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A PK 10, dans l'arrondissement d'Agblangandan (commune de Sèmè-Podji), une tranchée, ouverte pour évacuer les eaux des maisons inondées, cause des désagréments. Elle est source de difficultés liées à la salubrité et à la continuité de certains services.

Creusée il y a environ trois semaines, à la suite des pluies, une tranchée relie les quartiers inondés de PK 10 à la mer. « Les trous ont été creusés pour pouvoir trouver une solution à ceux qui sont inondés dans la zone. A partir de notre pavé jusqu'au parc de vente de véhicules d'occasion de Sèkandji, ce n'est même pas inondé, c'est devenu un fleuve », explique le chef quartier adjoint, Fataï Adechinan.

Cette solution favorisant l'écoulement des eaux n'est pas inédite.

L' « expérience a été faite de cela 5 ans. Et quand ils (les habitants de PK 10, NDLR) avaient fait ça, ça avait marché ».

Des conséquences inattendues

Si l'ouvrage a permis d'accélérer l'écoulement des eaux vers la mer, il cause toutefois des désagréments aux populations.

A l'embouchure, les vagues s'engouffrent dans la tranchée et provoquent une érosion qui menace progressivement les abords de l'éco-plage TAMAEE.

Ce site aménagé sur un ancien dépotoir à ciel ouvert accueille régulièrement des activités d'éducation environnementale destinées aux enfants et aux jeunes.

Autre difficulté : le passage des voitures et motocyclettes est devenu compliqué. Selon les témoignages recueillis sur place, des agents chargés de la collecte des déchets ménagers ont même dû remblayer une partie de la tranchée afin de poursuivre leur tournée.

Le site présente également des problèmes de salubrité. Des déchets et des défécations sont visibles dans le fossé. Des riverains redoutent qu'en cas de nouvelles pluies, ces matières fécales soient entraînées jusqu'à la mer.

Pour Fataï Adechinan, l'ouvrage est temporaire. La priorité reste l'assèchement complet des habitations encore touchées par les eaux avant la fermeture de la tranchée.

Marc MENSAH

Porté disparu depuis le mardi 4 août 2026, un enfant de 7 ans a été retrouvé sans vie dans une fosse septique , jeudi 6 août 2026, dans le quartier Banikanni du 2ᵉ arrondissement de Parakou

Le jeune Moukaram a disparu alors qu'il se trouvait habituellement à la maison. Après plusieurs recherches menées par ses proches, une alerte a été lancée et une déclaration faite auprès des services de sécurité. Il a été finalement retrouvé le jeudi aux environs de 22 heures sans vie dans la fosse septique de la maison.

Les éléments de la Police républicaine se sont rendus sur les lieux pour les premiers constats. Une enquête a été ouverte pour déterminer les circonstances du drame.

Premier League newcomers Coventry City have completed the club-record signing of Ghana midfielder Caleb Yirenkyi.

“They say driving is only for men. But women have proved that they, too, can drive.” Credit: Learning Together.

By External Source
KABUL, Aug 7 2026 (IPS)

The Taliban’s rise to power robbed Mehrmaa of her husband, her job and her chance to live freely.

It was a cold, snowy night in March 2022 when Mehrmaa’s neighbors brought her husband’s lifeless body home. He had disappeared more than seven months earlier. Mehrmaa had barely managed to cope with the new restrictions imposed on women by the Taliban, and now she felt as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders.

“At the end of our road home, there were seven coffins containing bodies that had been delivered to their families. Seven months ago they had been taken alive and now they have been returned dead,” Mehrmaa says.

“I will continue to fight against forced marriage for the sake of my children and in memory of my late husband, until my last breath,” Mehrmaa says

Mehrmaa describes how, in July 2021, the Taliban took over the provinces and its forces entered her hometown on motorbikes. The Taliban raised their flag in the centre of the city as a sign of victory. Government helicopters bombed the city, leaving many people homeless and without shelter. Mehrmaa’s province was the first to fall under Taliban oppression. Many fled in panic.

“The state kidnapped many young men to defend the city, including my husband.”

After the Taliban takeover, women were threatened with imprisonment if they walked the streets alone.

“Women were flogged in public for small and frivolous reasons. Widowed women and underage girls were forced into marriages without their consent.”

Women faced daily hardships, regardless of whether they had male relatives to protect them.

“Now that the Taliban are in power in Afghanistan, what can we do? We only live for our children. Women want to work so they can earn money for their families.”

Under the Taliban, women were forbidden from working. Mehrmaa wanted to continue working to support her children. That drove her onto the streets.

“Now I live a nomadic life with my children. We have no permanent home and we don’t stay in one place for long.”

 

Work became a means of survival

Mehrmaa is a trained teacher and midwife. She treats women’s fertility problems with herbs and gives massages for knee, back and joint pain. Under her late husband’s guidance, Mehrmaa learned to drive. She ran the first driving school for women in her province and taught hundreds of women how to drive.

Then the Taliban banned women from driving. Under the direction of the Ministry of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, or morality police, local Taliban authorities reprimanded Mehrmaa and issued her a warning.

“They say driving is only for men. But women have proved that they, too, can drive. Even those who don’t have a husband in their family have learnt to drive.”

After her husband died, Mehrmaa had to continue working to feed her children. To survive, she returned to the city and began working as a teacher.

Despite changing careers, Mehrmaa was once again banned from working. Girls were banned from attending school from high school onwards, and educational institutions were closed to them. Mehrmaa took up work as a domestic helper and also provided personal physical education lessons to girls and women who had been excluded from school.

She is also a skilled physiotherapist. She founded the first women-only sports and massage centre so that she could help women manage their weight and improve their overall health. Mehrmaa’s health advice has given hope to women who had lost faith in their recovery.

Through her work, Mehrmaa met an 18-year-old girl who had fallen into a well two years earlier, damaging her legs, arms and ribs in the accident. Mehrmaa treated the girl’s muscles by massaging them with olive and black cumin oil. In less than two months, the girl was able to move.

The girl’s father praised Mehrmaa’s skills at the local mosque. Men heard about her healing abilities and rushed to propose marriage to her.

The Taliban regime considers it shameful for an unmarried woman to work alone. When the morality police learnt that Mehrmaa had rejected all offers of marriage, they banned her from working.

Mehrmaa rejected a life of dependence on others.

“For the sake of my children, I want to earn my own honest living and not live under the humiliation of anyone,” she says.

Sometimes injustice is a greater pain than poverty.

“I will continue to fight against forced marriage for the sake of my children and in memory of my late husband, until my last breath,” Mehrmaa says.

Once again, Mehrmaa moved with her children, this time to the northeast of the country. She brought with her hope for justice and a better future.

The women of her new village encouraged Mehrmaa to stay and help provide healthcare at local clinics. They told her about the countless pregnant women who die before they can reach a hospital.

The women in the village speak of Mehrmaa with admiration, describing her as incredibly kind and capable.

“It’s as if there’s light in every finger of hers,” they say, using an Afghan proverb to describe someone who is highly skilled and brings much good to those around them.

Despite constant losses, threats, and marriage proposals, Mehrmaa keeps going. She fights for her children, for women in need, and for a better future. Mehrmaa envisions an Afghanistan where women can work freely, study, and take care of their families.

Excerpt:

The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasons

Les vacances 2026 prennent une nouvelle dimension avec le lancement de l'édition 2026 de « Chante et Danse avec l'Amazone ». L'événement démarre ce samedi 08 août 2026 à l'Esplanade de l'Amazone à Cotonou.

Le gouvernement béninois offre au public plus d'un mois de spectacles gratuits mêlant musique, danse et découvertes culturelles en cette période de vacances. C'est à l'occasion de l'événement phare "Chante et Danse avec l'Amazone". Cette manifestation culturelle se déroulera du samedi 8 août au 12 septembre 2026. Elle réunira sur une même scène des artistes, orchestres et compagnies de danse qui animeront les soirées au rythme des sonorités béninoises et d'autres expressions artistiques.

Au-delà du divertissement, « Chante et Danse avec l'Amazone » s'inscrit dans la dynamique de promotion de la culture béninoise et de valorisation des talents locaux. L'initiative mise en œuvre par le Ministère de la Culture, des Arts et du Patrimoine vise également à proposer aux populations et aux visiteurs un espace de loisirs accessible, sécurisé et convivial pendant la période des grandes vacances.

Prévue dans la continuité des célébrations de la Fête nationale, cette édition ambitionne de faire de l'Esplanade de l'Amazone un lieu de rassemblement autour de la musique, de la danse et du patrimoine culturel du Bénin.

Le Directeur départemental des Enseignements secondaire, technique et de la Formation professionnelle de l'Atlantique, Dr Mathias Amour Ahomadégbé, invite les chefs des établissements publics et privés d'enseignement secondaire général à procéder au retrait des dossiers des candidats ajournés au Brevet d'études du premier cycle (BEPC), session de 2026.

Les chefs d'établissement public et privé d'enseignement secondaire général de l'Atlantique doivent procéder au retrait des dossiers de leurs candidats recalés du BEPC du lundi 10 août 2026 à 9 heures au vendredi 4 septembre 2026 à 17 h 30. Selon le directeur Dr Mathias Amour Ahomadégbé, après ce délai, les dossiers non retirés feront l'objet d'une destruction pure et simple par les services compétents.

Les corps sans vie d'un homme et de son épouse ont été retrouvés, jeudi 6 août 2026, dans leur chambre à Kansounkpa, commune d'Abomey-Calavi.

Macabre découverte dans une habitation située à proximité du Collège d'enseignement général (CEG) de Kansounkpa. Selon Bip Radio , ce sont les fortes odeurs émanant de l'habitation qui ont attiré l'attention des riverains. Alertés, les secours se sont rendus sur les lieux où ils ont découvert les deux corps dans un état avancé de décomposition.

À l'intérieur de la chambre se trouvait également le fils du couple, âgé de deux ans. L'enfant était vivant au moment de l'intervenion des secours et a été pris en charge. Les circonstances de ce drame ne sont pas encore établies. Une enquête devrait permettre de déterminer les causes du décès du couple et de faire toute la lumière sur cette affaire

Résultats du 2ème tirage DOUBLE CHANCE 126/26 du Vendredi 07 Août 2026 (14H)
LOTO FORTUNE

- Zone A (5 premiers numéros) : 12-70-16-31-48
– Zone B (5 derniers numéros) : 34-10-75-51-72

NB : Désormais les numéros gagnants de 14 heures passent à 10 numéros gagnants au lieu de 05 numéros gagnants.

Ce qui change pour vous :
Vous gagnez si vos numéros sont :
– parmi les 5 premiers numéros tirés (Zone A)
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– parmi les 5 derniers numéros tirés (Zone B)
En clair vous avez maintenant 2 chances de gagner au lieu d'une !
La LNB vous offre encore plus d'opportunités… alors tentez votre chance dès maintenant !

La phase d'entretien des candidats retenus dans le cadre du concours de recrutement de quatorze (14) agents contractuels à durée déterminée (CDD) d'un an au profit de la Mairie de Cotonou est reportée.

Dans un communiqué, le Secrétaire exécutif de la Commune de Cotonou informe que les entretiens, initialement prévus le vendredi 7 août 2026 à 8 h 30, se tiendront finalement le mardi 11 août 2026 à la même heure. Ce report concerne l'ensemble des candidats déclarés admissibles à l'issue du concours de recrutement.

Les candidats retenus peuvent consulter la liste des admissibles sur la plateforme du service public ainsi que sur le site internet de la Mairie de Cotonou. Cette liste est également affichée au siège de la mairie, à Wologuèdè.

Les candidats sont invités à se présenter le jour de l'entretien munis d'une pièce d'identité en cours de validité, notamment la carte nationale d'identité, le passeport, la carte biométrique, le Certificat d'identification personnelle (CIP) ou toute autre pièce tenant lieu.

Rights groups say this as part of a pattern of targeting news outlets - the government has not commented.

Le Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique met à la disposition des bacheliers et parents, le guide d'information sur la procédure, les structures publiques et privées d'enseignement supérieur au Bénin, les filières de formations disponibles, les conditions académiques d'admission en première année et les principaux débouchés possibles.

Le sélectionneur des Amazones U20 du Bénin, Abdoulaye Ouzérou, a dévoilé ce jeudi 6 août 2026 la liste des 24 joueuses retenues pour la Coupe du monde féminine U20 de la FIFA. L'annonce a été faite au cours du Journal de la chaîne nationale Bénin TV.

24 joueuses sont sélectionnées pour la Coupe du monde féminine U20 de la FIFA. Abdoulaye Ouzérou a aussi choisi 4 réservistes pour les éventuels ajustements. Les Amazones poursuivront désormais leur préparation avant leur départ pour la Pologne, où elles représenteront le Bénin pour une première participation à une Coupe du monde féminine U20. La compétition mondiale se déroulera du 5 au 27 septembre 2026 en Pologne. Les Amazones seront opposées au Mexique. Elles affronteront ensuite l'Argentine avant de boucler la phase de groupes face à la Pologne, pays organisateur.

Liste des joueuses retenues

Gardiennes

1- Larissa SAÏΖΟΝΟU
2- Zyada OGUDARE
3- Loane ZINSOU-BODE

Défenseures

4- Laura ABIKOU
5- Naïlath SADIKOU
6- Estelle VIDINHOUEDE
7- Jocelyne TCHETCHRI
8- Assanath ALASSANE
9- Deo gratias EBI
10- Mistourath SEIBOU
11- Prisca HOUNKPO

Milieux

12- Joelle PADONOU
13- Fidèle TOUDONOU
14- Hermionne LOKOSSOU
15- Roukiyath YOYO
16- Yasminath DJIBRIL
17- Angela GBADESSI

Attaquantes

18- Germaine HONFO
19- Rakiba SABI-MANIN
20-Mouibath AWENA
21-Romaine GANDONOU
22- Pierrette CHIGBLO
23- Hosane SOUKOU
24- Bernice TETE

Réservistes

25- Nadiath SALIFOU
26- Dorcas OLUFADE
27- Ismath Mama KOUTA
28- Parfaite KPONDEKON

Un violent incendie provoqué par le renversement d'un camion transportant des produits pétroliers de contrebande a fait d'importants dégâts matériels dans la nuit du jeudi 6 au vendredi 7 août 2026 à Avakpa, à Porto-Novo. Si le sinistre a été maîtrisé par les équipes de l'Agence béninoise de protection civile (ABPC), aucune perte en vie humaine, ni blessé n'a été enregistrée.

« Aucun décès ni blessé n'a été enregistré. Toutefois, les dégâts matériels sont importants. Trois véhicules appartenant à l'institution UB-PHARMA ainsi qu'un tricycle ont été entièrement consumés par les flammes », c'est le bilan fait par l'Agence Béninoise de Protection Civile (ABPC) après l'incendie causé par un camion transportant des produits pétroliers de contrebande. L'accident s'est produit dans une zone située entre la Banque Atlantique et l'Université Adonaï, en face de l'agence Moov Africa.

« Sous l'effet des produits inflammables, le feu s'est propagé sur une distance d'environ 500 mètres, suivant un parcours en forme de « L ». Les flammes ont atteint les abords de l'institution UB-PHARMA, poursuivant leur propagation par les caniveaux jusqu'aux bas-fonds, faisant peser un risque important sur les installations et les biens situés dans la zone », informe la même source.

Les équipes opérationnelles de l'ABPC se sont mobilisées pour circonscrire le feu et sécuriser la zone. Le dispositif d'intervention a été renforcé avec l'appui des Centres communaux de protection civile de Sodjèatinmey (Akpakpa) et de Pobè.

Grâce aux moyens déployés, notamment deux lances Q2 option mousse sur division alimentée, les secours ont réussi à maîtriser puis éteindre complètement l'incendie.

A.A.A

Élu vice-président du Sénat de la République du Bénin, Louis Vlavonou, a réagi à sa désignation en exprimant sa reconnaissance envers ses collègues sénateurs et son engagement à œuvrer pour le bon fonctionnement de la nouvelle institution.

Dans une déclaration publiée après son élection, il dit accueillir cette responsabilité « avec une profonde émotion et un immense sens des responsabilités ». Le nouveau vice-président a remercié les sénateurs pour la confiance placée en lui. « Cette distinction m'honore et m'oblige à servir avec humilité, loyauté et dévouement notre chère Nation », a-t-il affirmé.

Louis Vlavonou a également adressé ses félicitations au président du Sénat, Patrice Talon, ainsi qu'aux autres membres du Bureau élus. Il a appelé à une gouvernance fondée sur le dialogue et la cohésion afin de faire du Sénat « une institution exemplaire, pleinement engagée au service de la démocratie, de la bonne gouvernance et du développement de notre pays ».

Le vice-président du Sénat souhaite que cette première mandature soit guidée par « l'unité, la sagesse, l'efficacité et le sens élevé de l'intérêt général ». Selon lui, « chacune de nos décisions doit contribuer au rayonnement de notre République et au bien-être de nos concitoyens ».

Un important incendie s'est déclaré dans la nuit du jeudi 6 au vendredi 7 août 2026 au quartier Avakpa, à Porto-Novo. Le sinistre est survenu après le renversement d'un camion transportant du carburant de contrebande à proximité de l'Université Adonaï.

En allant aux feux tricolores du carrefour Beau-Rivage, un camion se renverse et provoque un incendie. Le drame a eu lieu précisément dans la zone située entre la Banque Atlantique et l'Université Adonaï.

Le feu a atteint plusieurs constructions voisines. Une motocyclette et des voitures auraient été consumées par les flammes. Il n'y a pas encore un bilan officiel des victimes ou des blessés, ni des dégâts.

Les éléments de l'Agence nationale de protection civile (ANPC) de Porto-Novo sont intervenus dès les premières alertes. Des renforts venus de Cotonou et de Pobè ont ensuite été déployés afin de soutenir les opérations de lutte contre le feu.

Le Directeur départemental de la Police républicaine de l'Ouémé s'est rendu sur les lieux pour suivre les opérations et assurer la sécurisation du périmètre. Après plusieurs heures d'intervention, l'incendie a été circonscrit puis maîtrisé. Les services compétents poursuivent les constatations. Une enquête devra établir les circonstances exactes de l'accident afin de situer les responsabilités.

Young people facing Hiroshima’s Atomic Bomb Dome as storm clouds give way to morning light—a metaphor for humanity’s choice between living under the nuclear shadow and building a world without nuclear weapons. Credit: INPS Japan

By Katsuhiro Asagiri
HIROSHIMA, Japan, Aug 7 2026 (IPS)

This year’s Hiroshima Peace Declaration did not begin with words of remembrance alone. It opened instead with what the declaration called “military invasions using nuclear weapons as tools of intimidation,” “imperious actions by major powers in violation of international law,” and the failure of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT, Review Conference — for the third consecutive time — to adopt a final document.

The order was deliberate. The catastrophe of 81 years ago is not a memory sealed off in the past. It is directly connected to a present in which nuclear weapons are once again invoked as a means of projecting state power and coercing adversaries.

Hiroshima’s mayor, Kazumi Matsui, described a world in which distrust breeds retaliation, and retaliation is used to justify further violence. Such cycles, he warned, could ultimately result in “another Hiroshima or Nagasaki.”

At the same ceremony, Izumi Nakamitsu, the U.N. under-secretary-general and high representative for disarmament affairs, delivered a message from Secretary-General António Guterres that distilled the warning into a single question: What has humanity learned from Hiroshima? Will it choose a peaceful future, or continue to live under the shadow of nuclear annihilation?

This was not a rhetorical flourish reserved for a commemorative ceremony. What followed was an account of a world in which decades of nuclear arms reductions are being reversed, the norm against nuclear testing is under strain, military spending is surging and nuclear threats are increasingly used as instruments of intimidation.

One message spoke through the memories of survivors; the other through the crisis confronting the international system. But both arrived at the same place. Will the world continue to call an order sustained by fear “security”? Or will it restore dialogue, diplomacy, international law and trust — all of them slow and difficult — to the center of security policy?

The remains of the Prefectural Industry Promotion Building, after the dropping of the atomic bomb, in Hiroshima, Japan. This site was later preserved as a monument. Credit: UN Photo/DB

From Personal Memory to a World in Crisis

At the heart of the Peace Declaration was not nuclear strategy, but human experience.

It recalled a woman who could never forget her sister, whose skin had peeled away and whose face had been horribly disfigured by the bombing. It spoke of another woman who was exposed to the bomb at the age of 3, suffered repeated illnesses and lived in fear of what disease might strike next.

And there was a man who survived the bombing at 9. Watching civilians die in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he told young people that building a world without conflict must begin with overcoming the impulse toward conflict within themselves and making an effort to understand the perspectives of others.

Credit: UN photo

Such testimony is a reminder that the damage caused by nuclear weapons does not end with the blast. Radiation-related illness, the loss of family, discrimination and anxiety about the future can shape a life for decades. When strategists calculate the value of possessing nuclear weapons, it is this long span of human time that most easily disappears from view.

Mr. Guterres’s message noted that as the number of hibakusha, the atomic bomb survivors, declines, the importance of their words only grows. Their testimony is more than a record of tragedy. It is evidence that brings the abstract concept of nuclear deterrence back to the reality of human bodies and human lives.

Mr. Matsui called on citizens and young people to build connections across national borders with those who hold different values. Mr. Guterres urged governments to choose dialogue over division and cooperation over confrontation. The proposals may appear to operate on different scales, but they share a premise: Distrust among nations deepens when societies lose the capacity to understand those they see as different.

The Nuclear “Bargain” Nations Can No Longer Agree On

To understand the present crisis, it is necessary to examine the bargain on which the NPT rests.

Non-nuclear-weapon states agree not to acquire nuclear arms. Nuclear-weapon states undertake to pursue nuclear disarmament in good faith. And all parties retain the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy under international safeguards. The treaty bound these three commitments together as a single grand bargain.

The framework was never complete. India, Pakistan and Israel remain outside the treaty, while North Korea has declared its withdrawal. Nor have the nuclear-weapon states recognized by the treaty fully honored their longstanding commitment to disarm.

NPT under pressure. Credit: INPS Japan

At the 2026 Review Conference, that imbalance collided with intensifying geopolitical conflict.

One dispute over the final document concerned language stating that Iran must not seek nuclear weapons. The United States and others pressed for stronger wording on Iran’s uranium enrichment and its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. Iran objected to being singled out and argued that attacks by the United States and Israel on its nuclear facilities had themselves damaged international law and the nonproliferation regime.

But Iran was not the sole cause of the breakdown. It was where a deeper fracture came to the surface.

In the war in Ukraine, the safety of nuclear-related sites, including the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, has repeatedly been placed at risk. In the Middle East, a zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, first promised in 1995, has still not been established. And under AUKUS, the security partnership among Australia, Britain and the United States, the planned transfer of nuclear-powered submarine technology to a non-nuclear-weapon state has raised questions about safeguards and the precedent it may set.

Meanwhile, China is expanding its nuclear forces, arms control between the United States and Russia is receding, and all nine nuclear-armed states are modernizing their arsenals. If nuclear powers and their allies place ever greater importance on deterrence while demanding restraint only from non-nuclear states, suspicion will inevitably grow that the treaty is less a mechanism for preventing proliferation than a system for preserving the privileges of those that already possess the bomb.

The NPT Review Conference has now failed to agree on a final document three times in succession — in 2015, 2022 and 2026. The last consensus was reached in 2010.

The treaty will not disappear tomorrow, and there is no alternative framework with anything close to its near-universal membership. But institutions do not always collapse overnight. Each time promises are deferred, criticism of violations is applied selectively and a conference ends without agreement, a little more faith is lost in the proposition that states are safer when they abide by the system.

As Ms. Nakamitsu observed after the Review Conference, nonproliferation and disarmament are two sides of the same coin. Nuclear-weapon states cannot indefinitely demand that others forgo nuclear arms while failing to meet their own obligations under Article VI of the NPT. The problem is not the wording of the treaty. It is whether governments still believe in the bargain it represents.

An AI-generated conceptual illustration shows opposing rows of strategic missile launchers beyond a broken restraint, symbolizing the collapse of binding arms-control limits and a renewed nuclear arms race in which each side’s pursuit of security increases the danger for all. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri

When Disarmament Goes Into Reverse

The signs of eroding trust extend far beyond the conference room.

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, which imposed verifiable limits on the strategic nuclear forces of the United States and Russia, expired on Feb. 5, 2026. For the first time in more than half a century, the strategic arsenals of the two countries that possess most of the world’s nuclear weapons are no longer subject to legally binding limits.

The norm against nuclear testing is also under pressure. In 2025, the U.S. president spoke of resuming “testing,” without making clear whether he meant nuclear explosive tests or missile trials. Against that backdrop, the United States became the only country to vote against a draft resolution in the U.N. General Assembly’s First Committee calling for the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, or CTBT. Even if no explosive test takes place, ambiguity from a major power about its support for a longstanding norm can give other countries a pretext to weaken it in turn.

Military spending is climbing as well. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, global military expenditure reached a record $2.887 trillion in 2025, marking an 11th consecutive annual increase in real terms. Spending rose by 14 percent in Europe and by 8.1 percent in Asia and Oceania.

Every government has an explanation: Russia’s invasion, China’s rise, uncertainty about alliance commitments, preparations for regional conflict. Considered separately, each can be understood as a response to a security concern. But one country’s defense appears to another as a threat. One side arms in response to the other, prompting the other to build up again. This is the security dilemma: Actions taken in the name of safety can make the system as a whole more dangerous.

Supporters of nuclear deterrence point to the fact that nuclear weapons have not been used in war since Hiroshima and Nagasaki as evidence that deterrence works. Yet there have also been numerous episodes in which false alarms, equipment failures, misread intelligence or errors of judgment brought the world dangerously close to nuclear war.

At a discussion held alongside the 2026 NPT Review Conference, the lesson was expressed in a stark phrase: “Luck is not a security strategy.” Nuclear deterrence requires every future leader, every intelligence assessment and every communications system to function correctly in every crisis. As artificial intelligence is incorporated into warning and command-and-control systems, faster decision-making could also leave less time to recognize and correct a mistake.

Whether nuclear deterrence played a role in the past and whether it can remain safe indefinitely are not the same question.

What the Ban Treaty Can Do — and What It Cannot

The 2nd meeting of state parties to TPNW toook place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York between 27 November and 1 December in 2023. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri, President of INPS Japan.

Against this backdrop, the first Review Conference of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or TPNW, will meet at United Nations headquarters in New York from Nov. 30 through Dec. 4. The conference will be presided over by South Africa, a country that once dismantled its own nuclear arsenal.

Tonga’s accession in July 2026 brought to 100 the number of countries that have signed, ratified or acceded to the treaty. Of these, 75 are states parties.

The TPNW comprehensively prohibits the development, testing, production, possession, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons. It also requires states parties to assist people harmed by nuclear weapons use and testing and to remediate contaminated environments.

That is where it differs from the NPT. While the NPT primarily manages the relationship between nuclear-weapon and non-nuclear-weapon states, the TPNW treats nuclear weapons themselves as a humanitarian issue and a matter of international law. It asks not who should be permitted to possess nuclear arms, but whether possessing them can be considered acceptable at all.

The Review Conference is expected to focus on a political declaration rejecting nuclear use and threats of use without exception; progress in carrying out the 2022 Vienna Action Plan; the work of the Scientific Advisory Group; mechanisms for victim assistance and environmental remediation; the designation of an international authority to verify the elimination of nuclear weapons; and the further universalization of the treaty.

Particular attention will fall on a proposed international trust fund for victim assistance and environmental remediation. The effects of nuclear weapons use and testing are still felt in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, at the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan, in the Marshall Islands and across other Pacific islands. If the fund takes shape, disarmament will no longer be only a negotiation over future numbers of nuclear warheads. It will also become a question of nuclear justice: Who bears responsibility for harm already done?

The TPNW has an obvious limitation. No nuclear-armed state has joined it, and the treaty alone cannot compel the elimination of nuclear warheads. Ignoring that fact would obscure the distance between establishing a prohibition and achieving actual disarmament.

But three consecutive failures at NPT Review Conferences have also shown that waiting for agreement among the nuclear powers will not produce progress on its own. The NPT can preserve the legal obligation to disarm, while the TPNW develops the norm of prohibition and practical approaches to victim assistance, environmental remediation and verification. The two treaties can be treated not as rivals, but as complementary frameworks, each addressing gaps left by the other.

Where Does Japan Stand?

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, signed 20 September 2017 by 50 United Nations member states. Credit: UN Photo / Paulo Filgueiras

The Hiroshima Peace Declaration called on the Japanese government to begin by attending the TPNW Review Conference as an observer and then to ratify the treaty without delay.

Attending as an observer would not commit Japan to immediate accession. Some NATO countries that rely on the U.S. nuclear deterrent have attended previous meetings of states parties after explicitly setting out their differences with the treaty.

Japan’s participation would expose the tension between its reliance on nuclear deterrence and its identity as the only country to have suffered atomic bombings in war. But it would also allow Japan to draw on its extensive experience in medical care for survivors, research on the effects of radiation, preservation of testimony, victim assistance, environmental remediation and disarmament education to help build practical mechanisms.

For years, the Japanese government has described its role as a “bridge” between nuclear-weapon and non-nuclear-weapon states. But building a bridge requires listening, in the same room, to what each side fears and what each considers unjust. That claim loses credibility if Japan remains anchored to only one bank.

Rethinking What We Call “Reality”

Both messages called on citizens to act because nuclear policy is not shaped by governments and experts alone.

Through education, journalism, elections, culture, investment and everyday language, societies learn to regard nuclear weapons either as a guarantee of security or as an unacceptable humanitarian threat. That shared understanding, in turn, defines the range of policies a government believes it can pursue.

A future lived under the shadow of nuclear fear may not be chosen all at once by a single leader. It can also be chosen through an accumulation of small acts of acceptance: tolerating nuclear threats when they come from one’s own side, equating military expansion with security, and confining the testimony of atomic bomb survivors and nuclear test victims to commemorative anniversaries.

A world without nuclear weapons will not be achieved at a single conference, either. It will require people to learn what happened in the atomic bombings and nuclear tests; speak with those who hold different views; reject nuclear threats whether they come from an ally or an adversary; press governments to fulfill their disarmament obligations and attend the TPNW conference; and support victims and disarmament education. Each step may be modest. Each can also help change the standards by which society judges nuclear weapons.

What Hiroshima offered the world this year was not an optimistic prediction. It was a choice.

A future in which humanity continues to balance one nuclear terror against another — or a future in which nations build a common security that no longer requires nuclear weapons.

No one needs to be an expert to answer that question, and no one needs to wait for a government’s permission. Can security that depends on the threat of incinerating cities truly be called security? Asking ourselves that question is the first political act.

This article is brought to you by INPS Japan in collaboration with Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.

 

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Excerpt:

On the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing, Hiroshima’s Peace Declaration and the U.N. secretary-general’s message set out two possible futures as the global nuclear order frays

En visite officielle au Bénin, le ministre nigérian de la Défense, le Général Christopher Gwabin Musa, s'est rendu à la Zone industrielle de Glo-Djigbé (GDIZ) ce jeudi 6 août 2026. Après cette visite, il s'est déclaré impressionné par les progrès réalisés sur cette plateforme industrielle qu'il considère comme un modèle de transformation économique pour l'Afrique.

Présent au Bénin dans le cadre du renforcement des relations bilatérales entre Abuja et Cotonou, le Général Christopher Gwabin Musa, ministre nigérian de la Défense a fait une immersion à la Zone industrielle de Glo-Djigbé ce jeudi 6 août.
Découvrant pour la première fois la GDIZ, qu'il avait auparavant suivie à travers les plateformes numériques, le ministre nigérian de la Défense a salué les résultats obtenus en l'espace de 5 ans d'exploitation de cette zone. « Ce que j'ai vu m'a vraiment étonné. Je suis très fier de ce qui a été réalisé ici et du leadership qui a porté cette vision », a-t-il déclaré.

Le Général Christopher Gwabin Musa a également encouragé les entreprises de son pays à s'approvisionner davantage auprès de la GDIZ plutôt que de se tourner vers des marchés plus éloignés. Selon lui, les produits fabriqués au Bénin offrent une opportunité de renforcer les échanges régionaux tout en créant davantage de valeur ajoutée en Afrique.
Se félicitant des partenariats déjà engagés entre les deux pays, le Général Musa a exprimé le souhait de voir cette coopération s'intensifier afin que le Bénin et le Nigéria puissent tirer pleinement profit de leurs complémentarités économiques.
Christopher Gwabin Musa et toute sa délégation ont été accueillis par Létondji Beheton, directeur général de la SIPI-Bénin, structure en charge de l'exploitation et du développement de la zone économique spéciale. Avec lui, la délégation nigériane a eu droit en début de visite, à une séance d'explication sur le projet GDIZ, la vision ayant conduit à sa mise en œuvre, le modèle économique qui la sous-tend et les capacités opérationnelles des unités déjà présentes.
Etendue sur un vaste domaine de 1640 hectares, la GDIZ au terme d'une première phase d'exploitation de 400 hectares, compte environ 36 investisseurs dont une vingtaine déjà opérationnelle qui emploient déjà plus de 25 000 jeunes béninois.

F. A. A.

Burkina Faso’s junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré attends a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 10 May 2025. Credit: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP

By Andrew Firmin
LONDON, Aug 7 2026 (IPS)

Burkina Faso’s charismatic young military leader, army captain Ibrahim Traoré, has stopped pretending. In April, he declared that people should ‘forget about the question of democracy’ because ‘democracy isn’t for us’. When Traoré seized power in September 2022, ousting a leader who’d staged a coup earlier that year, he promised elections by June 2024. The junta broke that pledge, pushing any transition back to 2029. Now Traoré has confirmed he has no intention of restoring democracy. Instead, Burkina Faso’s military junta is tightening its repression, while working with neighbouring states to internationalise its dangerously undemocratic model.

Crackdown intensifies

Repression has unfolded in a context of jihadist insurgency. Frustration with the democratically elected government’s security failures helped fuel the conditions that led to military rule, but the army hasn’t turned things around. The insurgency has grown, and civilians are paying the price. All sides are accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes, and since the coup, there’s evidence that Burkina Faso’s armed forces and allied militias have increasingly targeted civilians, particularly members of the Fulani ethnic group.

A military seen to be failing against the insurgency and killing civilians would lose any claims to legitimacy. That makes the junta determined to control the narrative, silence dissent and crush any perceived challenge to its power.

Traoré backs his anti-democratic rhetoric with actions. In January, the government dissolved all political parties, claiming they sowed division and weakened the social fabric. The junta is also targeting civil society organisations (CSOs). In recent months, authorities have suspended over a thousand organisations. In April, the government dissolved 118 CSOs, citing non-compliance with a July 2025 law that imposed strict and onerous registration, compliance and reporting requirements. The law supposedly gave CSOs a year to comply, but the government dissolved them before the deadline expired. It targeted human rights organisations such as the African Meeting for the Defence of Human Rights, the Burkinabè Coalition for Women’s Rights and Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture.

Religious associations and student groups have fared little better. Association As Salam and the Coordination of Young Muslims of Burkina have no explicit human rights focus, but authorities have suspended both for alleged public disorder and activities said to fall outside their stated purpose. In May, the government suspended the General Student Union of Burkina Faso, the country’s biggest student group, after it issued a statement criticising the government’s security record, which the government claimed glorified terrorism.

Authorities have suspended several media outlets, typically over their reporting on the security situation. In May, the state media regulator indefinitely suspended French TV channel TV5 Monde, accusing it of siding with terrorist groups.

Anybody who speaks out risks arrest, detention, enforced disappearance, forced conscription into the armed forces and torture. Burkina Faso’s LGBTQI+ people are particularly exposed, since in 2025 the junta criminalised same-sex relations, with jail sentences of up to five years. The government has also granted itself the power to strip citizenship from anyone deemed to be acting against the national interest. Last December, repression took an even more ominous turn when the junta announced its intention to reinstate the death penalty.

Due to these actions, Burkina Faso has recently been added to the CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist, which identifies countries where a severe deterioration in the quality of civic space is taking place.

Repressive alliance

Burkina Faso isn’t working alone. Under Traoré, it has forged close relations with two neighbouring military regimes, Mali and Niger. Together, they’re promoting a model that rejects democracy and international scrutiny. In January 2025, they completed their joint withdrawal from the key regional organisation, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a year after forming their rival Alliance of Sahel States. The move was clearly a response to ECOWAS pressure to restore civilian rule.

The three states have now formally begun the process to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC). They’ve denounced the court as a ‘tool of neocolonial oppression’ and promised to set up an alternative, although any body they create is unlikely to retain the ICC’s power to issue arrest warrants against sitting heads of state and other senior figures. For survivors of human rights atrocities, withdrawal from the ICC and the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice removes vital potential routes to justice.

In February, Burkina Faso suspended the UN Human Rights Office, which had operated in the country since 2019, in retaliation for a statement by UN human rights chief Volker Türk urging the junta to reverse its ban on political parties and open up civic space. The UN has now concluded it has no choice but to close its office.

These moves shield military leaders and security forces from external accountability. They’re part of a wider realignment that has seen Burkina Faso and its allies turn away from former colonial power France and other democratic states and towards Russia, a partner with no interest in human rights. Burkina Faso’s relations with Russia have extended beyond military cooperation to stronger economic ties. Last year the two countries signed a gold-mining deal.

Even as he rejects international scrutiny, Traoré has cultivated a global following. Through adept use of social media and a steady stream of disinformation, he casts himself as a pan-African leader in the mould of liberation-era icons such as Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s revolutionary former president. His message taps into real anger about colonialism and the power imbalances in relations with western states.

But the people whose rights he tramples aren’t westerners. The civilians being slaughtered by the army and the activists and journalists being silenced are Burkinabe people. There’s nothing un-African about democratic freedoms, and nothing pan-African about a leader who denies them. African democracies have the most to lose if Traoré’s model spreads, and are the most able to challenge it. They should refuse to normalise his narrative and press him to restore fundamental freedoms, rebuild a path to democratic rule and recognise the value of international accountability.

Andrew Firmin is CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

For interviews or more information, please contact research@civicus.org

 

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Action Against Hunger holds a commemoration event for the 17 staff members killed in Muttur, Sri Lanka on August 4th, 2006. Credit: Action Against Hunger

By Rotimy Djossaya
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 7 2026 (IPS)

This summer, an ambush on a marked humanitarian convoy in Duk County, South Sudan, left 17 dead and five injured. While the UN called for an immediate investigation, history suggests the victims’ families will wait indefinitely for answers.

We suspended field movements in the area pending a security review, which means communities already facing crisis levels of hunger lost access to life-saving assistance, at least temporarily.

The emblem on a vehicle or a vest once offered protection: a shared understanding, codified in international law, that those delivering food, water, medical care and other basic relief would not be targets of violence. That understanding is breaking down.

In the past three years, more than 1,000 humanitarian workers have been killed, most notably in Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Worryingly, 2024 was the worst year on record with 383 aid workers killed worldwide. That’s more than one each day.

This year, the recent ambush brought the toll to 29 in South Sudan alone — and it is only August. Roughly 90% of those attacked are local and national staff, the people furthest from headlines and closest to the danger.

Twenty years ago this month, seventeen of our colleagues were executed in our office in Muttur, Sri Lanka, wearing shirts that clearly identified them as humanitarian aid workers. It remains one of the deadliest attacks of its kind. Two decades later, despite evidence pointing to the likely responsibility of state security forces, no one has been held accountable. We are still calling for a new, independent investigation.

Rotimy Djossaya, Chief Impact Officer for Action Against Hunger

My organization operates in more than 55 countries and is made up of nearly 9,000 people, most of them locals from the communities we serve. When I ask them to travel a road in Jonglei State or run a nutrition site in Sudan, I am asking them to accept a risk that many people in the world would refuse. Donors, governments, and agencies like mine share a duty to reduce that risk so that every humanitarian worker comes home at the end of the day.

There is a framework for addressing this. In 2024, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2730, which calls on States to respect and protect United Nations and humanitarian personnel in accordance with their obligations under international law. Last year saw the introduction of the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel, a commitment to uphold international humanitarian law, prevent attacks, and pursue accountability. Over 110 countries have signed on, from every region and political tradition. While the issue still generates broad agreement, it is increasingly polarized, and the declaration’s enforcement is weak.

When a marked humanitarian vehicle is attacked with impunity, the international laws designed to protect humanity become nothing more than abstract targets.

The recent cuts to international aid budgets make a challenging situation even harder. Although it’s not clear that recent funding cuts led directly to any violence, it’s evident that NGOs have far less money to spend on security response management. The 2025 Aid Worker Security Report documented what the funding collapse means for safety: organizations are cutting security positions, communications, and risk analysis, with the danger falling overwhelmingly on local organizations.

In principle, localization is smart, and the humanitarian reset is a chance to build a system that is locally led, globally supported, and more efficient. But it only works if resources move with the risk. Local NGOs are routinely excluded from security funding, training, and data-sharing. They are expected to work in the world’s most dangerous places without the protections international agencies take for granted. They face a difficult choice: abandon some of the people and places they serve or accept greater risk to the safety of their staff.

The aid workers this summer were traveling in a marked humanitarian convoy. Five of them were staff of our local partner, the John Dau Foundation, an organization founded by one of the “lost boys” of South Sudan, who fled unimaginable violence as a child and answered it by building clinics and feeding children in the very county where this attack took place. That people who devoted their lives to healing were met with this violence shows how badly protections for humanitarian workers have eroded. The markings on their vehicle were supposed to shield them, but they did not.

As we mark World Humanitarian Day on August 19 and approach the UN General Assembly in September, the global community and member states must act. They must mandate and fund security allocations directly for local partners, insist on independent investigations for harmed personnel, and enforce UN Security Council Resolution 2730. Commitments on paper only protect lives when perpetrators face consequences. Those who step into the crossfire to feed the world’s forgotten children should not have to pay for that humanity with their lives.

Together, let’s honor those who have served, stand with those who continue to serve, and act for humanity.

Rotimy Djossaya is, Chief Impact Officer at Action Against Hunger.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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