India, Burkina Faso, Iraq.

Today's three stories you should know.

Jul 20, 2023

India

Outrage has spread through India after footage surfaced showing two naked women being paraded in the street while being sexually assaulted by a large crowd of men. According to reports, at least one of the women was then gang raped. The horrific incident took place in the state of Manipur, which has been hit by ethnic violence over the last two months. The mob are believed to have been from the majority Meitei community while the women were from the ethnic Kuki tribe. In his first comments since violence broke out in the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the attack on the women had "shamed India" and that no guilty party would be spared.

Burkina Faso

A million more people could face hunger in Burkina Faso over the next few months, an aid group said today, on top of 2.2 million who are already food insecure. The International Rescue Committee said that more international attention needs to be paid to the humanitarian situation as the country continues to suffer knock-on effects from a conflict between the government and al-Qaeda and ISIS-linked groups. A military junta took power in a coup last October promising to defeat the insurgents.

Iraq

Iraq today expelled the Swedish ambassador to protest a planned burning of the Koran outside its embassy in Stockholm. It comes a day after demonstrators stormed the Swedish embassy building in Baghdad and set it alight. Anti-Islam protesters, one of whom was an Iraqi christian, burned the Koran outside a Stockholm mosque in June and had been given official permission to hold a second protest outside the Iraqi embassy today. Iran’s foreign ministry summoned the Swedish ambassador there to lodge a protest and Turkey called events in the Swedish capital a "despicable attack."