Study Reveals Scale of Violence Against Africa's Children

By Phuong Tran
Dakar
21 November 2006

An international study on violence against children, commissioned by the U.N., reveals the severity of violence children suffer in West and Central Africa. The report also highlights steps to improve the situation.

Throughout central and West Africa, it may be a common sight to see children begging at street corners, but the signs of poverty and violence that children endure are not always evident.

In a region where almost half of the population is not registered at birth, children are among the most vulnerable and invisible, according to the U.N. children's body, UNICEF.

Against this backdrop, the U.N. commissioned four years ago an international study to measure the scale of violence against children. The study combines human rights, public health and child protection perspectives, and focuses on five settings where violence occurs: the home and family, schools and educational settings, institutions - including care and justice - the workplace, and the community.

El Kane Mooh, the regional advisor for the non-governmental group Save the Children West Africa, describes the most common types of violence children face in the region, starting with violence in the workplace.

"In West Africa, many children are working," said El Kane Mooh. "[There is also] sexual violence, rape, but also incest, and traditional practices, mainly female genital mutilation, early and forced marriage, and debt [labor] bondage."

Michel Gregoire, with the International Labor Organization, describes the less visible forms of violence children suffer, such as those who are employed as domestic workers.

These less visible forms of violence, he says, are more dangerous because these children are subject to all types of hidden abuses. Gregoire says that there are several million of these less visible victims throughout Africa, who deserve the attention of governments, civil society, and development organizations.

He and other aid workers and advocates for children hailed the study as much needed in the campaign to increase awareness about the often endemic violence children suffer throughout the world.

How can we fight against something if we don't know what the enemy is, asks Gregoire. Only then, he concludes, can we possibly find ways to defend, protect and fight against this violence.

The report calls for a wide range of actions to be taken. One specific recommendation is for governments to set up an independent body that advocates for the rights of children.

Mamadou Ndiaye Diom, 16, a member of a youth club in Dakar, has his own recommendation to end violence against children.

My idea would be, he says, to speak with you and try to break the silence surrounding violence, try to advise youth to speak up and to know what their rights are.

Darfur 'genocide crosses to Chad'

Chad's government has accused Sudan of "exporting the genocide" in Darfur across the border.

It says there have been "numerous victims" of recent clashes between Arabs and non-Arab groups just across the border from Darfur.

Earlier, a minister said that more than 100 people had been killed in separate clashes in south-eastern Chad.

Eastern Chad and Darfur have a similar ethnic make-up and the two governments have swapped charges of backing rebels.

Chad's government called for UN peacekeepers to be deployed along the border area.

"There is a genocide overflowing from Sudan's region of Darfur," it said about the clashes in the Dar Sila area.

Earlier, National Administration Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir said several villages had been burned in last week's violence in Salamat.

He said Arabs had organised attacks on local Kibet villages but that the situation was now under control.

There has been an ongoing dispute between the Arab and the Kibet communities over land issues and water resources.

The BBC's Stephanie Hancock in Chad says there is a general pattern of conflict in the east of the country between Arabs, both from Sudan and Chad, and non-Arab groups.

In April, Chad rebels reached the capital, N'Djamena, before being repulsed.

Sudan denied claims it had backed Chad's rebels, while Chad denied supporting the black African rebels in Darfur.

Some two million people have been displaced in Darfur and at least 200,000 are estimated to have died in the three-and-a-half year conflict.

Sudan's government says it is disarming Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, who have been accused of carrying out genocide on its behalf.

Khartoum also denies claims of genocide.

Aid worker tells of migrant ordeal

Austin Wainwright, a worker with the Spanish Red Cross, describes helping African migrants who arrive in the Canary Islands after days at sea in small boats.

The basic story most of the people tell is that they would rather die trying to make it to Europe than to stay in their country.

They say they have no future, because work is very scarce and they need to feed their families. They think life will be easy here if they can get a job. They say they are doing what any father or brother would do to protect his family.

To get here from Mauritania takes about four to six days. From Senegal it can be two weeks, more if they get lost. In one case it was about 20 days.

Most come in open wooden boats. One we had this morning was carrying 98 people, though there have been up to 170.

There is no shelter, except sometimes a plastic tarpaulin stretched over part of the boat. They are packed in with no room to stretch out. There are no cooking facilities - or only a small stove - and no bathroom, just a bucket.

Infections

Some have nasty salt sores caused by wet clothing rubbing continuously for many, many days.

Some have nasty infected wounds, which can be caused by something as small as a splinter. They may be suffering from hypothermia or dehydration.

We provide humanitarian and medical aid, either at the harbour at Los Cristianos, or on the beach.

We provide clothing kits, containing a track suit, a T-shirt, socks, shoes, underwear and a blanket. Also water, hot drinks, biscuits. Some people have not drunk for two days. Others say they have gone five or six days without eating, or even 10 days.

We have a pneumatic field hospital where we provide pre-hospital treatment. In some cases the migrants are hospitalised.


We have seen grown men start crying or kissing the ground when they finally touch land. It is unlikely they knew in advance how long and dangerous the journey would be. A lot of them cannot actually swim. We have had boats arriving with dead bodies on board.

Savings

On the other hand, they often know they are going to face problems. They are met by police on the quayside, or on the beach. In some cases they are intercepted by naval boats, or Guardia Civil patrol boats.

There was one case recently where someone said: "We have seen this one before." I think he was from Senegal. He had been here about three months previously, and had reappeared.


They originate from Mali, Mauritania, Gambia, Ghana, Morocco - anywhere in West Africa.

About 99% are male. We have seen thousands of people here in Tenerife, and only about 10 of them have been women.

Women are more likely to travel to Fuerteventura, even pregnant women, or to the southern coast of Spain. About 5-10% are minors. This morning we had a boy of 12.

They don't tell us about money, but we think they sometimes come in organised groups, paying 500 or 600 euros per person, which for them is probably about six months' or a year's savings.

Stress

When they have recovered they are taken to the police headquarters for questioning, where they may stay for 72 hours.

They can be held in internment centres for up to 40 days, and from there they are sent to the mainland, or released, or sent back to their country of origin.


In March there were just three of us, but now I am responsible for two teams of five people.

It's extremely stressful, especially taking someone off a boat in a body bag - someone who has died trying to help his family. It makes you think how lucky we are, here in Europe.

On the other hand, it is extremely rewarding to be able to help somebody in these conditions - to provide water or a hot drink. We have volunteers, some of whom work with us all night, then go to work the next day without sleeping.

Darfur militias 'kill children'

Militias backing Sudan's government have killed at least 63 people in attacks in Darfur in the past week, African peacekeepers say.

At least 27 of the victims are thought to be children under the age of 12.

The attacks were carried on camps for the displaced in the rebel stronghold of Jebel Moon, in West Darfur.

The government says it is disarming the Janjaweed militia but a BBC correspondent in Sudan says all the evidence points to the exact opposite.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the Sudanese government to restrain the militias following the attacks.

Terrified

Militia wearing government uniforms, on camels and horseback, swept into eight villages and camps in Jebel Moon on 29 October.

The African Union (AU) investigation team has just returned from the area to make its report.

The area is a stronghold of the National Redemption Front (NRF) alliance, one of the Darfur rebel group which refused to sign up to a peace deal in May.

"The government have begun mobilising the Janjaweed widely, especially in West Darfur, because they want to clear the area and move north along the border and defeat us," said the NRF's Bahr Idriss Abu Garda.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Darfur says that all along the long border with Chad, villagers are fleeing terrified as the Janjaweed aggressively take up positions in key towns.

Three years ago, at the start of the Darfur crisis, the Janjaweed cleared hundreds of villages, displacing more than two million people.

With morale in the Sudanese army reported to be low, Khartoum seems to have turned once again to their most brutal of allies, our correspondent says.

Some 200,000 people have died in Darfur, with the Arab Janjaweed accused of ethnic cleansing against black Africans.

Sudan's government says the scale of the problems has been exaggerated and resists plans for the United Nations to take over the peacekeeping force from the AU.

Stop the genocide

Our position: It would be outrageous for the U.N. not to intervene in Darfur.
Posted October 30, 2006

The government of Sudan is widely believed to be behind the genocide in the country's Darfur region that has claimed more than 200,000 lives and driven millions from their homes. Yet even with a new surge in violence, the United Nations is still waiting for permission from that same government to deploy a peacekeeping force to stop the killing. No wonder some critics of the United Nations consider it worthless.

It's way past time for the U.N. Security Council to dispatch the peacekeepers, whether or not Sudan's leaders agree.

U.N. intervention in a country against its wishes should be reserved for exceptional cases. But genocide more than meets that standard.

For three years, Arab militias backed by Sudan's government have looted, burned, raped and murdered their way through black African villages in Darfur to suppress a rebellion in the region. Two years ago, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell correctly labeled it genocide. A recent report from the United Nations itself concluded, "Government knowledge, if not complicity, in the attacks is almost certain."

A 7,000-troop African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur has been unable to stop the violence. That force lacks the manpower, equipment and mandate.

Now, amid recent gains by the rebels, Sudan's government is vowing a new offensive to crush them. Last week, the government kicked out the United Nations' top envoy in the country. And Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, also threatened to expel humanitarian relief groups and foreign media from Darfur. Hundreds of thousands more lives are in peril.

The Security Council passed a resolution in late August calling for a 22,000-troop U.N. peacekeeping force to replace the smaller African Union force in Darfur. Ideally, African and Arab countries would supply the manpower.

The presence of U.S. and European troops in yet another Muslim country could ignite opposition that would hamper a peacekeeping mission. But the United States and its European allies can work through NATO to provide logistical support for the U.N. force and take other steps to assist it, such as establishing a no-fly zone over Darfur.

If the United States and other council members are committed to ending the nightmare in Darfur, they will apply all their diplomatic leverage to overcoming opposition to intervention from China and other apologists for Sudan.

A little more than a decade ago, the United Nations failed to stop a genocidal rampage in Rwanda that left hundreds of thousands of people dead. A U.N. refusal to intervene in Darfur would deal another crushing blow to its credibility, and confirm the harshest views of its critics.

Darfur's silent killer

I have not eaten now for over 48 hours due to sickness and diarrhoea. It has left me feeling exhausted and extremely grumpy - those around me would confirm this in an instant. I have been taking antibiotics and drinking plenty of water and flat cola, none of which seems to be having any positive effect with my stomach still feeling like it holds bubbling toxic lava.

It has been a more than unpleasant past two days, yet as much as I have complained, I feel I am in no position to do so.

Chronic sickness and diarrhoea is a common problem in Darfur, especially in the camps for IDPs (internally displaced people).

Aid workers here speculate that in some camps as many as one in five children suffer from sickness and diarrhoea at any one time. They focus on the children because for them diarrhoea in these conditions can be a very serious problem.

It means children are left even more weak and vulnerable than they would be usually - what little nutrition they are getting, their meagre bodies are not absorbing.

In Camp Al-Salaam, just outside Nyala, South Darfur, eight children were reported to have died from chronic diarrhoea within the last month.

On a recent visit to Camp Otash, also on the outskirts of Nyala, the dangers of diarrhoea became only too apparent.

I came across a little boy named Hawa Abdullah. Hawa (pictured here) is six years old but could well pass for much younger. When I met him his wrists were, without exaggeration, as thin as my thumb. His skin hung off his arms, so flaccid it seemed as though he had no muscle at all.

The mass of flies swarming around his face didn't bother him. He barely moved, could barely breathe and was so exhausted he could hardly keep his eyes from shutting. His body just hung in his mother's arms.

His sickness meant he was severely malnourished. He had been eating - not much, but enough to keep a child of his age alive. The problem was that everything was going straight through him.

Had he not been found by aid workers, I have no doubt he would now be dead.

"I wonder how many other Hawas there are out there?" one aid worker remarked to me as the boy was taken off for further treatment.

Of the 2.5 million people uprooted by the conflict in Darfur around 700,000 are estimated to be children. But any speculation of the percentage with sickness and diarrhoea would be nothing but a wild guess.

Bugging me right now isn't just how many children are ill, but also how many will get the treatment they need to survive.

Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)

Joseph Kony

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), formed in 1987, is a rebel paramilitary group operating mainly in northern Uganda. The group is engaged in an armed rebellion against the Ugandan government in what is now one of Africa's longest-running conflicts. It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself a spirit medium, and apparently wishes to establish a state based on his unique interpretation of Biblical millenarianism. The LRA have been accused of widespread human rights violations, including mutilation, torture, rape, the abduction of civilians, the use of child soldiers and a number of massacres.

2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation: U.N. report

Thu Sep 28, 2006 8:40am ET162

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Some 2.6 billion people in the world, mainly in Africa and Asia, lack access to basic sanitation, increasing the risk of diarrhea and other diseases fatal to children, said a U.N. report released on Thursday.

UNICEF, the U.N. children's fund, in a study on water and sanitation in developing nations, concluded that U.N. goals could be met on clean water, especially in urban areas, but the same was not true for access to the crudest of toilets.

The report, Progress for Children, surveyed available clean water and sanitation facilities from 1990 to 2004 and calculated which countries could meet goals set at a U.N. Millennium summit in 2000.

These include cutting in half by 2015 the proportion of people without safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

"Despite commendable progress, an estimated 425 million children under the age of 18 still do not have access to an improved water supply and over 980 million do not have access to adequate sanitation, said Anne Veneman, UNICEF's executive director and a former U.S. secretary of agriculture.

Overall, about 1.2 billion people, or an increase from 78 percent in 1990 to 83 percent in 2004, had access to drinking water, a figure that would meet the Millennium goals.

Still, more than 1 billion people were without clean water in 2004 from sources such as wells or springs, a number which may increase as the population grows, the report said.

The lack of access to water is especially acute in sub-Saharan Africa, which represents about 11 percent of the world's population but almost a third of all people without access to safe drinking water.

But even in North Africa and the Middle East, people living in arid rural areas suffer from lack of water. In Djibouti, Iraq and Morocco, for example, more than 40 percent of the rural population have no access to proper drinking water.

Among the worst-affected nations, where less than 50 percent of the population has can find proper water sources, are Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Equatorial Guinea and Chad, the report said.

Meanwhile, access to basic facilities such as flush toilets or cleanable latrines slabs rose to 59 percent from 49 percent in 1990 but remained short of U.N. targets.

Of the 2.6 billion people worldwide without access to proper sanitation, about 2 billion live in rural areas, some two-thirds in sub-Saharan Africa and 37 percent in South Asia.

At the same time, the largest gains were in Asia, especially in India and China. But the report said the majority of people in both countries still have no adequate sanitation.

The Perverse Side of Things

"The Perverse Side of Things"
Torture, Inadequate Detention Conditions, and Excessive Use of Force by Guinean Security Forces

pdf file of report

Student organizes drive to save Darfur

By Cate Biggs, Associate News Editor, cbiggs@smu.edu

August 31, 2006

The Darfur genocide has been a horrifying reality in Sudan that has called SMU student, Denver Nicks, to action. Nicks has created a committee through Students For A Better Society that will attempt to raise awareness about the Darfur situation and help stop the genocide.

The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 after the Sudanese government used armed militias to begin a scorched earth campaign, as well as militia attacks that have led to countless human rights violations.

The situation is only worsening thanks to state-sponsored violence, lack of humanitarian aid, famine, starvation, disease and a program of systematic rape of African women.

With more than 3.5 million people starving, 2.5 million displaced due to the extreme violence, and more than 400.000 dead, one SMU student has decided to take a stand.

Nicks first became involved with the Darfur genocide when a friend from another university began a campaign and sparked Nicks’ interest. His involvement began by simply wearing his “Save Darfur” t-shirts and bracelet, but Nicks wanted to take a more hands-on approach. The grim situation made him want to take the campaign to the SMU student body to raise more awareness for the cause.

This summer Nicks attended a conference in Washington D.C. on student activism in Darfur, which furthered his drive to become more closely involved with the campaign to end the genocide.

Nicks will conduct a meeting on Thursday, Aug. 31, at 5 p.m. in Hughes-Trigg Portico E to discuss the plans for the anti-genocide committee. His main objective is to raise campus awareness about the genocide in Darfur through the sale of t-shirts and fundraising. The money from fundraising will go either to the cause of raising more awareness about Darfur, or to the International Rescue Committee Fund to assist Darfur directly.

Another huge goal of the committee will be to pressure political leaders to take a stand and assist with genocide relief.

“In the state of Texas the political leaders have very low scores when it comes to assisting with the Darfur genocide. We hope to pressure them to do more to help,” stated Nicks.

All of the Texas state representatives and senators have a grade of C or below on their assistance with the Darfur genocide. Sen. John Cornyn ranks the lowest with a grade of F, while the majority of representatives have a scored a D. (www.darfurscore.org/grades/texas).

Nicks encourages anyone who is appalled by genocide and wishes to assist with the effort to attend the meeting.

“I am so excited about the campaign and anyone who is not down with genocide is more than welcome to join,” Nicks stated.

Fore more information please contact Denver Nicks at dnicks@smu.edu

U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur

Press Release

For Immediate Release August 31, 2006

Contact:

Jeff Kovick, 202-478-6147, Jeff@savedarfur.org Alex Meixner, 202.478.6194, Alex@savedarfur.org

Save Darfur Coalition Applauds UN Vote on Peacekeepers,
Urges Swift International Action to Deploy Forces

“We must turn words on paper into boots on the ground”

Washington, DC – The Save Darfur Coalition today maintained cautious optimism following the United Nations Security Council decision to authorize a U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur, Sudan. The 12-0-3 vote is a clear demonstration of the international community’s will to end the genocide in Darfur. The international community, however, must now overcome the Government of Sudan’s objections to the U.N. peacekeeping force before the desperately needed troops can be deployed.

“While we applaud the hard work that has gone into passing this resolution, the United States and other Security Council member nations must now turn their attention to making sure that this newly authorized peacekeeping force is actually deployed, and deployed soon,” said David Rubenstein of the Save Darfur Coalition.

The peacekeeping mission will function under a similarly worded mandate to current U.N. peacekeeping mission in south Sudan, and is authorized to take “all necessary means” to protect civilians from attack and ensure the unfettered continuation of the peace process as agreed to in the Darfur Peace Agreement. The U.N. mission in Darfur would comprise up to 22,600 military and police personnel.

“Only the actual presence of these peacekeepers will provide the security the people of Darfur so desperately need,” continued Rubenstein. “We must turn words on paper into boots on the ground.”

The United Nations will solicit troops from contributing countries for the Darfur UNMIS force with deployment slated to begin no later than October 1, 2006. Gaining the permission of the Government of Sudan remains a significant hurdle to that timetable, however, one which will take a marked increase in international pressure to overcome. A recent attempt by President Bush to coax Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s cooperation fell flat when President Bashir first refused to meet with President Bush’s envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer. He then rejected Bush’s offer after finally agreeing to meet with Frazer two days later. President Bush’s message to President Bashir included an offer to honor him with a meeting in September if Bashir agreed to the U.N. force.

Since 2003, the Sudanese government-sponsored genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan has killed over 400,000 men, women, and children, forced 2.5 million Darfurians to flee their homes, and left more than 3.5 million individuals reliant on humanitarian aid. Within the last few months, the rates of both systematic rape of Darfuri women and fatal violence against humanitarian aid workers have increased dramatically.

On September 17, the Save Darfur Coalition will join individuals around the world in calling for the immediate deployment of the U.N. peacekeeping force to Darfur. In New York City’s Central Park, “Save Darfur Now: Voices to End Genocide” will be the centerpiece event in a global day of action (www.dayfordarfur.org). In New York, multi-platinum, award winning duo Big & Rich will be joined by rock group O.A.R. in a rally in the East Meadow of Central Park. Additional events will be held in Paris, London, Abuja, and numerous other cities globally. The New York rally will coincide with the 61st meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in the city. The Save Darfur Coalition will be announcing additional speakers and performers for “Save Darfur Now: Voices to End Genocide” (www.savedarfur.org/now) in the coming weeks.

The Save Darfur Coalition comprises 175 human rights, humanitarian, and faith-based organizations united in support of stronger action to end the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

###