conflict

Police abuses need to be tackled as Afghan conflict reaches tenth year.

A coalition of 38 aid agencies today (6 September 2011) called on donors not to squander the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the people of South Sudan, the world’s newest nation. The call came as new violence in Jonglei state increased emergency needs.

Amidst jubilant celebration, the new Republic of South Sudan entered the international stage in July 2011 albeit as one of the least developed countries in the world.

On the day Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara is officially inaugurated in front of heads of state from around the world, more than 300,000 people remain displaced from their homes within the country and in neighboring Liberia, and they are in dire need of assistance.

International agency Oxfam today welcomed the visit of UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, to Liberia, as it called on the international community to pay greater attention to the worsening refugee crisis in the country.

Southern Sudan will face enormous challenges and will need long-term support from the rest of the world regardless of the outcome of this week’s referendum. The vote could create the world’s newest country, which would also be home to some of the world’s poorest people.

Arms traffickers can too easily navigate the patchwork of national arms regulations, fuelling conflict while avoiding arrest and extradition, because countries have been too weak or reluctant to pass an international arms trade treaty, says international agency Oxfam.

In recent years states have increasingly begun to recognize that the regulation of the international trade in conventional arms is a necessary and essential component of national and international

More than 1.3 million people are displaced, dependant on emergency relief to survive. But dwindling contributions from the international community are forcing humanitarian organizations to close programs.

An Oxfam-commissioned survey reveals that sixty percent of rape victims were gang raped. More than half of the assaults took place in their own homes. There has also been a shocking increase in the number of civilian rapists.