August 2023
In the August issue of Geographical, we learn about a secret home in Burkina Faso that’s helping to rehabilitate young boys who have been rescued from brutal armed militias. According to the UN, between 2016 and 2021, more than 21,000 children were taken from their families across West Africa and recruited as soldiers, sex slaves, cooks, porters or spies. Author and journalist Jane Labous says the plight of children in the conflict in the West Sahel region is truly heartbreaking. ‘I hope that this article helps their voices to be heard.’
We also hear from Shafik Meghji about the Patagonian sheep farmers who are learning to live side by side with predatory pumas, Mark Rowe discovers an increasingly divisive row over marine protection plans in Scotland – which have been compared to the Highland Clearances, and Bryony Cottam joins a citizen science expedition collecting environmental DNA in Finland as part of an ambitious plan to map global biodiversity.
