IDP News Alert, 22 January 2009

Briefing the UN Security Council on 16 January, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes warned of attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) across communities in Southern Sudan, Uganda and the Central African Republic as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In his briefing to the Security Council, John Holmes said that between September and December last year, there had been LRA attacks on 20 locations in Orientale Province, north-eastern DRC, including killings, abductions, rape, torture, looting and destruction of property. He also reported that LRA attacks had internally displaced more than 13,500 people in the Southern Sudanese state of Western Equatoria, and he warned that the number displaced there was rising rapidly.

In Haut-Uele district, Orientale Province, DRC, UNHCR and its partners are seeking to reach some 135,000 people displaced by attacks by the LRA which have occurred over the past months in the north-east of DRC. LRA combatants massacred at least 620 civilians in Haut Uele and abducted more than 160 children between 24 December and 13 January, following a joint operation by the Ugandan army and those of DRC, Southern Sudan, and the Central African Republic.

The LRA is now based in the Garamba National Park in DRC, across the border from Western Equatoria in Southern Sudan. The state governor of Western Equatoria, Jemma Nunu Kumba, has appealed for humanitarian assistance for the IDPs. She said that many villagers had been forced to abandon their homes to seek safety in the towns, where they had become dependant on handouts. The situation has been complicated by the influx of people fleeing LRA attacks in north-eastern DRC. The capacity of local communities to support them is severely limited, with many inhabitants having only recently returned after being displaced for up to two decades by Sudan’s civil war. The state governor noted that Western Equatoria State also hosts IDPs who fled attacks by cattle raiders from Southern Sudan’s neighbouring Lakes State.

See also: IDMC DRC and Sudan country pages


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DRC: Special Representative on IDPs visits North Kivu Province

The Representative of the UN Secretary General on the human rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), is visiting DRC’s North Kivu to evaluate the situation of the human rights of IDPs in the province, to make recommendations to the government on technical assistance, and to improve the respect of their basic rights. Following the large-scale fighting between government troops and the militia National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), there are now around a million IDPs in North Kivu.

See also: IDMC DRC country page


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Chad / Central African Republic: New troops to protect displaced communities as violence continues
                                                                                                                     
The UN Security Council unanimously approved the deployment of 5,500 UN peacekeepers to replace European Union troops in conflict-affected areas of Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) until 15 March 2010. The new force will be tasked with protecting IDPs, supporting voluntary returns of displaced communities, and facilitating the delivery of aid.

Both Chad and CAR are still affected by ongoing violence, despite various peace agreements brokered by neighbouring countries. In Chad, eight rebel groups have reportedly joined forces to form the Union of Resistance Forces and started preparing military action against the government. In CAR, new attacks by rebel groups were reported in northern villages bordering Sudan.

The UN Peacebuilding Commission has expressed caution over a peace dialogue in CAR between the government, opposition, civil society groups and rebel movements, saying “efforts to achieve improvement in security, rule of law and development will remain stalled”, without simultaneous progress on disarmament and reintegration, employment and good governance. One measure of success of the dialogue was the inclusion of opposition party members and ex-rebels leaders in the government’s new ministerial line-up.

See also: IDMC Chad and CAR country pages


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Sri Lanka: IDPs still trapped by fighting in the Vanni

Humanitarian agencies are increasingly concerned over the safety of more than 230,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) trapped in the conflict-affected Vanni area of northern Sri Lanka. The IDPs from areas to the west of Mullaithivu town have been denied the right to escape the conflict zone by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who are engaged in fighting government forces. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the only agency present in the Vanni, combat operations on a moving front lines have led tens of thousands of displaced civilians to be concentrated in an area so small that there are serious concerns for their physical safety and living conditions.

Over 1,100 people who have managed to escape the Vanni to areas under government control have been refused permission to leave the two welfare camps in Vavuniya district where they are living. The government has said that more civilians are expected to flee the fighting and is making arrangements to accommodate at least 30,000 families at three locations in Vavuniya.

See also: IDMC Sri Lanka country page


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Philippines: Floods complicate situation of conflict-induced IDPs in Mindanao

Landslides and flash floods caused by heavy rains in the Philippines have caused the death of at least 28 people and displaced more than 300,000 in the south and east of the country. The southern island of Mindanao, where an estimated 300,000 people are still displaced by fighting between the government and the rebels of the MILF, has been particularly hard-hit by the bad weather and up to 25,000 families on the island have been affected. While few of the flooded areas are in the conflict-affected zones, the flooding has compounded the ongoing humanitarian emergency, restricting the delivery of assistance to the conflict-displaced and also putting additional strain on dwindling emergency stockpiles. In provinces such as Maguindanao and Shariff Kabunsuan, people displaced by the flooding have arrived at evacuation centres set up for and still occupied by conflict-induced IDPs. According to the latest government figures, more than 300,000 people are still displaced due to the conflict, with nearly 110,000 in evacuation centres across Mindanao.

See also: IDMC Philippines country page


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India: Assam IDPs refuse to return without government protection

Despite announcements by the government of Assam state in India that they would be able to return home by 15 January, over 40,000 people are still displaced in the camps where they have lived since October 2008. The IDPs were among over 150,000 people who fled their homes following ethnic riots between Bodo and immigrant Muslim settlers in the Udalguri, Darrang, Baska and Chirang districts of Assam.

Those remaining in the camps refuse to go back to their villages as animosity between the Bodo and Muslim communities remains. The situation in areas of origin remains uneasy with restrictions on the freedom of movement being imposed on returnees from the Muslim community but not on Bodo returnees. The IDPs still in the camps, most of them Muslims, have said that return is not possible unless the government guarantees their protection.

See also: IDMC India country page


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