DAKAR: Spiraling violence in central Democratic Republic of Congo has disrupted farming and shut down health centers, leaving hundreds of thousands of children vulnerable to life-threatening malnutrition, UNICEF said on Wednesday.
An insurrection against the government in the central Greater Kasai region has left hundreds dead and uprooted more than 1 million people since last July, with the UN warning of a “dramatically deteriorating” humanitarian situation.
In Central Kasai — one of the region’s five provinces — more than a third of health centers have been forced to close due to insecurity, while food supplies are dwindling, and hygiene and sanitation conditions are worsening, according to UNICEF.
The conflict has left an estimated 400,000 children in the region facing severe acute malnutrition, the UN agency said.
“These children are among the most vulnerable in the country, and now they face a looming crisis if access to basic services is not restored quickly,” UNICEF’s Regional Director Marie-Pierre Poirier said in a statement.
Reaching these children in Greater Kasai’s remote areas, identifying those who are malnourished and providing therapeutic food is challenging given the insecurity, UNICEF said.
Even before the recent surge in violence, the region was one of the poorest in Congo.
More than one in 10 children in the region die before the age of five due to a lack of adequate health care, and half suffer from chronic malnutrition or stunting, UNICEF said.
Ethnic violence in Congo, Africa’s second-largest country, has spread and worsened since December when President Joseph Kabila refused to step down at the end of his mandate.
Analysts fear growing violence could spark a repeat of the conflicts between 1996 and 2003, mostly in the east, in which millions died, mainly from hunger and disease.
The conflict has forced at least 1.5 million people to flee their homes within Congo so far this year — more than triple the number uprooted within Syria and five times the number within Iraq, the Norwegian Refugee Council said this week.
The total number of displaced throughout Congo has more than doubled to 3.7 million since August 2016, with 1.3 million of them uprooted within the Kasai region, according to the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The UN has received just 19 percent of the $812.5 million sought in the humanitarian appeal for Congo this year, the UN’s Financial Tracking Service shows.
Violence in central Congo leaves 400,000 children prey to deadly malnutrition — UN
Violence in central Congo leaves 400,000 children prey to deadly malnutrition — UN
UN’s top court opens Myanmar Rohingya genocide case
- The Gambia filed a case against Myanmar at the UN’s top court in 2019
- Verdict expected to impact Israel’s genocide case over war on Gaza
DHAKA: The International Court of Justice on Monday opened a landmark case accusing Myanmar of genocide against its mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.
The Gambia filed a case against Myanmar at the UN’s top court in 2019, two years after a military offensive forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from their homes into neighboring Bangladesh.
The hearings will last three weeks and conclude on Jan. 29.
“The ICJ must secure justice for the persecuted Rohingya. This process should not take much longer, as we all know that justice delayed is justice denied,” said Asma Begum, who has been living in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district since 2017.
A mostly Muslim ethnic minority, the Rohingya have lived for centuries in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state but were stripped of their citizenship in the 1980s and have faced systemic persecution ever since.
In 2017 alone, some 750,000 of them fled military atrocities and crossed to Bangladesh, in what the UN has called a textbook case of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar.
Today, about 1.3 million Rohingya shelter in 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar, turning the coastal district into the world’s largest refugee settlement.
“We experienced horrific acts such as arson, killings and rape in 2017, and fled to Bangladesh,” Begum told Arab News.
“I believe the ICJ verdict will pave the way for our repatriation to our homeland. The world should not forget us.”
A UN fact-finding mission has concluded that the Myanmar 2017 offensive included “genocidal acts” — an accusation rejected by Myanmar, which said it was a “clearance operation” against militants.
Now, there is hope for justice and a new future for those who have been displaced for years.
“We also have the right to live with dignity. I want to return to my homeland and live the rest of my life in my ancestral land. My children will reconnect with their roots and be able to build their own future,” said Syed Ahmed, who fled Myanmar in 2017 and has since been raising his four children in the Kutupalong camp.
“Despite the delay, I am optimistic that the perpetrators will be held accountable through the ICJ verdict. It will set a strong precedent for the world.”
The Myanmar trial is the first genocide case in more than a decade to be taken up by the ICJ. The outcome will also impact the genocide case that Israel is facing over its war on Gaza.
“The momentum of this case at the ICJ will send a strong message to all those (places) around the world where crimes against humanity have been committed,” Nur Khan, a Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights activist, told Arab News.
“The ICJ will play a significant role in ensuring justice regarding accusations of genocide in other parts of the world, such as the genocide and crimes against humanity committed by Israel against the people of Gaza.”
