CounterVortex

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: UN decries restrictions on women’s rights

A United Nations report found that the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s attire and its requirement that women have a male guardian in public are limiting Afghan women’s freedom of movement and access to education, employment, health care and other basic rights. The report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) states that many Afghan women are not leaving their homes alone due to decrees issued by the Taliban. The hardline Islamist regime has demanded women wear specific attire in public, such as the all-covering burqa, and only venture outside if accompanied by a close male relative, known as a mahram. (Photo: 12019/Pixabay via Jurist)

South Asia

Farmers’ march on Delhi met with repression

Amnesty International released a statement decrying the Indian government’s disproportionate restrictions on the right to peaceful protest instated to quell the “Dilli Chalo” (on to Delhi) farmers protest. In response to farmers’ cross-country mobilization to protest agricultural policies, Indian authorities imposed limitations on group gatherings, erected barricades along the route of the march, and used tear-gas and rubber bullets against the farmers. (Photo: Ravan Khosa via Wikimedia Commons)

Africa

Conflict lingers in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado

Mozambique’s military said last year that more than 90% of northern Cabo Delgado province had been secured from ISIS-affiliated insurgents known locally as al-Shabab—yet ongoing attacks indicate that the conflict is far from over. After seizing a strategic village last month, jihadists killed more than 20 soldiers in a battle this month. Cases of beheadings, kidnappings, and ambushes are still being reported by conflict monitors, even as a regional military intervention force is set to end its three-year mission. (Map via Moscow Times)

Palestine

Podcast: for Palestinian-Uyghur solidarity

In Episode 213 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg notes how divergent responses to the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians and mass internment of the Uyghurs reveal the West’s shifting definition of genocide. Tragically, elements of the Palestinian leadership merely reverse the double standard, causing elements of the exiled Uyghur leadership to balk at supporting the Palestinians. Yet another example of how a global divide-and-rule racket is the essence of the state system. Illustrating the irony, the same corporate nexus is involved in putting in place the surveillance state that monitors the Uyghurs for China and the Palestinians for Israel. Fortunately, principled voices of dissent among both the Palestinians and the Uyghurs are calling for Palestinian-Uyghur solidarity. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image: Hasbi Sahin & Tatohra/Shutterstock via Islam21c)

Africa

Russia creates new Africa Corps

Following the death of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian ministries of defense and foreign affairs quickly moved to reassure African client states that business as usual would continue—meaning that Moscow’s unofficial boots on the ground would keep operating in these countries. Now reports indicate a transformation, with Wagner’s estimated force of 5,000 troops—deployed from the Sahel to Libya to Sudan—to be brought under Defense Ministry command as a new Africa Corps. (Photo: Russian mercenaries in the Central African Republic. Credit: Corbeau News Centrafrique via Wikipedia)

Afghanistan

China moves toward recognition of Taliban regime

Chinese President Xi Jinping officially accepted the credentials of the envoy to Beijing from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan—a clear step toward recognition of the regime. A month before that, Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, visited Kabul to meet with Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi—the highest-level meeting between China and the Taliban regime since its return to power in 2021. China has already struck hydrocarbon deals with the Taliban, and has been eyeing Afghanistan’s lithium, copper and rare-earth metal mines. This is in line with Beijing’s perceived design to establish control over the planet’s rare earth minerals. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)

Africa

DRC: M23 advancing on Goma —again

The M23 insurgency in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is intensifying once again. Some 150,000 people have been displaced over the past days, adding to the 1.5 million already uprooted by the fighting, which began in late 2021. The latest clashes are taking place close to Goma, a city of 2 million people and a hub for humanitarian aid operations in the east. The M23 says it is not planning on seizing the city (as it last did in 2012), but its forces have fired rockets into the city. Soldiers from a recently deployed Southern African Development Community (SADC) intervention force have entered the battlefield on the side of the Congolese army, which is also supported by local militia. (Map: CIA)

Europe

Antifa march against Budapest Nazi-nostalgia fest

Anti-fascist protestors marched in Budapest in response to a previously banned right-wing gathering to commemorate the so-called “Day of Honor”—when German and Hungarian soldiers made a last stand against the Soviet forces besieging the city in 1945. Activists travelled from across Europe to take part in the protest against the event, which similarly drew far-right adherents from across the continent. The dueling rallies came amid diplomatic tensions between Budapest and Rome, as an Italian anti-fascist arrested at last year’s protest against the “Day of Honor” remains imprisoned in Hungary, potentially facing a lengthy term. (Banner reads: “Stop the idolization of fascism! Whether in Budapest, Dresden, Pliberk, Riga or Sofia.” Photo via Twitter)

Southeast Asia

Thailand: southern insurgency accepts peace plan

Muslim separatists in Thailand’s Deep South agreed in principle to an “improved” peace plan with the government. The agreement, facilitated by Malaysia, follows years of abortive talks. The Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), the main separatist organization, announced a unilateral ceasefire in 2020 in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. More than 7,000 people have been killed in 20 years of intermittent fighting between government forces and separatists in the country’s three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, whose populations are overwhelmingly Malay Muslim. (Map: Wikipedia)

Palestine

Netanyahu orders ‘evacuation’ of southern Gaza

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to draw up plans for the “evacuation” of Palestinians from Rafah in southern Gaza as it prepares to launch a full-scale assault on the area. Where people would be evacuated to—and how—remains unclear. Over one million Palestinians forcibly displaced by Israel’s military campaign—now entering its fifth month—have been pushed into Rafah. Aid groups warn that there is nowhere left for people to flee to. People in Rafah are already experiencing disease and starvation, and aid operations are struggling to meet even basic needs. A ground invasion would “exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. (Photo: Yousef Hammash/NRC)

Greater Middle East

Podcast: Iraq, Palestine, escalation and errata

In Episode 212 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes stock of the latest escalation in the Middle East—and continues to note discrepancies in the reportage. US air-strikes on Iraq are said to have targeted the self-declared Islamic Resistance in Iraq, and its constituent militias such as Kataib Hezbollah. But some reports indicate the actual target has often been the Popular Mobilization Forces, a paramilitary network integrated into Iraq’s official security services. Meanwhile, insufficiently noted media accounts report “no evidence” to back up Israeli claims of Hamas co-optation of UNWRA, which has led to a devastating cut-off of funds to the UN agency by the Western powers. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image: Pixabay)

Africa

Ethiopian regions battle starvation

Nearly 400 people have died of starvation in Ethiopia’s Tigray and Amhara regions in recent months, according to the national ombudsman. This is a rare admission of hunger-related deaths by a federal body—the government normally dismisses famine warnings as “politicking.” Despite the lifting of a nationwide food aid freeze imposed by USAID and the World Food Program over large-scale government-linked food thefts, just 14% of 3.2 million people targeted for food relief in Tigray received rations last month. There have reportedly been technical problems over fitting GPS trackers to food trucks and putting QR codes on ration cards. A lack of money is also an issue: the UN called on donors last month to urgently ramp up funding to avoid a catastrophe in Tigray, Amhara, Afar, Oromia, and southern Ethiopia, where some 4 million people need immediate food aid. (Map via EthioVisit)