News Round up 14/07/17

Hart News

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Burma

• The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned more than 220,000 Rophingya people in Burma are on the brink of starvation following  the military crackdown against the Muslim minority earlier this year – It added that an estimated 80,500 children under the age of 5 will be in need of treatment for acute malnutrition within the next 12 months
• US Ambassador Nikki Haley is urging the international community “to stand together” and call on Burma’s government to cooperate with a UN mission charged with probing alleged abuses by military and security forces, including against the minority Rohingya Muslim community – this follows reports that Burmese officials have been quoted saying they will not accept the creation of a probe nor let it in the country if one is created

• The head of the U.N. refugee agency urged Burma on Friday to grant citizenship to the Rohingya, a minority not given citizenship in the 1982 Citizenship Law
• Earlier this week the government of Burma announced that it is considering amendments to the Telecommunications Act, a law that human rights monitors say violates free speech and has been used to jail journalists and activists. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has a majority in parliament – and many of its lawmakers are former political prisoners – but the party has not until now prioritised repealing laws that previous governments used to quash dissent
• Draft Amendments to the Telecommunications Law have been submitted to Parliament – Free speech advocates slammed the government’s draft bill after it was publicly released on Friday, pointing out that their recommendations had been neglected and claiming that in some ways, it had made the statute worse
• Local police and Thilawa town officials have erected a wall around the homes of 39 families in the port town, purportedly as part of an “aggressive” land confiscation operation for the Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project according to Washington-based Earth Rights International (ERI)

Nigeria

• Boko Haram insurgents opened fire on a military vehicle , killing 5, Monday in Hambagda village outside the town of Gwoza near Nigeria’s border with Cameroon
• Four Boko Haram suicide bombers killed 19 people in a series of attacks on Tuesday night that targeted a civilian self-defense force and the people who gathered to mourn their deaths in the northeastern city of Maiduguri –  it was the deadliest attack in months

South Sudan

• This week South Sudan celebrates its sixth anniversary having gained independence in 2011. However, with conflict, famine, draught and huge inflation, no official celebrations have been held – “We did not feel it was appropriate to spend whatever little funds we may have to celebrate, when our people are hugely affected by the economic crisis,” said South Sudan President Salva Kiir in an address to the nation on Sunday

• A new major South Sudanese army offensive on a rebel stronghold has forced about 5,000 civilians to seek shelter in neighbouring Ethiopia, adding to the world’s fastest-growing refugee crisis, a United Nations official said
• The United Nations says it is considering opening a new peacekeeping base in South Sudan’s troubled Yei region, which has “gone through a nightmare” in recent months amid warnings of ethnic violence. It would be the UN’s first such expansion since civil war began in 2013
• South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has sacked several judges who had been on strike over poor pay and living conditions for the last two months

Sudan

• This week, the US was due to make a decision on permanently lifting the decade old sanction on Sudan (a process started by Obama in his last month in office). On Tuesday, the US State Department acknowledged the significant progress made the Sudanese Government, however announced that it needs more time to establish its concerns have been fully addressed, extending the decision by another 3 months