Somali refugees face dangers and obstacles on their flight to safety

2 July 2010
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 2 July 2010, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Despite the continuing deterioration in Somalia's security and humanitarian environments our latest data is showing that the flow of refugees into most neighbouring countries has decreased considerably compared to the same period last year.
The numbers of arrivals in Yeman and Kenya – countries which have traditionally borne the brunt of the Somali refugee – are down sharply. In Yemen there were 6,660 new arrivals in the first half of this year, compared to 13,801 in the first half of 2009. In Kenya, arrivals have fallen by a third from 44,385 in the first six months of 2009 to 29,848 in the same period this year.
The reasons for this drop are not safer or more stable circumstances. The situation is worsening and everyday violence and human rights abuses in Somalia continue to displace thousands of civilians. We estimate that more than 200,000 Somalis have been forced to leave their homes this year alone – with most becoming displaced internally.
Due to insecurity and a lack of access to many parts of the country, UNHCR and other humanitarian organisations providing aid are facing great difficulties in reaching the millions of needy.
Those who reach safety abroad speak of a dire situation inside the country. According to newly arrived refugees, it is becoming increasingly dangerous and difficult to flee Somalia. Many displaced civilians are effectively trapped inside the country.
Somalis arriving by boat in Yemen have told us that there are now a dozen checkpoints on the road from Mogadishu to the northern port of Bossaso where many of those trying to flee the country board smugglers boats. These checkpoints are manned by different armed groups.
In Kenya, refugees are telling us they have fled insecurity and indiscriminate fighting between government forces and armed militias. They say it has been difficult to reach Kenya as many fear forced recruitment and abuse along the way. Often there is no transport and, when there is, many cannot afford to pay for the trip to the borders. In addition, the rainy season has made some roads impassable. Some of the refugees arriving in Kenya have been walking for days, resting along the way often without any shelter.
The one regional exception in terms of arrivals is Ethiopia, which has received 12,639 Somali refugees in the first half of 2010 compared to 8,411 in the same period in 2009.
There are now almost 600,000 Somali refugees in the region – some 323,000 in Kenya, another 164,000 were registered at reception centres in Yemen on arrival, and 72,000 in Ethiopia. After Afghanistan and Iraq, Somalia is generating the largest number of refugees in the world. In addition, there are more than 1.4 million people who are internally displaced.

DR Congo: Celebrating 50 years of chaos

Page last updated at 08:17 GMT, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 09:17 UK
By Thomas FessyBBC News, Kinshasa First Congolese President Joseph Kasavubu was ousted in 1965
As the Democratic Republic of Congo celebrates 50 years of independence, President Joseph Kabila wants to use the occasion to overturn his country's image of chaos, endless war and bad governance.
A day before the celebrations, workers were still frantically repainting facades on the main boulevard of the capital, Kinshasa, despite starting the job 18 months ago.
A layer of paint will not give us food and salaries
Kinshasa resident
And when one young man, covered in white paint, knocked on my door requesting access to the balcony, he begged for food as he had not eaten all day.
The Belgian King Albert II, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and other African heads of state in town for the anniversary will probably only see these revamped thoroughfares.
But for most residents of Kinshasa, Africa's third largest city, getting electricity and running water would have been a preferable gesture.
"A layer of paint will not give us food and salaries," one Congolese man said about the preparations.
DR Congo is rich in gold, but much of it has been plundered over the years
Once the personal property of the Belgian king, DR Congo - a vast country two-thirds the size of Western Europe with huge mineral wealth - gained independence from Belgium on the 30 June 1960.
Who will ever forget the massacres where so many of our brothers perished?
Patrice Lumumba Independence fighter
At a ceremony in the Congolese capital, then called Leopoldville, then-King Baudoin said, without a hint of irony: "Congo's independence constitutes the outcome of the work initiated by the genius of Leopold II, undertaken by him with a tenacious courage and continued with perseverance by Belgium."
The Belgian monarch did not expect the new charismatic Congolese Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, to offer a different view of colonial rule in a speech made on the same day.
"Who will ever forget the massacres where so many of our brothers perished; the cells into which those who refused to submit to a regime of injustice, oppression and exploitation were thrown?" said Mr Lumumba, who was murdered the next year, reportedly with US and Belgian complicity.
Educated elite
Fifty years on, many Congolese are asking whether the years of independence have been any kinder than 80 years of brutal colonial rule.
Lucy Lusumba: "My hair-do is the only event in my life"
In pictures: The DR Congo at 50
Since 1960, DR Congo has only had four presidents - only the first and last democratically elected.
Independence President Joseph Kasavubu was toppled in a coup by then army chief Mobutu Sese Seko in 1965.
Mobutu stayed in power for more than three decades until he was overthrown by rebel leader Laurent-Desire Kabila, who was assassinated in 2001 and his son, Joseph Kabila, took over to lead a peace process and win elections.
Ntanda Nkere, a political scientist at the University of Kinshasa, says education could be seen as one success of the last 50 years, but it has not helped when it comes to leadership.
"When the country became independent, they were only nine people with university degrees. They are probably one million today," he says.
"But there has to be a clear commitment to changing this country. But that commitment is not there yet really," he says.
Eighty-year-old Justin-Marie Mbomboko, who was Congolese foreign minister in 1960, agrees.
"What has destroyed the country is the fact that there's been no political plan for the future," he says.
"Let's talk about mismanagement: Governance is not good. If the country isn't well managed, no matter what regime is in place, the country will fall in ruins."
The army has been accused of human rights abuses
The many ordinary Congolese grumbling about the jubilee put it in starker terms.
"Ever since we gained independence, happiness has only been for those close to the man in charge - they eat well and they are well paid. But a large number of people simply suffer," a street vendor in Kinshasa explains.
A woman nearby selling vegetables says: "It is all negative.
"Nothing works. The authorities don't care about the population, children cannot study properly - even human rights are not respected."
Blame game
The former colonial power acknowledges that it left Congo with pretty much no political arena.
It is very ironic: When we became independent, the UN was there to protect us. We celebrate 50 years of independence and the UN is here to protect us
Professor Ntanda Nkere
"We have to recognise that Belgium did a tremendous job during the colonial period but we haven't produced sufficient elite to run the country," Belgium's Kinshasa ambassador Dominique Struye says.
"But it's also now up to Congo to take up its full responsibility and not always find an excuse in the past not to run their country properly."
The Congolese authorities also say they do not want to play the blame game.
"After 50 years of independence we are adult people. It's not the time to recall what happened during the colonial rule," Foreign Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba told the BBC.
"Fifty years later, we cannot say that if things are not going well in Congo, it's the fault of Belgium or of Leopold II," he says.
And both countries hail the occasion as a turning point their difficult relationship. However, tellingly, King Albert II will make no speech, according to Belgian officials.
His visit also sparked controversy in Belgium particularly when prominent Congolese human rights activist Floribert Chebeya was murdered at the beginning of June.
Cha-cha
Analysts say that there has been a growing trend of repression against opposition members and rights activists since elections in 2006.
Mobutu Sese Seko ruled for more than three decades
After independence a UN force was sent to Congo to help maintain law and order after an army mutiny.
Security still remains a major problem in several provinces, especially in the east, the centre of what has been termed Africa's First World War in the late 1990s.
The country now hosts the biggest peacekeeping mission in the world.
Some blue helmets began a symbolic withdrawal this month even though Congolese security forces, blamed for repeated human rights abuses, are not ready to take over.
"It is very ironic: When we became independent, the UN was there to protect us. We celebrate 50 years of independence and the UN is here to protect us," says Prof Nkere.
"What does that reveal? That nothing has been done for the last 50 years."
Back in 1960, rumba singer Joseph Kabasale, sang the famous Independence Cha-cha - a tune known by all Congolese.
"We've gained independence; at last we are free," it said.
Baloji, a young Congolese-Belgian rapper, has recently adapted Kabasale's independence anthem, calling it "The Day After".
Like many Congolese, he is still waiting to taste the benefits of freedom.

Private sector urged to mirror Kenya’s ethnic diversity

Nairobi, 27th May, 2010 - Kenya’s Private sector has been asked to strive and be at the forefront of mirroring the country’s ethnic diversity in its employment.

National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) Chairman, Dr Mzalendo Kibunja expressed his organisation’s commitment to working with the private sector towards building a cohesive and harmonious country.

“”It is important for everyone to realise that national cohesion is for all Kenyans because if Kenya burns, then the private sector will not be spared, it will also burn,” said Kibunja, who was addressing a Government Score-card on Agenda 4 and National Cohesion business leaders Forum that was organised by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and supported by the Business Advocacy Fund.

He warned that NCIC will soon start publishing the names of those perpetuating undermined or contributed towards undermining good ethnic relations, or who are involved in ethnic discrimination in the countries leading newspapers “We are planning to start publishing the names of those going against the grain of the nation in terms of spreading tribal animosity. Our ultimate goal as a Commission is to make Kenya a harmonious and united society.”

Speaking during the Forum, South Consultant’s Senior Researcher Mr. Joshua Kivuva expressed regret that threats against potential witnesses in Post Election Violence cases are on increase yet no action is being taken against those involved.

“The absence of a government-led witness protection programme is disillusioning witnesses a lot. There are even reports of some people manipulating witnesses.
This explains why there is a lot of support for prosecution through International Criminal Court (ICC),” said Kivuva.

He noted that the Government’s performance rating on Internally Displaced Persons had greatly improved – from 43 per cent in 2008 to 51 per cent 2010. “There is some improvement in how communities are getting along with others. In 2008 23 per cent reported they had difficulties getting along with others; while only 12 per cent reported this difficulty in February 2010,” he stated, adding that discrimination on the basis of ethnicity is declining.

Kivuva said the Government had made marked improvements with regard to the protection of the rights of the media; giving IDP’s financial support; and respecting human rights. He however noted that Kenyans are still unhappy with the high rates of corruption and the unending political conflicts in the country.

He further said that passing of the Constitution would be a major plus for the Government.

Kibunja warned the local vernacular radio stations against promulgating hate speech which would lead the country back to where it was after the 2007 elections. “We will not allow media stations to continue profiteering from spewing hate speech.”

Kenya on the spot over IDPs

IDPs Kenya
May 19, 2010
By Francis Mureithi
The government has been accused of failing to assess the needs of persons who were displaced during the 2008 post election violence.
Though the government managed to resettle about 200,000 Internally Displaced Persons in the course of 2009, it failed to conduct needs assessment hence violating the rights of most of the IDPs, says a Geneva based international organization.
“During the year, the government made no significant effort to profile or assess the needs of populations displaced by conflict or violence,” the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) has said in a report released on Tuesday titled Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2009.
IDMC which was established by Norwegian Refugee Council monitors conflict-induced internal displacement worldwide and releases annual reports on every country assessed.
On Kenya, IDMC notes that IDPs who have returned to their homes have been unable to rebuild their lives for lack of proper reconciliation between communities which fought after the disputed 2007 elections.
“The government forced IDPs to return even though the situation that gave rise to their displacement had not been properly addressed,” reads part of the report. The agency says this has prevented progress towards durable solutions to the conflict.
It adds that despite government claims that the majority of IDPs had been resettled, a substantial number were still living in camps and with host communities at the end of 2009.
The report also points out that most of the women IDPs and children were exposed to rape and sexual violence. The centre says the government closed some camps and forced the IDPs to return to their homes yet conditions were not conducive for the displaced to return to their homes.
The report says that Kenya has still a long way to go in finding durable solutions for IDPs, despite ratifying the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region and signing the Kampala Convention in 2009.
The report covers 54 countries, 21 of them being in Africa. In total IDMC says 6.8 million people were forced to flee their homes in 2009, bringing the total number of displaced people around the world to 27.1 million by year-end.
This is the highest figure since the mid 1990s. Eight countries have been cited as where most of the displacements occurred as a result of armed conflict.
They are Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Somalia, the Philippines, Colombia, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia. In Africa alone, there is estimated 11.6 million IDPs representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s total IDP population.
Sudan had the largest internally displaced population in Africa with about 4.9 million IDPs, followed by DRC with 1.9 million and Somalia with 1.5 million.
Ends/..

Kenya on the spot over IDPs

SOMALIA: Puntland helps IDPs integrate, learn skills

NAIROBI, 27 May 2010 (IRIN) - Authorities in Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland are offering hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) skills training in a bid to integrate the growing influx of displaced, officials said. "We started with 250 people selected from the [IDP] camps and the host community and we are training them for four months," said Mohamed Said, head of DANDOR, a local NGO implementing the training in Bosasso, Puntland's commercial capital. Said told IRIN that 80 percent of the trainees were IDPs and the rest from the host community. "We had to add some members of the host community because some of them are as needy as the displaced." He said subjects included tailoring, welding, plumbing and electrical services, tie-dye and incense-making, some taught by IDPs. In the past 20 years of civil strife in south-central Somalia, thousands of IDPs fleeing the violence have settled in Puntland. There are an estimated 28,000 displaced persons in Bosasso, according to the UN. Tthe participants were selected with the help of the IDPs themselves and Bosasso local authorities. "Of the total number of trainees, 146 are women and 104 are men," Said told IRIN. UN Development Programme Somalia was funding the project. "We will continue and expand depending on funding," he added. Barni Awil Nur has been an IDP in Bossaso for more than three years. The mother of two is learning how to tie-dye clothes and said the training was a "Godsend". Nur said: "I have been here for a long time and I don't know if I am going anywhere else any time soon. This gives me an opportunity to earn my living. I don't have to wash other people's clothes or clean their homes." Abdullahi Ahmed, from Merka, has been in Bosasso for a year. "Until I got this offer to train here, I was a porter in the market. It is not an easy job and you don't always get work. There are too many porters." Ahmed is being trained as a welder. "As soon as I complete the course, I want to start a welding business with some friends." Said of DANDOR said once the trainees complete their training, they will be provided with a starter toolkit to enable them to begin working. Abdulkadir Yusuf Dahir, the deputy mayor of Bosasso, who launched the training, said the city was determined to help integrate the displaced into the community but needed help in doing so. "This training is a good start but we need much more like it if we are going to succeed," Dahir said. He urged aid agencies to help Bosasso deal with the growing influx of displaced by "giving them skills that will enable them to be productive and reduce their dependency on handouts".

27 million people living as IDPs globally

At the end of 2009, the number of people internally displaced by conflict, generalised violence or human rights violations across the world stood at approximately 27.1 million. This figure represented an increase of over a million people compared with the 26 million IDPs estimated for 2008 and also for 2007.
Over half of the world’s internally displaced people (IDPs) were in five countries: Sudan, Colombia, Iraq, DRC and Somalia. The region with most IDPs was Africa, with 11.6 million.
This is according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) in its 2010 report titled Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2009.
IDMC which was established by Norwegian Refugee Council monitors conflict-induced internal displacement worldwide and releases annual reports on every country assessed.
In 2009, IDMC monitored internal displacement in 21 African countries. There were an estimated 11.6 million IDPs in these countries, representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s total IDP population. As in previous years, Sudan had the largest internally displaced population in Africa with about 4.9 million IDPs, followed by DRC with 1.9 million and Somalia with 1.5 million.
Internal displacement in 2009 resulted from ongoing internal armed conflict, generalised violence, human rights violations, and inter-communal tensions that flared up over limited natural resources, including between pastoralists and sedentary farmers, and over political, social, and economic advantages.
The highest number of new displacements in 2009 was reported in DRC with over one million new IDPs (the country’s highest rate of new displacement since 2004), followed by Sudan with 530,000, Somalia with 400,000 and Ethiopia with an estimated 200,000. New displacements were also reported in CAR, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Zimbabwe

Ethnicity and polls: Distant drums of war sounded in Sudan

Posted Thursday, April 8 2010 at 14:
The impasse over the April 2010 nationwide elections in Sudan signals a new wave of ethnic regionalism — contrasted with regional integration of states — now frightfully sweeping across Africa and rolling back the gains made in democratisation in recent decades.
Pre-election Sudan faces the risk of joining Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and other African states where ethno-regionalism in the context of disputed elections has pushed states to brink of collapse.
The clamour for ethnic-based regional autonomy is linked to the worldwide surge of ethnic nationalism — defined by security theorists as the ‘clash of the peoples,’ everywhere and poised to drive the continent’s politics for generations to come.
Ethnic regionalism has become a divisive force tearing African countries apart: Champions of the Ivorite ideology in Cote d’Ivoire attacked ‘Northerners,’ violently splitting the country into warring North-South regions; in Kenya, crusaders of ethnic-based regionalism have divided citizens into ‘native’ and ‘settlers’ as the basis of ethnic cleansing.
In Sudan, entrenched North-South conflict has deep ethnic, racial and religious fault-lines. Over the years, this divide fed the catastrophic 24-year civil war and now it could mar this month’s polls, scuttling the January 2011 referendum on the independence of the South.
A dispute over the participation by the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the 11-13 April election, the first nationwide competitive polls since 1986, is heightening ethno-regionalism and separatist sentiments in the South.
The April elections, delayed since 2008, were originally designed to elect a unity government with the mandate to carry out reforms and make unity attractive for the South. This was to replace the power-sharing government agreed on hurriedly by President Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP) and the John Garang’s SPLM following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005 in Nairobi, Kenya. Garang died in July 2005 and was succeeded by Salva Kiir as the President of the semi-autonomous Southern Sudan.
The mid-term election is one of the milestones that the CPA devised to prevent Sudan’s fragile peace from breaking down, including referendum on Southern independence in January 2011 and demarcation of the 1956 North-South border.
But over the years, the South’s relations with Khartoum turned frosty over the rescheduling of the 2008 mid-term election which watered down the original purpose. Ahead of the April elections, SPLM has charged that the electoral process has been flawed long before the first ballot is cast, citing manipulation of census results and voter registration, gerrymandered electoral districts, electoral insecurity, restricted access to media and the right to hold rallies and election laws drafted to favour President Bashir’s party.
As a result, SPLM pulled out its candidate, Yassir Arman, from the presidential race, arguing that the on-going conflict and state of emergency in the war-torn western region of Darfur made it “impossible to have free and fair elections.”
However, the SPLM will contest the parliamentary and municipal elections. It is determined to win at least one-third of the seats in the national legislature to frustrate attempts by al-Bashir’s NCP to unilaterally amend the constitution and undermine the referendum. But the ensuing uncertainty has ignited fears of a return to a third civil war.
Raising the stakes the Khartoum regime, which has kept democracy in cold storage since al-Bashir seized power 21 years ago, threatened to call off the crucial January 2011 referendum. But SPLM chief, Vice-President Salva Kiir, insisted that the referendum “has to be conducted whether there are elections in Sudan or not.”
The ruling NCP badly needs a decisive and legitimate victory in the coming elections. This will guarantee its vision of one undivided Sudan and the safety of President Bashir now facing the threat of extradition to the Hague to stand trial for crimes against humanity in Darfur as the first sitting African Head of State to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The party is fighting to win majority seats in the National Assembly to amend the constitution to enable it to influence the outcome of the January referendum, gain powers to declare a state of emergency in the event of war and maintain stranglehold over the oil-rich region that generates billions of dollars in revenue for the North.
The ensuing North-South conflict set off a flurry of diplomatic initiatives particularly by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union and the international community to halt Sudan’s slide to back to the civil war that claimed some 1.5 million livesExternal initiatives in Sudan are driven by a general fear of election-related violence which has become the bane of democracy in African countries, particularly in Cote d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
The level of preparation for elections and implementation of the CPA formed the focus of a recent summit of IGAD’s seven member states in March 2010. The meeting committed to undertake shuttle diplomacy to end mistrust and restore confidence between the elites in the North and South of Sudan and to provide technical support towards realising a free and fair election.
During the meeting, the SPLM leader, Salva Kiir, reiterated that “the Southern Sudan referendum is more important than the upcoming elections scheduled in next April and south will defend it at all cost”.
On its part, the African Union hopes that Sudan will stage free and fair elections in April by adhering to the Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (2007). In a March 2010 Agreement, Khartoum promised the African Union that it would uphold these election standards, but as the recent report by the Brussels-based think-tank, the International Crisis Group, Khartoum has already manipulated the electoral process, “resulting in an almost certain victory for the NCP.”
Despite this, the AU has no credible sticks or carrots to ensure that Sudan stages credible elections. In any case, Sudan is not a signatory to the Charter, which has been signed by only 29 countries and ratified by three others: Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Mauritania.
On their part, Western governments and international election observers have called for ‘minor’ postponement of the election to give the Sudan’s National Election Commission (NEC) adequate time to deliver free and fair elections. But Khartoum has ignored this appeal.
Recently, the United States, United Kingdom and Norway censured Khartoum over “continued administrative and logistical challenges, as well as restrictions on political reforms.” They also insisted that it was essential to hold the January 2011 referendum“irrespective of the outcome of [nationwide] elections.” But China, which has vested interests in Sudan’s oil-wealth, is notably mute.
However, Khartoum’s failure to make unity attractive to Southerners has fostered strong ethno-regional sensibilities in the South, making separation inevitable come the 2011 plebiscite. The African Union and the international community have now recognised this fact, but Khartoum is prepared to break every rule in the book to frustrate the referendum.
The NCP regime has covertly supported private militias to destabilise the South, leading to escalation of inter-tribal violence which has killed 450 people and displaced nearly 60,000 others in 2010.
Khartoum’s vigilante war on the South is aided by escalating South-South tensions over unequal access to resources, poor governance and discontent over the dominance of the majority Dinka. This has raised questions of the South’s own stability after the referendum. It is a paradox that ethno-nationalism that defined the South’s quest for self-determination as a region is emerging as the greatest impediment to the stability of a new Southern Sudan state.
Post-referendum arrangements
Ultimately, regional bodies and their international partners should intensify pressure on Khartoum to halt support for militias in the South and step up South-South dialogue to heal the growing divisions between ethnic groups and political elites in the South. They should also halt the arms race between the two parties to the CPA by stemming the sale of arms and the flow of illegal ones to the possible combatants.
Ethno-regionalism is now poised to triumph over the despotic Sudanese state, but negotiations on post-referendum arrangements should now start in order to resolve the North-South boundary problem and the sharing of the oil wealth within the South to prevent the emerging state in Southern Sudan from falling to the same sword of ethnic nationalism.
Peter Kagwanja is the President of the Africa Policy Institute, a Kenyan academic and a Governance consultant. *Thomas Kimaru is the acting Director of the Southern and Central Africa Project of the Africa Policy
Africa Insight is an initiative of the Nation Media Group’s Africa Media Network Project