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Humanitarian Issues Media Monitoring 3/12/19
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FEATURE-Violence sparks first major humanitarian crisis in Burkina Faso
Mar 11, 2019 | Reuters
By Nellie Peyton
The Burkinabe village of Bawenne was used to contending with nature, but not the impacts of violence, until hundreds of people started showing up late last year, fleeing suspected Islamist attacks. The displaced had walked for days — some with babies on their backs — to arrive at the village of 2,000 people that was already struggling to survive in northern Burkina Faso's barren scrubland. By March 1, the arrivals numbered 1,200. -
Continued insecurity hampering aid efforts in Burkina Faso
Mar 12, 2019 | UNHCR
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is alarmed at the continued insecurity, particularly in northern Burkina Faso, affecting civilians, including internally displaced people and refugees. Since 2015, Burkina Faso has experienced growing insecurity, marked by several high-profile attacks in the capital Ouagadougou and an expanding insurgency in the country’s northern and eastern regions. -
Dozens killed and injured by new airstrikes in western Yemen, UN coordinator condemns ‘outrageous’ toll
Mar 11, 2019 | UN News
Reports from Yemen’s Hajjah Governorate indicate that scores of civilians have been killed following airstrikes that hit residential areas over the past two days. Medical sources suggest that at least 22 have died, with more than 30 injured during the aerial bombardment. -
A Dozen Children Were Killed in Yemen Strikes During a Two-Day Period, the U.N. Says
Mar 12, 2019 | Time
By Hillary Leung
Strikes in Yemen killed 22 people during a 48-hour period early this week, including a dozen children, according to the U.N. -
In militarised Mali, humanitarian responders say aid is an afterthought
Mar 11, 2019 | IRIN
By Issa Sikiti da Silva, Philip Kleinfeld
People are fleeing a conflict in central and northern Mali, where inter-communal violence, attacks by extremist groups, and counter-terrorism operations are triggering a worsening humanitarian crisis in the West African nation.As needs rise, aid groups say their ability to respond is being hamstrung by an increasingly militarised security landscape marked by confusion between military and humanitarian actors, shifting conflict dynamics, and funding gaps that are leaving displaced people sick and starving. -
UN rights expert calls for end to ‘purgatory’ of ‘international inaction’ facing Myanmar’s remaining Rohingya
Mar 11, 2019 | UN News
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, highlighted several areas of concern across the country, including grave abuses linked to the mass exodus of some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine in August 2017, which was sparked by separatist violence against police posts. A separate Council-appointed probe last year called for the prosecution of top Myanmar military commanders for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. In reply, Myanmar’s Kyaw Moe Tun, Permanent Representative of the Republic to the UN in Geneva, rejected the Special Rapporteur’s update. -
WHO calls for protection of health workers amid ongoing conflict in Sudan [EN/AR]
Mar 11, 2019 | Reliefweb
By World Health Organisation
As the civil unrest in Sudan continues, WHO expresses extreme concern about reports of attacks on health staff, and is working to verify this information. -
Heatwave threatens to slash harvests in drought-hit Zimbabwe
| Reuters
By Lungelo Ndlovu
This month, the United Nations launched an international appeal for $234 million in emergency aid for Zimbabwe, where drought is expected to affect a third of the country’s crop and leave 5.3 million people needing assistance. -
Dozens of aid workers, peacekeepers among Ethiopia air crash victims
Mar 11, 2019 | IRIN
At least 35 aid workers, peacekeepers, or staff of international organisations are among the 149 passengers who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash – the deadliest commercial airline accident involving UN staff in decades. -
'This breaks our hearts': Ghana promises action after CNN child slavery report
Mar 8, 2019 | CNN
By Becky Anderson, Leif Coorlim
A top Ghanian official has promised action following a CNN report into child slavery on Lake Volta. Around 20,000 children work on the lake, enslaved by fishermen they call "master." Most of them come to the lake from hundreds of miles away. They are sold by their desperately poor parents to human traffickers, sometimes for as little as $250.
Burkina Faso
Yemen
Mali
Myanmar
Sudan
Zimbabwe
Ethiopia
Ghana
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FEATURE-Violence sparks first major humanitarian crisis in Burkina Faso
Mar 11, 2019 | Reuters
By Nellie Peyton
BAWENNE, Burkina Faso, March 11 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - T he Burkinabe village of Bawenne was used to contending with nature, but not the impacts of violence, until hundreds of people started showing up late last year, fleeing suspected Islamist attacks.
The displaced had walked for days - some with babies on their backs - to arrive at the village of 2,000 people that was already struggling to survive in northern Burkina Faso’s barren scrubland. By March 1, the arrivals numbered 1,200.
“This situation can’t last,” said Bawenne Mayor Ousmane Zango, standing amid crowds of people gathered in the sun outside the village’s small round brick huts.
“We won’t be able to feed them for even a month,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
This kind of crisis is new for the entire country, a landlocked West African nation that was largely peaceful until, three years ago, a local Islamist group started to gain a hold.
As attacks by Ansarul Islam and jihadists with other affiliations have multiplied, they have set off fighting between ethnic communities in the north, with the Mossi majority accusing Fulani herders of harbouring militants. The conflict has forced more than 100,000 people to flee their homes, more than half in the last two months alone, according to the United Nations. About 20 million people live in Burkina Faso.
Since the start of 2019, an average of 1,000 people have fled their homes every day.
“Burkina Faso was on a very positive track of development and now it’s facing this unprecedented humanitarian emergency,” said U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Ursula Mueller.
“While the government has mobilised the resources they had it’s absolutely not enough,” she said on a visit to one overcrowded displacement camp.
About three in 10 displaced people are in camps, sleeping in tents and receiving food distributions, while the others are scattered throughout the countryside - some in areas too dangerous for aid workers to access, the United Nations said.
“For the host families, there’s not really a strategy to help them,” said Zango, Bawenne’s mayor.CROWDED CAMPS
Bibata Diande was at home near the village of Foube on Jan. 1 when she saw armed men arrive on motorcycles and start setting houses on fire, she said. She ran into the bush and returned that night to find everything destroyed.
“There was no food or water and the children were crying,” said the 25-year-old, who left with her family and now lives in a displacement camp in Barsalogho, about 145 kilometres (90 miles) northeast of the capital, Ouagadougou.
About 39 people were killed on the day she described, in the worst clashes to date, and thousands were sent running.
The camp at Barsalogho was set up a week later - comprising 86 canvass tents in a patch of semi-desert. The tents are empty but for people. Untreated water is being brought in by truck.
“We brought nothing. I do nothing all day,” said Diande, who had been in her last year of secondary school. She would like to keep studying but said her notebooks were burned in the attack.
The government’s humanitarian agency, CONASUR, is managing the camp and three others with help from the United Nations and charities.
Its main challenge is housing capacity, said an official.
“For the moment, we’ve covered the needs,” said Florent Bakouan, permanent secretary of CONASUR, in an interview.
“(But) we don’t have more tents,” he said.
Diande shares her tent with 30 people, but said there is not enough room on the ground, so some sleep outside.
At another displacement site, in Foube, a woman said she was sleeping in a school with about 60 people. They had not been registered by the government or offered any aid, she said.FEAR FOR THE FUTURE
The crisis is expected to worsen, said officials and aid workers.
The government declared a six-month state of emergency in 14 provinces from Dec. 31. Attacks have multiplied despite the presence of international troops, including a French counter-terrorism force.
Aid workers fear the long-term effects, particularly for children. More than 1,000 schools in the affected areas have closed.
One secondary school was set to reopen recently in Foube, but progress was delayed because the aid workers organising it were kidnapped, said the school director.
“The boys risk being recruited to armed groups and the girls are more vulnerable to early marriage,” said David Wright, regional director of international charity Save the Children.
Hunger, already a problem in the drought-prone region, will likely worsen as people who flee their homes lose their animals and miss the chance to plant crops, said Abdou Dieng, regional director of the World Food Programme.
“We need to scale up fast in order to prevent the crisis from deteriorating,” said Mueller. The United Nations estimates 1.2 million people are in need of aid.
In Bawenne, some new arrivals have already started building houses. But the mayor said he anticipates tensions come planting time, when everyone will want a piece of land for crops.
“The problem of food and water is already there, and more people will come,” said Zango, sighing.
"Even tomorrow, more could come."
https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5N20R5M1
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Continued insecurity hampering aid efforts in Burkina Faso
Mar 12, 2019 | UNHCR
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is alarmed at the continued insecurity, particularly in northern Burkina Faso, affecting civilians, including internally displaced people and refugees.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has experienced growing insecurity, marked by several high-profile attacks in the capital Ouagadougou and an expanding insurgency in the country’s northern and eastern regions.
Despite security measures and the deployment of military forces, parts of the country have witnessed a sharp increase in violence since 2018. This violence, which has also increasingly targeted humanitarian actors, limits the ability of the humanitarian community to provide life-saving assistance in affected areas.
Over 115,000 people are now internally displaced following the most recent incidents, and more than 11,000 people have been forced to flee Burkina Faso to seek refuge in neighboring countries. Violence has also severely hampered humanitarian access to the displaced population inside the country.
We fear that more civilians could be affected by further violence. UNHCR is joining other humanitarian partners to advocate for the safety of civilians and for the respect of aid workers’ neutrality, in order to ensure continued assistance to those in need of protection and assistance.
More than 90 per cent of those displaced inside the country are living in host communities. Some 70 per cent of the displaced are in the Sahel region, with 30 per cent in Djibo alone. UNHCR has two offices in the Sahel region, in Djibo and Dori.
Burkina Faso currently hosts some 25,000 refugees from Mali who are also affected by the conflict. Violence has curtailed our access to thousands of refugees settled outside the camps in Soum and Oudalan Provinces in the Sahel Region, close to the Malian border. Refugees in these areas are urged to move to camps where UNHCR and its partners will be able to ensure their protection and access to basic social services.
Inside Burkina Faso, UNHCR is supporting the government’s call to assist those who have been displaced. We have made shelters and relief items available from our current stocks. UNHCR is also conducting protection monitoring of the displaced and is scaling up its presence in the country to meet the increasing humanitarian needs.
However, we urgently need additional funding. Our financial requirements for Burkina Faso in 2018 of US$27.3 million are only 26 per cent funded.
8,500 of the 10,000 Burkinabe who fled to Mali are now residing in Gossi, Timbuktu, N’Tilit and Gao, which are also directly affected by insecurity. This year alone, some 3,000 refugees are reported to have crossed into Mali. UNHCR is currently in the process of registering and assisting these new arrivals.
Around 300 people also crossed into Ghana, after being forced to flee the northern part of Burkina Faso, following chieftaincy-related conflict in Zoaga.
https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2019/3/5c8776214/continued-insecurity-hampering-aid-efforts-burkina-faso.html
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Mar 11, 2019 | UN News
Reports from Yemen’s Hajjah Governorate indicate that scores of civilians have been killed following airstrikes that hit residential areas over the past two days. Medical sources suggest that at least 22 have died, with more than 30 injured during the aerial bombardment.
“We condemn these deaths and injuries unequivocally and we share our deep condolences with the families of the victims,” said UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, Lise Grande. “It is outrageous that innocent civilians continue to die needlessly in a conflict that should, and can be solved”, she added.
Reportedly, the attacks took place in Kushar district, and took the lives of 10 women and 12 children. Among the 30 injured, at least 14 were under-18. Many of the injured children have been sent to hospitals in Abs district and in Sana’a for treatment and several require possible evacuation to survive.
In her statement, Ms. Grande added that “a higher percentage of people in Yemen are hungry and suffering, than in any other country.” The province of Hajjah is one of the worst impacted, with more than a million people going hungry and thousands of new cholera cases being reported on a regular basis.
“We fear that thousands of civilians are trapped between the parties [to the conflict] and lack the basic services they need to survive,” lamented Ms. Grande.
“We’re doing everything we can to reach the people who need help in Hajjah and throughout the country,” she explained, noting that in Hajjah specifically, humanitarian organisations have distributed emergency supplies, provided access to safe drinking water and dispatched emergency mobile medical teams.
“We desperately want to help people but we are facing serious problems,” said the Humanitarian Coordinator. “We need access, visas, specialized equipment and approvals for our programmes,” she added, asking all parties to the conflict to help humanitarians do their life-saving work.
Since conflict escalated in 2015, Yemen has been facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Nearly four in five Yemenis in the country depend on humanitarian assistance and protection to survive. About 10 million people are on the brink of famine and starvation, and 7 million people are malnourished.
The 2019 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan requires US$4.2 billion to assist more than 20 million Yemenis including 10 million people who rely entirely on humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs every month. To date, the response is only 4 per cent funded.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/03/1034491
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A Dozen Children Were Killed in Yemen Strikes During a Two-Day Period, the U.N. Says
Mar 12, 2019 | Time
By Hillary Leung
Strikes in Yemen killed 22 people during a 48-hour period early this week, including a dozen children, according to the U.N.
In a statement published Monday, the office of the U.N. Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for the war-ravaged country said as many as 30 others were reportedly injured, among them 14 children aged between 1 and 18, in the northwest province of Hajjah.
“We condemn these deaths and injuries unequivocally,” said Lise Grande, Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen. “And we share our deep condolences with the families of the victims.”
Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war between a Saudi-led coalition and Iran-backed Houthi rebels since 2015. On average, almost 100 civilian deaths or injuries were recorded weekly in 2018, according to a recent U.N. report.
Across the country, an estimated 85,000 children under five may have died from extreme hunger or disease since the war began. According to UNICEF, eight children are killed or injured across 31 active conflict zones in the country each day.
Hajjah is one of the nation’s worst impacted provinces, with more than a million people hungry and thousands of new cholera cases reported.
“We fear that thousands of civilians are trapped between the parties and lack the basic services they need to survive,” said Grande.
Last year, a photograph of an emaciated 7-year-old girl, Amal Hussain, on a hospital bed in northern Yemen became a symbol of the country’s ongoing crisis.
Western governments have faced increasing pressure over their provision of intelligence, military and other support to the Saudi-led coalition. In November 2018, the Trump Administration announced that the U.S. would stop refueling Saudi warplanes engaged in the bombings, and last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution to withdraw U.S. troops from the country.
http://time.com/5549544/children-casualties-yemen/
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In militarised Mali, humanitarian responders say aid is an afterthought
Mar 11, 2019 | IRIN
By Issa Sikiti da Silva, Philip Kleinfeld
In the dust-caked town of Bankass in central Mali, Amadou Guindo waits to register for aid.
Two weeks before, an armed group burned down the 41-year-old farmer’s village, destroying his granaries. The sack of rice and cooking oil he received, courtesy of the World Food Programme, will have to last and feed his entire family of nine.
The Guindos are among the latest to flee conflict in central and northern Mali, where inter-communal violence, attacks by extremist groups, and counter-terrorism operations are triggering a worsening humanitarian crisis in the West African nation.
As needs rise, aid groups say their ability to respond is being hamstrung by an increasingly militarised security landscape marked by confusion between military and humanitarian actors, shifting conflict dynamics, and funding gaps that are leaving displaced people like Guindo sick and starving.
The International NGO Safety Organisation, or INSO, recorded 216 security incidents affecting humanitarians in Mali last year. Since 2016, the organisation said 10 aid workers have been killed, 31 injured, and 19 kidnapped.
After seven years of conflict, some 3.2 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2019, the UN's emergency aid coordination body OCHA said. More than 123,000 people are now internally displaced across the country – three times as many as January last year.
According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, or ACLED, 2018 saw the highest civilian death toll in Mali since the eruption of conflict in 2012.
“The needs are huge,” said Hassane Hamadou, Mali country director at the Norwegian Refugee Council.Militarised space
Since a 2013 French-led military intervention that dislodged Islamist groups from key towns in northern Mali, the country has seen a flurry of security interventions including: a UN peacekeeping mission known as MINUSMA, a French counter-terrorism force called Operation Barkhane, an EU military training mission and troops from five Sahelian states known as the G5 Sahel joint force, or FC-G5S.
These international forces as well as the Malian army have been accused of stoking local conflicts, abuses against civilians, and failing to contain the violence. Islamist groups have reassembled in Mali’s desert north, expanded into the centre, and the violence has spilled over into neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.
Military forces have faced repeated attacks by Islamist groups, with more peacekeepers killed in Mali than any other active mission. Last month, three Guinean peacekeepers were killed during an attack on their vehicle in Siby, close to the capital, Bamako.
In this increasingly crowded security landscape, humanitarians say attacks are creating risks for their staff in the field, who operate in close proximity to military forces. To mitigate the danger, aid programmes are frequently reduced or even suspended when military operations begin.
“If a military force moves to a community, the armed groups follow,” said Tidiane Fall, Mali country director at Action Against Hunger. “There is a conflict between the military forces and radical armed groups, who lay improvised explosive devices on the road. Sometimes we have to take the same roads.”
NGOs say the problem is compounded by poor coordination between humanitarian organisations, the UN peacekeepers, and other military actors. Dialogue between these groups is considered essential in emergency contexts to ensure military forces respect humanitarian activities and principles.
But aid groups in Mali say military operations often come as surprise, and that their demand for “humanitarian space” is regularly ignored by officials from both MINUSMA and Operation Barkhane amid an atmosphere one senior aid worker described as “confrontational” and “unproductive”.
“We tell them not to do operations because we have displaced populations and need to respond to their needs,” said the aid worker, who asked not to be named. “When we start to respond, they start doing military operations, forcing us to stop.”Jeopardising access
To avoid attacks by extremists and other rebel groups, NGOs say they must carefully explain humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality to local communities. But these efforts are being hindered by military actors “using humanitarian interventions to build military acceptance,” said Jamal Mrrouch, head of mission at Médecins Sans Frontières.
MINUSMA’s Quick Impact Projects, for example, include short-term interventions in healthcare, education, and food security among others area, while Operation Barkhane is also involved in a number humanitarian activities.
Aid groups say these efforts to win “hearts and minds” increase the likelihood of association between military forces – who are party to the Mali conflict – and humanitarian actors, leaving staff in the field vulnerable to attacks.
“It causes confusion in people’s minds and can jeopardise our access,” said Hamadou of the NRC.
Further concerns have been raised about MINUSMA and Barkhane using white vehicles that are not clearly identified as military. It is intended as a security measure to avoid attracting attention, but humanitarians, who use the same or similar vehicles, have questioned its legality and the risk it poses to their staff.
“It makes us the same targets,” said Fall. “They should have to identify as military.”
Efforts to keep humanitarian and military actors separate face another challenge in the form of a new concept embraced by donors and the UN known as the “triple nexus”. The concept envisages development, peacemaking, and emergency relief programmes working more closely together.
Harmless enough on paper, in Mali it has encountered strong resistance from some internationals NGOs who do not believe MINUSMA and other military actors should be involved in humanitarian relief and question what peace means for the different parties.
“We have said we cannot accept the triple nexus without defining the peace pillar,” said Fall. “We want to know what it means for humanitarian actors and military actors.”Shifting conflict
While the worst of the violence in Mali was previously in the country’s desert north, today it is concentrated in the centre, where a new, grassroots Islamist insurgency has emerged, triggering cycles of inter-communal and militia violence.
Aid groups say the varying dynamics of conflict in the north and centre are impacting humanitarians differently. In the north, NGOs and their staff are often victims of theft because of the perception they represent a certain degree of material wealth. Since 2017, most have stopped using their own vehicles and instead hire 4x4s from local communities.
“Humanitarians are sources of wealth as they employ staff, contract with suppliers, and so on,” said Franck Vannetelle, Mali country director for the International Rescue Committee.
Banditry is less of a problem in central Mali but local regulations – often motivated by military concerns – are having an impact on humanitarian operations. For example, last year the government announced a ban on motorbikes and pick-up vehicles in certain areas to prevent armed groups from moving freely.
“This has affected the population reaching health centres, as well as humanitarian actors,” said Mrrouch. “Some villages are only accessible by motorbikes.”
Inter-communal violence between Fulani and Dogon armed groups in the Mopti region of central Mali has also forced NGOs to rethink which staff members they hire and send into the field, and has created access problems when moving from one community to the next, according to NRC’s Hamadou.
“There are some instances where armed people are reluctant when they see you supporting a particular community,” he said. “As humanitarians we must stick to our principles. The only criteria is need.”Funding concerns
While donors are showing increased interest in central Mali as needs rise, overall funding for the country is “stagnating”, said Paul Reglinski, Mercy Corps deputy country director for programmes.
Mali’s 2018 UN humanitarian response plan was just 54 percent funded. Last November, NRC issued a statementclaiming more than 34,000 displaced people were being left without humanitarian assistance. The UN appeal for 2019 is currently just 3.3 percent funded.
“This year we are very worried about the ability to finance the humanitarian response plan,” said Fall.
The general feeling is that the bulk of the international community’s money and energy will continue going towards military efforts against extremist groups – to the detriment of aid agencies and the communities they support.
“All of this securitisation, and the daily life of the population doesn’t change,” said Mrrouch.
In areas like Bankass, neither the national army nor the UN peacekeepers nor any other foreign forces appear able to stop the escalation of violence – leaving people like the farmer Guindo, and thousands of others, displaced, dependent on aid, and unsure where to go next.
“It is difficult to find anywhere safe,” Guindo said. “I have lost hope."
http://www.irinnews.org/news-feature/2019/03/11/militarised-mali-humanitarian-responders-say-aid-afterthought
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Mar 11, 2019 | UN News
A humanitarian crisis fuelled by the suppression of basic human rights is continuing across Myanmar’s Rakhine state, a UN Human Rights Council-appointed expert said on Monday, in an appeal for alleged atrocities there to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Presenting her latest report to the 47-Member body in Geneva, Yanghee Lee, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, highlighted several areas of concern across the country, including grave abuses linked to the mass exodus of some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine in August 2017, which was sparked by separatist violence against police posts.
A separate Council-appointed probe last year called for the prosecution of top Myanmar military commanders for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
In reply, Myanmar’s Kyaw Moe Tun, Permanent Representative of the Republic to the UN in Geneva, rejected the Special Rapporteur’s update.Rohingya ‘torched their own houses’ officials claim
Among her findings, Ms. Lee noted that just last week she had received a report that 24 Rohingya houses in the town of Buthidaung in Rakhine, had been burned down, which officials explained afterwards by saying that the owners had torched the properties themselves.
Under the terms of a 2018 UN led agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh - which hosts more than a million Rohingyas in exile – Myanmar has agreed to create conditions conducive to the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable repatriation of Rohingya refugees.
Today, the conditions of this Memorandum of Understanding have not been met, the Special Rapporteur said.
The deal “expires in a few months”, she added, insisting that there was “nothing to indicate that conditions have improved for the Rohingya who remain in Myanmar”.
Staying with Rakhine state, the Special Rapporteur maintained that clashes between the separatist Arakan Army and the Myanmar military had forced 10,000 people to flee since November.
“Allegations exist of fighters dressing as civilians and using civilian vehicles, landmine use, forced recruitment and forced portering, and arrest and detention of civilians suspected of being associates or sympathisers of the Arakan Army,” Ms. Lee said. “It does not appear that the situation will improve in the immediate future.”
Given the gravity of the situation, she appealed for the UN Security Council to take the international lead on the matter.
“I still firmly believe that the situation in Myanmar must be referred to the ICC by the Security Council...Victims must not be forced to wait in the purgatory of international inaction,” she said.Exploitation of gems, timber, high on list of alleged rights violations
Allegations of misuse of Myanmar’s natural riches constituted one of the biggest areas of the Special Rapporteur’s investigations, particularly in the gemstones and timber sectors.
“Revenues from natural resource extraction needed for vital services and development being diverted to the military and its allies undermines the civilian Government, democratic reforms, the peace process, sustainable development and the realisation of rights,” the Special Rapporteur explained.Rohingya refugees give Council testimony for first time
For the first time, the Council heard testimonies from two Rohingya refugees, Hamida Khatun from Shanti Mohila and Muhub Ullah from the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights.
“In August 2017, I fled Burma to Bangladesh when my village was attacked,” Mrs Khatun said. “My Rohingya brothers and sisters were killed, my husband and mother were killed. I’m the only Rohingya woman who could leave Bangladesh to tell you what happened to hundreds of thousands of us.”
In her comments, delivered by Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, Mrs Khatun added that she had “three requests for the international community: first, justice including compensation; second, to return home in safety and security including citizenship; and third, access to education.”Rakhine problem vast and complex, says Myanmar
Myanmar told the Council that the Government had sought sustainable peace and national reconciliation, while the issue in Rakhine state was vast and complex.
“We share the concern over the plight of all affected communities due to the violence triggered by provocative, coordinated attacks of ARSA terrorists against multiple security outposts in October 2016 and August 2017,” said Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun.
“I would like to reiterate Myanmar’s readiness to receive the verified returnees in a voluntary safe and dignified manner in accordance with the bilateral agreements with Bangladesh.”
In response to Ms. Lee’s appeal for an international tribunal to investigate alleged abuses, Mr. Kyaw insisted that his country “will not accept any call for referring the situation in Myanmar to the ICC. The Government of Myanmar established an Independent Commission of Enquiry in July last year. The Commission will investigate...as part of Myanmar’s effort to the address the issue of accountability,” he said adding that the Government “is willing and able to address the accountability issue.”
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/03/1034461
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WHO calls for protection of health workers amid ongoing conflict in Sudan [EN/AR]
Mar 11, 2019 | Reliefweb
By World Health Organisation
11 March 2019 – As the civil unrest in Sudan continues, WHO expresses extreme concern about reports of attacks on health staff, and is working to verify this information.
“People in Sudan, including vulnerable migrants, refugees, and displaced populations are in urgent need of health care services. Health staff in Sudan are already working under extremely challenging conditions. In situations such as this, we cannot afford health workers to be at further risk,” said Dr Naeema Al Gasseer, WHO Representative in Sudan.
Since the beginning of 2019, increasing violence in Sudan has resulted in greater numbers of injured civilians requiring life-saving care. It is imperative that doctors and other health staff are protected so that they can continue their work without obstruction, and without risk to their own personal safety. Earlier this year, the Federal Ministry of Health committed to protecting health facilities and health professionals, and assuring access for all people, including those inured, to health services.
WHO once again calls on all parties in Sudan to respect the sanctity of health care and the basic principles of human rights laws, so that health care can be provided to all who need it, unhindered by violence.OngoingPrimary countrySudanContent Format:News and Press ReleaseLanguage:ArabicEnglishTheme:HealthSafety and Security
https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/who-calls-protection-health-workers-amid-ongoing-conflict-sudan-enar
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Heatwave threatens to slash harvests in drought-hit Zimbabwe
| Reuters
By Lungelo Ndlovu
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Despite a dry year, Sazini Moyo’s maize crop had been pushing up tassels and she anticipated a decent harvest - until her farm outside Bulawayo sweltered through a record five-day heatwave in late February and early March.
Now she fears almost her entire parched crop is a write-off.
“I’m very disappointed, I have lost a lot of money buying expensive seed and fertilisers. All my energy used in tilling the land has gone to waste,” the 40-year-old farmer in Matabeleland South province told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
According to the Zimbabwe Meteorological Services Department, the province this month suffered five consecutive days of temperatures on average 2 to 4 degrees Celsius above the normal March high of 32 degrees.
In low-lying Beitbridge, near the border with South Africa, the high temperature hit 38.7 degrees (101 degrees Fahrenheit), the met office said.
The heat, which made already dry conditions worse, has hit both crops and livestock, said Obey Chaputsira, the administrator for Matobo District, a drought-prone, low-lying area of Matabeleland South.
“The crop situation currently is very bad,” he said, with grazing areas and water supplies for livestock also affected.
Since last year, his area has seen 200 livestock deaths linked to drought, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
This month, the United Nations launched an international appeal for $234 million in emergency aid for Zimbabwe, where drought is expected to affect a third of the country’s crop and leave 5.3 million people needing assistance.
Zimbabwe’s annual maize consumption is 1.8 million tonnes but farmer groups said this year’s drought-hit harvest may be less than 1 million tonnes.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said the country had 500,000 tonnes of the grain in strategic reserves.
Joseph Gondo, principal director of the Department of Crop and Livestock, confirmed that the country’s harvests are expected to suffer as a result of the unusual heat.
“Crops that are on the tasseling stages are the most affected by the heatwave. We encourage farmers not to apply fertilisers at this moment,” he said.
Gondo said other districts across the country also are struggling with dry conditions.
“Some farmers have already lost their crops while others continue hoping it rains because their crops still have a chance,” he told Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Food insecurity in both rural and urban areas has increased across Zimbabwe this year, with Matabeleland North and Matabeleleland South provinces hardest hit, according to the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee’s (ZimVac) lean season monitoring report for 2019.
Agritex agronomist Kennedy Mabehla said crop assessments across Zimbabwe were underway, with a report on expected yields for the year due out after April.
The dryer and hotter conditions are in line with predictions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has said rising emissions could lead to more frequent droughts, hotter conditions and more extreme weather across southern Africa.
Across the globe, the years 2015-2018 have been the hottest four years ever recorded, meteorologists said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zimbabwe-drought-farmers/heatwave-threatens-to-slash-harvests-in-drought-hit-zimbabwe-idUSKBN1QT13A
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Dozens of aid workers, peacekeepers among Ethiopia air crash victims
Mar 11, 2019 | IRIN
At least 35 aid workers, peacekeepers, or staff of international organisations are among the 149 passengers who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash – the deadliest commercial airline accident involving UN staff in decades.
All 157 passengers and crew from more than 30 countries died when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa to Nairobi early on Sunday morning. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
The UN intially confirmed at least 19 staff and consultants were on board, but the total may be higher. A spokesperson for the African Union told IRIN that four staff or associates working with the continental body had died, but again there could be further AU casualties. US-based Catholic Relief Services announced four staff were killed.
Among the fatalities are a Ugandan police commissioner working in the AU mission in Somalia, and the founder of the International Committee for the Development of Peoples, an Italian charity known by its acronym CISP.
Significant numbers of international development and civil service staff work in the region, and the routing from Addis Ababa to Nairobi linked two large East African hubs on the eve of an environmental conference held at the UN office in Nairobi.
Aid workers and observers commenting on the crash recalled other aviation accidents involving aid workers and UN officials, including the following:
1998: Nine UN workers died on SwissAir Flight 111 from New York to Geneva
1999: In Kosovo, 24 people died in a crash of a UN-chartered planeDiscover MoreKey donors freeze Uganda refugee aid after UN mismanagement scandal2008: Seven UN and four NGO staff were among 17 passengers and crew who diedin a chartered aid flight near Bukavu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo
2011: UN staff made up 24 of 32 fatalities on a UN peacekeeping charter that crash landed at Kinshasa airport
IRIN has gathered public statements, links, and announcements to draw up the following provisional list.
https://www.irinnews.org/news/2019/03/11/dozens-aid-workers-peacekeepers-among-ethiopia-air-crash-victims
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'This breaks our hearts': Ghana promises action after CNN child slavery report
Mar 8, 2019 | CNN
By Becky Anderson, Leif Coorlim
(CNN)A top Ghanian official has promised action following a CNN report into child slavery on Lake Volta.Around 20,000 children work on the lake, enslaved by fishermen they call "master." Most of them come to the lake from hundreds of miles away. They are sold by their desperately poor parents to human traffickers, sometimes for as little as $250."It's a heartbreaking story, and it's a matter of concern for the government and the people of Ghana," Ghana's Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told CNN Thursday.He promised specific action "aimed at rescuing the victims, rehabilitating them, reintegrating them into society (and) prosecuting persons responsible."Adam, one of the child slaves CNN interviewed, said that "every morning we wake up and we go to the lake, we paddle, remove the nets. Then we come back, remove the fish, prepare the nets for the next casting and around 4pm, we go back to cast the net."He estimated that he had worked for the man he called "master" for about three years.""I don't want to be here," Adam said. "I want to go to school, but I'm forced to be here."Taking actionThe government in Ghana was aware of the problem ahead of CNN's reporting and working, albeit slowly, to remove children.In 2017, the country hosted its "National Child Labor Day" in the lakeside town of Kete Krachi, to call awareness to the issue. There is also an effort to register all the boats on the lake, which could make it easier to track down and punish fishermen using child slaves.Nkrumah acknowledged the need to tackle the long-term problems which lead to child trafficking and exploitation, which he said "breaks our hearts."CNN spoke to activists in Ghana who work with the children to rescue them from a life of slavery on the lake. They said that significant support is required to ensure the children do not end up being re-trafficked.Nkrumah vowed to "the entire world and most importantly the victims" that "we are committed to ensuring that the resources that we've started making available this year will be improved as the years go by, and that we will be able to tackle this problem comprehensively.""We would like the CNN crew to come back and work with us, back on the late to also examine first hand, also some of the efforts that we are putting into dealing with a situation like this," Nkrumah added.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/07/africa/ghana-child-slaves-minister-intl/index.html
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