Abdou Abdoullahi stands beside the drenched makeshift shelter he built with his family in Doyaba camp in southern Chad: a few flimsy cotton shawls stretched...
Islamic law contains a rich, but complex set of rules on the protection of civilians which can be difficult to understand, given the range of sources and interpretations available. IRIN walks you through the basics.
In the last decade, aid and advocacy agencies have increasingly tried to understand Islamic law in order to use its humanitarian provisions as tools of negotiation with armed groups in the Muslim world. While the approach has seen some successes, it also raises certain ethical dilemmas.
Within extremist militant circles is a debate over acceptable behavior under the Islamic rules of war. This so-called “jihadi jurisprudence” is increasingly studied by humanitarians as practitioners seek to understand the degree to which there is room for even the most radical armed groups to be influenced in favour of the protection of civilians and aid workers.
All over the world migrant workers are sending money home to their families. The money pays hospital bills and school fees, buys land, builds houses...
Dear reader: You may have seen some public discussion recently about IRIN’s future, arising most recently from this online petition , an independent initiative launched...
Severe food shortages in the Sahel and West Africa are often the result of droughts and poor harvests. But inefficient intra-regional trade also places significant...
Humanitarian needs are mounting in northern Nigeria, where Boko Haram attacks have displaced 350,000 people since 2013, 290,000 of them internally; the rest are sheltering...
The African Union (AU) is rethinking how it can most effectively deploy military forces to tackle the continent’s crises. The African Capacity for Immediate Response...
Youth unemployment and underemployment are among the main barriers to development in West Africa, say experts. Not only does the exclusion of young people from...
Plans to reshape and modernize African cities, in part driven by investment, architecture and construction companies seeking new markets, could deepen existing social inequalities, according...
