News Round Up 01/09/2017

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Burma

• Bangladesh struggles to cope with influx of Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing brutal crackdown in Burma – The UN now estimates that almost 30,000 people have crossed into Bangladesh in the past week fleeing the collective punishment of the Rohingya following the attack on police outposts.
• Bodies of 15 children and 11 women recovered after boat carrying fleeing Rohingya sinks – The development could see the return of a similar refugee exodus by sea, as in 2015, in which thousands were stranded on overcrowded boats.
• As many as 6,200 Burmese refugees in Shan state face a loss of funding of their refugee camps come October 2017 – Over two-thirds of the camp residents are women and children. The aid organisations are agreeing to scale out aid in the areas to appease government requests.
• UN Security Council meets on Burma violence – No official statement was made, but the individual members called on Burma to de-escalate the violence.

Nagorno-Karabakh

• Israeli Suicide drone exports to Azerbaijan frozen – it comes after the company performed a live fire demonstration on Armenian positions.

Nigeria

• Boko Haram intensifies its war on civilians. The military’s regular claim that the jihadists are on the run is patently false, and provides no comfort to anyone. For example, In Maiduguri’s mosques, people now pray in relay. As one group prays, another keeps watch to guard against suicide bombers.
• Britain is to reduce the amount of money it is giving as humanitarian aid to Nigeria over the next few years. The aid worth £200m ($258m) over the next four years is a 50% drop from the £100m it gave in 2017.
• Floods in Nigeria have displaced more than 100,000 people. President Muhammadu Buhari and his government face criticism over what many call inaction in tackling the flooding that has resulted from weeks of heavy rain. In 2012, Nigeria also suffered major flooding across 30 of its 36 states where hundreds of people died and some two million people were left homeless.
• There is tension at Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State, following reports that a Fulani herdsman, cut off five fingers of a farmer, identified as Ndubueze Oboro in the area
• President Muhammadu Buhari this week expressed gratitude to Nigerians for praying for his recovery prior to his return from the UK. On the Eid-El- celebrations the president also appealed to Nigerians to strengthen the bonds of friendship and unity to keep the country together

South Sudan

• There has been a surge in crime in Juba, a city of an estimated 500 000 people, where armed robberies have claimed at least 53 lives this month and are almost twice as common as in July. Authorities are also investigating claims that soldiers are mainly responsible and blame economic upheaval linked to the almost four-year civil war that’s caused prices to soar.
• Child marriage is increasing in South Sudan. Although such a practice is long-standing, South Sudan’s government and aid agencies say conflict-driven poverty and severe food insecurity are increasing its prevalence.
• An American journalist, Christopher Allan, has been killed while covering clashes between government and rebel forces in restive South Sudan. Allan, a freelance reporter and photographer, was embedded with insurgent troops when fighting broke out in Kaya, near South Sudan’s southern border with Uganda. 18 others were also killed.
• United Nations peacekeepers in South Sudan are moving more aggressively to protect civilians caught in the country’s four-year civil war, after years of criticism for failures that led to the sacking of the mission’s military chief last year.

Sudan

• UN: Diarrhoea has killed 657 in Sudan – they pointed out that the females amounted to 54 per cent of the number of infected people, while children under the age of five amounted to 8.1 per cent of the total number of infected people.
• Cholera continues to spread in the Nuba Mountains – 1 person has died and 17 have been infected in a 2 week period. It comes amidst continued denial of the cholera outbreak by the Al-Bashir regime.
• UN sends 21 mln USD to help Sudan cover humanitarian needs – the fund aims to improve self-reliance in areas such as Blue Nile state, and comes as the US is lifting it’s sanctions on Khartoum.
• The Trump Administration prepares the way for lifting sanctions on Sudan – it comes as the October deadline of the extension of sanctions looms near.

Timor-Leste

• East Timorese nationals are still awaiting news about their government. Parliamentary elections took place in late July, the votes have been counted but no coalition government has been negotiated, and the re-opening of parliament has been delayed. In our HART blog this week we discuss these issues and what this means for the future of Timor Leste’s stability and democracy.

Uganda

• One person has been killed and ten others are missing in a village in Sironko district following a series of landslides that have hit eastern Uganda, the police said Thursday.
• South Sudanese soldiers are passing through the territory of neighboring Uganda to launch assaults against rebels, raising the risk of the civil war spilling over into neighboring East African countries, South Sudanese rebels and witnesses said. Hundreds of refugees continue to seek refuge in Uganda every week.
• The FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva called for greater funding for a sustainable response to the refugee crisis in Uganda, after concluding a visit today to refugee settlements in the country’s north. He also reaffirmed FAO’s support to the Government of Uganda in its compassionate asylum policy under which land is allocated to refugees for shelter and cultivation.