Photo source: Al-Monitor  By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Israel’s observer status inside African Union granted in July 2021 has split many political institutions in the continent. An observer status for Israel gives them the privilege to participate in the organisation’s activities, but they don’t have the ability to vote or propose resolutions, showing that an observer status gives limited rights. However, through it, Israel will fine-tune its diplomatic relations in the continent. The consequences of recognising Israel could be as important as the 1975 Resolution 77 (XII) by the Organisation of African Unity, the predecessor of the African Union, which recognised Zionism as a form of racism.  Historically, many experiences between Africans and Palestinians converged, as they saw liberation struggles in lieu of Western imperialism. This can be explained in the wording of the above-mentioned Resolution 77 (XII), which equated between 'the racist regime in occupi...

Photo Source: Wall Street Journal By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Up Front In the fertile Middle Belt of Nigeria, Benue State has long been celebrated as the nation’s food basket, yet it has also become the epicentre of one of Africa’s most troubling internal conflicts. Within the village of Aya Mbalom, Christian farmers and Muslim Fulani herdsmen once lived in relative harmony, their livelihoods tied to the land and its rhythms. That fragile coexistence has unravelled in recent years, replaced by violence, displacement, and destruction. The April 2018 attack on St Ignatius Catholic Church, where gunmen killed two priests and at least seventeen worshippers, marked a grim turning point. Reuters and Premium Times reported the incident as part of a wider wave of assaults across Benue, underscoring the vulnerability of rural communities. Joe Parkinson of the Wall Street Journal later described Nigeria’s farmer–herder clashes as cumulatively more lethal than Boko Haram’s insurgency, ...

Photo Source: CNN.com By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront The Democratic Republic of Congo had one of the largest number of people displaced, in 2016. A report by the International Displacement Monitoring Centre, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, puts it around 922,000 in 2016. This figure was more than that of Syrian and Iraqi refugees within the same year. According to Global Conflict Tracker, as of February 2018, there have been up to 4.1 million internally displaced people, and there is a presence of around 21,000 UN soldiers, in the DRC. In 2017, around 120,000 DRC Congolese, fled to neighbouring countries. Since the beginning of 2018, around 22,000 DRC Congolese crossed to Lake Albert to Uganda, bringing the total number of DRC Congolese refugees to 34,000 this year. The refugees, along with their luggage and fishing nets, use canoes or overcrowded fishing boats, often carrying around 250 people on an average. The journey takes them up to ten hours. Since December 2017, t...

Photo Source: Google By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Up Front T he foreboding events of genocide compelled eighty thousand South Sudanese, to leave their homes, beginning 2013. The refugee population, has made Sudan the second largest host of South Sudanese, in the region. Since the eruption of civil war in 2013, peace has remained absent for over five years. Various forces in the region have been accused of killing villagers, burning homes and stealing food. The Bentiu massacre in 2013 was regarded by The Economist as the worst massacre in the civil war. Since then, six more major war offensives have happened in South Sudan. The journalists have often observed the buildings in various South Sudan cities without iron roofs. The doors and windows of these homes have often been taken away by the looters for their own means. Humanitarian aid groups have estimated that around $1.72 billion is required to save the 5.1 million population. Save The Children, a UK non-profi...

By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront T he  international demand for cocoa has risen in recent years.  As there  is  low supply and high demand, there had been a price rise and the scenario forced many cocoa beans grinding units to close their operations. The price of cocoa has increased up due to Ebola crises and weather conditions such as El Nino when ocean temperatures rise in the eastern Pacific. However, since last year, there seems to be a slump in the cocoa prices. Countries such as the Ivory Coast have been heavily dependent on cocoa production. It produces world’s 40 percent of cocoa. Around 7 million people are associated with the industry. Big companies such as  Mars, The Hershey Company and Nestle mostly use Ivorian cocoa for the production of their chocolate and have been expanding into the region Around 34,000 hectares of land have been destroyed by the farmers in Ivory Coast because they are planning to ma...

Source: Internet By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront President Robert Mugabe, the self-styled ‘grand old man’ of Zimbabwe was forced to resign after 37 years in power under pressure from the army and ruling ZANU-PF party in the November 2017 coup d'etat. As an incentive for his political retirement, he and his wife will receive millions of dollars, as a 'golden handshake'. He also has been granted immunity from prosecution. When a caravan of armour vehicles was spotted by journalists two weeks back in November 2017, it seemed that a coup against the former President was in the offing. This nonagenarian leader at 93 has been the longest-serving leader in Africa and is often called as Zimbabwe’s Gaddafi. He had been dismissed because he was believed to have lead the collapse of the economy and instigating heightened repression and poverty. It also seemed that his resignation on public TV was because of succumbing to pressure, pitted by some powerful public organi...

Photo Source: World News Links By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront S aif al Islam, late  Muammar Gaddafi’s son,  is likely to re-emerge in the Libyan political scene that appears fractured. A militia group based in the Libyan city of Zintan has set him free since June 2017. Saif al Islam had been released under ‘General Amnesty Law’ passed by the Libyan House of Representatives. At this juncture, it will be crucial to ponder on his intents. He wants to initiate a peace mission, but international law has a different story to tell about his past political actions. In 2011, he had quelled a rebellion against the ruling regime of his father. Before the 2011 civil war, he was believed to be a moderate, unlike his deceased father.                A court in Tripoli has sentenced him to death in absentia two years back. He had been facing an arrest warrant from the International C...