The referendum held in January 2011 resulted in an independent South Sudan. However, since then there have been tensions between the North and the South around unresolved issues such as border demarcation, wealth-sharing and the disputed territory of Abyei. In early September 2011, intense fighting broke out in the Blue Nile State of Sudan between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army Movement-North (SPLM-N).
Following aerial bombardment and shelling, significant numbers of people began moving to Upper Nile in South Sudan for safety. While this crisis was the touch-paper for the Category 2 humanitarian emergency declared in February 2012, the categorisation was based on an analysis of the multiple threats facing South Sudan, including tensions with its neighbour, potential returnees and refugees from Sudan and a more general food insecurity and livelihoods crises affecting over three million people. Oxfam has responded with water, sanitation and hygiene promotion as well as livelihoods support to returnees, refugees and host communities in Maban County in Upper Nile State as well as in Malakal.

Evaluation method

The evaluation was carried out by an external evaluator that applied Oxfam’s Humanitarian Indicator Tool (HIT). This tool is designed to help evaluators assess the degree to which a humanitarian response meets recognised quality standards. The HIT consists of 12 quality standards, each with defined benchmarks. In applying the tool, the evaluator reviews the available evidence and rates the extent each standard was ‘met’, “almost met” ‘partially met’ or ‘not met’.
Scores are then assigned against each standard and a cumulative total calculated. Three standards – timeliness, coverage, and measuring adherence to Sphere standards – are given twice the weight of the others, given their greater importance.

Results

Overall the programme scored 21 out of 36 possible points (58%). Although this is below the 60% Oxfam agreed percentage for a good quality programme, the issues of funding and the difficulties of working in a conflict area need to be taken into account. The timeliness and coverage benchmarks were only partially met. Having to respond to multiple hazards (returnees, refugees and food insecurity) made it difficult to estimate coverage and, had the response only been for the refugees, the benchmark would have been met. On timeliness, whilst there was a rapid response in one of the camps, the team later struggled to keep up with the refugee numbers compared to their peers in other agencies. The programme did manage to have a good monitoring and evaluation system in place and to measure their programme against technical standards. There were genuine efforts to address community needs and to elicit feedback, which in turn led to changes in facility design. Measures to protect the community and to reduce conflict were in place as well as efforts to consult with women and address their needs. Despite having a response team and seconding staff from other programmes, it was found that Oxfam was not prepared for an emergency as much as they should have been in a country known for conflict and weather-related emergencies. Drilling equipment, vehicles and communication equipment for example, were not up to standard. Other areas of weakness identified were a lack of evaluation of the advocacy work carried out, poor linkage with longer term programmes and recruitment of appropriate qualified staff.

AMADI, South Sudan, February 26 (UNHCR)– Would you want to live in a village where dead bodies contaminated the only source of water? That was the predicament that confronted residents of Amadi village when they tried to return home during a lull in the violence that has wracked South Sudan for the last three months.

"When our husbands and the village youth went to check the village some time after the shooting had stopped, they came across the bodies of soldiers and civilians strewn across our cassava fields and in the streams from which we drew our water," recalls Hawa Ladu,* a mother of six.

The tiny village lies 25 kilometres from the South Sudanese capital, Juba, and – luckily for the inhabitants – only three kilometres from Gorom Refugee Settlement, home to 2,500 Ethiopian refugees. It was to prove a safe haven when Amadi village got caught up in the violence that erupted in the country last December.

As Hawa recounts it, for a while the villagers tolerated looting of their food by opposition forces, who stole even "the stew in our pots." Sometimes the soldiers brazenly ordered villagers to carry the looted food to their makeshift camps.

But when warfare engulfed the village in mid-January, it was time to run. "Bullets whizzed through the air and some landed in our walls as soldiers advanced on Amadi," says Hawa. She, her husband, their children and their neighbours fled to nearby Gorom Refugee Settlement.

They regarded Gorom as the safest place to seek refuge "because it is where UNHCR is," she says. More than 730 women and children from the village moved into the settlement's primary school. "When we fled to the settlement, the refugees were generally very supportive and accommodating because they knew what was happening," says Hawa.

Becky Ben Ondoa, UNHCR's community services associate says that even though "Amadi village had become a 'no-go' area, we knew that the school would have to be vacated for the start of the new school year." Once the fighting ended in Amadi, the villagers were told it was safe for them to return home.

But how could they go back when there was no clean water in their village? A UNHCR monitoring mission confirmed what the villagers had already discovered – decomposing human remains were polluting the only source of water.

"It was imperative that we act quickly," says Ondoa. "To encourage the Amadi community to return to their village, alternative water points for the local community had to be found as a matter of priority."

A UNHCR partner, ACROSS, located a water drilling company and in two weeks the village had two functioning boreholes – ready to meet the needs in Amadi. The men came first to check on the safety, then their families followed.

"I cannot tell you how grateful we are for the boreholes UNHCR has provided us – and embarrassed that we continue asking for more assistance," says Hawa. "However, under the circumstances, we have no choice," since their farming implements had been looted along with their food and grain.

The villagers are busy harvesting the last cassava tubers still in the ground – a modest provision to see them through the long seasonal rains.

"Life as we know it has changed for the worse," sighs Hawa. "Even our husbands have become like women – helpless and fearful – as we all wait for the situation in our country to resolve itself. As to how long that will be, only God and this country's decision-makers know."

*Name changed for protection reasons.

By Pumla Rulashe in Amadi, South Sudan.

Highlights

 A total of 710, 600 people displaced with in South Sudan, and another 171,000 displaced in to the neighboring countries (UNOCHA).

 One hundred and sixteen (116) UN and INGO staff were evacuated from Malakal following heavy clashes between pro and anti government forces.

 As at 24 February 2014, (day 3) of the campaign, a cumulative of 26,707 persons had been vaccinated against cholera out of the 94,000 target population to be expected to be vaccinated in within 1 week.

This service summarizes current satellite mapping activities of interest to GDACS stakeholders. It is issued weekly and based on contributions from map-producing entities and GDACS partners.

Africa

Burundi floods – GLIDE number: FL-2014-000019-BDI

Burundi experienced torrential rainfall from 09 to 10 February 2014 that caused flash flooding as well as landslides and resulted in substantial damage and destruction, particularly in the capital of Bujumbura. The UNITAR Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) subsequently activated the International Charter Space and Major Disasters on behalf of UNOCHA on 11 February 2014. UNITAR/UNOSAT recently analyzed satellite imagery of Bujumbura from 14 February 2014 and identified at least 76 destroyed structures in the Kinama area. Approximately 553 hectares of area with 1,730 houses or structures appear to be affected by mud and water flow in the Kinama and Kamenge neighborhoods of Bujumbura and about 1,140 hectares with 10,000 houses or structures have potentially been impacted by the waters. Due to haze, the image quality is poor and therefore affected areas and destroyed structures in Bujumbura may be underestimated. Maps are available for online viewing at the International Charter Space and Major Disasters’ website. Products can also be accessed as PDFs on UNITAR/UNOSAT’s website.

Source: UNITAR/UNOSAT, International Charter Space and Major Disasters

Highlights

• Despite the signed Cessation of Hostilities, fighting has continued in a number of areas throughout South Sudan, further compounding humanitarian access and increasing the movement of populations. On Tuesday, 18 February, armed conflict erupted in Malakal, with heavy fighting around the UNMISS compound and crossfire landing in the Protection of Civilian area (PoC). It is anticipated that fighting will continue particularly in key strategic oil field locations with an increase between now and the rainy season.

• Services for Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) management are progressively being re-established in the 352 Outpatient Therapeutic Program (OTP) pre-crisis network. A total of 61,430 children under 5 in POCs and outside the POCs areas were screened since the onset of the crisis, including 34,222 this past week. As a result, 1,594 new cases have been admitted for severe acute malnutrition by all partners, bringing the cumulative SAM admissions to 5,172.

• UNICEF South Sudan is urgently appealing for US$75 million, ahead of the upcoming rainy season, as part of the global Humanitarian Action for Children 2014 launched in Geneva on 21 February.

Commanders Need to Halt Abuses; African Union Should Begin Inquiry

(Nairobi) – Both pro and antigovernment armed forces are responsible for serious abuses that may amount to war crimes in two key oil hubs in South Sudan during recent fighting, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch researchers visited Malakal and Bentiu, the capitals of two oil producing states, between January 29 and February 14, 2014. Researchers found that armed forces from both sides have extensively looted and destroyed civilian property, including desperately needed aid facilities, targeted civilians, and carried out extrajudicial executions, often based on ethnicity.

“The wanton destruction and violence against civilians in this conflict is shocking,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Both sides need to stop their forces from committing abuses and hold those who have responsible for their actions, and the African Union (AU) should accelerate its long promised investigations.”

Since late December 2013 Human Rights Watch researchers have investigated allegations of serious abuses and violations of international humanitarian law in Juba, Bor, Bentiu, and Malakal. Researchers interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses of the fighting and attacks, and investigated sites of attacks in all locations where security permitted access.

The towns of Malakal and Bentiu are now extensively destroyed and mostly empty because terrified residents fled to United Nations (UN) camps and surrounding rural areas. Threat of further attacks and targeting of civilians based on ethnicity prevent the vast majority from returning. Both towns are important political and economic hubs, where residents from many ethnicities have lived together.

Despite an agreement on January 23, 2014, to end the hostilities, and signed on by both the government and antigovernment forces, now known as SPLA-in-Opposition, there have been new attacks by both sides. Credible reports indicate that government forces, in some cases supported by the Ugandan military, attacked Leer, Gatdiang, and other locations in Unity state in early February.

On February 18 opposition forces, including the so-called white army of armed Nuer fighters, attacked Malakal. Human Rights Watch has also received credible reports that on February 19 opposition forces killed civilians at the Malakal hospital, and that fighting both near and inside the UN camp in Malakal resulted in additional casualties.

A political dispute between President Salva Kiir, from the Dinka ethnicity, and former Vice President Riek Machar, from the Nuer ethnicity, is behind the conflict. The fighting began when members of the South Sudanese presidential guard clashed in Juba, the country’s capital, on December 15, 2013. President Kiir said the fighting was a coup attempt by Machar and his allies, which Machar has denied. Since December 15, the conflict has spread to other towns and villages in Unity, Upper Nile, and Jonglei states.

In any armed conflict, murder, attacks directed at civilians, civilian property – including objects used for humanitarian relief – and pillage are prohibited and constitute war crimes. A clear pattern of reprisal killings based on ethnicity, massive destruction, and widespread looting has emerged in this conflict, Human Rights Watch said, based on its research.

In Juba, Human Rights Watch researchers found that Dinka members of South Sudan’s security forces carried out widespread killings and mass arrests of Nuer soldiers and civilians during the first week of the crisis. Human Rights Watch has also documented killings of Dinka civilians in the town of Bor, where opposition forces – including the Nuer “white army” fighters – destroyed and looted markets and homes, and killed civilians hiding in their homes or other buildings. As elsewhere in South Sudan, the attacking Nuer youths have cited revenge for the killing of Nuer in Juba as a motivation.

In Bentiu and the adjacent town of Rubkona, a majority ethnic Nuer area, there was fighting between pro and antigovernment members of the country’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) on December 20 and 21. Opposition forces held the towns until January 10, 2014. Human Rights Watch received reports that government forces, consisting of pro-government SPLA and Sudanese rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) fighters, extensively looted shops, homes, markets, and offices of aid agencies. Large areas of Bentiu and most of Rubkona were burned during the recapture of the towns.

Although most civilians fled their homes ahead of the arrival of the government forces, government soldiers shot and killed civilians who remained, residents said. Human Rights Watch also received reports that government forces burned villages in Guit county as they pursued the opposition forces in the following days.

When opposition forces were in control, the antigovernment soldiers, together with police and civilians, looted Bentiu and Rubkona, including before fleeing the towns on and in the days before January 10. As antigovernment soldiers and civilians fled into rural areas, the soldiers also stole precious food from civilians.

Researchers also found that prior to the first clash in December 2013, ethnic Nuer – including members of government security personnel – had attacked ethnic Dinka living in Bentiu and Rubkona, including targeted killings.

In Malakal, an ethnically diverse town of mainly Shilluk, Nuer, and Dinka communities, conflict erupted on December 24 when pro and antigovernment forces clashed at SPLA barracks, the airport, and key locations in town. The government recaptured the town on December 27, but it changed hands again on January 14, 2014, January 20, and most recently on February 18, following a third attack by opposition forces.

The town has been extensively burned and looted, and almost all civilians have fled to villages, churches, the hospital, or the UN compound north of the town.

Human Rights Watch found that each side, when in effective control of the town, attacked civilians, destroyed and looted civilian property – including food and humanitarian aid – and targeted people based on their ethnicity. During a week in January when the opposition effectively controlled Malakal, for example, “white army” Nuer fighters went house to house looting and robbing residents at gunpoint, killing some in cold blood.

While government forces were in control of Malakal from January 20 through mid-February, soldiers looted and burned civilian properties and carried out targeted killings of civilian ethnic Nuer men, including inside the Malakal teaching hospital, witnesses and family members told Human Rights Watch.

The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) provided safe haven for tens of thousands of civilians – more than 27,000 in Malakal and more than 7,000 in Bentiu at the height of the conflict – and in some cases transported residents to safety, almost certainly saving numerous lives.

“The conflict in South Sudan is far from over, with civilians still at risk of further abuse even inside UN compounds,” Bekele said. “Military commanders from both sides have an obligation to immediately and unequivocally order their forces to stop attacking civilians and civilian property, and the commanders need to hold abusive soldiers to account.”

A thorough and impartial investigation into human rights abuses during this conflict is a necessary first step to secure justice for victims and to respond to widespread anger, in particular resulting from the ethnic targeted killings of civilians. Unaddressed, these abuses risk leading to further violence, Human Rights Watch said.

On February 21 the UN mission released its interim report on human rights abuses during the conflict, detailing abuses by both sides. The report is a positive step and should be followed by more frequent public reporting in an effort to prevent further abuses by both sides.

On December 30, 2013, the AU Peace and Security Council called for an AU commission of inquiry to report by March 30, 2014, on human rights violations and other abuses during the conflict. Despite the urgency of this task, the commission has yet to be appointed.

“The start of the AU’s promised investigation is long overdue,” Bekele said. “It is urgently needed, both to prevent further abuses and as a crucial step in the path to lasting peace.”

For further details, please see below.

Bentiu and Rubkona

Bentiu and neighboring Rubkona are a gateway to key oil fields, with a population largely of ethnic Nuer. On December 21, 2013, following skirmishes between pro and antigovernment forces at army barracks, General James Koang, the head of the SPLA’s Division 4, defected and declared himself the military governor of Unity state. His forces exercised control over the towns until January 10, 2014, when government forces attacked and recaptured them.

During the period when Koang’s forces were in control, opposition soldiers loyal to him, as well as police and civilians, extensively looted markets, shops, and the offices of numerous international aid organizations.

After taking control of the town on January 10, pro-government forces also looted and burned large areas of Bentiu, including markets on either side of the main road and almost all of Rubkona market and surrounding neighborhoods, leaving only charred remains.

Bentiu and Rubkona are currently under government control. Some civilians have returned to the town looking for food, but the majority of the population continues to take shelter at the UN base or have fled to other areas.

Attacks on Civilians by Government Forces

As the government forces entered Rubkona from the north on January 10, Dinka who had taken shelter at the UN compound, including some pro-government soldiers who had fled during Koang’s defection, jumped over the fence and joined the attacking forces. Witnesses saw the government soldiers give these men weapons, including machetes, and described seeing some men from this group beat Nuer civilians living next to the base and burn numerous huts.

At least five people were killed, including an elderly woman who was burned in her hut. “They came, pushed me in, and then lit my house on fire,” said another elderly woman who survived and who still had severe burns on her face and arms when she spoke to Human Rights Watch. “They were singing in Dinka when they came up to me. When they saw that I had [traditional scarification] marks, they identified me as Nuer.”

Almost all of Rubkona and Bentiu’s civilian population had fled the towns ahead of the government attack. Government forces shot at the remaining civilians, killing some as they fled toward the UN compound. A witness told Human Rights Watch that he saw Sudanese rebels from JEM and government soldiers taking aim and shooting civilians as they were running toward the UN base.

After the government forces recaptured the town, witnesses saw about 30 civilian bodies on the road between the town and the UN base, including some in areas where there had been no exchange of fire with opposition forces. Civilians who fled to nearby streams and swampy areas said the government soldiers shot at them in their hiding places in tall rushes.

“I saw three people shot … in the head and chest,” said one man who hid among reeds for three days without food or water. “On the second day of hiding they decided to walk out [of hiding] and then they were shot.” Another man who hid nearby in a riverbed said soldiers burned the rushes, perhaps to get a better look at where people were hiding: “If you got out you would be killed, if the grass [rushes] moved they shot at you,” he said. The same man saw soldiers shoot a boy running beside him as he fled, and saw the bodies of a woman and two other children in the river after soldiers shot them.

Human Rights Watch was also shown the remains of five civilians reportedly shot on the same day in a neighborhood of Rubkona, close to these hiding areas. Their bodies had been burned at the site. A young man, around 18 years old, said he had been shot in his left thigh by government soldiers as he ran away from them. A government worker said his 19-year-old nephew was also killed on January 10 and his body had been left in the Kallevalle neighborhood of Bentiu. Several people told Human Rights Watch that they had seen or heard of bodies left in various neighborhoods in Bentiu following the recapture of the town.

Ethnic Targeting Before the Government Attack

Human Rights Watch found that prior to the clashes on December 20, 2013, ethnic Nuer members of security forces targeted ethnic Dinka civilians in Bentiu and Rubkona in reprisal for the killings of Nuer in Juba in December.

A government administrator was killed and two others were injured when a mix of Nuer police and wildlife personnel attacked a house in Bentiu, a relative of the inhabitants said. One woman said Nuer members of the wildlife service beat her aunt so badly on the night of December 20 that she later died. Another man said that Nuer policemen had killed four people in his house after he fled.

One church leader said he gathered frightened Dinka in his church on the night of December 19 as Nuer civilians and armed police moved around his neighborhood looking for Dinka: “I heard people talking behind my fence saying, ‘We will kill all Dinka.’ It was a mix of civilians and police.” He saw the body of a Dinka woman, a cleaner in his church, among around 15 corpses sent to the hospital the next day.

A senior government official said that about 70 Dinka civilians had been killed during the targeted killing in the towns. As most Dinka had already moved to ethnic Dinka parts of Unity state, Human Rights Watch was unable to ascertain the full extent of the killings.

Efforts by government officials, army officials, and the UN mission to collect Dinka and move them to the UN camp probably helped save many lives.

Malakal

Conflict spread to Malakal, the ethnically diverse town with large groups of Shilluk, Nuer, and Dinka, on December 24. Nuer forces commanded by General Garhouth Galwak defected from the SPLA and other security organs and clashed with the pro-government forces in several locations, including near the UN compound north of town.

The government recaptured the town on December 27 and held it for several weeks. The town changed hands again with an opposition attack on January 14, 2014, back to a government recapture on January 20, and a another opposition attack on February 18. The attacking opposition forces in January and February included thousands of fighters in the so-called white army, the name used to describe large groups of armed Nuer youths fighting en masse, in addition to uniformed opposition soldiers.

Forces on both sides killed many civilians, often based on their ethnicity. The death toll is unknown, but many people interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they saw dozens of bodies lying on main roads in January and February. In addition to the targeted killings, civilians were killed in the crossfire during clashes near the UN compound on December 24, 2013, January 20, 2014, and February 18, and as a result of fighting inside the camp for displaced people inside the compound.

Attacks on Civilians by Opposition Forces

During their attack on January 14, the opposition “white army” fighters, wearing colored headbands to indicate their country of origin, went house to house demanding money, phones, food, or other goods. They looted indiscriminately, including from ethnic Nuer residents, but appear to have carried out more violence against non-Nuer residents.

In one example, two armed “white army” members shot a man from Maban county in the face and stomach, killing him instantly, when he refused to hand over money and mobile phones, said his 22-year-old wife, who witnessed the shooting:

When the rebels came from Nassir, we were at home. Some came together and demanded a mobile. My husband, Jumaa, said ‘No, we don’t have one.’ The rebels left but then two of them came back and again asked for a mobile and money. They pointed their gun at Jumaa and shot him in the belly and in the mouth.

A priest from Western Equatoria from the Moro ethnic group, told Human Rights Watch that he had remained in town following the opposition attack on January 14. He said that a soldier had arrested his son, tied his hands, and took him to the river at gunpoint. “The neighbor who saw this called us, and me and his mother went running after the soldier,” the clergyman said. “He started to fire in the air, then recognized me and let my son go.”

Many witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they had left the town before the January 14 attack. They said that people who returned to the town after the attack reported seeing dead bodies on the streets or in homes, and that the victims apparently had been shot during robberies. Since the opposition forces recaptured the town on February 18, witnesses reported seeing additional dead bodies and burning houses.

Ethnic Targeting by Government Forces

Human Rights Watch received consistent reports from many sources that government soldiers targeted ethnic Nuer males for arrest and killings after January 20. A Nuer Presbyterian pastor was among those reported killed, as he was shot in the street in the days after the town was recaptured.

“When the government came, they targeted Nuers,” said a witness, a clergyman. “One pastor we know was killed. He put on his collar and wanted to visit the hospital but was shot on the way.”

A 20-year-old student told Human Rights Watch that a group of seven soldiers arrested him and two friends as they were walking to the UN compound on January 20. The soldiers tied the youths’ hands with rope, put them in a vehicle, and then handed them over to other soldiers at a military barracks.

“They lined us up outside of a building and started shooting at us,” he said. “When they shot at me I just fell down.” The three of them were left for dead, but an hour later another soldier discovered that one youth was alive and took him to the hospital. His wounds required amputation of his right hand.

Another student, 18, said that on January 24 a group of government soldiers arrested him and two other Nuer youths at their home in Muderia area, took them to the riverbank, and shot at them.

“They took us because we are Nuers,” the youth said. “They walked us to the riverside near the hospital. They told us to sit down and then they shot us. I tried to run into the river after I was shot and I fell into the water.”

He was shot in the buttocks and the thigh, and could not walk. Another soldier found him later that day and took him to a church. He believes the other two youths were killed.

Soldiers also arrested Nuer men at the Malakal teaching hospital, where thousands of residents, most of them Nuer, had sought refuge when the government recaptured the town. Witnesses said the soldiers pulled the young men out of the hospital, took them near the river, and shot them. One 24 year old student who had sought refuge in the hospital said he went to the riverbank after hearing gunshots in the evening and saw four bodies of Nuer men in their twenties.

Another student, also in his early twenties, was in the hospital because he had been shot in the crossfire during the December 2013 clashes. He told Human Rights Watch that a soldier had entered his room where he was staying, demanded his younger brother, 20, come out of the hospital, then took him near the river and shot him. Their 60-year-old mother found the body the next day. “When I went to the river I saw my son with my own eyes,” she told Human Rights Watch. “I couldn’t bury him because soldiers were at the river.”

Widespread Destruction, Looting

The clashes and attacks, widespread looting and destruction, and other abuses by both sides have left the town destroyed and empty. Many witnesses noted that Malakal has never seen this level of destruction, even during the long civil war. Tens of thousands of civilians, some fleeing ahead of the first clash in December 2013, are now in villages or taking shelter at churches or the UN compound, seven kilometers from the town.

Following initial looting and burning by opposition forces in December, thousands of “white army” fighters from Nassir, Ulong, and other Nuer areas did substantial damage during six days in January 2014, looting the remaining shops, homes, and humanitarian aid compounds. These forces continued to destroy civilian properties when they regained control over the town following a February 17, 2014, attack, according to aid workers.

Government forces also looted and burned civilian property after January 20, said displaced residents who are now at the UN compound, particularly as law and order broke down and many of the state’s top officials defected or fled. When Human Rights Watch visited the town on February 13, several homes were aflame or smoldering from fires caused by vandalism

When I touch the sensitive subject of security, all I see is discomfort and eyes wandering off to avoid mine. On Friday (21 February) I met with another young woman, a girl in fact, who is so uncomfortable speaking about the topic, in this camp for South Sudanese refugees in Arua, North Uganda.

Just 17 years old, Nyebuony escaped the violence in South Sudan, together with her three siblings. No parents, just them, as appears to be quite common in this crisis.

Being the oldest girl, she is now taking care of her siblings. And as women do in South Sudan, it is now her task to fetch water at the newly restored water pump outside the camp.

The dangerous trip for water

She arrived here in settlement camp Katiku 2 in January to escape the violence in South Sudan. As much she is avoiding to speak about her sense of security in her new life as a refugee, she does in fact give me the answer indirectly, when she says she would like to have a bigger jerry can.

Four times a day she walks the distance with her small jerry can, and pumps up the water. If she had a bigger jerry can, she could limit her duty to twice a day, which would be a great relief to her. But the agencies ran out of jerry cans, and new orders are yet to be delivered. So four times a day it is.

It is a very touchy subject, so I learned on this trip that took me from Juba in South Sudan to Gulu and Arua in Northern Uganda.

Women are marginalized

Women are already very marginalized in the South Sudanese society. Violence against women is not uncommon, and is above all seen as a very private matter. I can only imagine how exposed especially single mothers, and young girls are to harassment and sexual violence, but we know little, too little so far. And I’m worried we don’t do enough to make sure we limit the threats to women to violence and abuse.

In all camps I visited, from UN House in Juba, to the settlement camps here in Uganda, the number off latrines is far from sufficient and they are not set up in a way that they can offer women the necessary privacy and protection. And single moms and child-led families are not yet receiving the minimum required assistance.

A mandate to protect

This past week, I’ve grown even more determined to keep asking the same question about the security of women. And now to ourselves, the aid workers, the UNHCR – who are mandated to protect refugees across the world – and to the responsible authorities.

Too many of my questions about lack of protection were returned with procedural replies.

The lack of assistance to vulnerable mothers and child-led households, as well as to the elderly, is just so frustrating, that I will keep insisting on immediate and practical action. Coordination should improve, and we should maintain a joint sense of urgency about these topics.

Gender issues, and protection of women are real-life issues, and in this crisis thousands of women are potentially subject to violence and abuse. And so together with my great appreciation of the massive accomplishments of our staff, our partner organizations and colleague-aid workers, I also want to express my concerns over the position of women.

Let’s take on the problems where ever we find them with no delay.

Farah Karimi is Executive Dirctor of Oxfam Novib. She is travelling to South Sudan and Northern Uganda, to witness the impact of the crisis in South Sudan and to assess the needs of the population.

02/27/2014 03:38 GMT

by Hannah McNeish

RUMBEK, February 27, 2014 (AFP) - The children living on a patch of dirt at a United Nations base in Rumbek, capital of South Sudan's Lakes state, sit quietly making mud figurines carrying huge guns, shielded from stone-throwers by a ring of trucks.

Many like Mary Nyataba, from neighbouring Unity state and a member of the Nuer tribe, are too scared to leave the UN base as a political crisis between rival leaders turns increasingly tribal -- and is separating families.

"Since December, I haven't heard about them," said Nyataba of her two children. She cannot reach her husband or parents in a village she knows was attacked and razed.

Of around 100 people sheltering in Lakes state -- which has a handful of Nuer -- about half of them were just passing through on their way to the capital Juba.

But a power struggle there between South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, who comes from the largest Dinka ethnic group, and his former deputy Riek Machar, a Nuer, stopped them in their tracks.

Kiir's attempts to disarm the Nuer in the presidential guard sparked gun battles that shot through the security forces nationwide, provoking large-scale defections and the formation of a rebel army that was joined by tribal militia.

Now, over 70,000 people -- largely from the Dinka and Nuer tribes -- are hiding separately in UN bases, fearful of neighbours and former colleagues.

Policeman David Kuich says that when Kiir branded Machar a coup plotter on December 15, his mainly Dinka colleagues suddenly turned on him.

"They said: 'You're all rebels. What happened in Juba was a military coup plotted by Riek Machar and you're all supporting him'," he said.

"During the course of the argument they started shooting at us," and four officers were killed, he recalled.

• 'Worse things could happen' -

Kuich and 22 others escaped to the forest, where they hid until a Dinka commissioner came to the rescue. He brought nine officers and all the Nuer women and children stuck in the army barracks to a police station for their own safety.

But after several days, men came to attack again, after two Dinka were hijacked and shot on a nearby road.

Samuel Lam, an economics student at Rumbek university, says that armed men started threatening anyone who was Nuer.

"They told us that they would deal with us anytime if the violence continued."

After women were also threatened, with one "tied up in the market for hours to a chair", and interrogated first by civilians then by the police, Lam and others decided that "there was no choice but to come to the UN".

When stones started sailing into the UN camp in the second week, Lam knew his plans for going home were dangerous.

"We are fearing the local community. This is a sign," he said. "If you go outside, more or worse things could happen."

So far, Lakes state has been largely quiet. But in three neighbouring states and further north, government and rebel forces are locked in a cycle of revenge attacks.

This has sent tens of thousands running to the bush or swamps around the River Nile to hide on islands, while some 200,000 have fled the fledgling country altogether.

Kuich says there is no escaping the tribalism that has seeped into South Sudan, a country born from decades of war with Sudan less than three years ago, whose leaders are now tearing it apart.

"I don't have hope for the future unless there's another government," he said. "People still suspect you, based on your ethnicity. It's a real threat now."

• Life behind razor wire -

Philip Kot, a plucky 69-year-old and Lakes coordinator for the state-run Relief and Rehabiliation Commission, said the current fighting was worse than the civil war with Sudan that killed around two million people.

"What has happened is more regretful than before. People have turned a political crisis into ethnic fighting like never before," he said.

"It has affected the poor people that have nothing to do with politics, and they are dying."

With youth being co-opted into joining government forces with promises of guns or war spoils, or tempted into tribal militias by what Kot calls the "witchcraft" of local legends, peace seems elusive.

"After all this, how do you sit down and make people see that this was a political crisis?" asked Lakes security advisor Santo Domic.

For 24-year-old Nyakuma Wuor, the cries of "Free at last" that rang out on July 9, 2011, when South Sudan's flag was first raised over the newly-independent nation, now ring hollow.

"Before I was at home, comfortable, and free to go where I want," she said.

Now caged in by razor wire and trucks for her own safety, she can't get home to try to find out what has happened to her six-year-old son and her husband.

"You feel isolated... and sometimes sick from unhappiness," she said.

Wuor had "a very big plan" to send her children to school. The first generation who everyone expected to lift a battle-scarred land out of poverty are instead refugees in their own country, playing out their trauma with sinister mud men.

"Now with this crisis, I have no plans," she said.

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© 1994-2014 Agence France-Presse

London, UK, 25 February 2014 – In an important decision, Africa’s regional human rights treaty body - the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights - held that Sudan is responsible for the arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and ill-treatment of 88 internally displaced persons (IDPs).

The 88 complainants are Sudanese nationals who had escaped conflict in South Sudan and Darfur and settled in the Soba Aradi camp in the South East of Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. In 2005, they resisted an official attempt to forcibly relocate thousands of residents. They claimed that the authorities detained them for more than twelve months without charge or access to the outside world. In detention, officials tortured them to extract confessions, including with severe beatings using various objects. Following their release, they lodged a complaint against the police about the torture suffered, which the Sudanese authorities have failed to investigate.

The African Commission fully vindicated the claims of the 88 IDPs. It ruled that they did not have access to effective remedies because Sudanese police officers enjoy immunity from prosecution, which can only be lifted by the head of the police. The Commission also found that the complainants had been arbitrarily arrested and detained, and subjected to torture in violation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Importantly, the Commission requested Sudan to pay adequate compensation, to initiate an effective and impartial investigation and to amend legislation, in addition to providing training to security officers on human rights standards.

“We welcome the ruling, as it vindicates the claims brought by 88 individuals, who as IDPs in Sudan, already lived in precarious circumstances. When they resisted arbitrary relocation, they were subjected to further abusive law enforcement,” said Carla Ferstman, Director of REDRESS. “It is now critical that Sudan complies with the decision of the African Commission and implements it speedily.”

“This decision is very important for the victims in this case, many of whom suffered serious physical injuries and psychological trauma”, said Ali Agab, a lawyer who represented the complainants in Sudan on behalf of the Khartoum Centre for Human Rights and Environmental Development. “Sudan should now demonstrate that it takes its human rights treaty obligations seriously and carry out the measures requested by the African Commission.”

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Lutz Oette, Counsel, REDRESS, on +44 (0) 20 7793 1777 or Ali Agab, Lawyer, at +44 (0) 7588501237.

About REDRESS: REDRESS was founded by a British torture survivor in 1992. Since then, it has consistently fought for the rights of torture survivors and their families in the UK and abroad. REDRESS takes legal challenges on behalf of survivors, works to ensure that torturers are punished and that survivors and their families obtain remedies for their suffering. It has intervened in a range of leading torture cases. More information on our work on: www.redress.org

Key messages

• The humanitarian situation has dramatically deteriorated as a result of the armed violence that broke out in the capital Juba on 15 December 2013, subsequently spreading to several states in South Sudan. Around 716 500 people have been internally displaced and 166 900 have sought refuge in neighboring countries. The dead and the wounded are estimated to be in the tens of thousands.

• A rapid improvement in the security situation is needed to allow unimpeded humanitarian access to all affected people and unhindered deployment of aid workers as well as relief supplies throughout the country. On 23 January 2014, an agreement on the cessation of hostilities in South Sudan was signed in Addis Ababa, but frequent violations of the agreement by both sides are reported. On 12 February 2014, a second round of talks opened in the Ethiopian capital.

• The main humanitarian needs are for food, clean water, healthcare, shelter, sanitation, hygiene and protection. Current humanitarian response capacity is insufficient and might decrease further due to the upcoming rainy season from March. The UN has declared South Sudan a "level 3" crises.

• The recent hostilities have added to an already challenging humanitarian situation, including inter-communal violence, frequent natural disasters and fighting between the government and non-state parties which have created huge humanitarian needs and displaced thousands of people.

• The European Commission is making €50 million available in 2014 to respond to the unfolding and intensifying humanitarian crisis in the country. At this stage, the total EU support for 2013/14 amounts to over €259 million.

February 26, 14 (BOR) - Cattle raids, child abduction and fear of rebel attacks have hit Twic East county in Jonglei, forcing the civilians to flee the areas to Lakes state according to the commissioner, Dau Akoi.

On Thursday 20 February hundreds of cattle were raided from Twic East county, and three children were abducted around Panyagoor, the county headquarters.

According to the Twic East commissioner who addressed the media in Bor on Wednesday evening, two boys among the abducted ones returned home after they escaped from the abductors’ hands, revealing the identities of the criminals as members of Murle community.

"We are sure that Murle looted our cattle plus one boy child remained whom they abducted. The two boys proved to us [that] they [raiders/abductors] were from Murle", the commissioner said.

Sudan Tribune was not able to meet the two boys who escaped from the abductors or reach the commissioner of Pibor county to verify the claims.

"My county is facing threats of attacks from two sides, Lou Nuer as well as Murle. A lot of people are now fleeing the area together with the people who came from Duk county", he said.

The United Nations estimate that almost 130,000 people have been displaced within Jonglei and over 42,000 forced to flee to neighbouring Ethiopia.

On various occasions the rebels led by Riek Machar are believed to have promised that they would not attack Twic East County. Some in Jonglei have alleged that this was because some chiefs had helped the rebels by providing them with cows in January.

However, Akoi rejected the claims that his county has any links with Machar’s rebels and said the allegations had been cooked up to create a bad image of his county.

Dr. Majak Agoot, the former deputy minister of defense, who is from Maar in Twic County, is a supporter of Machar and one of the 11 senior figures from South Sudan’s ruling party arrested in connection with the fighting the capital, Juba, on December 15, which the government claim was a coup attempt.

Seven of those arrested have been released and are now participating in peace talks in Ethiopia, but Agoot is among the four officials still being held without charge in Juba.

(ST)

A. Situation analysis

Description of the disaster The conflict in South Sudan that started on 15 December 2013 has caused fatalities and displacement among the civilian population. People have been wounded and many have fled their homes, of which some have crossed the borders to neighboring countries, including fleeing to Sudan. Until now, despite a ceasefire agreement, insecurity remains in South Sudan, causing continued displacement and uncertainty for people, influencing their decisions not to return home yet. This translates into an increase in the humanitarian assistance demand. Latest figures suggests that more than 700,000 internally displaced and almost 150,000 persons that have fled into neighboring countries. Sudan has up to date received more than 20,000 persons, of which most are received in White Nile State.

In the border region with South Sudan, several reception centers have been established in the states of South Kordofan, West Kordofan, White Nile, Blue Nile, East Darfur and Khartoum. Locations for reception centers have been allocated by the lead agencies in the interventions, namely the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) and the Commission of Refugees (COR) at national and state level. The reception centers hosting the displaced population are located in areas primarily inhabited by subsistence farmers, with limited access to health facilities and safe water.

Most of the arrivals are women, children and the elderly. Although Sudanese Red Crescent Society (SRCS) are present in all affected states, efforts have been concentrated in White Nile State, where most of the displaced populations are received. According to SRCS, as of 17 February 2014, the two reception centers Al Kwaik Kilo 10 (hereinafter Kilo 10) and Alagaya (Goda) in White Nile State hosts a total of 13,965 persons of which the majority is unaccompanied minors, pregnant or lactating women and elderly. Due to the limited service available to the displaced in terms of shelter, safe water and health facilities, many of the arrivals have expressed a wish to continue to urban environments such as Kosti and Khartoum.

Based on the steady influx of new arrivals and the on-going insecurity in South Sudan, especially in the states bordering White Nile and Blue Nile states, the numbers of people crossing the border are expected to continue to increase. The most recent report from SRCS indicates around 300 daily new arrivals in Sudan majority of who are entering White Nile State. Due to the pending decision of the classification of the displaced population, SRCS is currently the main actor on the ground, who is able to respond to the emergency.

SRCS have been transporting arrivals from the border to reception centers in five trucks and four land cruisers. After registration, the arrivals are hosted in the reception centers where SRCS have been providing tarpaulins (provided by UNHCR) and tents (own stock) for shelter. The refugees arrive with very limited or no household belongings.

There is an urgent need to support SRCS in their emergency intervention. Pending the classification of the arrivals, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is still in discussion with the government around potential involvement. SRCS is in the process of revising the complex emergency appeal being implemented in the same geographical areas as the areas being affected by the influx of people arriving from South Sudan. However, as the appeal in its current form focus on already identified internally displaced persons within Sudan, a revision is needed for SRCS to be able to mobilize additional resources to cover also the new arrivals from South Sudan with the appeal. Until the revision is being done, there is a need to support SRCS in their immediate emergency response efforts to assist the refugees from South Sudan.

JUBA, Feb 27 2014 (IPS) - Gatmai Deng lost three family members in the violence that erupted in South Sudan on Dec. 15 and lasted until the end of January. And he blames their deaths on the government’s failure to use the country’s vast oil revenues to create a better life for its almost 11 million people.

When the country gained independence from Sudan in 2011, many hoped that their new government would provide them with the services that successive Sudanese governments had denied the South Sudanese, Gatmai tells IPS.

“But that government is no different from the Khartoum governments that marginalised South Sudanese citizens. Where are the hospitals? Where are the schools, where is the clean drinking water they promised us?” Gatmai asks.

South Sudan earns 98 percent of its revenue from oil exports. Between 2005 and 2012 – when the country stopped production because of a pipeline dispute with Sudan – South Sudan earned more than 10 billion dollars from oil exports, according to both government and World Bank officials.

When South Sudan resumed oil production in April 2013, the Ministry of Petroleum reported that it made 1.3 billion dollars in the first six months of production.

But despite this, most parts of the country are inaccessible by road. So far, South Sudan has slightly more than 110 kilometres of tarmac roads in the capital, Juba. There is only one 120-kilometre tarmac highway linking Juba to the border with neighbouring Uganda.

“I think the oil money is benefiting [President] Salva Kiir and his ministers,” Gatmai says from Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, where he sought refuge following the outbreak of violence in his country. The fighting left thousands dead and wounded, displacing 863,000 others.

According to an interim human rights report released by the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan on Feb. 23, mass ethnic-based killings, gang rapes and torture were carried out by government troops and various opposition militia. Battles were fiercest in Jonglei, Upper Nile, Unity and Central Equatoria states.

But analysts agree with Gatmai that the economic conditions here, characterised by high unemployment amongst the youth, an almost non-existent private sector and an over-dependence on the government as the biggest sole employer, may have contributed to the current conflict.

Dr. Leben Nelson Moro, professor of development studies at Juba University tells IPS that oil has been more a curse than a blessing for South Sudan. Moro says once the violence started, “it became easy to recruit those who felt excluded from the country’s wealth into hostile activities.

“A lot of the oil revenues were taken by a few people in positions of authority. Services were not provided to large sections of the population. We don’t have roads [and] we don’t have other basic services such as health care,” Moro points out.

“The revenues were not used to generate employment for young people. This generated some grievance against the few people in government who seem to be benefiting from the country’s resources,” Moro says.

In practice, the government has no policy or strategy to increase the social economic integration of its youth.

A large majority of the population relies on the agriculture sector for survival and employment. However, the government is the single biggest employer in the country.

Badru Mulumba, editor of The New Times newspaper and a political commentator, tells IPS that it is this reliance on the government that led to the current conflict.

“In this case politicians who found themselves out of power wanted to get back to positions of power in order to sustain their influence back in their communities,” he says.

He explains that many ordinary, unemployed people looked towards their relatives in government being in positions of power as their source of income and livelihood.

“If ordinary people had independent sources of income outside of the government, they wouldn’t have followed politicians who took up arms against those in power,” Mulumba explains.

According to the World Bank’s African Economic Outlook for 2012, youth unemployment in South Sudan remains quite high.

“Insufficient labour demand, lack of skilled labour supply, absence of a coherent government policy, and the lack of a sound legal and regulatory framework limit the absorption of youth by the labour market,” the document says.

There are no official figures on the rate of youth unemployment but figures from Oxfam International show that only 12 percent of women and 11 percent of men within the active population are formally employed.

The reliance on livestock by the country’s largest ethnic groups may have also contributed to the instability here. Both the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups, among others, use cattle to pay bride price, pay compensation and penalties under customary law and even exchange cattle for food.

“A large population of the country relies on a cattle economy, so people somehow accept this culture where you can raid cattle from the rival communities so you can accumulate more and become powerful,” Mulumba says.

Between July 2011 and December 2012 alone, more than 3,000 civilians died in inter-communal fighting connected with cattle raiding in South Sudan’s Jonglei, Lakes, Unity and Warap states.

Anne Lino Wuor, a legislator from the country’s restive Jonglei state believes that if leaders engaged young people and provided them with jobs, they would abandon cattle raiding.

“I do think that the only way to bring stability and peace to South Sudan is through development,” Wuor tells IPS.

Pinyjwok Akol Ajawin, director general for youth at the Culture, Youth and Sports Ministry, tells IPS that the country’s “youth got politically manipulated”.

“They are following their elders and their tribesman. That’s why we are trying to reach out to them [to] enlighten them. Let them know that they are the youth of one country, they belong to South Sudan and they must co-exist so that they see themselves as brothers with those they are trying to fight.”

A National Youth Crisis Management Committee, a community service initiative for the youth, has been created with support from the government.

“This is the only way to keep young South Sudanese busy and to discourage them from joining the ongoing conflict between government and anti-government forces,” Ajawin says.

Edmond Yakani, executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation, believes otherwise.

“It is only thorough economic reforms that we shall bring stability to this country,” he tells IPS.

(Feb. 27, 2014) The Jonglei State Relief and Rehabilitation office is conducting assessments in Bor to establish the number of people in need of assistance.

The State Governor, John Koang Nyuon issued an appeal to humanitarian agencies on Tuesday, to provide assistance to people returning to the State Capital.

The Director of the State Relief and Rehabilitation office, Gabriel Deng Ajak says up to 40-thousand people have returned to Bor so far.

Deng Ajak says the communities are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

“All the basic social services were completely devastated by the rebels and that begins with water, food and shelter. Those three are the key priorities to be able to settle the civil population. ”

HIGHLIGHTS

• Almost 32,000 people have arrived from South Sudan, according to UNHCR and other organisations.

• Several people were reported killed after inter-tribal fighting erupted this week in Um Dukhun, Central Darfur.

• AUHIP submits to the Government and SPLM-N a proposal on unconditional cessation of hostilities and humanitarian aid to people in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

• Some 2,200 people in a returnee village near Kadugli in South Kordofan have moved into transitional shelters built by UNHCR and its partners.

Context

Since the beginning of the crisis in December 2013, a total of 701,968 civilians have been displaced by armed violence and insecurity. Across the country, 78,955 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have sought shelter and protection at the bases of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS), as well as at several displacement sites, mainly in Unity, Lakes and Upper Nile states. At the time of the assessment, 25,517 IDPs had been registered at the UNMISS Tongping compound, situated near Juba airport. The site suffers from strong congestion issues and new arrivals are being directed to the UN House, also called Juba 3, site. Around 15,744 IDPs have currently been registered at UN House. Civilian populations affected by the ongoing fighting have also gathered in UNMISS bases located in the main urban centres of the country, particularly in Bor (10,238 IDPs), Bentiu (around 2,000 IDPs) and Malakal (around 26,880 IDPs).

The South Sudan Shelter Cluster requested support from REACH for a rapid shelter sector assessment in order to collect information on the places of origin, the types of housing and the level of damage to the homes of IDPs, as well as their intentions in terms of return. The shelter sector assessment also covered issues related to secondary occupation, property and lease rights. REACH deployed an assessment team to South Sudan on the 13th of January 2014, including dedicated specialist capacity on Geographic Information Systems and mapping.

ACCORD's Peacebuilding Unit concluded its third African Peacebuilding Coordination Network (APCN) training in Juba, South Sudan. The training was a follow up to 20 peacebuilding projects that were developed by peacebuilding stakeholders during the first and second trainings that the Unit conducted in Liberia and Burundi. The third training in Juba focused on skills enhancements in the sustainability of projects developed by participants over a period of 5 months.

Skills in strategies and techniques in resource mobilisation were also acquired by participants particularly through the display of their projects on the final day of the training. The projects display provided the opportunity for participants to exemplify their resource mobilisation skills for sustainability of projects. Participants'projects were specific to their country's context and peacebuilding gaps, ranging from in issues from reconciliation, gender issues, reintegration of former combatants, elections to capacity building. These projects have been identified as targeting major issues within the countries and will make a positive impact on a movement towards sustainable peace.

The training was held from 21 – 25 October 2013 and brought together the 20 principal stakeholders from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia and South Sudan. Participants represented government officials, civil society organisations and academia from the Unit's focus countries of interventions.

The APCN trainings created the opportunity for participants to acquire skills in peacebuilding planning and enhanced their ability to secure funding. By the end of the training two participants secured funding for the projects they developed. The host nation, South Sudan's country experience was used as a case study to better understand the challenges of implementing peacebuilding projects.

This activity brings APCN 2013 to an end and can be concluded as a major success for ACCORD, ending on a high note with twenty successful projects, a strengthened network among participants, an interactive online mentoring platform and reinforced understanding of key concepts for successful peacebuilding. ACCORD is proud of how far all of the participants have come since June and looks forward to continued relations. While this was only the first ACPN training, the Peacebuilding Unit hopes to expand the program and continue its mass successes.

For further information on this event or on any of ACCORD's APCN trainings, please contact Mr Gustavo de Carvalho, ACCORD's Peacebuilding Coordinator at Gustavo@accord.org.za, or Mr Abu Sherif, ACCORD's Peacebuilding Senior Programme Officer at Abu@accord.org.za

Introduction

In the early morning hours of August 21, 2013, artillery and mortar shells equipped with sarin gas exploded amidst the agricultural neighborhoods of Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus. Those exposed to the nerve agent foamed from the nose and mouth, convulsing, desperate for air. Rows of victims, covered in white burial shrouds, soon lay motionless on hospital floors. At least 1,429 Syrian civilians, including 426 children, and many of the brave activists who had raced to the scene with video cameras to show the world what had happened, died on that day. The poisonous gas attack, perpetrated by the Syrian army, marked the most lethal chemical weapons attack in decades. It is one of many horrors in a civil war filled with countless crimes against humanity, from the torture and murder of prisoners to the targeting of civilians with barrel bombs and Scud missiles, which has claimed more than 100,000 lives. The tragedy that has befallen the Syrian people stands apart in its scope and human cost. But it is not the only major human rights calamity of 2013 – some born of negligence and others of malice, some committed by physical force, and others by legislative abuse.

In April, amid growing concerns about the hazardous labor conditions and fire safety standards in Bangladesh, the collapse of an eight-story factory building killed more than 1,000 garment workers and injured more than 2,500, leaving hundreds more with permanent disabilities, making it one of the world’s worst garment industry tragedies in recent memory. In August, according to most nongovernmental organizations, Egyptian security forces killed approximately 600-900 protesters in breaking up two sit-in demonstrations, making them by far the most violent disruptions of protests in 2013.

Three years ago, the promise of the Arab Awakening gave hope to millions. In different ways, from Libya to Tunisia to Yemen, governments and their people have made progress along the inevitably long and arduous path of building democratic institutions checked by the rule of law. Just as inevitably, in the Middle East and beyond, those threatened by demands for pluralism have pushed back.

From Independence Square in Ukraine to Gezi Park in Turkey, authorities resorted to violence to disperse peaceful protests around the world, seriously injuring scores of people. Cuba continued to organize mobs to physically assault peaceful marchers, China tightened controls on the internet and stepped up a crackdown on anti-corruption protesters and other activists, Vietnam continued to use vague national security laws to curb freedom of expression and association both online and offline, and Russia continued to suppress those critical of the government.

More than six decades after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a widening gap persists between the rights conferred by law and the daily realities for many around the globe. More than one third of the world’s population still lives under authoritarian rule. Serious human rights violations continue to occur, often unchecked and en masse, in closed societies. Millions are denied civil liberties, persecuted, harassed or silenced for their beliefs, subjected to torture, detained arbitrarily and unlawfully, or labor in harsh or coercive conditions, often without mechanisms for redress or accountability.

And yet, as demonstrated this past year, the courageous pursuit of human dignity remains enduring and undeterred. At the end of 2013, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians were braving violence and political repression to demand their rights and freedoms. Libyans risked their lives, marching to replace the rule of militias with the rule of law. The world came together to mourn the passing of human rights icon Nelson Mandela and saw a new generation celebrate a new champion, Malala Yousafzai, the youngest person nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. We witnessed the continued release of political prisoners in Burma and the implementation of a law that prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in Haiti.

The Congressionally mandated annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices reflect continued U.S. interest in, and support for, human rights worldwide. As in years past, the reports chronicle the triumphs and trials, as well as the progress and perils that characterized the state of human rights across the globe in 2013.

The past 12 months have seen notable human rights developments in five key areas:

• a continued crackdown by governments on civil society and the freedoms of association and assembly;
• growing restrictions on free expression and press freedom;
• accountability deficits for security force abuses;
• lack of effective labor rights protections; and
• marginalization of vulnerable groups, in particular:
  • religious and ethnic minorities;
  • women and children;
  • LGBT persons and communities; and
  • persons with disabilities

To view the new 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices visit http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm