Reflections on Sudan – VoA
December 29th, 2006
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2006-12/2006-12-29-voa11.cfm?renderforprint=1&textonly=1&&TEXTMODE=1&CFID=273937958&CFTOKEN=46577373&jsessionid=0030e695295f95a8e31e307a6a227f21127c
For yet another year, Sudan’s Darfur region has been in the news repeatedly, with media reports using language such as genocide, atrocities, rape and pillaging. Despite a peace deal signed last May between the government and rebels, many observers say Darfur has sunk deeper into violence and despair. And the conflict is now spreading across the border into Chad. Despite those conditions, many humanitarian workers continue to risk their lives to help the hundreds of thousands who’ve been displaced. One of them gave his reflections on Sudan. (more…)
5 years on the streets, but now I want a Physics doctorate – Irish Independent
November 28th, 2006
- personifies Plato’s maxim that ‘courage is a kind of salvation’.
GOAL staff in Addis Ababa (Robbie Reynolds)
ADDIS ABABA – Now 18, Asnakech* has a big smile for her GOAL friends as she gossips while making lunch at the golf club where works as a cook. “I am happy now. I spent four years at GOAL. I was trained in catering. I work in this kitchen – I was promoted – more money! I will start university soon.”
Asnakech is forward-thinking yet friendly. She wants a PhD in Physics after graduating. With a resolve rooted in her own Christian faith, she personifies Plato’s maxim that ‘courage is a kind of salvation’.
Genet Abay works at GOAL’s street children centres across Addis Ababa. She tells how, “We found Asnakech sleeping rough in a stadium. Her parents were immigrants from Eritrea, displaced by war. She was malnourished, and sadly, like most girls on the street she was sexually abused.”
In Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Freetown and Calcutta, where GOAL works with streetkids, these children often have no family, are unwanted by relatives, and vulnerable to physical harm. (more…)
Tensions high as DRC awaits poll results – ISN
November 3rd, 2006
With votes being counted in the second round of presidential elections in DRC, peace pledges by both candidates have not allayed fears of post-result violence.
Kabila supporters (People's Daily, China)
By Simon Roughneen
As votes are being counted after a second round of presidential elections in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), observers and citizens are hoping that the country’s first democratic polls sine 1960 will finally renounce bloodshed and mark a transition from conflict to peace.
Observers and the country’s Independent Electoral Commission reported that the second round of presidential elections had gone well, save for a couple of incidents in the northeast, but there are fears that a narrow victory for either candidate could result in violence.
Sunday’s run-off came after none of the 32 candidates registered an overall majority in the 31 July first round. DRC interim President Joseph Kabila won 44 percent of the vote, but fell short of a majority by just 900,000 votes out of 18 million cast.
In the Assembly elections also held on 31 July, Kabila’s Alliance for Presidential Majority took 300 of the 500 seats, while Bemba’s Union of Nationalists won 116. (more…)
HIV/AIDS: What No Child Should Have – The Irish Catholic
November 2nd, 2006
It kills 8,500 people every day, and with over 40 million people infected worldwide, HIV-AIDS remains a major global
Kids at GOAL Nairobi CCEC playing football (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
health and life issue. While success stories such as Uganda’s ABC programme, stressing abstinence and fidelity, have brought infection rates down from 21% in the late 1980’s to a current level of 4-5%, countries such as Botswana have an infection rate of almost 40% of the adult population.
But HIV-AIDS is not just an adult problem. Children too are vulnerable to a sexually-transmitted disease, a social reality that is as absurd as it is sickening.
Over 2000 children (under -fifteen) are infected with HIV every day. Statistics on total under-eighteen infections are difficult to ascertain
Or, to put it another way, one child dies every minute from HIV-AIDS. Four are infected – every minute. So by the time you read this, depending on how quickly you read, or if you are interested enough to finish, maybe 8-12 children will have been infected with the virus by the end of the article. And 2-3 will be dead.
Just 12 years old, Kennedy is HIV-positive. His eyes fade shyly to the floor at each question, and flick around the room briefly as he answers, without focusing on anything, and quickly direct to the ground again. He is barely audible as he speaks.
Kennedy has been in the GOAL Rescue Centre since December 2004. He misses his two younger sisters – but he does not say very much. He does tell us however, “I like being here. But I want to find a home.”
Florence Gesage, GOAL social worker at the Nairobi rescue centre, takes up the story. (more…)
Regional war looms over Somalia – ISN
October 4th, 2006
Islamists have taken over another Somali city despite peace talks, while some observers say the CCIC has everything to gain from conflicts that would only legitimize its role.
Islamist fighters stand behind Somali government soldiers who Islamists claim were defecting to their side (AFP)
By Simon Roughneen in Nairobi
Despite talks designed to secure agreement on governance in Somalia, Islamists have followed up their control of Mogadishu by seizing the country’s third city – the port of Kismayo – on 25 September, only days after a failed assassination attempt on President Abdullahi Yusuf.
Following the failed suicide bombing attempt targeting the president, and the shooting by Islamists a day later of an elderly Italian nun, the latest Islamist advance may signal a drive to assert control over the rest of Somalia, which is nominally under the jurisdiction of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
This has in raised international concerns that the Consultative Council of Islamic Courts (CCIC) advance could lead to “the possible Talibanization of Somalia,” Harvard University’s Robert Rotberg told ISN Security Watch.
Somalia’s neighbors also seem apprehensive that the situation could spark a regional war in the Horn of Africa.
Militias loyal to the CCIC – originally a clan-based attempt to restore Islamic-based law and order to Mogadishu – wrested control of Mogadishu on 5 June from secular warlords widely viewed as backed by the US after a three-month battle that cost upward of 300 lives. (more…)
Sudan calls world’s bluff – ISN
September 7th, 2006
Sudan rebuffs attempts to send UN peacekeepers to Darfur amid a renewed military offensive against rebels.
Omar al-Bashir
By Simon Roughneen
Not only has the Sudanese government refused to give consent to a UN mission in Darfur and threatened to expel African Union (AU) peacekeepers, it has also renewed its military offensive in northern Darfur, apparently in alliance with the Janjaweed militia and the rebel faction that signed the May Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) – a peace agreement that is now basically defunct.
The developments come on the heels of a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution passed last week to deploy over 20,000 UN peacekeepers to Sudan’s Darfur region to bolster the dying peace agreement and forestall an even greater humanitarian catastrophe.
Reports from the AU and non-governmental organizations on the ground in Darfur tell of an explicit military build-up in El-Fasher, the capital of northern Darfur, with government aircraft bring troops to the region and carrying out air raids on nearby anti-towns held by rebels who did not sign the peace agreement. (more…)
Cautious optimism over Uganda truce – ISN
August 30th, 2006
There is hope that a truce agreed on between rebels and the government will provide a solution to northern Uganda’s 20-year conflict, but a rebel amnesty that contradicts the ICC is seen as problematic.
By Simon Roughneen in Nairobi
Women and children shelter indoors at night, safe from the depredations of the LRA. Kalongo, northern Uganda (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
“If their fighters enter these camps as agreed, then even before we sign a final peace deal, we can say it is the end of the war.” So said Ugandan government spokesman Robert Kabushenga, speaking after a ceasefire between the government and northern rebels of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) was agreed on in Juba, Sudan, on 26 August.
LRA fighters are to proceed to two camps in southern Sudan during the three-week period leading up to 12 September, the deadline sought by Uganda President Yoweri Museveni for a peace deal to be signed between his government and the rebels.
On a visit to northern Uganda in April by ISN Security Watch, the desire for peace among the some 200 internally displaced person (IDP) camps in the region, home of sorts to 2 million people, was strong and clear.
At that time, the Ugandan government was promoting the idea that safe return to rural areas and villages was possible for northerners, some of whom had been displaced for almost 20 years. However, people in camps remained doubtful. As James Makena, a farmer staying in the Kalongo IDP camp, said: “ We can only go back when there is no more war, no more rebels and when the Army is gone.” (more…)
Uncertainty ahead of Congo vote – ISN
July 27th, 2006
Haunted by a violent and corrupt legacy, the Democratic Republic of Congo prepares for elections.
IDPs on the move in the Kivus (Photo: Bob Kitchen/The IRC)
By Simon Roughneen in Paris & Nairobi
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday, 30 July, marking the vast country’s transition from corruption, tyranny and violent anarchy. However, the elections are being held amid grave political and strategic uncertainty. Fears pervade that Congo’s conflicts could re-erupt as a result of elections that are meant to underline a transition to stability and provide a seedbed for development.
The last democratic elections held in Africa’s second largest state took place in 1960 after Zaire, the DRC’s name between 1971 and 1997, gained its independence from Belgium. The victor, Patrice Lumumba, was later assassinated, and his short tem in office was marked by an attempted secession by the mineral-rich Katanga province and a UN peacekeeping intervention. Mobuto Sese Seko then ruled Zaire with a Western-financed iron fist, from 1964-1996.
Since Mobutu’s accession to power, the past 40 years have seen the systematic impoverishment and destruction of a vast and potentially wealthy country. Gross domestic product (GDP) was US$259 per capita at independence. It is now less than US$100. (more…)
“I Escaped the Janjaweed, but we have no protection here” – The Irish Catholic
July 25th, 2006
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern TD visited Sudan and Darfur between July 2-5. His visit must now result in Ireland taking a proactive role in international efforts to resolve the political and humanitarian crisis in the region, including diplomatic intervention with Russia and China, writes Simon Roughneen.
Harian Abdullah was on her way to the wadi about a half a mile from Fata Borno camp for displaced people in Darfur.
“Like all the women here, I have to go to collect firewood so we can cook and have light in the camp. I walk there most days to get some fuel. Two days ago, I was on my way down to the trees”, she says, pointing towards a green oasis about half-way between her shelter and the nearby clinic where GOAL provides healthcare and nutrition services to the camp-dwellers.
“It was not yet dark. I saw five men moving out from near the trees. I stopped for one moment as I did not recognise them. They were about 500 meters away. I turned and ran back. They ran as well, but stopped soon afterward once I got close to the camp.”
IDP woman, northern Darfur (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
However, making the trek to the camp edge for firewood is a hazard that Darfur’s women face daily, across the vast region. With 2 million people crammed into sprawling and uncomfortable camp settlements, Harian’s dilemma is a recurring one for Darfur’s women.
In the camps, with minimal facilities, firewood is needed for cooking – otherwise the often malnourished and illness-prone people will go without food, exacerbating other health complications resulting from conflict and displacement.
However as Harian’s narrow escape describes, these vital chores carry a huge risk. (more…)
Brittle peace leaves life on the edge – Herald AM
July 17th, 2006
At the outskirts of Fata Borno camp for conflict-displaced, Majda Abdullah braves the blazing afternoon sun as she loads up her donkey to return to her temporary shelter. It is 42 degrees Celsius, and even the camels here needs to rest in the shade.
“It is better this way”, she says. “In the morning and in the evening it is dangerous to even come to the edge of the camp. In the past three weeks, 6 women have been raped by Janjaweed.
Life is dangerous for Darfur's women. Pictured at NGO-run clinic in northern part of the province (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Janjaweed ignore the African Union peacekeepers stationed at the camp, and are apparently unhindered by the Sudanese police barracks adjacent to that, as they loot donkeys, steal produce and violate women at will. (more…)
