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A30 world news
Diahuebs 3 Februari 2022

Hunger crisis looms in Nigeria’s ‘food basket’ amid conflict

placed because of the inter- their fields while the herd- Elanu, a program director for
communal violence between ers, mostly from the Fulani the One to One Healthcare
herders and farmers compet- ethnic group, claim the crop- Initiative.
ing for water and land, say of- lands are their traditional
ficials. grazing routes. Government officials insist
they are working to make
“We are heading to a food cri- The government has now farmlands safe enough for
sis,” Benue state Gov. Samuel launched an initiative un- people to return and work
Ortom told The Associated der the National Livestock the land. They’re also try-
Press. Transformation Plan in the ing to encourage nomadic
hope of resolving the conflict herders to take up ranching
Across northern Nigeria, at which has been worsened by so they are less at odds with
least 13 million are now fac- the proliferation of arms and farmers.
ing hunger amid a lean sea- the government’s failure to
son, according to the U.N. prosecute past perpetrators Seeds and fertilizers have also
World Food Program. The from both groups. been supplied to farmers in
violence has also disrupted the past to enhance food pro-
the sales of food as roads About 3,000 people who have duction, cushion the effect
(AP) — It’s 2 p.m. and parts of Nigeria. are too unsafe for farmers to fled the violence in Benue of the pandemic and encour-
Hannah Mgbede asks her transport crops and market- state are now living at a camp age more youths to go into
husband if she can take With that decreased yield, places have been razed by at- in Guma local government agriculture, according to a
her first break of the day Mohammed hasn’t made tackers. area. spokesman of the agriculture
from threshing rice so enough money to buy seed- ministry.
she can breastfeed their lings to grow yams, soybeans Rice production has dropped Mtonga Iliamgee, 43, says ev-
18-month-old baby girl and guinea corn (sorghum). so much that its price has ery day is a struggle to feed Despite the violence, Nige-
fastened to her back dur- jumped more than 60% in her family of 10. She was rian farmers have been able
ing the grueling work. Here in Benue state, harvests Benue state as well as some seen preparing their only to produce enough crops to
of rice, yams and soybeans other parts of the country. meal of the day at 1 p.m. keep the country self-suffi-
Her husband Ibrahim Mo- were once so bountiful that cient in staples such as rice,
hammed, 45, used to harvest it was called the “food bas- Thousands of Nigerians have Felix Agune, the deputy head cassava and yams.
as many as 10 bags of rice a ket of Nigeria.” But waves of been killed in the decades- of the camp school, says some
year from his farm. But that violence over the last several long clashes between agrar- children come to class crying Farmers are resilient but also
dropped to just three bags af- years have reduced crops in ian communities and no- that they’ve had no breakfast. afraid because some who
ter attackers burned his home the northcentral state of Af- madic cattle herders who are Non-government organiza- have attempted to go back to
to the ground a few years ago, rica’s most populous nation. fighting over limited access tions are trying to fill the gap their farms have been killed,
as violence between farmers to water and grazing land. but it is “nothing compared warned Ortom, the governor
and herders escalated across More than 1 million farmers The farmers often accuse the to the massive hunger spread of Benue state.
the northwest and central in the state have been dis- herders of encroaching in across Benue state,” said Rex

New report details labor rights abuses at Dubai’s Expo 2020

(AP) — The legions of the coronavirus outbreak. The Equidem report said the Most workers interviewed and police if they spoke up
workers who built Dubai’s majority of workers inter- surrendered their passports about labor conditions and
extravagant Expo 2020 site Expo organizers did not re- viewed were forced to pay to their employers and none harassment, the report said.
and keep it running face spond to requests for com- illegal recruitment fees to get of them could uncondition- Forming unions and mobi-
exploitation, grim condi- ment about the report. Emi- their jobs, often exceeding ally retrieve them, despite lizing for better treatment
tions and a wide range of rati authorities also did not their monthly pay. Despite a Emirati laws that forbid remains criminalized in the
labor abuses, according to respond to requests for com- ban on the practice at Expo companies from confiscating autocratic UAE.
a new report released on ment. and in the country, the report worker’s identity documents.
Wednesday by a London- said many employers were With Dubai in the spotlight
based labor rights group. The 37-page Equidem report aware that workers paid steep Workers also said they were over the world fair that seeks
— based on nearly 70 inter- fees to recruiters in their targets of discrimination, de- to draw 25 million visits, au-
The report by consultancy views with migrant workers home countries and did not scribing how their race dic- thorities had promised to beef
Equidem also said that the at Expo over three months reimburse them, creating a tated their treatment and du- up efforts against the persis-
United Arab Emirates gov- last fall — represents a com- situation of debt bondage. ties on site. tent practice of forced labor.
ernment had failed to dem- prehensive analysis of the la- Expo established guidelines
onstrate that its commit- bor situation at the world’s The Equidem report docu- “Asians are given the heavy laying out strong protections
ments to worker welfare at fair. The giant international mented workers who were work and less pay while the for worker rights. The UAE
the multibillion-dollar Expo event has offered the UAE a not provided with employ- Europeans and Arabs are deploys company inspectors
had corrected, let alone iden- key opportunity to burnish ment contracts or could not given lighter roles with lots to ensure workers haven’t
tified, rights violations. its credentials as a globalized read them because they were of income,” said one inter- been exploited.
place attractive to tourists and not translated into their na- viewee. “The Asians are the
It comes after The Associated investors. tive language, as required by first to lose their jobs.” Yet, none of the employers
Press published an investiga- law. featured in the report ap-
tion based on interviews with Foreigners outnumber lo- Racism remains a deeply peared to be in compliance
over two dozen Expo work- cals nearly nine to one in Some received partial pay rooted issue in the UAE, with the event’s standards.
ers about their grievances, in- the UAE. Undergirding the or had to wait over a week where slavery was not formal-
cluding their payment of ille- machinery of daily life is to receive their wages each ly abolished until the 1960s
gal recruitment fees, employ- the country’s labor sponsor- month, which included their and dark-skinned workers
ers’ confiscation of passports ship system, which employs food allowance. Workers from Africa and South Asia
and inadequate food. That millions of low-paid work- were frequently denied over- routinely report receiving
article also drew on Equi- ers from Africa, the Middle time pay, termination ben- lower wages than their light-
dem’s previous research into East and Southeast Asia and efits and promised bonuses. skinned colleagues today.
the conditions of construc- has long drawn accusations Employers in some cases
tion workers a year before the of mistreatment for failing to slashed salaries up to 75% as Expo workers told research-
world’s fair opened, when ensure fair wages, hours and the pandemic battered the ers that they feared reprisals,
workers said they were de- living conditions. economy, workers alleged. including dismissal and de-
nied wages for months amid portation from employers