In less than 20 years, the number of registered sex workers in Madagascar’s main port city of Toamasina has climbed from 17,000 in 1993 to 29,000 in 2012 due to rising poverty and the city’s proximity to the recently opened Ambatovy nickel mine.
While conflict rages just kilometers away in Syria, the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights remains quiet. But there are signs that the 17-month old conflict has touched the areas’ Arab residents
Nearly a year and a half after the start of the Syrian uprising, tens of thousands of people have fled the country. Until recently, most found shelter in homes with friends, relatives and even strangers. But as the numbers increase, several neighbouring countries are opening new camps to accommodate them.
Thousands of children and young men are fleeing rebel-held areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern North Kivu Province to escape forced recruitment by the insurgents
The vast majority of the world’s conflicts involve not just government troops but also armed groups, which act without state sanction or control – and while some wear their complete disrespect for the laws of war as a badge of honour.