Help our local partners realise their vision of hope for their communities
24 March 2016
News from HART
- Last week, our partner Benjamin Kuku and a delegation from Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in Sudan visited London for advocacy purposes. You can listen to a short interview with BBC World Service here(starting 12:25).
Burma
- Thousands of refugees who crossed the border into China, more than a year after war erupted between Burma’s military and ethic insurgent groups, are still isolated in makeshift camps, ignored by “both governments as well as the international community”.
- Beijing signaled it will push Burma’s new government to resume a controversial stalled dam project in the country.
- “The Burmese government have been urged to repeal laws which hinder religious freedom”. Pressures for change are being put by the UNHRC as well as by christian charities, such as CSW.
India
- Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has announced that his government will not abolish the quota for Dalits after attempts were made to portray the BJP party as anti-Dalit.
Nagorno-Karabakh
- According to Armenpress, the Greek Prime Minister stressed the importance of a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh within the OSCE Minsk Group during the Armenian President’s official visit to Athens.
Nigeria
- The Nigerian Armed Forces has published pictures showing airstrikes against a suspected logistics depot belonging to Boko Haram in Yobe State.
- Nigeria’s electoral commission says some of its staff were killed, injured and kidnapped during an election re-run on Saturday in Rivers state.
- The BBC have published an article featuring an interview with a woman who almost became a Boko Haram suicide bomber.
South Sudan
- There have been calls for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin, to resign following a letter implying that the contested region of Abyei is part of Sudan.
- Human Rights Watch called for the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to appoint a special rapporteur to monitor and document human rights violations and promote justice in South Sudan.
- South Sudan has engaged in talks with Khartoum over border tensions and oil charges from transiting Sudanese territory to the international markets.
Sudan
- Sudan Revolutionary Forces (SRF) rejected a new “roadmap” from the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) led by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who tabled his proposal in Addis this past week.
- Last week, Sudan threatened to close its recently reopened border with South Sudan, accusing its neighbour of supporting rebel groups.
- The Sudanese Government again rejected the SPLM-N’s calls for humanitarian access to the two areas.
- Sudanese authorities confiscated all 20,000 copies of the March 15, 2016, edition of the daily newspaper Al-Sudani, according to press reports.
- The South African Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) rejected an appeal by the government against a ruling that the State had made an error in allowing Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir to leave the country, in spite of a court order barring him from doing so.
Uganda
- “Grandma mechanic in Uganda is an inspiration to us all”. This is Margaret’s inspiring story about how she went against all stigma to fulfill her ambitions to be a borehole mechanic. Now, “more than 8,000 people in 10 villages depend on her to keep them supplied with clean water”.
- Read about how Uganda marked world reading day.