Somalia, Burkina Faso, Sudan.

Today's three stories you should know.

Mar 14, 2022

Somalia

Something caught my eye on Twitter today. A journalist based in East Africa, Amanda Sperber, tweeted this: “People are dying of thirst in Somalia because of drought. Livestock heave and shudder before they keel over. The environmental shocks in the region are linked to climate change. The planet is quickly becoming uninhabitable. It's impossible to publish a story on this right now.” It appears that things are very grim in Somalia, and what Amanda is referring to, is her difficulty getting any stories about it published as the world focuses on Ukraine. It is of course absolutely right that we bear witness to what is happening there. But the international news media, though stretched, shouldn’t forget the rest of the world in the process.

Amanda’s Twitter profile is here.

Burkina Faso

At least eight people were killed in northern Burkina Faso today, bringing to 30 the number killed by armed groups in the immediate area in the last three days. Regular readers of Proximities know that the western Sahel region is the epicenter of a conflict between the governments of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger and armed groups with links to al-Qaeda and ISIS. The violence has escalated in recent months.

Sudan

As mentioned in Proximities at the outset of the conflict in Ukraine, its impact on wheat prices would lead to rising food costs. And rising food costs can lead to instability. Last week we saw protests erupt in Iraq and, today, Sudan followed. Protests broke out in cities across the country as the price of bread soared 40 percent.