Summary: the Saudi response to an influx of Ethiopian migrants has been to launch a brutal campaign of mass murder, rape and torture driving migrants who survive back into Yemen where they face further atrocities from all sides in the Yemen conflict.
Summary: the war and the humanitarian disaster it has caused have received intermittent coverage but the story of Yemen’s 4.3 million IDPs has been virtually ignored.
Summary: the murder of a female intelligence officer has brought fragile Somalia to the brink of state collapse.
Summary: Ethiopia will soon begin the second filling of the reservoir behind its huge dam on the Blue Nile, with no agreement with Egypt and Sudan in place (or in prospect).
Summary: after decades when very little happened, climate change has pushed a massive project to halt Sahelian desertification to the top of the priority list with Mauritania playing a lead role.
Summary: an ineffectual UN effort, a derelict oil tanker, an ongoing war, Covid-19, acute food insecurity – the stark tragedy of Yemen in the summer of 2020.
Summary: battered by Houthi missile strikes, a resurging coronavirus and a low oil price, Saudi Arabia dramatically reduces the scale of the Hajj.
Summary: The United Arab Emirates already has a string of ports in the Horn of Africa running along the Red Sea; it aspires to add another in Sudan.
Summary: the UN-backed ceasefire in Hudaida continues, but progress is slow.
Summary: huge decline since 1990 in FGM in Africa where it is most prevalent. Information about the Middle East remains scanty.
