HUMAN RIGHTS - The African Mirror

Nov

19

2020

As millions face famine, women at risk as they eat last and least

HUMAN RIGHTS

SONIA ELKS WITH millions on the brink of famine in four nations, women and girls will be hardest hit due to cultural beliefs and COVID-19's economic impacts, according to the charity CARE. The coronavirus pandemic could nearly double the number of acutely food insecure people to more than 270 million by the end of 2020, the United Nations said this week, with famine looming in parts of Yemen, South Sudan, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. "There is a huge risk that millions of women and girls around the world are already going hungry," Sarah Fuhrman, a humanitarian policy specialist with CARE,…

Oct

30

2020

By The African Mirror

Scarred by war but home at last, two Libyan families pray for peace

HUMAN RIGHTS

LIBYA’S warring armies have agreed a ceasefire and, years after being forced to flee for their lives, the Bouzids and the Alis are finally back at home. Like many on opposite sides of the front lines, the two families have lost loved ones and seen their livelihoods and dreams destroyed by nearly a decade of conflict. But while daunting obstacles still stand in the way of a lasting political settlement, the Bouzids are slowly repairing their own small corner of the country, the ransacked south Tripoli farm they returned to after fighting in the area ended in June. "Dad, Mum…

Oct

27

2020

By The African Mirror

Eritrea’s Isaias Afwerki: a tactical authoritarian who might be president for life

HUMAN RIGHTS

MARTIN PLAUT, Senior Research Fellow, Horn of Africa and Southern Africa, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study THERE are few leaders as enigmatic as Eritrea’s president, Isaias Afwerki. In my book, Understanding Eritrea: Inside Africa’s Most Repressive State, I profile the president who led the country as it fought for its freedom from Ethiopia for 30 years, only to then turn on his own people. Eritrea has been independent since 1993 but has no constitution and no parliament. No budget has ever been published. Elections have never been held and Isaias’s opponents languish in jail. The president is…

Oct

23

2020

By The African Mirror

UK lawmakers hear more reports of aid worker sex abuse in Congo

HUMAN RIGHTS

NELLIE PEYTON BRITAIN’S charity watchdog said it has received reports of at least eight cases of sexual assault and abuse by aid workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, vowing to ensure "robust action". It said the incidents were reported both before and after an investigation published last month by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The New Humanitarian in which more than 50 women accused Ebola aid workers of demanding sex in exchange for jobs. "We can confirm that these include allegations of serious sexual assault, the exchange of jobs or money for sex and sexual harassment," the Charity Commission's…

Nov

26

2020

By The African Mirror

In new UN role, ex-CNN journalist seeks to end abuse of women and girls

HUMAN RIGHTS

ELLEN WULFHORST FORMER CNN correspondent Isha Sesay planned to begin her new role as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with a visit to Nigeria and Haiti - cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the British journalist and author listened remotely to stories from women and girls, from midwives to abuse survivors, in Yemen, Ukraine, Somalia and Sierra Leone. "We did a global virtual tour," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation this week from her home in Los Angeles. "It's not the same as being there and sitting side by side but .... it will…

Dec

05

2020

By The African Mirror

Fleeing Tigray war, Ethiopian children at risk of trafficking in Sudan

HUMAN RIGHTS

EMELINE WUILBERCQ HUNDREDS of Ethiopian children who have fled war in the northern Tigray region and arrived in neighbouring Sudan alone are at risk of human trafficking, according to several aid agencies. More than 45,000 Ethiopian refugees have crossed into Sudan, about half of whom are children, since conflict erupted at the start of November between federal troops and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). Thousands of people are feared killed. Aid agencies said hundreds of children were turning up at camps and registration centres in Sudan without their parents or caregivers, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and human trafficking…

Dec

03

2020

By The African Mirror

Children head to diamond mines in pandemic-hit Central African Republic

HUMAN RIGHTS

ANTOINE ROLLAND SINCE the coronavirus forced his school to close in March, Papin has been working six days a week at a diamond mine in the Central African Republic (CAR) - hauling sacks of mud and rubble under a hot sun. He is among a dozen children working at the open-pit mine near the southern town of Ngoto, where about 100 miners use shovels and sieves to scour the red earth for diamonds. It is back-breaking work and Papin longs to return to the classroom. "I came here to help my big brother," Papin, who said he was 16 but…

Dec

02

2020

By The African Mirror

Regulations needed to stem cocoa sector abuses – report

HUMAN RIGHTS

REGULATIONS are needed to end poverty, human rights abuses and deforestation in the cocoa sector after two decades of voluntary interventions that have had little to no impact, a major report on cocoa sustainability said on Tuesday. The Cocoa Barometer, a biennial report published by a global network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and trade unions, calls on governments of major consuming nations to introduce laws that hold companies accountable for environmental and human rights abuses in their supply chains. The report also said a fair price for cocoa farmers is crucial, and that cocoa and chocolate companies must find a…

Dec

01

2020

By The African Mirror

Violence, floods in South Sudan’s Warrap state displace thousands

HUMAN RIGHTS

DENIS DUMO JAMES Athian and his nine children have been living in a makeshift camp in South Sudan's Warrap state for two months since floods destroyed their house. Athian and his family are among the 377,300 people displaced by floods and violence in Warrap since July, the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. Nationwide, more than one million people have been temporarily forced from their homes. "I have nine children and every time they get sick of malaria. (There is) no food and no good place to sleep," Athian told Reuters, standing near submerged houses in…

Dec

27

2020

By The African Mirror

2020 in review: Migration and forced displacement

HUMAN RIGHTS

COVID-19 put an unprecedented dampener on global mobility this year, but it didn’t stop people being displaced from their homes or asylum seekers and migrants attempting dangerous journeys to cross borders and seas in search of safety and economic opportunity. At the beginning of the year, the number of people forcibly displaced by conflict, persecution, and human rights violations stood at around 79.5 million. By June, it had risen to over 80 million, despite restrictions on movement and calls from the UN for a global ceasefire during the pandemic. If anything, the coronavirus only exacerbated the factors pushing people to migrate, while rendering…