displaced - The African Mirror

Jul

2023

Number of displaced by Sudan war surpasses 3 million, International Organization for Migration says

THE number of people uprooted by a conflict between military factions in Sudan that erupted nearly three months ago has surpassed 3 million, according to estimates from the International Organization for Migration. More than 2.4 million people have been displaced internally and more than 730,000 have crossed into neighbouring countries, data published late on Tuesday said. Most have fled either from the capital Khartoum, the focus of the power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that broke out on April 15, or from Darfur, where ethnically-targeted violence has surged. U.N. officials have said Sudan could slide…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Pope offers ‘wings to your hope’ to displaced children in South Sudan

NEWS

PHILIP PULLELLA and ESTELLE SHIRBON POPE Francis met South Sudanese children displaced by conflict and heard of the hardships of their lives in camps, telling them they would build a better future for the world's newest country by replacing ethnic hatred with forgiveness. The pope was visiting South Sudan with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Church of Scotland Moderator Iain Greenshields - an unprecedented joint "pilgrimage of peace". The three men led about 50,000 people in an open-air ecumenical prayer vigil at dusk at a mausoleum for South Sudan's liberation hero John Garang, who died in a helicopter crash in…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Pope’s Africa visit: Sudan’s displaced hope for peace

NEWS

WAAKHE SIMON WUDU AFTER spending nearly a decade in a camp for the displaced in South Sudan's Juba, Mayen Galuak hopes that Pope Francis' visit to the capital city next week will inspire political leaders to finally restore peace, allowing him to go home. The 44-year-old entered the United Nations camp, just a few kilometres from his residence, in search of safety three days after conflict broke out in 2013. In the ensuing years, he has watched as South Sudan's leaders forged peace deals and broke them; as militias carried out and denied ethnic massacres; and as relentless conflict pushed…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. cities offer displaced Black families the ‘right to return’

WORLD

CAREY L. BIRON THE way Robbie Jones sees it, the big infrastructure projects that reworked the face of her California hometown a half-century ago included a pointed message for minority communities. During the 1950s and 1960s, whole neighbourhoods in Santa Monica were forced to move to make way for what was called urban renewal projects, including a civic centre and freeway. "That whole community, predominantly African American residents, were uprooted, and their homes later ... burned to the ground," the 63-year-old activist and historian told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. "To me, that was sending a message," she said,…