News Round up 24/02/17

News from HART

• The HART Prize for Human Rights deadline for entries is only 3 days away! Click here for information on how to enter

Burma

• Two members of Myanmar‘s security forces were injured in a clash with militants on the troubled Rakhine State border with Bangladesh casting doubt on the government’s claim that the region had stabilised
• Up to 97%  Rohingya Muslims who fled alleged killings and other rights abuses during a Myanmar military crackdown in northern Rakhine state are unlikely to return to their homes, despite last week’s announcement that the military operation in the region has ended

• 1000 Rohingya have returned to Burma, but fears are still ripe around their safety, many have returned just to collect older relatives
• Given the sheer savagery of the security force campaign in the last 4 months – condemned in a United Nations report released on February 3 as likely involving crimes against humanity – a growth in actions by extremist militants are likely
• Ethnic armed groups that are not signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) on Tuesday kicked off a meeting at the United Wa State Army’s Panghsang headquarters as a spokesperson for one of the groups lamented a “stagnation” in Burma’s peace process. It is not yet clear whether NCA non-signatories will be invited to attend the conference in March

Nagorno-Karabakh

• A referendum on Nagorno-Karabakh’s constitution – to switch to a fully presidential form of government and to adopt the official name of “the Republic of Artsakh – took place on Monday despite being rejected by illegal and illegitimate by much of the international community. With reports that the referendum itself was carried out to a high democratic standard,  citizens voted for a resounding yes, with 87.6% of the vote in favour of the change
• UN Secretary General António Guterres said in his remarks to the Security Council Open Debate on Conflicts in Europe that the term “frozen conflict”, is misleading in the Nagorno-Karabakh case, before urging all concerned to show “greater political will, not only to strengthen the ceasefire regime and implement previous commitments, but to renew a sustainable and comprehensive negotiation process”

Nigeria

• Over a month after President Muhammadu Buhari left the country, supposedly on a vacation for ten working days, an air of mystery continues to prevail over the status of the president’s health and when he would return to the country
• The situation nearing famine in North East Nigeria is currently affecting 450,000 children, whilst over 14 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance
• A bill for a law to regulate and control cattle grazing in Akwa Ibom scaled through the second reading at the plenary of the House of Assembly in Uyo on Tuesday – the bill would abolish night grazing and make provision for designated grazing areas or cattle ranches across the state
• Days after the world’s first famine in six years was declared in South Sudan, several countries are convening in Norway this week to discuss the Nigerian food crisis – Norway is organising the conference jointly with Nigeria and Germany, and in close cooperation with the UN. Foreign ministers from the region, representatives of the African Union and the EU, representatives of donor countries, and the heads of UN organisations have all been invited

South Sudan

• Famine was declared on Monday in two counties in Unity State, South Sudan, where over 5 million people are in urgent need of food, agriculture and nutrition assistance, and 100,000 are facing starvation now

• South Sudan and Somalia are to receive £100m each in UK aid, the Government has announced, in the face of a “real threat of famine”
• The European Commission has announced an emergency aid worth €82 million in the wake of the declaration of famine outbreak in South Sudan
• U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration will dispatch a delegation to Juba this week to assess ways to end the war and bring peace in the troubled east African nation

Sudan

• This week, the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Sudan met to warn the government that migration cannot assume greater importance than human rights in the UK-Sudan Strategic dialogue

Uganda

• After last week’s call by the Burundi government to send some 46,000 Burundi refugees back home from camps in Uganda – the refugees in Nakivale settlement demanded justice, an African Union force to protect those opposed to the government, and the resignation of President Pierre Nkurunziza before they could return home