Musings From Abroad

Desertification in focus as 15th UN Conference of Parties ends in Ivory Coast

Published

3 years ago

May 21, 2022

The fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has ended in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The edition which was against desertification ended with 38 decisions adopted to invest in land restoration and drought mitigation.

The conference was attended by leaders from governments, the private sector, and civil society with a target of finding sustainable solutions for land restoration.

The COP is the supreme decision-making body of the UN Convention. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP, at which they review the implementation of the Convention.

The Executive Secretary, Ibrahim Thiaw of the COP stressed the need for effective steps to prevent continued land degradation.

“Beyond the technical terms and discussions, all is really about life. It’s about our well-being. Knowing that 40% of the planet’s land surface is already damaged by human activity, I think, calls for action. So this COP is also a call to action on two major issues: land restoration and drought.” The Secretary remarked.

Climate activist, Jean Claude Brou, argued that the effect of land degradation is telling on agriculture performance of the world and Africa particularly.

“The farmers experience the reality of land degradation, they are the ones battling it on all fronts, the farmers know this reality. The farmers are the ones who know the reality of the situation in the forests. They’re organized in groups and could have been invited! Instead, administrators, committees, or agricultural organizations, attended, I do not agree with that.”

According to a policy brief (Pdf) published by the African Group of Negotiators Support, Land degradation is rampant in Africa, accounting for 46% of the total land area. At the current pace, it is projected to render more than half of the cultivated land in Africa unusable by 2050.

The 196 Parties that made the conference, pledged to boost drought resilience and invest in land restoration for prosperity in the future. 38 decisions were adopted with more robust monitoring and data to track progress against land restoration commitments.

It was also noted that new political and financial impetus to help nations deal with the devastating impacts of drought and build resilience.

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Musings From Abroad

Finnish court imprisons Nigeria’s Simon Ekpa for aiding terrorism

Published

13 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian separatist leader based abroad, has been placed under detention by the Päijät Häme District Court in Finland on suspicion of inciting others to commit acts of terrorism.

According to the local daily, Helsingin Sanomat, the court rendered the ruling on Thursday following his arraignment by the Central Criminal Police for his involvement in the terror attacks that have afflicted the southeast area of Nigeria.

“The police suspect that the man has promoted his efforts from Finland with means that have led to violence against civilians in the region of South-Eastern Nigeria,” stated Otto Hiltunen, the crime commissioner and investigation head.

“The man has carried out his activity, among other things, on his social media channels.”

Hiltunen also informed the court that the police suspected four additional individuals in Finland of funding Ekpa’s activities.

According to the story, Ekpa is of Nigerian descent and was born in the Finnish city of Lahti.

His offence occurred between August 23, 2021, and November 18, 2024, according to court documents cited in the publication.

Ekpa is not the only person the police have arrested. In February 2023, they caught him at a private Lahtian flat, but he was freed the same day.

Through the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, Ekpa has continued to be outspoken on social media, raising money and agitating for a Biafran nation to secede. In the southeast part of Nigeria, both factions have been involved in acts of violence, murders, and maimings.

Since gaining formal independence in 1960, Nigeria has seen the emergence of several separatist organisations. The latest surge of calls for self-determination among different ethnic groups has been louder under its immediate previous President Muhammadu Buhari.

Musings From Abroad

Malian singer Rokia Traore arrested in Italy, to be sent to Belgium

Published

1 day ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

After Italy’s top court denied her appeal, well-known Malian singer, Rokia Traore, who was detained in Rome in June due to a global child custody dispute, will be sent over to Belgium in the next few days, her attorney announced on Wednesday.

The 50-year-old Traore is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and one of Africa’s most well-known vocalists.

“Rokia suffered an injustice. She was arrested without the Belgian criminal court hearing her voice. Now, the battle for Rokia’s rights moves to Brussels,” lawyer Maddalena Del Re said in a statement to Reuters.

The attorney also stated that in its decision late Tuesday, Italy’s Court of Cassation upheld an extradition decision from the European Court of Justice.

Under a European arrest order, Traore was taken into custody on June 20 at the Fiumicino airport in Rome. In October 2023, she was given a two-year prison sentence in Belgium related to a dispute over her daughter’s custody.

She had flown to perform outside Rome’s Colosseum, and she has been imprisoned in Civitavecchia, close to the Italian city, since her detention at Fiumicino.

Lawyer Del Re said that because a conviction was rendered without the defendant’s presence, the Belgian process goes against both international norms and Italian constitutional standards.

After she disregarded a court order to turn over her baby to her Belgian father, the singer’s divorced ex-partner, she was initially taken into custody in France in 2020 on a Belgian arrest warrant.

She disobeyed orders not to leave France until her extradition case was handled by taking a private jet to Mali months after being conditionally released. Mali is where her daughter resides.