Last week, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, received H.E. Ruslan Nasibov, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Ethiopia & Permanent Representative to the AU.
They exchanged on strengthening Africa-Azerbaijan relations. The Chairperson commended Azerbaijan’s constructive diplomacy and efforts toward peace, including in its region.
Ambassador Nasibov congratulated the Chairperson on his election and conveyed his country’s continued support, as well as a personal invitation from President Ilham Aliyev to visit Azerbaijan and participate in the World Urban Forum in Baku next year.
Read the original article on African Union.
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More women must have a role in shaping peace agreements, security reforms and post-conflict recovery plans, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Monday.
Members met for their annual open debate on the women, peace and security agenda just ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Council’s landmark resolution 1325 (2000) on the issue.
As the Secretary-General noted, the resolution “gave voice to a simple truth: women’s leadership is central to just and lasting peace“, in addition to inspiring countless other resolutions, reports and roundtables.
World falling short
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“But let’s speak frankly,” he said. “Too often, we gather in rooms like this one – full of conviction and commitment – only to fall short when it comes to real change in the lives of women and girls caught in conflict.”
In a recent report, Mr. Guterres highlighted progress made over the past quarter century, which includes more than 100 countries adopting national action plans on women, peace and security.
“But gains are fragile and – very worryingly – going in reverse,” he warned.
“Around the globe, we see troubling trends in military spending, more armed conflicts, and more shocking brutality against women and girls.”
Conflict, sexual violence and harassment
Last year, some 676 million women worldwide lived within 50 kilometres of deadly conflict events – the highest number in decades, he said.
Sexual violence also surged, with a 35 per cent rise in incidents against girls. In some places, they accounted for nearly half of all victims.
Mr. Guterres highlighted how women in public life such as politicians, journalists and human rights defenders, are being targeted with violence and harassment, before turning to the situation in Afghanistan where “the systematic erasure of women and girls from public life is in overdrive”.
Additionally, women and girls in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan, Haiti, Myanmar and beyond, face grave risks and horrific levels of violence.
“And while women’s organizations remain lifelines for millions in crisis, they are being starved of resources,” he added, citing a recent survey by UN Women, which champions gender equality globally.
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It revealed that 90 per cent of local women-led groups in conflict settings are in dire financial straits, with nearly half expected to shut down within six months.
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The Secretary-General urged UN Member States to accelerate commitments on women, peace and security, in line with the Pact for the Future adopted last year. He outlined areas for action, including ramping up funding for women’s organizations in conflict-affected countries.
He also stressed the need for greater participation by women who “must be at the table – not as tokens, but as equal partners“, as well as accountability for perpetrators of gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence.
Refocus, recommit and deliver
Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, was adamant that the 25th anniversary of resolution 1325 “must be more than a commemoration.”
“Women and girls who live amidst conflict deserve more than commemoration,” she said. “It must instead be a moment to refocus, recommit, and ensure that the next 25 years deliver much more than the last.”
he noted that the meeting was taking place against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, where “a glimmer of hope emerges”, and she welcomed the positive responses to US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the fighting.
Looking ahead to the next 25 years for the women, peace and security agenda, Ms. Bahous told the Council it was crucial to have more funding earmarked, robust quotas and more accountability “that make failures visible”.
More to follow…
Read the original article on UN News.
AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 110 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.
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Black mambas (Dendroaspis polylepis) are Africa’s longest, most famous venomous snakes. Despite their fearsome reputation, these misunderstood snakes are vital players in their ecosystems. They keep rodent populations in check and, in turn, help to protect crops and limit disease spread. The species ranges widely across sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal to Somalia and south into South Africa. They can adapt to many environments.
Zoologist Cormac Price, in new research with professors Marc Humphries and Graham Alexander and reptile conservationist Nick Evans, found that black mambas can be indicators of heavy metal pollution. We asked him about it.
How do black mambas indicate toxic pollution?
It’s about bio-accumulation. Bioaccumulation happens when chemicals, like pesticides or heavy metals, build up in an organism’s body. These toxins come from polluted environments, from waste products of human activities like manufacturing. They pollute water or soil and gradually accumulate in plants and animals.
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If toxins are present in the environment, they may first be taken in by plants, and then by animals that eat the plants, and animals that eat those animals. Black mambas are quite high up the food chain, so a lot of the toxins would accumulate in their bodies. These poisonous substances can reach dangerous levels, causing health problems for whatever eats them.
We tested the presence of four types of heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury) in the bodies of black mambas.
All our samples were from the eThekwini Municipality (greater Durban area) in South Africa. Durban is a busy shipping container port and has a large industrial sector that includes chemicals, petrochemicals and automotive manufacturing. Alongside all this industry the municipality also has a network of conservancies and green spaces, known as the Durban Metropolitan Open Space System.
We chose to test for these metals because they are widely used in different industries and can cause drastic negative effects in the body. Mercury primarily damages the nervous system, arsenic can cause cancer and skin lesions, cadmium harms kidneys and bones and lead mainly affects brain development and blood functions. Because these metals accumulate over time and are difficult to break down, even low-level exposure can lead to chronic poisoning and long-term health problems.
Black mambas appear to be doing well in Durban and taking advantage of the abundance of rodents, which they eat. Wherever there is human settlement there will be waste and discarded food which rodents take full advantage of. Black mambas can also be quite site-specific when not disturbed, living in the same refuge for many years, giving a clearer indication of pollution levels at that specific site. This makes the snakes potentially good bioindicator species.
A bioindicator species is one that helps us understand the health of an environment. Because they are sensitive to changes like pollution or habitat damage, their presence, absence or condition can reveal if an ecosystem is in good condition or is experiencing increases of pollution or degradation.
The pollutants can be detected and calculated from a non-invasive, harmless scale clipping. Snake scales are composed mostly of keratin, the same sort of protein that produces human hair and nails. To clip a very thin slice of snake scale is as harmless as clipping a human finger nail.
We collected 31 mambas that had already been killed by vehicles, people or dogs, and tested muscle and liver samples from them for toxins. We also took scale clippings from 61 live snakes.
This was the first time in Africa that a species of snake was tested to see if it could be used as an indicator species of heavy metal pollution.
What did you find?
We found that the heavy metal concentrations in scales correlated with those found in the muscle and liver samples. For three of the four metals, scales were as accurate for testing as muscle and liver samples. So the harmless testing method is as good as the more invasive one.
For arsenic, cadmium and lead, the snakes were accumulating significantly lower concentrations of these toxins in the open, natural sites of the Durban Metropolitan Open Space System compared to more industrial and commercial areas. Mercury was less significantly different due to its more volatile nature and its capacity to travel through the environment.
What made you test mamba scales in the first place?
In 2020, I attended a conference on amphibians and reptiles, where a friend of mine presented his work on heavy metal pollutants in tiger snakes in the city of Perth, Australia.
I’ve also been working with Nick Evans of KZN Amphibian & Reptile Conservation for some years, on urban reptile ecology. Nick began collecting scale clippings, and I began to realise, while looking through the literature, how novel this was on a continental scale. Snakes had never been tested as a potential bioindicator species of heavy metal pollution in Africa previously.
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Marc Humphries is a professor of environmental chemistry, and I was aware of his work on lead exposure in Nile crocodiles at St Lucia, a wetland in South Africa. When he expressed interest in examining the scale clippings, we were thrilled. Graham Alexander’s expertise in snake behaviour in general and specifically snakes in Durban was also instrumental in the success of this research.
How can this help fight pollution?
The fight against pollution is in the hands of the municipality and city managers. What the snakes are doing is warning us of the increasing danger these pollutants pose to environmental health and ultimately human health. They are also showing us how important open spaces are to the overall environmental and human health of the city of Durban. The snakes are telling us a story; what people in authority decide to do with this story rests with them.
Nick Evans of KZN Amphibian & Reptile Conservation made valuable contributions to the research and was a co-author on the article.
Cormac Price, Post-doctoral fellow the HerpHealth lab, office 218, Building G23. Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University; University of KwaZulu-Natal
This article is republished from The Conversation Africa under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 110 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.
Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.
AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa – aggregating, producing and distributing 600 news and information items daily from over 110 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC.
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