African Refugee Crises – Part 2- Information on Crises

This is the second part of a piece written in February of 2019 by Teia Currimbhoy, on some of the refugee crises that were happening (and still are happening) in Africa. This part focuses on explaining some of the refugee crises happening in Africa. While this is slightly outdated, the information and context are still relevant today. We hope you enjoy and learn from this!

Crises

Here is a short description of only some of the issues currently happening in Africa. There are many more countries facing cruel challenges that cause many of their people to flee their homes, to unsafe and unfamiliar places where their very lives are in question.

Somalia

The East African country of Somalia, perched right on the horn of Africa, has had a tumultuous and chaotic history, full of conflict, corruption and death. Just in the past decade, Islamist insurgents have launched attack after attack on Somali cities, and even though in August 2012 Somalia, after 45 long years, managed to elect an official president in a formal government (ending the 8-year transitional government period), terrorist groups have continued to threaten the government and its citizens.

This has caused over 870,000 Somali to migrate to Yemen, and the surrounding countries of Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia, and at least 2 million to become displaced within the country itself.

Currently, the UNHCR is providing aid to the refugees in terms of healthcare, education and livelihood, to help refugees integrate into new societies or make some for themselves. However, Ethiopia, a country home to over 900,000 refugees, has innovative and progressive ways of dealing with refugees and bringing them into the community. In fact, Melkadida, a region bordering Somalia, has been transformed from an isolated, desolate area into a thriving society, with over 1000 hectares of land used for farming, which helps the market and local economy grow. Already existing Ethiopian societies are making room for refugees, and the two groups of people work in harmony, a feat rarely seen in almost all of history.

However, this doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything. Al-Shabaab, an Islamic militant group with allegiance pledged to Al-Qaeda, has been terrorizing the East African countries for over a decade. Just a month ago, a car bomb killed 11 people in the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, just hours after a shooting in the city of Bossaso. This highlights the existence of extremist groups like Al-Shabaab, who after so many years are continuously causing harm to civilians. The problem with these kinds of issues is that the government is in the best position to take action, but sometimes they need prompting.

In Somalia, the government is thankfully taking action, but to take down such a large organisation, it requires a lot more resources than most governments can afford. This is why the African Union’s recent summit is so important, because it could have laid the foundation for meaningful action to be taken against terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab, and to help the refugees fleeing Somalia to find a safe home.

South Sudan

South Sudan, a diverse country full of different ethnic tribes, languages and religions, has fallen into a state of brutal civil war. Since 2013, this war has caused over 2 million people to migrate to the surrounding countries of Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, and the DRC. South Sudan had only just gained its independence from Sudan in 2011 and elected a new president called Salva Kiir. However, just two years later, Kiir and his vice president Riek Machar had a falling out, and as the two biggest ethnic groups in South Sudan fell into disagreement over who should be in power, civil war broke out.

However, in late 2018, Kiir and Machar came to an agreement to share the balance of power, to end the ongoing civil war, but violence, rape, and killings have still been ongoing in the region. The UN report on South Sudan states, “Rapes, gang rapes, sexual mutilation, abductions and sexual slavery, as well as killings, have become commonplace in South Sudan.” But this isn’t even the worst of it. According to the Guardian, a quarter of the abused victims of sexual violence are children, some as young as seven years old. The report also writes about people being held and tortured in secret in detention centres, people being hacked to death, or shot down in mass killings into pits where some are buried alive, children being recruited by the different armed militias and separated from their families, children being run over by tanks, babies being drowned, smashed against trees, or starved to death.

The fragile peace established only a couple of months ago might crumble in the face of such terrors, which would cause even more people to flee the country. The UN is struggling to provide aid due to underfunding, and therefore the condition in South Sudan just worsens and worsens. The money needed to provide aid is a whopping 2.7 billion USD, and the UN have barely received half of that.

The only thing that I feel we can do is either donate to the cause ourselves, or spread awareness to tell people of the atrocities happening in South Sudan, a topic that not many people know about. Despite this being the biggest crisis in Africa, sadly, many people still don’t know the causes of the civil war, or the kind of misery it inflicts upon the country.

Libya

The situation in Libya is one that was covered as a case study for our event, ‘Write for Rights’, but I reiterate the issue here by showing an excerpt of one of the letters sent.

“As of today, an estimated 1.3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Libya. Only 43,113 refugees and asylum-seekers are registered with UNHCR, and an approximate of 6000 are being held in the 26 profoundly immoral detention camps. In these detention camps, refugees, even children, face inhumane living conditions, are tortured, kept in isolation from the outside world, even refused basic necessities such as water and food, treated like disposables. When the UK funds these camps, they think that they are improving the living conditions of the people so that they don’t migrate to the EU, but actually, people in these camps are still subjected to extortion and physical and emotional abuse.”

These inhumane acts of violence were primarily caused by a civil war, one that has been going on since 2014. Ever since the death of Libya’s dictator, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Libya’s political climate has been chaotic, disorganised and dysfunctional, unable to stop the accelerating growth of the Islamic State and armed groups, which further decreased the quality of life of the Libyan people. In May 2014, tensions between various groups and coalitions in Libya came to a head, and as two major coalitions emerged, a civil war broke out. However, this conflict only addresses the Libyan people, who migrate to Europe and are held in these detention camps. “People are migrating to Libya travel from all over Africa. On one boat from Libya, you might find Eritreans escaping a lifetime of mandatory military service, Gambians escaping an authoritarian government, Nigerians escaping a militant insurgent group that goes by the name Boko Haram, and other people that may be escaping from any of the conflicts terrorizing 5 out of the 6 countries that border Libya.” (Excerpt is taken from Case Study description on Libya for Write for Rights.

So far, 182,000+ people have fled Libya since 2013. All over sub-Saharan Africa, violent crimes and human rights violations are happening, and through technology, people can see that going to Europe really does improve your life, not only through remittance packages but also through the spread of social media and the rise of technology in developing countries. With a 1,100 mile coastline and a weak, divided government since the fall of al-Gaddafi (who restricted immigration and ruled with an Iron Fist), Libya is the ‘backdoor to Europe’.

It’s obvious to see why the EU and Britain fund these detention camps, it’s to keep refugees from entering the EU and impacting the economy, society and culture of European countries. So, at the end of the letter to the UK government, I wrote: “To stop these horrible deeds, I urge you to truly look at the situation in Libya, and take immediate action to ensure that the money you spend is being used for humane purposes. This means to ensure that healthcare, nourishment and care are given to the immigrants in Libya, whether that be through sending officials to regularly provide reports on the current situation or removing the current camp guards from their positions. In addition, I also recommend revising immigration policies so that more people can find a safe home in the UK. Regarding international relations with Libya, I also beseech you to contact other governments about the issues that African countries face, as this problem will not stop unless refugees from the rest of Africa stop flooding into Libya. This means that problems in Northern African countries must be resolved, and this big of an issue must be taken into consideration by the international community, to improve the quality of life of the African people.”

Just like the situation in Ethiopia, I believe that there are sustainable and non-detrimental ways of handling large refugee crises, that I think the EU could definitely take note of. Let’s continue to research and find more sustainable solutions to refugee crises around the world.

Central African Republic

The Central African Republic gained its independence in 1960, and since then they’ve experienced decades of extreme violence and war. The main conflict still happening nowadays originated in 2012 when armed groups and coalitions of Muslim Fighters called the Seleka (meaning ‘alliance’ in Sango) began terrorizing the cities, towns and villages of the Central African Republic, severely damaging infrastructure and intensifying tensions between ethnic groups. This caused Christian fighters to form coalitions to retaliate, adding religious tension to the mix. These Christian groups were called ‘anti-balaka’ (meaning ‘invincible), and since September 2013 they have been committing widespread revenge attacks against Seleka forces. Despite the fact that the Seleka were disbanded by the government shortly after the revenge attacks started, ex-Seleka members have started counter-attacking plunging the country into chaos and a humanitarian crisis.

Since 2013, thousands of people have been killed, and an estimated 575,000 people have been displaced. Most refugees flee to the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Cameroon. This conflict has also affected the economy of the CAR, leaving around 75% of the people in poverty and the private sector crippled. Despite re-election in 2016, the violence has still continued, especially outside the capital city, Bangui, despite the new government’s attempts to control the fighting. The UN also sent in some ‘peacekeepers’ in 2014, and their reports of the country describe the hideous war crimes committed against the people by both Seleka and Anti-Balaka forces. MINUSCA (UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic) was established in the CAR shortly afterwards, to try and protect the citizens and disarm militia groups, but they face significant challenges as their inadequate infrastructure and reluctance to use violence really limit their chances to achieve their goals. Local forces have also attacked UN workers, killing a total of 15 peacekeepers in 2017 and 6 in 2018.

Some more recent conflicts in the region (happening just last year) have been:

In June 2017, a peace agreement between the government and 13 out of 14 main armed factions was established, but had very little effect, as the government only has control of the capital. It is estimated that 2/3rds of CAR territory is controlled by ex-Seleka and anti-Balaka troops.
In April 2018, MINUSCA launched a security operation together with the government in the PK5 neighbourhood in Bangui, which was a Muslim district in a predominantly Christian city. It was rumoured that they aimed to disarm all the Muslims in the area, leaving them vulnerable to Christian attacks. This naturally sparked great outrage, and fighting broke out, killing more than 20 people (including one UN peacekeeper) and injuring around 150 people. The religious militias then gave a horrendous display of the dead bodies from the skirmishes and claimed that the peacekeepers were firing on civilians.
This started a wave of clashes across Bangui, including an attack on a church in May 2018, which killed 16 people including a priest. This then prompted the Christians to attack several mosques, and slowly the situation started to spiral even more out of control, with lives being traded between both sides.

So far, MINUSCA has been tightening security, and although they dislike using brute force, they have been accused of using violence and firing on innocents. How much of this is true is unknown, but it makes sense that violence is fought with more violence, fire is fought with fire. However, that means they become killers just like the religious armed groups. None of the sides of this conflict become better than another. Such is the equality of war.

But then, the question arises: Could there possibly be a better way to control this situation? I am sure that the UN and MINUSCA have already talked about this question at length, and it is saddening to realise that perhaps there may not be a better way to stop the violence. Is violence always fought with violence because it has to be fought with violence?

Yemen

The patterns of Islamic terrorism and civil war are rife all across Africa but become especially apparent within Yemen. The civil war started in 2014, when Houthi insurgents (Shiite Muslims with a long history of standing up against Sunni Muslim governments) took control of Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, demanding a new government. In March 2015, a coalition of Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia (and with US support) launched a counter-campaign involving air and drone strikes, as well as an economic isolation policy to try and starve out the insurgents. In the summer of 2016, a UN encouraged peace talks stalled, and the fighting continued.

The thing that really sets Yemen apart from all the other Islamic-extremist-caused refugee crises in Africa is that foreign powers really are involved this time, including the US. The intervention of other countries in the crisis not only increases the number of civilian casualties, but also threatens to draw Yemen into a bigger, world conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Iranian shipments of weapons and supplies to the Houthi rebels have been intercepted by Saudi Arabian ships, causing further tension between the two countries. All sides of the war have committed human rights violations and have violated international humanitarian law.

Zooming in on the US, it’s already known that the US employs drone strikes to target Islamic extremists, and in 2017, it reportedly conducted around 130 strikes on Yemen. An opportunity for debate lies here (a debate frequently covered in IGCSE Grade 9 Gpers), over the ethics of drone strikes. Personal testimonies from US soldiers and drone operators display the attitudes towards drone strikes within the ranks of the army, and how difficult (or not difficult for lots of soldiers) to hit the button and kill someone you barely know, perhaps even a child. The reason for US involvement isn’t that difficult to discern; it follows the same path it always does. According to the US Council of Foreign Relations global conflict tracker website, “While Houthi rebels do not pose a direct threat to the United States, their attacks on Saudi Arabian infrastructure and territory threaten an important U.S. partner.” I am sure you are as unsurprised as I am.

Looking at the statistics on the numbers of casualties stills a deep uneasiness and pain inside one’s heart. 16,200 have been killed due to the conflict, and a whopping 22.2 million Yemeni remain in need of aid. 8 million are at risk of famine, and a large cholera outbreak is affecting nearly 1 million people. An estimated 2 million people are displaced, and considering that the seas are patrolled by Saudi ships, there’s almost nowhere for these people to go.

In June 2018, the UN made another attempt to further broker peace and a cease-fire, but the Houthi rebels have responded to Saudi-Arabian aggression with focused missile-strikes on infrastructure, oil tanks, resources and international airports. Not to mention, secessionist groups forming in the south of Yemen are further complicating the civil war within the country, and as they are backed by the UAE, this poses a Game-of-Thrones-esque political conflict between many countries in the Middle east.

According to the UNHCR website, they are working on providing financial and legal aid as well as shelter, food, healthcare and safety. However, they have extremely limited funding (only 3% can be used to help). Something that may be really useful that Voices for Refugees (us) can do is perhaps using this issue as a case study for 2019 Write for Rights. It might make an impact to write to the US about drone strikes and assisting Saudi Arabia in the fight against the Houthi rebels (and the murder of innocent civilians), despite how controversial the issue of drone strikes is.

In any case, the unchanging situation in Yemen desperately needs to be addressed, and I hope that what I write on the issue raises some awareness of what’s going on and motivates you to take action. Perhaps you could write a letter to the US yourself.

Nigeria

You might have already heard of Boko Haram, the Islamist militia terrorizing the cities and townships of Nigeria. They have already displaced around 2.4 million people just in the Lake Chad area, an estimated 232,000 of them being Nigerian refugees, and more than 35,000 have been killed since 2011. The group is allied and associated with ISIS, and also the Islamic State of West Africa, and have recently been especially active in a north-eastern region of Nigeria, called the Borno State.

In October 2018, the Islamist extremists killed a medical aid worker who they had held hostage since March. Hauwa Mohammed Liman, age 24, was one of three aid workers working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who were captured during a raid on the town of Rann, also in the Borno state. Another ICRC aid worker was killed in September. The militants, in a video posted in September, said that they would kill at least one of their hostages once a ‘deadline’ elapses, but it is unclear what demands the extremists made in exchange for the hostages. They explained that Liman had abandoned Islam by working for the ICRC and therefore she deserved to be killed.

The government of Nigeria continuously fails to stop Boko Haram and their factions, who often raid military bases, killing many people. One attack in September 2018 had a death toll of 48 people. These attacks are commonplace in Nigeria, but what really brought a lot of attention to the crisis was the mass abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from a town in the Borno state. The government was said to be “deeply pained” by this abduction and recent killings, but they promised to “keep the negotiations open and continue to work to free the innocent women who remain in the custody of their abductors.”

Nigeria’s government and history is tainted with corruption and revolution, starting from their escape from colonialism in the 1960s, and then a civil war ending in 1970. They have had four different republics since they were freed from the British, some ending with assassinations, coups and bloodshed, and some ending with the death of a corrupt ruler, welcoming another to the dictator’s seat, and others ending with new elections and the takeover of a new political party. The military had ruled Nigeria for several years during this revolutionary period, and this encouraged the violence in the country. A significant change in Nigeria happened in 2010, with the takeover of Goodluck Jonathan, who started serving as acting president when the previous president fell ill. In one of his campaign speeches, he says that he wants to create “A Nigeria built on the virtues of love and respect for one another, on unity, on industry, on hard work and on good governance.” but he fails to mention Boko Haram, even though they had already started to ramp up their attacks. In 2015, he was displaced by the current Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, who promised to end the violence caused by Boko Haram and return all displaced people to their homes. However, he is still unable to fulfil this goal, perhaps because of the fact that Nigeria’s economy is failing, with more than 60% of the population living in extreme poverty, or because Nigeria’s history has created a toxic political climate full of corruption and injustice. This kind of situation has little to no remedies, which is why Boko Haram is still at large.

Boko Haram, although one might think they would be an organised force (unlike the government), is actually a broken coalition between many different factions. Rifts between factions continuously occur, including a recent one over the death of Boko Haram’s veteran leader, Abubakar Shekau, where the new breakaway faction has developed a new leadership and has continued their attacks on civilians, and they are suspected to be responsible for the recent killings. However, despite the fact that Nigeria’s government may not be able to put a stop to Boko Haram and their acts of inhumane violence, other governments and world powers have deployed troops into Nigeria. One of these countries is the US, who have recently deployed 300 troops into Nigerian territory to help remedy the situation, which controversially brings in the fact that Nigeria is a huge oil producer and an important asset to “US economic interests.” This vested interest of the US in other countries references their past actions, towards Latin America especially, where the US would use these countries for their own gain, an example being the United Fruit Company, who extorted Latin American countries for their resources. There is no hint of this situation repeating itself, but it provides an interesting insight and piece of contextual knowledge.

The situation in Nigeria is unchanging, and the future seems bleak. With the rise of Islamic extremist groups all over Africa, it is important to bring more awareness to these cases.

Sources:

African Refugee Crises – Part 2- Information on Crises

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