Mukesh Kapila

Ethiopia arguments

The genocidal conflict in Tigray has sucked in many of Ethiopia’s varied ethnic groups, and polarised positions. Some critical questions and answers.

Drowning in the soup of male violence

From womb to tomb, girls and women are exposed to male violence in every neighbourhood, everywhere.

The world’s biggest active war: Appeal for Tigray, Ethiopia

The civil war in Tigray, Ethiopia is a year old. It is the biggest active armed conflict in the world with millions blockaded and denied humanitarian aid, even as massacres and sexual violence abound, and famine is getting established. Distinguished scholars and researchers from around the world appeal for the blockade to be lifted as prerequisite for negotiations and eventually peace.

Are peacemakers really blessed?

Making peace is a messy business. And the best of intentions to bring peace and harmony in situations of armed conflict can backfire. Sometimes war must run its course before peace can be constructed.

Every atrocity needs a face

Faceless victims get forgotten and faceless offenders go unpunished. That is how justice is truly blinded. That is also why egregious human rights abuses including mass atrocities and genocides need a face.

The malignant pseudo-science of ‘parental alienation’

What is parental alienation? Based on junk science, this dangerous concept is destroying many families even as domestic abuse is allowed to flourish by courts. A grave injustice around a peculiar form of violence that affects thousands of mothers and children, worldwide.

Circles of impunity: why sexual violence by humanitarians and peacekeepers keeps happening

Why does sexual exploitation and abuse continue to happen in humanitarian and peacekeeping operations worldwide? What must be done to break the circle of impunity?

What Climate ‘Code Red’ Means for Africa

There is much talk on the #ClimateCrisis. And the impacts of #globalwarming take on existentialist proportions for the most poor and vulnerable on the planet. Especially so for peoples in #Africa as their continent is warming slightly faster and their sea levels rising slightly more than elsewhere, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. What will happen there?

Learning from the village that conquered COVID-19

COVID-19 has brought out the best of humanity. But also exposed a lot of hypocrisy about global health solidarity even as policies of national and sub-national selfishness have worsened inequalities. But in a tiny corner of India, the villagers didn’t lament their leaders nor their gods. They conquered the pandemic by taking matters into their own hands. Their lesson for the wider world is neither new nor complex. But easily overlooked in our sophisticated technocratic age. What can the world learn?

Health in the crosshairs of the Tigray conflict

Mukesh Kapila – 31 August 2021 As Ethiopia’s civil war approaches its first deadly anniversary in November, there is, as yet, little prospect for peace. The underlying causes of the immediate conflict are bitterly contested and the essential conditions for solutions remain elusive. Geopolitical factors mean that the African Union and United Nations are paralysed,Continue reading “Health in the crosshairs of the Tigray conflict”