News Round up 31/03/17

Burma

• Aung Sun Suu Kyi has said that internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Myanmar’s Kachin state will only be able to return to their homes when all stakeholders work together in pursuit of ethnic peace
• An armed militant group fighting Myanmar’s government on behalf of the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army,  has issued a statement asserting its right to self-defence and denying links to any terrorist group
• One year in, Aung San Suu Kyi has offered to step down recognising the frustration of the people of Burma that little progress has been made in a variety of areas. ““When I joined politics, I said ‘I promise one thing; that I will do my best.’ That’s all. I can’t do better than that…So if you think I am not good enough for our country and our people, if someone or some organisation can do better than us, we are ready to step down”
• Speaking to crowds assembled in the capital for Armed Forces Day on March 27, Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing insisted that Muslim Rohingya are illegal immigrants. He also defended a security crackdown that saw tens of thousands from the minority group fleeing the country

Nigeria

• Boko Haram Islamists raided a village in northeast Nigeria, in the latest rampage to steal food and medical supplies on Sunday – The raid is significant as no civilians were killed or injured, a marked change of strategy from the infamous terrorist group
• The  Nigerian army is ‘ransacking’ all of the area recently taken back from Boko Haram in a bid to find its leader, Abubakar Shekau

South Sudan

• Sexual Violence has reportedly reached epic proportions in the South Sudan conflict
• The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last Friday expanded the mandate of a three-member monitoring and advisory body on transitional justice and accountability issues in South Sudan and ordered it  to provide its findings also to the African Union hybrid court
• 6 Aid workers were ambushed and killed on Saturday, as yet it is unkown who committed this crime, with both sides pointing the finger at the other – At least 12 aid workers have been killed so far this year and 79 have been killed since civil war began in South Sudan in 2013
• South Sudanese troops have been accused of burning thousands of homes to the ground. A new report says three villages in the southern Yei region visited by investigators had been abandoned and destroyed. Satellite data from Amnesty International shows about 2,000 structures were destroyed along a highway near Yei between late December and January. Separately, U.N. satellite images obtained by the AP show that a build-up of military installations near Yei began as early as September, and the destruction of homes started as early as October

Sudan

• Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has attended an Arab Summit in Jordan this week, despite a long-standing warrant for his arrest by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and genocide. The international group Human Rights Watch urged Jordan to deny entry to al-Bashir or arrest him, citing its obligations as an ICC member. Jordan says that as an Arab League member, Sudan has the right to attend the annual meeting of Arab leaders