Controversy over genetically modified food in Nigeria – DW – 05/22/2025
05/22/2025
May 22, 2025
Genetically modified organisms, or GMOS, are under intense scrutiny in Nigeria. Some of the country's scientists are concerned that genetically modified food could cause health and fertility issues while others argue that it can boost food security. Eddy Micah Jr. talks to Dr. Rufus Ebegba, who introduced GMOs in Nigeria, and DW correspondent Ben Shemang in Abuja.
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Civilians in northern Gaza face severe food shortages as aid fails to reach the area. Families are making do with one meal a day — and lack many essentials like clean water and cooking gas. Before the war, Hazem Lubbad was a university student, supporting his studies while working as a waiter at a restaurant in Gaza City. For the past 19 months, he has been hunkering down with his extended family in Sheikh Radwan, a neighborhood in the northwest of Gaza City. Many neighboring areas, such as Beit Lahiya and Jabalia, have been ordered by the Israeli military to 'evacuate' and move south. The area faces constant Israeli airstrikes and shelling, residents say, as well as a desperate struggle to find enough food. Moving around the area is dangerous, too. "We eat whatever is available, one meal a day, from morning until late at night. Sometimes it is lentils; sometimes it is pasta," the 21-year-old Palestinian said in a video message from Gaza. Food has been in short supply throughout the war, Lubbad said. Now, some food has begun to trickle into Gaza after an 11-week blockade imposed by the Israeli government, but residents say it is still not reaching the north. Children in Gaza live a life in constant fear To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Israelclosed the crossings and halted all aid deliveries into Gaza on March 2. Israeli officials said that Hamas was stealing aid and using it to supply its own fighters, without providing evidence to support this claim. Hamas, which is in charge of Gaza, is considered a terrorist group by Israel, Germany, the US and several other countries. Civilians face daily struggle for food amid war "There has been no flour for a month and a half to two months. A kilo of flour on the black-market costs 80–100 shekels (roughly €20-24 or $22-28), and the situation we are living in does not allow us to buy it," explained Lubbad, adding that no one in the family has a regular income anymore due to the war. Lubbad said that they had set up a basic solar-powered phone charging station where people could recharge their phones in exchange for money. "Without this money, there's no income," he said. This means that he cannot afford to buy much in the markets, where prices have skyrocketed. According to residents, some of the aid that recently entered Gaza was looted by desperate and hungry people. Others are selling food at inflated prices. Israel has not allowed foreign journalists into Gaza since it launched its war following the Hamas terror attacks in 2023, so DW often has to rely on talking to Gazans over the phone. Residents in the north are also watching with horror at the news of almost daily killings of people trying to reach food distribution sites in southern Gaza. These sites are run by a private American-Israeli company called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and secured by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private US-backed aid group, recently started operating in Gaza Image: AFP/Getty Images The United Nations and other humanitarian organizations have rejected the new food distribution system, arguing that it would be unable to meet the needs of Gaza's 2.3 million inhabitants and would allow Israel to use food as a means of controlling the population. There are no distribution sites in northern Gaza and for people in the north it would be too far and dangerous to get to them. 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It added that the military is "aware of reports regarding casualties, and the details of the incident are being looked into." The military also said that it "allows the American Civil Organization (GHF) to operate independently in order to enable the distribution of aid to the Gazan residents — and not to Hamas." The International Red Cross (ICRC) said that its field hospital in Rafah had received "a mass casualty influx of 184 patients" on Tuesday morning. Nineteen cases were declared dead upon arrival, the statement said, and eight died shortly after. The majority of cases had suffered gunshot wounds. What is happening at the new distribution points for aid? Last week, DW spoke to a young man who had been displaced in southern Gaza and who had managed to obtain two food boxes from a GHF distribution point. "Anyone could carry as much as they could. There were no instructions about the number, no checks, or anything," Muhammad Qishta said by phone, adding that the boxes contained rice, sugar, flour, halva (sweet sesame paste), oil, biscuits, and pasta. "Since there were no clear instructions about which streets to take to get in and out of the area, some people entered streets they didn't know were off-limits, and there was gunfire. I ran quickly and didn't see anything, but I heard the sound of gunfire," 30-year-old Qishta said. In Sheikh Radwan in northern Gaza, Hazem Lubbad and his relatives are staying put. They do not want to leave their area because "everywhere is the same bad situation. Everywhere is dangerous." Explosions are ongoing in Gaza — as are food shortages Image: Amir Cohen/REUTERS For now, Lubbad said they have also resorted to grinding pasta and lentils to make bread. "We make 20 pieces of pita bread daily and divide them among 13 people. Each person gets one or two pieces of bread per day. 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4 days ago
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Inside the Swiss valley partially swallowed by a glacier – DW – 06/03/2025
The dramatic collapse of Switzerland's Birch glacier wiped the village of Blatten off the map. DW spoke to locals and experts about what happened and what comes next. Days after a natural disaster strikes, you often find survivors combing through rubble for their belongings or shoveling mud out of their crumbling homes. You might see prime ministers walking around the zone offering condolences, or rescue crews operating big, mechanical diggers to clear the scene. But the Swiss village of Blatten is caught in a kind of post-catastrophe paralysis. Buried under millions of cubic meters of rock and ice debris, it has been all but wiped off the map. And the site is still too unstable for crews to access, almost a week after the Birch glacier collapsed and swallowed the Alpine idyll. Evacuated resident Daniel Ritler describes the moment the glacier destroyed his hometown as being like 'an explosion' Image: Rosie Birchard/DW "It was like an explosion — like an explosion in my heart," evacuee Daniel Ritler told DW as he looked out over his buried hometown. "We knew immediately that everything was destroyed." "For seconds, there was an emptiness. You could really feel it," he added. "There was still a bit of hope, but as soon as the fog cleared, we saw the catastrophe." Evacuated in time Ritler, who kept sheep and ran a tourism business in Blatten, is staying with friends for now. "We lost our house, our stables, and of course, all those memories. We lived in a little paradise," he said. Though the deluge is thought to have claimed one life, Ritler and the other roughly 300 residents were evacuated in time. And many here feel lucky to be alive — aware that a similar event in a less wealthy country could have wrought even more damage. Injured cow 'Loni' was evacuated along with most residents of the Alpine village days before the landslide Image: Peter Klaunzer/KEYSTONE/dpa/picture alliance We meet him in Wiler, 3.5 kilometers (2.1 miles) from Blatten and the closest accessible point to the disaster zone, which is now serving as a crisis coordination hub. Here, the usual Alpine soundtrack of birdsong and the river rushing down the valley is drowned out by helicopters taking off, transporting scientists and geologists to survey the damage aerially, and assess the risk of further fallout. Mountain populations 'more and more threatened' One of those experts is glaciologist Saskia Gindraux. "We had a lot of rock and silt and sediment going onto a glacier, and this mass caused the glacier to really push forward — and everything just went down the valley," she explained. The unstable mountain face and thousands of tonnes of rocky debris has made it impossible for emergency workers to intervene to stabilise the zone Image: Cyril Zingaro/KEYSTONE/dpa The Swiss scientist told DW that a "coincidence of causes" led to the collapse. "It's hard to say this is linked to climate change and this one is not. It's hard to put a label on an event, but we are facing really high temperatures here in the Alps," she told DW. "It's twice the normal increase of other parts of the world," she added. Alpine glaciers have been retreating for decades, which Gindraux said makes the rock less stable. "That's one cause ... The other one is maybe permafrost that is melting, and the other one, the geology." "With climate change, we saw that the oldest natural hazards, so rock fall or glacier collapse or landslides, etc, they increase in frequency." "The population in the mountains are more and more threatened with these types of events." Fears neighbors 'won't come back' Aside from the hum of helicopters, the streets of Wiler are quiet. Local resident Alex Rieder is packing up his car: Two black bin bags full of clothes and other basics for his neighbors who have found themselves suddenly homeless. "Will they be compensated for the belongings they lost?" he wondered. "That has to happen quickly. Now because people need money to live. Because if they're gone for 10 or 20 years, they won't come back," Rieder told DW. Image: Rosie Birchard/DW Rieder fears for the future of life in this part of the Alps. "There's only one school left in the entire valley," he said. Inside his garage, Rieder shows us masks he helped craft for the local carnival — just one of many traditions dating back centuries here. He knows that if more people leave, this cultural heritage will become harder and harder to hold onto. But asked if he thinks it will disappear entirely, Rieder is defiant. "Traditions will never die. That will be the last thing. Because that's what gives people the most strength." No more evacuations planned No further evacuations are planned in nearby towns or villages for now. But they remain on high alert. Some 45 minutes' drive away in Gampel, flood prevention measures are in place, with some smaller bridges deliberately deconstructed to avoid further fallout. "We now have to see how the dangers develop further at the site of the damage. Rock masses could continue to fall from the mountain — and we have to keep monitoring how the danger develops in terms of the course of the river," regional president Christian Rieder told DW on Sunday. Locals face uncertainty after Swiss Alps glacier collapse To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "Depending on how the danger develops ... we will take further measures," he added. The situation was "stable' on Monday with "no notable changes" at the Birch glacier, according to Swiss broadcaster RTS. But smaller landslides continue, and there has been "no improvement" to allow crews to enter the zone securely. 'We have to find a new purpose' For survivors whose homes and livelihoods are buried in a greyish-brown debris, which authorities say is 100 meters (328 feet) deep in some areas, it's clear there's no going back. From the drivers' seat of his van, with the views of lush mountain landscapes filling the windows and wing mirrors bearing the disaster that unfolded here, evacuee Daniel Ritler told DW it is hard to imagine what life after Blatten might look like. "I built a farm from scratch, always adapting to the challenges of the future," he said, adding: "That was before." "Now we have to find a new place to live and a new purpose. And it will certainly take some time until we can find our way again."
