Africa

July 27, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudan ruling SPLM party has nominated former transport minister Anthony Lino Makana as speaker of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA), breaking an impasse that has delayed reconstituting the oversight body of the government.

The meeting at SPLM House in Juba on Wednesday was chaired by President Salva Kiir who also chairs the ruling party, and comes a day after the replacement of the former First Vice President Riek Machar by Taban Deng Gai

President Kiir, who made the announcement, said today decision is a new page for the fractured party.

"You now voted and four candidates from Equatoria were brought to the SPLM leadership. The leadership of the SPLM has selected honorable Anthony Lino Makana," said Kiir, referring to his SPLM faction.

The party split into three factions at the onset of December 2013 conflict: SPLM In Government led by Kiir, SPLM In Opposition of Riek Machar and SPLM former detainees led by former Secretary General Pagan Amum.

Kiir said the SPLM factions has no choice but to remain united.

"If you are not united in this (SPLM) house, you will not be united in the (parliament) bigger house," he further said, warning that "measures will be taken against dissent members of parliament" who vote against SPLM policies.

Sources in the meeting said the First Vice President Taban Deng Gai has accepted to nominate deputy speaker.

Oliver Benjamin, the head of information in the national parliament, said a special session to formally select the speaker in parliament will be convened on Monday.

"All members of parliament have been recalled to Juba to be able to attend on Monday August 1, 2016," he said by phone on Wednesday.

According to the August 2015 Agreement for Resolution of Conflict in the Republic, the current parliament with 332 MPs will be expanded to 400. The SPLM IO nominated new 50 legislators, 1 from former detainees and 17 from other political parties.

Disagreement over which party to nominate the speaker stalled expansion of the parliament and commencing the TNLA.

(ST)

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

July 27, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – Hundreds of African delegates withdrawn form all over the continent called for more concrete efforts to stop cancer.

African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa (ST Photo)

The calls were made at the 10th "Stop Cervical Breast and Prostate Cancer in Africa Conference" (SCCA) concluded on Wednesday at the African Union head quarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Delegates expressed concern on the rapid rises of cancer particularly on cervical, breast and prostate cancer.

Participants underscored a need for collective and more resolute measures both at regional and international levels to prevent the spread.

The Conference aims to ensure the provision of a strategic guidance based on concrete lessons learned over the past decade in ways of prevention and controlling cancer.

It was disclosed at the conference the need to galvanize and harmonizing efforts to fortify country level programs and initiatives to battle cancer.

Ethiopia's First lady Roman Tesfay, who is also Chairperson of COMESA First Ladies unit, stated that cancer has become a growing challenge across the African continent.

Roman reiterated on the need to work relentlessly towards creating public awareness, providing adequate medical services, and putting in place effective preventive measures, and early diagnosis and treatment.

She also stressed on the need for a concerted and comprehensive action by governments and international organs.

The First Lady said the conference has created a platform for a wider range of stakeholders actively working in cancer prevention and control to come together to reflect on the success Africa achieved and the challenges faced in the prevention and control of cervical, breast and prostate cancer over the past decade.

The Conference has noted with great concern the growing burden of cervical, breast and prostate cancer in Africa and its damaging effect on its communities, nations and the entire region.

It was noted during the opening of the Conference that cancer is increasing at an alarming rate in Africa, and it kills more people than HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis combined.

Cervical cancer rates in some parts of the continent reach up to 40 cases per 100,000 women.

"This is further confounded with highest maternal mortality rate in the region resulting in unacceptably high number of women deaths," said Kebede Worku, Ethiopian State Minister of Health in a communiqué he read after conclusion of the Conference.

It was disclosed that the gathering will bolster the effort of scientists and researchers, health professionals, philanthropists, civil society groups, individuals from the private sector as well as cancer survivors from all over the world in the efforts of stopping Cervical, Breast and Prostate Cancer.

Held from July 24 to 27 under the theme, “A decade of accomplishment, our enduring legacies and challenges ahead” the high -profile gathering conference has attracted more than 5000 distinguished delegates and speakers from Africa and across the world.

Among others African head of State and Government, African Parliaments, African First Ladies, African Ministers of Health, leaders of organizations and institutions have taken part in the conference.

The conference was organized by the Office of the First Lady of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, in partnership with the Princess Nikky Breast Cancer Foundation.

The conference is Africa's largest gathering in bringing together international stakeholders and specialists in the field of cancer prevention and control. Ethiopian government has expressed commitments for the expansion of cancer treatment centers in the country.

Meanwhile, Ethiopian Ministry of Health says it has set to replicate the country's success on HIV/AIDS to cancer treatment.

Ethiopian Minister of Health Dr. Kesetebirhan Admassu disclosed that training of doctors and health professionals have been given due attention to meet the growing demands of professionals in the area.

The minster said the Ethiopian government has expressed commitments for the expansion of cancer treatment centers in the country.

(ST)

July 27, 2016 (JUBA) - The office of South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Tuesday denied any knowledge of directives given to the army to carry out a search aimed at bringing only the head of the for former First Vice President Riek Machar from his hideout.

“I am now aware of such orders. It is not true”, said presidential adviser on military affairs, Daniel Awet Akot in statements to Sudan Tribune on Tuesday when reached to comment on a report widely circulated on the social media.

The senior presidential official was reacting to a fake military order allegedly issued on 25 July by the Chief of General Staff of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), Paul Malong Awan, directing to carry out air attacks on the areas where Machar and his forces are stationed outside the capital.

"You must bring him dead or alive to answer all the charges against him," says the fake document about the former first vice president.

The order further directs to ensure that troops are deployed along South Sudanese border with the Democratic Republic of Congo and to lay point ambushes against Machar and his forces, because he is heading to the neighbouring country.

SPLA Spokesperson Brigadier General Lul Ruai Koang also denied the authenticity of the report, describing as “fake" documents aiming to create confusion and false allegation against the military command.

"We don't operate like that and you know that. Those documents are fake; they are created by enemies of peace,” said Lul in a statement to the media on Tuesday in response to the allegation.

There was also other fake texts attributed to the SPLA's chief of general staff ordering to shoot down any uncleared on the south Sudanese airspace including aircraft bearing UN symbols on suspected areas.

(ST)

July 27, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudanese former First Vice President, Riek Machar, has said his replacement with his ex-official, Taban Deng Gai, is “illegal” and reaffirmed his call for a third party force to be deployed in the national capital, Juba.

He also said he is still the First Vice President per the peace agreement and only awaiting deployment of a third force in Juba in order to come back to his office.

In his first interview with Aljazeera TV on Wednesday from his location “around Juba”, Machar said President Salva Kiir had no power to appoint a replacement if the President were to abide by the peace agreement signed in August last year to end 21 months of civil war.

He said he would be the one to nominate a replacement and recommend it to President Kiir from his faction.

“First of all, I am still the First Vice President of the Republic of South Sudan…By the agreement he [Kiir] has no power to appoint any person unless I nominate the person,” he told Aljazeera TV.

The former first deputy president, who also leads the opposition party of the SPLM-IO and commands its military wing, the SPLA-IO, said the process of his replacement convened by Taban Deng Gai was “illegal.”

He also confirmed that he already dismissed Taban Deng Gai a day before Gai “self-appointed himself” to replace him, adding that also there was no party's institution which sat to make a decision. He said Taban Deng had defected to President Salva Kiir and Kiir was only appointing his “friend” who already defected to him.

The opposition leader further explained that even if he was to be absent he should have been the one to delegate someone to act on his behalf, particularly a most senior minister or party official.

Machar also revealed that he had earlier told his party deputy and minister of interior, General Alfred Ladu Gore, to act on his behalf when he was being forced out until he would come back to Juba. Gore was however reportedly intimidated by Gai and decided to succumb to his nomination without questioning his seniority in the matter.

The top opposition leader warned that the peace agreement is on the verge of “collapse” if the regional and international community fails to act to reverse the illegal decision of President Kiir and to deploy a third party force to take over security of the capital.

It was the first time that Machar spoke to the media after he left the capital, Juba, two weeks ago when his residence was attacked and bombed to the ground by forces loyal to President Kiir.

Machar's comments have all confirmed statements which his spokesperson, James Gatdet Dak, had been issuing on behalf of his boss for the past two weeks.

When asked about his whereabouts, Machar said he is “around Juba.”

(ST)

July 27, 2016 (JUBA) – Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), the body tasked to oversee implementation for South Sudan peace agreement, said President Salva Kiir has expressed “willingness to deployment of foreign” in a private meeting contrary to his public statements.

President Salva Kiir, (L), accompanied by army chief of staff Paul Malong Awan, (R), waves during an independence day ceremony in the capital Juba, on July 9, 2015 (Photo AP)

JMEC said in a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Wednesday that the South Sudanese leader disclosed his flexibility during a meeting on Tuesday with former Botswan President and JMEC chairman Festus Mogae.

“Among the key points discussed during the productive meeting with President Kiir was his [Kiir] willingness to consider the deployment of a regional protection force in accordance with the recommendations of the IGAD Plus Summit and the Summit of African Union Leaders,” JMEC said in a statement also published on its website on Wednesday.

Mogae, JMEC said, also met the new First Vice President Taban Deng Gai on Monday, hours before being formally nominated as Riek Machar replacement by President Salva Kiir. The President said he acted to fill a vacant created by Machar's absence following the recommendation of the SPLM IO leaders in Juba.

JMEC said it will resume regular meeting in Juba and ensure that the peace agreement is fully implemented.

“Our only interest is to see a solution that promotes peace and a return to normality as well as security in South Sudan” said Chairman Mogae.

JMEC said the political deployment in recent weeks that include replacing Machar are “complex” and should be treated with caution.

“The Chairman [Mogae] has decided that, due to the complexity of the issues involved, this is a matter that should be considered and deliberated upon by the JMEC members, both the South Sudanese and our International Partners,” the statement added.

Moghae, JMEC said, is consulting regional leaders and international partners and “has thus met with the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the United Nations and other concerned parties to discuss the political impasse at this sensitive and difficult time for South Sudan.” He met with the Chairperson of Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Chairperson and Ethiopian Prime Minister Haile Mariam Desalegn on Tuesday “to discuss the latest developments and the way forward for South Sudan.”

JMEC said Mogae will continue with the consulting and will address the United Nations Security Council in August about the South Sudanese peace implementation.

President Kiir has said publicly that he won't allow “a single foreign soldier” in South Sudan following IGAD and African Union (AU) proposal to send regional forces to support UN peacekeepers in the country. He repeated this stance on Tuesday during the swearing-in ceremony for the first deputy president Taban Deng Gai.

“Dr. Riek Machar has been calling for intervention of foreign forces, international or regional, so they create a buffer zone. We will consider that as an invading force,” he said in a speech broadcast ob State-owned SSBC TV.

(ST)

July 27, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Minister of Minerals Ahmed Sadiq al-Karouri said his country expects to produce 100 tonnes of gold in 2016, pointing it would become Africa's second largest and among the world's top ten producers by the end of the year.

A local brings his gold for examination at a laboratory in the gold market in Khartoum (Photo: Reuters)

Al-Karouri, who spoke to reporters following his meeting with Sudan's ambassador to New Delhi Siraj al-Din Hamid, expected that Indian companies would play a major role in metal fabrication and in particular iron in Sudan.

He added that India would also invest in the manufacturing of gold and precious stones, saying that India is among the major buyers of gold globally.

The Sudanese minister pledged to facilitate all the procedures for the Indian investors.

Last month, al-Karouri said that gold production in the first quarter of the current fiscal year reached 22.3 tonnes which generated some $903.13 million.

In April, the Ministry of Minerals said that the country's production of gold has risen by 3 percent compared to 2015, according to the first quarter of 2016 report.

Near 70% of the country's gold production in 2015 was produced in the River Nile State. The traditional mining represents 90% of gold production in Sudan.

Sudan currently ranks third in gold production behind South Africa and Ghana but aims to land in the first place by 2018.

Gold has become one of Sudan's largest exports which partially compensated for the loss in oil revenues, which accounted for more than 50% of income until 2011 when South Sudan seceded, thus taking with it most of the country's oil reserves.

Sudan approved a law to regulate traditional mining by granting licenses and specifying areas to work in to protect them from hazardous conditions and smuggling.

It is believed that traditional mining employs more than a million Sudanese but it is still difficult to obtain credible data.

On the other hand, there are currently 132 companies operating in the regular mining sector in Sudan including 15 foreign companies.

(ST)

(Nairobi) – Members of Burundi ruling party’s youth league, the Imbonerakure, have repeatedly gang-raped women since a wave of political protests began in 2015. Many of the rapes appear to have been aimed at family members of perceived government opponents. Policemen or men wearing police uniforms have also committed rape.

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Burundian refugees gather on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Kagunga village, Kigoma, in western Tanzania on May 17, 2015. 

© 2015 Reuters

In a pattern of abuse in many locations and in several provinces, men armed with guns, sticks, or knives have raped women during attacks on their homes, most often at night. Male family members, some of them members of opposition parties, were also targeted and some killed or abducted. Survivors reported both immediate injuries and longer-term consequences, including sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies, anxiety, and depression. Women have not been safe from rape in refugee camps, and services to assist them are inadequate and need to be better funded. Tanzanian police working in the camp should ensure they fully investigate all rape cases.

“Attackers from Burundi’s ruling party youth league tied up, brutally beat, and gang-raped women, often with their children nearby,” said Skye Wheeler, women’s rights emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Many of the women have suffered long-term physical and psychological consequences.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 70 rape victims in May 2016, in the Nduta refugee camp in western Tanzania. Nduta is one of three Tanzanian camps sheltering 140,000 Burundian refugees.

Dozens of women said they were raped in or close to their homes. Fourteen said they recognized at least one of the attackers as an Imbonerakure. In some other cases, they said the rapists wore police uniforms. In other cases, they could not determine who the attackers were.

Attackers from Burundi’s ruling party youth league tied up, brutally beat, and gang-raped women, often with their children nearby. Many of the women have suffered long-term physical and psychological consequences. Skye Wheeler

women’s rights emergencies researcher

A 36-year-old woman said she was raped in the Mutakura neighborhood of Bujumbura, the capital, in October 2015: “I was held by the arms and legs. [An attacker] said: ‘Let’s kill her, she is an [opposition National Liberation Forces] FNL wife’ as they raped me.”

Three Imbonerakure raped her, she said, one of whom she said she recognized from his patrols in the neighborhood. Imbonerakure had verbally harassed her husband, an FNL member, during visits to their home on several occasions before the attack during which the men took him away. His body was found in a nearby ditch the following day. Like many others Human Rights Watch interviewed, the victim said she still has trouble sleeping and has flashbacks of the attack.

In some cases, rape appeared to be used to try to deter people from fleeing Burundi. Six women said they were raped on the Burundian side of the Tanzanian border by people they believed to be Imbonerakure or knew to be Burundian police, between mid-2015 and early 2016. The attackers ordered the victims to return home, or verbally harassed them for attempting to leave. Sixteen others who tried to leave reported extortion, beatings, verbal harassment, or detention by Imbonerakure or police. Other rapes may have been opportunistic.

Human Rights Watch wrote to the president of the ruling party, Pascal Nyabenda, on July 12, 2016, seeking his response to allegations of rape by Imbonerakure, but did not receive a reply.

Many women fled Burundi immediately after they were raped, before they were able to get emergency medical services. Human Rights Watch found that in many cases women were not identified as rape victims when they arrived at humanitarian transit camps on the Tanzanian side of the border and so did not get emergency care for HIV exposure or emergency contraception, which are among World Health Organization minimum standards for post-rape care.

One woman who did not receive such emergency care became pregnant from the rape. Another found out later she was HIV positive. Both said there was no obvious way to report the rapes at the transit camps. Humanitarians told Human Rights Watch that they were continuing to train staff at the border points, had stockpiled drugs at the border, and were trying to increase the number of female staff there, to encourage women to report sexual violence.

People who fled to Tanzania are not safe from sexual violence in refugee camps, where the numbers of rapes are alarmingly high, including of children. Women and girls have been raped both inside the camps and in areas outside where they collect firewood or goods for market, often as many as three or four cases a week. Women said the attackers included both other Burundian refugees and Tanzanians. Humanitarians told Human Rights Watch they are concerned about high numbers of rapes of children.

Victims said that aid groups providing services in the camps do not provide adequate psychological services and trauma care. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that donor countries have provided less than 40 percent of funds requested in aid to Burundi refugees in Tanzania.

From May through September 2015, 323 (264 women and 59 girls) reported cases of rape or sexual assault that occurred in Burundi, including as they were trying to flee, to humanitarians in Nyaragusu, the first and biggest refugee Tanzanian camp hosting Burundians, according to UNHCR. UNHCR said that of all incidents reported from June to October 2015, according to the women, 16 were allegedly perpetrated by the police and 177 were allegedly perpetrated by other members of the security forces or Imbonerakure.

Over 170 people have reported rapes in Burundi or during their flight to humanitarians in the two newest Tanzanian camps, Nduta and Mtendeli, since they opened late last year, according to UNHCR. It is possible that some women may have reported rapes twice if they moved from Nyaragusu to the newer camps. Reported rape cases may only represent a percentage of the total. Medical staff of aid organizations told Human Rights Watch they believe many women do not report rape unless they seek treatment for continuing medical problems.

Some women interviewed described tense relations between Tutsis and Hutus in the camp and often between or within families. Some said they feared possible attacks from Imbonerakure whom they claimed were in Nduta to target and harass people. Human Rights Watch did not verify these claims.

UNHCR funds Tanzanian police in the refugee camps. The police station in Nduta camp is staffed by least three female police who work at a “gender desk” that encourages women to report abuse. Several interviewees said they appreciated efforts by Tanzanian police, including detaining alleged perpetrators, although sometimes only for short periods.

In other cases, however, women said the Tanzanian police did not seem interested in finding those responsible if the women had been attacked outside Nduta camp, or had not seriously tried to arrest attackers in the camp. A legal assistance organization, the Women’s Legal Aid Center (WILAC), which works in Nduta, said that five people have been officially charged with rape since Nduta opened in October. Four were found not guilty, and one case was ongoing in late May. There have been two convictions for domestic violence.

Abortion services are only legally available in Tanzania to save a woman’s life. This highly restrictive law means that women pregnant as a result of rape are forced to have the children. Medical service providers should use the ban’s exception to the greatest extent possible and should consider whether a woman choosing a dangerous illegal abortion or committing suicide as a result presents a risk to life. The Tanzanian government should change its laws to make abortion available to all women, or at a minimum, to rape victims.

In 2015 and 2016, Human Rights Watch documented how the Burundian police and intelligence services, along with Imbonerakure, targeted perceived opponents with killings, disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrests. President Pierre Nkurunziza should publicly denounce security force and Imbonerakure abuses and ensure that rapists and other abusers are held to account.

The UN Security Council should authorize a strong international police force for Burundi, including women officers, to deter abuses, including rape. The UN and countries that provide police should ensure that they have training and expertise in investigating these crimes, and that providing security and support to survivors of sexual violence is among their priorities.

The UN Security Council should urgently set up an independent, international commission of inquiry with judicial, forensic, and medical expertise, as well as expertise in investigating torture and sexual violence. The commission should produce a timely public report that includes recommendations on accountability, possible financial reparations for victims, and improved access to health services. The commission would build on the work of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights and other UN and African Union initiatives in Burundi, and could contribute to the International Criminal Court’s preliminary examination of the situation in Burundi.

Identification of victims of sexual violence at Tanzanian transit camps should be improved, including by increasing female staff and ensuring victims have a safe and confidential place to report rape. Rape victims should have access to post-rape care that meets World Health Organization standards, including, if needed, emergency HIV prophylaxis and contraception.

“More and more people globally are living in displacement, or as refugees, for increasingly long periods,” Wheeler said. “In Tanzania, as elsewhere, aid groups, host governments, and wealthier donor countries need to ramp up services provision to meet their obligations to protect the health and safety of rape victims and to ensure that their most basic rights are met.”

Crisis in Burundi
In April 2015, President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi announced that he would run for a third term, setting off a political and human rights crisis. Police violently repressed demonstrations and the government cracked down on perceived opponents and critics. Targeted killings and attacks by government forces and armed opposition groups escalated. By December, several hundred people had been killed. Serious abuses in Burundi, including torture and enforced disappearances, have continued throughout the first half of 2016.

Hundreds of thousands of Burundians fled to surrounding countries, most to Tanzania, where three refugee camps were set up, but also to Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Human Rights Watch has not conducted research into rape of Burundian refugees in these other countries.

Rape by Imbonerakure
Burundi has a long history of rape, including during periods of conflict or political crisis. There are indications there may be high rates of this crime even in times of relative stability. In June 2015, for example, Centre Seruka, a Burundian organization that helps victims of sexual violence, said that between 120 and 130 victims of sexual violence sought help at their facilities each month. The majority were children.

The survivors interviewed said that in some cases, they had been raped by men they knew to be Imbonerakure, who sometimes worked with the police. Many could not identify their rapist by name, but believed they were raped because of a family member’s link to an opposition party or a grievance against their husband. The Imbonerakure, who are the members of the youth league of the ruling party, the Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), are organized across Burundi, down to the local level, and have long been used to target government opponents. Their role in the repression has increased since April 2015.

More than 10 women interviewed said that local Imbonerakure had harassed them even before April 2015, although this worsened after Nzurunziza’s announcement that he would run again. Several women said that Imbonerakure had started carrying weapons and had taken on a more prominent security role in their villages or towns.

Imbonerakure known to victims, men in police uniforms, and unidentified armed men, some of whom accused the victims of supporting an opposition party or being married to an opposition supporter, were among those responsible for rapes or gang-rapes of 38 women interviewed by Human Rights Watch. In two cases, girls were gang-raped during attacks in or near their homes. The attacks, almost always at night, were by a group of men with guns, sticks, grenades, or knives. In the majority of cases, more than one man raped the victim.

In 23 cases, the victims did not recognize the people who attacked them, but said some of the men were dressed in ruling party T-shirts or police uniforms, which Imbonerakure sometimes wear. The victims said that Imbonerakure either had previously threatened family members, or that the attackers had attacked or asked for male relatives and made derogatory comments about their political beliefs.

Some women also said they believed their attackers were Imbonerakure because the group controlled the victims’ neighborhoods and there were no other armed groups in their area. In one case, the attackers took a mobile phone, and in two other cases, they extorted money from the women, but robbery did not appear to be their main motivation.

In several attacks the women described, the attackers either killed a male family member or took him away. In three cases, the attackers beat a husband or other male relative. In four cases, the male relative fled at the beginning of the attack.

A group of Imbonerakure raped O.P.’s 8-year-old daughter after they attacked her family home, in Karusi province, in late April 2015. O.P. saw a local Imbonerakure leader enter the house with other men before she ran away, leaving her daughter behind. She returned to find her daughter sitting in bloody sheets. O.P.’s daughter told her that four men had raped her. O.P.’s husband left the country the following day because he feared the attack was directed at him. He had already been arrested twice and detained for short periods by local Imbonerakure for not joining the ruling party, O.P. said.

Several rapes reported to Human Rights Watch took place at the end of 2015, when human rights abuses escalated in Burundi, especially in Bujumbura.

N.B.’s husband, a policeman and member of the FNL, was shot dead while on duty. On December 13, 2015, N.B., 22, said, a group of Imbonerakure forced their way into her home, beat her with sticks, and two of them raped her. She said that men, who had told her they were Imbonerakure, had repeatedly forced their way into her home in the three months prior to the attack looking for her husband, verbally harassing her and accusing her of hiding him. In five cases, the women interviewed said the dead bodies of men who were abducted were found dumped near the site of the attack.

Others did not know the whereabouts of family members for many weeks. Seventeen-year-old S.W. did not know where her father was for months after her family was attacked in August 2015, in Bujumbura’s Kinama neighborhood. Four Imbonerakure, dressed in ruling party T-shirts, dragged her to a banana grove near her house and raped her after other men in their group took away her father, a member of the opposition Movement for Solidarity and Democracy (MSD). A neighbor who was an Imbonerakure eventually told the family her father had been killed.

Women said that if the man wanted by the attackers was not there, they would demand to know his whereabouts and would sometimes tell the victim that they were raping her because they could not find the man. In nine cases, women said the men had fled before the rape took place, or had begun habitually sleeping elsewhere because of threats. 

M.N.’s husband, she said, had been harassed for his membership in an opposition party since his family returned to Muyinga province in Burundi in 2012, from exile in Tanzania, and had begun sleeping in friends’ houses for safety. In December 2015, a group of Imbonerakure told her neighbors to stay indoors and forced their way into her house. Two of them picked M.N. up from her bed, threw her on the ground, and raped her, she said. She recognized one of them as an Imbonerakure.

In three other cases, the rape took place weeks or months after a husband or other male relative had been killed or disappeared in an earlier attack.

In many cases, known Imbonerakure had threatened or attacked the targeted male member before the attack, often during daytime house visits. Women often continued to receive threats after a male relative was attacked and sometimes after the woman had been raped.

Eleven of the reported cases of rapes and other abuses took place in Bujumbura, mostly in Mutakura, Cibitoke, and Musaga neighborhoods, where police had clashed with protesters over President Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term. However, similar attacks were reported in other locations. Many women in the refugee camps were from border areas such as Makamba, Ruyigi, and Muyinga provinces.

In some cases, the attackers’ comments during the attacks, as well as harassment before and afterward, would appear to indicate that the leading motivation behind the abuses was political, connected to the victim’s relatives being members of opposition parties. However, there may have been other motivations. Many of the women who had been attacked had returned to Burundi between 2010 and 2012, after living in Tanzania for many years. Many found themselves embroiled in land conflicts when they returned, with neighbors or other family members occupying their homes. In several cases, women said that the attacks by Imbonerakure appeared to be connected to long-standing disputes over land in their communities.

Some women believed ethnicity may have been a factor. Two Tutsi women said the attackers made ethnic slurs during the attack. Others believed the ethnic dimension was a more prominent factor in communities with few Tutsi families. Human Rights Watch did not ask interviewees for their ethnicity.

Some attacks may also have been linked to personal disputes or grievances. In July 2015, two men raped 33-year-old J.N. in Muyinga province, she said, while three Imbonerakure watched, including a local leader whose face she recognized. The men beat her husband and then took him from the house during the attack. She said that she believes she was raped because she and her husband were FNL members, but also because her husband, a local neighborhood leader, reported carousing at a prostitute’s house by some local men to the police and some of the men were arrested. J.N. reported that the men who attacked her said, “he stopped us from using their prostitute, so we’re [having sex with] you instead.”

Rape by Security Forces
In several cases, groups of men who attacked homes included one or more men in police or army uniforms. These may have been members of security forces or Imbonerakure, who often dress in police or military uniform. Members of the police or army have also attacked and raped women. Human Rights Watch documented several cases in which police raped women.

A group of policemen, all in blue police uniform, visited and harassed 28-year-old F.P., she said, at her house in the town of Nyanza Lac three times – in April, July, and September 2015, when two of them raped her. In April, the policemen took some of her belongings and in July, they stole bank account documents that had belonged to her husband, who had been a soldier and peacekeeper in Somalia before he died there in 2014. Local Imbonerakure also harassed her frequently, saying her husband had only managed to get rich by bribing his way into peacekeeping posts.

Two women said they were raped in police detention. A 26-year-old local leader of an opposition party was detained for a night in a police station in late February 2016, after she was accused of holding political meetings and refusing to join the CNDD-FDD. A senior policeman working in the detention center raped her, she said.

Few women feel safe reporting rapes or other abuses to the police, especially in view of the close relationship between some Imbonerakure and the police. Many of those interviewed said they feared they would have been killed had they done so. Fear of further attacks as well as the desire to leave the country quickly also prevented women from seeking emergency health care in Burundi, including emergency contraception and post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV infections.

Four soldiers took 27-year-old M.D. from her house in Kamenge, in Bujumbura, after they failed to find her husband, a MSD member who had been detained several times, in mid-December 2015. They held her for a day in the barracks in Kamenge, where two of the soldiers raped and beat her.

Rape, Harassment During Flight
Women have been raped on both sides of the border as they fled to Tanzania, part of a broader pattern of harassment and extortion of people trying to leave Burundi.

Some of the rapes on the Burundi side appeared to be attempts by members of the security forces and Imbonerakure to prevent people from leaving Burundi. Burundian police raped H.S., 24, in mid-May 2015, when she tried to cross at an official border point in Kabonga, Makamba province. She said the men called her a dog and told her she was crazy to try to leave the country when there was no war. They beat her and dragged her to some bushes, where two of the men raped her before a group of soldiers intervened.

In another case, three men in police uniform raped R.N. in October 2015, in Makamba province on a path through the bush as she was about to reach the Muragarazi river on the border.

In other cases, women said that they were raped by unknown men. A group of men in the Murama village area of Muyinga province stopped a group of women trying to cross the border in August 2015, and demanded to know why they were trying to leave the country. Three of the men tied up B.K., 45, and her adult daughter and raped them. The men let them go, she said, after they promised not to tell anyone. Twenty-seven-year-old G.O. said two of a group of men in CNDD-FDD T-shirts raped her at night in the Gatwe area of Makamba province in late October 2015.

In some cases, rapes appear to have been opportunistic. Four women reported that they were raped on the Tanzanian side of the border by unknown men who spoke Kiha, a language local to the Kigoma area of Tanzania, or Kiswahili.

Lack of Services in Tanzania Transit Camps
The border between Burundi and Tanzania is porous, with numerous crossings. Aid organizations have established a number of transit points and transit centers in Tanzania where refugees can register and receive food and shelter before being taken to refugee camps.

Human Rights Watch found that in the majority of cases, women interviewed who had been raped a few days before reaching transit camps were not identified as victims by staff there. Women said that they sometimes felt too shy to say they had been raped, especially if only male staff were present. Others said that the staff seemed too busy or that they did not report the rape because they were not asked.

As a result, unless women were quickly transported to a refugee camp, they missed an opportunity to access emergency HIV post-exposure prophylaxis, which must be taken within 72 hours of exposure, or emergency contraception, which should be administered within 120 hours. Of 20 victims interviewed who arrived at transit camps within the five-day window, aid workers identified only two as rape victims and referred them for urgent assistance. Five were lucky enough to get on a bus quickly to a camp, but 13 missed the window altogether, with some of them left in the transit camps for more than a week.

One became pregnant after a rape that took place less than 24 hours before she arrived at a transit center. Another who had been raped for the second time since 2015, while crossing the border, was not identified as a rape victim at a transit camp. She, like two other interviewees, later found out she was HIV positive. She did not know whether she contracted the virus during the first or second rape.

Aid workers have made efforts to put in place a system to identify rape victims at border crossings and to help them get care. It is not clear why the procedures are not always working. UNHCR told Human Rights Watch in a letter that aid workers at border points have been trained to screen new arrivals to try to find out if they have experienced sexual violence and if so, expedite their referral for emergency health care. The also said that border point staff coordinate with aid workers in the camps to help ensure victims receive care in the camps. UNHCR also said that in May and June 2016, they supplied staff of nongovernmental groups at border entry points with emergency HIV and contraceptive care.

The International Rescue Committee, which provides services at 10 border crossings, said in a letter that they had made specific efforts to increase their numbers of female staff in accordance with best practices so that female victims of rape feel more comfortable reporting it. However, the group said that because of security concerns in these isolated places, they struggled to retain female staff. It appears from the interviews that women found fewer barriers to reporting rape at Nduta than at border points.

While the primary responsibility to provide services rests with the government, in countries where the government is unwilling or unable to meet these needs and where UN agencies are operating, these agencies have a clear human rights obligation to ensure that urgent needs are met to fulfil basic rights to health and life.

Rape in Nduta Camp
There have been many reports of rape in both Nduta and the older Nyaragusu refugee camp, further south, in the Kigoma area of Tanzania. Women, men, and children have been raped both inside and outside the camps. Tanzanian camp authorities and UNHCR have taken important steps to prevent rape but should do more to ensure protection, including through enforcing greater accountability for attackers. To fully meet their obligations, humanitarians will need to be better funded.

Human Rights Watch was especially concerned to find that large numbers of children have been raped in Nduta. Human Rights Watch interviewed three girls under 18 and the close relatives of five other children, all under 12, including three under 5, who had been raped since the camp opened in October 2015.

Eight women or girls interviewed had been raped outside the camp, while collecting firewood or buying produce to sell in Nduta market. No one was arrested and the attackers have not been identified. Two 11-year-old girls were raped in the same incident in February 2016, by men they believed were Tanzanian who chased a group of children collecting firewood behind the police station, about a 10-minute walk from the camp. No one has been arrested, and a parent of one of the girls said that the police did not go to the nearby village to investigate.

Rape of women outside of refugee camps occurs in many displacement sites in the region. However, in Nduta, this appears to be only part of the problem. Human Rights Watch interviewed more women and girls who had been raped inside than outside the camp.

In April 2016, two young men raped 15-year-old F.N. in a tent in the camp. F.N. said that as a result, she has chronic hip and back pain and suffered trauma and depression. Her mother said she was afraid to report the case or seek justice, even though they know one of the rapists because she fears retribution from his family.

Similar fears led the parents of 4-year-old S.A. not to report the rape of their daughter by a 16-year-old boy, although in this case her parents were also concerned that the police would beat the boy, or his father. A 14-year-old boy raped another 4-year-old, D.C., who lived in a nearby tent, in early May 2016. The mother decided not to press charges as the father would likely be jailed in his son’s place, which she thought would be unfair.

The Need for Greater Protection, Counseling Services in Nduta
The Nduta police have not always made serious efforts to arrest rapists. For example, a church leader raped 27-year-old H.N. in January 2016, after he entered her tent to, he said, pray for her. H.N. told the police but the man has not been arrested. Camp zone leaders who work in close cooperation with the police told her that her rapist appeared to have magical powers of disappearance when they tried to find him. The man also threatened her after the rape. S.K., 15, made several trips to the police to report her rape in January 2016, and told the police where the rapist lived, but as of May he had still not been arrested.

The Tanzanian police, including those based in and around Nduta, should thoroughly investigate rapes both outside and inside the camp. They should actively encourage women to report rapes and work with women’s groups to investigate, even if the victim cannot identify the attacker.

Human Rights Watch wrote a letter to the Tanzanian Ministry of Home Affairs on July 1, 2016, but did not receive a reply.

Tanzania has historically provided tens of thousands of refugees’ legal residency, including 162,000 people between 2008 and 2010, and has allowed hundreds of thousands more to enter and stay in camps in Tanzania. However, Tanzanian authorities made tens of thousands of other refugees return to Burundi in 2011 and 2012. Tanzania’s current encampment policy restricts refugees’ movements to four miles from the camp. Because authorities sometimes punish refugees who break this rule, women raped further afield are afraid to report rapes.

More concerted efforts by the Tanzanian police to identify, investigate, and prosecute alleged perpetrators could help reduce rape in Nduta. Aid groups should also continue to support survivors with medical, including psychosocial, and legal services and monitor to protect victims and their families from revenge attacks. UNHCR and IRC should continue training for police as well as community meetings and advocacy by leaders to encourage reporting. UNHCR has provided the camp police with vehicles and motorbikes so they can patrol inside and outside the camp.

Together with the Tanzanian government, UNHCR oversees protection activities in all the refugee camps. However, Human Rights Watch found that victims were often unable to access UNHCR staff or had to wait for long periods for an appointment. In four cases, women said they had repeatedly visited the Nduta UNHCR office to request an appointment, but had been unable to make an appointment or told to go away. One was looking for assistance after her 4-year-old child had been raped in the camp. Another woman, who visited the UNHCR office in April 2016, said she had been given an appointment in June. UNHCR told Human Rights Watch in its letter that it is improving its protection counseling services and hope to expand them further, but that staffing shortages mean that such services are more limited in Nduta than, for example, in Nyaragusu.

Officials responsible for running the camp should continue to carry out concrete measures to reduce attacks on women, such as improving lighting in the camp and ensuring all latrines can be locked. Several women said that they urinated in plastic bottles cut in half to avoid using unlit latrines at night. Some had received solar lamps, but several had been stolen. Many women said that their personal belongings had been stolen from their tents, including medical documentation of rapes which would be important in efforts to seek justice.

UNHCR is working with Tanzania’s Home Affairs Ministry on a pilot project to produce bio-mass briquettes as an alternative to firewood. The use of improved mud-stoves has been promoted in the camps. UNHCR told Human Rights Watch that group firewood collection times have also been established and daily security messages are shared in the camp through community outreach teams. IRC conducts weekly community campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers and how women and girls can minimize risk.

Some special efforts have been made by aid groups to protect children from rape, including establishing child protection groups, drop-off child care centers, and campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers of leaving children unattended.

Five women said they had seen the Imbonerakure who allegedly raped them, or other Imbonerakure, in the refugee camp. Two said the men had threatened them. Several Tutsi women also said that they felt unsafe because of their ethnicity and that other refugees harassed and insulted them. One woman said men had called her a “cockroach” – a term used to insult Tutsi during the 1994 Rwandan genocide – and told her she should have fled to Rwanda instead. The woman reported the case to the police, who intervened. The men apologized and promised they would not insult her again.

It is not clear how UNHCR plans on tackling threats to security in the camp, but increasing efforts are being made, the agency said, to support efforts by refugees to improve their security. A more grassroots approach to prevention and response to rape could be effective, such as a community-led effort in the 1990s that used refugee “crisis intervention teams,” who identified rape victims, helped them access services, and worked within their communities to address risks.

IRC is engaging religious leaders and others to promote nonviolence and has initiated a large program with some 400 women and men to examine and change attitudes and practices.

The long term consequences of rape are often devastating. Only two women out of more than 70 interviewed said that they felt largely unchanged emotionally or physically since the rapes. The others described experiencing chronic problems they said were a result of the rape, including poor physical health, infections, and continuing problems with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Women with HIV said that they were struggling to find enough nutritious food to stay healthy, and two said they were not able to maintain a regime of HIV prophylaxis medications because they could not get enough to eat.

A large proportion of the women said that they still felt pain in their hips, back or stomach and several women said they were struggling to carry water or perform other activities. They reported persistent problems with sleeping, waking up suddenly screaming in the night, and nightmares. Emotional pain, a feeling of disconnection from others including their children, self-disgust, and shame were common. Two women said that they feared that the rape has made them worse mothers. Women also reported constantly thinking about the rapes, experiencing reoccurring flashbacks of the rape or killings, depression, or feeling no peace or happiness. There was a widespread – and in Human Rights Watch’s view, an accurate – perception that not enough was being done to assist to rape victims, although many women did not know that psychosocial – mental health – care should be key parts of government or aid agency responses to rape and are included in all global standards.

Human Rights Watch spoke to five women who had become pregnant or had had children as a result of rape. In all cases, the pregnancy had brought discord. Women reported ambiguous feelings for the children and family problems. In some cases, the women’s husband had refused to accept the pregnancy or the child. In other cases, the husband had forbidden the woman to get an abortion. In two cases, women said aid staff told them they had a religious and moral duty to keep the child. In all cases, the women were not able to choose what is best for them and their families after suffering a gross human rights abuse, not least because of Tanzania’s highly restrictive abortion laws.

More services from aid agencies or the government are needed to provide ongoing case management for victims, especially psychosocial and psychological support. Women interviewed were grateful for counseling, legal, and other support from IRC, but they said it this tended to be short-term and inadequate.

A handful of women interviewed had been invited to join an IRC women’s basket weaving group, which they described as helpful. A large number said that they would love to participate in group activities. UNHCR and IRC told Human Rights Watch that group counseling sessions were initiated in May and that three groups are now meeting. This may help meet a great hunger for healing.

About half the women interviewed had one or two counseling sessions at the IRC center in the camp. Some women said they benefitted from confidential dialogue and would have liked more sessions but were not given further appointments. Instead, women were told they could return if they had problems – confusing for victims experiencing depression, chronic shame, or low self-esteem. Although some women received further counseling, this was generally not the case even for children or survivors who became pregnant from rape, contracted HIV, or faced domestic discord or abuse because of the rapes.

A lack of funding has restricted IRC’s capacity to assist. IRC told Human Rights Watch that they have faced up to 90 new reported cases per month, in part because its outreach to tell women about their services and encourage women to report rapes had created a great demand for the services of the three people providing care. Some emergency cases are especially time-consuming. IRC is continuing apply for more funds to increase services and has improved its system for prioritizing cases and hired refugees to provide support in less complicated cases.

Many women took advantage of other services provided by IRC, including accompaniment to the hospital and to police to report crimes and said these were extremely useful.

All the parents of the child survivors said their children were still affected by the rape, exhibiting withdrawal or moodiness. IRC has a child counseling room and in two cases had provided child survivors with long-term counseling support and space in their shelter. UNHCR said that targeted and comprehensive training on working with child survivors has been planned for IRC staff who already have general training, as has equipping IRC’s child care room for play therapy. Aid organizations should ensure services are equally available to male victims.

Three of the women interviewed, including two children, had stayed in a small IRC shelter in the camp. But it only had space for five women at a time, and they are only meant to stay for a few days. Improving this service could present an important option for women facing domestic violence or other abuse in the camp. 

Dear Ambassador,

As human rights, humanitarian, and peacebuilding organizations, we call on the UN Security Council to impose an immediate arms embargo on South Sudan. 

The Transitional Government of National Unity, led by President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Machar, is failing to uphold its responsibility to protect populations in South Sudan from mass atrocities. The UN Security Council must act now to protect civilians.

In line with the UN Secretary-General’s recommendations, the UN Security Council should impose a comprehensive global arms embargo on the country. This should include the supply, sale, transfer, maintenance, and operation of all weapons, ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, and related services. This will help reduce unlawful attacks on civilians. It will send a strong message that the international community will not enable those fighters who have shown a complete disregard for the laws of war easy access to weapons and ammunition with which they can rearm and commit or facilitate further abuses.

We encourage the UN Security Council to adhere to the Code of Conduct, endorsed by 112 governments, which calls upon all members of the Council not to vote against a credible draft resolution aimed at preventing or halting mass atrocities.

As you know, on 7 July violence resumed in Juba between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the SPLA in Opposition (SPLA-IO). The UN has reported that hundreds of people were killed, including two UN peacekeepers, in five days of fierce fighting before a cessation of hostilities was called by both sides. Tanks, helicopter gunships and heavy weaponry were used; civilian neighborhoods were shelled, during which a maternity ward was hit. Thousands of civilians fled to UN compounds which were also hit by mortar and heavy artillery. Indiscriminate attacks and attacks on UN personnel are serious violations of international humanitarian law and may constitute war crimes.

A comprehensive global arms embargo on South Sudan would help secure the safety of South Sudanese civilians. We urge you to put one in place urgently, and we would be pleased to discuss these issues further. 

Sincerely,

1. African Centre for Transitional Justice
2. Agency for Independent Media
3. Amnesty International
4. Assistance Mission for Africa
5. Citizens for Peace and Justice                                                    
6. CIVIC
7. Community Empowerment for Rehabilitation and Development
8. Control Arms
9. End Impunity Organization
10. Enough
11. Federation of Women Lawyers-South Sudan
12. Foundation for Youth Initiative
13. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
14. Human Rights Development Organization
15. Human Rights Watch
16. International Youth for Africa
17. Manna Development Agency
18. Organization for Nonviolence and Development
19. Oxfam
20. PAX
21. Peace and Development Collaborative Organization
22. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
23. Resolve LRA Crisis Initiative
24. Refugees International
25. South Sudan Action Network on Small Arms
26. South Sudan Human Rights Society for Advocacy
27. South Sudan Youth Peace and Development Organization
28. Soweto Community-Based Organization
29. Standard Action Liaison Focus
30. Waging Peace

Four transit centers in Rwanda

July 26, 2016 (JUBA) – The former chief negotiator for South Sudan's armed opposition, Taban Deng Gai was on Tuesday sworn-in as First Vice President, replacing Riek Machar who fled the nation following the recent clashes between rival forces in the capital, Juba.

Head of the rebel delegation, Taban Deng Gai, attends the opening ceremony of South Sudan's negotiation in Addis Ababa, January 4, 2014. (Photo Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)

Gai, appointed on Monday by President Salva Kiir in a decree, vowed to work with the former to restore ,, address economic crisis and ensure return of civilians displaced by the conflict to their homes.

He said ending the war required cooperation with the international community.

“To achieve this [peace] Mr. President, we must cooperate with the international community provided that they respect this country,” said a rather emotional Gai.

In what appears to be a shift from the provisions of the peace agreement that requires two armies for a period of 18 months, Gai suggested that this provision be scrapped.

“This country has a constitution, this country have a president and have a law to be followed. Your Excellence Mr. President, as I said, you are my commander in chief. The country cannot have two armies,” he said.

Gai was nominated by armed opposition faction (SPLM-IO) in Juba over the weekend as replacement for Machar, who is the chairman of the SPLM-IO. President Kiir formally appointed Gai as First Vice President in a decree announced on Monday.

Kiir, however, said he did not influence the decision to replace Machar with Gai.

“Comrade Taban Deng Gai was selected by the SPLM/A IO to replace Dr. Riek Machar whose whereabouts are not known to all of us,” said the South Sudanese leader.

“I have been appealing to him [First Vice President Riek Machar] to come back to Juba so that we continue with the implementation of the agreement. Of course this agreement cannot be personalized that if X is away, the agreement can be shelved until when that person comes. That cannot happen,” he added.

Machar has said he would only return to the capital, Juba when a third force proposed by regional countries and approved by the African Union is deployed in the young nation.

(ST)

July 26, 2016 (NEW YORK) – The United Nations (UN) has warned the leadership of the war-ravaged South Sudan over its recent decision to replace Riek Machar, with Taban Deng Gai, as First Vice President, saying this was a violation to the peace agreement.

Ban Ki-moon (Photo UN)

Machar, who has continued to command the political and military leaderships of the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement SPLM-IO, was decreed out by President Salva Kiir and replaced with Gai.

Gai said he was endorsed by the SPLM-IO leadership currently in Juba. But this was dismissed by Machar's officials because only five members of the leadership reportedly endorsed him in violation of the peace agreement.

"Any political appointments need to be consistent with the provisions outlined in the peace agreement," said Farhan Haq, UN's spokesperson at a briefing to reporters in New York on Tuesday.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which mediated the peace agreement signed in August 2015, has not publicly reacted to the events in Juba, owing to more planned measures against the leadership in South Sudan, observers said.

"We call on all parties to ensure that the ceasefire is maintained and that any divisions within the opposition or between the parties be dealt with peacefully through dialogue," UN spokesperson Haq added.

Taban Deng Gai, was sworn in on Tuesday as First Vice President, and vowed to fully cooperate with president Kiir including scrapping many provisions in the peace deal.

ONE ARMY

Gai declared his willingness to cancel one of the major provisions in the peace deal, which he himself negotiated for two years, Gai said there is no need for two armies in one country and told the President that the SPLA-IO army will immediately be reintegrated into President Kiir's army, the SPLA.

This would imply that the security arrangements needed for at least 18 months and implementation of the security sector reform would no longer be needed to reunify the two armies as required by the peace agreement.

However, officials of the opposition faction led by Machar dismissed Gai's assertions, saying he said it because he knew he had no army to stay separate. They dismissed Gai's comment as coming from someone who has no say over the SPLA-IO army.

The top leadership of the SPLA-IO including its chief of general staff, General Simon Gatwech Daul, and his deputies are currently with Machar and have confirmed firm support behind him.

Also, SPLM-IO's governor of Unity state, General Kuol Ruai and SPLA-IO's military sector commander in Gai's home state of Unity state, General Simon Maguek, have come out with statements, dismissing Gai's statements that he was in contact with the commanders, saying Gai had no army or any support in the SPLA-IO forces.

MAINTAIN CEASEFIRE

Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon has called on South Sudan's rival parties to ensure that the ceasefire is maintained and that any divisions within the opposition, or between the parties are dealt with peacefully through dialogue.

The UN, a spokesperson said, will continue working with the Transitional Government of National Unity and all stakeholders in support of the implementation of the peace agreement for the benefit of South Sudanese, as mandated by the Security Council.

The changes, analysts say, contravenes the peace agreement signed by both Kiir and Machar.

(ST)

A protest in New Delhi following the savage gang rape of a 23 year old woman in December 2012 which shocked the entire country. Photo by NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images

By Siddharth Chatterjee
NEW DELHI, India, Jul 27 2016 (IPS)

India, a country best-known for its rising economic might, is the worst place to be a woman.

On Sunday, 25 July 2016, an Israeli woman was gang raped in Manali, India.

The incident is a gruesome reminder of the uncomfortable truth that India is not prepared to deal with the deluge of crimes perpetrated against women daily – a woman is raped every 22 minutes.

Consider this. Reports emerged this month that a young woman was gang-raped by the same men who had raped her three years earlier in Rohtak, Haryana in North India. Frankly law enforcement authorities should be ashamed of themselves. That the criminals were free all along and had the temerity to repeat the crime on the same victim can only point to the abysmal failure by Indian law enforcers to deal with rape crimes.

Clearly, the attackers’ decision to track the victim and repeat the crime was meant to thumb their noses at her family and authorities, fully aware that they would get away with it again.

There have been other equally disturbing cases. A mother and daughter in Kerala whose complaints of stalking were disregarded by police until the daughter was raped, mutilated and murdered. Or the father whose pleas for investigation into his teenage daughters’ disappearance were ignored by police only for the girls to be found hanging from trees after being gang-raped.

Women in India have been let down by the very institutions that should protect them against crimes like rape, and it is not surprising that that the country is now known as the rape capital of the world.

Despite societal outrage and widespread media spotlight on the crimes, law-enforcement institutions have been slow to act, and at times lethargic. When will the state machinery wake up? What more needs to happen before the police react to crimes against women promptly?

To the credit of the authorities, significant steps have been made in reviewing outmoded laws regarding violence against women. However, these statutes must be accompanied by the will and resources for implementation on the ground. While legal reforms must be upheld, especially to speed up and assure prosecution of offenders, even more urgent is to change the attitude of Indian men towards women.

From a Trotsky perspective ‘the police is after all a copy of society and suffers from all its diseases’. The patriarchal, misogynistic Indian culture invariably condones, covertly or explicitly, violent acts like rape. Then there is the legacy question of class – the law and society favour the wealthy over the poor. Victims from lower castes and poor backgrounds are routinely threatened by families and allies of the accused from higher castes.

In fact, the victim in the most recent case in Rohtak was forced to move after the first attack due to threats and pressure ostensibly because of her status as a Dalit (lower caste). The victim in Kerala was also of a lower caste. Numerous victims have reported that if the family of the accused is of a higher caste or is wealthy, police go out of their way to avoid filing a First Information Report (FIR) which compels them to investigate.

Where a woman, against many odds, manages to file a complaint of rape or harassment, the law enforcement machinery is often shockingly apathetic towards the victim and her family, often displaying a unique eagerness to protect the accused and to disbelieve the victim. When they are not being discouraged, they suffer a double miscarriage of justice by being held somehow responsible for the rape. This cannot be allowed to go on.

India’s police is in urgent need for radical reform. The police must hire more women and ensure that female officers are present during reporting of rape crimes, samples are properly collected, kits secured and cases filed and investigated promptly. Assurance of speedy trials and prosecutions will deter criminals more than the harshest punishments that are never meted out.

Currently, because of low arrest and conviction rates, lack of confidentiality and fear they won’t be believed, only a tiny percentage of women report rape to the police.

Even with sensitivity training for the police force, there will still be need for engaging the wider community for civic policing. Resourceful individuals such as military veterans could be co-opted in this campaign, as they are respected by communities. These veterans or ex-servicemen, acting as citizen wardens, can be a powerful deterrent and role models.

The journey towards changing social attitudes, increasing the probability of punishment, improving reporting and taking better preventive measures will be a long one, but it is one that must be undertaken with urgency. For starters, from an early age, boys must be taught to desist from behaviour that objectify women, irrespective of their social standing. This must become mandatory learning in schools and communities.

A country whose women are oppressed is unlikely to progress. If India wants to be the next global economic power, the equality, dignity and safety of all women must be at the very top of its national priorities.

Siddharth Chatterjee is Kenya representative for the UN Population Fund. These are his personal views. Follow @sidchat1 on Twitter.

July 26, 2016 (WAU) – Hundreds of citizens and school pupils joined civil society activists for a peaceful demonstration aimed at rejecting the African Union's recent proposal to deploy additional troops to boost United Nations peacekeepers in South Sudan.

The protestors march against foreign troops in Wau on 26, July 2016 (ST)

The protestors marched from Wau Molid playground, through the main market to the state governors' office to present their petition to be forward to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) office in Wau.

“No to deployment of foreign regional forces in the country,” they chanted.

In the petition, the protestors accused the Troika nations who are members of the UN, of disrespecting South Sudan's sovereignty.

A representative of the civil society, Santino Madut Uchalla said much as they recognise the positive roles played by UN peacekeepers, South Sudan needed to be respected as a nation.

The civil society fraternity, in the petition, said foreign troops may only be interested in South Sudan's natural resources, such as oil.

“The UN should know that the government of South Sudan is capable to solve its own problems as leadership of this country ordered cessation of hostilities, general amnesty and establishment of military court martial which is functioning now in dealing with any crime committed during the past violence in the country,” partly reads the civil society petition forwarded to the UN office in Wau.

“We strongly rejected, condemned and denounce the foreign troop's intervention and proposed sanction on the sovereign South Sudan,” it further read.

Members of the civil society warned that South Sudan should not encounter what happened in Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Afghanistan. These countries, they said, have no stability, despite UN intervention.

The groups urged UN to support South Sudan in implementing the peace deal rather than deploying additional foreign troops.

The state Governor, Andrea Mayar Acho assured the protestors that their petition would reach the UN and president's office as demanded.

(ST)

Land degradation - Sustainable land management: do nothing and you will be poorer. Credit: UNEP

By Baher Kamal
ROME, Jul 27 2016 (IPS)

Climate change and related extreme weather events have devastated the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of most vulnerable people worldwide– by far exceeding the total of all the unfortunate and unjustifiable victims of all terrorist attacks combined. However, the unstoppable climate crisis receives just a tiny fraction of mainstream media attention. See these dramatic facts.

“Every second, one person is displaced by disaster,” the Oslo-based Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) reports. “In 2015 only, more than 19.2 million people fled disasters in 113 countries. “Disasters displace three to ten times more people than conflict and war worldwide.”

As climate change continues, it will likely lead to more frequent and severe natural hazards; the impact will be heavy, warns this independent humanitarian organisation providing aid and assistance to people forced to flee.

“On average, 26 million people are displaced by disasters such as floods and storms every year. That’s one person forced to flee every second.”

“Climate change is our generation’s greatest challenge,” says Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which counts with over 5,000 humanitarian workers across more than 25 countries.

An estimated 83,100 people remain displaced and in need of humanitarian assistance in Wau, South Sudan. Credit: OIM

The climate refugees and migrants add to the on-going humanitarian emergency. “Not since World War II have more people needed our help,” warned the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland, who held the post of UN undersecretary general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief (2003-2006).

Egeland –who was one of the most active, outspoken participants in the World Humanitarian Summit (Istanbul May 23-24)– also stressed that the humanitarian sector is failing to protect civilians.

“I hope that world leaders can ask themselves if they can at least stop giving arms, giving money to those armed groups that are systematically violating the humanitarian law, and bombing hospitals and schools, abusing women and children,” he said to IPS during the World Humanitarian Summit.

For its part, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) forecasts 200 million environmental migrants by 2050, moving either within their countries or across borders, on a permanent or temporary basis. Many of them would be coastal population.

On this, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that coastal populations are at particular risk as a global rise in temperature of between 1.1 and 3.1 degrees C would increase the mean sea level by 0.36 to 0.73 meters by 2100, adversely impacting low-lying areas with submergence, flooding, erosion, and saltwater intrusion.

FAO and UNHCR prepared a handbook that will help mitigate the impact of displaced people on forest resources. The handbook aims to help displaced people access fuel for cooking food while reducing environmental damage and conflicts with local communities. Credit: FAO/UNHCR

In a recent interview with IPS Nairobi correspondent Manipadma Jena, the director general of the International Organisation for Migration, William Lacy Swing, said that coastal migration is starting already but it is very hard to be exact as there is no good data to be able to forecast accurately.

“We do not know. But it is clearly going to figure heavily in the future. And it’s going to happen both in the low-lying islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean, and in those countries where people build houses very close to the shore and have floods every year as in Bangladesh.”

“It is quite clear that we will have more and more conflicts over shortages of food and water that are going to be exacerbated by climate change,” Lacy Swing warned.

Political crises and natural disasters are the other major drivers of migration today, he said to IPS in the interview.

Lacy Swing confirmed the fact that climate victims now add to record 60 million people who are fleeing war and persecution.

“We have never had so many complex and protracted humanitarian emergencies now happening simultaneously from West Africa all the way to Asia, with very few spots in between which do not have some issue. We have today 40 million forcibly displaced people and 20 million refugees, the greatest number of uprooted people since the Second World War.”

On 25 July, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution approving an agreement to make the International Organisation for Migration part of the UN system.

Founded in the wake of the World War II to resettle refugees from Europe, OIM celebrates its 65th anniversary in December of this year.

Land degradation – Sustainable land management: do nothing and you will be poorer. Credit: UNEP

“Migration is at the heart of the new global political landscape and its social and economic dynamics. At a time of growing levels of migration within and across borders, a closer legal and working relationship between the United Nations and IOM is needed more than ever,” said the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement welcoming the Assembly’s decision.

IOM, which assisted an estimated 20 million migrants in 2015, is an intergovernmental organisation with more than 9,500 staff and 450 offices worldwide

“We are living in a time of much tragedy and uncertainty. This agreement shows Member States’ commitment to more humane and orderly migration that benefits all, where we celebrate the human beings behind the numbers,” IOM Director General William Lacy said.

Through the agreement, the UN recognises IOM as an “indispensable actor in the field of human mobility.” IOM added that this includes protection of migrants and displaced people in migration-affected communities, as well as in areas of refugee resettlement and voluntary returns, and incorporates migration in country development plans.

The agreement paves the way for the agreement to be signed by Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon and Swing at the UN Summit for refugees and migrants on 19 September, which will bring together UN member states to address large movements of refugees and migrants for more humane and coordinated approach.

July 26, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Turkish ambassador to Sudan Tuesday said his country would discuss with the Sudanese government the closure of private schools and charity groups of Gulen Movement in Sudan.

Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan (Reuters)

Turkish government accuses the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind the July 15 coup attempt in which at least 246 people were killed. But, the exiled Islamic opponent denies any involvement in the aborted putsch.

Turkey "plans to hold discussions with the Sudanese government on the closure of schools and institutions of the organization of Parallel Entity in Sudan," Ambassador, Jamaluddin Aydin.

The Parallel Entity is a term used by the Turkish authorities to refer to Gulen Movement which is critical to the government to of President Tayyip Erdogan.

Aydin made his remark in a debate held in Khartoum Tuesday about the July 15 coup attempt. He was asked about whether his government plans to ask Khartoum to shut down Gulen schools.

On Saturday 23 July, the government in Ankara ordered the closure of thousands of private schools and charities in a decree issued by President Erdogan after the imposition of the state of emergency in the country.

Gulen Islamic schools, which are private institutions, have been recently implemented in Sudan and several African countries as Somalia, Mozambique and Guinea.

(ST)

July 26, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudanese forces loyal to President Salva Kiir have been accused of carrying out fresh attacks against forces of the Sudan People's Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) led by the former First Vice President, Riek Machar.

A batch of the SPLA-IO forces after arrival in Juba, 1 April, 2016 (ST Photo)

Machar was replaced on Monday with his ex-minister of Mining, Taban Deng Gai, in a process described as illegal by his officials but accepted by President Kiir, who appointed Gai as acting First Vice President.

President Kiir said he did not know where Machar has been hiding and could not respond to his 48 hours ultimatum. His former deputy has been demanding deployment of third party force in order to guarantee his safety in Juba following fighting two weeks ago which forced him to flee from the capital.

The former first deputy has however remained in charge of the SPLA-IO forces across the country as well as continuing to lead over 95% of the political leadership, according to his officials.

While President Kiir has called on Machar to return to Juba despite being replaced with Gai, his spokesperson said forces loyal to President Kiir have instead gone on offensive to hunt for his former deputy in the bushes, south and west of the capital, Juba.

“Their forces have been on offensive since last week, and our forces have been repulsing them in self-defence. There maybe escalation of fighting due to this violation of the July 11 cessation of hostilities declared by the two leaders,” Machar's spokesperson, James Gatdet Dak, said on Tuesday.

“Even today [Tuesday] they have continued to dispatch troops from Juba and from other locations such as Maridi to go into the bushes to hunt for our Chairman and Commander-in-Chief, Dr. Riek Machar,” he added.

He said hundreds of President Kiir's forces are believed to have been killed in the forests, saying “it is unfortunate to continue to waste lives of soldiers.”

He also added that helicopter gunships belonging to the faction loyal to President Kiir have been bombing forests randomly trying to locate and harm Machar and his forces.

Dak however said Machar is together with his troops and will continue to fight back in self-defence, or “even pursue President Kiir's forces” if the attacks will continue.

He said he has been in contact with Machar whom he described as well protected by his forces.

The opposition leader's spokesperson said the leadership of the SPLA-IO forces are not however interested in further escalating the fighting. He called on President Kiir to stop his forces from carrying out the attacks in search for Machar.

(ST)

July 26, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir on Tuesday has travelled to Morocco to hold discussions with the Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

King Salman receives Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir, on 30 June 2016 (SPA Photo)

The Saudi monarch is spending his annual vacation in the Moroccan port city of Tangier, where he arrived on Thursday.

Al-Bashir flew to Tangier from the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott after he attended the 27th Arab League summit.

According to the Saudi Press Agency SPA, King Salman received al-Bashir at his place of residence where the two leaders discussed the “fraternal relations between the two brotherly countries and a number of issues of mutual interest”.

It added that al-Bashir was also treated to a luncheon attended by senior officials from both nations.

Sudanese-Saudi relations have witnessed a thaw in recent months after years of tensions over Khartoum's close ties with Tehran that saw Iranian warships dock several times in Port Sudan.

(ST)

July 26, 2016 (BENTIU) – South Sudan's armed opposition (SPLM-IO) sector commander in oil-rich Unity state, Lt. Gen Simon Maguek Gai has dismissed Gen. Taban Deng Gai's claims of having army support.

SPLM-IO Chief Negotiator, Taban Deng Gai, speaking to journalists at Juba airport upon his return from Pagak with his team, 22 January 2016 (ST Photo)

Deng Gai, now the country's first vice president having replaced Riek Machar, was dismissed from the armed opposition movement last Friday.

But, Maguek, in a statement said Gai never communicated with field commanders and that his recent utterance was a mere fabrication.

“This is a great lie released by Taban that he communicated with field commanders was a white lie. We are informing the general public of South Sudan that all our field commanders are firm in their support to Riek Machar Teny,” he said in the statement.

The rebel commander further accused Gai of internal struggles by eyeing at first vice presidency post as alternative counter revenge after he was not appointed as the Petroleum Minister by Machar.

“We the people of Unity state completely rejected and condemned that attempt by Salva Kiir through Jieng Council of Elders puppet Taban Deng in Juba - this is a violation of the peace agreement signed in August 2015 and it will not happen to accept such aimless decision and whoever supports this evil notion is an anti-peace lover in Republic of South Sudan,” stressed Maguek.

Meanwhile, the armed opposition governor of Unity state, Ruai Kuol Jal equally dismissed Gai's claims of having support after being removed from the armed opposition leadership by Machar.

“The world must know that what is going on in Juba is a clear violation of the agreement. As per now, they will not blame us anymore because this is what the supporters of Kiir were looking to derail the peace,” he told Sudan Tribune Tuesday.

Kuol says the SPLM-IO militarily commands around the country still stand behind Machar, claiming that Gai was simply being misled by the Jieng Council of Elders who back his elevation to the new post.

The advocacy group, The Enough Project, warned of possibilities of full-scale war in South Sudan following President's Salva Kiir's removal of Machar from the vice-presidency.

(ST)

July 26, 2016 (RUMBEK) – 1,500 police officers graduated in Rumbek, the capital of South Sudan's Western Lakes state on Monday.

New police recruits during a parade in Yambio June 27, 2016 (ST)

The graduates were tasked to combat insecurity and highway robberies.

Speaking at the occasion, South Sudan's Inspector General of Police, Makur Marol Aduol, urged police personnel to disengage from politics and to promote rule of law without any compromise.

“Your duty is to impose the law, distance yourself from politics because police's duty is to protect the law. Police is the backbone of the country and you are tasked to combat crime,” said Aduol.

According to the police official, insecurity is rampant in Greater Lakes state, Gok state, Eastern Lakes state as well as Rumbek town.

“You must work to reduce all cycle of crime and this is your first assignment to undergone,” said the Inspector General of Police.

“There is cattle raiding here, road ambushes here, there are people who are saying police is not doing their duty to reduce those crimes. Now do your duties to reduce them by all means,” stressed Aduol.

The Governor of Western Lakes state, Abraham Makoi Bol Kodi, urged the police to be faithful to law and order, reminding the graduates that fighting crime in the public was the duty of police.

“Discharge your duties correctly, fight crime and be faithful to law and order,” said Makoi, who donated five bulls to the new graduates.

(ST)