Tuesday 26, Nov 2024 {HMC}  Somali scholars, politicians and traditional leaders from across the Horn of Africa gathered in Djibouti on Monday for a three-day forum on strengthening regional stability.

The annual forum, the eighth of its kind, was organized by the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies in Somalia, an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan research group in Mogadishu. Mursal Saney, executive director of the institute, said the forum is providing an opportunity for Somalis from across the region to discuss issues of concern.

“We have invited nearly 300 delegates including regional experts to provide them an opportunity to discuss and exhibit constructive ideas on how the Horn of Africa region can strengthen its stability and the importance of rule of law,” Saney said.

This year’s forum comes at a time of growing tension between Somalia and Ethiopia over a port deal Addis Ababa signed in January with Somaliland, a breakaway region. Mogadishu sees Somaliland as a part of Somalia.

The deal so far, in the form of a memorandum of understanding, gives landlocked Ethiopia a 50-year lease for a Red Sea port from Somaliland in exchange for possible recognition of Somaliland’s independence. The deal has angered Mogadishu, which has described it as an assault on Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Ethiopia maintains that it does not infringe on Somalia’s sovereignty.

Somaliland declared its independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991, following the collapse of the military government led by late dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Somalia has never accepted Somaliland’s secession, nor has Somaliland received international recognition.

In July and August, two rounds of talks between Ethiopia and Somalia, mediated by Turkey, failed to solve the dispute, with Somalia demanding Ethiopia withdraw from the deal. The issue has raised fears of fresh conflict in the Horn of Africa region.

“Because of its strategic location in the region and the fact that it is coming out of a conflict era, Somalia is thirsty for peace and regional stability, respecting the international law and the rule of law,” Somali Foreign Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi said at the start of the forum.

Also on Monday, Mumin Hassan Barre, Djibouti’s minister of justice and religion, said experts attending the forum should contribute to the well-being of the region.

“We see experts that know the region well, and I think the peace, stability and the solution of the region’s problems lie in the hands of its people, including the experts who gathered here,” Barre said.

Somalis representing Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia are attending the event, as well as those from across the region and the diaspora communities in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.

Mohamed Sheikh Nor contributed to this report. Some information came from Reuters.

Tuesday 26, Nov 2024 {HMC} A new report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center says the number of people displaced in Africa has tripled to 35 million. Of these, 32.5 million abandoned their homes due to conflict and violence. The report, published Tuesday, says government efforts to address internal displacement on the continent have been commendable but not enough.

Twenty-four-year-old Amani Kalindi has not known peace since he was a boy growing up in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The truck driver is one of the millions of Africans displaced from their homes due to conflict, disasters, and climate change.

He said people are living in constant fear, fleeing to seek safety, but then hit with new dangers and forced to flee again. War has been a constant problem, with foreign armed groups invading the country to fight over its resources and minerals, he said, adding that inter-communal violence is also a threat.

Kalindi said that, with nowhere else to turn, he arrived in Uganda on Saturday after spending years in Ituri and North and South Kivu provinces in the DRC. Escaping danger, he joined millions of others from Africa and beyond in registering as a refugee.

In a new report published Tuesday, the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center says the large majority of people displaced worldwide are in Africa.

The report looks at the new trends and developments of the displaced from 2009 to 2023 and found that the number of people forced from their homes has tripled to 35 million. Almost 93 percent are displaced due to conflict and violence, and 26 million of them are displaced in just five countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan.

Experts say poverty, inequality and marginalization are among the many factors that fuel conflict and violence, and armed groups have exploited these grievances, which create more displacements.

IDMC director Alexandra Bilak said violence is not solely to blame for the crisis.

“So, five countries on the African continent are generating the most conflict-related internal displacement, but our report also shows that disaster displacement is also rising. We are now reporting six times more disaster displacements than 15 years ago,” Bilak said.

Floods and droughts trigger the majority of disaster displacements. IDMC researchers warn climate change will make these weather-related events more frequent and intense, and they expect these displacement trends to continue.

With the heightening conflict in Sudan, the chronic armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and weather-related disasters hitting communities, Balik said it’s hard to see the numbers going down.

“It’s hard to be optimistic. We know that with the impact of climate change, the disasters we already see today are likely to increase in the future,” Balik said. “We have seen prolonged periods of drought across the Horn of Africa. And without more investments in the underlying causes of this displacement, we fear that the number will continue rising.”

The Internal Displacement and Monitoring Center notes that some African countries have developed national policies to protect and assist internally displaced persons in accordance with a 2009 African Union agreement.

Beyond national legislation and policies, Nigeria issues birth certificates and national identification cards to the displaced, ensuring they are recognized and have access to government services.

Balik said implementing such solutions is necessary for countries to reach their development goals.

SOURCE VOA

Tuesday 26, Nov 2024 {HMC} The number of people killed in Sudan’s civil war is far higher than previously thought, according to new research, as aid agencies warn that the conflict has created the world’s worst hunger crisis with millions on the brink of famine.

The study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggests that deaths in Khartoum state alone were higher than previous estimates for the entire country.

“In Khartoum State, between April 2023 and June 2024, the researchers estimate over 61,000 people died of all causes, a 50% increase in the pre-war death rate. Over the same period, it is estimated that there were over 26,000 deaths due to violence in Khartoum State, significantly higher than the 20,178 intentional-injury deaths reported by ACLED for the entire country,” the report said.

ACLED, or Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, is a non-profit organization whose figures are widely used by international organizations, including the United Nations, and national governments.

The research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine showed that the leading cause of death was preventable disease and starvation. It indicates that the nationwide death toll in Sudan is far higher than previous estimates, as “over 90% of both all-cause and violent deaths in Khartoum State went unrecorded, suggesting the death toll in other regions is also significantly higher than recorded figures.”

Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023, a brutal power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The conflict has cut off entire communities and devastated most government services, making it difficult to reach an accurate estimate of the number of excess deaths caused by the conflict.

The study used a relatively new technique known as “capture-recapture analysis” which compares data from multiple sources to arrive at accurate estimates when not all data are recorded.

“It allows us to estimate the number of unrecorded events, in this case, deaths. We’ve done that by collecting data from three different sources, triangulating those three sources and comparing them and seeing the amount of overlap there was. The less there was an overlap between the three source lists, the more unrecorded deaths we estimated to have occurred,” lead author Maysoon Dahab told VOA.

Separately, the aid group Doctors without Borders says that since January this year, one in six of its patients at a Khartoum hospital were children under 15, with many sustaining severe injuries from gunshots, explosions and shrapnel. The organization said there has also been a rise in cases of severe malnutrition among children.

The United Nations says the conflict has forced 11 million people to flee their homes, with some 25 million people – half of Sudan’s population – needing food aid, making it the world’s biggest hunger crisis.

It’s vital that more is done to end the suffering, said Maysoon Dahab of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

“So, in the case of the international community, ensuring the understanding that the aid effort needs to be increased, scaled up and put out to inaccessible populations. In terms of actors who are shaping the war, what we hope to put out in terms of the research is the true price of this war. So that they are able to make their decision based on those facts,” she told VOA.

Visiting Khartoum last week for talks with Sudan’s army chief, the United States’ Special Envoy to Sudan, Thomas Perriello, said efforts international efforts were ongoing to end the violence. “We also share the aspiration for this war to end as soon as possible, to see an end to the horrific atrocities,” Perriello told reporters in Port Sudan on November 18.

However, there are few signs that either the Sudanese army or the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are ready to agree a truce.

Meanwhile, Russia last week vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire, saying the process excluded Sudan itself.

Britain, which sponsored the resolution alongside Sierra Leone, strongly criticized Moscow’s decision.

“This Russian veto is a disgrace, and it shows to the world yet again Russia’s true colors,” British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said. “Shame on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin for pretending to be a partner of the Global South while condemning black Africans to further killing, further rape, further starvation in a brutal war,” he added.

SOURCE VOA