Illicit financial flows cost Africa $88 billion annually

Posted on September 11, 2025September 22, 2025

The African Union, in an August 2025 report, estimates that illicit financial flows (IFFs) cost countries in Africa $88 billion per year. IFFs are illicit or illegal funds derived from criminal activities and/or illegal tax practices that are moved or transferred across countries, including international trade manipulations (the most common), tax evasion, smuggling, government corruption, and money laundering. Nearly half of these losses come from the ‘extractive sector,’ mostly mining. IFFs are fundamental drivers of economic injustice, and enormously undermine…

Barred from Healing: Denial of Qualified Medical Care Deepens Humanitarian Crises

Access to Healthcare Medical Apartheid decolonization equity globalhealthjustice Health Inequities Human Rights Violations inequality Militarism political determinants of health resource mobilization Social Justice Vaccine Apartheid War

Posted on April 28, 2025November 6, 2025

This article is written in Arabic and English. For the English version, please see below. في مناطق النزاع حول العالم، يمكن أن يكون الوصول إلى المهنيين الطبيين المؤهلين هو الفارق بين الحياة والموت. ولا يوجد مكان يتجلى فيه هذا الأمر أكثر من غزة، حيث أدى الحصار المتعمد على العاملين في مجال الرعاية الصحية الماهرين إلى تفاقم كارثة إنسانية متزايدة. أحد الحالات الرمزية هو حالة الدكتور محمد الموسوي محمد طاهر، الجراح البريطاني-العراقي المتخصص في جراحة الصدمات والمعروف بمساهماته الاستثنائية خلال مهمة…

The Weapon No One Talks About: Sexual Violence in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

War/Militarism Africa drc health disparities Human Rights Violations political determinants of health sexual violence Social Justice Sub-Saharan Africa women's health

Posted on March 17, 2025March 20, 2025

A country’s true strength is not in its economy or military but in the well-being of its women. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), more than 1.8 million women have endured brutal violence; mass rape has become a harrowing reality. Sexual violence is used as a deliberate tool of terror to break communities, drive people from their homes, and keep entire populations in fear. In the east of the DRC, women and girls of all ages, from infants…

An Abyss of Suffering: The Daily Account of a Goma Resident Amid the M23 Invasion

War/Militarism drc Geopolitical Goma Human Rights Violations International Responsibility political determinants of health social determinants of health War

Posted on February 7, 2025February 21, 2025

This article is written in French and English. For the English version, please see below. La version française Le 25 janvier au matin, le Mouvement du 23 mars (M23), milice soutenue par le Rwanda, a envahi Goma, la plus grande ville de l’est de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC). Le Bureau de la coordination des affaires humanitaires des Nations unies estime qu’au moins 3 000 personnes ont été tuées depuis que les rebelles du M23 se sont emparés…

Global Election Results: Rejecting the Unhealthy Status Quo

Structural Violence corporate greed Geopolitical political determinants of health

Posted on November 29, 2024December 27, 2024

Around the world, global elections reflect an emerging pattern: people are expressing discontent with a political and economic system that fails to address their most basic needs and well-being. This frustration manifests differently depending on context, whether through voting choices or street protests. At their core, these actions reflect a growing recognition of how governance, policies, and the uneven distribution of resources directly impact people’s everyday lives, well-being, and health. In the United States, the 2024 election results illuminate this…

Chiquita guilty of funding terrorists in Colombia

Social Determinants of Health Structural Violence Colombia corporate crime corporate greed Corporate predators decolonizehealth Geopolitical Human Rights Violations inequality International Responsibility political determinants of health social determinants of health Social Justice

Posted on June 11, 2024July 15, 2024

A South Florida jury just found Chiquita Brands liable for killings by right-wing paramilitary death squads that the the company financed in their banana plantations. Chiquita, formerly the United Fruit Company (UFC), has a long history of deadly repression against workers. The New Orleans-based multinational has long monopolized land and markets and controlled governments throughout Latin America. UFC was implicated in massacres in Colombia, the overthrow of democratically elected President Jacobo Arbens of Guatemala, and propped up many so-called “banana…