Somalia s Puntland moves to ban female genital mutilation reuters.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from reuters.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Ravenous pests are on the march to colder regions as climate change lures crop eaters to new territories, threatening jobs and exacerbating world hunger, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
From fall armyworms to desert locusts, the pests mostly menace crops in hot countries but the rise in world temperatures was now fanning their expansion, the U.N. said, with all the risks that entails for farmers and their families.
“The impact of climate change is one of the greatest challenges the plant health community is facing,” Qu Dongyu, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, said after releasing a study covering 15 invasive pests and diseases.
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NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenya’s president pledged millions of dollars in state funds on Friday to help tackle a surge in gender-based violence during the pandemic, outlining plans to open women’s shelters across the country and improve policing.
Uhuru Kenyatta said crime statistics showed cases involving violence against women had almost doubled between January and June 2020 compared with the previous year.
“Lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemic’s social and economic impacts have increased exposure of women to physical, sexual and psychological violence, while at the same time limited their access to protective and recovery services,” Kenyatta told a conference on gender equality.
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NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Major foreign aid donors called on Ghana on Tuesday to respect LGBT+ rights following a crackdown including arrests of people from sexual minorities and an increase in homophobic persecution.
In the latest incident, police in the West African country arrested 21 people last week for promoting LGBT+ rights during a training workshop at a hotel in Ghana’s southeastern city of Ho.
The United States and the World Bank told the Thomson Reuters Foundation they were closely watching the situation in the country, where gay sex is punishable with up to three years in jail.