HART Weekly News Round-up 8/1/2016

News from HART:

• In December our team visited northern Nigeria and saw first-hand the magnitude of the devastation and terror inflicted on civilians by Boko Haram.
• HART’s Winter Newsletter is now available and ready to download, including updates from our partners all around the world.
• HART Ambassador Eric Kakore has written an excellent blog on the case for peace education in Uganda’s national curriculum.

Burma

• On 5^th January 126 Civil Society Organisations issued a joint statement denouncing the framework for political dialogue adopted on 16^th December 2015 and the Union Peace Convention to be held on 12^th January 2016 as ‘an act of negligence and disregard of the ongoing armed conflicts occurring in Northern Shan State and Kachin State.’
• The Tatmadaw has reportedly pledged to “eliminate” the Arakan Army following nearly two weeks of fighting in Rakhine State. Hundreds of villagers have fled to escape fighting in Arakan State and at least 4 people have been killed.
• Locals have gathered in protest against the ongoing clashes.
• Farmers in Dakkinathiri Township, Nay Pyi Taw staged a protest ‘against the companies fencing their fields without giving them adequate compensation’.

Sudan

• Unknown gunmen have attacked a force of the hybrid peacekeeping mission in north Darfur, said a UN Spokesman yesterday.
• Sudan has proposed to resume discussions on the exit strategy for the African Union United Nations Mission in Darfur by the end of this month.

South Sudan

• South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir made a Christmas Eve decree dissolving the nation’s 10 states and creating 28 new ones in their place, a move which critics say threatens the peace deal signed in August to end the country’s two-year civil war.
• Kiir has also made a rare apology to the people of the world’s youngest nation for dragging them into 21 months of war from 15^th December 2013.

  

• He has also appointed 50 rebel-nominated members to the transitional national legislative assembly. The government, rebels, former detainees and other political parties have also divided up the ministries for the country’s power sharing government.
• Thousands of soldiers of the would-be joint integrated forces from the armed opposition faction may deploy to Juba by mid-January, says a spokesman for the opposition.
• Doctors Without Borders say that this year the malaria epidemic in South Sudan is shaping up to be the most severe it has seen, while the United Nations has described it as “unprecedented”.
• Over 2000 civilians have fled their homes after attacks by SPLA near Wau.

Uganda

• Following Pope Francis’ visit to Africa in November, a BBC investigation has uncovered evidence that Catholic Church land in Uganda is being used for child labour.
• Analysts suggest that as we enter the home straight in the Presidential race that the last month of campaigning is certain to drive up political temperatures and will probably spark more violent confrontations.
• The main opposition have said that police violence against them is part of a plan to subvert them before February’s poll.

Nigeria

• The Boko Haram insurgency has kept about one million children out of school in Nigeria and three neighbouring states, the UN children’s agency has said.
• As we enter January, the temperature is dropping across northern Nigeria. This is disastrous for the hundreds of thousands of IDPs who have little to no protection from the low temperatures.
• Attacks on the 28^th and 29^th December in north-eastern cities of Maiduguri and Madagali by Boko Haram have left more than 50 people dead and 114 wounded.
• Boko Haram have mounted their first attacks since Nigeria’s government declared them “technically” defeated, killing seven people in a raid and suicide bombing.

India

• Attacks on the Indian Pathankot Air Force base threatened rapprochement efforts between India and Pakistan as an Indian government official said India was now considering whether to go ahead with talks scheduled for 15^th January, and that a final decision will be taken once the operations to secure the Pathankot Air Force base in Punjab state are over. Zee News reported that the ‘combing effort’ of the area surrounding the base has now ended.

Nagorno-Karabakh

• US congress held a closed-door briefing following calls from US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce to speed up the implementation of Royce-Engel proposals for peace.
• A new mining complex has been inaugurated in Karabakh employing more than 1,400 people.