Secretary of State Rex Tillerson invited the chairperson of the African Union to Washington for a meeting, then backed out on him at the last minute, infuriating African diplomats. Tillerson invited African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki to Washington the week of April 17, after Faki ended meetings at the United Nations in New York. Several sources close to the matter say Faki scheduled his trip to Washington on April 19 and 20 while waiting for the details to be sorted out. But then Tillerson’s office went radio silent for several days, and left the head of the 55-nation bloc in the lurch and fuming, the sources said. Tillerson’s team eventually got back to Faki’s entourage as he was about to depart New York and offered a meeting with lower-level State Department officials, but Faki canceled his Washington visit entirely. (Foreign Policy http://atfp.co/2px3rDM)
Top Stories
The United Nations said it was horrified by a video screened by the government of Democratic Republic of Congo that appeared to show the brutal killing of two U.N. investigators. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2q3pWQx)
Aid groups in Yemen warned that an impending assault by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition on the rebel-held western port of Hodeida could tip the country into famine. (IRIN http://bit.ly/2pfh8Ek)
A Haitian politician and former coup leader pled guilty in a U.S. court to conspiring to launder drug money. (VOA http://bit.ly/2pf6hu2)
Malawi President Peter Mutharika signed a constitutional amendment raising the legal marriage age to 18. The amendment marks the final step in a years-long process in Malawi to outlaw child marriage. But rights campaigners say it is just a start, and the country must now enforce the ban. (VOA http://bit.ly/2pi6gaG)
Nearly 58 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 16 are currently out of school in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to Dawn, a local English language daily. Extreme poverty and lack of infrastructure remain the main reasons behind the lack of schooling. (VOA http://bit.ly/2pf5EAw)
The government’s claims of low levels of fraud in Britain’s overseas aid budget do not seem credible given mounting evidence of missing money, the House of Commons financial watchdog has said. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2q1LwSp)
Aid organizations working to stop the famine in Nigeria will run out of money by June if donors do not give the cash they pledged at a conference in February, worsening an already difficult situation, a U.N. official said, (VOA http://bit.ly/2peZOPv)
The Kenyan government is scaling up an innovative livestock insurance program that uses satellite imagery of drought-hit areas to offer a safety net to vulnerable farmers. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2q1JOk0)
Nearly everything was lost on April 25, 2015, when a terrifying earthquake shook the Nepal, killing more than 9,000 people and toppling nearly a million homes nationwide. Little progress has been made in the two years since, raising questions about the government’s commitment to the recovery effort as well as the fate of billions of dollars in foreign aid. (VOA http://bit.ly/2q3tyC0)
Opinion/Blogs
Humanity Just Took One Big Step Closer to Ending Malaria (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/2pf5N7d)
Are locals starting to push back in the “best place in the world for refugees”? (African Arguments http://bit.ly/2osoXJF)
Development aid is a matter of justice, not generosity (Guardian http://bit.ly/2pf3AIV)
Why China Is Selling Cheap HIV Tests In Campus Vending Machines (NPR http://n.pr/2peWy75)
Long Way to Go for Indigenous Rights Protection (IPS http://bit.ly/2peYZpW)
Child survivor holds truth of a Guatemalan massacre (BBC http://bbc.in/2pf7u4g)
Vaunted Ebola Vaccine Faces Questions (WSJ http://on.wsj.com/2q3HIDb)
Captive IS fighters face extrajudicial killings on fringes of Mosul conflict (IRIN http://bit.ly/2pi4ypP)
Ill-gotten gains? (BBC http://bbc.in/2pi5TNk)
Online fake news and hate speech are fueling tribal ‘genocide’ in South Sudan (PRI http://bit.ly/2pf4CET)
Malaria Wiped Out In U.S. But Still Plagues U.S. Hospitals (NPR Goats and Soda http://n.pr/2picqr8)
It’s the end of foreign aid as we know it, and I feel fine (How Matters http://bit.ly/2pf3cdk)
