Photo source: The Print By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront It was in October 2019 when the federal Indian government, alongside state governments of Tripura and Mizoram, began its nine attempt to repatriate more than thirty thousand internally displaced people of the Bru community of Mizoram from six relief camps in north Tripura, where they have been living for almost two decades now. This attempt also led to futility as only a few hundred people returned to Mizoram so far, despite the central government announcing cash doles, and land allocations. After that, the Indian government tried to settle their issue again. In fact, the federal government, alongside the governments of Tripura and Mizoram, had been trying to repatriate them to their home state over the past decade, but with little success. It is because many Brus cited security concerns and were unhappy with an inadequate rehabilitation package. The first attempt to repatriate the Brus from Tripura was made in Novemb...

  Photo source: Guardian By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront There has been a wave of killings in the western Darfur region of Sudan, where around one hundred sixty-five people were dead in April 2022. It led to the displacement of a hundred thousand people, which has been a cause of great concern. The human rights situation in Darfur is ugly and goes back  long. Al-Bashir, who has been in prison in Khartoum since he was overthrown in 2019, was indicted more than ten years ago by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity perpetrated in Darfur. Although attacks in Darfur have intensified since 2019, this time around war spread out beyond communal militias into a wider battle between rebel groups, soldiers, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Amid a global funding crunch for aid agencies, it has been hard for aid workers to alleviate the suffering. According to Jairo Gonzales, deputy operations manager in East Africa for Medecins ...

  Photo source: Anadolu Agency By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront It was in October 2020 when, unpredictably, a ceasefire of sorts, happened inside Libya. It then steered the way for a broad-based political spectrum sponsored by the United Nations in November 2020. The dialogue had managed to appoint a prime minister and a three-member political council, with a planned election in December 2021. However, the election has got delayed due to Haftar’s western Libya campaign. There also have been deep disagreements over polls' legal basis, and rival political centres in the east and west of the country. The disagreements are mainly based on the designation of headquarters, distribution of seats for both chambers, and division of responsibilities between the prime minister, president, cabinet and local government. The crises have continued in the form of oil wars, too. There has been an internal blockade which has slashed the output since April 2022. Crude pipelines, refineries, and...

  Photo source: NS Energy By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Due to the demarcation of land and sea borders, Israel and Lebanon have had long-standing disputes. It was in 2010 when off the coast of northern Israel two gas fields were found, holding as much as 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 34.5 trillion cubic meters of gas, putting the spotlight on the stretch of the eastern Mediterranean. In October 2020, the US eventually brought Lebanese and Israeli officials to Nakoura, a city in southern Lebanon near Rosh Hanikra for negotiations on the maritime border. Israel, in the past, had agreed to split the area 58:42 in favour of Lebanon. This concession would have in fact helped Lebanon to start drilling for gas as soon as possible, but it soon went into tatters, when Lebanon sharply increased its demands after four rounds of talks mediated by the United States, increasing the disputed area which include the northern end of Karish natural gas field. At the same time, I...