Every week, IRIN's team of editors curates a selection of humanitarian reports and opinion you may have missed, from in-depth analyses and features to academic studies and podcasts:
Late last year, in a piece published by IRIN, Antonio Donini, an analyst with the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, wrote that multilateralism was in crisis and that humanitarianism had reached “its historical limits”. If his words struck a chord with many of our readers at the time, they feel particularly portentous in a week in which President Donald Trump fired off executive orders that rolled back gains in women’s reproductive health, refugee resettlement, and environmental protections at the stroke of a pen. More executive orders are reported to be in the pipeline that could see the US drastically cutting its contributions to the UN and withdrawing from certain multilateral treaties. Whether or not the humanitarian sector is ready to make long-debated changes, change is certainly coming. How will it adapt and what can humanitarians start doing to prepare for what lies ahead? These are some of the questions that Donini and his colleagues at the Feinstein International Center, as well as contributors from King’s College London and the Overseas Development Institute, have tried to answer in their “Planning from the Future” report. This 73-page monster explores the reasons why fundamental reforms of the sector are urgently needed and how they might be addressed by a more responsive, protective, and accountable humanitarian sector in the future.
It’s not just about settlements or an Israeli embassy in Jerusalem. For the past few weeks, Palestinians in Gaza have been taking to the streets to protest a more practical matter: worsening power cuts. Frustration has been aimed at Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel, but whose fault is it that some Gazans make do with only three or four hours of electricity a day? This report from NGO Gisha, which advocates for Palestinian freedom of movement, looks closely at who’s to blame for Gaza’s poor infrastructure in three sectors: electricity, water, and communications. It’s no simple matter as Palestinian parties and companies do play a role, but here’s a spoiler alert: past bombings plus Israeli restrictions on equipment for maintaining infrastructure are a major part of the picture. And it’s hard to get funding for water projects – say, fixing a sewage system that regularly overflows, or building a desalination plant for non-potable water – when there’s not enough electricity to run them. Questions of infrastructure rarely make the headlines, but they seriously hamper the lives of two million Gazans each and every day.
As the effects of climate change become more pronounced over the next few decades, (surprise!) it will be the “ultra-poor” who suffer most. So how can governments protect their most vulnerable citizens? This evaluation by the World Food Programme of a project carried out in Bangladesh between 2011 and 2015 provides one answer: give them cash.
Ok, it’s not just about money. The package included community infrastructure work, classes on disaster preparedness, and business development training, along with cash grants. The evaluation found: “People are less likely to sell assets, go into debt or resort to skipping meals when their lives are disrupted by the effects of climate change, if they have received a simple package of training and cash grants.” It’s an obvious point, but an important one, especially in Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable nations in the world. Such programmes may help mitigate the looming threat climate change poses to the country, a threat could lead to 20 million people being displaced by 2050, as we recently reported.
The Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index Africa (HANCI-Africa) ranks 45 African governments on their political commitment to tackling hunger and under-nutrition. The idea is to enable civil society to put pressure on governments and international policymakers to do better; to encourage governments to evaluate their own efforts; and to prioritise appropriate action.
So who’s rubbish? There are probably no surprises in the bottom six: Chad, Guinea, Angola, Comoros, Guinea‑Bissau, and, in last place, Sudan. The stars are: South Africa, Malawi, Madagascar… What? Madagascar? Yes, despite repeated droughts and chronic food insecurity in the south, the index says the Madagascan government has a range of proactive nutrition policies in place. This is something that wealthier countries, Nigeria for example, in 37th place, would do well to emulate.
There appears to be some genuine outrage at the use by World Vision of a Syrian militia to help deliver international aid. But there also appears to be some hypocrisy too. Do the 70,000 stranded would-be refugees who’ve amassed in a lawless no man’s land of desert between southern Syrian and northern Jordan really care? The hypocrisy stems from allegations that a UN contractor is using the same militia for its security and that the Jordanian military is said to exert a strong influence over the choice of UN contractors more generally. As regular IRIN contributor Sara Elizabeth Williams points out in this exclusive investigative report: “All those trying to help the stranded Syrians are treading a fine line on the humanitarian principles of impartiality and independence.” Over several months of reporting, Williams spoke to World Vision, UN agencies, the militia leader, other aid agencies, aid workers, as well as local activists. They all had strong views on how things should be done. But perhaps the most telling voice is that of Asmaa, a mother of four who expresses what’s important for her: “I feel more confidence and safety when we see the Jordanian berm, because it’s organised and has guards. There are people there who stay up at night to protect it, and protect the people in it.”
Coming up:
Beyond ‘crisis’? The state of immigration and asylum law and policy in the EU
10 February, Brussels
The Odysseus Academic Network’s annual conference will bring together legal experts in immigration and asylum law and asylum policy from across Europe to take stock of developments in 2016 and cast a look into 2017. The event will have three different streams – cooperation between member states, protection, and management of migration flows.
Participating is free, but online registration is required.
(TOP PHOTO: 20-month-old Ummi Mustafa and her mother. Ummi is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and she received screening and treatment through Action Against Hunger's mobile health clinic in a camp for displaced people near Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria, August 25, 2016. CREDIT: Guy Calaf/Action Against Hunger USA)
The Democratic Republic of Congo has accused neighbouring Uganda of allowing former M23 rebels to cross the common border, sparking fears of a new armed rebellion and yet more humanitarian suffering in a region long used to violence.
Government spokesman Lambert Mende Omalanga said hundreds of armed ex-M23 fighters, supposedly exiled in Uganda, had re-emerged in North Kivu Province in eastern Congo, from where they waged a 19-month war against the Congolese government in 2012-2013.
“We are disappointed with our Ugandan colleagues for letting these criminals out, moreover armed,” said Mende. “We can’t allow this [destabilisation] to happen. We engaged these criminals in confrontations and flushed them out.”
The clash he refers to took place in the border town of Ishasha on 14 January, but it’s unclear how many ex-M23 or Congolese government troops were killed.
The M23 (March 23 Movement), a largely Tutsi rebel group, began as a mutiny but rapidly gained ground in North Kivu, taking control of the provincial capital, Goma, in November 2012. It was finally defeated by the Congolese army and the UN’s Force Intervention Brigade in November 2013.
A UN group of experts’ report in December 2013 concluded that the M23 fighters were backed by Rwanda and Uganda, a charge both countries’ governments have denied.
Under the terms of the Nairobi Declarations that ended the hostilities, the M23 renounced the rebellion in return for the Congolese government’s commitment to a disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) programme, and a limited offer of amnesty.
Almost 1,400 M23 fighters were initially cantoned in the Bihanga Military Training School in western Uganda after surrendering nearby, awaiting eventual return to Congo. Fewer than 300 remain.
New rebellion?
Last week, Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo admitted that some ex-M23 rebels had escaped from Bihanga. They have “lately and quietly been escaping in small groups of about five into the general public, and some to unknown places,” he told IRIN.
On 18 January, the Ugandan military apprehended a group of 101 former M23 rebels in Uganda’s western towns of Mbarara and Kabale. They were disguised as civilians en route to Congo. More arrests of former fighters have since been made.
"There was always a danger of M23 returning to the DRC."
“We caught them trying to escape back to DRC under unclear circumstances,” said Ugandan army deputy spokesman Major Henry Obbo. Some 40 to 50 former combatants had also escaped a week earlier.
But, according to a 19 January Ugandan government statement, just 270 of the original 1,377 ex-M23 fighters cantoned in Bihanga actually remain there. Subtracting those and the roughly 200 former fighters who have returned home to Congo under the DDR programme suggests around 900 have fled the camp.
“With the M23 leadership and much of its rank and file still intact, there was always a danger of M23 returning to the DRC,” Phil Clark, a Great Lakes expert at SOAS, University of London, told IRIN.
Uganda insists it was not involved in the escape of the rebels and is in no way backing another rebellion.
“These are individuals who are escaping on their own,” said Opondo. “Uganda will not and does not support any armed activities to destabilise the DRC.”
Nicaise Kibel Bel’Oka, director of the Centre for Geopolitical Study and Research of Eastern Congo, believes Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has no appetite for backing a new rebellion as he is more concerned about shoring up the support of his own generals.
Bel’Oka told IRIN it was “an open secret” that there were now divisions within the Ugandan military, adding: “If Kampala takes the risk of arming ex-M23 elements and sending them to fight in Congo, it runs the serious risk of seeing them turn against the [Museveni] regime.”
Not enough amnesty
Uganda has called repeatedly on Kinshasa to honour its DDR commitments, which were plagued by a lack of trust between the former M23 rebels and the Congolese government.
“We can’t be blamed for the failed repatriation of these people,” said Opondo, the Ugandan government spokesman. “We want them out. We have always asked the DRC government to take them back. But they [authorities] seem unwilling and failed to convince them.”
A senior M23 official, who asked not to be identified, told IRIN the mass escape was a direct result of the Congolese government dragging its feet over the DDR programme and failing to provide the necessary security guarantees to convince the ex-rebels to return.
“These combatants have been in Bihanga for over three years without knowing their next fate. [President Joseph] Kabila has failed to honour the implementation of the Nairobi Declarations and Addis Ababa Agreements for their return and reintegration,” the M23 source said.
“As Congolese citizens, they have a right to go back home without informing anybody,” the source added, denying however that they had returned armed.
In January 2014, violence flared in Bihanga when the former rebels protested against their return home, fearing ill-treatment.
“The main sticking point was the government's refusal to offer an amnesty to the M23 leadership,” said Clark.
MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti
Bad timing
The M23 fighters are arriving back in Congo at a particularly tense time.
“The whole region is worried about Kabila's refusal to rule out running for a third term, and the ongoing uncertainty over when the Congolese elections will be held,” said Clark.
Kabila was constitutionally due to step down in December last year, at the end of his two-term limit. But he has managed to cling on to power even in the face of a united and furious opposition.
According to a deal mediated by the Catholic Church on New Year’s Eve, he is supposed to stand down after elections at the end of 2017. But no one seems convinced that Kabila – who came to power in 2001 after the assassination of his predecessor and father (former rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila) – will stick to the agreement.
“Even if the former M23 rebels do not seem to have any clear objective in reforming their group, the fact that Kabila has outstayed his welcome can make it easier for them to recruit new members in the Congo and legitimise their existence,” said Nina Wilén, a postdoctoral research fellow at Université Libre de Bruxelles.
The New Year’s Eve accord calls for the reform of the electoral commission, new voter registration, a new prime minister nominated by the opposition, and a follow-up committee to oversee implementation of the agreement.
But the deal does not include a detailed calendar for implementation, nor is it even clear how the follow-up committee will be structured.
Thierry Vircoulon, a lecturer on security issues at Sciences Po in Paris, told IRIN that Kabila has a habit of “playing for time” when pressed.
“The Congolese political class as a whole likes the long negotiation,” he said. “But the December accord is an emergency accord. The timeline for the elections is only 12 months, so very short. Given all these tasks and the 12 months’ timeframe, we are already late.”
This tallies with a 12 January blog post by Ida Sawyer, Human Rights Watch director for Central Africa.
“Credible elections can't be organised when opposition leaders and activists are thrown in prison and beaten, and convicted on trumped-up charges, when independent media outlets are shut down or blocked, and when security forces fire live rounds on peaceful protesters,” she wrote.
What needs to be done?
“The situation in Congo potentially destabilises all of its neighbours. So, it isn't surprising that some armed actors may intervene militarily, either to try to resolve the political situation by force or to capitalise on the general uncertainty,” Sawyer told IRIN.
She urged the international community and regional leaders to remain engaged.
“They should support the organisation of credible, timely elections and signal that they stand ready to impose additional targeted sanctions and other punitive measures should the repression continue, if those responsible for past abuses are not held to account, or if efforts are made to prevent or delay the organisation of elections.”
Bel’Oka believes the M23 are a symptom of a broader problem of governance in Congo and said that part of the solution involves facilitating their proper return.
“Today, these former fighters cantoned in Uganda feel abandoned,” he explained. “So they become easy to manipulate and are ready to conclude that, no matter what, they will be considered the enemy, especially by Kinshasa.”
(Additional reporting by Claude Sengenya, a freelance journalist and regular IRIN contributor based in Beni in the Democratic Republic of Congo)
(TOP PHOTO: M23 soldier stands guard as M23 rebel spokesman Lt Vianney Kazarama makes a speech in Goma. CREDIT: Jessica Hatcher/IRIN )
