UNDP launches probe into Iraq corruption claims/node/2454571/middle-east
UNDP launches probe into Iraq corruption claims
The UN Development Programme is investigating corruption allegations made against staff working as part of its $1.5 billion reconstruction program in Iraq. (Shutterstock)
Team traveling to country after Guardian allegations against UN employees, govt officials
Paper says more whistleblowers have come forward; UNDP warned staff not to comment
Updated 05 February 2024
Arab News
LONDON: The UN Development Programme is investigating corruption allegations made against staff working as part of its $1.5 billion reconstruction program in Iraq.
A UNDP team will travel to the country following an investigation by The Guardian, the newspaper reported.
A six-page document seen by The Guardian was sent to UNDP donors on Jan. 25 after a number of them raised concerns following the revelations, saying it had referred 136 cases to its Office of Audit and Investigations, of which 56 had been substantiated.
It did not elaborate on what action had been taken, and claimed that only four cases involved UNDP staff, with the rest involving third-party contractors and vendors.
The document said the agency was “committed to fostering a work culture and environment where all UNDP personnel can report wrongdoing without fear of retaliation.”
The Iraqi government has also launched an investigation into the allegations, an official told The Guardian.
The newspaper reported that more UNDP employees have since approached it with allegations after the initial report.
It said it had seen documentary evidence in support of their claims, which describe a “culture of fear” across the organization’s Middle East operations. It added that all whistleblowers had had their identities kept secret.
One told the newspaper that they had notified superiors of “hundreds of thousands of dollars being channelled to an organisation run by a government official,” but that senior staff “signalled very quickly that we ought not to get involved.” The source said: “The OAI doesn’t work at all. It’s completely dysfunctional.”
Another UNDP employee in Iraq said after filing complaints against a superior, the organization targeted the complainant instead.
“They told me, either I drop my grievance or my upcoming performance review would not look good and I would be let go,” the source said.
Another said a manager threatened them after raising concerns over spending. “Straight away, they said: ‘You know where the door is and you won’t have a job if you continue to raise things,’” the source told the newspaper, adding that the manager had close ties to government officials. “They are in each other’s pockets, and it’s enabled from the top,” the employee said.
The Guardian reported that Auke Lootsma, UNDP’s resident representative in Iraq, said in an email last week to staff that the newspaper’s findings were “very unfortunate,” calling them “unfair and unjust,” and asking recipients to “refrain from any comment.”
A UNDP spokesperson told The Guardian that allegations of threats made against employees were “completely at odds with UNDP’s commitment to accountability, integrity and openness to scrutiny.”
The spokesperson said the agency would “welcome more details to allow the appropriate independent channels to assess further,” UNDP had trained staff on rules around conflicts of interest, threats and retaliation, and the OAI conducted its investigations “independently from UNDP management or any outside party and in line with UNDP’s whistleblowing and retaliation policies.”
Morocco’s farming revolution: defying drought with science
In the face of “extremely high” water stress, Morocco's cultivated areas are expected to shrink to 2.5 million hectares drastically
The kingdom's agricultural research agency aims to develop genotypes that not only withstand drought and heat but also yield abundantly
Updated 02 May 2024
AFP
MARCHOUCH, Morocco: In the heart of sun-soaked Morocco, scientists are cultivating a future where tough crops defy a relentless drought, now in its sixth year.
“Look at these beautiful ears of wheat,” said Wuletaw Tadesse Degu, the head of wheat breeding at the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA).
“The difference in quality between our field and others is striking,” he said, pointing toward a lush expanse in Marchouch, south of Rabat, that stood in stark contrast with the barren lands elsewhere.
By 2040, Morocco is poised to face “extremely high” water stress, a dire prediction from the World Resources Institute, a non-profit research organization.
Figures from the North African country’s central bank paint a grim picture.
Cultivated areas across the kingdom are expected to shrink to 2.5 million hectares in 2024 compared with 3.7 million last year, with cereal yields more than halving to 25 million quintals (2.5 million tons) over the same period.
“It has become essential to use resilient seeds and to employ them as quickly as possible,” said Tadesse, whose center recently inaugurated a plant gene bank.
A delegation from the IRNA Regional Center for Agricultural Reasearch in Rabat visit a cultivated field in the Marchouch region of northwestern Morocco on April 18, 2024. (AFP)
Tadesse’s mission is to develop genotypes that not only withstand drought and heat but also yield abundantly.
Last year, while the nation struggled, Marchouch achieved a yield of four tons per hectare with just 200 millimeters of rainfall.
Controlled irrigation and strategic sowing techniques are behind this agricultural revolution.
Looking to maximize production, farmers are experimenting with planting times and judicious irrigation.
Even a scant 10 millimeters of water, carefully applied, transformed barren soil into thriving fields.
Barley, too, has seen a resurgence, with yields jumping from 1.5 to two tons per hectare last year, thanks to climate-smart genotypes, said Miguel Sanchez Garcia, a barley specialist at ICARDA.
The center, which operates in 17 countries in Africa and Asia, says it has developed 30 “elite lines” of grain.
Most of them are produced in Morocco by breeding genotypes of wild wheat with different ancestors, said ICARDA genetics researcher Ahmed Amri.
Bags of resilient seeds from the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas are kept in a box in the Marchouch region of northwestern Morocco on April 18, 2024. (AFP)
Moroccan agricultural authorities approved six new wheat and barley varieties last year, but bureaucratic hurdles loom large.
Approval processes drag on, impeding the timely dissemination of new varieties to farmers, researchers at the center said, resulting in a five-year journey from approval to market-ready seeds.
“The certification system takes too long and should be revised quickly,” said Moha Ferrahi, head of genetic resources conservation and improvement at the National Institute of Agricultural Research.
Ferrahi also pointed to the lack of engagement from private companies and farmers who opt for “foreign seeds to have a quicker return on investment while these seeds are not adapted to the climate of Morocco.”
Yet many see room for improvement, even in a drought-hit country where the average citizen consumes about 200 kilogrammes of wheat per year — significantly above the world’s average, according to official figures.
“Unlike countries like Egypt or Ethiopia, Morocco has chosen to liberalize its market,” said researcher Amri, meaning that authorities have no control over what varieties farmers select.
But Amri remains convinced that, coupled with the national agricultural program, the widespread adoption of resilient varieties will help offset mounting losses.
Teenage Iranian protester Nika Shakarami ‘was killed by police’
Updated 02 May 2024
Arab News
JEDDAH: Iranian authorities ordered the arrest of activists and journalists on Wednesday after a leaked Revolutionary Guard report revealed that secret police had sexually assaulted and killed a teenage girl during Iran’s “hijab protests” in 2022.
Nika Shakarami, 16, died during demonstrations over the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been detained for wearing her headscarf incorrectly.
Shakarami’s death also sparked widespread outrage. Authorities said she died after falling from a tall building, but her mother said the girl had been beaten.
In a report prepared for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and leaked to the BBC, investigators said Shakarami had ben arrested by undercover security forces who molested her, then killed her with batons and electronic stun guns when she struggled against the attack.
Iran’s judiciary said on Wednesday that the BBC story was “a fake, incorrect and full-of-mistakes report,” without addressing any of the alleged errors.
“The Tehran Prosecutor’s Office filed a criminal case against these people,” a spokesman said, with charges including “spreading lies” and “propaganda against the system.” The first charge can carry up at a year and a half in prison and dozens of lashes, while the second can bring up to a year’s imprisonment.
It was not clear if prosecutors had charged the three BBC journalists who wrote the report. Those associated with the BBC’s Persian service have been targeted for years by Tehran and barred from working in the country since its disputed 2009 presidential election and Green Movement protests.
Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the BBC report was an effort to “divert attention” from protests at American universities over the Israel-Hamas war. “The enemy and their media have resorted to false and far-fetched reports to conduct psychological operations,” he said.
How fierce but undeclared Israel-Hezbollah war is hurting civilians in south Lebanon
IDF and Iran-backed Lebanese group began trading fire across the border following Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack
Farming communities in southern Lebanon have seen their fields burned, homes destroyed by Israeli strikes
Updated 02 May 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: For more than six months, an undeclared war has been raging along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, leading to the displacement of some 92,000 Lebanese citizens and the destruction of homes, businesses and agriculture.
The front line of this conflict between Hezbollah and the Israeli armed forces stretches some 850 km, incorporating parts of the UN-monitored Blue Line, with missiles fired by both sides reaching up to 15 km into their respective territories.
Although the exchanges have remained relatively contained, Israeli attacks have caused civilian deaths, damaged and destroyed homes, infrastructure and farmland, and ignited forest fires. Civilians on both sides of the border have been displaced.
“Our town is right on the border, and there are now only 100 out of 1,000 residents, and the rest are those who are unable to secure an alternative livelihood,” Jean Ghafri, mayor of Alma Al-Shaab, a predominantly Christian village in the Tyre District, told Arab News.
“So far, the shelling has destroyed 94 houses, and 60 percent of the olive groves, mango, and avocado orchards, vineyards, olive and carob trees have been burned, and some of the olive trees that were burned are 300 years old.”
Most of the people in the border region are Shiite. The rest are Sunni, Druze and Christians, along with dozens of Syrian refugee families, some 10,000 troops of UNIFIL, or UN Interim Force in Lebanon, and a few thousand Lebanese soldiers.
Members of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia began launching rocket attacks against Israel on Oct. 8, a day after the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza.
A bulldozer removes rubble after an Israeli strike on a house in the southern Lebanese village of Sultaniyeh. (AFP/File)
Since then, Hezbollah and the Israeli military have traded fire along the shared border, raising fears that the Gaza conflict could spill over and engulf Lebanon in a devastating war reminiscent of the 2006 Israeli invasion.
“The town, although it is in a conflict zone, did not witness this level of direct destruction in the 2006 war,” said Ghafri. “It is impossible to know the exact damage because the area is considered a war zone. Those who are still there are receiving food rations from religious or international organizations.”
Al-Dahira is another town that has come under heavy shelling on an almost daily basis since the conflict began. It was from its nearby border that Hezbollah began its military assault on Oct. 8.
Its mayor, Abdullah Ghuraib, counts “17 houses that have been completely destroyed and dozens of houses that are no longer habitable due to the force of the shelling.”
He said: “There is only one woman, Radhya Atta Sweid, 75 years old, who insisted on staying in her house and not leaving. She had stayed in her house during the 2006 war and her brother’s wife, who was with her in the house, was killed and she remained there.”
Hassan Sheit, the mayor of Kfarkela, a village that is only a stone’s throw from the Israeli border, painted a similar picture of destruction and displacement.
“The material losses are great. This is a town where people live in summer and winter, of which only 7 percent of the 6,000 inhabitants remain,” Sheit told Arab News.
“The displacement from the town caused people to be homeless, living with relatives and in rented apartments, and living on aid from civil society and Hezbollah, which varies between financial and in-kind assistance.
Flames rise in a field near the border village of Burj Al-Mamluk after an Israeli strike. (Reuters/File)
“The town lost 15 martyrs as a result of the Israeli bombardment. What is happening today in the town was not done in the 2006 war.”
Thousands of families from towns and villages across southern Lebanon fled as soon as the first exchanges began. Many of these communities are now ghost towns, having lost some 90 percent of their residents.
The displaced, most of them women and children, have moved to towns further away from the border, including areas around Tyre, Nabatieh, Zahrani, Sidon, Jezzine and even the southern suburbs of Beirut, where they rent or stay with relatives.
Those without the means to support themselves have been forced to reside in shelters established by local authorities. These shelters, most of them in school buildings, are concentrated in the city of Tyre, within easy reach of their towns and villages.
This protracted displacement has been accompanied by economic hardship brought on by the financial crisis that struck Lebanon in late 2019. To make matters worse, many south Lebanese have lost their livelihoods as a result of their displacement.
Funeral for Hezbollah members Ismail Baz and Mohamad Hussein Shohury, who were killed in an Israeli strike on their vehicles, in Shehabiya. (AFP/File)
Ghafri, the mayor of Alma Al-Shaab, said several displaced residents had said expenses in Beirut were different from those in the villages. One person had told him residents “do not work and therefore no income reaches them, except for in-kind assistance from civil and international organizations and from wealthy expatriates.
“There are no political parties in Alma Al-Shaab, no militants, and all its people are in favor of the Lebanese state and refuse to allow their town to be used as a battlefield. People are worried about their future, and I am trying to convey this position to Hezbollah.”
Those who initially benefited from reduced or rent-free arrangements are now being asked to pay more or move on. The rent for some apartments has reportedly jumped from $100 to $1,000 per month, placing a significant strain on household savings and incomes.
INNUMBERS
• 92,621 Individuals displaced from south Lebanon by hostilities as of April 16 (DTM).
• 1,324 Casualties reported, including 340 deaths, as of April 18 (OHCHR, MoPH).
According to media reports, Hezbollah has intervened in support of displaced households, calling on apartment owners in the south and in Beirut’s southern suburbs to cap their rents, and providing families with financial aid.
Families who spoke to local media said Hezbollah provided a quarterly payment of $1,000 for three months, then reduced the amount to an average of $300 per month, covering about 15,000 displaced families.
Like other displaced households, the people of Al-Dahira have complained of “running out of money and relatives’ discomfort with their presence,” said the town’s mayor Ghuraib.
Students hold a large banner with the images of three sisters killed in the south of Lebanon during Israeli shelling. (AFP/File)
“Two days ago, we came to the town to pay our respects to someone who died. We entered the town in a hurry and quickly inspected our homes, and I saw men crying about the loss of their livelihoods and possessions.
“The people of Al-Dahira make a living from growing tobacco, olives and grains, but the (crops of the) previous season burned down and now the land is on fire.
“The problem is that the situation is getting worse day by day. People’s lives have been turned upside down. If the war drags on, the land will die. The Israelis are deliberately turning it into a scorched earth.”
What is undeniable is that the displacement of entire farming communities has brought the once bountiful agricultural economy in many areas to the brink of collapse.
“The people of Aitaroun make their living from agriculture, especially tobacco farming, and the losses today are great,” Salim Murad, the mayor of the southeastern border town, told Arab News.
Smoke billows during Israeli shelling on the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila. (AFP/File)
“There are 40 dairy cattle farmers with about 500 cows and two factories for making cheese and dairy products. With the displacement, production stopped and the displaced people most likely sold their cows or slaughtered them, which means that another link of agricultural production has been destroyed.
“There were 2,200 beehives distributed along the border, as the area is rich and varied in pasture, but these hives were completely lost, and farmers lost the olive season, and these orchards lost their future suitability for cultivation.”
It is unclear whether any kind of compensation will be paid to these farming households once the violence ends. Although the situation appears bleak, Kfarkela mayor Sheit is confident the region’s resilient communities will bounce back.
“Once the war stops, people will return to their homes and rebuild them,” he said. “Because we are the owners of the land.”
CENTCOM: It was determined the USV presented an imminent threat to U.S., coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region
Houthi leader Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi: Yemen’s strategic stockpile of deterrent weapons is much much larger than you would imagine
Updated 01 May 2024
Saeed Al-Batati
AL-MUKALLA: The US Central Command said that its forces have destroyed an explosive-laden and remotely operated boat in a Houthi-held area of Yemen, as the Yemeni militia reaffirmed threats to increase their Red Sea ship campaign unless Israel ceases its assault in Gaza.
In a statement on X on Wednesday morning, the US military said it destroyed an uncrewed surface vessel at approximately 1:52 p.m. (Sanaa time) on Tuesday in Yemen after determining that it posed a threat to the US and its allies, as well as international commercial and naval ships in international waters off Yemen’s coasts.
“It was determined the USV presented an imminent threat to U.S., coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S., coalition, and merchant vessels,” USCENTCOM said.
In Yemen, the Houthis said that the US and UK conducted one attack on the Red Sea Ras Essa in the western province of Hodeidah on Tuesday but did not specify the target area or the extent of the damage.
During the last seven months, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship, sunk another, and fired hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles, and remotely controlled drones at US, UK, Israeli, and other international ships in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait, and Gulf of Aden. The Houthis claim they solely target Israel-linked and Israel-bound ships to push Israel to let humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip. They also added ships tied to the US and the UK to their list of targets after the two nations launched strikes against areas of Yemen under their control.
On Tuesday, the UK Maritime Trade Operations, which tracks ship attacks, advised ships passing through the Indian Ocean to exercise caution after receiving a report of a drone attacking a commercial ship 170 nautical miles southeast of Yemen’s Socotra island and approximately 300-400 nautical miles southeast of the Horn of Africa overnight on April 26. “The vessel and crew are reported safe and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call,” the UK agency said.
Similarly, the Houthi Supreme Political Council warned the US on Tuesday against conducting a fresh wave of strikes against regions under their control in punishment for the militia’s recent increase in assaults on ships in the Red Sea. “The consequences of any escalation will not stop at Yemen’s borders, nor will they impact the noble Yemeni stance, the steadfastness of the Yemeni people, or the heroism of the military forces at all levels,” Houthi council members said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Houthi leader Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi issued the same warning to the US, claiming to possess huge military capabilities that would be utilized to counter any future US military strikes. “Do not play with fire. Yemen’s strategic stockpile of deterrent weapons is much much larger than you would imagine,” Al-Houthi said.
The Houthis said this week that they are aware that the US is ready to unleash a fresh round of bombings on Yemeni territories under their control, after the militia’s escalating assault against ships in the Red Sea.
Lebanese Christian leader says Hezbollah’s fighting with Israel has harmed Lebanon
Samir Geagea of the Lebanese Forces Party said Hezbollah should withdraw from areas along the border with Israel
The Lebanese army should deploy in all points where militants of the Iran-backed group have taken positions
Updated 01 May 2024
AP
`MAARAB, Lebanon: The leader of a main Christian political party in Lebanon blasted the Shiite militant group Hezbollah for opening a front with Israel to back up its ally Hamas, saying it has harmed Lebanon without making a dent in Israel’s crushing offensive in the Gaza Strip.
In an interview with AP on Tuesday night, Samir Geagea of the Lebanese Forces Party said Hezbollah should withdraw from areas along the border with Israel and the Lebanese army should deploy in all points where militants of the Iran-backed group have taken positions.
His comments came as Western diplomats try to broker a de-escalation in the border conflict amid fears of a wider war.
Hezbollah began launching rockets toward Israeli military posts on Oct. 8, the day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack that sparked the crushing war in Gaza.
The near-daily violence has mostly been confined to the area along the border, and international mediators have been scrambling to prevent an all-out war. The fighting has killed 12 soldiers and 10 civilians in Israel. More than 350 people have been killed in Lebanon including 273 Hezbollah fighters and more than 50 civilians.
“No one has the right to control the fate of a country and people on its own,” Geagea said in his heavily guarded headquarters in the mountain village of Maarab. “Hezbollah is not the government in Lebanon. There is a government in Lebanon in which Hezbollah is represented.” In addition to its military arm, Hezbollah is a political party.
Geagea, whose party has the largest bloc in Lebanon’s 128-member parliament, has angled to position himself as the leader of the opposition against Hezbollah.
Hezbollah officials have said that by opening the front along Israel’s northern border, the militant group has reduced the pressure on Gaza by keeping several Israeli army divisions on alert in the north rather than taking part in the monthslong offensive in the enclave.
“All the damage that could have happened in Gaza ... happened. What was the benefit of military operations that were launched from south Lebanon? Nothing,” Geagea said, pointing the death toll and massive destruction in Lebanon’s border villages.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, caused wide destruction and displaced hundreds of thousands to the city of Rafah along Egypt’s border. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to launch an offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah despite international calls for restraint.
Geagea said Hezbollah aims through the ongoing fighting to benefit its main backer, Iran, by giving it a presence along Israel’s border and called for the group to withdraw from border areas and Lebanese army deploy in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution that ended the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.
Geagea also discussed the campaign by his party to repatriate Syrian refugees who fled war into Lebanon.
Those calls intensified after a Syrian gang was blamed for last month’s killing of Lebanese Forces official Pascal Suleiman, allegedly in a carjacking gone wrong, although many initially suspected political motives.
Lebanon, with a total population of around 6 million, hosts what the UN refugee agency says are nearly 785,000 UN-registered Syrian refugees, of which 90 percent rely on aid to survive. Lebanese officials estimate there may be 1.5 million or 2 million, of whom only around 300,000 have legal residency.
Human rights groups say that Syria is not safe for mass returns and that many Syrians who have gone back — voluntarily or not — have been detained and tortured.
Geagea, whose party is adamantly opposed to the government of President Bashar Assad in Syria, insisted that only a small percentage of Syrians in Lebanon are true political refugees and that those who are could go to opposition-controlled areas of Syria.
The Lebanese politician suggested his country should follow in the steps of Western countries like Britain, which passed controversial legislation last week to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
“In Lebanon we should tell them, guys, go back to your country. Syria exists,” said Geagea, who headed the largest Christian militia during Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war.
