Category: Human Rights

The International Court of Justice on Wednesday ordered Uganda to pay $325 million to the Democratic Republic of Congo, as reparations for Uganda’s invasion of the DRC in the late 1990s.

Seven years ago, the court ruled Uganda must compensate the DRC for its 1998 invasion of the country during the Second Congo War.

The DRC asked for $11 billion in damages, but Uganda said that amount would ruin its economy. So, after failed negotiations, the sides came back to the ICJ.

Judge Joan Donoghue read the verdict.

“This global sum includes 225 million U.S. dollars for damage to persons, 40 million U.S. dollars for damage to property, and 60 million U.S. dollars for damage related to natural resources,” Donoghue said.

The DRC had also sought reparations for intentional destruction and looting, and the restitution of national property and resources.

The total sum is to be paid in annual installments of $65 million, due in September each year from 2022 to 2026.

The court also ruled that should Uganda delay making the payments, an annual interest rate of six percent on each installment shall accrue on any overdue amounts.

Source: Voice of America

GENEVA — The United Nations is allocating $150 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to support seriously underfunded humanitarian operations in 13 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East.

Topping the list of underfunded crises are Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan. These countries will receive between $20- and $25 million each to help them implement life-saving humanitarian operations.

International support for Syria has all but dissipated after more than a decade of conflict. Some 13 million refugees and internally displaced Syrians are living in a state of destitution, with little recourse to basic relief.

The DRC is one of the longest and most complex humanitarian crises. Millions of people are suffering from conflict, displacement, epidemics, and acute hunger.

The United Nations warns the humanitarian crisis in Sudan is deepening, as political instability grows and the country contends with flooding, rising food prices and disease outbreaks.

Jens Laerke, the spokesman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says the distribution of funds made by Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths is the largest ever. He says it beats last year’s $135 million by $15 million.

“This announcement of funding will help the prioritization of life-saving projects to respond to for example food security, nutrition, health, and protection needs. More detailed strategies are expected from these countries later this month,” he said.

Other recipient countries include Myanmar, where the U.N. is providing aid to some three million people suffering from conflict, COVID-19, and a failing economy. U.N. aid also will go to Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger, three countries in Africa’s central Sahel that are struggling with mass displacement because of armed attacks.

Laerke says these countries as well as six others in dire straits in Africa, the Middle East and the Americas, including Haiti and Honduras, will receive between $5- and $12 million each from the U.N. fund to help them tackle their emergency needs.

“These allocations happen twice a year to countries selected because of their low level of funding, severity of humanitarian needs, and vulnerability,” he said. “These countries have just entered a new cycle of humanitarian fundraising and program implementation on the back of underfunded appeals from last year, all below 50 percent covered at year’s end.”

Humanitarian needs are growing across the world. The United Nations says it expects at least 274 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2022 and it will require $41 billion to assist the most vulnerable.

Afghanistan is the world’s largest humanitarian appeal. The U.N. recently launched a record $4.5 billion appeal to assist 22 million Afghans, more than half the country’s population.

Source: Voice of America

GENEVA — UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency is calling for international action to end the armed conflict in Africa’s Central Sahel region, a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 2.5 million over the last decade.

Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project finds violence in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger caused more than 4,660 deaths in the first six months of 2020.

Statistics from other international monitoring groups and U.N. agencies show internal displacement in Africa’s Central Sahel region has increased tenfold since 2013, from 217,000 to 2.1 million by late 2021.

U.N. refugee spokesman Boris Cheshirkov says displacement continues to grow across the Sahel, as civilians flee violent attacks.

“Armed groups reportedly carried out over 800 deadly attacks last year. Such violence uprooted 450,000 people within their countries and forced a further 36,000 to flee to a neighboring country as a refugee,” he said. “Women and children are often the worst-affected and disproportionately exposed to extreme vulnerability and the threat of gender-based violence.”

Cheshirkov says conditions across the region continue to deteriorate. He says host communities and government authorities are buckling under increasing pressure despite their commitment to help the displaced.

He says humanitarian agencies are finding it increasingly difficult and dangerous to deliver assistance and protection. He says humanitarians risk road attack, ambush, and car jacking.

“What we have been calling for and we repeat this call again now is for a unified, a strategic, a substantial intervention in the Sahel that will make sure that international efforts are supporting the governments and host communities … and a security response cannot prevail on its own. It needs to be hand-in-glove with humanitarian and development action,” he said.

Cheshirkov says the UNHCR is leading an effort by United Nations and private agencies to provide shelter and protection services, including combating gender-based violence.

Source: Voice of America

GENEVA — The World Food Program warns Ethiopia is on the edge of a humanitarian disaster as escalating fighting in the north is preventing the delivery of needed food from reaching millions of people in battle-scarred Tigray province.

The last time a food convoy was able to reach Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, was mid-December. Millions of acutely hungry people in this war-torn province have been deprived of food since then.

In a blunt warning to the warring parties and international community, World Food Program spokesman Tomson Phiri says his agency’s humanitarian operation in northern Ethiopia is about to grind to a halt. He says intense fighting in the region is blocking the passage of fuel and food.

“Stocks of nutritionally fortified food for the treatment of malnourished children and women are now exhausted, and the last of WFP’s cereals, pulses and oil will be distributed next week,” said Phiri. “Because of fighting, food distributions are at an all-time low. WFP aid workers on the ground tell me that warehouses are completely empty.”

Fighting erupted between Ethiopian government troops and Tigrayan forces in November 2020. Conditions have seriously deteriorated since then. The World Food Program says 9.4 million people in northern Ethiopia now require humanitarian food aid, an increase of 2.7 million from just four months ago.

In Tigray alone, the United Nations says 5.2 million people depend on international assistance to survive. It says 400,000 people are living in famine-like conditions and another 2 million are on the verge of famine.

The WFP aims to provide food aid for 2.1 million people in Tigray and for an additional 1.1 million people in the Amhara and Afar regions. However, money is in short supply. The U.N. food agency is urgently appealing for $337 million to carry out its emergency food assistance program in Northern Ethiopia over the next six months.

Source: Voice of America

A freelance journalist for The New York Times went on trial Wednesday in Zimbabwe, accused of helping two of the newspaper’s reporters enter the country illegally. Critics say the charges are another example of the government’s attempts to control the media.

At the commencement of Jeffrey Moyo’s trial Wednesday, Doug Coltart, a lawyer with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, voiced optimism his client would be found not guilty.

Coltart spoke to VOA from the city of Bulawayo, where the trial is taking place.

“The state has now called about three witnesses. The case against Jeff is a weak one and it is not just us who are saying that. The state themselves have said in papers filed before the High Court in bail appeal that the state case is on very shaky ground. The evidence against Jeff is incredibly weak. Essentially there is no evidence of any wrongdoing. We will see how the court proceedings play out.”

Moyo was arrested last year, together with a Zimbabwe Media Commission official, Thabang Manhika, for allegedly processing fake accreditations for two South Africa-based New York Times journalists who entered Zimbabwe and were later deported. Moyo and Manhika are being tried separately.

Zimbabwe’s government has dismissed accusations it disregards media rights and freedom. It says Moyo and Manhika broke immigration laws.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists is urging prosecutors to withdraw the charges against Moyo. Angela Quintal, its Africa program coordinator, said this week on Twitter that failure to do so would reinforce what she called “perceptions that prosecutors are acting in bad faith” and using Moyo as an example to censor and intimidate Zimbabwe’s press.

Tabani Moyo of the Media Institute of Southern Africa – who is no relation to Jeffrey Moyo – has been critical of Moyo and Manhika’s arrest.

“There must be a fair trial on the matter and fairness of our justice system,” said Moyo.

The New York Times quoted Executive Editor Dean Baquet as saying, “We are deeply troubled by the prosecution of Jeffrey Moyo, which appears designed to chill press freedom in Zimbabwe. Jeffrey is a widely respected journalist with many years of reporting experience in Zimbabwe.”

Earlier this week, Luke Malaba, Zimbabwe’s chief justice, told journalists that all cases brought before the courts will be treated fairly.

“Efficiency entails performance at the highest level possible using available resources. It is a legal requirement that is imposed on the courts. Section 164 of the Constitution requires the courts, in addition to being independent and impartial, to apply the law expeditiously without fear, favor or prejudice,” said Malaba.

Manhika’s trial is expected to start on Friday. Manhika and Moyo face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Source: Voice of America

The African members of the U.N. Security Council urged their counterparts on Tuesday to support sanctions imposed this week on Mali’s coup leaders by a bloc of West African nations.

“We call for the Security Council to respect and embrace the determination of the heads of state and government of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), that the proposal by the authorities to extend the transition to five years is unacceptable and that an expedited transition to constitutional rule in Mali should be undertaken without delay,” Michel Biang, Gabon’s U.N. ambassador, told the 15-nation council on behalf of his government, Ghana and Kenya. The three African states currently hold seats on the Security Council.

In a special summit on January 9, ECOWAS members imposed sanctions on Mali’s military government, which seized power in a coup, after it said it would not hold elections on Feb. 27, 2022, but at the end of 2025.

The sanctions include the closing of land and air borders between ECOWAS member states and Mali; the suspension of all commercial and financial transactions (with humanitarian exemptions); the freezing of assets and public enterprises located in the region in commercial banks; and the suspension of financial assistance from ECOWAS.

Mali responded by closing its borders with ECOWAS states and recalling its ambassadors.

“The number one interest of the A3 (Gabon, Ghana and Kenya) is in a peaceful and secure Mali, whose government reflects the will of its people and that is in full control of its territory,” Kenya’s U.N. envoy Martin Kimani told reporters following the meeting.

He urged the Malian authorities to comply with ECOWAS’s conditions for the gradual removal of the sanctions by producing an acceptable transitional calendar.

“In his address to the nation on 10 January, our president stated that despite the illegal, illegitimate and inhumane nature of these decisions, Mali remains open to dialogue with ECOWAS to strike a balance between the interests of the Malian people and respect for the principles of the organization,” Issa Konfourou, Mali’s U.N. ambassador, said of Interim President Assimi Goita.

The United Nations, which has more than 15,000 peacekeeping troops and police in the country, urged a quick resolution to issues linked to the transition.

“A protracted impasse will make it much harder to find a consensual way out, while increasing hardship for the population and further weakening state capacity,” the head of the U.N. mission, El-Ghassim Wane, told the council. “Such a scenario will have far-reaching consequences for Mali and its neighbors.”

Mercenaries

Several Western council members expressed concern about reports that Russian-backed mercenaries have been invited to Mali by the transitional military government.

“The confirmed presence of the Wagner Group in Mali risks destabilizing the country further,” Britain’s Deputy U.N. envoy James Kariuki told the council, referring to the contractors by name.

“The deployment of mercenaries will only increase the challenges facing Mali,” he said. “We urge the Malian authorities to rethink their decision.”

“We regret the fact that transitional authorities are using already limited public funds to pay foreign mercenaries, rather than supporting the national forces and public services for the benefit of the Malian people,” French Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said. “France and its closest partners robustly condemn the deployment on Malian territory of mercenaries from the Wagner Group who are known to threaten civilians, pillage resources, violate international law and the sovereignty of states.”

Western states have accused Wagner mercenaries of involvement in conflicts in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic and Ukraine.

Russia has denied any links with the group, and its envoy dismissed his counterparts’ accusations.

“We believe Malians have every right to interact with other partners that are ready to cooperate in promoting security,” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said. “The hysteria around a Russian private military company is another manifestation of double standards, because it is well known that this market is dominated by Western countries.”

Mali’s envoy denied that mercenaries are present on its territory, saying those who accuse the government are engaging in a “false information campaign.”

Konfourou said the two countries have a long relationship dating to the 1960s and currently, Moscow has military personnel in Mali to train its military on Russian equipment.

Source: Voice of America