Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

{The United Nations has warned that large numbers of children are still risking their lives to make the dangerous journey from Libya to Italy.}

Unicef says almost 26,000 children – most of them unaccompanied – crossed the Mediterranean last year.

In its new report, Unicef says many children suffer from violence and sexual abuse at the hands of smugglers and traffickers.

But they rarely report their abuse, for fear of arrest and deportation.

The agency also says there is a lack of food, water and medical care in Libya’s detention centres.

The plight of children, many of them unaccompanied by parents, has become a tragically familiar part of the wider story of mass migration over the past two years.

But while much has been said about the extreme dangers faced at sea, the privations experienced on land, especially in Libya, are less familiar.

Unicef’s latest report, A Deadly Journey for Children, documents – in sometimes horrific detail – stories of slavery, violence and sexual abuse experienced by huge numbers of vulnerable children making their perilous way to Italy.

“What really shocked Unicef staff and me… is what happens to them [children] on this route,” says Justin Forsyth, the organisation’s deputy executive director. “Many of these children have been brutalised, raped, killed on this route.”

Girls such as nine-year-old Kamis, who set off with her mother from their home in Nigeria. After a desert crossing in which a man died, followed by a dramatic rescue at sea, they found themselves held at a detention centre in the Libyan town of Sabratha.
“They used to beat us every day,” Kamis told the researchers. “There was no water there either. That place was very sad. There’s nothing there.”

Much of the violence is gratuitous, and much of it is sexual.

“Nearly half the women and children interviewed had experienced sexual abuse during migration,” the report says. “Often multiple times and in multiple locations.”

Borders, it seems, are particularly dangerous.

“Sexual violence was widespread and systemic at crossings and checkpoints,” says the report.

Many of the assailants are in uniform. This is said to be just one reason why those who suffer abuse are reluctant to report their experiences.

And Libya, as the funnel through which so many journeys pass, has earned itself a shocking reputation as the epicentre of abuse.

“Approximately one third [of those interviewed] indicated they had been abused in Libya,” the report says. “A large majority of these children did not answer when asked who had abused them.”

So commonplace are stories of rape and sexual enslavement that some women embarking on the journey take precautions, such as getting contraceptive injections and carrying emergency protection with them.

The report maps 34 known detention centres in Libya, three of them deep in the country’s desert interior.

Most are run by the government’s Department for Combating Illegal Migration. But Unicef says that armed groups also hold migrants in an unknown number of unofficial camps.

“The detention centres run by militias, we’re much more worried about,” says Mr Forsyth. “That’s where a lot of abuse is happening and we have very, very limited access.”

In 2016, more than 180,000 migrants crossed from Libya to Italy. According to the UN, almost 26,000 of these were children, most of them unaccompanied. The number of unaccompanied children appears to be soaring.

“It’s a combination of factors,” says Mr Forsyth. “The situation in places like Eritrea and northern Nigeria is very bad. Also in the Gambia recently.”

{{‘I wanted to cross the sea’}}

Politics aside, poverty and the promise of a better life remain key drivers.
“I wanted to cross the sea,” 14-year-old Issaa told researchers. “Look for work, work hard to earn a bit of money to help my five brothers at home.”

But two and a half years after leaving home in Niger, Issaa was found living alone in a Libyan detention centre.

“My father collected money for my journey, he wished me luck and then let me go.”
The migrants are, of course, heavily dependent on smugglers to get them through the desert and across the sea.

A recent case when dozens bodies were found washed up on the shore near the western city Zawiya shows that this remains extremely hazardous.

But smuggling is all-too often associated with human trafficking. Victims accept migration packages from criminal gangs, only to find themselves forced into prostitution to repay their debts.

“Libya is a major transit hub for women being trafficked to Europe for sex,” the report says.

Libya’s continuing political turmoil makes it extraordinarily difficult to tackle a phenomenon, which the report says has spiralled out of control.

But Unicef is urging Libya, its neighbours and regional organisations to do more to protect children.

A regional initiative, it says, would include improved birth registration, the prevention of trafficking, safe and legal pathways for children fleeing armed conflict and, where appropriate, family reunification.

“Whether they’re migrants or refugees, let’s treat them like children,” says Mr Forsyth. “It’s a reflection of our humanity, our values, how we respond to this crisis.”

Source:BBC

{Here is an exploration of a term that evokes the very worst of human suffering.}

From ancient Rome to modern times, mankind has suffered devastating periods of hunger caused by drought, war or misguided politics.

Last week South Sudan was declared the site of the world’s first famine in six years, affecting about 100,000 people. Here is an exploration of a term that evokes the very worst of human suffering.

{{What is a famine?}}

“Famine is not a word that we use lightly,” said Erminio Sacco, a food security expert with the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

Since 2007 the term has been employed according to a scientific system agreed upon by global agencies, as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) scale.

According to the IPC scale, famine exists when at least 20 percent of the population in a specific area has extremely limited access to basic food; acute malnutrition exceeds 30 percent; and the death rate exceeds two per 10,000 people per day for the entire population.

“This scientific methodology helps to avoid famine becoming a term misused for political reasons,” Sacco said.

{{Where have famines occurred?}}

Over the last century, famines hit China, the Soviet Union, Iran and Cambodia, often the result of human actions.

Europe suffered several famines in the Middle Ages, but its most recent were during World War I and II, where parts of Germany, Poland and The Netherlands were left starving under military blockades.

In Africa there have been several famines in recent decades, from Biafra in Nigeria in the 1970s to the 1983-1985 Ethiopian famine, which ushered in a new form of celebrity fundraising and unprecedented media attention on the suffering.

The last famine in the world was in Somalia in 2011, which killed an estimated 260,000 people.

{{Why are there still famines today?}}

While South Sudan is officially experiencing famine, the UN has warned that Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen are all on the verge of the classification, which could affect more than 20 million people.

“The common denominator is protracted armed conflict and its negative impact on access to food, farming and livestock production… livelihoods, trade and, not least, humanitarian delivery,” Sacco said.

Of the four famine alerts, only one – Somalia – is caused by drought, while the other three stem from conflicts.

{{What is life like under famine?}}

In South Sudan, people have gone through cycles of displacement over the past three years which have driven many of them to hide in swamps, having lost their homes, crops and livestock.

With nothing else available, they spend days foraging for wild foods such as water lily roots, fruit or fish, Sacco said.

They also spend days walking in search of food aid through areas controlled by armed groups.

“They are extremely weak, hungry, and drink unsafe water from ponds and rivers,” he said. Cholera is a constant threat.

{{What does it mean to die from hunger?}}

When lack of food has led to an 18 percent loss of weight, the body starts undergoing physiological disturbances, according to a 1997 study of hunger strikes published in the British Medical Journal.

“The body metabolism gets increasingly dysfunctional, impacting the brain and other vital organs. At that point, therapeutic feeding treatment is necessary to save their lives, as the body has lost the ability to process normal foods,” Sacco said.

When people have insufficient food over several weeks, it leads to organ failure and eventually death.

{{What are the long-term impacts?}}

Even without reaching famine, parts of the Sahel, Somalia and Ethiopia go through regular cycles of hunger that have long-term social consequences.

“The biological damage erodes the physical well-being of entire generations of children and their development potential, possibly resulting in a weak workforce and retarded students,” Sacco said.

Hunger leads to stunted growth and impacts cognitive development, and can lead to poor health throughout a person’s life.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Thousands of people at the epicentre of a man-made famine in South Sudan emerged from the safety of the swamps this past weekend hoping to receive emergency deliveries of food.}

For months now Bol Mol, a 45-year-old former oil field security officer, has struggled to keep his family alive, spearfishing in nearby rivers and marshes while his three wives gather water lilies for food.

They eat once a day if they are lucky, but at least in the swamps they are safe from marauding soldiers.

“Life here is useless,” Mol said, his hand clutching his walking stick as he waited with thousands of others beneath the baking-hot sun at Thonyor in Leer County.

{{FOOD DELIVERIES}}

Aid agencies have negotiated with the government and rebel forces to establish a registration centre in the village ahead of food deliveries.

The UN declared a famine in parts of South Sudan a week ago, but the hunger affecting an estimated 100,000 people is not being caused by adverse climate conditions.

More than three years of conflict have disrupted farming, destroyed food stores and forced people to flee recurring attacks. Food shipments have been deliberately blocked and aid workers have been targeted.

It is no coincidence that soaring levels of malnutrition have been found in Leer, a rebel stronghold and the birthplace of opposition leader Riek Machar, whose falling out with President Salva Kiir in December 2013 led to the civil war.

{{IT IS NOT ENOUGH}}

Evidence of the devastating conflict is everywhere: in the burnt walls of schools and clinics, in the ruins of razed homes and public buildings, and in the desolation of the once-thriving market.

A peace deal signed in August 2015 was never fully implemented. As recently as December the members of yet another 56,000 households were forced to flee to the safety of the swamps when yet another government offensive reached the area.

The constant need to escape the war means people are unable to plant or harvest crops, and their livestock is often looted by armed men.

With their livelihoods destroyed, people are reduced to gathering wild plants, hunting and waiting for emergency food supplies that come too rarely and are frequently inadequate.

“It is not enough,” Mol said as he waited to register for the next food delivery.

{{INTERRUPTED LIFE}}

The fighting and the fleeing have interrupted all aspects of life: Mol said his children had not gone to school for the last three years.

“Right now the majority of the people are living in the swamps. If you go there and see the children you can even cry, the situation is too bad,” he said.

Nyangen Chuol, 30, keeps her five children alive with aid agency rations of sorghum supplemented with lilies, coconuts and sometimes fish.

“Before the conflict I lived here in Thonyor but had to move far away to the islands in the swamp for safety,” she said. This weekend’s registration for food deliveries had drawn her back.

Outside the famine’s epicentre in the northern Unity State, there are nearly five million people who also need food handouts, mostly in areas where the fighting has been fiercest.

“The biggest issue has been insecurity in some of these areas which makes it very difficult to access,” said George Fominyen of the World Food Programme (WFP).

{{TOO LATE FOR SOME}}

Aid workers warn that by the time a famine is declared it is already too late for some, but the declaration has put pressure on the government to open up access, at least for now, and international aid agencies are ratcheting up their efforts.

Ray Ngwen Chek, a 32-year-old waiting for food, said the situation had steadily worsened over the years.

“Since 2013 we have planted no crops, nothing, we just stay like this. You don’t know what you will survive on tomorrow,” he said.

Hospitals and schools are shut, Chek said, and children, surrounded by conflict and with no other options, “are practising how to carry guns” instead of learning for the future.

Betrayed and neglected by the country’s leaders, the people of Leer struggle to hold out hope for a political solution that would end the conflict.

But Chek is certain of one thing: “Fighting is not a solution.”

Source:AFP