cut spending on education and infrastructure, the report noted, while developed countries could borrow far more at "ultra low" interest rates and stave off the worst economic with comparative ease.

On average, rich countries spend 3.5% of their revenue on servicing debt while less rich nations use up to 14% of revenue, four times more, according to the UN.

The report said some 20% of countries will not return to pre-2019 levels of GDP per capita by the end of 2023 — that's before absorbing the costs of the Ukraine war.
Ukraine war likely to burden poorer countries further

Ukraine and Russia are some of the world's biggest food and fuel exporters and additional impacts of the war on developing economies are already becoming visible. Sri Lanka defaulted on its debts this week as the country's foreign exchange coffers dry up. In Nigeria and Kenya, fuel shortages have crippled businesses and forced tired residents into long fuel queues. Even developed economies, including the US and most of Europe, have been struggling with a sudden spike in inflation after more than a decade where inflation had been difficult to stimulate.

The new UN report also comes as poorer countries suffer the worst effects of climate change because of limited funds to adapt.

Meanwhile, humanitarian agencies recorded sharp declines in the amount of aid spending flowing from richer nations to the developing world amid the pandemic, further limiting response capacities to development and climate emergencies.

As NATO allies gear up for a possible Russian offensive, Mohammed of the UN warned "it would be a tragedy'' if rich donor nations increased military expenditures at the cost of cutting aid to developing countries.

The UN said countries should instead intensify debt relief efforts, ensure equal coronavirus vaccine distribution and speed up sustainable energy investment.

"The developed world proved in the last two years that millions can be lifted out of poverty by the right kind of investment," said UN Under Secretary-General Liu Zhenmin, head of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs who led the report. "The international community must build on that progress and ensure developing countries can invest at similar levels, while reducing inequality and securing a sustainable energy transition."

sl/msh (AP)

 Towards A »Sane Society«

Thoughts on Liberation On the Way to a Humane Society

Burkhard Bierhoff

 Abstract:

Eric Fromm was one of the first psychoanalysts to deal with the crisis of civilization. Hisideas about human nature, the social character and the social unconscious, the pathology of normalcy and the ideal of productivity are important. Fromm criticizes industrialism for its unrealizable promises of freedom and happiness, which correspond to an ideology of growth and progress. The satisfaction of »false« needs and desires does not lead to human well-being.

https://www.academia.edu/38430571/Thoughts_on_Liberation_On_the_Way_to_A_Humane_Society

Fact check: How to spot a fake military success story in Russia-Ukraine war

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has prompted viral videos claiming military success on both sides. But can you trust the images of drone strikes, snipers and ambushes? DW unpacked one video in search of the truth.

The Ukranian army surprised many experts by resisting against superior Russian units - 

but not every success is in fact real

In wartime, supporters of one side or another share "military success" videos of combat footage, often set to music. Besides the moral and ethical issues of spreading such explicitly violent content, there is another problem: Often such videos show military footage from completely different conflicts. This DW fact check examines one example from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war to see how it stands up to the claims made by the account that posted it. We will also share the methods and tools we used to verify the footage used.

Claim: An unofficial Twitter page supporting the armed forces of Ukraine (@ArmedForcesUkr) with more than 450,000 followers describes its 42-second clip as containing "a hit song of the Territorial Defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces." They use the derogatory term "orcs" to describe Russian soldiers. The video contains 16 separate scenes of explosions, death and destruction, mostly carried out by drone strikes but also roadside bombs and sniper attacks. 

The editing is matched to cheerful music with a child's voice singing "La la la, kill the Moskal," which is an ethnic slur against Russians.

But does it really contain successes of the Ukrainian army?

Verdict: Misleading

DW has tried to identify the 16 sources used in the clip and found that six are definitely not from the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war. In fact, one scene of alleged Ukrainian military prowess actually shows Russian snipers at work. The remaining 10 incidents might be legitimate but cannot be 100% verified.

Beware of 'official' films posted from unofficial accounts

The user @ArmedForcesUkr does not have an official Twitter verification tick, which might account for the misleading nature of the clip. The video's first and the last scenes first appeared on digital platforms in October 2020, during the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. At least one scene can be traced back to official Azeri military footage  of attacks by Bayraktar drones, which are also used by Ukraine against Russian forces.

The footage is cropped and has lost a great deal of clarity, either because it has been shared so often or because the filmmaker wanted to hide its origin. 

What is allegedly current footage (left) was published more than two years ago (right)

The night-vision footage at 26 seconds was probably first posted in February 2020 by a Russian account "milinfolive" on social media platforms like VKontakte and Telegram. That post describes the footage as the work of Russian Special Forces in Syria. According to the account, the footage was published by the Defense Ministry (see screenshot). 

It is the only footage in the video that shows images of people being shot at close range, rather than targeted by drone missiles. 

More than one third of the film's content is false

Just 27 seconds of the 42-second clip can be sourced to video that appeared on digital platforms only after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Some of it is watermarked @polkazov and can be traced to the media operation of Ukraine's Azov battalion. These clips claim to show Ukraine attacks in the besieged city of Mariupol in mid-March 2022. 

Some footage appears to have been sourced from a Ukraine Armed Forces compilation of drone strikes near Kherson from March 18, 2022, posted on YouTube. Another scene apparently showing an anti-tank missile strike was posted to Telegram on March 27, 2022 by a member of Ukraine's National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee, Yuriy Misyagin.

Tracking down the original videos

DW verified the material in the @ArmedForcesUkr post using reverse image searching of screenshots of each scene to locate the video uploads. We then compared the first appearances of the videos in question to determine whether they pre-dated the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. There are several useful sites for this task such as TinEye and Yandex Visual Search, as well as browser plug-ins such as RevEye. 

In viral videos, visual power often triumphs over truth 

In the case of the video from @ArmedForcesUkr, many Twitter users immediately commented that the clip contained non-Ukrainian footage. Nevertheless, the video has at the time of writing been viewed more than 160,000 times, with the majority of users celebrating its content

WAR IS RAPE

Russia's war on Ukraine: Sexual violence as a weapon of war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said investigators had received reports of "hundreds of cases of rape" in areas previously occupied by Russian troops, including sexual assaults of small children. Russian troops have been accused of widespread atrocities across the country, particularly in areas around Kyiv from which they have now withdrawn. The UN has called for an independent investigation into these allegations. For more insight, FRANCE 24 is joined by Hillary Margolis, Senior Researcher in the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. "What we would hope is that [the investigation] would entail very well-trained and experienced investigators who are accustomed to documenting this kind of crime that's highly sensitive and that does often entail a significant degree of trauma." In addition to sexual violence, Human Rights Watch is also investigating other types of war crimes: "We are always looking into a wide range of abuses in any conflict," explains Ms. Margolis, "including summary executions, which we've already documented and published, to cases of torture, to use of particular weapons, and any kinds of atrocities against civilians in conflict."

Mass graves and destruction in Bucha and Hostomel

Now that Russian troops have withdrawn, Kyiv's suburbs are being cleared of mines – and bodies are being exhumed. DW's Alexander Savitsky reports from Hostomel and Bucha, where journalists have been granted access again.

Kyiv's northwestern suburbs of Bucha and Hostomel are in ruins

It is an eerie scene. Hostomel was one of a group of pleasant suburbs on the northwestern edge of Kyiv. Now, following the withdrawal of Russian troops, its streets are empty. The first blossom is on the trees, spring birdsong is in the air – but there is also the creaking of broken metal lampposts, and the barking of stray dogs that have lost their owners. The asphalt is strewn with fallen electricity pylons and decimated fences. With every step, broken glass crunches underfoot.

There are burnt-out houses, garages, and cars everywhere. Many of the buildings are five-story apartment blocks – the majority now have no roof. Shooting and shock waves have shattered the windows. On one of the remaining balconies, some laundry flutters in the wind, abandoned in the panic of the Russian invasion. In all the time we – a group of journalists – are in Hostomel, the only other people we see are one man and one woman, middle-aged, who turn toward the press buses with hope in their eyes.

Hostomel suffered significant destruction

Antonov Airlines: A dream destroyed

Hostomel airport, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Kyiv, was the main hub of Antonov Airlines. It is known for its cargo planes, which include the biggest aircraft in the world: the Antonov An-225 "Mriya" – "Dream." The road to the airport has been badly damaged by shelling. A billboard with a portrait of the aircraft designer Oleh Antonov, after whom the cargo and passenger plane manufacturing company is named, remains undamaged. There is a great deal of burned-out Russian military equipment scattered about the airfield. Shells have gouged craters in the earth. After days of bombardment, the doors, walls and roofs of the hangars are riddled with holes.

All that remains of the only An-225 "Mriya" are its nose cone and wings, with the remains of the six engines. The enormous aircraft's burnt-out interior is visible through a gaping hole in the middle. We journalists are allowed to take photos of the uncanny sight, but we can't get too close to the debris, as the airfield is still littered with heavy machine gun cartridges and unexploded ordnance. "The experts will only be able to inspect the plane and establish the cause of the fire once the area has been cleared," says Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, Denys Monastyrskiy, who is accompanying us.

After fierce battles at the airport of Hostomel, Ukrainian forces managed to recapture it

Hostomel: Defended, but deserted

Monastyrskiy says the Russian invaders occupied the airfield on the very first day of the assault on Kyiv, February 24. Dozens of Russian helicopter gunships flew in very low over the Kyiv reservoir, so as to be invisible to radar. The first 500 Russian paratroopers then landed in Hostomel. "The Ukrainian defenders succeeded in shooting down six enemy helicopters in an extremely brutal battle," the minister says. He tells us that hundreds of paratroopers were killed, and the Ukrainian military, using rocket launchers, also wiped out one of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's elite units with all its equipment.

Monastyrskiy says the Russians subsequently sent such massive reinforcements that they were able to take the airport and the town. The intention, the minister says, was for Hostomel to serve as a landing place for Russian forces that would conquer and occupy Kyiv. However, the Ukrainians had blown up the runway, and eventually, after more fierce battles, they forced the invaders to retreat. "But Kyiv is not out of danger," Monastyrskiy says. "We are preparing for the possibility of fresh attacks."

Many civilians were shot dead with sniper rifles or machine gun fire

Bucha: Bodies must be identified

Hostomel and Bucha are directly adjacent: Only a town park marks the administrative boundary between the two. But the difference now is astonishing. Just one week after Bucha was liberated from Russian occupation, there is life in the town again. We see people and civilian cars; more houses here are intact than in Hostomel. Here too, though, damaged buildings, wrecked supermarkets, and roadblocks are reminders of the recent battles.

And the peaceful impression is deceptive. The images of bodies on the streets of Bucha are still fresh in the mind, not only for the town's inhabitants but for people all over the world. Even as municipal services are busy clearing the streets, graves are also being dug up, providing more and more evidence of the murder of civilians.

The press bus stops at an Orthodox church. Beside it, bodies are being exhumed from a deep pit. The workers are wearing white protective suits, while the dead lie in black plastic sacks. The priest says many people from Bucha who had lost contact with members of their family are fearfully watching the opening of the graves. "They're hoping that they won't find their relatives among the dead. They're hoping that perhaps they've been taken prisoner, or are in hospital, but have at least survived." The body bags are open, the faces of the dead visible; by now, though, most of them have turned black.

The dead are being exhumed from mass graves to identify them

Andriy Nebytov from the National Police, Kyiv region, tells the reporters that, so far, 40 people have been found in the grave beside the church. A municipal employee got permission from the Russian occupiers to collect the bodies from the streets of the town. "We are now handing over the corpses to forensic experts," Nebytov says. "Many have bullet wounds to the head or on their bodies. We can say that they were targeted and shot with machine guns or sniper rifles."

The police chief says that, with the exception of two military personnel, the dead are male and female civilians of different ages. "In addition to these 40 bodies, more than 400 from the entire Kyiv region have been taken to forensic institutions," says Nebytov. "More than 360 of these are from Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin." And the search is not over yet: "Many people were buried in gardens, because they couldn't be taken to the graveyards during the shelling," he explains.

This article has been translated from Russian.                            

Ukraine war: Russia blocks ships carrying grain exports

Up to 300 ships have been stopped by Russian forces from departing the Black Sea, leaving one of the key global trade routes for grain virtually blocked. The fertile region is known as "the world's breadbasket."





Russia's Navy is blocking scores of ships, many carrying grain exports, from leaving the Black Sea

Wheat exports from Ukraine and Russia, which make up a vital part of the world's food supply are still being blocked by Russia from leaving the Black Sea, Germany's largest agricultural trader BayWa said this week.

"Zero [grain] is currently being exported from the ports of Ukraine — nothing is leaving the country at all," Jörg-Simon Immerz, head of the grain trading at BayWa, told dpa news agency.

He added that the export activity on the Russian side is "very limited."

Immerz's assessment was backed up by the Panamanian Maritime Authority, who said on Wednesday that the Russian Navy was preventing 200-300 ships from leaving the Black Sea — most of them were carrying grain. Other reports suggest around 100 vessels are blocked.

Noriel Arauz, the administrator for the authority, said three Panamanian-flagged ships have come under Russian fire since the invasion of Ukraine started. One of the ships sank and two others were damaged, while no one was injured.

British newspaper The Guardian reported that several other ships have been struck since the invasion began on February 24, including from Bangladesh and Estonia, which killed one person.

Russia blames the stoppage on the high risk of mines, which it said had been laid by the Ukrainian Navy.

Food security threatened

Questions have been raised about how much grain Ukraine will be able to produce this year due to the conflict. At the same time, Russia has vowed to retaliate against Western sanctions that have crippled its economy.

Curbs on wheat and fertilizer exports are presumed to be high on Moscow's list, which could have further consequences for the world's food supply and food price inflation.

Russia produces close to 80 million metric tons of wheat a year and exports close to 30 million tons, while Ukraine exports about 20 to 25 million tons a year.


BayWa's Immerz said the entire market is following Ukraine's exports more than Russia's as they are currently deemed to be more at risk.

"The wheat was sown in the fall and now needs to be fertilized," Immerz said. "The corn hasn't even been sown yet, and if that can't be sown, of course, there will be no crop."

Days after the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged farmers to begin the sowing season as normal, where safe to do so.

BayWa, meanwhile, believes there is no reason to fear a wheat shortage as much more wheat is harvested in the EU than is consumed.

"The EU exports about 30 million metric tons of wheat annually, and Germany is also an exporter in normal years," Immerz said. But that is not true for all types of grain. "We rely on imports for corn," he added.


The port of Odessa (pictured) is one of the main departure points for Ukraine's grain exports
Africa's food needs vulnerable

Meanwhile, a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has warned about the impact of the war on the food situation in Africa.

Between 2018 and 2020, Russia accounted for nearly a third of wheat imports to the continent, while around 12% come from Ukraine.

The UNCTAD report said up to 25 African countries, especially the least developed economies, relied on wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine.

The lack of spare capacity in Africa limits the chances of offsetting any lost supplies, while surging costs for fertilizer will be an extra burden for farmers, the UN warned.

Meanwhile, rising costs for shipping and for grains and other staple foods are pushing prices higher, hitting the poorest people the hardest, the report said.

Safe shipping corridors needed

The United Nations' International Maritime Organization (IMO) has called for so-called blue corridors to allow the ships to leave the Black Sea without the risk of attack or hitting a mine.

"The ongoing military action in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov presents a serious and immediate threat to the safety and security of crews and vessels operating in the region," IMO said in a statement released earlier this week.

"The seriousness of the situation is underlined by a growing number of open-source reports of security incidents involving merchant shipping," it added.

IMO is currently liasing closely with all key stakeholders in the region to "contribute to attempts to address the safety and security of shipping" in the Black Sea region.

Edited by: Uwe Hessler

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 EU uses development aid to strongarm Africa on migration

EU development programs like the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa prioritize curbing migration over fostering development, critics say. How does the EUTF square with the stated aims of the European Union's aid policies?

As the EU tries to curb irregular migration to Europe, development aid gets co-opted for leverage

In raw numbers, the European Union and its members provide the most development aid in the world, about €75 billion in 2019 alone. About one-third of that aid currently goes to Africa. With historical inequities keeping African nations at a disadvantage in negotiations, EU countries often use development funds as levers for their own political agendas. In recent years, migration control has been at the forefront of these efforts.

Africa has been the focus of Western European development policy since the precursors to the EU were established in the 1950s. With large parts of Africa still colonized by the inheritor states of the European empires, structures such as the European Development Fund aimed to continue the development policies of the former empires, historian Sara Lorenzini said: "The idea was to build European-style welfare states in the colonies and for Europe to retain geopolitical weight as a third force during the Cold War."

As African nations started to gain independence in the 1960s, development policies allowed European countries to maintain their influence on the continent.

Development aid is still a geopolitical tool

Political agendas continue to shape where aid goes — and which projects get prioritized. "The main agenda in Africa continues to be geopolitical," said Jan Orbie, the director of the Centre for EU Studies at Ghent University. "In the past 10 years, development policy has become more connected to migration, to energy policy, to trade."

Data on official development aid collected by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows, for example, that EU institutions and member states spend a lot more of their development aid north of the Sahara than other donors do — often in countries considered the origin or transit states for migrants who make their way to the European Union.

One instrument that exemplifies the European Union's focus on migration control is the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, which just concluded its six-year funding period. After large numbers of irregular migrants reached the European Union in 2015, EU policymakers were eager to prevent a repeat. A result of the ensuing negotiations was the now roughly €5 billion in "emergency" project funding for the EUTF, largely redirected from existing development funds. Its purpose was to dispense money quickly — without much parliamentary oversight and the bureaucracy it would bring. "The trust fund illustrates that the EU can act very quickly, efficiently and cohesively when it wants to," Orbie said. "Whether that's a good thing is another question."

Success defined as fewer Africans arriving in EU

The funds are officially meant to "address root causes of irregular migration" in the recipient countries. But the priority of policymakers seems to be to prevent migrants from arriving at EU borders, as an Oxfam report found. In one board meeting, the head of the Directorate General for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Christian Danielsson, happily asserted how the EUTF for Africa had "confirmed its value in supporting an effective management of migration flows from, to and within" North Africa.

The Oxfam report also found that most of the funding goes to development cooperation projects in nations perceived as countries of origin for migrants, while transit countries receive more money for migration management projects. Only about 1% of the EUTF, €56 million, was spent on fostering legal pathways for African migrants.

€5 billion isn't much compared with total aid volume 

The fund's total volume may not seem like much: €5 billion in funding commitments, spread over five years and about 30 recipient countries. Between 2016 and 2020, the time period for which the OECD provides complete data, official development aid donors committed over $1.7 trillion (€1.6 trillion) to these countries, with about one-third of that coming from the European Union and its member states.

But the EUTF often goes hand in hand with other funds managed by the European Union and its member states — and the political interests behind them. Refusing to cooperate with one program might disadvantage recipient countries when it comes to future funding.

And the money from the EUTF still makes a difference in individual countries. The fund makes up more than a third of the total EU development money that goes to Sudan and Libya, which also receive among the highest absolute sums from the EUTF.

Even countries with more diverse funding sources can be susceptible to political pressure from the European Union. "African countries now have to negotiate about migration so that they can get aid, they can gain access to foreign currency and other diplomatic support," said Mehari Taddele Maru, a professor at the Migration Policy Centre and formerly the program coordinator for migration at the African Union Commission.

In 2017, for example, the European Union negotiated a deal with Ethiopia to accelerate the return of nationals deported from EU countries, voluntarily or involuntarily. The European Council attributes Ethiopia's cooperation to "the financial instruments ... in particular the EU Trust Fund." Records on EUTF projects show that Ethiopia was allocated funding at first in December 2016. Then funding flows stopped for almost the entire year of 2017. Days after the agreement had been reached, €14 million in EUTF funding for "stimulating economic opportunities and job creation for refugees and host communities in Ethiopia" was approved. The country has now received more than €300 million from the fund.

"The government was cash-starved, so they agreed," Mehari said. "The same with Niger, Nigeria and others: The hardening of borders is happening in Africa because of European intervention." 

A study by the German Development Institute suggests that this is particularly the case in West Africa, where EU programming tends to hinder free movement — even within the region. On the Horn of Africa, in contrast, EU interventions tend to support projects that allow people to move freely within the region.

From 'emergency' to steady flows: The future of EU aid spending on migration

At the end of 2021, the EUTF for Africa stopped accepting new projects. And the European Union is restructuring its development spending. A range of schemes, including the EUTF, will now be combined in one big fund: the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI).

It spans €80 billion for the funding period from 2021 to 2027, 10% of which is designated for migration-management programs. "There were political objectives to have a prominent figure and a clear focus on migration governance," said Anna Knoll, the head of the migration program at the European think tank ECDPM. The acute feeling of emergency guiding EU policymakers in 2015 has passed, but Knoll said the NDICI would likely continue some of the current trends: The European Union retains a strong focus on controlling migration, and it continues to use aid funds as a tool to further EU interests in Africa. 

Edited by: Milan Gagnon 
 
This project is a collaboration among several media outlets in the European Data Journalism Network. While DW was project lead, Voxeurop, Openpolis and OBCT were contributing partners.