News stories by Zack Baddorf

BANGUI, Mar 14 (IPS) - Zack Baddorf is an All Survivors Project ResearcherIn the Central African Republic, 45-year-old "Theodore" was captured by an armed group in February 2017 during an attack on his village of Mingala in the country's southeast. He was taken with 21 other men to a nearby ad hoc rebel military base and locked up in a house-turned-prison guarded by six armed men.

DONETSK, Ukraine, Mar 23 (IPS) - In Donetsk's Lenin Square, Yuroslav Korotenko keeps a constant vigil inside a tent erected just a few feet away from a massive statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine, Mar 19 (IPS) - Crimean officials have reported that roughly 97 percent of Crimeans voted for independence from Ukraine on Sunday, with a turnout of about 80 percent. Yet the security situation in Crimea has led many to question how free the vote really was.

ANTAKYA, Turkey, Aug 31 (IPS) - As the United States prepares to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles on military targets inside Syria, Syrians are preparing for a new phase of the conflict that has already left more than 100,000 people dead.

Aid organisations say a small handheld computer will allow them to more rapidly assess where food aid is needed most urgently. As a result, fewer Burundians will suffer hunger this year.

When Timothy was forced into the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) at age 11, the first thing they did was beat him. Then they took him to a military base where his tasks were to carry other soldiers’ bags, wash their clothes, collect firewood for them, and cook their food.

As voting concluded in Rwanda’s presidential elections, with incumbent President Paul Kagame expected to win by a landslide, fears remain that not all citizens will accept the results amidst claims the elections were neither free nor fair.

The coalition of 11 major opposition parties which boycotted July 23 national assembly elections will also boycott elections to the senate on July 28. The Alliance of Democrats for Change, as the coalition is known, claims that two previous polls - to elect Burundi's district administrators and the president - were characterised by 'massive fraud'.