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22 July 2016
News from HART
- Read Joshua Colebourne’s recent blog: Burma’s Jade is lucrative business but will its people ever see the benefit?
- Volunteer and fundraise for HART this summer! See here for ways you can get involved.
Burma
- The Burma Army has claimed responsibility for 5 civilian deaths in Shan State. The killings, which happened in June, were subject to heavy scrutiny from rights groups in the region. Lt-Gen Mya Tun Oo gave a statement to the press indicating that suspected perpetrators would be punished.
India
- The Indian Government has warned Pakistan to ‘stop meddling’ in Indian-administered Kashmir, claiming that terrorists have been receiving support from the Pakistani State. This follows last week’s violence and unrest in the region.
- A Dalit student in India was allegedly gang-raped and left for dead in a revenge attack by five men against whom she has been pursuing a court case for a similar assault committed in 2013. She is recovering from her injuries.
Nigeria
- UNICEF has estimated that there are 244,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in the state of Borno, 1 in 5 of whom will die if they do not get treatment. This is the latest revelation of the scale of the humanitarian crisis in the North-East as more areas become accessible to humanitarian assistance.
- The IMF has warned that the Nigerian economy is heading towards recession, with a forecast contraction of 1.8% this year, due to a combination of falling oil revenues, internal insecurity and weakened investor confidence.
South Sudan
- The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) have claimed that troops loyal to President Salva Kiir have undertaken offensives against the opposition in Western Equatoria, violating the one-week old cessation of hostilities which the two parties declared on Monday last week.
- President Salva Kiir has given his Vice-President Riek Machar an ultimatum of 48 hours to return to the capital, Juba. Riek Machar continues to claim that he will only return to Juba if a third party is deployed.
- In a recent telephone interview, Riek Machar stated his will to work closely together with President Salva Kiir to implement the peace agreement. He reiterated the order to his troops to stay calm and not return to fighting.
- The African Union has approved the deployment of a regional force to South Sudan with soldiers from Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, Rwanda and Ethiopia. President Salva Kiir has made it clear that his government would not accept the entry of any additional forces.
Sudan
- The rebel group, Sudan’s People Liberation Movement – North (SPMLN), has stated that the unilateral cessation of hostilities declared by President Omer al-Bashir last month is a “bluff” to buy time to reorganize his troops in this area. The SPMLN has been fighting the Sudanese Government since June 2011 in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
- South Sudanese and Sudanese politicians have met in Khartoum to discuss South Sudanese refugees in Sudan. The recent outbreak of violence in Juba has displaced a further 40,000 people.
More than 2.3 million have been forced to flee their homes in #SouthSudan since 2013 #HaltArms pic.twitter.com/zucU7FtE3W
— HART-UK (@HARTnews) July 22, 2016