Kigali has hit back at a ruling by judges at the UK's Court of Appeal that found Rwanda not to be a safe third country. This undermines a plan by the British government to deport asylum seekers there. Rwanda insists that it meets UN standards for the treatment of refugees and the UK has already said that it will be appealing to the Supreme Court. Tackling asylum claims has been a key policy promise of the UK's Conservative government.
Also, more than $40 million extra will go towards improving children's access to education in South Sudan. It's the world's youngest country but between 2013 and 2020, a brutal civil war cost at least 400,000 lives and upended millions more. The conflict prevented generations of people from learning; addressing that issue is now an urgent priority. This month, a new drive started to get at least 135,000 more kids into schools in a bid to reach young people worst affected by the crisis. The head of the fund providing some of the $70 million for the programme recently returned from South Sudan and told us some of what she learned about the conflict's impact on schooling.
Finally, in the battle against the climate crisis, one project stands out: the Great Green Wall aims to hold back the expansion of the Sahara desert, by planting a wall of trees stretching across the entire Sahel region, from Djibouti to Senegal. The project was launched in 2007 and backed by a whopping $17 billion in 2021. But the much-needed funds are still proving elusive for those in desperate need on the ground. The requirements to fully benefit from the funds remain out of reach for many Sahel countries. As a result, Niger is turning to the private sector to get things moving. Our correspondent reports.
