News

Colombia: Colombians Have for Years Grown Amazing Coffee. Finally, They’re Drinking It.

Oct 22, 2017 | Anthony Faiola, Washington Post

Globalization is changing that — specifically a wave of well-traveled Colombian entrepreneurs who, along with a number of foreign investors, are upping the quality of…

Iraq/Kurdistan: Iraq Increases Oil Exports from South by 200,000 bpd to Make up for Kirkuk Fields Shortfall

Oct 21, 2017 | Reuters

Iraq increased on Saturday oil exports from the southern Basra region by 200,000 barrels per day, to make up for a shortfall from the northern…

Colombia’s Frontlines of the Drug War: Cauca

Oct 20, 2017 | Adriaan Alsema

Colombian authorities are combating cocaine production in some of the most remote regions. Cauca is one of the long-neglected areas where the drug trade has fueled political…

Who is Behind the Recent Rise of Genetically Modified Poppy in Afghanistan?

Oct 20, 2017 | Irfan Takalvi

During the past two to two and half decades Afghanistan, under various regimes that controlled parts of the country, poppy has globally been highlighted as…

The Environmental Consequences of the Use of Armed Drones

Oct 20, 2017 | Doug Weir

To date, debate over the implications of the growing use of armed drones has focused on human rights, on the expansion of the use of…

Hazardous Legacies: An Open-Source Overview of the Destruction of Deir ez-Zor’s Oil Industry

Oct 20, 2017 | Wim Zwijnenburg

Now that the so-called Islamic State (IS) is rapidly losing terrain in eastern Syria, a race is underway to capture the oil-rich Deir ez-Zor governorate.…

Yemen: Program Coordinator

Oct 20, 2017 | Solidarités International

Solidarités International is committed to working to implement a clear mandate by helping men, women and children who are hit by war, epidemics and natural disasters,…

Iraq: Food Security and Livelihoods

Oct 20, 2017 | Solidarités International

Solidarités International is committed to working to implement a clear mandate by helping men, women and children who are hit by war, epidemics and natural disasters,…

Jordan: Programme Associate (Geographic Information System & Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping) G6

Oct 20, 2017 | World Food Programme

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.  The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero…

Jordan: Food Security Analyst

Oct 20, 2017 | iMMAP

iMMAP is a pioneering humanitarian organization that is leading the way forward in the effective use of information management practices and principles in the service…

Afghanistan: Agriculture Fair Held in Afghanistan to Promote Production, Investment

Oct 20, 2017 | Farid Behbud, Xinhua

Hundreds of people have visited the agriculture fair held at Badam Bagh, the biggest agricultural products and handicrafts farm in the Afghan capital. The farm, with…

Iraq/Kurdistan/Russia: Russia's Rosneft to Take Controlling Stake of Iraqi Kurdish Oil Pipeline

Oct 20, 2017 | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Russia's state-owned Rosneft oil company says it has agreed with the government of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region to take a controlling stake in the region's…

Myanmar: Five Dead after Myanmar Police Clash with Jade Scavengers

Oct 20, 2017 | Agence France-Presse

At least five people were killed and 20 injured after Myanmar police opened fire on an armed mob of jade seekers that tried to enter…

Colombia: Peace Gives Colombian Coffee an Extra Shot

Oct 19, 2017 | Marcy Nicholson, Retuers

Farmers who fled war in the Colombian Andes are returning to revive their abandoned land, cultivating coffee trees that are boosting global supplies of the…

Iraq: Iraq Oil Ministry Warns Oil Companies against Kurdistan Contracts

Oct 19, 2017 | Reuters

Iraq’s oil ministry on Thursday cautioned oil companies against signing contracts with Iraqi Kurdistan. On Wednesday Russian state-controlled oil company Rosneft signed an agreement to put…

Iraq/Kurdistan: Iraq's Oil Exports via Turkey Dwindle as Kirkuk Fields Stay Shut

Oct 19, 2017 | Khalid Al Ansary, Julian Lee, and Elena Mazneva, Bloomberg

Crude exports from northern Iraq fell again, and output remained curtailed in the nation’s disputed Kirkuk province. Oil Ministry engineers worked to replace computers and other…

Myanmar’s Evolving Maritime Security Landscape

Oct 18, 2017 | Rajni Gamage

Myanmar links South and Southeast Asia and lies on maritime shipping routes from the Indian and Pacific Oceans. A key pillar of its national development…

Climate Change, Food Security and Sustaining Peace

Oct 18, 2017 | Florian Krampe

‘We have succeeded at keeping famine at bay, we have not kept suffering at bay’, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres while briefing members of the…

Iraq/Kurdistan: Iraq Turmoil Threatens Billions in Oil Traders' Kurd Deals

Oct 18, 2017 | Javier Blas, Bloomberg

The crisis unfolding around the Iraqi city of Kirkuk has left some of the world’s largest commodity trading houses worried the country’s autonomous Kurdish region…

Somalia: Grim Milestone: Somalia Drought and Conflict Forces One Million People to Flee

Oct 18, 2017 | Norwegian Refugee Council

Dry rural communities across Somalia have nearly turned into ghost towns, as crops failed, livestock died and families fled in droves after they ran out…

Sudan: AfDB Commits to Help Sudan Build Resilience and Tackle Fragility

Oct 18, 2017 | African Development Bank

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) on Wednesday, 18 October 2017 approved Sudan’s Country Brief 2017-2019, designed to help the…

Could Oil Bring the World to Finally Support the Kurds?

Oct 17, 2017 | Ellen R. Wald

One month after the KRG voted in favor of a referendum to seek independence from Iraq, Baghdad finally responded. In the early morning hours of…

The Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: Assisting Victims and Remediating the Environment

Oct 17, 2017 | Elizabeth Minor

In a remarkable achievement this summer, States concluded negotiations on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Having opened for signature in September, the TPNW…

Myanmar: EITI Report to Include Forest Sector

Oct 17, 2017 | Myat Moe Aung, Myanmar Times

The forest sector will be covered independently in a report for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) this year, said an official of the forestry department…

Iraq/Kurdistan: Iraqi Forces Retake All Oil Fields in Disputed Areas as Kurds Retreat

Oct 17, 2017 | David Zucchino, New York Times

Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq surrendered all disputed oil fields to Iraq’s military on Tuesday, retreating in the face of overwhelming force that appeared to halt,…

Liberia: Ellen Relaxes Regulatory Mandates

Oct 17, 2017 | New Dawn

President Ellen Johnson - Sirleaf has issued Executive Order No. 89, instituting policy measures to stimulate economic growth by reducing administrative and business process requirements…

Sierra Leone: Egg-Sized Diamond for Sale: Proceeds to Benefit Sierra Leone's Poorest

Oct 17, 2017 | Nellie Peyton, Reuters

Sierra Leone will auction one of the world’s largest diamonds to fund development projects in the impoverished community where it was found, the group managing…

Iraq/Kurdistan: Iraq Takes Oil Fields from the Kurds, but the Conflict Still Threatens Crude Flows

Oct 17, 2017 | Tom DiChristopher, CNBC

The Iraqi national army swiftly took control of oil fields in disputed territory on Monday and Tuesday, largely avoiding clashes with Kurdish forces, news reports…

Climate Change Did Not Cause Syrian War

Oct 16, 2017 | Tim Radford

LONDON, 11 October, 2017 – Climate change in the form of sustained drought is not to blame for the bloody and prolonged conflict in Syria, according to a…

Indigenous Resistance: My Fight for Land and Life in Colombia

Oct 16, 2017 | Angelica Ortiz

My name is Angelica Ortiz. I am a Wayuu woman from the Ipuana clan of the Lomomato indigenous reserve in La Guajira, Colombia. I am…