Category: General

The IRC calls on the EU to urgently expand safe, regular pathways to protection in Europe so people are not forced to risk their lives crossing the deadly Central Mediterranean Sea

Brussels, Belgium, August 6, 2022 — The International Rescue Committee is calling for urgent action from the EU and its member states as the number of refugees and other migrants risking the treacherous journey from northern Africa to Europe continues to increase.

According to UNHCR, more than 35,000 people have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, with reports of 192 arrivals few nights ago. This marks an increase on the 27,200 received during the same period in 2021. Tragically, at least 875 people have lost their lives along the Central Mediterranean Route in 2022 so far.

As the number of people forced to take these dangerous journeys continues to rise, the IRC is urging the EU and its member states to urgently expand safe and regular pathways to protection in Europe, and ensure they are supported along their journeys.

Susanna Zanfrini, IRC Italy Head of Office, says:

“Nobody should be forced to risk their life in a rickety boat or unseaworthy vessel in search of safety and protection. Yet, again this summer, we’re witnessing a spike in the number of people attempting to cross one of the world’s deadliest migration routes. Many of these people have been driven from their homes by rising food insecurity, unemployment, and the impact of climate change, with some fleeing violence, conflict or persecution in countries like Afghanistan, Sudan or Somalia.

“Those who reach Lampedusa are crammed into a reception centre that is currently full to more than four times its capacity – nearly 1,900 housed in a space intended for just 350. This desperate situation could and should have been avoided. Arrivals to islands such as Lampedusa tend to peak over the summer months due to better weather conditions. Rather than shirking their responsibilities and demonising people in search of protection, Italy and other EU states must cooperate to expand safe, regular pathways for those forced to make the desperate trek across the sea, and welcome new arrivals with humanity, dignity and in a spirit of solidarity.”

Tom Garofalo, IRC Libya Country Director, says:

“People are desperate to leave Libya because of the conditions they are living in. Every day, they know they could be abducted, arbitrarily detained and subjected to violence and abuse. Risking their lives at sea is a last resort. Yet, tragically, this route across the Central Mediterranean Sea is fraught with dangers, and has claimed the lives of more than 870 people already this year.

“In 2022, more than 9,800 refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants have been intercepted by the Libyan authorities, including the Coast Guard, and returned to Libyan shores. The IRC’s teams at disembarkation points in Libya regularly treat the horrific injuries sustained by those sent back to the country – dehydration, exhaustion, burns from leaked fuel, and other physical and mental scars from their traumatic journeys. Yet, rather than receiving the lasting support they need, the majority are sent to detention centres where conditions are often deplorable.

“As we enter the peak summer months, we know that more and more desperate people will attempt the dangerous journey from Libya in search of safety in Europe. It is absolutely critical that the EU relaunches its own dedicated search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean as soon as possible to prevent further suffering and loss of life.”

Imogen Sudbery, IRC Executive Director of Policy & Advocacy, Europe, says:

“As the number of displaced people globally has soared to more than 100 million for the first time, it’s imperative that EU leaders take urgent, principled action to prevent more suffering at Europe’s borders. If they fail to do so, the Mediterranean will not just become a graveyard for more people seeking protection, but for its own values of human rights, dignity and equality.”

As the death toll in the Central Mediterranean continues to mount, the IRC is calling on the EU and its member states to:

Expand safe, regular pathways to protection and mobility from Africa to Europe so that people are not forced to risk their lives on dangerous journeys. The first step will be to commit to resettling at least 40,000 refugees in 2023, paying particular attention to needs along the Central Mediterranean Route. This must be complemented by scaling up safe, regular routes to Europe via increased humanitarian corridors, family reunification and visas for work or study.

Urgently establish an EU-funded search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as ensuring that any support – including financial, technological or training – to the Libyan authorities, including the Coast Guard, on policies and practices that concern migration, is conditional on upholding the human rights of people on the move.

Strengthen coordination with other maritime rescue actors – including NGOs – so that all people rescued at sea are taken to a place of safety, which Libya is not, as repeatedly stated by UNHCR.

Prioritise the end of arbitrary detention and the release of all those currently held in detention centres in all diplomatic efforts with the Libyan authorities, while urging the latter to ensure alternatives to detention for people on the move – especially women, and children who face specific protection risks.

Support partner countries along the Central Mediterranean Route in promoting access to services and protection measures – especially for women, children and others in vulnerable situations – as well as ensuring access to information about administrative, legal and basic social services along the route.

Reach a political solution for a permanent, legally binding and predictable responsibility-sharing system, based on relocations, so that countries on Europe’s borders do not bear disproportionate responsibility for supporting new arrivals.

Present in Libya since August 2016, the IRC provides life-saving health and protection services, supports wider health system strengthening efforts, and builds the capacity of Libyan youth in peacebuilding and governance initiatives. In 2022 so far, the IRC has carried out 49 emergency responses, supporting more than 3,800 people, including 190 women and 228 children.

In Italy, the IRC works to protect refugees and asylum seekers, with a focus on women, unaccompanied children and those requiring psychosocial support. The IRC works with partners to enhance their capacity to swiftly identify trafficking survivors, and strengthen their access to legal assistance and support. The online platform Refugee.info provides clear and timely information for refugees and asylum seekers in need of local support services, empowering them to make informed decisions about their lives.

Source: International Rescue Committee

Sudan called on N’Djamena to arrest Chadian assailants who killed 18 Sudanese herders and looted their livestock in West Darfur where the government struggle to restore security in the border state.

Last Wednesday and Thursday, Chadian gunmen attacked Arab nomads in Bir Saliba and Ardiba areas of West Darfur where they killed 18 people and wounded 17 others.

The attacks resulted in the rustling of about 100 camels on Wednesday and 200 camels on Thursday, a tribal leader Mahmed Saleh Kibro told Sudan Tribune on Friday.

In response, the herder tribes mobilized their tribesmen to attack the assailants after accusing the Chadian government forces of complicity with them.

An Arabe tribal body in Darfur, the Mahameed Higher Coordinating Committee, issued a statement accusing the Chadian army of protecting the assailants and blamed the Sudanese army troops for not intervening to stop the attacks.

Mohamed Hamdan Daglo who is residing in West Darfur nowadays sought to defuse tensions among the herders and attended the funeral of the 18 victims

On Friday night the Security and Defence Council held a virtual emergency meeting chaired by the head of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and attended by Hemetti and the West Darfur Security Committee to discuss the situation on the border with Chad.

“The Council urged the Chadian side to pursue the criminals and recover the stolen livestock as soon as possible,” reads a statement issued by the Security and Defence Council.

In addition, the meeting “urged strengthening the capabilities and role of the Sudanese-Chadian border joint forces, and controlling movements on the borders between the two countries, including the herders.

In his speech after the burial of the 18 dead bodies, Hemetti said he called for an emergency meeting for the Security and Defence Council to take the needed measures to end the “chaos” caused by the repeated attacks of the Chadian armed gangs.

He called for self-restraint and pledged that the government will protect them and return their stolen livestock.

The Sudanese tribal leaders said the Sudanese Chadian forces prevented them from crossing the border to hunt the looters on Wednesday but they did not stop their second attack on Thursday.

During the funerals, the crowd chanted slogans calling to dissolve the joint forces saying they failed to protect the Sudanese from the tribal attacks by Chadian outlaw groups.

They also called to close the border with Chad saying the situation is similar to what happened in the Fashaga when Ethiopian militiamen attacked Sudanese farmers on the border stripe.

Sudanese and Chadian senior officials this week held a series of meetings to discuss the security situation on the borders as Ndjamena expressed concerns over the possible resumption of rebel attacks after the end of the Doha process on August 8.

Source: Sudan Tribune

The holdout Sudan Liberation Army led by Abdel Wahid al-Nur (SLA-AW)denied the movement’s involvement in a recent bloody attack on the government forces in Jebel Marra.

Five soldiers were killed as a result of an ambush on a joint patrol of Sudanese army, police and RSF fighters outside Raqabat al-Jamal area near Golo town in Jebel Marra, Central Darfur State on Thursday.

“The group that carried out the attack is a militia that is well known to the military government,” said the military spokesman Walid Mohamed Abkar “Tango” in a statement extended to Sudan tribune.

Tango added that the group that attacked the patrol is led by Bahr Hassan Hammadi, Jamaat Abu Saleh, Siddiq Gedo, Mohamed Abdel Aziz and others.

He further said that the two cars seized by the faction are now in an area located southwest of Kabkabiya of North Darfur State.

“Last July, the same faction seized a car belonging to the Rokero municipality north of Jebel Marra, with the knowledge of the government and its security forces which remained indifferent”, further said Tango.

The military spokesman added that the area where the attack took place was not under their control.

The SLA-AW announced a unilateral cession of hostility after the collapse of the al-Bashir regime in April 2019.

Accordingly, aid groups have resumed their humanitarian activities in the mountainous area of Jebel Marra where they are based together with some breakaway factions.

The non-signatory group refuses to join the Juba peace agreement saying they want a national conference to discuss the root causes of the conflict which erupted in 2003.

Source: Sudan Tribune

Ukrainian grain starts its voyage to world markets

Following the signing on July 22 of the package deal to get millions of tons of Ukrainian grain out to world markets and ease the growing food crisis, the first commercial vessels sailed from the Ukrainian ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk this week. While another vessel was enroute Friday into Chornomorsk to pick up cargo for export.

More Ships Carrying Corn Depart from Ukrainian Ports

UN troops open fire on border post in DRC

After anti-U.N. protests turned deadly last week in the eastern Congo, the U.N. stabilization mission MONUSCO faced new troubles Sunday after Tanzanian peacekeepers returning from leave opened fire on a Ugandan border post, killing at least two people and injuring 15 others. The mission’s spokesman was also told to leave the country by the government.

Two Dead After UN Troops Open Fire at DRC Uganda Border Post

IAEA: Iran’s nuclear program moving ahead very fast

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Tuesday that Iran’s nuclear program is “growing in ambition and capacity” and his agency needs full access to verify all aspects of it. Separately, Thursday in Vienna, negotiators from Iran, the United States and the European Union resumed indirect talks to try to bring Washington and Tehran back into the 2015 nuclear deal known as the JCPOA, which eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program.

IAEA Chief: Iran’s Nuclear Program Growing

In brief

— The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference got underway Monday at U.N. headquarters. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned there are crises with nuclear undertones from the Middle East to the Korean Peninsula, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said there are nearly 13,000 nuclear weapons stockpiled around the world. The conference will run through August 26 and look at ways to strengthen the NPT, which entered into force in 1970. Guterres landed Friday in Japan, where he will participate in the August 6 annual commemoration at Hiroshima, where the United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb in 1945.

— Two weeks after the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency, the United States followed suit Thursday, declaring a domestic public health emergency. More than 6,600 cases have been verified in the United States. India reported its first confirmed death from the virus Tuesday, while Spain reported its second death. WHO is urging people who may have been exposed to or at risk of monkeypox to get vaccinated as a preventive measure. WHO has registered more than 18,000 cases since early May in at least 75 countries. The monkeypox virus is spread from person to person through close bodily contact. It can cause a range of symptoms, including painful sores. Those at higher risk for the disease or complications include men who have sex with men, women who are pregnant, children and people who are immunocompromised.

— U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield is on a four-day mission in Africa this week, making stops in Uganda, Ghana, and Cabo Verde focused on the impact of food insecurity on the continent. Russia and Ukraine provide over 40% of Africa’s wheat supplies and the war has impacted the continent, where drought, conflict and COVID-19 have already pushed millions to crisis levels of hunger. Thomas-Greenfield has announced nearly $150 million in new development assistance during her trip.

— WHO said life expectancy in Africa rose by nearly 10 years between 2000 and 2019, from 46 years to 56 years, but that is still well below the global average of 64 years. WHO Assistant Regional Director for Africa Lindiwe Makubalo warned the life expectancy gains could easily be lost unless countries strengthen and make greater investments in the development of health care systems.

Good news

The United Nations said Tuesday that the parties to the Yemen war have agreed to extend a truce in place for the past four months for an additional two months, a move humanitarians welcomed. The truce between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the Iranian-supported Houthi rebels has brought some relief to the population, 19 million of whom the U.N. says are going hungry and 160,000 who are “on the brink of famine.”

Yemen Truce Renewed Until October

Quote of note

“Today, humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.”

— U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the opening of the 10th Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference Monday at U.N. headquarters.

What we are watching next week

The secretary-general is in Hiroshima, Japan, to draw attention to the need to eliminate stockpiles of nuclear weapons. He will participate in Saturday’s Peace Memorial Ceremony and meet a group of surviving victims of the atomic bombs, known as the hibakusha, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. His travels will continue until August 12, with stops in Mongolia and South Korea.

Source: Voice of America

As a sex worker and adult film actor, Roc was relieved when he was among the first Spaniards to get a monkeypox vaccine. He knew of several cases among men who have sex with men, which is the leading demographic for the disease, and feared he could be next.

“I went home and thought, ‘Phew, my God, I’m saved,’ ” the 29-year-old told The Associated Press.

But it was already too late. Roc, the name he uses for work, had been infected by a client a few days before. He joined Spain’s steadily increasing count of monkeypox infections that has become the highest in Europe since the disease spread beyond Africa, where it has been endemic for years.

He began showing symptoms: pustules, fever, conjunctivitis and tiredness. Roc was hospitalized for treatment before getting well enough to be released.

Spanish health authorities and community groups are struggling to check an outbreak that has killed two young men. They reportedly died of encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, that can be caused by some viruses. Most monkeypox cases cause only mild symptoms.

Spain has confirmed 4,942 cases in the three months since the start of the outbreak, which has been linked to two raves in Europe, where experts say the virus was likely spread through sex.

The only country with more infections than Spain is the much larger United States, which has reported 7,100 cases.

Global count

In all, the global monkeypox outbreak has seen more than 26,000 cases in nearly 90 countries since May. There have been 103 suspected deaths in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and Congo, where a more lethal form of monkeypox is spreading than in the West.

Health experts stress that this is not technically a sexually transmitted disease, even though it has been mainly spreading via sex among gay and bisexual men, who account for 98% of cases beyond Africa. The virus can be spread to anyone who has close, physical contact with an infected person, their clothing or bed sheets.

Part of the complexity of fighting monkeypox is striking a balance between not stigmatizing men who have sex with men, while also ensuring that both vaccines and pleas for greater caution reach those currently in the greatest danger.

Spain has distributed 5,000 shots of the two-shot vaccine to health clinics and expects to receive 7,000 more from the European Union in the coming days, its health ministry said. The EU has bought 160,000 doses and is donating them to member states based on need. The bloc is expecting another 70,000 shots to be available next week.

To ensure that those shots get administered wisely, community groups and sexual health associations are targeting gay men, bisexuals and transgender women.

In Barcelona, BCN Checkpoint, which focuses on AIDS/HIV prevention in gay and trans communities, is now contacting at-risk people to offer them one of the precious vaccines.

Pep Coll, medical director of BCN Checkpoint, said the vaccine rollout is focused on people who are already at risk of contracting HIV and are on preemptive treatment, men with a high number of sexual partners and those who participate in sex with the use of drugs, as well as people with suppressed immune responses.

But there are many more people who fit those categories than doses, about 15,000 people just in Barcelona, Coll said.

The lack of vaccines, which is far more severe in Africa than in Europe and the U.S., makes social public health policies key, experts say.

Contact tracing more difficult

As with the coronavirus pandemic, contact tracing to identify people who could have been infected is critical. But, while COVID-19 could spread to anyone simply through the air, the close bodily contact that serves as the leading vehicle for monkeypox makes some people hesitant to share information.

“We are having a steady stream of new cases, and it is possible that we will have more deaths. Why? Because contact tracing is very complicated because it can be a very sensitive issue for someone to identify their sexual partners,” said Amós García, epidemiologist and president of the Spanish Association of Vaccinology.

Spain says that 80% of its cases are among men who have sex with men and only 1.5% are women. But García insisted that will change unless the entire public, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, grasps that having various sexual partners creates greater risk.

Given the dearth of vaccines and the trouble with contact tracing, more pressure is being put on encouraging prevention.

From the start, government officials ceded the leading role in the get-out-the-word campaign to community groups.

Sebastian Meyer, president of the STOP SIDA association dedicated to AIDS/HIV care in Barcelona’s LGBTQ community, said the logic was that his group and others like it would be trusted message-bearers with person-by-person knowledge of how to drive the health warning home.

Community associations that represent gay and bisexual men have bombarded social media, websites and blogs with information on monkeypox safety. Officials in Catalonia, the region including Barcelona that has over 1,500 cases, are pushing public service announcements on dating apps Tinder and Grindr warning about the disease.

But Meyer believes fatigue from the COVID-19 pandemic has played a part. Doctors advise people with monkeypox lesions to isolate until they have fully healed, which can take up to three weeks.

“When people read that they must self-isolate, they close the webpage and forget what they have read,” Meyer said. “We are just coming out of COVID, when you couldn’t do this or that, and now, here we go again. … People just hate it and put their heads in the sand.”

Source: Voice of America

A senior U.S. official said Friday that sub-Saharan Africa is the region hardest hit by disruptions to the global food supply due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Food prices worldwide are 23% higher than a year ago, but they hit the hardest in sub-Saharan Africa where food consumes 40% of household budgets,” Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told an audience at the University of Ghana in Accra. “Regardless of how you feel about Russia, we all have a powerful common interest in mitigating the impact of the war on Ukraine on food security.”

Thomas-Greenfield, who is the U.S. envoy to the United Nations and a member of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet, is on a four-day tour in Africa this week, making stops in Uganda, Ghana, and Cabo Verde focused on the impact of food insecurity on the continent.

She emphasized that before Russia invaded Ukraine, which is a major global grain and vegetable oil producer, over 190 million people were food insecure worldwide, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Well, since Russia’s unprovoked war, full-scale invasion into Ukraine, we estimate that number could rise to 230 million,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “That would mean that more than 40 million people will have become food insecure since President (Vladimir) Putin chose to invade his neighbor and steal their land. That’s more people than the entire population of Ghana.”

While in Accra, she announced more than $127 million in new humanitarian assistance for Africa, focused on refugees and displaced persons.

Stepped-up diplomacy

Thomas-Greenfield is not the only U.S. official visiting the region. USAID Administrator Samantha Power was in the Horn of Africa recently, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken is headed to South Africa, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo starting Sunday.

Russia has intensified its own efforts to strengthen ties with the continent since launching its war on Ukraine. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made an official trip to four African countries earlier this month.

Many African governments feel caught between superpowers in the conflict and have tried to remain neutral. Soon after Moscow’s February 24 invasion, the U.N. General Assembly demanded Russia end its military operations. Only one African state, Eritrea, voted against the resolution, while nearly half of the 54 others either abstained or did not vote.

“I’ve also heard from some, that Africans don’t really want to be pressured to pick a side or take a certain position,” the U.S. ambassador acknowledged. “I understand that. None of us want to repeat the Cold War. And Africans have the right to decide their foreign policy positions, free of pressure and manipulation, free of threats.”

She tried to dispel some Russian misinformation, particularly the Kremlin’s insistence that its food and fertilizer exports are being sanctioned by the United States and other western countries.

“America’s sanctions do not, let me repeat, do not apply to food and fertilizer exports, period,” she said.

Thomas-Greenfield said Moscow has disrupted its own exports, imposing quotas on nitrogen and complex fertilizers and imposing duties on its grain exports. She also laid out how Russian troops have set about sabotaging and destroying Ukraine’s agricultural sector by mining farmland, destroying equipment, and bombing grain silos.

“The fact is, this hurts Africa,” she said. “Russia and Ukraine provide over 40% of Africa’s wheat supplies.”

A recent deal among Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations will see Ukraine’s backlogged grain exports begin to leave through the Black Sea, while Moscow will get help in lessening the concerns global insurers and shippers have about dealing with Russian exports when they face sanctions in banking and other sectors. Wheat prices have already begun to ease in the two weeks since the deal was signed in Istanbul.

Thomas-Greenfield urged Ghana and other African nations to improve their agriculture sectors so they can become more insulated from global shocks with more self-sufficiency, while also exploring the possibility of feeding global markets. Part of the aid package she announced includes $2.5 million for Ghana to improve its production and import of fertilizer for its farmers.

“Now is the time, now is the time to feed the future, to transform Ghana and other African nations into breadbaskets of your own,” she urged. “The world is hungry, and your potential is unlimited. And there is not a moment to lose.”

Source: Voice of America