World News - .geographical media - RSS

PHILIPPINES: Child soldiers in spotlight as Mindanao battle rages

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 14:50:24 GMT

Saturday, November 22, 2008

MANILA Tuesday, October 21, 2008 (IRIN) - Muslim separatist rebels engaged in battle with Philippines troops on Mindanao island since August have continued to use children as combatants, despite international appeals to stop the practice, sources say. While the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leadership has publicly denied using child combatants, evidence recovered from fallen rebel camps indicates otherwise. Witnesses say the MILF has also conscripted children (younger than 18) into...

Source: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=81015

CHAD: UN Secretary-General calls to double troop numbers

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:55:27 GMT

« previous

1 of 5

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for nearly doubling the number of international troops deployed to eastern Chad.

UN peacekeepers, expected to replace the European Union force (EUFOR) due to leave in March 2009, would have a similar mandate of protecting displaced civilians and aid workers in the increasingly volatile region.

Humanitarian agencies have been forced to suspend some of their operations in eastern Chad over the last few months after violent attacks on staff.

Ban is proposing that 6,000 UN peacekeepers replace the 3,700 EUFOR troops currently in the region.

A military team from New York was recently in Chad to discuss the peacekeeping mission with authorities. The Chadian government has told the UN Security Council that it does not need a higher number of international troops. A decision on the peacekeeping force is expected in early 2009.

“Our military experts believe we require a sizeable force,” Victor Angelo, the UN Special Representative to Chad, told IRIN in the capital Ndjamena. “Take into consideration the types of threats, their unpredictability, and also that the territory to be covered is very vast.”

In 2008 alone there have been more than 120 attacks on humanitarian workers, including car-jackings, robberies and four killings, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Some 285,000 Sudanese refugees and 180,000 displaced Chadians (IDPs) live in eastern Chad – 130,000 of them in the Dar Sila and Salamat areas around Goz Beida to the southeast, where EUFOR’s Multinational Battalion South, or MBS, works.

One of MBS's responsibilities is to patrol the perimeters of the four IDP sites close to Goz Beida, where residents say they are regularly attacked by animal herders and men on horses when they go out to work in their fields.

“A few days ago the children went out and they were beaten by men riding camels. Now the children are scared,” said Rakia Hissin, who lives in Gasire IDP camp in the Goz Beida region. But she added she does feel safer since EUFOR arrived. “When we see the patrols we feel more at ease.”
An MBS member said more troops would help. “In an ideal world it would be better to have more troops”, Lieutenant Colonel Kiernan Brennan, MBS commander, told IRIN. “Currently I’m focusing on the Sudanese border, so it would help to increase the security towards the southwest where I’m not able to reach.”

No police

Aid workers said insecurity remains a considerable threat in the eastern region and that the lack of a police force is a major problem. “EUFOR is not a police force and the main threat here for NGOs is banditry,” said Judith Sarano from Oxfam GB. “We need to have a real and effective police and judicial system to arrest these people."

EUFOR was supposed to be accompanied by a Chadian military and civilian police force, trained by the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad, or MINURCAT. But to date only a handful of the proposed 850 security officers known as ‘Détachement intégré de sécurité’ (DIS) have been deployed.

“We have been slow and I should say that MINURCAT has to improve the pace,” UN representative Angelo told IRIN, “I believe that when we have our military police [DIS] in place that will complement what EUFOR is doing on a military scene.”

As part of the increase in troop numbers, Angelo has recommended a rapid reaction reserve battalion be installed in the major eastern town of Abeche to support patrolling troops.

IRIN

DRC: What will stop the fighting?

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:59:16 GMT

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

A pledge by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to complement UN peacekeeping forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with SADC soldiers does not take account of the regional body's limited military capacity, a military analyst told IRIN.

After an extraordinary heads-of-state summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 9 November, called to address Zimbabwe's political impasse and DRC's rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis, SADC Executive Secretary-General Tomaz Salomoa told reporters that "SADC should immediately provide assistance to the armed forces of DRC", because "The security situation in DRC is affecting peace and stability in the SADC and Great Lakes region."

A SADC team of military experts was to deploy "immediately" to the region.

Henri Boshoff, military analyst at the South African-based think-tank, Institute for Security Studies, told IRIN that stopping the fighting between the Congolese army and rebel leader Laurent Nkunda required the deployment of "a credible military force", or that MONUC "changed its posture" and aggressively implemented its Chapter 7 (of the UN Charter) mandate, which allows for peace enforcement.

He said SADC did not have the military capacity as yet for robust action, and it was difficult to see where the troops would come from at such short notice.

South Africa's overstretched military already has peacekeeping troops in the DRC, and the use of Angolan, Namibian and Zimbabwean soldiers would "bring with it the baggage" of the 1998-2003 conflict, in which the three countries supported the Kinshasa government against Rwandan- and Ugandan-backed rebels.

Baggage

SADC's intervention, at the urging of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, saved the DRC's late President Laurent Desire Kabila from defeat, but bogged down Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe in a drawn-out war that cost an estimated three million civilian lives.

Nkunda, a Tutsi from the Kivu region of eastern DRC, joined the armed groups opposed to Kabila, who had turned against the Rwandan and Ugandan governments that had helped put him in power.

At the end of the war in 2003 he and his troops were integrated into the new national army, but rebelled after accusing the government of supporting Hutu militia responsible for attacks against the Tutsi minority in North and South Kivu provinces.

Nkunda is alleged to still enjoy the backing of Rwandan President Paul Kagame; his National Congress for the Defence of the People is regarded as a better fighting force than the Congolese army, and they have battled their way towards the North Kivu provincial capital of Goma.

The fighting, despite the presence of the UN peacekeeping mission, MONUC, has killed several hundred civilians and combatants, displaced more than 250,000 people - many for the second or third time in the last few years - and created an increasingly desperate humanitarian situation.

Boshoff said part of the reason why MONUC - trying to operate in a huge region - could not more aggressively implement its mandate was a matter of "interpretation" by some of the governments that had contributed to the 17,000-strong force on how their soldiers should be deployed.

He commented that a European Union Battle Group, a self-sufficient military force with a minimum of 1,500 soldiers, could be deployed in the region in seven days, but member countries of the EU were divided on the issue. The EU has the military priority of Afghanistan, and there is an unwillingness to get involved in a "protracted war" in the eastern Congo.

IRIN

Oxfam raises alarm about escalating Congo violence

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:39:56 GMT

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Fresh fighting in eastern Congo has displaced tens of thousands more people from their homes, international aid agency Oxfam said today (Wednesday 29 October 2008) as it called for urgent action to bring the region back from the brink.

It is reported that 20,000 men, women and children fled from the Kibumba area, north of Goma on Monday. About 4,000 of these are currently camped on a makeshift site in Kibati, outside Goma town with very little humanitarian support. An unknown number of people from villages north of Kibumba fled in the opposite direction towards Rutshuru. Since August, some 200,000 people have been uprooted from their homes as fighting has surged between Laurent Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) and the Congolese army.

Juliette Prodhan, head of Oxfam in Congo said: “The road to Goma town is a throng of men, women and children desperately searching for refuge in the town’s crowded camps. Many people have been forced to sleep out in the open as they cannot find shelter. The numbers fleeing are staggering. People urgently need our help. And yet it doesn't look like the fighting is over, so the likelihood is that more people will be fleeing in the coming days.”

Oxfam supplies clean water and sanitation to the camps around the Goma to minimize the spread of disease and has been scaling up its response to deal with the new influx. Over 15,000 more people have arrived at the already overstretched camps outside Goma in the past two months. Oxfam is also developing a plan to supply water and sanitation to a proposed new camp in the town, which will open if the situation continues to deteriorate.
As well as responding to immediate humanitarian needs, Oxfam International is calling on diplomats and foreign ministers to apply urgent pressure to stop the crisis escalating still further.

Juliette Prodhan said: “A peace deal – which was agreed in January this year – offered many in this region tremendous hope. The world should not sit by while it crumbles. Further violence will only cause more human misery and suffering for people who have already suffered too much. The world must act now and call for a ceasefire and solutions to this crisis before it's too late.”

OXFAM

DRC: Government troops "on the rampage"

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:33:07 GMT

Friday, October 31, 2008

While much of the criticism over the sharp escalation of violence in North Kivu has been levelled at troops loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda, on the night of 29 October, government troops reportedly went on the rampage in Goma.

"Last night I was in my home with my family,” Stuart, a resident who fled to Gisenyi in Rwanda, told IRIN. “Government troops were shooting outside, in the street, all over the neighbourhood. They were shooting heavy guns and breaking into people's houses, and killing people, and looting; I saw them. It felt like anarchy, there was no law,” he said.

“The situation is very bad. When you see Congolese people fighting other Congolese people and looting their homes it is very frightening. My family aren't safe. I couldn't bring them with me because I don’t have the means, I can't afford to accommodate them if I bring them all across.

“This is very much the worst it's been in the last 10 years, even during the war, I've never been this scared,” said Stuart.

There were reports of killings and other atrocities. “A family of six people was killed by soldiers, a man and his two sons were beaten and there were also cases of looting and rape,” Jason Luneno, head of Goma’s civil society, told IRIN.
John, another Goma resident, said he had seen soldiers “fleeing in disarray, some in tanks, some in requisitioned civilian vehicles”. He also witnessed tens of thousands of displaced coming in from villages where there had been fighting.

The following day, however, the town was eerily calm and empty. “We don’t know what’s happened to the displaced population because everyone went their own way,” said Ibrahima Coly, head of the UN Refugee Agency’s Goma office.

He said some 30,000 displaced people (IDPs) had arrived the previous day at an established IDP camp in Goma but quickly fled again as panic spread across the town. “This [30 October] morning the town was deserted, shops are closed.”

IRIN

DRC: Instability increasing in Orientale province

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:47:23 GMT

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Airplanes may be needed to help some 6,000 people displaced during attacks by Ugandan rebels in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who are not accessible by humanitarian agencies, officials said.

“The idea is to send food and non-food items in by plane, given that it is difficult now to send a road convoy because of logistical and security reasons,” said Jean-Charles Dupin of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Orientale Province.

The civilians fled attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in September along the main north-south road in the province’s Dungu territory.

“The displaced are spread out across several villages in the forest. All figures for the numbers of displaced in Dungu territory are estimates,” Holly Berman, a senior protection officer with the UN Refugee Agency, told IRIN.

Moroccan troops from the UN Mission in DRC, MONUC, have set up a security perimeter in the area and government soldiers have also been deployed.

Earlier in October, the provincial government donated CFr7 million (about US$11,000) to help the people of Dungu.

“This amount is insignificant given the number of displaced; it’s about 50 US cents per person,” said local journalist Gracien Ira.

Some 113 people are reported to have been killed during LRA attacks over the past two months.

On 20 October, the Ugandan rebels struck the town of Bangadi, in Haut Uele district, and clashed with a civilian self-defence unit there. According to witnesses cited in an OCHA situation report, the LRA lost several fighters and in turn killed many people in Bangadi, including a teacher, an agronomist and a pharmacist. They also looted the hospital.

Meanwhile, in Ituri district, also in Orientale province, government troops have retaken some of the places previously held by DRC insurgents, although local authorities say 100,000 people in the district are still displaced.

“We know the fighters are not far away. We have to make sure the beneficiaries are not looted the night after a distribution,” said OCHA’s Dupin.

OCHA has described the humanitarian situation in Ituri as “worrying … Given the presence of armed groups across the district, the humanitarian community believes insecurity in the district could degenerate if adequate political and military measures are not taken quickly. Many people affected by this insecurity cannot be reached by aid workers.”

IRIN

Over 60 members of Chadian sect killed by troops after violence

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:50:18 GMT

Friday, July 04, 2008

Over 60 members of a Chadian sect have been killed in fighting with police that started after the group's leader announced his wish to start a holy war. The government security minister, Mahamat Bachir, said that the death toll is "a regrettable toll, but we think we now control the situation caused by the actions carried out by these terrorists, these extremists."

Ahmat Ismael Bichara, who led the sect and claimed to follow the religion of Islam, ordered his followers to attack villagers as part of the start of a holy war. As a result of this, he was arrested.

Members of the security forces were also wounded in the attack. There were ten injuries, four of which resulted in fatalities. In addition to the deaths from the sect, over 50 members of the group were also injured.

Government officials also claimed that the sect wanted the war to spread as far as Europe. "Since June 3, he [the leader of the group] has been calling on all Muslims to prepare to engage in a holy war against Christians and atheists, saying that the war would be launched from Chad to as far as Denmark," said the offical.

The incident occurred in an area near the town of Kouno, which is 300 kilometres away from Ndjamena, the Chadian capital.

Source: WIKI NEWS

BURUNDI: Shelling resumes in Bujumbura

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:02:48 GMT

Thursday, April 24, 2008

The resumption in the violence in Bujumbura is causing panic in the country. Outside the capital, residents spend their nights in the bush for fear of being attacked, as the death toll rose to 33.

A bomb destroyed part of the Vatican embassy compound and a dining hall in the Kiriri University campus on 22 April.

"We call on the army to remove its heavy arms from our campus," a student said, reacting to the installation of rocket launchers aimed at rebuffing attacks by the rebel FNL.

On 18 April, attacks were launched on military positions in Gihosha, Kanyosha, Kamenge and Musaga areas. At Gihosha, an MP’s residence was hit.

The spokesman for the Burundi defence force, Lt-Col Adolphe Manirakiza, condemned the FNL for having "violated the ceasefire accord" signed in 2006. However, the FNL’s Pasteur Habimana rejected the accusation, blaming the army for provoking its combatants.

The FNL called on Burundian troops "to return to their barracks". The army, however, rejected the call. "We cannot do this because we have to protect civilians from the movement's attacks," Manirakiza said.

Habimana called for help in mediation efforts and for the resumption of talks under the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism (JVMM).

On 21 April, the government spokeswoman, Hafsa Mossi, urged the international community to impose sanctions on the FNL if it continued to violate the ceasefire accord. She said the FNL was not interested in the peace process.

The attacks follow months of interruption of the JVMM talks aimed at implementing the ceasefire accord.

CDS decorates soldiers

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:00:08 GMT

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Major General Lang Tombong Tamba, the chief of defence staff of The Gambia Armed Forces yesterday decorated 58 GAF junior officers to various ranks in accordance with Section 190 of the Constitution of The Gambia.

22 officers were promoted to captain, 43 to lieutenant and 14 to second lieutenant, which is the largest promotions in the history of the Gambia Armed Forces.

Soon after the decoration ceremony, CDS Tamba told the newly promoted officiers that their promotion as well as the promotion of the non-commissioned officers is the largest in the history of The Gambia Armed Forces. According to CDS Tamba the elevation of the officers clearly manifests the importance President Jammeh, who is also the Commander-In-Chief of The Gambia Armed Forces, and his government attaches to The Gambia Armed Forces.

According to him the decoration will subject the promoted officers to serious challenges and dedication to duty. He reminded promoted officers of selfless service, dedication to duty and unflinching loyalty as one of the fundamental attributes of an officer.

He said “the foundation upon which any strong military is built, is based on loyalty, dedication and obedience to lawful commands. Therefore, the progress of any officer is thus, dependent on his or her output, dedication and loyalty” he said and quickly reminded them that “From those to whom much is given, much is expected”.

Commission officers

To the new commissioned officers, Major General Tamba urged them to discharge their duties with diligence and respect and put the nation first at all times, as well as the welfare of the troops they command. He further advised them to always bear in mind that their military careers have now been transformed from non-commissioned to officers corps. He also advised them to change their behaviours, their way of thinking, physically, spiritually and socially, in order to gain the decent attribute of a lady/gentleman officer.

Honourable Fatoumatta Jahumpa-Ceesay, the Speaker of the National Asembly, Secretaries of State, the head of the Pakistan military team, the deputy CDS, families and relatives of the newly decorated officers and the head of the British diplomatic corps graced the ocasion.

Captain Sait Njie, a newly promoted officer delivered the vote of thanks.

Author: by Ebrima Jatta

UGANDA: Optimism prevails, despite setback in peace talks

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:21:31 GMT

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Josephine Akello had hoped the peace talks between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) would finally end with rebel leader Joseph Kony signing a peace accord on 10 April.

Then she heard that the elusive Kony had failed to show up at a much-publicised signing ceremony due in Ri-Kwangba, near the border between Southern Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

"We all waited anxiously and hopefully that at last Kony will sign, but what came out gives me a lot of fear," she told IRIN from Unyama near Gulu.

Violence, she added, could resume in northern Uganda, where thousands have been killed, almost two million displaced from their homes and an estimated 25,000 children abducted in more than two decades of war between government troops and the rebels.

Ugandan officials, diplomats, observers and reporters spent a day in the bush waiting for Kony, only to be told the rebel leader wanted some more clarifications before he could sign.

"He said he is still committed to the peace process," the talks’ mediator and Southern Sudan Vice-President Riek Machar told reporters in the capital, Juba. Machar had spent some time trying to contact Kony, but failed.

In the Ugandan capital, Kampala, the head of the government delegation tried to put a positive spin on the latest setback in talks that have lasted two years and cost millions of dollars.

"Government is committed to a negotiated settlement of the conflict and continued peace in northern Uganda," Ruhakana Rugunda, who is also Internal Affairs Minister, told IRIN. "Kony should come and take advantage of this gesture."

The government, he added, was waiting for a report from the mediators, who were still trying to establish contact with Kony before deciding the way forward.

But days earlier, President Yoweri Museveni had hinted that his military could resume hostilities against the LRA. "Kony is the one now to blame for the failure to end hostilities as scheduled; he has once again told the whole world that he is not interested in peace," he said on a visit to Juba on 14 April.

ICC charges

Diplomats in Juba say Kony is scared he will be arrested and handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) where he would face charges of crimes against humanity, rape and war crimes. "He wants reassurances that he would be safe," one diplomat said.

The court prepared indictments in 2005 against five LRA leaders, at the request of the Ugandan government. However, the government has since backtracked, saying the rebel leaders can be subjected to traditional justice instead. The ICC insists the charges stand.

"We can save him because we are the ones who sought assistance from the ICC," Museveni told reporters in London recently. "Because he was not under our jurisdiction, we sought assistance from the ICC. If he signs the peace agreement and returns to our jurisdiction, it becomes our responsibility, not any other party's, including the ICC."

Locals in northern Uganda, who have enjoyed relative peace since the talks began, say they would forgive the rebel leader. They largely believe the ICC indictments should be lifted so he can come home.

"The ICC was the impediment to the final agreement," Odoki Lamaka, commandant of Unyama camp for internally displaced persons in Gulu, said. "It is now the ICC that is between us and peace."

Herron Okello agreed: "We have been ready and we are still ready to forgive any wrongdoing against us but it seems the ICC is spoiling the party. We hear that Kony refused to sign because he fears the ICC."

Relative peace?

Humanitarian workers hope the situation in northern Uganda continues to be relatively peaceful. "The failure to sign the agreement has had no immediate negative impact on what we are doing. We hope that this continues because it is good for the people of northern Uganda," Kirsten Knutson, public information officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (OCHA) in Kampala, said.

"The LRA has not been active in the region and we do not have any indication of a situation that could force us to prepare for the worst-case scenario," she added.

In a March situation report, however, OCHA noted incidents during the movement of LRA men from the DRC to the Central African Republic (CAR). The first was a raid on the village of Ezo between the DRC, CAR and Sudan on 16-17 March, in which the rebels reportedly abducted 20 people. The second involved looting at Nabiapai, 21km south of Yambio, on 22 March.

On 15 April, Machar told reporters the rebels had kidnapped 55 children in Southern Sudan in recent weeks. “I have reports that these youths have been abducted by the LRA. Why do they continue to do this and say they are still committed to the peace process?"

Aid workers say they have reports indicating the rebels are still active in parts of DRC, where they abducted 200 people last month. Overall, however, the Juba talks have contributed to marked improvements in security and significant returns by camp-based communities to their original homesteads within Acholi and Lango sub-region.

Studies conducted in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader – which, during the height of the insurgency, would witness tens of thousands of children walking into towns each night due to insecurity in outlying areas – indicate significantly fewer numbers of children coming to seek shelter in towns, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

OCHA's report noted that the last remaining camp for displaced people in Lango sub region – Olilim in Lira district – was officially de-gazetted in March, although several thousand people remain in former camps. In Gulu district, only 10 out of 64 schools has yet to return to their original sites while 33 out of 53 in neighbouring Amuru have returned.

A study carried out in 20 camps, however, indicated that 79 percent of displaced people still see security concerns as a constraint on their return home. The signing of a peace deal was cited by 46 percent while 30 percent were awaiting a government directive to go home.

"The people are going on with their work despite the disappointment," said Lamaka, referring to displaced civilians who have gone back to prepare their gardens now that the rainy season has begun.

Analysts say Kony is militarily weakened and is unlikely to again pose significant threat to peace in northern Uganda. "Unless he gets fresh support from somewhere, which is not very likely at the moment, he is too far from Uganda and military weak," a Kampala analyst said. "His best hope is to sign the accord and come out alive."

Source: IRIN http://www.irinnews.org