News Round up 17/03/17

Burma

• A close associate of murdered Myanmar lawyer Ko Ni says the constitutional expert was working on a plan to weaken the military’s political power when he was gunned down at Yangon’s airport
• Between ten and twenty thousand Burmese refugees have flooded into the outskirts of Nansan, China, over the past week, after renewed violence in Myanmar’s Shan State between government forces and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army
• Reports that Burma is using bureaucratic means to expel its Rohingya Muslim minority from the country through “Conducting a household survey – where those absent may be struck off the list” that could be the only legal proof of their status in Myanmar
• China’s Special Envoy for Asian Affairs, Sun Guoxiang, asked the Northern Alliance to stop fighting with the Burma Army at a meeting in Kunming, China, having previously met with the United Wa State Army (UWSA) the MNDAA on Tuesday
• Two civilians were killed and two others were injured in fresh clashes between the Burma Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in the village of Nam Phat Kha in Kutkai Township of northern Shan State on Tuesday
• Children as young as 10 years old are among hundreds of Rohingya Muslims detained on charges of consorting with insurgents

Nigeria

• Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has told parliament that he has resumed his duties following seven weeks of medical leave in Britain

• Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, earlier this week directed security agents to ensure the exit of Fulani herdsmen from Buruku and Gboko Local Government Areas as a result of recent security breaches. The directive came as the House of Representatives passed a resolution calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the immediate disarmament of armed and strange herdsmen in Buruku and other parts of Benue State
• At least six people have been killed, and 16 injured as four teenage girls detonated explosives worn on their bodies on the outskirts of Maiduguri city.
• On Tuesday, Boko Haram released a new video, purportedly showing the execution of three alleged Federal Government spies on its operations in the Northeast. It beheaded one and shot two others with a Kalashnikov rifle
• The Nigerian army has detained six soldiers for allegedly brutalising woman
• Major General John Enenche, the new director of information for the defence headquarters, has claimed that the Nigerian military is the reason the country is still bound as one. Enenche noted that other nations who faced similar problems like Nigeria had since disintegrated, “but all thanks to the military authority for its relentless efforts to keep the nation as one”

South Sudan

• South Sudanese rebels have kidnapped eight locals working for US charity Samaritan’s Purse and are demanding aid deliveries as ransom, a military spokesman said on Monday, as food in the famine-hit nation looks increasingly likely to become a weapon of war
• Japan has announced it was ending a peacekeeping mission in war-ravaged South Sudan even as the country faces famine caused by years of civil conflict. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japan’s 350-strong force would pull out in May amid concerns over the safety of troops in the world’s newest country
• The South Sudan government has refused to pay a ransom of $1 million for two Indian oil engineers abducted by rebels last week and has demanded their unconditional release
• South Sudan’s Government has reportedly begun a campaign of “population engineering” to relocate people based on their ethnicity, a United Nations expert says, as the threat of genocide looms amid the continuing civil war
• Eight months after fresh violence erupted in South Sudan, a famine produced by the vicious combination of fighting and drought is now driving the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis

Timor Leste

• Refusing to split oil revenues 50-50 with Australia will make Timor Leste the “architect of its own demise”, with risks that the nation will quickly become a failed state whilst it struggles with its resource curse
• The Timor Leste presidential election on the 20^th March looks to hold no surprises, with the continuation of consensus politics likely – but the youth’s disengagement is growing, and a tipping point will soon be met

Uganda

• Uganda’s ambitions to achieve middle-income status by 2020 have come up against some strong headwinds recently, raising concerns among economists about what the country needs to do to overcome the bumpy stretch
• More than 155 people died in deadly encounters last year between Ugandan forces and people loyal to a tribal king who has since been charged with treason, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday, urging an independent investigation into the killings that shocked the East African country – Children as young as 4 or 5 were among those killed, with at least 15 still missing
• A new report released by the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative shows that an overwhelming number of Ugandans are being held in prisons without trial