As we enter #Christmas weekend yet again thousands are fleeing #SudanConflict to seek safety in 🇸🇸
— Marie-Helene Verney (@MarieHVerney) December 22, 2023
The scenes at Joda border are chaotic with arrivals from #Madani
Humanitarian partners again working against & around the clock
Only solution: the fighting must stop now pic.twitter.com/0ECKUIdvef
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PLEASE help these children, their carers and Radwan Abdel-Jabbar, one of the workers at Mygoma Orphanage who has made a desperate plea for help in the video below. 300 orphans were dramatically evacuated by ICRC on 7 June 2023 from the Mygoma Orphanage in Khartoum and taken to safety in Wad Madani, Aj Jazirah State where 200 are now in need of urgent help.
A translation of the below copied videos posted at X says: "The head of the Meguma Orphanage through tears urges leaders and international organizations to help evacuate 200 children, most of them with disabilities, and orphanage staff as soon as possible. The situation is getting worse in Madani ( #السودان ). 200 children with disabilities whose lives are in danger! #KeepEyesOnSudan"
رئيس دار أيتام ميجوما بالدموع يحث القادة والمنظمات الدولية على المساعدة في إجلاء 200 طفل، معظمهم من
ذوي الإعاقة، وموظفي دور الأيتام في أقرب وقت ممكن. الوضع يزداد سوءا في مدني (#السودان).
— Ahmedöv (@a5medv) December 20, 2023
٢٠٠ طفل من ذوي الاعاقة حياتهم في خطر !#KeepEyesOnSudan
pic.twitter.com/SF8eRF1yCz
رئيس دار أيتام ميجوما بالدموع يحث القادة والمنظمات الدولية على المساعدة في إجلاء 200 طفل، معظمهم من ذوي الإعاقة، وموظفي دور الأيتام في أقرب وقت ممكن. الوضع يزداد سوءا في مدني (#السودان).
— Ahmedöv (@a5medv) December 20, 2023
٢٠٠ طفل من ذوي الاعاقة حياتهم في خطر !#KeepEyesOnSudan
pic.twitter.com/SF8eRF1yCz
_____________________________
Khartoum orphanage - 50 children including 24 babies died as fighting prevented staff reaching them
https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/05/khartoum-orphanage-50-children.html
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"One hundred and fourteen million people – that's more than live in Egypt and almost as many as are in Japan – are refugees or displaced. Ninety percent of the world's refugees are in just 40 countries. Seventy five percent of the world's refugees are being hosted by low and middle-income states, yet most financing goes to upper-middle income states. Just 4% of funding is going to countries of refugee origin. With these statistics ringing in our ears, the Global Refugee Forum began in Geneva". Read more.
The Anglican Communion’s Assistant Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, The Revd Glen Ruffle, recently attended the Global Refugee Forum. He writes:
One hundred and fourteen million people – that's more than live in Egypt and almost as many as are in Japan – are refugees or displaced. Ninety percent of the world's refugees are in just 40 countries. Seventy five percent of the world's refugees are being hosted by low and middle-income states, yet most financing goes to upper-middle income states. Just 4% of funding is going to countries of refugee origin.
With these statistics ringing in our ears, the Global Refugee Forum began in Geneva.
Held over 13–15 December, with side-events and build-up events beforehand, the Global Refugee Forum was arranged by the UN's Refugee agency, UNHCR, which gathered the world's states, along with NGOs, churches, faith organisations, and refugees themselves, to discuss the situation and what can be done.
The number of wars across the world is at a decades-level high; climate change is destroying agricultural land; famine and drought is increasing. Unless we invest in addressing these root causes, the numbers of refugees will continue to increase dramatically. Many will lose 20 years of their lives in government processing and relocating before they can properly settle and move forwards.
The sad fact is that UNHCR is still waiting for $400 million of funding promised by the world's states, yet never delivered. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, still host to more than half a million Syrian refugees, has only received 23% of the money promised to help. States can also work smarter: investing in much-need conflict-prevention measures, rather than dealing reactively, and with much greater expense, with every new crisis.
Anglicans, and Christians more broadly, will continue helping refugees with or without state or UN involvement, but it was important to place on the UN map, and to make the world know, that the Anglican Communion's churches are out there, doing the work, and often doing so on minimal budgets without support.
Provinces from around the Anglican Communion contributed to making pledges of what we hope to do over the next four years. Canada pledged to help resettle refugees; Tanzania pledged to advocate for refugees and ensure they receive proper care and have access to things like Savings Groups to build a future. The Province of Alexandria's Diocese of Egypt pledged to give holistic care via Refuge Egypt to help with integration of the refugees flooding into Egypt. The Church of England's Diocese in Europe has numerous projects, led by local churches across the continent, ranging from supporting refugees and advocating for them in Calais through to the distribution of aid in Bucharest.
The Episcopal Church pledged to advocate for the goals of UNHCR, support refugee resettlement and continue its refugee care. And the wider Anglican Communion pledged to place the care of refugees on the agenda at high-level meetings, to make sure Provinces discuss what they are doing and look at collaboration, and also to support the mental health of refugee children and to help develop faith-sensitive care.
States need to turn their pledges into action, deliver the money they promised and invest more seriously in conflict prevention. Beyond that, we hope to see greater collaboration between states, UN agencies and faith groups already doing the work to enable more effective delivery of support to those most in need. People of faith are often those on the front lines responding to crises and have the local trust and influence to begin to identify and address root causes. Strengthening this collaboration will be a focus of our work in the years to come.
It is not too late to add pledges from the Anglican Communion. If you want to explore a pledge, contact glen.ruffle@anglicancommunion.org
View original: https://www.anglicannews.org/blogs/2023/12/anglicans-at-the-global-refugee-forum.aspx
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“This tragic and senseless incident puts into question our entire strategy to relocate refugees arriving in South Sudan through Abyei to a safe location in Wedweil, where we opened a new settlement to receive refugees fleeing the Sudan crisis,” said Marie-Helene Verney, UNHCR Country Representative, who is also currently serving as the acting Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan. Read more.
(JUBA CITY) - Two separate incidents have brought to the forefront the major challenges humanitarian agencies are facing in South Sudan, a joint IOM and UNHCR statement said earlier in the week.
In the first incident, two refugees were tragically killed in an attack against a convoy organized by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) transporting Sudanese refugees from Abyei to the Wedweil refugee settlement. On the same day, a boat facilitated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) began taking on water due to high winds and rough water – all on board were moved to different boats and proceeded safely to Malakal.
According to the UN agencies, the two incidents highlight the considerable challenges that humanitarian partners are facing trying to help refugees and South Sudanese who are fleeing the fighting in Sudan to reach safety.
The boat began taking on water on Wednesday morning as it was attempting to leave the port of Kodok, in Upper Nile State. Local authorities and humanitarian partners immediately launched a rescue operation and all on board are now accounted for and safe, the joint statement said.
Since the start of the Sudan crisis in April, IOM has moved more than 105,000 people out of Renk by river and another 59,000 by plane to their final destinations across the country.
“Transport by river remains the only viable option to move returning South Sudanese arriving through the Joda Border Crossing Point to Malakal, and from there to their final destination,” said John McCue, IOM Chief of Mission in South Sudan. “The risks and challenges are huge but keeping people in Renk is not an option as reception sites are overcrowded and provision of basic services is stretched to breaking point.”
In the other incident, two refugees were abducted on Wednesday morning as they were crossing Twic County, Warrap State on their way from Abyei to the refugee settlement of Wedweil, near Aweil in Northern Bahr-e-Ghazal State onboard a UNHCR convoy. The vehicle carrying the two refugees was surrounded by armed youth who forced all onboard to alight and abducted two men, one 21-year-old, and the other - 62, both from Sudan’s Blue Nile State. Local authorities later reported that both of them had been found dead. The rest of the convoy made its way safely to Wedweil.
“This tragic and senseless incident puts into question our entire strategy to relocate refugees arriving in South Sudan through Abyei to a safe location in Wedweil, where we opened a new settlement to receive refugees fleeing the Sudan crisis,” said Marie-Helene Verney, UNHCR Country Representative, who is also currently serving as the acting Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan.
“Humanitarian partners have taken the lion's share of the immensely challenging job of moving people in distress who arrived at the South Sudan border fleeing for safety, however, the responsibility of ensuring that returnees, refugees, and humanitarian workers are safe lies firmly with the South Sudan’s Government” she added.
Both agencies called for renewed efforts from the Government to facilitate transportation of refugees and returnees to safe locations.
According to the UN, more than 438,000 people have arrived in South Sudan to escape the conflict in Sudan since April, of which 365,000 South Sudanese and 71,000 refugees. More than 24,000 refugees are stuck in Renk to the refugee camps in Maban County, Upper Nile State due to the current conditions. The road from Maban to Renk has been destroyed by the rains and while UNHCR is currently working on repairs, it has been requesting that the relevant ministries, as well as the private sector, take their share of the works.
View original:
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THE Anglican Communion's relationship with the UN is managed by Martha Jarvis, the London-based Anglican Communion Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and by the Revd Glen Ruffle, the Geneva-based Assistant Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
"In essence, we are doing advocacy work – speaking up for those who have no voice – and trying to shape the world with Christian input to make it better. We act as a bridge between the UN institutions on the one hand and the Anglican Communion on the other". Read more.
From Anglican News
By Glen Ruffle
Dated 14 November 2023, 4:48PM - here is a copy in full:
The Anglican Communion’s new strategy for engagement with the UN
The Anglican Consultative Council is recognised as an official observer with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the UN Environment Programme. Our relationship with the UN is managed by Martha Jarvis, the London-based Anglican Communion Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and by the Revd Glen Ruffle, the Geneva-based Assistant Permanent Representative to the United Nations. In this post, Glen Ruffle outlines the Anglican Communion’s new strategy for engagement with the UN.
The Anglican Communion has enjoyed observer status with ECOSOC since 1985. In 2021, the Anglican Communion Standing Committee agreed a new strategy to engage in more depth with the United Nations institutions.
As part of the new strategy, the structure of the Anglican Communion Office at the United Nations was changed, to enable a person “on the ground” in Geneva, where the UN’s human rights institutions are mainly based. In August this year, I was able to relocate to Geneva and begin that role.
Understanding the UN is a mammoth task: both me and Martha, the Permanent Representative, are new to our roles and it’s taken time to work out which institutions do what and how we should and can engage. But as 2024 fast approaches, we are really getting a better view and beginning to have an effect.
There are two sides to our work: we act as a bridge between the UN institutions on the one hand and the Anglican Communion on the other. Some Anglican Member Churches are formidable advocacy machines; they speak out for truth and challenge injustice. It is easy to work with these Churches and help them engage with the UN.
Others, however, are facing far greater challenges: it’s hard for them just to hold a church service each week without being arrested, let along think of submitting a report to the UN! So with these Churches, we speak with their leaderships and seek to find ways we can sponsor another organisation’s reports if we cannot ourselves safely say anything directly.
In essence, we are doing advocacy work – speaking up for those who have no voice – and trying to shape the world with Christian input to make it better. As followers of Jesus, we believe every person is loved by him, that he died and rose to offer the whole world salvation, and that salvation includes the renewal of this world now, as well as at the final judgement. We believe we are called to protect and honour the image of God in each and every person, and in legal language, this is known as human rights.
In Geneva, human rights are monitored in a building called the Palais de Nations, which houses the Human Rights Council. This institution reviews the human rights situation across the world, and in a process called the Universal Periodic Review, subjects each state to a quadrennial analysis. This process allows other states and NGOs to report on the situation in the state under investigation, and usually results in that state improving the human rights situation within its borders.
When our Churches engage with this, we can pressure governments to improve and let the world know of the issues our Churches are facing.
Sometimes there are situations happening now, and we need to speak out urgently. For this the UN has special rapporteurs and “special procedures” – people focusing on specific target areas. They can apply diplomatic pressure immediately when situations deteriorate, and let governments know that the world is watching. This doesn’t always stop atrocities, but it can reduce their intensity.
We try and encourage our Churches to engage with this process. Very often the UN issues calls for input to ask experts to tell the UN about specific issues, and we encourage our Churches to engage with these.
Geneva is also home to UNHCR, the refugee agency of the UN. This year UNHCR is holding the Global Refugee Forum, and so we are seeking to gather information on the work that Anglican Communion Member Churches across the world are doing to help and support refugees, and to tell the UN about this work. This will allow states, the UN, other NGOs and potential donors and funders to see the incredible work Anglicans are doing, leading to greater cooperation to help those who are forced to migrate because of conflict, climate change or lack of resources.
There is so much work that has to be done, and so many institutions and organisations, that unfortunately we have to prioritise certain things over others. But the NGO community is lovely, and we’ve had some great meetings with organisations such as Dominicans for Peace and Justice, Franciscans International, the International Catholic Migration Committee, the Red Cross and the Act Alliance. We are aiming to build connections with the Missions of UN member states over the coming months.
Right after COP28, there is International Human Rights Day, celebrated each year on 10 December. This year, Human Rights Day will celebrate the 75 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed, so we aim to join the UN celebrations – look out for our social media campaign and a downloadable resource to help churches do this.
After this, the Refugee Forum begins – so it’s going to be a busy December, but it is a privilege to serve the global church in this way, and I often pinch myself and say “Am I really here, doing this?” God has certainly been kind to me. I hope I can be a tool he uses to show mercy to others.”
View original: https://www.anglicannews.org/blogs/2023/11/the-anglican-communion’s-new-strategy-for-engagement-with-the-un.aspx
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Sudanese higher education students – who have been forced to flee their homes due to violence – now live in poor conditions as displaced people, without any certainty about their education and their future
Emam Omam is almost an economist. Nyamiji Daniel is almost a programmer. Nosemba Walaldin is almost a teacher. And Renad Abdalkhaman dreams of being a surgeon.
These four students were all at different stages of completing their university degrees. They had the worries and responsibilities typical of twenty-somethings. That is, until a war blew up their lives. They have been forced to exchange their houses for the huts of a refugee camp. Classmates and study time have been replaced with loneliness and endless, empty hours.
Students such as Emam, Nyamiji, Nosemba and Renad have been damaged by the armed conflict that Sudan has been experiencing for the past eight months. The condition they’re facing isn’t as visible as a disease, nor is it as irreparable as death, but its impact is of immense proportions for hundreds of thousands of young people who, overnight, have been forced to replace their dreams of the future with the uncertainty of a life filled with need, danger and precariousness.
Of all the humanitarian emergencies in the world where there isn’t sufficient assistance, South Sudan is almost at the bottom. While it’s obscured in the media by other crises – such as Gaza or Ukraine – there hasn’t been a single day without refugees and catastrophes in this African country for almost a year. South Sudan is on the brink of collapse, with 9.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, or 76% of the population. Only 40% of the funds needed to address this have been secured, according to the UN Agency for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Emam Omam was a student at the Omdurman Islamic University, near Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. “I studied Economics because Sudan needs economists. Maybe I could get a job,” he explains. On April 15, 2023 – the day the war began – he was preparing for an exam. “I waited to see if the situation would calm down and I could finish [my courses]... but that wasn’t the case. My degree has stopped, everything has stopped. I no longer know what’s going to happen,” the young man sighs.
Sitting on a mat on the ground – in the shade of a canvas tent that barely offers protection from the intense heat – four young women of similar ages speak about what their life has been like since the violence pushed them out of their homes and classrooms. They’ve been living at a temporary shelter for refugees in Renk, a border town between Sudan and South Sudan.
“Those were very good times. As soon as I got up, I wanted to go to class, see my friends, have a good time with them, have fun. There was no time for anything, I was busy from morning to night,” recalls Nosemba Walaldin. The 23-year-old was in the last semester of her Information Technology degree, which she was completing at the University of Khartoum, the oldest university in the country. Nosemba missed the last exam that was required for her to finish her degree.
Nyamiji Daniel, 22 – a South Sudanese woman living in Khartoum – was studying the same subject at the same institution, but one grade below Nosemba. “I lived with a Sudanese family, because I [was employed as a domestic worker]. I got up at five in the morning, started working at six, then went to class and came home at four. From then on, I finished the rest of the housework,” she explains. Nyamiji studied and worked at the same time. She admits that this wasn’t easy… but now, she says that she would turn back the clock without hesitation.
“I had just finished my high school diploma and was planning to study Medicine. [Becoming a surgeon] is my dream,” says Renad Abdalkhaman. Having just turned 18, she’s the youngest of the four girls, but the most determined. She speaks loudly and clearly.
These four young people now live at the Renk Transit Center. More than 400,000 people have arrived through this border point over the last eight months, fleeing the civil war unleashed between the army and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). This conflict has brought daily armed attacks to the streets of Khartoum, resurrected ethnic clashes in Darfur and has led to the forced displacement of more than six million people. It has also caused the suspension of exams and the closure of educational centers from the first days of the conflict.
The Renk Transit Center does not qualify as a refugee camp. It’s a settlement designed as a transit point for about 3,000 people, but Renad, Nyamiji, Nosemba and Emam have been stuck here for several months. More than 18,000 souls are crowded together, due to the incessant flow of arrivals from the neighboring country and the impossibility of transferring refugees to more suitable places. Seasonal rains have flooded and cut off entire roads. Here, the living conditions are dire, because everything is lacking: shelters, clean water, enough food, adequate sanitation, health and educational services.
19 million children left without class
Among all the traumas that any exodus caused by violence entails, there’s that which is faced by the students. Up to 19 million children are out of school, according to UNICEF and Save the Children. And an undetermined number – it could be more than 200,000, if we look at the latest enrollment figures provided by the government, from 2017 – have been left without a university. While Khartoum has always been a city proud of its intellectual tradition, in recent years, its higher education system hasn’t grown in size, due to poor funding, political interference and the economic crisis. There have been protests before, during and after 2019, when dictator Omar al-Bashir was deposed in a coup. This was followed by the massive floods of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
For refugee children in places such as Renk, at least there are some schools that different humanitarian organizations have set up in the camps. But the situation faced by students who were enrolled, or set to enroll, in the universities and technical colleges is a separate drama. Their specialized training cannot be found just anywhere. Hence, they suddenly find themselves in an inescapable state of limbo.
This is a cruel addition to the rest of the traumas that they carry, as they already have stories of fear and loss behind them. Renad – the youngest of the four young women interviewed – was born in Khartoum, but her parents emigrated to Saudi Arabia when she was a baby. At 16, they told her that they were going back. She was excited to get to know her country of origin… but that joy didn’t last for long. She hadn’t even been living in Sudan for a year when the attacks began.
“The first day, we hid at home. We heard shots outside. That night, a bomb fell right next door,” the teenager recalls. She has lost something much more important than her studies. “My father and my uncle went out one day to get something to eat and they never came back. We spent a month waiting for them. When we didn’t hear any news, my mother and I came here,” she concludes. Her voice trembles – the strong energy that emanates from her falters a little. “I feel totally destroyed. They’ve destroyed my future, our futures,” the teenage laments. She’s been at Renk since August 20.
Nosemba worked at a law firm in the afternoons after university. In her free time, she went out with her friends. “I’m still in contact with two who are in the White Nile [state]. I’ve lost track of the rest of them.” She arrived at the transit center on August 17, after a nine-day trip with her family, during which she almost lost a brother. “On the way some armed men stopped us, they wanted to take one of my brothers with them. We gave them everything we had so they would leave him,” she recounts.
The Scholars at Risk network (SAR) has chosen Sudan as one of the most worrying cases in its 2023 Free to Think report. The group warns that the civil war has seriously affected the education sector, including higher education. “In the early days of fighting, students and faculty members reported being forced to flee or being trapped, unable to flee, with no food, water, or electricity,” the report denounces. SAR has also reported on militants who have killed, injured or raped students and teachers, warning that Sudan may face a serious shortage of teachers for the next school year, due to the number of people who have fled the country.
According to an SAR estimate, armed clashes and looting have damaged at least 104 public and private higher education facilities and research centers during the first five months of fighting. In at least one case, on June 4, the Sudanese Armed Forces appear to have targeted an institution of higher learning, bombing the campus of the International University of Africa during clashes with the RSF. 10 people were killed.
In recent years, there’s been a growing demand for higher education in refugee camps. Some initiatives have been developed, mainly thanks to the internet, which allows for online studies to be offered. There are also some scholarships, such as the Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative (DAFI), a program sponsored by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in 50 countries. It aims to ensure that refugees with strong academic abilities can pursue a university degree or higher education in a third country. But there are very limited spots and options. According to UNHCR, only 1% of the global refugee population finds a path to higher education, compared to a third of young people worldwide.
Of course, Nosemba, Nyamiji, Renad and Omam would like a scholarship like the DAFI, since all four of them dream of going away to continue their education. The young aspiring surgeon would like to go to the UK or Turkey. Nosemba – who would like to teach about new technologies – thinks that North America could be a good option. Eman wants to get a postgraduate degree in Political Science, while Nyamiji is happy to go wherever she can find a job.
For now, their dreams are farther away than ever before. These young people – along with others like them – feel that their future plans, their intellectual concerns and their efforts have all fallen on deaf ears. There are no guarantees that they’ll leave the refugee camps any time soon, even though they want to shake off a situation and a label which they don’t identify with at all. They’re university students, not refugees. They don’t understand how their lives have taken such a turn from one day to the next. Just thinking about this affects them deeply.
“If I start talking about how I feel, I’ll probably start crying. Life here isn’t good and, psychologically, I’m not well,” Nosemba acknowledges, with a broken voice. “I just hope we can get out soon and continue with our lives,” Renad adds. “The more time you spend in a place like this, the more tired you feel.”
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