International


Iraq: Daesh Militants Attack Oilfield in Iraq's Kirkuk

Aug 15, 2021 | Middle East Monitor

Suspected Daesh militants used an explosive device to attack an oilfield in Iraq's northern Kirkuk province on Sunday, according to a local police officer, reports…


China/Iraq: Projects: China's CNOOC to Drill 150 Oil Wells in Iraq

Aug 15, 2021 | ZAWYA

Iraq has inked an initial agreement with China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to drill 150 wells in Buzurgan oilfield in the Southeastern Maysan Governorate, the…


Afghanistan: Profits and Poppy: Afghanistan's Illegal Drug Trade a Boon for Taliban

Aug 15, 2021 | Jonathan Landay, Reuters

The United States spent more than $8 billion over 15 years on efforts to deprive the Taliban of their profits from Afghanistan's opium and heroin…


Iraq/Kurdistan: Attack on Power Grid Shuts Down Major Water Pumping Station in Iraqi Capital

Aug 14, 2021 | Kurdistan 24

Iraqi electricity towers were taken offline on Saturday after an attack, shutting down pumping stations delivering water to the western part of Baghdad, a government…


Afghanistan: Will Afghanistan’s Centuries-Old ‘Karez’ System of Irrigation Survive the Taliban

Aug 13, 2021 | Rajat Ghai, DownToEarth

The resurgent Taliban is on the victory march to Kabul. It has already taken provincial capitals as well as Afghanistan’s third-largest city of Herat. As…


Israel/Palestine: UK Palestinian Justice Centre Defends Gallery Exhibit on Israel-Palestine Conflict

Aug 13, 2021 | Middle East Eye

A Palestinian legal centre in the UK has defended an art gallery in Manchester for displaying an exhibition highlighting the environmental effects of Israeli military…


Afghanistan: Taliban Earned $1.6 Billion In 2020: Here's How the Terrorist Group Makes Money

Aug 12, 2021 | Renz Soliman, International Business Times

The Taliban, one of the most notorious terrorist groups worldwide, has grown its financial assets through the years. The militant group earned $1.6 billion in 2020, which significantly…


Climate Change: Climate Change Is Already Disrupting the Military. It Will Get Worse, Officials Say

Aug 10, 2021 | Patrick Tucker, Defense One

The Pentagon is in the midst of a massive, multi-year effort to better adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse emissions. But the changing climate…


Ethiopia: Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project and Political Conflict

Aug 10, 2021 | Borgen Magazine

In 2011, Ethiopia started construction on a dam along the Blue Nile River that the government coined the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project, GERD. Projections…


South Africa: Women Miners in South Africa Break Barriers with Mentors' Help

Aug 9, 2021 | Linda Givetash and Zaheer Cassim

The mining industry has long been one of South Africa’s largest sectors, but women are still a minority in its workforce. Now, a group called…


Liberia: Victims of Liberian Gold Mine Disaster See Groundbreaking Complaint against Development Banks Accepted

Aug 9, 2021 | Global News Network

In a precedent-setting case, more than 10,000 people harmed by the New Liberty Gold Mine in Liberia have had a complaint accepted against the German…


Iraq/Kurdistan: Iraq, Kurdistan Region Look to Resolve Long-Standing Oil Dispute

Aug 9, 2021 | Charles Kennedy, Oilprice.com

The federal government of Iraq and the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan pledged on Sunday to cooperate in resolving their differences in energy issues, hoping to…


Afghanistan: Afghanistan’s $1000 Billion Worth of Natural Assets in Taliban’s Custody

Aug 6, 2021 | Najibullah Lalzoy, Khaama Press

Afghanistan is rich geography when it comes to mines and natural resources. Some of these mines are ready to be excavated while others are being…


Afghanistan: Drought Compounds Humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan as Conflict Intensifies

Aug 6, 2021 | Kanupriya Kapoor, Reuters

Millions of Afghans are struggling to put food on the table as prolonged drought disrupts supplies in a country reeling from a surge in violence…


Afghanistan: Afghan Troops Foil Another Attack on India-Built Salma Dam

Aug 5, 2021 | Rezaul H Laskar, Hindustan Times

Afghan security forces have thwarted a Taliban attack on the India-built Salma Dam in Afghanistan’s Herat province, the third such assault since last month on…


Liberia: Port Authority Head in Dispute with River Cess Community over Customary Land

Aug 5, 2021 | Eric Doue, Bush Chicken

For months, residents in this area of Gbarsaw Clan have watched with increasing alarm as hundreds of men with heavy machinery have cut down trees…


DRC/Rwanda: How ‘Blood Mineral’ Traders in Rwanda Are Helping Fund Congo Rebels – and Undermining Global Supply Chains

Aug 4, 2021 | Geoffrey York and Judi Rever, Globe and Mail

New evidence from a United Nations report and a high-profile The investor arbitration case is shedding a spotlight on Rwanda’s role in the sophisticated smuggling…


Food Security: A Widespread Famine Accelerated by Floods, Droughts — and Guns

Aug 3, 2021 | Thalif Deen, InDepthNews

A recent joint press release by the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization had an arresting headline: Famine Relief Blocked by Bullets,…


Myanmar: ‘Weapons, Power and Money’: How Rare Earth Mining in Kachin Enriches a Tatmadaw Ally

Aug 3, 2021 | Juaman Naw, Emily Fishbein, and Ronja Pilgaard, Frontier Myanmar

The leader of a Tatmadaw-controlled Border Guard Force in a remote region of Kachin State has emerged as a key player in the global rare…


Climate Change: Is Climate Change Heating up Central Asia’s Border Disputes? Clues from Satellite Imagery

Aug 2, 2021 | Bellingcat

In late April, dozens were killed, hundreds were injured and thousands of civilians fled their homes during border clashes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It was…


Afghanistan: China and India Wrestle over Afghanistan's Mineral Resources

Aug 1, 2021 | Florence Jenikns, Germany Eye

The promising, threatening and haggling have begun. Americans and Europeans have packed their weapons and left, and now ministers and diplomats from neighboring countries are…


How Drones Are Impacting Land Mine Reduction Globally

Aug 1, 2021 | sUAS News

In late November 2019, the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining organized the “Mine Action Technology Workshop,” where Humanity & Inclusion and Mobility Robotics presented data to…


DRC: Hard to Breathe: Gold Mining Damages Miners, Forests

Jul 31, 2021 | Noella Nyirabihogo, Global Press Journal

Mining has ravaged the soil that locals had used to farm. So instead, they join the hunt for gold. And the consequences continue to mount…


Mali: Building Resilience to Conflict and Climate Change in Mali

Jul 30, 2021 | People in Need

Rising temperatures, coupled with decreases in annual rainfall, granivorous bird attacks, armed conflict between the Malian Armed Forces and radical jihadists groups, the COVID-19 pandemic,…


Afghanistan: Afghan Gov't to Build 1,000 Greenhouses

Jul 29, 2021 | Xinhua

Afghanistan's Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock has said that plans are underway to construct 1,000 greenhouses in different provinces of the conflict-battered country.


Iran: Is Iran on the Verge of Sparking a Water War?

Jul 29, 2021 | The Week

Years of mismanagement has left Iran facing “irreversible” water shortages that threaten to trigger conflict across the Middle East, an exiled former minister has warned.


Afghanistan: Afghan Taliban: Floods Kill 150 People in Northern Nuristan Province

Jul 29, 2021 | TRT World

At least 100 homes destroyed in Taliban-controlled area, say government officials with limited access, after flash floods wash away homes, burying villagers in mud and…


2021 Risk Award Recognizes Vietnamese Women Fighting Climate Change

Jul 28, 2021 | UNDRR

A mangrove restoration project in Vietnam which combines building the resilience of a disaster-prone coastal community with risk-themed theatre was announced today as the winner…


Yemen: Conflict and Economic Collapse in War-Torn Yemen Worsening Hunger Crisis

Jul 28, 2021 | Lisa Schlein, Voice of America

The World Food Program warns Yemen's already alarming hunger crisis is worsening due to ongoing conflict and a rapidly declining economy that are sending food…


Iraq/Kuwait: UN Panel Pays $600M to Kuwait Oil Firm for Invasion by Iraq

Jul 27, 2021 | Associated Press

A United Nations panel paid out $600 million to Kuwait’s national oil company Tuesday as compensation for Iraq’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait three decades…