Preview Newsletter
Humanitarian Issues Media Monitoring 3/14/19
-
Shadow falls over Ethiopia reforms as warnings of crisis go unheeded
Mar 14, 2019 | The Guardian
By Tom Gardner
In southern Ethiopia, tens of thousands of people are enduring what aid workers say is a full-blown humanitarian crisis. But the government of the new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, appears not to be listening. -
Pushed to the edge: Violence and abuse against refugees and migrants along Balkan Route
Mar 13, 2019 | Reliefweb
By Amnesty International
European governments are complicit in the systematic, unlawful and frequently violent pushbacks and collective expulsions of thousands of asylum seekers to squalid and unsafe refugee camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said Amnesty International in a report published today. -
Sudanese vow to keep protesting as president digs in
Mar 14, 2019 | Fox News
By Samy Magdy
Three months after Sudanese protesters rose up against President Omar al-Bashir, the longtime autocrat has bound himself more tightly to the military and refuses to bow to their demands. -
Peace deal holds in South Sudan, but humanitarian funding ‘ultimately unsustainable,’ says top UN envoy
Mar 8, 2019 | UN News
September’s UN-backed South Sudan peace agreement is holding and has led to positive change, but tens of thousands of civilians in the war-weary nation are still reliant of life-saving humanitarian assistance, and time is running out. This was the message that David Shearer, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for South Sudan, relayed to the Security Council on Friday. -
South Sudan peace deal doomed if disputes not settled: think-tank
Mar 14, 2019 | Reuters
By Hereward Holland
South Sudan’s six-month-old peace deal is doomed to collapse unless the sides can settle a string of disputes and bring former rebels into the army before the formation of a new government in May, a think-tank said on Wednesday. -
Salvaging South Sudan’s Fragile Peace Deal
| Reliefweb
By International Crisis Group
Five years into South Sudan’s civil war, the main belligerents have once again agreed to stop fighting and form a unity government. But the set of agreements, finalised on 12 September 2018, two years after the last accord collapsed, does not end the country’s deep crisis. It neither resolves the power struggle between President Salva Kiir and erstwhile rebel leader Riek Machar nor outlines a final political settlement for the country. Rather, it establishes a wobbly Kiir-Machar truce and grafts it onto the previous failed peace terms, without delivering much benefit to other groups that have been shut out of power. -
In South Sudan, a ‘war on civilians’ despite six months of supposed peace
Mar 12, 2019 | IRIN
By Sam Mednick
A fragile peace deal signed in September brought a few months of relief as fighting largely subsided across the country. However, since the beginning of the year violence has escalated between government forces and parties who refuse to accept the agreement – some of them calling it, according to rebel leader Thomas Cirillo, a “betrayal” of the South Sudanese people. -
Worsening Water Shortage in Philippines Triggers Senate Probe
Mar 14, 2019 | Bloomberg
By Andreo Colonzo
The Philippine Senate will investigate a worsening water shortage in the capital region that has spread to the main business district in Makati City.The interruptions lasting as long as 12 hours initially affected only dozens of villages. It has escalated to entire cities including Manila and Quezon City with longer outages. Some districts have gone without water for several days. -
Millions of children at risk as death toll rises in Philippines measles outbreak
Mar 14, 2019 | Reliefweb
By International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies
An estimated 3.7 million children under five in the Philippines are at risk during a measles outbreak that has already claimed 286 lives, most of them children or babies, the Red Cross is warning. Deaths from measles are already 42 per cent higher this year than for all of 2018, when 202 people died. It is estimated that 3.7 million children under five in the Philippines have never been vaccinated and have no protection to the highly contagious virus, which is still spreading. Health experts estimate that every person sick with the measles could infect up to 18 others. -
A silent killer in war zones
Mar 8, 2019 | UNICEF
By UNICEF Australia
Viruses, diarrhoea and respiratory infections are common in children, but should not be life-threatening. But in conflict regions, like in Syria, South Sudan and Yemen, they are deadly. Less than one per cent of children die from measles in non emergency settings, but in an overcrowded refugee camp where access to treatment for diseases is difficult, this number can soar to 30 per cent.
Ethiopia
European Refugee Crisis
Sudan
South Sudan
Philippines
Vaccination
-
Shadow falls over Ethiopia reforms as warnings of crisis go unheeded
Mar 14, 2019 | The Guardian
By Tom Gardner
In southern Ethiopia, tens of thousands of people are enduring what aid workers say is a full-blown humanitarian crisis. But the government of the new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, appears not to be listening.
It is a stain on the record of an administration that, since Abiy’s appointment last April, has been lauded for opening up Ethiopia’s political space and making peace with neighbouring Eritrea. Last month, Abiy was nominatedfor a Nobel peace prize. His government has also been praised for passing a new refugee policy hailed as a model of compassion and forward-thinking. Yet the dire situation facing millions of people forced from their homes by conflict, and the new regime’s approach to their plight, has invited a more sceptical response from some observers.
One settlement, in the village of Gotiti, hosts 20-30,000 ethnic Gedeos who have been denied humanitarian assistance – above all food aid – since last August.
More than a million Ethiopians were forced from their homes by ethnic violence in 2018 – the highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) of any country last year. The worst of it took place in the south, where an estimated 800,000mostly ethnic Gedeos fled the district of West Guji in Oromia, the country’s largest region. This is a higher number, and over a shorter period of time, than occurred at the height of Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis in 2017.
The conflict looked, on the surface, like a Malthusian eruption – in which population outstrips food supply. Gedeos and Guji Oromos share some of the country’s most densely populated farmland, and both groups are fast growing in number. But gruesome reports of lynchings, rapes and beheadings, and of complicity among local officials, police and militia, makes it seem more like organised ethnic cleansing than an ordinary tribal clash.
The vast majority of Gedeos – who took refuge in Gedeo zone of the neighbouring southern region – are too scared to return. They say they have nothing to return to: homes were burned en masse and crops (mostly coffee) stolen or destroyed. In recent weeks, displaced people have also said they fear rebels from the Oromo Liberation Front, who are active in West Guji and allegedly terrorise those who return.
But despite the self-evident risks, the government has repeatedly pushed Gedeo people back into Oromia. When it did so in June, two months after the first wave of displacement in April, violence escalated. Nonetheless, in August, the government resumed its efforts, in some cases loading people into buses and trucks and driving them over the border. Aid workers say the withdrawal of humanitarian assistance has also been used as a way of putting pressure on people to return. In December, roughly 15,000 Gedeos fled West Guji once more.
Such tactics are still in evidence in pockets of Gedeo zone like Gotiti. In February, aid workers – speaking on condition of anonymity because they fear jeopardising their access in other parts of the country – said they had been forbidden from providing assistance in the area for months (though in the past fortnight some have been given the green light by the local administration to discreetly distribute things like blankets). Because food is scarce, malnutrition is common. Aid workers worry about the spread of contagious diseases, especially when the rain comes. Most of the wooden shelters lack even plastic sheets for roofs.
Last month, the government said more than a million displaced people had returned to their villages. It has since drawn up a two month “action plan” to return almost all of those yet to come back. This seems to include even Gedeos who firmly believe it is unsafe for them back in Oromia.
Aid workers speak with alarm at the prospect of yet another round of premature returns, especially since it will coincide with the start of the national census in April (possibly triggering more violence). Involuntary returns and the “instrumentalisation” of humanitarian aid are, of course, breaches of humanitarian principles.
Why and under whose authority such a problematic policy has been pursued is unclear. Ethiopia’s system of decentralised, ethnically organised federalism blurs lines of responsibility. Some aid workers, for instance, blame the government of Ethiopia’s Southern region, which has a history of restricting humanitarian access, while others point right to the top. (The federal government denies that it supports involuntary returns or the withdrawal of humanitarian assistance to those in need.)
As for Abiy himself, his gravest sin seems to be one of omission. He has not visited camps housing displaced people in Gedeo or Guji (or, reportedly, anywhere in the country) since he took office. He has, rightly, turned away from the authoritarianism of his predecessors, but has failed to get to grips with the security crisis that emerged in its stead. The more cynical aid workers I spoke to suggested he and those around him simply want to “erase” the issue of displaced people before it spoils the new administration’s international image.
The precedents set by the response to the Gedeo tragedy are deeply troubling. “We failed Gedeo-Guji,” said one senior aid official. “And I’m afraid we are going to fail again [in Ethiopia], but at an even larger scale.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/mar/14/shadow-falls-over-ethiopia-reforms-warnings-of-crisis-ignored-abiy-ahmed
-
Pushed to the edge: Violence and abuse against refugees and migrants along Balkan Route
Mar 13, 2019 | Reliefweb
By Amnesty International
Croatia: EU complicit in violence and abuse by police against refugees and migrants
European governments are complicit in the systematic, unlawful and frequently violent pushbacks and collective expulsions of thousands of asylum seekers to squalid and unsafe refugee camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said Amnesty International in a report published today.
Pushed to the edge: Violence and abuse against refugees and migrants along Balkan Route details how, by prioritizing border control over compliance with international law, European governments are not just turning a blind eye to vicious assaults by the Croatian police, but also funding their activities. In so doing, they are fueling a growing humanitarian crisis on the edge of the European Union.
“To understand where the priorities of European governments lie, one only needs to follow the money. Their financial contribution towards humanitarian assistance is dwarfed by the funds they provide for border security which includes equipping Croatian border police and even paying their salaries,” said Massimo Moratti, Director of Research for Amnesty International’s Europe Office.
“Meanwhile people fleeing war and persecution are beaten and robbed by the Croatian police and forcibly pushed back to legal limbo, left at the mercy of a failing asylum system in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Currently around 5,500 women, men and children are trapped in two small Bosnian towns near the Croatian border, Bihac and Velika Kladusa, living in defunct former factories without basic amenities. Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot offer them adequate protection or living conditions and the improvised camps are unhygienic, lacking hot water, medical care and sufficient food.
One Afghan mother told Amnesty International: “We don’t have enough food to feed the whole family, especially the children. They are always hungry.”
Bureaucratic obstacles, inadequate legal assistance and limited administrative capacity mean that potential asylum-seekers are unlikely to get their asylum claims processed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most attempt to proceed to other European countries.
This journey is not easy. Having previously entered the EU through Greece and Bulgaria and having been abjectly failed by the asylum system there, people exit the EU to continue the journey along the Balkans. In order to reach Slovenia or Italy, where the EU Schengen free movement regime begins, they have to navigate Croatia’s dense forests, fast moving rivers and, in some places, live minefields.
In the first ten months of 2018, at least 12 people drowned in the Western Balkans, most of them trying to cross the border from Croatia to Slovenia. Dozens more died in other ways. One young woman from Afghanistan told Amnesty International how, after seeing a bear in a forest in Croatia, a woman she was travelling with miscarried. “She got so scared that she delivered a stillborn baby. She was six months pregnant.”
Those attempting the journey are frequently subjected to deliberate pushbacks and collective expulsions - often accompanied by violence and intimidation – at the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, without having their asylum claims considered.
Nearly all in the camps in Bihac and Velika Kladusa had been pushed back into Bosnia and Herzegovina from Croatia or Slovenia and nearly one third of those interviewed had experienced violence at the hands of the Croatian police. Many described how they were beaten, had their documents destroyed and possessions stolen in what appears to be a systematic and deliberate policy by Croatian authorities designed to deter future attempts to enter the country.
One young man from Gaza told Amnesty International what happened when he was caught by police with nine others. “They drove us to the border with Bosnia. They made us get out of the car one-by-one and started beating us with batons,” he said.
He then described how they were sprayed in the face with what he thought was pepper spray: “I couldn’t see anything. My eyes were burning. Then they told us to go and never come back to Croatia”.
Sami from Algeria told Amnesty International how he and a group of other men were taken one-by-one, and made to stand in a circle of masked policemen who beat them with batons and a baseball bat. “Then they took our money and the phones and told us to go towards Bosnia,” he said.
Another man described how Croatian police took their shoes, warm clothes and sleeping bags and forced them to walk barefoot for kilometres through freezing rivers and streams towards the Bosnian border. Such returns regularly took place at night and in remote areas outside of regular border crossings.
Those caught in Italy and Slovenia are often subject to chain pushbacks, summarily handed over to Croatian police and forcibly expelled back to camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina without having their asylum claims considered.
As the allegations of violent pushbacks on the borders have mounted, Croatian authorities have increasingly discouraged public scrutiny of country’s migration practices. Attempts by Croatian public institutions to oversee migration practices at the border have been blocked and organizations working on migrant and refugee rights have been targeted by the authorities.
NGO volunteers have been harassed, held for hours by police without formal charges and threatened with criminal prosecution. The Ministry of Interior has even accused some NGOs of assisting people to enter Croatia irregularly. This has had a chilling effect on those working to support refugees.
In spite of these appalling practices at the border, the European Union has continued to allocate significant funds to assist Croatia in its border security infrastructure. The EU has also wilfully ignored the failures of the European asylum system that make these journeys necessary.
“As temperatures rise and the snows melt, the number of people attempting to cross Croatia will swell. But with Bosnia and Herzegovina ill-equipped to handle the arrival of an increasing number of people seeking protection, action must be taken to avoid a humanitarian crisis in on the edge of the EU,” said Massimo Moratti.
“European leaders can no longer wash their hands of responsibility for the continued collective expulsions and violent pushbacks along the Balkan route that are the result of their determination to fortify EU borders, no matter what the human cost is.”
Background
The route through Bosnia and Croatia has become increasingly popular since Hungary erected fences along its borders and engaged in violent pushbacks making Serbia and Hungary increasingly impenetrable.
https://reliefweb.int/report/croatia/pushed-edge-violence-and-abuse-against-refugees-and-migrants-along-balkan-route
-
Sudanese vow to keep protesting as president digs in
Mar 14, 2019 | Fox News
By Samy Magdy
CAIRO – Three months after Sudanese protesters rose up against President Omar al-Bashir, the longtime autocrat has bound himself more tightly to the military and refuses to bow to their demands.
The wily 74-year-old has remained in power through three decades of war and sanctions, the secession of Sudan's oil-rich south in 2011 and an international arrest warrant for genocide and war crimes linked to the Darfur conflict.
But since December he has faced the biggest protests of his long rule, with political parties and unions demanding his ouster and demonstrators chanting slogans from the 2011 Arab Spring.
A look at where things stand, three months on.
DAILY PROTESTS
Demonstrators are still taking to the streets nearly every day despite a heavy crackdown by security forces. The largest protests are being held in the capital, Khartoum, and nearby Omdurman, with smaller ones breaking out elsewhere.
Activists said in early February that 57 people had been killed, while the government put the toll at 31, including police. Neither has updated those figures since then, even as clashes have regularly erupted, with police dispersing protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, live ammunition and batons. Hundreds of people have been arrested and are still behind bars.
The umbrella group of independent professional unions that has been spearheading the protests is sticking to its demands that al-Bashir's administration be replaced with an interim government that would prepare the country for new elections.
Sarah Abdel-Jaleel, a spokeswoman for the group, said they call for a "total change of the regime to meet the aspirations of the Sudanese people."
"There is no room for compromises with this regime. History tells us that dialogue with the regime was not fruitful," she said. "We will continue our peaceful resistance."
___
GOVERNMENT CLOSES RANKS
Al-Bashir has offered little in the way of concessions, beyond calling for a national dialogue and asking parliament to postpone constitutional amendments that would allow him to seek a new term in next year's elections.
Instead, he has bound himself more tightly to the country's feared security forces, replacing all state governors with senior military officers. He has declared a state of emergency, banned all unauthorized gatherings and given security forces sweeping powers to try and quash the protests.
Al-Bashir also dissolved the government last month. But his hand-picked prime minister on Wednesday announced a new Cabinet that keeps the defense and foreign ministers in place.
Al-Bashir stepped down as leader of the National Congress party but handed power to hard-line Islamist Ahmed Harun, who is also wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges linked to the conflict in Darfur in the 2000s.
Al-Bashir's embrace of the military appears to be aimed at avoiding a repeat of the coup that brought him to power in 1989.
___
INTERNATIONAL SILENCE
Al-Bashir has been isolated internationally for most of the time he has been in office. Western countries expressed concern about the violence in the early days of the protests, but have been largely silent since then.
Arab countries have meanwhile remained largely neutral, fearing any revival of the Arab Spring protests that swept the region in 2011 but also viewing al-Bashir as an unreliable ally.
The longtime leader has courted various Gulf states in recent years, playing both sides in the Saudi-Qatari rivalry without strongly committing to either. Relations with neighboring Egypt have oscillated over a longstanding border dispute and the construction of a major hydroelectric dam in Ethiopia that threatens to cut into both countries' share of the Nile.
In the absence of strong international pressure, the deadlock between the protesters and the government looks set to continue. For now, both sides appear to think that time is on their side.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/sudanese-vow-to-keep-protesting-as-president-digs-in
-
Mar 8, 2019 | UN News
September’s UN-backed South Sudan peace agreement is holding and has led to positive change, but tens of thousands of civilians in the war-weary nation are still reliant of life-saving humanitarian assistance, and time is running out. This was the message that David Shearer, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for South Sudan, relayed to the Security Council on Friday.
Mr Shearer outlined four notable changes in the country since the signing of the accord. Firstly, opposition politicians are now moving freely around the capital, Juba, and taking part in negotiations to cement the fragile peace deal.
The top envoy who also heads the UN Mission, UNMISS, also described a “palpable” enthusiasm for peace amongst the participants of around 70 different peace-related forums involving representatives of the Government and main opposition figures, many of which have been facilitated by the mission.
The third positive outcome is a significant drop in political violence, meaning that “many people are alive today who might not have been without the agreement signed,” said Mr. Shearer. Finally, he told Council members, South Sudanese are, for the first time, expressing a willingness to return home. Some 135,000 of the estimated 2.3 million refugees in the country have already made the move.
Mr. Shearer acknowledged, however, that the peace process faces several challenges. In Central Equatoria region, for example, forces that have not joined the peace process continue to fight government soldiers, with reports of lootings, civilian deaths and continuing sexual assaults.
Ensuring that perpetrators of sexual violence are brought to justice is a vital part of the reconciliation, said Mr. Shearer, and UNMISS is working with the Government to build up the capacity of the justice system to deal with these crimes, operating a mobile court system by flying prosecutors and judges out to hotspots, and opening a new UN-supported special court to try crimes of sexual and gender-based violence, he noted.
Maintaining the momentum of the peace process is another significant challenge, said the UN Special Representative, with the agreed timetable well behind schedule, and several fundamental issues still to be resolved. These include the definition of regional boundaries, the formation of a unified armed force, and the completion of a new constitution.Humanitarian aid still a lifeline for thousands
Although South Sudan has seen relatively stability for some five months, the population is still facing high levels of food insecurity, and an absence of health and education services.
Mr. Shearer pointed out that the aid received by South Sudan in 2018 – some $1 billion – is more than twice the country’s state budget, a situation he described as unsustainable: “It is a reality that South Sudan’s leaders often forget - or take for granted - that their country is supported by taxpayers around the world.
The UN envoy added that UNMISS and other agencies are focusing on building up the resilience of communities in more stable regions of the country, in order to promote a shift away from reliance on aid.
Mr. Shearer warned that there are just two months to go until a transitional government – which will include representatives of the main opposition – is scheduled to take office, and that a failed peace process could herald a return to violence: “The cost of failure is unthinkable. So, while responsibility lies primarily with the parties to the conflict, it also is beholden on us all to ensure that we move forward together to make this agreement a reality for the sake of the people of South Sudan.”
-
South Sudan peace deal doomed if disputes not settled: think-tank
Mar 14, 2019 | Reuters
By Hereward Holland
NAIROBI (Reuters) - South Sudan’s six-month-old peace deal is doomed to collapse unless the sides can settle a string of disputes and bring former rebels into the army before the formation of a new government in May, a think-tank said on Wednesday.
About 400,000 people have been killed, and more than a third of the country’s 12 million people uprooted by the five-year civil war - a conflict punctuated by multiple rounds of mediation followed by renewed bloodshed.
The accord signed in September by President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar - the former vice president - has reduced fighting, but could break down over several disputes, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a report.
“The peace agreement is stalling and is at risk of collapse if more political deals aren’t struck,” said Alan Boswell, the group’s South Sudan analyst. There was no immediate comment from the government or Machar’s supporters.
The deal called on the two main rival factions to assemble, screen and train their respective forces and unify them into a national army before the formation of a unity government in May.
None of these steps have occurred, just two months before the deadline, the report said.
There were also unresolved disputes over local boundaries - which some sides felt Kiir had redrawn to benefit his Dinka ethnic group, the report added.
Fighting has continued in the southern Equatoria region between the army and a rebel force led by former deputy army chief Thomas Cirillo, who refused to sign the September deal.
The landlocked, oil-producing country split away from Sudan in 2011 after decades of fighting, then collapsed into its own civil war.
The chaos dismayed regional and world powers who helped broker the secession, and had hoped South Sudan’s independence would draw a line under the long-running conflict that destabilized large parts of east Africa.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southsudan-war/south-sudan-peace-deal-doomed-if-disputes-not-settled-think-tank-idUSKBN1QU1N3
-
Salvaging South Sudan’s Fragile Peace Deal
| Reliefweb
By International Crisis Group
Five years into South Sudan’s civil war, the main belligerents have once again agreed to stop fighting and form a unity government. But the set of agreements, finalised on 12 September 2018, two years after the last accord collapsed, does not end the country’s deep crisis. It neither resolves the power struggle between President Salva Kiir and erstwhile rebel leader Riek Machar nor outlines a final political settlement for the country. Rather, it establishes a wobbly Kiir-Machar truce and grafts it onto the previous failed peace terms, without delivering much benefit to other groups that have been shut out of power. The new deal has lessened fighting, a welcome outcome, but it could break down over any number of outstanding disputes. Diplomats should handle the truce with care, nurturing momentum toward peace while pressing urgently for a more lasting settlement.
The accord, brokered by Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, is not a finished product and requires revision, a reality that mediators are not yet ready to admit. Additional political deals are necessary on two crucial matters – unifying a national army and resolving bitter disagreements over local boundaries and administration inside South Sudan. Absent such deals, the Kiir-Machar truce may fail its first major test in May 2019, when the two South Sudanese leaders are scheduled to form a unity government.
Most worrying at present, Kiir and Machar are still negotiating shared security control of the capital Juba, the scenario which led to the bloody setback in 2016. This prospect is a powerful argument for delaying the unity government’s formation past May, to grant mediators time to organise a small, limited-mandate third-party protection force for opposition leaders, the least objectionable of bad options for Juba’s security arrangements. The parties should come to consensus on whether to move back the May deadline. They should also remain open to supplemental negotiations with those opposition leaders commanding large forces who have rejected the peace deal.
The accord’s flaws should be a call to international action; instead, diplomatic apathy prevails. Western diplomats, whose countries have paid billions to feed and care for South Sudan’s beleaguered civilian population, have failed to keep up with the rapid pace of events. The U.S. in particular appears to have abdicated its leading role in South Sudan diplomacy; outside of other Horn of Africa states, no country has stepped up to assume the mantle. The absence of diplomatic leadership is baffling. A more proactive posture is urgently needed.
To shore up the truce, and avert a return to large-scale violence, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the regional bloc overseeing the deal, as well as the African Union (AU), the UN and donors, especially the U.S. and allies, should step up and sustain their diplomacy. In particular, they should:
Urge Kiir and Machar to strike new political deals on security and boundaries so that these provisions do not derail the rest of the accord. Push the parties as well to reach agreement on whether to postpone formation of the unity government now slated for May. Far more important than which route to take – delay or no delay – is maintaining consensus between the two main parties.
Propose – and strongly push both sides to accept – a third-party protection force for opposition leaders to prevent Juba’s remilitarisation by competing armed parties. Opposition fighters should not deploy to the capital in significant numbers, not even as part of a “unified” national force.
Begin a new mediation track for Thomas Cirillo, a former deputy army chief who now leads rebels in the Equatoria region opposed to the peace deal, which should be open to amendment. The government should halt its ill-advised military offensive against Cirillo’s forces, and both sides should recommit to the December 2017 cessation of hostilities.
Fill the diplomatic vacuum created by Washington’s retrenchment by empowering a lead envoy with donor backing to conduct shuttle diplomacy between the regional capitals. The simplest path forward would be to appoint a U.S. envoy to reassume leadership of the Troika countries (the U.S., the UK and Norway) in close coordination with the EU and other donors. This envoy should focus on sustaining regional pressure on the parties and fostering a longer-term strategy for addressing South Sudan’s systemic political instability.
Regional leaders, under IGAD’s auspices, should speedily appoint a new head of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), the body tasked with overseeing the parties’ implementation of the agreement. They should pick a figure who commands the key belligerents’ respect and who, when necessary, can marshal regional governments to intervene to broker deals and constrain saboteurs. Donors should condition financial support for JMEC activities upon the appointment of a full chair.
For the first time since war broke out, Kiir’s forces have ceased fighting Machar’s. But this breakthrough is fragile, and the possible triggers of fresh combat are many. Diplomats should move ahead along two tracks. They should pursue a deeper political settlement, one that addresses the reasons why South Sudan seems trapped in perpetual conflict; but they should do so while muddling through the rollout of a peace agreement that many South Sudanese, including the parties who negotiated it, fear is doomed to fail.
https://reliefweb.int/report/south-sudan/salvaging-south-sudan-s-fragile-peace-deal
-
In South Sudan, a ‘war on civilians’ despite six months of supposed peace
Mar 12, 2019 | IRIN
By Sam Mednick
A fragile peace deal signed in September brought a few months of relief as fighting largely subsided across the country. However, since the beginning of the year violence has escalated between government forces and parties who refuse to accept the agreement – some of them calling it, according to rebel leader Thomas Cirillo, a “betrayal” of the South Sudanese people.
Reports of abductions, ambush, rape, the burning and looting of property, and the killing of civilians have become rife in the last two months.
Thousands of people are now displaced in Central Equatoria in what a February report from the South Sudan Civil Society Forum referred to as a “war on civilians”. Thousands more have fled across the border into the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
Increased violence is also hindering the ability of aid groups to access vulnerable people, with many hiding in approximately 44 different areas in the forest and an estimated 23,000 people around the Central Equatoria town of Yei unreachable, according to the UN.
“Until all parties stop armed conflict and adhere to the ceasefire, access is going to be compromised because it’s going to be too dangerous for humanitarians and beneficiaries to deliver and receive humanitarian assistance,” said Sarah Vuylsteke, up until recently the deputy head of access for the World Food Programme in South Sudan.Danger and hunger
In the most dangerous country in the world for humanitarians, 20 percent of security incidents against aid workers have taken place in Central Equatoria. Humanitarians are concerned that if fighting continues the situation will get worse, especially when it comes to food security.
Across South Sudan, more than six million people face extreme hunger, 45,000 of which are in catastrophe at risk of starvation, according to a report released in February by the UN and South Sudanese government.
For its part, South Sudan’s government has downplayed the uptick in violence, insisting that the population influx in Yei is not a result of fighting but rather people’s desire to return home.
“It’s a sign of peace that people are coming back,” said Yousto Baba Lukudu, deputy governor of Yei River state. In February, government officials in Yei hosted a peace rally in its central square, while in stark contrast across town thousands of desperate and hungry recently displaced people lined up to register for food aid.
Several locals in Yei told IRIN that the government is trying to cover up the violence in order to appear in control and not be accused of violating the ceasefire.
Almost six months into South Sudan’s peace deal, which has been riddled with delays, missed deadlines and violations, the momentum has stalled and the international community’s patience is fraying.
In a statement last month, the US, the UK, and Norway – the so-called troika, which helped usher South Sudan to independence in 2011 – said it was “alarmed” at the escalating fighting around Yei and concerned that if the situation continues any progress made in implementing the peace agreement could be “irrevocably set back”.
The Catholic Bishops of South Sudan released a statement last month saying they were extremely concerned about the state of the peace deal, noting that all parties were either still involved in active fighting or preparations for war. “There is a sense of hopelessness that this agreement, like so many before it, will not succeed,” it said.‘I have nothing’
On a trip to Central Equatoria at the end of February, IRIN spoke with dozens of civilians who blamed both the government and the rebels for the deteriorating situation.
Joseph Yokuei, 65, had a wound on the back of his head from when armed men he identified as government soldiers beat, robbed, and detained him near the town of Yei.
He was walking from his farm, 24 kilometres out of town, trying to bring food to his family when he was accosted along with 10 other people. “I have nothing now,” he said.
A month earlier, the family fled to Yei after government tanks attacked their village of Mukaya in search of rebels. They were among the hundreds of displaced people who sought refuge in an overcrowded church in Yei, where they were left for weeks without any food.
Trapped between government forces and rebel fighters belonging to the National Salvation Front, or NAS – one of the non-signatory parties to South Sudan’s latest peace deal – almost 10,000 people now take refuge in five makeshift displacement sites on the outskirts of Yei.
Thousands more have escaped to the bush. While government forces try to weed out rebels from within communities, civilians are bearing the brunt of the fighting, caught between warring parties with little access to food, shelter, or medicine.
“It’s becoming very hard to survive out here,” said James Guer, also recently displaced.
“If someone goes from the village to town, the [rebels] say you’re working for intelligence. If you go from town to the village, the government says you’re a rebel. I don’t trust anyone with a gun.”
Seated in a plastic chair under a tree in Wuluturu, a neighbourhood on the edge of town where displaced people are living in abandoned houses, the community leader said he doesn’t care who’s in charge, he just wants to feel protected and free. Last month in the town of Morsak he said he found five bodies thrown into a toilet, and a young woman with her throat slit lying dead on the ground beside them.Scrambled response
The fighting is also preventing people in and around Yei from cultivating their lands. Terrified civilians can’t access their land for fear of being killed or abducted by armed men.
Since the Equatorias are known as South Sudan’s green belt, producing food for the rest of the country, there hasn’t been a robust emergency response in place when it comes to food aid.
“There are only small food stocks in Yei,” explained Dara Elisha, programme manager for the United Methodist Committee on Relief, an international aid group operating in town. “Civilians and humanitarians are not equipped to deal with emergency here.”
WFP conducted a registration last month for displaced people and started an emergency food distribution. So far 635 metric tonnes has been delivered, enough to last 9,000 people for one month, according to a spokesman for the UN’s food agency.
Access constraints are also raising fears regarding the spread of Ebola from Congo. Central Equatoria borders both Congo and Uganda, and the International Organisation for Migration has only been able to set up eight out of 18 border screening sites due to instability. Two places along the Congolese border are completely inaccessible.
Congo’s Ebola outbreak is the second deadliest in history and has been ongoing for more than six months in the country’s conflict-prone east. Responders face constant security threats, making it hard to get the virus under control in a busy region with porous borders.
“We are concerned,” said Stuart Vallis, IOM’s Ebola preparedness coordinator in Yei. “We’re unable to get to the sites to train people and we can’t set up certain sites or get to remote areas.”
The Equatorias were dragged into South Sudan’s crippling five-year civil war when renewed clashes erupted in the capital, Juba, in July 2016, displacing more than one million people in the region.
Despite talk of peace among the country’s leaders, civilians here struggle to remain hopeful.
Burying his face in his shirt, 14-year-old Peter Yakui recounts the day in February when government soldiers stormed his town of Morsak, beating him and threatening to kill him. He narrowly escaped, surviving for weeks in the forest living on wild fruit until he reached Yei. The young boy hasn’t seen his family since the attacks and doubts they’re alive.
Wiping his tear-soaked cheeks with his sleeve, he begged to leave.
“Take me away from here,” he said. “If I stay, I’ll never forget what happened.”
https://www.irinnews.org/news-feature/2019/03/12/south-sudan-war-civilians-despite-six-months-supposed-peace
-
Worsening Water Shortage in Philippines Triggers Senate Probe
Mar 14, 2019 | Bloomberg
By Andreo Colonzo
The Philippine Senate will investigate a worsening water shortage in the capital region that has spread to the main business district in Makati City.
Officials from Ayala Corp.’s Manila Water Co. Inc., whose tens of thousands of customers have been hit by water interruptions since the first week of March will face a probe on March 19, Senator Grace Poe said in a statement.
The interruptions lasting as long as 12 hours initially affected only dozens of villages. It has escalated to entire cities including Manila and Quezon City with longer outages. Some districts have gone without water for several days.
“We are calling this investigation because the public is already thirsty for the truth, now that they don’t have water to drink and clean with,” Poe said.Get MoreMore areas, including parts of Makati City will have no water supply for six hours to almost an entire day starting Wednesday, Manila Water said in its official Facebook page. The company said this week that the shortage was caused by rising demand and delays in its water treatment plant that was supposed to augment supply, aggravated by the start of a dry spell.Officials from another water concessionaire, Maynilad Water Services Inc., as well as from government agencies have also been invited to the hearing, Poe said.President Rodrigo Duterte is preparing an order for closer coordination of government agencies to address the problem, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said in a separate statement.Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said in a briefing Wednesday that the shortage would have been prevented if the China-funded Kaliwa Dam east of the capital was built earlier. Billionaire Enrique Razon is also offering to build another dam.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-14/worsening-water-shortage-in-philippines-triggers-senate-probe
-
Millions of children at risk as death toll rises in Philippines measles outbreak
Mar 14, 2019 | Reliefweb
By International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies
Manila / Kuala Lumpur / Geneva, 14 March 2019 - An estimated 3.7 million children under five in the Philippines are at risk during a measles outbreak that has already claimed 286 lives, most of them children or babies, the Red Cross is warning.
Deaths from measles are already 42 per cent higher this year than for all of 2018, when 202 people died. It is estimated that 3.7 million children under five in the Philippines have never been vaccinated and have no protection to the highly contagious virus, which is still spreading. Health experts estimate that every person sick with the measles could infect up to 18 others.
Philippine Red Cross Chairman Richard Gordon said: "We are in the grip of a measles outbreak that, tragically, is hitting the very young hardest. The Red Cross has been crucial in restoring people's confidence in vaccines, which makes it easier now to convince parents to get their children vaccinated. But we are aiming for a 100 per cent immunisation rate."
Of 286 deaths so far this year, 110 have been of babies under nine months old. The median age of those who've died is just two years old.
Since 10 February, the Philippine Red Cross, supported by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), has been working with the Department of Health to support patients and their families. The Red Cross has set up tents with cots and bedding to reduce over-crowding and give care to measles patients. It has set up welfare desks, portable water and sanitation facilities, and hygiene equipment inside hospitals. The Red Cross has also called for volunteer doctors and nurses to help during a mass vaccination campaign. The aim is to ensure vaccination of all children aged six months to five years.
Head of the IFRC Philippines Country Office Chris Staines said: "With experts warning that the outbreak could last for months, potentially not stabilising until May, many more lives are at risk. This is a preventable tragedy. We have no time to lose and no time to be complacent. We need to support Philippines Red Cross staff and volunteers today in their life-saving actions."
The Philippine Red Cross has a strong capacity to complement the government's response to the outbreak, with over 2 million volunteers. Red Cross staff and volunteers are already playing a key role informing, educating and warning communities about the early signs and symptoms of measles, and what action to take.
The Red Cross has already given vaccinations to more than 13,500 children. But to be able to support the Department of Health to protect all children aged six months to five years in the highest risk areas as soon as possible, IFRC is appealing to donors and partners to contribute 2 million Swiss francs (1.9 million US dollars / 105 million Philippine pesos).
ENDS
About measles
Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by a virus. It affects mostly children but people of any age who have not been vaccinated against measles can be infected.
Measles spreads very easily. The virus lives in the nose and throat mucus of an infected person. It can spread to others through coughing and sneezing. The virus can live for up to two hours in an airspace where the infected person coughed or sneezed.
People usually get sick about 10 to 12 days after getting infected with the virus. The symptoms include red eyes, runny nose, fever (as high as 1040F/ 400C) and skin rashes for more than three to seven days. Infected people are most contagious from about four days before their rash starts until four days afterwards. Complications include diarrhoea, middle ear infection, pneumonia, swelling of the brain, malnutrition and blindness. Complications may lead to death.
There is no specific treatment for the virus, although severe complications can be avoided.
Measles can be effectively prevented by vaccination. According to the WHO, between 2000 and 2017, measles vaccination resulted in an 80 per cent drop in deaths worldwide. In 2017, about 85 per cent of the world's children received one dose of measles vaccine by their first birthday through routine health services - up from 72 per cent in 2000.https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/millions-children-risk-death-toll-rises-philippines-measles-outbreak
-
Mar 8, 2019 | UNICEF
By UNICEF Australia
Children are killed or injured in war zones around the world everyday. They’re collateral damage.
They’re even targets of war. For many of these children, violence is just the beginning. They are forced to fight for their lives in more ways than one.
Viruses, diarrhoea and respiratory infections are common in children, but should not be life-threatening. But in conflict regions, like in Syria, South Sudan and Yemen, they are deadly. Less than one per cent of children die from measles in non emergency settings, but in an overcrowded refugee camp where access to treatment for diseases is difficult, this number can soar to 30 per cent.
Salih is seven but looks much younger. He’s experienced so much already in his short life. Uprooted from his home in rural Aleppo due to fierce violence, Salih and his family escaped to relative safety in Tabqa three years ago. Because the fronts have moved Salih now, once again, lives in a fragile area where there conflict could erupt at any minute.Salih is one of the lucky ones who is now vaccinated. Others still aren’t. As many as 7.7 million children are currently unimmunised and live in perilous situations, often conflict or war zones.
Currently, around the world, more countries are in armed conflicts than at any time in the past 30 years - conflicts which hamper the distribution of life-saving vaccines to innocent children.
South Sudan has the highest number of unimmunised infants (61%), followed by Somalia (58%) and Syria (57%). Without vaccinations, children suffer.Saber, 10, is from Sarach Naghlo, a small village in Afghanistan. He contracted polio as a toddler as is now paralysed.
“We were refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Saber was only two-years-old,” his father Mohammed says.
“The polio virus hit Saber and left him paralysed. We did not vaccinate him since we were refugees.”
This story is all too common in conflict-struck countries like Afghanistan, Syria and South Sudan.
That’s why UNICEF is determined to vaccinate every child, no matter where they live.
With your help, we can keep children alive in situations they are powerless to stophttps://www.unicef.org.au/blog/news-and-insights/march-2019/a-silent-killer-in-war-zones
Ethiopia
European Refugee Crisis
Sudan
South Sudan
Philippines
Vaccination
Add recipients
Suggested