Day: February 25, 2022

Human Rights Watch says older people are often the forgotten victims in Africa’s conflict zones. The rights group issued a report Wednesday looking at abuses suffered by the elderly in 14 countries, mostly African nations, caught up in conflict, ranging from Mali to Ethiopia to Mozambique.

Mary Malia, a 68-year-old South Sudanese woman and mother of five, says one evening in July 2016 a rebel group attacked her village in the eastern Equatorial state.

“The time these people came, they came to our houses, beat us up and took everything we had. While beating us, they wanted to take me. But one of them asked, ‘where do we take this old woman? Let us leave her here.’ So they left me. After a while, I walked on foot to Uganda without anything on me,” Malia said.

The widow now lives in a refugee camp in northern Uganda.

Malia’s story is all too common in the conflict zones of Africa, where older people often have little defense against gunmen who attack rural villages. A new Human Rights Watch report titled “No One Is Spared” details the situation.

Bridget Sleap, a senior researcher on the rights of older people at Human Rights Watch, says the predicament of the elderly in conflict zones is often overlooked.

“We found that time and again older people were at risk of abuses during the armed conflict, including summary execution, arbitrary detentions and rape.… The reality of the war is that no one is spared and that older people remain ignored and invisible victims,” Sleap said.

Investigators say both armed groups and the government forces they often fight are responsible for the abuses.

Sleap says the attackers of older people often take advantage of their physical weakness and or unwillingness to leave their homes.

“Older people can be heightened or particular risk of abuse for a number of reasons. One of them is when they are unable to flee the fighting when it comes to their communities. Some choose to stay to protect their property or to protect their homes. Others are unable to run away, to escape the violence or sometimes they don’t have family members to support and help them flee,” Sleap said.

Even if the elderly avoid physical injury, they can be left isolated and poor as family members flee and communities under attack disintegrate.

HelpAge International, an organization that stands for the rights of older people, says older people in conflict zones can suffer severe stress, leading to depression and post-traumatic disorders.

The group’s Africa regional representative, Carole Agengo, says societies cannot forget their seniors when talking about how to cope with conflict.

“Older people must be included in the pre-conflict warning signs, in the pre-conflict arrangement, older people must be included in the discussion so that their interests are known to the community and also known to the warring parties… it’s possible during the conflict the harm that happens to older people could be minimized,” Agengo said.

Older people sometimes face difficulty in accessing humanitarian assistance in displacement camps.

Human Rights Watch calls on humanitarian agencies to be inclusive of older populations and make sure to meet their needs.

Source: Voice of America

Church and traditional leaders in South Sudan’s town of Aweil, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, have called for dialogue to end the ongoing crisis between neighbouring communities in the Abyei area and Twic of Warrap state.

Earlier this month, 16 people including a health worker were killed and over 50,000 have been displaced as a result of intercommunal clashes between Twic County and their neighbours in Abyei.

“We still do not understand the actual cause of the dispute and we also do not understand why this new old conflict exploded now, said Mayuol Deng Atak”, a native of Nyalath in Aweil town, the administrative headquarters of Northern Bahr El Ghazal.

“We need them to sit down and talk. War is nothing but destruction. We have seen it all, whether in Twic or in Ngok. Those advocating for war in their comfort zones wherever they are not facing the realities of the situation to which they have thrown innocent people from both sides, in Ngok and Twic”, said Mawien Tong Mawien, a resident of Aweil from Aweil East County in northern Bahr El Ghazal.

For his part, Kom Aguer Geng, a traditional leader in Aweil East County in Northern Bahr El Ghazal, said they have been talking to their counterparts in Twic and Abyei to look at the bigger picture and stop it.

The traditional leader further said that the crisis could boost the morale of the Arab nomads in the north and the political procrastination in South Sudan to settle the status of the disputed border area of Abyei.

Twic county commissioner Deng Tong Goch said on Thursday it was clear that officials from Abyei areas were not willing to listen to concerns in their standoff over Anet.

Ajang Deng Miyen, Minister of Information in the Abyei administrative area denied the charge, saying they did not know what they have done to warrant attack, destruction, and killings that have been experienced recently in the area.

Source: Sudan Tribune

Sudan and Russia agreed to enhance economic and trade cooperation and speed up the implementation of the signed bilateral agreements.

On Thursday, Deputy Chairman of the Sovereign Council Mohamed Hamdan Daglo “Hemetti”, held a meeting with the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs to discuss ways to develop bilateral cooperation between Sudan and Russia in various areas including political, diplomatic, economic and trade fields.

“The two sides agreed to speed up the activation of existing agreements between the two countries, hold meetings of the Joint Ministerial Committee, and expedite the work of all joint committees,” reported the official news agency SUNA.

Hemedti thanked Russian support for his government in international forums, especially in the UN Security Council and the United Nations.

The Deputy Chairman of the Sovereign Council is accompanied by Minister of Finance Gibril Ibrahim, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Abu Bakr Omer Albushra, Minister of Energy and Oil Mohamed Abdallah Mahmoud and the acting Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nadir Youssif al-Tayeb.

The Russian Foreign Ministry did not issue a statement about the meeting, but SUNA said that Lavrov affirmed his country’s keenness to strengthen cooperation with Sudan in the areas of energy, agriculture, and mining.

There are unconfirmed reports that Hemetti also wants to discuss with the Russian government ways to directly supply arms to his militia the Rapid Support Forces.

The visit comes as the European Union and the United States and other nations imposed heavy economic sanctions against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

Also, it drew attention to Russia’s ambitions to strengthen relations with the troubled country, especially as it wants the military-led government to honour its pledge to establish a naval base and to continue allowing them to have access to the landlocked Central African Republic where they work in mining industry.

Reacting to the visit, U.S. Congressman Representative Gregory Meeks said that “sending a delegation to Russia as it launches an invasion in Ukraine sends an undeniable message to the world”.

“Sudan’s junta has no interest in supporting democracy or the basic principles of sovereignty. We are watching,” Meeks further stressed in a statement posted by the tweet of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Source: Sudan Tribune

Hadi Idris a member of the Transitional Sovereign Council in Sudan called for international support to the implementation of the security arrangements in the eastern part of the Sahel region.

Idris made his call in a forum held in Niamey, Niger organised by the 4S Centre and Promediation on the challenges facing four neighbours (Chad Libya, Niger, and Sudan in their efforts to achieve the democratic transition.

Following the end of the two-day meeting on Thursday, Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum received Idris and his delegation to discuss relations between the two countries.

The Senior Sudanese official stressed the need for regional cooperation to address the security challenges and achieve stability through the reform of the security sector.

“One of the most important challenges of the transition is the reform of the security sector, under required standards, to create a single national army with a national military doctrine”.

“So as to address this challenge, the agreed security arrangements in these countries must be implemented,” he stressed.

Idris who is one of the signatories of the Juba Peace Agreement added that they dealt with all these aspects in the peace pact.

However, they stressed that the lack of international support delayed the implementation of this reform.

“The international community supported the peace process abut after the signing of the peace agreement. But after the signing, the weakness and lack of external support emerged,” he said.

The Security Council United Nations established the UNITAMS, a special political mission, to provide support to Sudan during its political transition to democratic rule.

The Sudanese transitional authority failed to launch the implementation process while the international community committed itself to support several big economic reforms, leaving to Khartoum to find the money needed for the DDDR.

Vincent Darracq, Regional Director of Promediation, which facilitated the forum told the Sudan Tribune they organized and funded with the support of its Norwegian and EU partners this meeting to address the regional dimension of the ongoing political transitions as well as the security of the central Sahel.

“The presence of Sudanese officials and peace stakeholders demonstrates the importance given to the search for shared solutions for these cross-border spaces,” Darracq added.

Source: Sudan Tribune