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How the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons is fueling conflicts in West Africa

  • Armed conflict
  • Corruption
  • Trafficking

ACCRA, ABUJA - This story puts the spotlight on a clandestine network of gunsmiths and arms traffickers operating in West Africa in contravention of local laws. It shows how these gunsmiths and traffickers exploit the porous borders across the West Africa and Sahel region to traffic illicit small arms and light weapons, which continues to fuel conflicts across the region.

Congenital malformations due to war and famine in Yemen

  • Armed conflict
  • Healthcare

SANAA - Yemen already suffered from a high rate of birth defects and infant mortality before the war, due in part to intrafamily marriages and lack of family planning, but the hospitals we visited in three different provinces are adamant that there has been an unprecedented increase since the war. 

Russia secretly upgraded Libyan fighter jets prior to peace deal

  • Armed conflict
  • Trafficking

BENGHAZI - Fighter jets commanded by the Libyan military general Khalifa Haftar were secretly upgraded and serviced using parts shipped in by Russia over 2019 and 2020, violating the existing UN arms embargo, according to security sources with knowledge of the operations.

The Battle of Bangui

  • Armed conflict
  • Corruption

BANGUI - In March 2013, South Africa suffered its worst military defeat since the end of apartheid. After a battle that lasted almost two days, 200 crack troops who engaged 7 000 rebels in the Central African Republic were forced to negotiate a ceasefire at their base. Thirteen South African soldiers died in the battle, with two more later succumbing to their wounds. The mission was shrouded in mystery from the start. The deployment and the diplomatic machinations that led to it were kept secret from the South African public and Parliament.

Burn pits in Mali

  • Armed conflict

After Afghanistan and Iraq, burn pits also seem to have appeared in around western military camps in Mali. In 2014, an extensive air study was conducted by Professor Yacouba Toloba, head of the pulmonology department at the Point G hospital in Bamako. The concentrations of fine dust around the burn pits were more than nine times higher than the WHO's maximum level.

Ukraine as a Safe Haven for Jihadists

  • Armed conflict
  • Human Rights
  • Politics

KYIV - After the fall of a self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria dozens of thousands of foreign fighters fighting in the ranks of Islamic State or ISIS disappeared. They used smugglers, contacts and networks to leave the country. Many of them were looking for safe havens where they can take a break, wait for new opportunities and orders or come back to normal life. 

Blood and honey

  • Armed conflict
  • Politics

ZAGREB - Writer and historian Irene van der Linde and documentary photographer Nicole Segers travel in the footsteps of the British writer Rebecca West through former Yugoslavia and Albania. With West's magnum opus Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1942) in their hands, they go in search of the meaning of the new borders in the Balkans.

Tajikistan, ‘House of Water,’ where half the population lacks access to water

  • Armed conflict
  • Corruption
  • Environment

Despite its water abundance and the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in improving Tajikistan’s water access and supply, millions of Tajik residents still struggle to access running water, let alone clean water.

Belarusian Tycoons Slipped into the EU via Lithuanian Investments

  • Armed conflict
  • Corruption
  • Human Rights
  • Politics

LITHUANIA-BELARUS - A cross-border investigation by Lithuanian and Belarusian journalists follows the trail of Alexander Zaytsev and Aliaksei Aleksin, two Belarusian businessmen considered to be close to the Alexander Lukashenko regime.

Mosaic of the Lebanese Revolution

  • Armed conflict

BEIRUT - On 17 October 2019, a revolution broke out in Lebanon that is still raging among the people. The - young, secular - population is trying to break free, while the divided sectarian power apparatus is digging deeper. The ongoing Lebanese popular protests resulted in the largest national protest since the civil war (75-90). All Lebanese, regardless of their frame of reference within the melting pot of cultures, unite under one banner against the corrupt commanders