Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.
It seems that everyone is on Twitter these days. Even Somalia’s powerful Islamist insurgents, the Shabab, has opened a Twitter account and recently sent Tweets to followers taunting the Kenyan Army. Jeffrey Gettleman of The New York Times discusses this emerging trend of “Twitter terrorism” by the Shabab and several other Qaeda franchises.
In the world’s newest nation, the World Food Programme warned this week that “A gathering storm of hunger is approaching South Sudan.” The AFP reports that the agency is scaling up its operations to support 2.7 million people, and urgently calls for $92 million to address hunger in the first four months of 2012.
Alexis Okeowo takes a refreshingly positive spin on media coverage of Africa over the past year, posting a top-ten list of the major Africa stories in 2011 on the New Yorker’s News Desk blog. The independence of South Sudan came in at number two, right behind the story of Africa’s economic boom, which has just begun—Africa is projected to have the largest economic growth of any continent in the next decade.
Of all the photos published through news services this year, Pete Muller’s intimate yet raw photos centered around the independence of South Sudan stand out. That is why TIME named Muller, an Associated Press freelancer, as the 2011 best photographer on the wires. Muller, who was born in the U.S. and moved to Sudan in 2009, explained why he was compelled to be there during this pivotal time. “I thought that spending a few years documenting southern Sudan’s transition to independence would be of value to the historical record and might shed light on an underreported but geopolitically significant story.”
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay recommended that the UN Security Council refer Syria to the International Criminal Court for an investigation into possible crimes against humanity following the killing of more than 5,000 people since the country’s uprising began nine months ago. The Guardian points out why the likeliness of such a referral is slim to none as long as Russia and China continue to back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.