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Humanitarian Issues Media Monitoring 3/20/19
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UNICEF Myanmar Humanitarian Situation Report #2 - 15 March 2019
Mar 15, 2019 | Reliefweb
By UN Children's Fund
February proved to be a turbulent month in northern Shan and Rakhine States with both locations tracking additional displacements. In Rakhine, fighting between the Arakan Army and Tatmadaw continued with fighting in five of the 17 townships. Fighting also continued in northern Shan state between armed ethnic organizations leading to the displacement in February of 3,700 people bringing the total displacement in the first two months of the year to approximately 7,500 people. In contrast, Kachin State has not experienced armed conflict since September 2018 resulting in the lowest level of fighting since 2016. -
Tropical Cyclone Idai may have killed more than 1,000 in Mozambique
Mar 19, 2019 | The Economist
Aid workers have described it as Mozambique’s worst humanitarian crisis since its 15-year civil war. Nearly a week after Tropical Cyclone Idai walloped the country’s central coast before churning inland, the full extent of the damage is still unclear. Beira, a port city of half a million people, was cut off after a massive storm hit on March 14-15th, bringing fierce winds and flooding that destroyed bridges, roads and power lines. -
Years of conflict pushing people in Yemen to edge of famine
Mar 18, 2019 | Oxfam
The people of Yemen are suffering through an extended civil war, which has displaced three million people, disrupted imports of vital goods like food, fuel, and medicine, and devastated the economy. Roughly half of Yemen’s health facilities are not fully functional, while the country has faced a massive cholera epidemic (1.3 million suspected cases) that has killed 2,760 people. With food prices rising exponentially and the economy collapsing, families can’t find work to afford food, and 15.8 million people do not know where they will get their next meal. Many are living in near-famine conditions, and 24 million of the 30 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance. -
Peace Resolution from the Children of Yemen to the World
Mar 19, 2019 | Reliefweb
For the first time in Yemen’s four-year-long war a group of teenagers have written their own calls for peace, saying adults have failed to protect them. “Hear our voices. We are children just like any other children, just like your children. We don’t want to live in a warzone anymore, we are sick of it.’ -
Three civilians killed every day in Yemen despite Stockholm agreements
Mar 18, 2019 | Reliefweb
By Oxfam
Three civilians are being killed every day in Yemen – that’s one person every eight hours – despite agreements reached between the internationally recognised government and the Houthis at talks in Sweden just over three months ago. -
Three people dying in Yemen every day despite ceasefire agreement
Mar 19, 2019 | The Guardian
By https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/mar/19/three-people-dying-in-yemen-every-day-despite-ceasefire-agreement
Yemen is continuing to experience a steady stream of violence, claiming at least one life every eight hours – despite the agreements reached between the internationally recognised government and the Houthis at talks in Sweden just over three months ago. -
Note to humanitarians in South Sudan: Strengthen the group, not just the individual
Mar 18, 2019 | The New Humanitarian
By Janardhan Rao
South Sudan’s five-year civil war has killed 400,000 people and displaced more than four million others, creating the largest refugee crisis in Africa. About half the population of 12 million face severe hunger. But despite continued clashes, a peace deal between warring parties to form a transitional government later this year is cause for optimism. -
‘Bujumbura Can Close the Doors of Burundi, But It Can’t Hide the Repression’
Mar 19, 2019 | Human Rights Watch
By Lewis Mudge
On February 28, Burundi’s government forced the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to pack up and leave Burundi. This office had been working in Bujumbura since the 1990s and the violent intercommunal conflict that had left over 300,000 dead. It had helped build the country’s institutional human rights framework after this fratricidal war. The government’s order is the latest blow in an ongoing attack on human rights that began when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in 2015 he was running for a controversial third presidential term. State security services and members of the Imbonerakure – the youth league associated with the ruling party – have killed, tortured, raped, arrested, beaten, and intimidated members of political opposition parties and others perceived as being against the government. -
Health Workers In Congo Face Violent Threats In Addition To Ebola
Mar 19, 2019 | NPR
Officials say many in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are mistrustful of health workers and resist their help — sometimes violently. Aid groups are proposing strategies to win people over. -
What Needs To Be Done To End Congo's Ebola Crisis
Mar 19, 2019 | NPR
Recent weeks have seen an upsurge in direct, and often deadly, attacks against the health workers trying to respond to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo. -
Doubling down on Ebola
Mar 19, 2019 | Reliefweb
By World Health Organisation
It has been eight months since an outbreak of Ebola was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu province. Since then, this outbreak has become the country’s most severe. Over 900 people have contracted the virus, and close to 600 have lost their lives. In the midst of conflict, and in some of the most challenging conditions, Ebola responders are working round the clock to ensure people can get the information, the care and the treatment they need.
Myanmar
Mozambique
Yemen
South Sudan
Burundi
Congo
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UNICEF Myanmar Humanitarian Situation Report #2 - 15 March 2019
Mar 15, 2019 | Reliefweb
By UN Children's Fund
Highlights
Fighting continues to displace people in Rakhine and Shan States causing displacement of 3,700 people bringing the total displacement in the first two months of the year to approximately 7,500 people.
Kachin State has not experienced armed conflict and resulting displacement since September 2018 resulting in the lowest level of fighting since 2016.
UNICEF is restarting soap distributions in northern Rakhine State for approximately 100,000 people per month in coordination with food distributions by the World Food Programme. Over 37,400 metric tons has been transferred to the Rakhine office for these activities.
On February 26, UNICEF signed an agreement with the Government of Japan which provides over US$7 million in support for UNICEF’s humanitarian activities in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine States.
SITUATION IN NUMBERS
460,788
# of children in need of humanitarian assistance (HNO 2019)
Kachin: 71,150
Kayin: 4,475
Rakhine: 364,767
Shan: 20,396941,351
# of people in need (HNO 2019)UNICEF Appeal 2019
US$ 59 millionSituation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
February proved to be a turbulent month in northern Shan and Rakhine States with both locations tracking additional displacements. In Rakhine, fighting between the Arakan Army and Tatmadaw continued with fighting in five of the 17 townships. Fighting also continued in northern Shan state between armed ethnic organizations leading to the displacement in February of 3,700 people bringing the total displacement in the first two months of the year to approximately 7,500 people. In contrast, Kachin State has not experienced armed conflict since September 2018 resulting in the lowest level of fighting since 2016.
In Kachin, the unilateral ceasefire declared by the Myanmar Military (Tatmadaw) in December 2018 continues to hold. It is unclear if, when the ceasefire ends in April, fighting will restart. The Tatmadaw and Kachin State Government are encouraging people to leave IDP camps and return home or to other resettlement sites. Though similar encouragement has been given in the past, the lack of information among IDPs has created an environment of fear and anxiety in many locations. Though IDPs continue to state their desire to return to their place of origin, safety and security issues remain among the principal concerns.
In northern Shan, of the 7,500 people displaced, most have been able to return home. However more than 1,100 remain in camps or camp-like settings—due principally to fighting in Hsipaw and Kyaukme townships—most newly displaced are sheltering in monasteries and are receiving assistance from the local community, private donors and civil society organizations. Assistance has also been provided by some international organizations as well as the Government of Myanmar. IDPs noted the need for additional sanitation, bathing and washing facilities, sleeping mats and interagency partners expressed concern about the length of displacement given the volatility in these areas. Fighting and displacement continued in late February causing injuries to civilians and children.
In Rakhine State, fighting between the Arakan Army and the Tatmadaw continued with the use of explosive devices and shelling. In late February the fighting expanded into a sixth township, Mrauk-U, resulting in the temporary displacement of families, including women and children. Access in all six townships—Mrauk U, Kyawktaw, Ponnagyun, Rathedaung, Maungdaw and Buthidaung—remains limited to mainly urban areas for UNICEF and our partners. The clashes occurred on a near daily basis throughout February displacing over 6,000 people, primarily ethnic Rakhine, to villages, monasteries or camp-like settings. Interagency partners continue to face access restrictions in these areas and are tracking the impact of movement restrictions on both humanitarian and development programming. In addition to fighting within Rakhine State, the Arakan Army and Tatmadaw are fighting in Paletwa Township of southern Chin State. Fighting has thus far caused the displacement of approximately 500 people including ethnic Chin, Khami, Mor, and Rakhine.
https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/unicef-myanmar-humanitarian-situation-report-2-15-march-2019
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Tropical Cyclone Idai may have killed more than 1,000 in Mozambique
Mar 19, 2019 | The Economist
Aid workers have described it as Mozambique’s worst humanitarian crisis since its 15-year civil war. Nearly a week after Tropical Cyclone Idai walloped the country’s central coast before churning inland, the full extent of the damage is still unclear. Beira, a port city of half a million people, was cut off after a massive storm hit on March 14-15th, bringing fierce winds and flooding that destroyed bridges, roads and power lines.
Filipe Nyusi, the president, called it a “disaster of great proportions” and described seeing bodies floating in rivers as he flew over the region by helicopter. Although the official death toll stands at 84, Mr Nyusi said that the number could rise to more than 1,000 fatalities.https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2019/03/19/tropical-cyclone-idai-may-have-killed-more-than-1000-in-mozambique
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Years of conflict pushing people in Yemen to edge of famine
Mar 18, 2019 | Oxfam
Four years ago Fatima Abdo Mohammed says she was trying to get her children to a safe place, away from fighting, when they stopped to rest and were hit by an airstrike. “My sons were preparing food when we were hit…” she says. “Two of my children died, Aida and Moath. They were in their first years of school.”
Mohammed and her other four children are now in southern Yemen near Lahij, where they live in a one-room wooden house in the desert. They take care of a small herd of goats, and it is a difficult life. “We eat only rice for lunch,” Mohammed says. “Previously, we were living in dignity,” but now, she says, “we are suffering here a lot. We do not have anything, we are without jobs.”
The people of Yemen are suffering through an extended civil war, which has displaced three million people, disrupted imports of vital goods like food, fuel, and medicine, and devastated the economy. Roughly half of Yemen’s health facilities are not fully functional, while the country has faced a massive cholera epidemic (1.3 million suspected cases) that has killed 2,760 people. With food prices rising exponentially and the economy collapsing, families can’t find work to afford food, and 15.8 million people do not know where they will get their next meal. Many are living in near-famine conditions, and 24 million of the 30 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance. Oxfam staff have met families that have married off girls – in some cases at a shockingly young age-- in exchange for money they need for food and medical care.Oxfam response
Oxfam has been working in Yemen to provide clean water, proper latrines, and hygiene items like soap to help people keep clean and avoid cholera and other diseases. The organization is giving cash to help families buy food in local markets, helping displaced farming families with seeds and tools, and providing job training and other support for families to start small businesses. The organization is specifically targeting economic empowerment assistance to women with young daughters who might be vulnerable to early marriage.
Oxfam has helped three million people in Yemen since July 2015, including more than 420,000 people in Taiz governorate with water and sanitation services and cash assistance. Oxfam works closely with a growing network of Yemeni organizations, who are invaluable partners due to their expertise and expanding reach.
But the only sustainable solution to the massive suffering in Yemen is an end to the conflict. Oxfam is advocating for the warring parties to commit to a ceasefire, allow full humanitarian access, and engage in peace talks that include women and youth.
Oxfam has advocated for years for a peaceful end to the conflict and for the US to end its role in the war. One joint statement with Save the Children, CARE and the Norwegian Refugee Council called for an end to arms sales to all sides of the conflict. “The countries selling arms to warring parties in Yemen need to stop these deals with immediate effect and put in place strong monitoring and accountability mechanisms, so that devastating weapons will no longer kill and injure civilians in Yemen,” says the statement, issued on February 26th.US Congress debates
In the US, Oxfam has also called on its supporters in the US to urge their Senators to pass a proposed Yemen War Powers joint resolution. The measure passed the Senate on 13 March. “This vote sends another strong message that US leaders are willing to take a stand for peace and political agreements that will save millions of lives in Yemen,” Oxfam’s Humanitarian Policy Lead Scott Paul said on the day of the vote. “We see this vote as another signal to the parties to the conflict and the people of Yemen that the US won’t stand by and watch Yemen fall deeper into hunger, disease, financial collapse, and despair.”
“Only peace through political agreements, bolstered by Congressional and other pressure, can bring relief to the millions of Yemenis on the brink of famine.”
https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/saving-lives/conflict-people-yemen-famine/
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Peace Resolution from the Children of Yemen to the World
Mar 19, 2019 | Reliefweb
HEAR OUR VOICES, WE’RE SICK OF WAR
Yemeni children call out for peace
SANAA – For the first time in Yemen’s four-year-long war a group of teenagers have written their own calls for peace, saying adults have failed to protect them. “Hear our voices. We are children just like any other children, just like your children. We don’t want to live in a warzone anymore, we are sick of it.’
Next week it will be exactly four years since the escalation of the conflict in Yemen – having lived through violence, hunger and restrictions, in their Peace Resolution the children demand an end to the war, the right to education, free movement and freedom from fear.
Yemen is the largest humanitarian crisis on earth, where 24 million people - 80% of the population - need humanitarian assistance and protection, and almost 10 million people are one step away from starvation. Around 10 million children don’t have access to adequate healthcare, one in three girls and one in four boys don’t go to school, and 1,5 million children fled their homes to escape hunger and violence.
Under the supervision of trained child protection officers, the children were asked to write how they feel about the conflict in Yemen. Their honest responses give a unique insight into a child’s experience of war.
Children’s Peace Resolution excerpts (read the full version here): “When we walk, we are scared, when we sleep, we are scared. When we play, we are scared. We don’t want to live in a warzone anymore, we are sick of it…We are innocent. We are children just like any other children, just like your children.
“We want to be cared for like any other child. We want an education. We want the chance to go to school. We want to draw, eat, laugh and play. We have the right to learn and be looked after, to grow up and pursue our dreams.”
Amani* is 13 years old: “My father’s salary hasn’t been paid for four years…Before, my father used to bring us fruits and desserts when he came home, now he comes back home empty handed. He is not able to afford them anymore…We have been deprived of many things because of this war…The war has worn us down, bombing and destruction have worn us down.”
Maha* is 13 years old. She describes the moment her father was injured: “Where my dad worked was hit by three of four rockets and he was injured, deep gashes were opened in his cheek and from his forehead to his eye by thick glass shards…When the rockets hit, he was thrown with the broken glass and his office was turned upside down by the force of the explosion…I was deeply affected by my father’s injury and (his) wounds. When we went to the hospital, I used to see wounded people, like a guy with a gash in his abdomen and his guts spilling out.”
Sukaina Sharafuddin, aid worker for Save the Children, said: “Children in Yemen don't often get the opportunity to speak about their feelings – they're too busy just trying to survive. These children have grown up very quickly from seeing so much suffering all around them. Nearly all the children expressed their disappointment at being forgotten by the world. They couldn’t understand why children elsewhere get to be properly fed and clothed and sleep safely at night. I’m a parent and this is not the life I would wish on my child and I think parents everywhere would agree.”
Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s country director in Yemen: “We believe only words, not weapons, can bring peace to Yemen’s children. And the children have told us very clearly that they expect better from the international community, by whom they feel abandoned and neglected. Children are dying every day because of the lack or denial of food, a lack of medicines, because of violence. Around 240,000 people are living through catastrophic levels of hunger and are barely surviving - half of them children hovering on the brink of starvation.
“Children feel the destruction around them and they see what is needed on the ground. Peace, food, education.
_“And now they’re asking for it. We are publishing this Peace Resolution today because children’s voices are rarely considered. The authors of this resolution want the world to know how they feel, to understand their dire circumstances but also to remind everyone of a simple fact: children are children everywhere and deserve the best possible chance in life.” _
As 80 per cent of the Yemeni population requires some sort of humanitarian assistance with millions of children on the brink of starvation, it’s more urgent than ever for world leaders to put children front and centre of its foreign, defence and aid policies. That means calling out allies when they violate humanitarian law, suspending arms sales to warring parties that are killing children in Yemen, and implementing a clear strategy to protect children and their families caught up in conflict.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
The children aged 13-18 gathered in Sanaa in December 2018 in one of Save the Children’s Child-Friendly Spaces (CFS). CFS’s are protected areas set up by Save the Children staff, together with members of the local community. They provide children with a safe space where they can play, learn, express themselves and socialise. These spaces are especially designed to meet the unique needs of children in conflict, many of whom have faced distressing experiences. Children are also offered important psychosocial support to help them overcome distressing or traumatic experiences.
Save the Children estimates some 85,000 children under five in Yemen may have died from extreme hunger since the escalation of the conflict in April 2015. Others died while fleeing the violence in Hodeidah or other hotbeds. Currently, one in ten children have been forced to flee their homes and some two million children are out of school.
Some 1780 schools were either destroyed or damaged, and 23 schools are being used by armed groups. Another 167 schools are used as shelters for families who had to flee their homes.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/peace-resolution-children-yemen-world
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Three civilians killed every day in Yemen despite Stockholm agreements
Mar 18, 2019 | Reliefweb
By Oxfam
Three civilians are being killed every day in Yemen – that’s one person every eight hours – despite agreements reached between the internationally recognised government and the Houthis at talks in Sweden just over three months ago.
In December last year the two parties agreed a ceasefire for the key port of Hudaydah, as well as a prisoner exchange, as the first steps towards negotiating peace in Yemen, where fighting escalated four years ago.
In the 11 weeks following the agreements, 231 civilians were killed across the country in airstrikes, shelling, by sniper or landmines. A third of those killed were in Hudaydah governorate, despite the cease fire there.
56 of those killed were children – a number that would fill two classrooms in the average UK primary school.
The civilian death toll has dropped in the wake of the UN sponsored talks in Sweden; the UN recently reported as many as 100 civilians a week were being killed or injured in 2018. But it remains unacceptably high.
Muhsin Siddiquey, Oxfam’s Yemen Country Director said: “Every day that passes without concrete progress towards peace, more Yemenis lose their lives and the suffering deepens for those struggling to find food and shelter amid the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
“The backers of the warring parties are complicit in this man-made crisis; we call on them to stop arming the belligerents. They and the rest of the international community need to do all they can to help bring about a lasting peace in Yemen.”
Aside from fatalities, the war continues to take a toll on civilians in other ways. Millions of Yemenis are on the brink of famine due to the withering economy and the closure of key ports to vital food supplies. Oxfam recently met a family forced to make the difficult choice to marry off their three-year-old daughter so that her parents could use the money to buy food and shelter for other family members.
The UK government's decision to continue to licence the export of military equipment to Saudi Arabia, part of a coalition giving military support to the internationally recognised government, is being legally challenged. The case will be heard by the Court of Appeal in April, after the High Court ruled the arms exports could continue.
Siddiquey said: “The international leadership UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has shown both by visiting Yemen recently to witness the disaster for himself, and by holding talks with the warring parties to urge compromise on all sides, is commendable.
“But this willingness to broker peace is being fatally undermined by the UK government’s insistence on continued arms sales to some of the warring parties.
“UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other coalition members are prolonging and deepening a conflict that is causing immense human suffering, and they need to stop.”
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/three-civilians-killed-every-day-yemen-despite-stockholm-agreements
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Three people dying in Yemen every day despite ceasefire agreement
Mar 19, 2019 | The Guardian
By https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/mar/19/three-people-dying-in-yemen-every-day-despite-ceasefire-agreement
Since the Stockholm deal in December, airstrikes on Hodeidah have decreased but casualties have doubled elsewhere
Yemen is continuing to experience a steady stream of violence, claiming at least one life every eight hours – despite the agreements reached between the internationally recognised government and the Houthis at talks in Sweden just over three months ago.
According to figures compiled by two international aid agencies, in some areas of the country the number of casualties, far from falling, had doubled where the conflict was flaring up.
Figures show three people have died in Yemen every day since the agreements were signed in mid-December. More than 231 civilians have been killed across the country, by airstrikes, shelling, snipers or landmines. A third of those fatalities were in Hodeidah governorate, despite the ceasefire there – 56 of those were children.
According to figures collected by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), civilian casualties in Hajjah and Taiz alone have more than doubled since the Hodeidah ceasefire and Stockholm agreement came into effect, with 164 and 184 people killed in each city respectively.
“The reduction in violence seen in Hodeidah through recent months has been counteracted by escalations in other parts of the country,” said Mohamed Abdi, country director for NRC in Yemen.
“While airstrikes on Hodeidah city have reduced significantly and a semblance of life has resumed, the fighting is intensifying in other parts of the country, with a devastating impact on civilians.”
According to the NRC, significant clashes have resumed in parts of Hodeidah city, threatening to reverse any fragile gains.
Why can't we talk about the UK sending arms to Yemen?Anna Stavrianakis
Read more
Commenting on its own figures on the death toll, Muhsin Siddiquey, Yemen country director for Oxfam, said: “Every day that passes without concrete progress towards peace, more Yemenis lose their lives and the suffering deepens for those struggling to find food and shelter amid the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
“The backers of the warring parties are complicit in this manmade crisis,” he said. “We call on them to stop arming the belligerents. They and the rest of the international community need to do all they can to help bring about a lasting peace in Yemen.”
The conflict has left millions of Yemenis on the brink of famine.
Siddiquey also criticised the UK government for its decision to continue to license the export of military equipment to Saudi Arabia, part of a coalition giving military support to the internationally recognised government. The policy will be challenged in the Court of Appeal in April, after the High Court ruled the arms exports could continue.
Siddiquey said: “The international leadership [that] UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has shown both by visiting Yemen recently to witness the disaster for himself, and by holding talks with the warring parties to urge compromise on all sides, is commendable. But this willingness to broker peace is being fatally undermined by the UK government’s insistence on continued arms sales to some of the warring parties.
“UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other coalition members are prolonging and deepening a conflict that is causing immense human suffering, and they need to stop.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/mar/19/three-people-dying-in-yemen-every-day-despite-ceasefire-agreement
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Note to humanitarians in South Sudan: Strengthen the group, not just the individual
Mar 18, 2019 | The New Humanitarian
By Janardhan Rao
South Sudan’s five-year civil war has killed 400,000 people and displaced more than four million others, creating the largest refugee crisis in Africa. About half the population of 12 million face severe hunger. But despite continued clashes, a peace deal between warring parties to form a transitional government later this year is cause for optimism.
If the humanitarian community is to contribute to the healing and reconciliation the world’s youngest nation so urgently needs, it must recognise the social connections that exist within South Sudanese society and strengthen them to underpin any recovery.
Social connections are an economic safety net in South Sudan; people's family and non-kin relationships are their primary 'go to' in normal times as well as during times of distress. This local social protection predates the current crisis and has been in place well before the arrival of external humanitarian aid.
“Before the crisis, I could have gone to the local authorities to seek help because my cattle were raided, but now there is no system in place at all.”
Humanitarian programmes are primarily in the economic sphere – whether in the provision of food, cash to meet basic needs, or support for livelihoods or income generation. New research from Mercy Corps and Tufts University’s Feinstein International Centre explores how these interventions impact these underlying social connections, both positively and negatively.
While the informal connections and services may not be very visible, aid actors should seek them out. They could include the sharing of food or aid for social capital, as well as the redistribution of wealth amongst more vulnerable community members in what are known as “famine courts”.
These informal connections may also have adapted to the changing context; for example with the move to more of a cash-based economy, people’s ‘wealth’ may be less visible than before.Shared humanitarian aid
Men and women in Panyijar, in southern Liech state, explained that they belonged to various informal support groups, which earn their income from fishing, herding cattle, collecting firewood, and other activities.
Their interviews revealed that households rely on each other for food, shelter, and work and many share humanitarian aid with others to reinforce or build new connections – just as they would share crops they raise or fish they’ve caught back home.
In Panyijar, which hosts tens of thousands who fled some of the most intense fighting of the civil war, the social safety net is exemplified by cattle herders. Here, cows, not cash, are king, and cattle-keeping is a centuries-old tradition. Cattle farmers long ago formed their own groups organically, mobilising for protection, to share information on grazing and watering their herds and to offer financial support, including loans and goods on credit.
“We share whatever we have. You do not eat alone in our group,” explained Gatkouth, 56, a leader of a group of cattle herders (called a Kwar Wich) for more than three decades in Nyal Payam, near the White Nile River.
During an interview, he described how the cows of one member of the group were not lactating, severely reducing the herder’s food supply. “We cannot let him leave the group because he doesn’t have lactating cows,” he said. “Instead, we eat with him and wait until his cows produce calves and he is able to get enough milk.”
Another risk the group faces are raids by cattle thieves. “Before the crisis, I could have gone to the local authorities to seek help because my cattle were raided, but now there is no system in place at all,” Gatkouth said.
Instead, the group supports community members who are victims of theft by contributing their own cows to his herd.
These kinds of connections are inherently broad in scope, going well beyond market activity and trade to touch on rites of passage, gender and youth dynamics, and other facets of life.Aid in context
Social connections are essential in both the crisis and the recovery period in South Sudan, and the lessons we are learning will be crucial as humanitarians consider longer-term recovery issues, such as market-oriented private-sector investment.
What this means in the practical sense for humanitarians is that aid needs to be based on the context, rather than where it is from.
South Sudan is a collective society, but currently the way much aid is delivered mirrors how Western donors think and is often modelled on their own societies. Organisations tend to work with individuals or households, but in the South Sudan context, everything is communal. Aid actors need to shift our Western notions of individual and household vulnerability to consider our response from a collective perspective.
Donors too have an important role to play. They should provide aid actors with the flexibility to determine when and how to pivot from short-term emergency assistance to livelihoods support, as ending emergency relief before households are equipped to pursue sustainable livelihoods can undermine these local support systems.
Before the conflict, in Nyal Payam, cattle herders moved freely, interacting beyond their clans, but now sometimes there is fighting, Gatkouth said. It is up to him to keep the peace.
“If you violate any rules, I call you and others involved for a meeting. My members and I look into the case and resolve it,” he said. “I do not allow arguments in my cattle camps that might lead to fighting either between my group members or with other groups of different Kwar Wich.”
Gatkouth’s guidance will continue to play a pivotal role in helping his community build peace, as will his relationships of trust and social connections.
How we, as the humanitarian community, honour and maintain such vital relationships of trust will be crucial to building peace and stability and helping South Sudan recover.
http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2019/03/18/note-humanitarians-south-sudan-strengthen-group-not-just-individual
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‘Bujumbura Can Close the Doors of Burundi, But It Can’t Hide the Repression’
Mar 19, 2019 | Human Rights Watch
By Lewis Mudge
On February 28, Burundi’s government forced the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to pack up and leave Burundi. This office had been working in Bujumbura since the 1990s and the violent intercommunal conflict that had left over 300,000 dead. It had helped build the country’s institutional human rights framework after this fratricidal war. The government’s order is the latest blow in an ongoing attack on human rights that began when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in 2015 he was running for a controversial third presidential term. State security services and members of the Imbonerakure – the youth league associated with the ruling party – have killed, tortured, raped, arrested, beaten, and intimidated members of political opposition parties and others perceived as being against the government.
As part of its strategy, the government has done everything it can to keep the world in the dark on the situation in Burundi. But on Tuesday, March 12, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Burundi reported to the Human Rights Council, during its first session of the year, which is currently being held in Geneva, that to their knowledge, “the alleged perpetrators of grave violations and international crimes committed since 2015 have not been held accountable, and still occupy positions of authority within the security and defense forces and the Imbonerakure.”
But reporting what has been going on in Burundi has become a lot harder. Any Burundian who openly works on human rights issues is very likely to face arrest, detention or worse. So Burundi’s independent organizations and media must now work from the safety of exile. Every week, they compile and publish reports about new serious rights violations.
The government also banned international media and human rights organizations, or prevented them from entering the country. In September 2018, it suspended all international nongovernmental organizations including some that provide life-saving assistance, and ordered them to provide the “ethnic breakdown” of their national staff. This crossed a red line for many, fearing that the government intended to meddle in their operations or might even target people of certain community backgrounds on their staff. As a result, several groups left the country.
In this atmosphere, national institutions have failed to document the repression, much less to attempt to curb it. The national human rights commission, which had shed light on government abuses and showed signs of independence before the crisis, now stays quiet. It was downgraded from “A” to “B” status in April 2018, when the UN body in charge of accrediting national human rights institutions said it had failed to speak out “in response to credible allegations of gross human rights violations having been committed by government authorities.”
Regional institutions have been unable to address the rights crisis. In 2016, the government blocked African Union (AU) observers from monitoring the human rights situation and since then the regional body has shied away from discussing it. The East African Community-led dialogue is at a stalemate, there is little interest in finding an alternative.
As abuses by state security forces became more widespread in 2016, Bujumbura had started procedures to withdraw from the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) jurisdiction. But the ICC had announced on October 25, 2017, two days before the withdrawal took effect that it would investigate crimes committed since April 2015, and retains jurisdiction over crimes committed in Burundi before its withdrawal.
The departure of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights only one year ahead of 2020 elections – although its work is suspended since October 2016 – underscores the Burundian government’s continued attempts to shield itself from international scrutiny.
In 2018, Burundian authorities declared the UN Commission of Inquiry members persona non grata. In 2017, the government had already threatened legal action against its members. Despite the lack of direct access, the Commission has managed to collect evidence and report more damning findings, including crimes against humanity. On March 12, it urged the Council’s members to observe the 2020 electoral process with the “utmost vigilance.” At this time, it is the only international monitoring mechanism that is providing regular reports on the repression in Burundi.
The Commission highlighted cases of sexual violence “seemingly spurred by the general climate of impunity in the country” and the direct implication of members of the Imbonerakure in “the majority of violations documented by the Commission, including sexual violence.” Additionally, it raised concerns about the apparent extortion of the population, which is regularly asked for forced or supposedly voluntary financial and in-kind contributions to the 2020 elections, and the threats, intimidation and attacks against refugees that return voluntarily to Burundi.
The government’s representative responded to the Commission by publicly rejecting the oral update. This was not unexpected.
The government has even refused to work with three separate UN experts whose “technical assistance” mandate it endorsed. Instead, it revoked their visas and expelled them in May 2018. Until last December, Burundi’s government was a member of the Human Rights Council, a post that conferred a responsibility to cooperate with the UN’s mechanisms. In reality, it displayed as a Council member the same contempt for human rights that it practises at home.
The authorities are trying to write History by limiting information coming from the country. The lack of reporting on human rights abuses is not the result of peace or progress. Rather, the fearful silence stems from an absence of checks on unaccountable power. The government wants to keep the world in the dark about ongoing abuse. Bujumbura can close the doors of Burundi, but it won’t be able to hide the repression. As the Commission of Inquiry and the activists working from exile are showing, the latter is only growing worse. Now is not the time to look away.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/19/bujumbura-can-close-doors-burundi-it-cant-hide-repression
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Health Workers In Congo Face Violent Threats In Addition To Ebola
Mar 19, 2019 | NPR
Officials say many in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are mistrustful of health workers and resist their help — sometimes violently. Aid groups are proposing strategies to win people over.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now we have a story of what can make an Ebola outbreak even more of a nightmare. The outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has infected nearly 1,000 people. And someone has been shooting at health workers trying to respond. Here's NPR's Nurith Aizenman.
NURITH AIZENMAN, BYLINE: Earlier this month, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, decided to visit an Ebola treatment center in the outbreak zone that had recently been attacked by gunmen. Congo's government had quickly reopened it. But hours before Redfield arrived, he says, the center was attacked again.
ROBERT REDFIELD: It was a foggy morning. And this group came in through the fog.
AIZENMAN: They shot a policeman dead, hacked at two nurses with machetes, before Congolese military chased them off. When Redfield met with the staff...
REDFIELD: You could see that they were physically shaken by the fact that they had just had another attack.
AIZENMAN: Also on this visit was the head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. And last Thursday, just as he was about to hold a press conference giving his impressions of the trip, there was an attack on another health facility serving Ebola patients. That center was ransacked. Police shot a bystander. But here's where the story gets complicated. These attacks were of very different types.
REDFIELD: I think it was an important awakening for me because I always assumed they were all one and the same.
AIZENMAN: According to Congolese officials, the Ebola treatment center that Redfield visited has been the target of organized, well-armed groups - first, one of dozens of rebel militias that have been clashing with the government in this area for years, and then...
REDFIELD: Individuals that were trying to extort money.
AIZENMAN: But last Thursday's attack on that other Ebola facility, that was a spontaneous outburst by ordinary citizens. One of their relatives had just died of an illness that health workers suspected was Ebola. When the health workers tried to take a blood sample from the body, the relatives became enraged. A lot of people think Ebola is a scam. After years of civil war...
REDFIELD: This community does not trust its own government.
AIZENMAN: Now, there's growing concern that the steps the government and WHO are taking to curb the rising violence from organized groups - for instance, bringing in the military or police or U.N. peacekeepers to provide protection - that these very moves could sow more distrust and lead to more violent resistance of the second kind, from ordinary people. Dr. Jaques Katshitshi is with the DRC's Red Cross.
JAQUES KATSHITSHI: The use of armed force is not the good manner to operate in Ebola operation.
AIZENMAN: Katshitshi oversees the teams that bury people who die of Ebola. After these recent attacks, it's too dangerous to work in a lot of communities without an armed escort. But the Red Cross won't do that. They're supposed to be neutral. So Katshitshi says the result is that right now, about 70 percent of burials in the epicenter are being done by government teams with armed guards. And it doesn't exactly win hearts and minds when a bunch of strangers in hazmat suits show up to bury your relative, effectively at gunpoint. Now, Katshitshi is focusing on an alternative.
KATSHITSHI: The community is trained to do the burial.
AIZENMAN: Trained teams within as many neighborhoods as possible to do the burials themselves. This hyper-local approach is also being proposed by an aid group called ALIMA when it comes to the transit centers, where people suspected of having Ebola are housed while they wait for test results. Nicolas Mouly is an emergency coordinator for the group. He says the current setup has been for ALIMA to operate one large transit center serving a wide area. And it's not surprising that people resist coming in.
NICOLAS MOULY: It's far from them. They don't really know what happens inside.
AIZENMAN: So now, ALIMA is working on opening smaller transit centers in many communities.
MOULY: Where the population knows the staff, knows the area and would be more willing to go for treatments.
AIZENMAN: The challenge with this approach - here's the Red Cross's Katshitshi.
KATSHITSHI: Going slowly because you need many, many dialogue with the community before they accept the approach.
AIZENMAN: Just because we're in an emergency, he says, doesn't mean we can do this quickly. Nurith Aizenman, NPR News.
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/19/704700528/health-workers-in-congo-face-another-threat-in-addition-to-ebola
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What Needs To Be Done To End Congo's Ebola Crisis
Mar 19, 2019 | NPR
Recent weeks have seen an upsurge in direct, and often deadly, attacks against the health workers trying to respond to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo.
But the pileup of incidents can obscure a crucial feature of the trend: The attacks actually fall into two very different categories.
In the first bucket are coordinated assaults by organized groups such as criminal gangs or the dozens of rebel militia that have long clashed with the government.
The second category of attacks are spontaneous eruptions of rage by members of the community who mistrust responders when, as in a recent instance, they show up to take suspected Ebola patients in for testing and treatment.
Now there's growing concern that the very steps the government and the World Health Organization are taking to curb the rising violence from organized groups — for instance, bringing in military, police and U.N. peacekeepers to provide protection — could sow further mistrust and fuel additional resistance from ordinary people.
The widespread mistrust isn't just an issue because of the violence it sets off. It's the reason significant portions of the population still refuse to get vaccinated against Ebola. It's also why anywhere from a third to half of deaths from Ebola are taking place in the community. That's a sign that people aren't willing to bring a sick family member forward for treatment – and also a potential source of spiraling transmission, since Ebola patients are at their most infectious around death.
Indeed all parties involved in the response – including WHO and the government – now say that convincing the population to overcome its mistrust is the key to ending the nearly eight-month long outbreak — which has already infected nearly 1,000 people.
"We have to win over the hearts and minds and trust of the community," says Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said that was his main takeaway from a fact-finding trip he made to the outbreak zone this month.
But how do you win hearts and minds while also countering assaults by armed groups?
Redfield got a taste of the complexity when he stopped at an Ebola treatment center in the outbreak zone that had been attacked by gunmen in February. According to the government the attackers had come from a local militia. Congo's government had quickly re-opened the center. But hours before Redfield was due to arrive, the center, in a city called Butembo, was attacked again.
"It was a foggy morning," says Redfield. "And this group came in through the fog."
Redfield says the government told him these particular attackers were members of a city gang that wanted to extort money from the center. They shot a policeman dead and hacked at two nurses with machetes before Congolese military chased them off.
When Redfield met with the staff, he says, they were visibly shaken. "They were courageous. They're committed to doing their work," he says. But they also made a point of telling the Minister of Health Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga – who was accompanying Redfield – that "the thing they were concerned about was their safety."
The incident suggests a slippery slope by which Ebola treatment centers can become effectively militarized. This particular center was originally run by the aid group Doctors Without Borders and did not use armed guards — in keeping with the group's longstanding policy. But after the first attack, Doctors Without Borders suspended its work there, citing the security risk to its staff.
According to Redfield, once the government took over, it deployed both a police guard around the front of the center and a military guard near the back. And that was before this latest attack that has had staff clamoring for even more security.
A similar dynamic has been affecting burials of suspected Ebola victims. Normally they are handled by the Congolese Red Cross. But Dr. Jacques Katshitshi, who oversees the teams, says after the recent attacks it's become too dangerous to work in a lot of communities without an armed escort. Like Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross insists on maintaining strict neutrality. "Never! Never! For the Red Cross we can't use an escort," says Katshitshi.
So he says the result is that, at least for now, about 70 percent of burials in the epicenter are being done by government teams with armed guards.
Katshitshi says he's sympathetic to their logic. Still he notes, "militarizing the response is not a good way to operate. Using armed forces is the last option."
After years of civil war many people view the government with suspicion. It doesn't help that the epicenter of the outbreak is a stronghold for the government's opposition. And that last winter the government used the Ebola outbreak as a justification for barring people there from voting in national elections.
As a result, many people have concluded that Ebola is a scam cooked up by the government and aid groups to raise money and control the population. And that impression is likely to be strengthened when a bunch of strangers in hazmat suits escorted by armed guards from the government show up to bury their relatives.
To get a sense of how deep-seated that mistrust can be consider the latest attack on Ebola responders – just last Thursday. According to the government, a resident of a community called Biena had just died of an illness that health workers suspected was Ebola. When they tried to take a blood sample from the body, the relatives and others in the community became enraged. They then ransacked a "transit" facility where people suspected of having Ebola are housed temporarily while they wait for test results. In the ensuing melee, police shot and killed a bystander.
Several aid groups are hoping to surmount the mistrust by enlisting more people in the community to take a direct role in the Ebola response.
For instance, a Senegal-based medical aid group called ALIMA is rethinking how it runs the transit centers for suspected Ebola patients.
Nicolas Mouly is an emergency coordinator for the group. He says the current setup has been for ALIMA to operate one large transit center serving a wide area. It's not surprising that people resist coming in.
"It's far from them. They don't really know what happens inside," says Mouly.
So now ALIMA wants to open smaller transit centers in many communities – "where the population knows the staff, knows the area and would be more willing to go for treatments."
ALIMA is currently setting up a pilot version, with more to follow if it works well.
This hyper-local approach is also now being emphasized by the Red Cross's Katshitshi. He has scaled up an effort to train teams within as many neighborhoods as possible to do the burials themselves. That way it will no longer be strangers burying a loved one, he points out. It will be people the family knows and trusts. So far he says he's got about ten teams up and running, though it will take many more to cover the vast area of the outbreak zone.
The challenge with this approach says Katshitshi: "Going slowly. It needs many, many dialogues with the community before they accept the approach. We cannot, just because we are in an emergency situation, go quickly."
In fact, the experience in a city called Beni, suggests "it takes around three to four months to build community trust," says Jean-Philippe Marcoux, DRC country director for the aid group Mercy Corps. Last fall Beni was the epicenter of the outbreak – with both the highest number of cases and repeated instances of violent resistance to responders. But a concerted campaign to reach out to both local chiefs and youth leaders ultimately turned around public opinion. Today the caseload has been brought down to practically zero – even as a new flare-up started in the current epicenter around Butembo.
The time-consuming nature of community engagement is why Mercy Corps has begun a massive community education campaign around Ebola in the major city of Goma, which is about 200 miles from the outbreak epicenter and has not yet seen infections.
If the current situation has taught the world anything, says Marcoux, it's that "we must put much more emphasis on community engagement – and especially in areas that are not yet affected. So when and if they become affected we don't face the same challenges."
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/03/19/704765877/what-needs-to-be-done-to-end-congos-ebola-crisis
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Mar 19, 2019 | Reliefweb
By World Health Organisation
It has been eight months since an outbreak of Ebola was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu province. Since then, this outbreak has become the country’s most severe. Over 900 people have contracted the virus, and close to 600 have lost their lives.
In the midst of conflict, and in some of the most challenging conditions, Ebola responders are working round the clock to ensure people can get the information, the care and the treatment they need.
Since the start of the outbreak, WHO has deployed nearly 700 staff to DRC
These frontline heroes include medics, vaccinators, epidemiologists, logisticians, lab technicians, hygienists, communicators and others, all of whom are playing a crucial role in a complex and coordinated response.
Many of the responders have been deployed from other African countries including Guinea, who sent experienced vaccinators to help train local health workers on using this investigational vaccine.
WHO and partners are providing patient care in Ebola treatment centres across the area
"In Butembo, there was an attack on the treatment center at 6am on the day I was planning to visit. Armed men shot at the centre. They killed a policeman, they wounded three workers, they left bullet holes in the windows. But they did not dampen the spirits of the health workers who work there. When I arrived at the centre five hours later, it was already reopened." - WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus
Timely treatment – at the earliest sign of symptoms - is key to improving a person’s chances of survival, once they have been infected with the Ebola virus.
Ebola treatment centres provide over 350 beds for Ebola patients. WHO has deployed medics and more than 300 metric tonnes of medical supplies to support patient care.
Over 88 000 people in the country have been vaccinated against Ebola
In 2015, a trial took place in Guinea and found the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine to be highly effective against the virus. Since then, it has been approved for ‘compassionate use’ in the DRC outbreak, and is being made available to those who may have been exposed to Ebola.
Vaccination is a key tool in the Ebola response. As part of these efforts, over 28 000 health workers in DRC have received the vaccine. Health and frontline workers are among those most vulnerable to infection with the virus.
Working with local groups, communities across DRC have been reached with information on Ebola
Teams on the ground are engaging communities daily. Outreach teams, made up of local staff and volunteers, have met with thousands of families in outbreak-affected areas, to raise awareness on Ebola prevention, symptoms, and how to get help if a case occurs.
This has also built support for the response efforts, even in communities where security concerns run high. The vast majority of people who are eligible have chosen to receive the vaccine. Families are also working with authorities to perform safe and dignified burials, where loved ones have – tragically - lost their lives to the virus.
Over 400 people have been treated with new investigational Ebola drugs
In the context of the current outbreak, patients are being offered new investigational therapeutics under a clinical trial being coordinated by WHO. This trial – a first ever - is an important step towards finding an effective treatment for Ebola. The patients who choose to join the study are providing information that will help us know the impact of these therapeutics on recovery.
Over 43 000 screenings have been done at national and international airports
Alongside the response in DRC itself, hundreds of health workers, border officers and other responders in neighbouring countries have been trained and prepared to respond to a potential case, should it occur.
In Uganda, over 4000 health workers have been vaccinated as a precautionary measure, as well as over 900 health workers in South Sudan.
Despite progress achieved there remain challenges
Funding for the response is still insufficient to meet the magnitude of the needs, and the complexity of the situation. Katwa and Butembo – where the majority of cases are now occurring - remain major areas of concern. Recent attacks on treatment centres by armed groups put health workers and patients at risk. Such attacks are deplorable for their immediate impact on lives and for the risk of further spreading the disease.
WHO has requested and received further support from UN and local police forces to protect the treatment centres and patients. We are also working to engage communities to strengthen ownership of the response, and will continue delivering critical work – across surveillance, disease control, communication and the many other areas - to end the outbreak. WHO is committed to improving the health of the people of DRC now and in years to come.
https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/doubling-down-ebola
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