Abortion: Is Africa becoming more liberal?

The abortion debate in Africa is going in the opposite direction to the one in the US. Experts say that legislation in countries such as Benin and South Africa is becoming more progressive. But there are exceptions.

Many pregnant women opt for illegal abortions when their country prohibits safe termination

Since the US Supreme Court overturned protections on abortion rights in the US last month, the controversial issue has been back on the global agenda — including in Africa.

Five days after the US ruled that there is no constitutional right to abortion, Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), described it as a setback.

However, the WHO chief said many world regions had strengthened the right to abortion over the past 40 years, adding that it's more important than ever to protect that right.

"All women should have the right to choose when it comes to their bodies and health. Full stop," he said.

Tedros stressed that safe abortion is health care: "It saves lives. Restricting it drives women and girls towards unsafe abortions; resulting in complications, even death."

Lobbying for safe abortions

The legal and medical standards defined by the WHO aim to improve access to safe abortion and are supported by numerous NGOs working in Africa.

One of the most active organizations in abortion rights is the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), which aims to advance reproductive rights.

CRR advises African legislators and supports women's organizations and families with money, know-how, legal protection, and counseling.

These and similar organizations' goals are to provide women with accessible and legal access to safe abortions, especially in Africa's poorer, most populous countries.

The advocacy work is increasingly producing the desired effects and results in many African countries — for example, Benin.

After long and controversial debates, Benin's parliament lifted many restrictions on women's right to abortion in 2021 that had been in place until then.

Until last year, abortions were only allowed in Benin if the pregnant woman's life was in danger or if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.

Benin thus joined the list of African countries that allow women to have abortions legally and safely under certain conditions. On the African continent, Tunisia, South Africa, Cape Verde and Mozambique have similar liberal legislation to Benin.

Sierra Leone and Lagos move to legalize abortion

Another country on the verge of partially legalizing abortion is Sierra Leone. President Julius Maada Bio recently introduced a bill aimed to that effect. The country's parliament is currently debating the legislation in Freetown.

In addition to national legislative initiatives, other African countries also have projects at the local and regional levels that promise women access to safe abortion.

For example, the Nigerian commercial metropolis of Lagos plans to offer abortions in public hospitals.

The city of 15 million people could become a pioneer for liberal abortion rights in a country with enormous economic, cultural, and social disparities. For instance, some Nigerian regions have a powerful cultural and religious-based resistance to abortion.

Abortion in Africa, like the rest of the world, remains controversial

Taboo topic

In many African societies, the issue of abortion is still taboo. Opinions on the subject differ, as was the case when DW put the issue of abortion rights up for discussion in the youth program "The 77 Percent." 

It was noticeable that many young men who are critical of the liberalization of abortion laws in Sierra Leone took part in the debate.

"Human rights already apply to unborn children in the womb. These innocent children are crying out for brave men and women to defend their rights courageously," Pender Aghogho, a DW 77 Percent social media user, said.

And another user named Simony Kuban concurred: "Our girls are having abortions, even if it's not legal. So I reject this proposal by the president of Sierra Leone."

Julius Bio's proposal, he said, is "evil and barbaric."

Religious and cultural beliefs are strong opponents to the legalization of abortion

Banning abortion 'not the solution'

According to the WHO, a ban does not lead to fewer abortions. DW's fact check also concluded that abortions performed under unsafe conditions are a much bigger problem by far.

In many countries in Africa, access to safe abortion remains highly restrictive.

According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, abortion remains illegal in eight countries. In Madagascar, for example, medical workers who secretly perform abortions on women face up to ten years in prison. Yet nearly 75,000 abortions are performed in Madagascar each year, according to CRR.

"We try to save the lives of pregnant women, even in countries where abortion is illegal," Dr. Jean Kalibushi Bizimana, an obstetrics and gynecology consultant with Doctors Without Borders, told DW.

Bizimana said the medical charity organization does everything necessary to ensure women's confidentiality and safety — a principle to which all doctors worldwide should be committed.

Edited by Keith Walker

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The 77 Percent — Africa's abortion legal status   

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LGBTQ communities facing new repression in Middle East

Iraq wants to criminalize homosexuality, Saudi Arabia has targeted rainbow flags, and Egypt insists on a gender binary. Activists say new threats to LGBTQ communities are based on wrong ideas about tradition.

Observers say there's an unusually intense crackdown on LGBTQ+ 

communities in the Middle East at the moment

Most of the people around him don't know he identifies as queer, the 20-year-old Iraqi student told DW. But life in his comparatively conservative southern city of Najaf is dangerous for him anyway.

"Once I wore a pink shirt and I was harassed, just because of the color," said Haiden, whose full name cannot be published for his safety. "Sometimes people are harassed and even killed just because they don't look like everyone else."

And, he said, things are getting worse for LGBTQ communities in Iraq. "We're already exposed to all kinds of harassment and attacked on a daily basis," he said. "And that's even before this law to criminalize homosexuality has been enacted."

'Severe penalties'

In July, Iraq's government announced that it was planning a law prohibiting homosexuality. Iraq is one of three Arab-majority countries in the Middle East that doesn't explicitly criminalize same-sex relationships. The others are Jordan and Bahrain.

If the law is passed, it would bring Iraq into line with the rest of the region. Most other Middle Eastern nations outlaw same-sex intimacy more directly, punishing it with anything from fines to prison to, in Saudi Arabia, the death penalty.

"The new law will hold homosexuals to account and impose the most severe penalties on them," Aref al-Hamami, a member of parliament who sits on the parliamentary legal committee, told DW.

The law is yet to be voted on but al-Hamami said he believed that it would pass, despite criticism from domestic and international human rights organizations.

"We are a Muslim country," he said. "We have customs and traditions — and Islam forbids these actions."

Legacy of colonialism

This argument — that same-sex relationships are not part of Middle Eastern culture — is one that is often used by those opposed to them. But it is also wrong.

Just like the Bible, the Koran mentions homosexuality several times in a disapproving way. But, despite religious condemnation, same-sex relationships featured regularly in poetry and art in the Islamic world.

Shortly after Pride events were canceled by Lebanese authorities in June, 

a related billboard in Beirut was also destroyed

In Iraq, for example, the eighth century poet Abu Nawas is celebrated with a statue in central Baghdad. Abu Nawas was an infamous libertine, who penned paeans to such things as the delights of the local bathhouse, or hammam, where he could observe handsome men naked — at least "until the towel bearers come in and spoil the fun."

Some researchers maintain that, for centuries, Arab culture was more permissive about same-sex relationships than European culture.

"Pre-modern Arab-Islamic thought … had no term for the concept of homosexuality as understood today," Sultan Alamer, a visiting fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, wrote in an essay published in New Lines magazine in June.

This changed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Victorian era popularized the idea that sexual pleasure was sinful or shameful, and in 1885 the British brought in some of the first laws to criminalize sex between men.

Arabs began increasingly to adopt conservative European attitudes. Alamer describes how one Arab visitor to Paris in the early 19th century praised the French for "not being inclined toward loving male youths and eulogizing them in poetry.” 

Previously acceptable ideas about homosexual desire and poems about male beauty would come to be considered uncivilized.

Some of the first laws against homosexuality in the Middle East were actually imported because European legal systems were also used in European colonies.

According to British legal advocacy organization, the Human Dignity Trust, most of the modern laws against homosexuality in the Arab world are based on religion. However even today some of those still have their roots in historical British law. This is true of Sudan and Egypt — the former colonies simply kept those old rules when they became independent.

Culture wars

Same-sex relations have become a "cultural battleground," Katerina Dalacoura, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, wrote in a paper published in The Third World Quarterly.

"The identification of heterosexuality with cultural authenticity in Middle Eastern societies is a distortion of the historical record," she argued.

According to Dalacoura, authoritarian governments and religious fundamentalists stoke public sentiment against LGBTQ communities to secure their power. "Their authority is shored up by the call to protect an 'authentic' culture which, if it ever existed, has long ago been wiped out," she wrote.

The situation seems to be getting worse for LGBTQ communities in many Middle Eastern countries. "Right now, the entire region seems to be seeing a plethora of homophobia and transphobia," said Andrew Delatolla, a lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at Leeds University in the UK, whose research centers on race, gender and sexuality.

This includes the Saudi government's campaign to remove rainbow-colored toys from shelves, a state clampdown and threats from a militant Christian group directed at LGBTQ communities in Lebanon, and a hashtag campaign that originated in Egypt recently that uses "fetrah," the Arabic word for "instinct," to insist that there can only be two genders. 

"It's not something I've seen emerge in quite this way before, and I think part of the reason why is that there have been so many advances in the way that society has been thinking about sexuality in general, and queerness in particular," Delatolla said. "For a lot of socially conservative individuals, that poses a threat to the moral values they rely on for maneuvering through society and the state."

Political tactics

In New Lines magazine, Alamer concluded that authoritarian Arab leaders often substitute "moral authority" for "democratic legitimacy."

"In the past five decades, this moral authority was exercised through regulating religion and subjugating Arab women," he wrote. "If you are an Arab dictator and want moral legitimacy, but you do not want to derive it from Islam or gender, what is the most convenient source that fits your new secular, conservative agenda? Arguably, the answer is adopting anti-homosexuality and, to a lesser degree, anti-atheism discourse."

Prominent Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said same-sex marriage caused the pandemic

This appears to be behind what is happening in Iraq too, activists say. "Politicians who have failed to manage the state's affairs are distracting people with laws that have a big impact on the street," said Sam, a consultant who works with IraQueer, which describes itself as Iraq's first national LGBTQ organization.

There are other recent examples of similarly attention-getting laws in Iraq, on pornography and paternal custody, as well as against normalizing relations with Israel, said Sam, who asked that his full name not be used. 

"Iraq lives under the shadow of a political class that's failed to form a government and which is trying to cover up its own corruption," Sam said. "It does so by deluding people that these laws preserve Islamic principles."

Azhar Al-Rubaie contributed reporting from Iraq. 

South Korea celebrates Pride after two-year hiatus

Sat, July 16, 2022


South Korea's Pride parade returned from a two-year, pandemic hiatus, with revellers chanting, dancing and waving rainbow flags at Seoul's City Hall on Saturday, as conservative groups protested the equality event.

Thousands of participants listened to speeches and musical acts at the central Seoul Plaza before braving pouring rain to march through town accompanied by performers dancing atop mobile stages blaring pop songs. Police provided heightened security along the route to maintain a cordon between marchers and the mostly Christian protesters.

One counsellor and activist, who gave his name as Joy, told AFP he was glad to be celebrating Pride, but noted "South Korean society still has a long way to go" in terms of recognising LGBTQ rights.


"We are always in a situation where our existence is denied," he said. "It's important to be able to show that we exist, even if it's just for one day."


Same-sex marriage remains illegal in South Korea, and activists have long emphasised the need for legislation outlawing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

"We live our day-to-day lives pretending like we're not different, but today we can be ourselves, express ourselves confidently, wear the clothes we want to wear and hold hands with our lovers," Pride attendee and activist Kim Hyun-jung told AFP.

- 'Timely and important' -

Saturday’s protesters, some in army-style fatigues, erected scaffolding on the parade route, with crowds clapping along to a team of drummers, and attendees holding signs that read, in English, "Homosexuality is Sin" and "No!! Same-Sex Marriage".

"(Homosexuality) is wrong. It brings moral corruption and disorder to society. We cannot have this in South Korea," said protester Hong Sung-bo.

"I feel sorry for them. If they could meet Jesus and receive the Gospel and be changed, they would be able to live a healthier life. I pity their sinful culture."

Prior to the downpour, the gathering at Seoul Plaza -– formally known as the Seoul Queer Culture Festival –- drew high-profile supporters, including numerous foreign emissaries.

Speaking alongside other diplomats, New Zealand Ambassador Philip Turner, who appeared on stage with his partner Hiroshi Ikeda, told the crowd "everybody should be able to live their lives with freedom and pride".

EU Ambassador Maria Castillo Fernandez noted the gathering was "even more timely and important today, as human rights in the world are not a given", while newly arrived US Ambassador Philip Goldberg vowed to attendees that the US would "fight with [them] for equality".

Goldberg was singled out by name by the protest camp, some of whom held signs suggesting he was gay and accusing the US embassy of "destroying the alliance of both countries".

Several speakers, including Norwegian Ambassador Frode Solberg, alluded to the groups protesting the event in their remarks.

"I was here the first time in 2018… and the forces around us today show us that this fight is still very important," he said, urging attendees to "stay brave, stay proud".

bur/lb

THAI & BURMA JUNTA'S ARE PALS

How Thailand pushes Myanmar migrants into modern slavery

Myanmar's COVID-19 border closure and the recent coup have driven workers to desperation. This investigation into Thailand's fishery industry was made possible by the Pulitzer Center and Democratic Voice of Burma.

'When people violate the law it becomes the norm, many authorities have a blind attitude'

When the moon reaches its fullest in the coastal town of Ranong in southern Thailand, ships dock under the watch of the port-in port-out (PIPO) authorities — investigators appointed in 2015 to quell trafficking on the busy seaside.

But four months ago, when Moe Tha Hlay's boat docked off schedule carrying a dead fisherman, inspectors paid scant attention.

"In these situations, PIPO should ask how [migrant workers] died, how they can help the family — questions such as these. I wish they would do something like that, not [only ask about] the life jackets," he said of their misplaced focus.

This is the second death that Hlay — agreeing to speak under a false name for fear of repercussions from his boat's owner — has seen at sea in the last four months. Though he endures things that scare him, he dares not change vessels.

"It’s difficult to change [boats], we have no choice. When we change to another fishing boat, we must pay a lot of money from our own pockets. We don't want to pay [this bond] and that's what keeps us working aboard the same boat — even if it's dangerous."

Most Myanmar migrant workers are indebted, rights groups say

Ten years ago, horrifying reports of extreme debt bondage surfaced from Thailand's commercial fishing industry, shocking consumers into reconsidering their position on one of Thailand's leading sectors.

A 2020 endline study of Thailand's fishing sector by the International Labor Organization found 14% of fishers experienced involuntary work and coercion. But migrant working advocacy organizations estimate that the vast majority of Myanmar migrants working in Thailand's fisheries or similar trades are indebted and ostensibly bonded to an employer, agency, or broker.

Conditions like these have resurfaced since Myanmar was hit by the pandemic and the coup —  a two-year closure of the Thai-Myanmar border has allowed brokers to demand significant upcharges. Aside from the physical risks, migrants now seeking work in Thailand are shouldering a larger economic burden.

A familiar pattern

Hlay and other workers fear things are taking a turn for the worse since the ousting of the semi-civilian government in February 2021. Hlay says the return of the Burmese military could catalyze a rush for jobs, allowing brokers to exploit people desperate for work once more.

Hlay's trawler routinely runs short on food, sometimes he works days in excess of 12 hours

"Now, many migrants will face a host of problems in other countries. I see this happening," he said. "In the past, a lot of fishermen faced physical abuse; now that things have changed, I worry this situation will return."

In the 17 years Hlay worked on ships, debt has been constant: paying yearly for a new visa, and biannually for a work permit through a broker the boat owner selects.

Brokers chosen freely by owners are prone to adding additional fees, deducted from fishers' salaries —  it can take fishermen years to pay these off. Changing employers (thus transferring the liabilities accumulated) also carries a surcharge — debt.

In the past, Hlay has managed to pay the premium required to change employers, but now his family in Myanmar is in greater need of remittances. At the time of his last transfer, he still owed the boat owner approximately THB 10,000 (€270, $300).

Next month, he'll be required to pay new documentation fees as his last ship never went back out to sea, leaving him without work. He holds out hope this new debt will be paid off within five months.

"I have a family, so I can't pay it all at the same time. I'll tell the owner to deduct it from my monthly salary."

Forced labor and precarious work

Hlay was never given a contract by his employer. He isn't sure how much the renewal of his documentation will cost next month and is sometimes paid up to THB 2,000 less than his promised wage, although he is not sure why.

His trawler routinely runs short on food and he sometimes works days in excess of 12 hours, a direct violation of Thailand's committments under ILO convention C188. As Hlay effectively lacks the freedom to leave his job, it also meets the organization's definition of forced labor.

But when his ship docks, Hlay's complaints fall on deaf ears.

"PIPO have Burmese translators, but they don't do anything. Sometimes, on the boats, there's not enough food to eat. Even though we talk to them, they fail to address the situation. That's why I'm so angry," he said. "… If Burmese [people] die, they don't care."

Thai authorities turn blind eye

Thailand's Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report last year investigated 14 cases of forced labor, a number widely rejected by migrant worker advocacy groups who cite weak inspection and willful ignorance. Despite requests for comment, the Royal Thai Police Operations Centre, which oversees trafficking prevention, did not respond.

Migrant Working Group representative Adisorn Kerdmongkol found, when studying debt bondage, that up to 90% of workers in sectors such as fishing and domestic work end up paying employers or brokers to arrange documentation and job placements in Thailand.

"It's not only expensive, but also complex," he said about the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) process for migrant workers. "You want the chance to make money; [under the MoU] you have to wait three months and work with the government — I think it's not a choice. If you come illegally, you need a broker."

Despite the resumption this May of Thailand’s MoU system — which aims to place 150,000 Burmese workers to address the country's chronic labor shortage — he says the tens of thousands forced across the border by the coup may still opt for irregular routes.

Research conducted in April this year by the Seafood Working Group and the Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum found that a brokered journey across the Myawaddy-Mae Sot border costs around THB8,000-10,000 per person.

Joint Action Committee for Burmese Affairs' Moe Kyaw says two types of brokers work in tandem. After carrying clients from across Myanmar to border regions, other groups of brokers will offer jobs in garment factories, fisheries, and on boats.

The "total package" —  a passage to Thailand or Malaysia and a work placement — can cost up to THB30,000.

"People pawn their houses to get loans for money to give to brokers. For those who can't find the cash, they arrange for agents to take a cut from their own salaries," he said.

"But you won't get your money back once you are arrested. Some people have been abandoned in the forest with no food; they may only eat when they encounter Thai authorities."

'It's become the norm'

Mon State farmer Ba Tun couldn't afford to feed his pigs after Thingyan, Myanmar's new year festival in April. He thought giving a broker a lump sum of THB 23,000 to get to Thailand would help him start over — a decision he has yet to stop paying for.

"They asked for more money once the journey ended. I'm not satisfied at all," he said. "Once I pay back the travel expenses, then I would like to go back to Burma and do my old job."

After crossing the border river by boat, brokers smuggled him to a garment factory job in Samut Sakhorn.

While his sister pays his broker fees back home, Ba Tun covers the THB18,000 demanded for his placement and work permit. Twice a month, bosses slash his salary in half to cover these costs. He's not sure when he'll be able to go back home.

Roisai Wongsuban, program advisor for The Freedom Fund, a non-profit working to eliminate modern day slavery, says this perpetual cycle is one of the key indicators of debt slavery; once workers are close to repaying what is demanded, it's time to renew their documents.

"It’s become the norm in this sector — 'Oh okay, it's normal, we have to pay to get a good job. The documentation is because we want to work here, then we have to pay for that. The boss will be the one who chooses the documentation broker, and we can't complain as it brings no benefit to us,'" she said.

"I think this type of thinking resonates with the workers, so many do not see themselves in a situation of debt bondage — nor do many Thai authorities. When people violate the law it becomes the norm; many authorities have a blind attitude because everyone in the market does it."

Edited by: Sou-Jie van Brunnersum

Amazing Planet: The long, slow life of a Greenland shark

Greenland sharks born long before the Industrial Revolution are still hunting Arctic waters to this day. But as their icy habitat heats up, these mysterious giants face an uncertain future.

Greenland sharks can live for centuries

The Greenland shark is a true oddity of the seas. Its flesh is toxic, its eating habits eclectic and sometimes unsavory. Though a powerful hunter, it is also partial to rotting carrion and has been found with a belly-full of reindeer and horse remains.  

Another less-than appealing feature are its eyes. Worm-like crustaceans attach themselves to the shark's corneas, rendering their host almost blind. Fortunately, this doesn't seem to pose much of a problem for the shark, which also pursues squid blow the Artic ice at murky depths of up to more than 2,000 meters (6,500 feet).   

Yet the most remarkable thing about this curious shark is its lifespan — the longest of any vertebrate on Earth. 

Carbon dating their eyes  

The age of other sharks can be determined by counting rings of growth in their vertebrae — much like counting the rings of a tree. But the Greenland shark has soft, gelatinous bones that reveal little about its life history. It was only in 2016 that scientists revealed its extraordinary longevity — by looking deep into its eyes.   

The long parasite attached to the shark's eyeballs makes it hard for the animal to see

They may not be much good for seeing, but the shark's eyes, like those of other species, contain proteins that are preserved throughout the animal's life. Scientists gathered the eyes of 28 Greenland sharks from the bycatch of fishing trawlers — and radiocarbon-dated them.   

Smaller sharks in their sample had been alive since the early 1960s — a moment when high concentrations of carbon-14 in the atmosphere left "bomb pulse" markers from nuclear tests in their tissue.   

But one mature, fiver-meter female was revealed not only to have been around before the nuclear age, but well before the Industrial Revolution, with scientists putting her date of birth somewhere between 1504 and 1744.  

Threatened by melting ice 

This animal survived an era when its kind was hunted for the oil in its liver — used to fuel lamps of the pre-electrical age — only to get caught in nets cast for more palatable species. Thousands of Greenland sharks meet their end this way each year, and the threat is increasing as Arctic waters warm and ice melts, opening new expanses of their habitat to commercial fishing. 

High concentrations of trimethylamine oxide make fresh Greenland shark meat poisonous. A months-long process of fermentation renders it a delicacy for some, though it is said to be an acquired taste

The slow tempo of their lives doesn't help matters. With an exceptionally sluggish metabolism adapted to their freezing habitat, they only reach sexual maturity at the age of about 150 — so when adults are killed, it takes time for them to be replaced.   

For the Greenland shark, the climate crisis has unfolded in the blink of a parasite-encrusted eye. If a new generation survives to continue its line, it could inhabit a world very different from the one it is born into today.  

Edited by: Tamsin Walker 

DW RECOMMENDS

SLOW DAY FOR CRIME
Boy calls 911 to report he needs a dinosaur. This is how a Florida deputy responded


Orange County Sheriff's Office photo

Mark Price
Thu, July 14, 2022 

A Florida sheriff’s deputy is being lauded on social media for his response to a boy’s exaggerated idea of what calling 911 can accomplish.

It happened around 1:45 p.m. Tuesday, July 12, in Orange County, home to Orlando, and the boy did not have an emergency in the traditional sense.

“He thought it was an emergency that he needed a dinosaur,” the Orange County Sheriff’s Office reported in a Facebook post. “The dispatcher explained what emergencies are & sent a deputy ... to check on the child & his family.”

The deputy made a stop along the way and picked up two “Jurassic World” dinosaur toys — with roaring capabilities.


“The dispatcher actually ordered the toys for pickup at a Target and the deputy (got them) ... before going to chat with the boy and his dad,” the sheriff’s office said.

Identities of the deputy and dispatcher were not released. However, the sheriff’s office noted the dispatcher also listened patiently as the boy reported lizards in the backyard “chase him and his little brother all the time.”

A photo shared on Facebook showed the barefoot boy proudly holding a dinosaur toy in each arm as he stood on the porch.

The July 13 post racked up nearly 3,500 reactions and comments in 12 hours, including some who said the small act of kindness proves “the human race is not failing.”

A lot of parents responded, too, sheepishly admitting their children had also called 911 for the wrong reasons. They thanked the deputy for delivering an important lesson the boy will “remember ... for the rest of his life.”

“I feel better knowing my kid wasn’t the only one. He called 911 just to have a deputy come say hi to him,” Victoria Grace L. Constantinidis wrote on the department’s Facebook post.

“My daughter once called 13 times because she wanted to know if it was true that when she called 911 the police came,” Jahaira Marquez Padilla posted. “They came.”

“We must teach what an emergency is, but let’s face it ... in his little mind dinosaurs were important. So cute and beautiful attitude of the officer!” Julianna Varela B. Rios said.

Rewilding: How vultures could save an ecosystem

Conservation groups all over the world are bringing animals back from the brink of extinction. I meet a team in Bulgaria working with the creepiest species of them all: vultures. The idea is that they will eventually help mitigate climate change. But how exactly is that supposed to work? Reporter: Aditi Rajagopal Video Editor: Andreas Hyronimus Supervising Editor: Joanna Gottschalk

Social life helps orphaned elephants

overcome loss: study

Juliette COLLEN

 Sat, July 16, 2022 

Orphaned elephants manage to overcome the loss of their mother by living in a herd, highlighting the importance of a social life for the species, according to a study.

Scientists investigated the consequences of a mother elephant's death on her child by examining the level of stress hormones in the excrement of 37 young elephants in Kenya between 2015 and 2016.

Among the young elephants, 25 had lost their mother between one and 19 years before from poaching or drought.

Of the 25 orphans, 20 stayed within the same family unit after the mother's death, while five joined an unrelated group.

The researchers found that stress hormones were at similar levels in the long term among orphans and the other elephants, even though the former were expected to show more stress symptoms in the absence of maternal care.

Any stress among the orphans did not last long, showing their "resilience" and the effect of social support from the other elephants, said Jenna Parker, the main author of the study published this week in the journal Communications Biology.

The importance of family links was obvious when observing elephant herds, Parker told AFP.

The young rarely stray more than 10 metres (33 feet) away from their mother and "incredible" reunions involving the entire group were seen after a few hours of separation, said the researcher at Colorado State University in the United States.

When poachers or hunters kill an elephant, that social cohesion disintegrates and threatens the group's wellbeing, particularly the young ones left orphaned, she said.

The bond between a baby elephant and its mother is believed to be strong even after weaning.

- 'Playmates' -

Parker and her colleagues investigated how orphaned elephants felt by measuring the quantity of hormones they release when faced with stress.

The hormones can be found in blood, saliva, urine and faeces. The last option was chosen as the most reliable and widespread way to measure stress in wild animals because it is non-invasive, Parker said.

Only the excrement of young females aged between two and 20 in the Samburu and Buffalo Springs reserves in northern Kenya was used, with males less easy to track because they are less attached to their original herd.

Scientists also found lower stress levels among young elephants growing up in groups with more animals of a similar age, suggesting that "playmates" are essential for them.

The results could guide orphanages to provide companions of the same age to help orphaned elephants.

The study also concluded that releasing groups of orphaned elephants together after they were linked during captivity could facilitate their transition to living in the wild.

juc/cel/imm/ah

CANADA'S FORGOTTEN COLONY
At least 234 dead or hurt in Haiti gang violence from July 8-12: UN

Christophe VOGT
Sat, July 16, 2022


Gang violence killed or injured at least 234 people from July 8-12 in Haiti's Cite Soleil, an impoverished and densely populated neighbourhood of the capital Port-au-Prince, the United Nations said on Saturday.

The unrest erupted between two rival factions and the city's ill-equipped and understaffed police failed to intervene, trapping residents in their homes, unable to go out for even food and water.

With many houses in the slums made of sheet metal, residents fell victim to stray bullets. Ambulances were unable to reach those in need.

"Most of the victims were not directly involved in gangs and were directly targeted by gang elements. We have also received new reports of sexual violence," said UN human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence.


Earlier this week, the National Human Rights Defense Network, a Haitian organisation, had put the toll at 89 people killed, 16 unaccounted for and 74 wounded.


For the six months from January to June, the UN human rights office put the death toll at 934, with 684 more people wounded. A total of 680 kidnappings also occurred during that period, it said.

"We are deeply concerned by the worsening of violence in Port-au-Prince and the rise in human rights abuses committed by heavily armed gangs against the local population," Laurence said.

"We urge the authorities to ensure that all human rights are protected and placed at the front and centre of their responses to the crisis."

The bloodshed in Haiti has come alongside soaring food prices and chronic fuel shortages -- a toxic mix that has accelerated a brutal downward spiral in the security situation in Port-au-Prince.
- 'Desist'-

Aid agencies say many areas are impossible to access due to the dangerous conditions.


"We call on those responsible and supporting this armed violence to immediately desist, and to respect the lives and livelihoods of all Haitians, most of whom live in extreme poverty," Laurence said.

Mumuza Muhindo, head of the local mission of Doctors Without Borders, told AFP that his group had operated on an average of 15 patients a day during the spike in violence.

"It's a real battlefield," Muhindo said. "It's impossible to estimate how many people have been killed."

Cite Soleil is home to an oil terminal that supplies the capital and all of northern Haiti, so the clashes have had a devastating effect on the region's economy and people's daily lives.

Petrol stations in Port-au-Prince have no petrol to sell, causing prices on the black market to skyrocket.

"We are seeing a significant increase in hunger in the capital and in the south of the country, with Port-au-Prince hit the hardest," Jean-Martin Bauer, director of the World Food Programme, said on Tuesday.

For the past several years, Haiti has seen a wave of mass kidnappings, as gangs snatch people of all walks of life, including foreigners, off the streets.

Emboldened by police inaction, gangs have become increasingly brazen.

Haiti announced a rare seizure of weapons in cargo containers late Thursday: 18 military grade weapons, four 9mm handguns, 14,646 rounds of ammunition and $50,000 in counterfeit money.

The following day, the UN Security Council called on member states to ban the transfer of small arms to the Caribbean nation but stopped short of a full embargo requested by China.

UN Council urges halt to small arms reaching Haiti gangs

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution that calls on all countries to stop the transfer of small arms, light weapons and ammunition to any party in crisis-torn Haiti supporting gang violence and criminal activity

ByEDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press
July 15, 2022


Police drive their car over a barricade set up by taxi drivers to protest fuel shortages in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, July 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Friday that calls on all countries to stop the transfer of small arms, light weapons and ammunition to any party in crisis-torn Haiti supporting gang violence and criminal activity.

Haiti is experiencing escalating bloodshed and kidnappings by criminal gangs, and China had proposed a rival text that would have authorized a U.N. arms embargo on the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. But other council members said an embargo would be unenforceable.

The resolution drafted by the United States and Mexico that was approved on a 15-0 vote Friday does demand an immediate cessation of gang violence and criminal activities, as China wanted.

It also expresses the council’s readiness to impose sanctions that could include travel bans and assets freezes “as necessary” on individuals engaged in or supporting gang violence, criminal activity or human rights violations in Haiti within 90 days of the resolution’s adoption. That language is weaker than China’s proposal, which called for action within 30 days.

The back and forth came in negotiations over a resolution to extend the mandate for the U.N. political mission in Haiti. The council’s previous authorization for the mission expired Friday.

The U.S.-Mexico resolution extends the mission, known as BINUH, until July 15, 2023. China wanted an extension until Oct. 15, 2023.

U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Mills said the resolution sponsored with Mexico will allow the U.N. mission to “continue its critical advisory efforts in support of facilitating political dialogue, enhancing the capacity of the Haitian National Police to address gang violence and protecting human rights.”

China’s U.N. ambassador, Zhang Jun, said the resolution could have been stronger, but called it “a right step in the right direction” in warning Haiti's gangs.

“The gangsters must immediately stop violence and criminal activities and the occupation of public facilities and roads, and seas, all acts of human rights violations,” Zhang added.

The adopted resolution, put in final form late Thursday, makes no mention of China’s call for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to discuss with various parties possibly establishing “a multinational police unit” to help Haitian police tackle gang violence.

Instead, it asks Guterres to consult with Haiti’s government, “relevant countries” and regional organizations on “possible options for enhanced security support … to combat high levels of gang violence” and to submit a report by Oct. 15.

The resolution adopted Friday retained the original U.S.-Mexico draft's call for beefing up the U.N. mission to include up to 42 police and corrections department advisers, led by a U.N. police commissioner, and staff to ensure that sexual and gender-based violence are addressed.

When the current resolution extending the U.N. mission was adopted in October, Haiti had been contending with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last July, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that killed over 2,200 people in August, and escalating gang-related killings, kidnappings and turf wars.

A year after Moïse’s assassination, gang violence is even worse, and Haiti has gone into a freefall that has seen the economy tumble and many Haitians flee the country to escape the turmoil. At the same time, attempts to form a coalition government have faltered, and efforts to hold general elections have stalled.

This week, officials in Haiti’s capital reported that dozens of people had died as a result of days of fighting between rival gangs in the violent Cite Soleil neighborhood. Doctors Without Borders said thousands of people were trapped in the district without drinking water, food and medical care.

The resolution approved Friday expresses “grave concern about the extremely high levels of gang violence and other criminal activities, including kidnappings and homicides, and sexual and gender-based violence, as well as ongoing impunity for perpetrators, and the implications of Haiti’s situation in the region.”

It notes “with deep concern the protracted and deteriorating political, economic, security, human rights and food security crisis in Haiti.”

The resolution urges the government to strengthen the rule of law, tackle social and economic problems, initiate violence reduction programs, singling out the need to target sexual violence and manage weapons and ammunition. It also calls for the illicit trafficking and diversion of arms and illicit financial flows to be urgently addressed.

The United Nations has been involved in Haiti on and off since 1990, and the last U.N. peacekeeping mission was in the country from 2004 until October 2017. The political mission now there advises Haiti’s government on “promoting and strengthening political stability and good governance,” including the implementing the rule of law, inclusive national dialogue and protecting and protection of human rights.