Monthly Press Review March 2024

OUT NOW: Our Monthly Press Review March 2024 covers topics such as Eurafrican migration control, migration, and displacement in African countries, and news on the European border regime. In the HoA Section, there is a collection of articles on the situation in the Horn of Africa. Please also find our update on the Gaza war.

In case there is a news item, report, or campaign you would like to flag in next month’s review please write us via contact@migration-control.info or on Twitter @MigControl.

NEW ON MIGRATION-CONTROL.INFO

Blog

Racism, Ordeal of Migrants and No End in Sight by migration-control.info: Extreme violence and an openly racist policy against Black people have been ongoing in Tunisia for more than a year now. The already existing racism in Tunisia escalated in the beginning of 2023. In the text we aim to provide an overview of the current situation. Also available in German.

Between the Necessity and the Ban on Migration: an Assessment of Senegal's (Im)Mobility Policies in 2023 by Ibrahima Konate: “This article describes the obstacles to mobility and the violations of the rights of migrants in Senegal in 2023. The domestic political context is marked by a sharp regression of democracy and the murderous repression of demonstrations. This text has been drafted at a time of increasing human rights violations in Senegal: rights linked to migration — such as the right to free movement within the member countries of the Economic Community of West African States — but also the right to information and the right to demonstrate. These serious infringements of fundamental rights represent a danger for the whole of Senegalese society and jeopardises the country's future development.” Also available in German and French.

Dossier

The meanings, consequences, and geopolitics of deportation by Judith Altrogge, Leonie Jegen, Laura Lambert & Franzisca Zanker: A bibliography to provide an overview of academic literature for those in a more nuanced view on deportations, the repercussions for illegalized populations and countries of origin. It collects literature along the themes of Deportations and the construction of (racial) difference and il/legality; Life for deportees and their families; Activism around deportation; The geopolitics of deportation; Meaning for countries on the receiving-end of deportations; Imaginaries and practices of deporting states; and Alternatives to deportation. Also available in German.

EU Documents

“Action file” on Tunisia outlines EU’s externalisation plans by migration-control.info and Statewatch: “An “action file” obtained by Statewatch lays out the objectives and activities of the EU’s cooperation on migration with Tunisia – whose government was heavily criticized by the European Parliament this week for “an authoritarian reversal and an alarming backslide on democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”

Parliamentary lawyers: democratic oversight needed for EU-Tunisia migration agreement by migration-control.info and Statewatch: “Last July, the EU and Tunisia signed a memorandum of understanding in which the EU promised substantial support for Tunisian migration and border controls. An opinion by the European Parliament Legal Service, obtained by Statewatch, concludes that although the agreement is not legally binding, some form of parliamentary oversight is required. Currently, that is not the case, but MEPs are demanding it – in particular due to the authoritarian nature of many of the regimes the EU is supporting.”

Update on the state of play of external cooperation in the field of migration policy by migration-control.info: “In its February 2024 “Update on the state of play of external cooperation in the field of migration policy” the Commission services provide a substantial overview on the state of affairs regarding bilateral relations with non-EU states in the field of migration control, as well as the activities of multilateral frameworks in the field. The following summary of the 103-page document focuses on the EU cooperation with African states and is clustered along key bilateral EU externalization instruments before considering multilateral instruments.”

The EU continues its collaboration with Libyan institutional actors on migration in full cognizance of their role in human rights violations of migrants by migration-control.info: The EU delegation’s latest stakeholder mapping shows once more that the EU is fully aware that most of the Libyan institutional actors that are part of the EU-funded Support to Integrated Border and Migration Management in Libya (SIBBMMIL) steering committee are part of a fragmented picture of migration governance in Libya.

Translation

How the European Union finances oppression by Reta Barfuss about the EU’s cooperation with the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan is now available in German.

Comment

Das MoU mit Ägypten: Ein neuer Deal? ( The MoU with Egypt: a new deal?): The devaluation of the Egyptian pound will continue to drive up the price of food imports and therefore the price of bread. Inflation is already "so high that eggs are a luxury". Poverty and dissatisfaction among the population is growing and more people, especially from the Nile Delta, are making their way to Europe.

Follow-Up: Gaza

30.03.24 TAZ: Bürger mit Gewehren (Citizens with Guns): Since 7 October, over 900 Jewish militias have been formed in Israel and the occupied territories.

29.03.24 Foreign Affairs: Overhaul UNRWA—Just Not Right Now: UNRWA has a relatively small cadre of international civil servants at its helm, but the bulk of its staff consists of around 30,000 Palestinians, including teachers, doctors, nurses, and engineers. In a place such as Gaza, where at least 70 percent of the 2.2 million population have refugee status, UNRWA looks and operates more like a state than a UN agency.
But for most donors that support reform, the question is more about the wisdom of doing so right now, in the middle of an epic humanitarian crisis.

Also see TAZ 27.03.24: Geld fließt, nur nicht nach Gaza (Money flows, but not to Gaza): Germany is once again funding UNRWA, but is not paying any money for the aid organisation's work in the Gaza Strip; Guardian 25.03.24: Israel will no longer approve UNRWA food aid to northern Gaza, agency says

29.03.24 NYT: Days After U.N. Cease-Fire Resolution, Has Anything Changed in Gaza?: Although the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on Monday that demands an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, it remains to be seen whether ​i​t ​w​ill have a concrete effect on the war or prove merely to be a political statement.

Also see NYT 29.03.24: Israel Cites ‘New Initiatives’ for Gaza Aid, but Progress Has Been Slow; Guardian 28.03.24: ‘Famine is setting in’: UN court orders Israel to unblock Gaza food aid; Guardian 27.03.24: Ireland backs bid to include blocking of aid in definition of genocide; TAZ 27.03.24: Hungerskrise im Nahostkrieg (Hunger Crisis in Gaza) AJE 23.03.24: At least 19 reported killed as Israeli forces fire on Gaza aid seekers; TNH 21.03.24: Thousands will now die of starvation and disease in Gaza: Alex de Waal: ‘The warnings could not have been clearer or more timely. The response is where the failure has been.’; Guardian 20.03.24: World Bank report finds imminent risk of catastrophic famine in Gaza Strip

29.03.24 Guardian: Israeli airstrike in Syria kills more than 40 people, says war monitor: Strike near Aleppo weapons depot reportedly killed Hezbollah and Syrian troops, while civilians also said to be among dead. (Earlier this month, Israeli officials said the IDF has hit more than 4,500 Hezbollah locations in Syria and Lebanon, killing over 300 militants, since Oct. 7. )

29.03.24 Tagesspiegel: USA liefern Israel trotz Kritik offenbar Tausende Bomben: Despite US concerns about Israel's planned ground offensive against the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, which is overcrowded with refugees, Washington is supplying Israel with thousands more heavy bombs and fighter planes, according to a newspaper report.
Also see NYT 26.03.24: Domestic Political Pressures Widen Divide Between Biden and Netanyahu

28.03.24 NYT: Fighting Rages Around Two Gaza Hospitals as Pressure on Israel Rises: Israeli forces are battling to retake areas they had already seized, showing the militants’ resilience, as critics call for less destructive tactics in the war.

22.03.24 Statewatch: EU-funded drone technology being used in war on Gaza: A drone manufacturer that is “supporting the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] 100%” in the war on Gaza received a €50,000 research and development grant from the EU, an analysis published today by Statewatch and Informationsstelle Militarisierung (Information Centre on Militarisation, IMI) reveals. Other Israeli military companies and institutions have received millions of euros for drone development in recent years, despite a supposed prohibition on EU funding for military and defence projects.

22.03.24 AJE: More than 7,350 West Bank Palestinians arrested by Israel during Gaza war: Israel has taken thousands of Palestinians captive since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed and about 250 abducted. Since then, the number of Palestinians arrested in the occupied West Bank exceeds 7,350 people, according to the Addameer monitor in Ramallah. While some Palestinians have been released, 9,100 remain captive. That’s a sharp uptick from the 5,200 that were in Israeli prisons before October 7.

21.03.24 TNH: Behind the numbers: Gaza’s unprecedented aid worker death toll: As of 20 March, at least 196 humanitarians have been killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories since October 2023, according to figures compiled by the Aid Worker Security Database (AWDS) – the aid community’s main source for tracking attacks on aid workers. Data for 2023 and 2024 is not yet finalised, and the numbers are likely to rise, researchers say.
The number of humanitarians killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in only three months last year, 161, is more than the deadliest year ever recorded for aid workers globally, according to preliminary figures.

21.03.24 AJE: October 7: Forensic analysis shows Hamas abuses, many false Israeli claims: October 7 reveals widespread human rights abuses by Hamas fighters and others who followed them through the fence from the Gaza Strip and draws up a comprehensive list of those killed. But the investigation by the I-Unit, which examined hours of footage from CCTV, dashcams, personal phones and headcams of killed Hamas fighters, has also found that many of the stories that came out in the days following the attack were false.

19.03.24 AJE: How Israeli settlers are expanding illegal outposts amid Gaza war: Data gathered by activists and verified with satellite images by Al Jazeera's verification unit, Sanad, show that between October 2023 and January 2024, settlers in the occupied West Bank have built at least 15 outposts and 18 roads - illegal under both Israeli and international law. In addition, settlers built hundreds of metres of fences and multiple roadblocks, further limiting Palestinians' movement.
Also see AJE 08.03.24: Israeli settlement expansion in Palestinian areas amounts to war crime: UN

13.03.23 AJE:Not just the UNRWA report: Countless accounts of Israeli torture in Gaza: Israel continues to push back against the accusations of torture levelled at its armed forces in an unpublished report by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The report details the extensive use of torture against Palestinians taken prisoner by the Israeli military in Gaza, including 21 UNRWA staff members and 15 family members of UNRWA staff

13.03.24 AJE: Gaza ‘safe zones’ led to displacement, Israeli attacks on civilians: Report: A report published by the research group Forensic Architecture has called into question Israel’s argument at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that it had introduced measures to safeguard civilian life in Gaza. (Also see https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/assessment-israeli-material-icj-jan-2024)

13.03.24 SZ: Bundeswehr startet Gaza-Luftbrücke (German Armed Forces launch Gaza airlift): Other countries such as the USA are also taking part in the aid operation initiated by Jordan. Tonnes of relief supplies are to be dropped over the Gaza Strip.

09.03.24 NYT: U.S. Military Enters a New Phase With Gaza Aid Operations: As the United States continues providing Israel with munitions, the Pentagon will deliver food and other assistance to Gazans by sea and air. Also see Guardian 08.03.24: EU will open sea corridor to send aid from Cyprus to Gaza amid famine fears

07.03.24 Forensic Architecture: Humanitarian Violence: Israel’s Abuse of Preventative Measures in its 2023-2024 Genocidal Military Campaign in the Occupied Gaza Strip: Forensic Architecture has conducted an analysis of open-source data, press releases, social media posts, and statements by officials in the Israeli occupation forces (IOF/Israeli military) concerning warnings, ‘evacuation orders’, ‘known shelters’, and suggested ‘evacuation routes’, and examined the means by which this information was disseminated, by reference to testimonies both online and collected first-hand, media evidence, documentation of these events by Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, and satellite imagery from 8 October 2023 to 16 February 2024.

Also see Democracy Now 21.03.24: “Humanitarian Violence” in Gaza: Architect Eyal Weizman on Mapping Israel’s “Genocidal Campaign”: The Israeli military said security forces had conducted a counter-terrorism operation in the camp during which a riot broke out, with rocks and petrol bombs thrown at soldiers, who responded with live fire.

06.03.24 TNH: Gaza in-depth: Why Israel wants to end UNRWA and what its closure would mean: ‘Israel just wants UNRWA to go away, hoping that that will undermine the whole claim of Palestinians having a right to return.’

05.03.24 Reuters: Israel carries out biggest Ramallah raid in years: The Israeli military said security forces had conducted a counter-terrorism operation in the camp during which a riot broke out, with rocks and petrol bombs thrown at soldiers, who responded with live fire.

03,03.24 AJE: At least nine killed in Israeli attack on aid truck in Gaza: Report
Also see NYT 01.03.24: Witnesses of Aid Convoy Violence Describe Shooting, Panic and Desperation

All Africa

19.03.24 TAZ: Afrikahilfe auf russische Art (The Russian Way of Aid for Africa): Wagner was just a prelude: "Africa Corps" is the name of Russia's new unit, which is to assert Moscow's interests there. The deal: weapons for gold.

08.03.24 Guardian: Dramatic rise in women and girls being cut, new FGM data reveals: The number of girls and women who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) has increased by 15% in the past eight years, according to new data.
Figures released by the UN children’s agency, Unicef, show that more than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM, compared with 200 million in 2016. The trend is towards girls being cut at a younger age, said Unicef executive director Catherine Russell.

Also see NYT 18.03.24: Gambia Moves Toward Overturning Landmark Ban on Female Genital Cutting: Of the 47 members of the Gambia National Assembly present on Monday, 42 voted to send a bill to overturn the ban onward to a committee for consideration before a final vote. Human rights experts, lawyers and women’s and girls’ rights campaigners say that overturning the ban would undo decades of work to end female genital cutting, a centuries-old ritual tied up in ideas of sexual purity, obedience and control.

09.03.24 NYT: Alex de Waal: I Said the Era of Famines Might Be Ending. I Was Wrong: Despite the critical situation in Gaza, the current global hot spot of food crisis lies 1,000 miles to the south, in a cluster of countries near the Red Sea. About 90 million people are facing severe hunger in Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen. These countries, unfortunately, have their own histories of severe food shortages, but the world has never witnessed all of these countries descending toward mass starvation at the same time.

08.03.24 ICMPD: Africa-to-Europe value chains: How nearshoring can mitigate Europe’s migration crisis and aid energy transition: By 2030, 42% of the world’s young people will live in Africa, making the continent home to the largest supply of available labour globally. This resource, as well as inexpensive land and energy, is spurring the relocation of manufacturing and agri-food production to Africa to service European end-markets.

North Africa

North Africa
27.03.24 AJE: North Africa bears the brunt of Europe’s externalisation policies: Analysts: In the last six months, the EU has delivered 305 million euros ($331m) to Tunisia and Egypt – specifically to bolster border protections.
Additional reporting over the weekend suggests the total for Tunisia may be far higher, with 278 million euros ($301m) slated to be channelled to the North African country over the next three years, with the bulk earmarked for security services.
This is in addition to the ongoing funding from Italy and the European Union for the Libyan Coast Guard and many of the camps along the Libyan coast, which have run since 2017.

Algeria
14.03.24 AJE: Algeria: Opposition leader Karim Tabbou given six-month suspended sentence: While Hirak eventually led to the overthrow of longtime President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, protesters were not satisfied. Many protesters continued to demand, unsuccessfully, the resignation of all figures affiliated with Bouteflika’s government and the removal of the military from all civil affairs. Tabbou was acquitted of other charges, including “disrespecting the dead” and “undermining the integrity of national territory”.

Egypt
17.03.24: The Guardian: EU seals €7.4bn deal with Egypt in effort to avert another migration crisis: “EU leaders have sealed a €7.4bn (£6.3bn) deal with Egypt to help boost the country’s faltering economy, in an attempt to bring stability to the “troubled” region and avert another migration crisis in Europe.”

See also MEM 22.02.24: After EU migrant deal with Egypt, Lebanon also possible, EU commissioner says; AJE 06.03.24: Egypt strikes expanded $8bn deal with the IMF: The new agreement announced on Wednesday is an expansion of the $3bn, 46-month Extended Fund Facility that the IMF struck with Egypt back in December 2022, which was predicated on the shift to a more flexible exchange-rate system.

Libya
22.03.24: AlJazeera: Bodies of 65 people found in mass grave in Libya: UN migration agency: The bodies of at least 65 people have been discovered in a mass grave in southwest Libya, the IOM has said. The agency believes “the people were migrants who died in the process of being smuggled through the desert in Libya”.

Morocco - Spain
15.03.24 ECRE: Increase in Arrivals and Ongoing Tragedies: An increase in migrants’ departures, including unaccompanied minors, from Morocco towards Spain was noted in February. According to InfoMigrants, of the 60 people who arrived from Morocco, more than 20 were children. In mid-February, at least 57 minors took the same route. Mehdi Alioua, sociologist and professor at the International University of Rabat, in an interview with InfoMigrants said that there was a slight peak in arrivals, underlining that “there are always minors training to swim in the sea to one day leave.”
Nearly 12,000 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands between the start of the year and the end of February, according to official data from the Spanish Interior Ministry. Amidst ongoing tragedies – the latest was on 12 March, when seven people died in a shipwreck off the Canary Islands, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez praised the “extraordinarily positive” co-operation with Morocco. “We have established a cooperation that I would describe as exemplary.

Tunisia
29.03.24 ECRE: Tunisian Security Forces to Receive EU Funding Despite Involvement in Human Rights Abuses: The EU plans to provide up to €164.5 million over three years to Tunisian security forces, the Financial Times (FT) has reported. Figures seen by the FT show that the EU will significantly increase its spending on migration under different funding streams over the next three years, with about two-thirds of a projected €278 mn allocated to security and border management. EU-funded programmes involving Tunisian security officers include a training academy for the country’s national maritime guard, implemented with the German federal police while some money will be used to finance equipment such as radars and boats for the national guard, and land border posts.

13.03.24: The Guardian: European Commission accused of ‘bankrolling dictators’ by MEPs after Tunisia deal: “The European Commission has been accused of “bankrolling dictators” by senior MEPs who have claimed that the €150m it gave to Tunisia last year in a migration and development deal has ended up directly in the president’s hands.”

Also see New Arab 14.03.24: 'Bankrolling dictators': MEPs claim EU aid to Tunisia went directly to President Saied: MEPs have claimed that EU €150m aid ended up directly in Tunisia President Kais Saied's pockets instead of being invested in an EU-backed project.

11.03.24 Guardian: Detained, trafficked, exploited: the plight of lone child migrants stranded in Tunisia: In Tunisia, almost 1,500 unaccompanied children approached the offices of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to seek support and asylum last year. Many had fled conflict in Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Eritrea. Between January and August 2023, 12% of arrivals by sea to Italy – a common destination for migrants in Tunisia – were unaccompanied children.

07.03.24 AJE: Tunisian government supporters in uproar over French documentary: Anger following a French documentary on Tunisia shedding a light on what it called the “poverty and dictatorship” of President Kais Saied’s rule has continued to be directed towards participants in the film after the country’s prime minister brought attention to the film last week.

03.04.24: taz: Schutzlos im Olivenhain (Shelterless in the olive grove): Around 70,000 migrants and refugees from 15 countries have been living along the road between Sfax and Mahdia since October last year. They are hoping to continue their journey to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

East Africa

Chad
23.03.24 Africa News: Refugee camps in Chad are overcrowded and running out of aid: Overcrowded refugee camps in eastern Chad are set to run out of money soon, exacerbating a dire humanitarian crisis caused by the spillover from a deadly conflict in Sudan, the United Nations said. More than a million people in Chad, including refugees, face losing access to lifesaving aid unless more funding is raised to help, the U.N. World Food Program said this month.

Ethiopia
05.03.24 TNH: ‘Horrific’ civilian toll as Ethiopia turns to combat drones to quell local insurgencies: This arsenal includes Iranian and Chinese drones, but it is Türkiye’s Bayraktar TB2 that Ethiopia has come to rely on most, analysts say. The model is robust, costs a fraction of the US Predator drone, and is easy to operate and maintain.
Foreign dignitaries got a rare glimpse of these weapons at a joint Ethiopian-Emirati air show on 16 December at Ethiopia’s main air base of Harar Meda, close to the capital, Addis Ababa.
A Western official who attended told The New Humanitarian he counted at least five Turkish and four Chinese drones in the back of a hangar.

Somalia
14.03.24 Guardian: Somalia has 99% of $2bn debt cancelled in major boost to fragile recovery: Paris Club of creditor nations agree cancellation as Mogadishu moves towards financial normalisation amid ongoing conflict

South Sudan
26.03.24 AJE: South Sudan on the brink after oil exports derailed by Sudan’s civil war: Experts say that a halt in oil production could escalate already acute levels of violence and insecurity in South Sudan.

Sudan
29.03.24 AJE: Sudan slips into famine as warring sides starve civilians: Without online remittances, soaring prices and cereal production cut, Sudan is in the middle of a humanitarian disaster.

Also see AJE 16.03.24: UN warns five million could suffer ‘catastrophic’ hunger in Sudan amid war: UN aid chief says 730,000 Sudanese children are thought to suffer from ‘severe’ malnutrition.

22.043.24: SWM: JEM to join battle on Gedaref front: The force under the command of General Fadl Ishaq Fadl Ushur will head to western Gedaref, where the Sudanese army is building up a massive force to recapture Wad Madani, the capital of Al Jazira. JEM is calling the force the “Martyr Dr Khalil Ibrahim Convoy,” after the movement’s founder, who died in an airstrike in 2011.
The former Sudanese rebel group, which battled the government from 2003-2020, is now fighting side-by-side with its former nemesis, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF). JEM has embarked on a massive recruitment drive in eastern Sudan, with the sanction of Sudan’s military junta. The effort has swelled and diversified JEM’s ranks, which formerly consisted mostly of Zaghawa and Arab tribesmen from western Sudan, specifically Darfur and Kordofan.

12.03.24 AJE: Sudan army regains control of national TV and radio headquarters from RSF: The military posted videos online showing its soldiers inside the headquarters on Tuesday in Omdurman, a city across the Nile from Khartoum that forms part of Sudan’s wider capital, where the army has claimed recent gains after a string of military losses.

12.03.24 SWM: Sudan paramilitary suffers crushing defeat in Omdurman: The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are being steamrolled in Sudan’s largest city, Omdurman, losing a large amount territory, men, and equipment under a relentless combined-arms assault involving infantry, drones, and artillery.

04.03.24: SWM: Fighting escalates on the Jazira front: The frontlines around Al-Jazira State, which were relatively calm in recent weeks, are showing signs of growing escalation, signaling a possible counter-offensive by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), which are emboldened by a recent victory in Omdurman. The Rapid Support Force (RSF) overran much of the fertile state in December, but failed to exploit the breakthrough by driving farther south and east. Instead, the Sudanese army stabilized the front, drawing upon large reserves of manpower in neighboring states, which include Sennar, White Nile, and Gedaref.

01.03.24 AJE: UN official warns of possible war crimes, rape as a weapon in Sudan: The United Nations human rights chief has said that the apparent deliberate denial of safe access for humanitarian agencies within war-torn Sudan could amount to a war crime.
“Sudan has become a living nightmare. Almost half of the population – 25 million people – are in urgent need of food and medical aid. Some 80 percent of hospitals have been put out of service,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said on Friday.

West Africa and Sahel

Sahel
07.03.24 BBC: Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to form joint force to fight jihadists: Niger's army chief Moussa Salaou Barmou announced it would be operational as soon as possible, without giving details of its size. The military regimes in the three countries have become increasingly close allies in recent months.
Also see The Conversation 29.02.24: L’Alliance des États du Sahel : un projet confédéraliste en questions

Burkina Faso
15.03.24 AJE: ‘Russia’s African lab’: How Putin won over Burkina Faso after French adieu: Russia has been increasing its influence in Burkina Faso, where disillusionment with French politics has left a void.

Also see 06.03.25 LM: Au Burkina Faso, la première base militaire russe d’Africa Corps

14.03.24 RFI: Burkina Faso: 500 000 personnes vivant sous blocus n'ont pas eu accès à l'aide humanitaire en 2023: In Burkina Faso, nearly 500,000 people living in blockaded areas were unable to receive aid or humanitarian assistance from international NGOs operating in the country in 2023, according to the Forum of International Humanitarian Non-Governmental Organisations (Fongih). According to this group of NGOs, the lack of funding and access difficulties linked to the insecurity have prevented around sixty organisations from operating.

03.03.24 Guardian: About 170 people ‘executed’ in Burkina Faso village attacks, official says: Aly Benjamin Coulibaly said he had received reports of the attacks on the villages of Komsilga, Nodin and Soroe in Yatenga province, with a provisional toll of “around 170 people executed”.

Chad
18.03.24 RFI: Chad's opposition fears France will maintain status quo after elections: As elections approach in Chad, the country’s civil society fears that nothing will change. The vote should mark the country's transition back to democracy after three years of military government, but the opposition says France, which has a military presence there, has an interest in maintaining the status quo. A major issue for Chad is the presence of French troops in the country. Earlier this month France's special envoy to Africa, Jean-Marie Bockel, met both candidates in the capital, Ndjamena, and said the roughly 1,000 troops stationed would stay.

21.03.24 VoA: Nouveaux combats entre deux communautés dans l'est du Tchad, 42 morts (New fighting between two communities in eastern Chad, 42 dead): At least 42 people have been killed in fighting between "two communities" in the desert east of Chad, announced the Ministry of Public Security, in a region where sedentary farmers and nomadic herders, or other groups, regularly clash over land disputes.

01.03.24 Le Monde: Chad opposition claims soldiers 'executed' leader Dillo at 'point blank range': Yaya Dillo Djerou was killed on Wednesday when troops surrounded the office of his Socialist Party Without Borders.
Also see Reuters 01.03.24: Yaya Dillo: What does killing mean for Chad and its ruling elite?

Mali
18.03.24 APA News: Mali: over 1,000 schools shut down as insecurity rises: The school closure rate has reached 18 percent, a worrying figure that highlights the major challenges facing Mali’s education system. The centre of the country, which over the years has become the epicentre of insecurity in Mali, is much more affected by this situation.

12.03.24 TNH: As army operations ramp up in Mali, rebel groups impose ‘suffocating’ blockades: Armed groups in Mali are increasingly deploying siege tactics as a tool of war, targeting ever larger towns and regions, disrupting local economies, and creating major access problems for humanitarian groups that are already facing constraints due to the conflict.

15.03.24 HRW: Mali Deepens Crackdown on Civil Society: Mali’s minister of territorial administration’s order to dissolve a student association is just the latest in a series of government actions to crack down on freedom of association.
The minister said that the Association of Pupils and Students of Mali (L’Association des Elèves et Etudiants du Mali, AEEM) was responsible for “violence and clashes in schools and universities,” and that in 2017 and 2018 the security forces had arrested some of its members who had been found with “lethal weapons, narcotics and large sums of unjustified money.”
The AEEM is the fourth organization to be dissolved in less than four months. On March 6, authorities dissolved the Coordination of Movements, Associations, and Sympathizers of Imam Mahmoud Dicko (Coordination des Mouvements, Associations et Sympathisants de l’Imam Mahmoud Dicko), which had been calling for presidential elections as part of a transition back to civilian democratic rule, accusing it of “destabilization and threat to public security.” On February 28, authorities dissolved the political organization Kaoural Renewal (Kaoural Renouveau), citing “defamatory and subversive remarks” against the military junta. And on December 20, authorities dissolved the Observatory for Elections and Good Governance

05.03.24 Africa is a Country: Wagner’s war on civillians: As the eyes of the world are focused on the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the military that controls power in Mali is taking advantage of the situation in the Middle East to discreetly exterminate ethnic minorities, using the fight against terrorism as justification.

01.03.24 Sahara Reporters: Tension In Sahel Region As Algeria Conducts Military Drill On Border With Mali: Algeria conducted a large-scale “tactical exercise” on Tuesday, February 27 on the border with Mali, showing the importance of Algiers in the Sahel region.

Mauretiania
24.03.24 Sahara Media: Les orpailleurs en colère : que se passe-t-il à Chegatt (Angry gold panners: what's happening at Chegatt?): A large number of gold panners attacked equipment belonging to a foreign company specialising in gold prospecting in the Chegatt area, in the far north-east of Mauritania, on Sunday. The problem began after the company, which holds a gold prospecting licence in Cheguatt, brought in drilling and prospecting equipment three days ago, saying it wanted to use it to look for water. The private company, whose head office is in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, had begun prospecting in an area which, according to the gold miners, was outside the zone defined in its exploration licence.

07.03.24 EU News: EU, new migration partnership with Mauritania. €210 million committed: The EU Commissioner for Home Affairs launches the partnership with the goal of halting migrant arrivals to the Canary Islands, which reached 40,000 in 2023. The promotion of regular migration of "students, researchers, and entrepreneurs" and investment, infrastructure, and access to work also are in the five pillars

Also see AJE 26.03.24: The EU-Mauritania migration deal is destined to fail: “On March 7, the European Union and Mauritania inked a 210-million-euro ($227m) migration deal. The agreement was spearheaded by the EU and lobbied for by the Spanish government, which is worried about an uptick in undocumented migration to the Canary Islands. [...] But a glance at the history of the EU’s “border externalisation” policies suggests this deal has little chance of meeting its stated objective.”

Niger
19.03.24 ActuNiger: Coopération : le Niger compte sur Poutine et la Russie pour réussir son combat patriotique de reconquête de sa souveraineté, déclare le Général Tiani (Cooperation: Niger is counting on Putin and Russia to succeed in its patriotic struggle to regain its sovereignty, says General Tiani): Since the events of 26 July 2023, the new authorities in Niger have opted for a strategic alliance with new partners such as Russia, Iran and Turkey, while gradually distancing themselves from Western countries, notably France and now the United States.

17.03.24 Guardian: Niger junta repudiates deal allowing US military bases on its soil: Niger’s ruling military junta says it has revoked with immediate effect a military accord that allows US military personnel and civilian staff on its soil.
As of 2023 there were about 1,100 US troops in Niger, where the US military operates out of two bases including a drone base known as airbase 201, built near Agadez in central Niger at a cost of more than US $100m. Abdramane stopped short of saying US forces should leave. But he alleged their status and presence was illegal and violated constitutional and democratic rules because, he claimed, it was unilaterally imposed in 2012.

14.03.24 Tinubu Orders Immediate Reopening of Borders With Niger: President Bola Tinubu has directed the opening of Nigeria’s land and air borders with the Republic of Niger and the lifting of other sanctions against the country with immediate effect.
The latest directive, according to a release issued on Wednesday by presidential spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, is in compliance with the decisions of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government at its last extraordinary summit on February 24, 2024, in Abuja.
ECOWAS leaders had at the Summit agreed to lift economic sanctions against the Republic of Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea.

02.03.24 RFI: Le pipeline Niger-Bénin officiellement mis en service (The Niger-Benin pipeline officially opens for business): From the extraction site to the terminal station, the pipeline covers more than a thousand kilometres in Niger and nearly 700 in Benin. Estimates are still based on production of 90,000 barrels a day. Benin will receive transit duties and substantial tax revenues based on the quantity exported.

Nigeria
08.03.24 Guardian: Nigeria sends troops to rescue more than 250 kidnapped schoolchildren: Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has sent troops to rescue more than 250 children kidnapped by gunmen from a school in the north-west of the country in one of the largest mass abductions in recent years. The mass kidnapping in Kaduna state was the second in a week in Nigeria, where heavily armed criminal gangs on motorbikes target victims in villages and schools and along highways in search of ransom payments.

Senegal
27.03.24 Guardian: ‘We are finally free’: Senegal hails new anti-establishment president: Bassirou Diomaye Faye promises to overhaul democracy in west African country blighted by corruption

Also see AJE 25.03.24: Senegal election results: Who is Diomaye Faye, tipped to be next president?; TAZ 27.03.24: Machtwechsel nach Wahl in Senegal: Glückwünsche und Versprechen

Sub Saharan Africa

DR Congo:
12.03.24 TAZ: Krieg im Osten der DR Kongo: Rebellen auf dem Vormarsch (War in eastern DR Congo: rebels on the advance): The area controlled by the rebel movement M23 (Movement of 23 March) in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo now stretches from Lake Kivu to Lake Edward.
Also see ACLED 04.03.24: Rwanda-backed M23 Rebels Advance Toward Goma in Eastern DR Congo

West Asia

Iran
08.03.24 OHCR: Iran: Institutional discrimination against women and girls enabled human rights violations and crimes against humanity in the context of recent protests, UN Fact-Finding Mission says: The report to the Human Rights Council said violations and crimes under international law committed in the context of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that began on 16 September 2022 include extra-judicial and unlawful killings and murder, unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, arbitrary deprivation of liberty, torture, rape, enforced disappearances, and gender persecution.

05.03.24 AJE: Executions in Iran hit 8-year high in 2023: Iran hanged at least 834 people in 2023, the second-highest number of executions in two decades, according to a report released by rights groups. The report, released on Tuesday by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), suggests that the 43 percent spike in the use of capital punishment last year came in reaction to nationwide protests prompted by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini in 2022.

Irak
20.03.24 TAZ: Irak macht mit der PKK Schluss (Iraq puts an end to the PKK): During a visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to the capital Baghdad, Iraq's central government agreed to ban the PKK in Iraq. The organisation, which is banned as a "terrorist organisation" in Turkey as well as in the EU and the USA, is now to be combated there too. For Turkey, this agreement, which was published at the weekend, is a breakthrough that it has been seeking for years.

Lebanon
13.03.24 TAZ: Abschiebungen aus dem Libanon: Beirut deportiert, Berlin zahlt (Deportations from Lebanon: Beirut deports, Berlin pays): he military in Lebanon receives millions in aid from Germany and the EU to protect the country's borders. In doing so, it blatantly violates the human rights of refugees. For example, it is said to be working with the army of neighbouring Syria to forcibly deport Syrians from Lebanon. This is according to a report by the Lebanese NGO Access Centre for Human Rights (ACHR). The human rights organisation documented a total of 1,080 cases of arbitrary arrest and 763 cases of forced deportations to Syria in 2023.

11.03.24: The New Arab: Syrian opposition activist Sheikh Jumaa Lehib threatened with deportation from Lebanon: “Lehib's deportation order comes as Lebanon threatens to send other Syrian activists back to Syria in recent weeks. [...] Deportations have not only been confined to Syrian activists but have targeted Syrian refugees en masse. Since April 2023, Lebanese authorities have carried out campaigns against Syrian refugees without valid residency documents – which comprise 87 per cent of the 1.8 million Syrian refugees in the country.”

Syria
27.03.24 DW: Tödliche Drohnen bedrohen Zivilisten (Deadly drones threaten civilians): In Syria, government troops and their allies are attacking civilians in so-called rebel areas with armed drones. These are attacks on the lives and livelihoods of the people affected. A man in front of his destroyed house in north-west Syria

28.03.24: HRW: Syrians Face Dire Conditions in Turkish-Occupied ‘Safe Zone’: “Turkish authorities are deporting or otherwise pressuring thousands of Syrians to leave the country to Tel Abyad, a remote Turkish-occupied district of northern Syria where humanitarian conditions are dire, Human Rights Watch said today.”

Europe

Balkan Route
08.03.24 ECRE: Frontex to Massively Increase Deployment on Bulgaria-Türkiye Border Despite Having Previously Ignored Evidence of Pushbacks ― European Commission to Strengthen Co-operation on Border and Migration Management with Bulgaria and Romania: The EU Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) is preparing to deploy an additional 500 to 600 officers to guard the Bulgaria-Türkiye Border despite evidence showing that it previously ignored evidence of pushbacks committed by Bulgarian border guards. The European Commission has launched ‘Cooperation Frameworks’ on border and migration management with Bulgaria and Romania and announced €85 million in funding to enhance national capabilities at the EU’s external borders.

Bulgaria and Romania
bugaria.bordermonitoring 28.03.24: Schengen: Joining at any cost: At the end of March 2024, Romania and Bulgaria will no longer be subject to border controls when crossing the sea and air borders into European countries that belong to the so-called Schengen area. This is a success for the two Balkan states, which have been members of the EU since 2007.
Bulgaria has been a focal point for migration movements for years, as its geographical location on the border with Turkey makes the country on the Black Sea an important transit country for refugees seeking to enter the EU. As the Mediterranean is considered the most dangerous escape route in the world, many people choose the overland route, often to Bulgaria. Although there are no official statistics on this, the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior published corresponding data in January. According to this, the Bulgarian border police prevented around 180,000 “illegal“ entry attempts by migrants in 2023. There were already 5,000 this year. The Bulgarian authorities are being supported by the largest land operation of the border protection agency Frontex, „Operation Terra“,

Also see: Jungle World 21.03.24: Beitritt um jeden Preis (Joining at any price): According to research by Bulgarian journalist Maria Cheresheva and researcher Luděk Stavinoha from the British University of East Anglia for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), pushbacks that Frontex and the EU Commission were actually aware of were consistently ignored, particularly in relation to Bulgaria.

Also see Balkaninsight 26.02.24: Schengen in Sights, EU and Frontex Overlook Violent Bulgarian Pushbacks

Germany
13.03.24 Tagesspiegel: Sichere Herkunftsstaaten in Westafrika?: Bundesregierung beobachtet Lage in Ghana und Senegal (Safe countries of origin in West Africa: German government monitors situation in Ghana and Senegal): Now the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) has reassessed the security situation in the ten safe countries of origin. The report is available exclusively to the Tagesspiegel.In the 80-page paper, the ministry's experts do not yet address the countries of Georgia and Moldova, as these countries were only added to the list of safe countries at the end of December. In the paper, the ministry refers to observations from the period from October 2021 to September 2023. For Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ghana, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Senegal and Serbia, the BMI concludes that these countries are still safe. The majority of people there are not in danger of being persecuted because of their religion, skin colour, political views or sexuality.

Greece
Aegean Boat Report: Weekly Statistics on Arrivals

Italy – Albania
23.03.24 La Repubblica: Migranti, nei centri italiani in Albania un rotolo di carta igienica a persona a settimana (Migrants, in Italian centres in Albania one roll of toilet paper per person per week): A 34 million euro contract and one roll of toilet paper per week per migrant. This paradox would be enough to brand as hasty and summary the tender for the awarding of services for the reception and detention centres for asylum seekers that the Meloni government plans to open in Albania by 20 May.
Also see 26.03.24 Euractiv: Albania-Italy migrant deal moves ahead as Rome publishes tender for processing centre

Italy
03.03.24 nd: Gefängnisstrafe für Pushback-Kapitän: Wegweisendes Urteil (Prison Sentence für Pushback Captain): The Italian Supreme Court in Rome has sentenced the captain of the "Asso Ventotto" to one year in prison for rescuing a total of 101 refugees from distress at sea on 30 July 2018 and then handing them over to the Libyan coastguard. They were then taken back to Libya, from where they had started their journey to Europe. Among them were children and pregnant women. The Court of Cassation judged this to be a criminal offence of "abandoning" vulnerable people seeking protection. The captain, Giuseppe Sotgiu, had failed to check whether the people wanted to apply for asylum.

Further important court procedures in Italy:
28.02.24 ECCHR: Nach 8 Jahren: Staatsanwaltschaft fordert Einstellung des Verfahrens im IUVENTA-Fall (After 8 years: Public prosecutor's office demands discontinuation of proceedings in the IUVENTA case); 21.02.24 La Pepubblica: Ong, giudice di Brindisi sospende il fermo amministrativo dell’Ocean Viking: “Violato il diritto di esercitare attività di soccorso in mare” (NGO, Brindisi judge suspends the administrative detention of the Ocean Viking: 'Violated the right to carry out rescue activities at sea')
Also see: Huamity: Civil fleet: over a year of operation time lost!

Spain
19.03.24: The Guardian: Missing migrants’ families say they were asked to pay hundreds for information on relatives: “Families say they were promised details of relatives’ whereabouts after contacting people they thought were linked to NGO in Spain. Families of people who disappeared on the perilous journey from Africa to Europe have said they were asked to pay hundreds of euros in exchange for information about what had happened to their loved ones.”

UK
29.03.24 ECRE: Record Number of People Make Crossings in Small Boats: New statistics published by the UK Home Office have revealed that the number of people who arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel in small boats has reached a record for the first three months of a calendar year. Following the 2024 daily record of 514 arrivals on 20 March, 338 people arrived on 26 March bringing the total number since the start of the year to 4644.

13.03.24 AJE: UK plans to pay asylum seekers to move to Rwanda: The United Kingdom’s government is considering plans to pay asylum seekers whose applications have failed up to 3,000 British pounds ($3,840) to move to Rwanda.
The proposed scheme, part of a deal struck with Rwanda, was drawn up by ministers with the aim of clearing a backlog of tens of thousands of asylum seekers who have been refused the right to stay, but cannot be returned to countries deemed unsafe.

European Union

EU Commission
12.03.24 European Commission: Commission takes stock of key achievements on migration and asylum: „The new legal framework of the Pact will be a game-changer and its full and timely implementation is now key. Following the formal adoption of the Pact proposals, the Commission will lead the collective work, presenting a Common Implementation Plan by June 2024 and accompanying Member States every step of the way with financial, technical and operational support.“

EU-Mauretania
07.03.24 EU News: EU, new migration partnership with Mauritania. €210 million committed: The EU Commissioner for Home Affairs launches the partnership with the goal of halting migrant arrivals to the Canary Islands, which reached 40,000 in 2023. The promotion of regular migration of "students, researchers, and entrepreneurs" and investment, infrastructure, and access to work also are in the five pillars

Frontex

05.03.24: IlPost: Frontex continuerà a segnalare la presenza di migranti in mare alla Guardia costiera libica (Frontex will continue to report the presence of migrants at sea to the Libyan Coast Guard): “Director Hans Leijtens said the agency is required to do so by law, even though at the weekend an NGO had accused a Libyan patrol boat of obstructing a rescue operation”.

Reports and Long Reads

Balkan Route
IOM 25.03.24: Western Balkans — Migrant Mobility Situation Report (February 2024): This report provides insights into the profiles, experiences, needs, routes travelled and intentions of migrants transiting through the Western Balkans. IOM surveyed 1,698 migrants from 1 February to 29 February 2024 in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo.

Burkina Faso
ACLED 26.03.24: Burkina Faso’s Self-Defense Militia: The Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (or Les Volontaires pour la défense de la Patrie), commonly known by the acronym VDP, is a self-defense militia in Burkina Faso. As of 2022, the number of active volunteer fighters under the VDP umbrella was estimated to be 28,000.1 The VDP operates nationwide, recruiting members from the country’s various ethnic groups, with a majority coming from sedentary communities such as the Mossi, Foulse, Gourmantche, and Songhai. The VDP has its roots in preexisting initiatives, such as the Koglweogo and Dozo self-defense groups, which have become increasingly involved in counterinsurgency operations since the beginning of the crisis in 2015.2 These self-defense groups initially formed the core and recruitment base for the country’s irregular people’s defense forces.

EU – Egypt
March 24 Brot fdW: EU Support for “Fortress Egypt“ by Sofian Philip Naceur: Egyptians were the top nationality in the 2022 statistics on irregular arrivals in Italy (20% of all irregular arrivals). In this context, the EU and its member states expanded their support for Egypt’s police and military to levels never seen before. The declared goal is to prevent irregular migration towards Europe. However, Egypt’s more systematic surveillance of its borders in recent years is not only the result of EU efforts to further integrate the country into the European border regime. Rather, the Cairo regime has been pursuing a restrictive border control and migration policy independently of EU interests since the 2000s and is self-confident in determining which forms of cooperation with the EU regarding migration are pursued and which are not.

Also see Comment by Böll-Stifrtung: Migration agreement with Egypt: EU backing the wrong horse; DW 17.03.24: EU-Abkommen: 7,4 Milliarden für Zusammenarbeit mit Ägypten; SZ 17.03.24: EU-Gelder für den Autokraten ( EU funds for the autocrat); 17.03.24 TAZ: Europas neuer Lieblings-Diktator Sisi (Europe's new favourite dictator Sisi)

EU Externalization
28.03.34: EuroMedRights: A gendered analysis of EU migration externalizations policies: EuroMed Rights launches a new report analyzing EU migration externalizations policies in the MENA region from a gender perspective.

EU – Militarization of Borders
Telepolis 04.03.24: Wer profitiert von der militarisierten "Festung Europa" gegen Flüchtende? (Who benefits from the militarised "Fortress Europe" against refugees?): Military companies advised the European Commission, founded the European Defence Agency in 2004 and published studies that targeted migration as a major threat that could only be contained through more military spending. This led to fears that politics was being steered by corporations, the military-industrial complex. Between 2003 and 2013, arms manufacturers led at least 39 European research projects focussing on migration.

Italy
AJE 19.03.24: Migrant workers exploited, abused in Italy’s prized fine wine vineyards: Undocumented workers, who earn barely more than $50 a day in Italy’s lush north, say they have suffered racism and inhumane conditions.

Libya
AJE 24.03.24: ‘Never-ending humiliation’: Recalling horrors in Libya’s migration centres: Rescued in the middle of the Mediterranean, two men describe their experience being trafficked.

Germany
Mediendienst 22.03.24: Welche Migrationsabkommen Deutschland hat (Which migration agreements Germany has:): Which countries has Germany signed migration agreements with? How many people are already coming to Germany from these countries to work, study or join their families? How many are applying for asylum? An overview. (Also see Tagesspiegel 03.10.23: Vertrauliche Gespräche laufen: Ampel verhandelt mit sechs Staaten über Migrationsabkommen (Confidential talks underway: Ampel negotiates migration agreement with six countries)

Deportations from Germany
Deportation Alarm
In addition to a sharp increase in the number of deportation charter flights, there are also some specific changes in 2023 compared to the previous year: Monthly Iraq mass deportations, Weekly charters to Moldova, Sharp increase in Dublin charter flights to Croatia, Stuttgart & Hanover further established as deportation airports, Massive increase in charter flights to The Gambia: after 4 charter flights in 2022, there was a sharp increase last year with a total of 13 deportation charter flights to Banjul. Does this indicate a new cooperation agreement between the Gambian and German governments?

Also see: Pro Asyl 27.02.24: Das Gegenteil von Verbesserungen: Das neue Rückführungsgesetz verschlimmert die Lage (The opposite of improvements: The new repatriation law makes the situation worse)

Migration
16.03.24 NZZ: Alle streiten über Migration, aber was sind die Fakten? Sechs Mythen über die Zuwanderung (Everyone is arguing about migration, but what are the facts? Six myths about immigration): The migration debate is polarising like no other - and it is being conducted without facts like no other. This is the view of Dutch migration researcher Hein de Haas, who has been working on the issue for three decades. He interviews migrants in field studies, packs complex data sets into statistical models and analyses the research work of others. But when he looks at the public debate on migration, de Haas is increasingly frustrated. Ultimately, everything is reduced to whether someone is for or against immigration, he says. "And all sides are working with false assumptions and spreading myths."

Missing Migrants
IOM March 24: A DECADE OF DOCUMENTING MIGRANT DEATHS .Data analysis and reflection on deaths during migration documented by IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, 2014–2023: In 2023, 8,542 people are known to have died or disappeared during migration, the highest figure recorded in any year in the past decade.

Sahel
MMC 29.03.24: Protection risks and assistance needs of migrants in the Central Sahel: This snapshot provides data on the protection risks and assistance needs of migrants in the Central Sahel region. It is based on 2,276 4Mi survey interviews conducted with migrants in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in late 2023.

Sudan (One Year of War in Sudan)
28.03.24: Domani: Social e satelliti, un faro sulla guerra in Sudan: in 10 mesi 108 villaggi sono stati dati alle fiamme (Social and satellite, a spotlight on the war in Sudan: in 10 months 108 villages have been burnt down): The atrocities of one of the great forgotten conflicts remain unnoticed: there are hardly any observers, diplomats or journalists in the country. This is why the research we are publishing exclusively for Italy is important. It was carried out by the Center for Information Resilience and documents the fires ravaging the country to force the population to flee. Sudanese refugees have grown to 8.1 million. Of the 108 villages set on fire, the Centre for Information Resilience specifically analysed a few cases where the fires were repeated several times or were very intense. One of the worst affected places was Misterei, one of the largest border towns in West Darfur, a few kilometres from the border with Chad, inhabited mostly by the Massalit ethnic group. Here, between 29 May and 2 June 2023, according to satellite images obtained by the researchers, there were many fires. On those very days, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, the town was stormed by Rsf militias. The Centre for Information Resilience also found a video shot during those hours in the centre of the city: houses are seen destroyed, and the person recording the video accuses the local Nuba population of committing murders and says 'what goes around comes around'.

22.04.24 Guardian: What caused the civil war in Sudan and how has it become one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises?: Fighting broke out nearly a year ago in the capital Khartoum, in an escalating power struggle that has led to more than 8 million people being displaced

21.03.24 WOZ: Gefangen zwischen den Generälen (Stuck Between the Generals): Voices from Atbara, Al Geneina, Klama Camp near Nyala

14.03.24 Guardian: Darfur rape survivors gather together after ethnically targeted campaign: Group on outskirts of Geneina share stories from November when RSF and allied militias unleashed wave of sexual violence

13.03.24 HRW: Sudanese Refugee Deaths Highlight EU Policy Failures: Sudan’s current conflict has forced over eight million people from their homes, including 1.2 million Sudanese refugees in surrounding countries – one of the world’s worst displacement crises. Most have fled to neighboring Chad, Egypt, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic.
But Egypt has committed abuses against Sudanese refugees and imposed visa requirements, while the other countries—coping with their own conflicts, insecurity, and humanitarian crises—have scant capacity to host more refugees.
None have received much international support; only 38 percent of the $1 billion [€0.92 billion] needed for the regional refugee response was funded in 2023, resulting in dire conditions in refugee sites, with limited shelter, food and water. This year, $1.4 billion is needed.
It’s not surprising that more Sudanese are fleeing to Libya and Tunisia and onward to Europe. In Tunisia, UNHCR-registered Sudanese increased from 513 in January 2023 to 5,866 by December; in Libya, the number increased by 10,000 from March to December.

11.03.24 Africa is a Country: Keep eyes on Sudan: Why is the plight of the Sudanese consistently overlooked? This indifference toward Sudan’s suffering can be traced to a disturbing pattern of antiblackness—a pervasive societal attitude that systematically downplays the agony of black communities, particularly within the African continent. The intricate history of Sudan, marred by European colonialism and Arab conquests, has left an indelible impact, perpetuating a relentless cycle of marginalization and violence.

07.03.24 LMD: Gerard Prunier: Sudan – vom Krieg zerrissen (Sudan torn apart by War): In the event that the Sudanese state finally collapses, the prospects are extremely poor. The entire Horn of Africa is now in a state of advanced disintegration. It is indicative of the tragic situation that Ethiopia still appears to be the most stable country in the region. This is despite the fact that it is torn apart by internal conflicts9 and is also at loggerheads with its neighbours Egypt and Somalia over certain dam and port projects.

04.03.24 TNH: ‘We are on the edge’: Communication blackout thwarts mutual aid efforts in besieged Khartoum: A communication blackout across Sudan is having a particularly harmful impact on the besieged capital city, Khartoum, where some mutual aid groups have suspended their life-saving humanitarian work even amid growing levels of catastrophic hunger. Volunteers from Khartoum’s emergency response rooms – the main humanitarian actors in the city – said their food banks, which feed hundreds of thousands of people, are collapsing because they don’t have access to their mobile banking applications.

04.03.24 AJE: John Young: Sudanese democracy should not be US-made: Sudan needs a democratic transformation, but it has to be one based on its unique needs, not those of the US.

Yemen
07.03.25 LMD: Was wollen die Huthis? (What do the Houthis want?): "The Houthis have been trained and supplied with weapons by the Revolutionary Guards since 2010," says a confidential source with contacts to the intelligence service of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which plays a leading role in the anti-Houthi coalition. The rebels' resistance is directed on the one hand against the Saudi-Emirati coalition fighting against them, and on the other hand against the regular Yemeni army. According to this source, the fighters, who originally come from the mountainous north-west of Yemen, have now become sailors. They have thus secured their financial independence in order to continue their evil activities: "They operate throughout the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa with weapons, drugs, minerals, coal and, of course, people." In this way, the Yemeni group has also emancipated itself from Tehran.

HoA Media Office

In this section we publish relevant articles, and links, and also make available translations to Arabic in the form of PDFs. The media office cooperates with Arkamani for the Sudan anthropological and archaeological translation series.

في هذا القسم سنقوم في المستقبل بنشر مقاالت وروابط صلة بالقرن األفريقي كما ستكون بعض لترجمات ذات.PDFs على صيغة إلى العربية متاحة أيضا يسر القسم أن يعلن عن تعاونه مع دراسات أركماني االنثربولوجيا واالركيولوجيا السودانية

1- The Future of IGAD amidst Turmoil in the Horn

by Matthew Chandler de Waalmarch, African Argument 26, 2024

Roiling war in Sudan, looming famine in northern Ethiopia, protracted insurgencies in Amhara and Oromia, and a badly stalled offensive against Alshabab in Somalia paint a bleak picture for the Horn of Africa in 2024. The scale of these crises can appear intractable, as the region is facing its worst moment since the early 1990s. The engagement needed to respond to these crises, particularly from multilateral institutions, seems paralysed. The African Union (AU) is seen to have largely abandoned its founding principles, which established the ‘primacy of politics’ and once powerfully promoted peace, democracy, and respect for human rights. Meanwhile, the Horn’s pre-eminent regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), is also facing a confluence of pressures that have left it

2- Ethiopia: Fears of looming famine for 20 million people: DW 20.02.2024 .

Ethiopia's government confirms that hundreds have died of starvation in recent months. War, corruption and drought significantly ravage people in the Tigray and Amhara regions. DW Mariel Mueller reports on the devastating hunger threatening lives across Ethiopia.

3- Turkey to provide maritime security support to Somalia -official: 22.02.2024

By Reuters. Turkey will provide maritime security support to Somalia to help the African country defend its territorial waters, an official from the Turkish defence ministry said on Thursday.
Turkey and Somalia signed a defence and economic cooperation agreement earlier this month during Somali defence minister's visit to Ankara.

4- Ethiopia’s Quest for Sea Access and the Question of Somali Sovereignty

by Jason Mosley, African Arguments 19.02.2024

Regional relations in the Horn of Africa were thrown into turmoil in 2024 after Ethiopia and the self-declared Republic of Somaliland signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 1 January, related to the granting of landlocked Ethiopia access to ports and land for a naval base on Somaliland’s coast in exchange for a stake in an Ethiopian state-owned asset (possibly Ethiopian Airlines) and the prospect of formal recognition of Somaliland’s sovereignty. The federal government of Somalia in Mogadishu (which does not accept Somaliland’s independence) has forcefully condemned the MoU, which has also elicited expressions of concern from neighbouring countries.

5- Trade, Conflict and Fragmentation: The Horn’s Crisis of Sovereignty

by Markus Virgil Hoehne, African Arguments 05.02.2024

On 1 January 2024, Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, and Muse Bihi, the President of Somaliland, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Addis Ababa. The MoU contained an agreement to lease 20 kilometres of coastline to Ethiopia, which would allow it to re-establish its naval forces, for a period of 50 years. In exchange, Abiy Ahmed agreed that the Ethiopian government would engage in an “in-depth assessment” of the question of Somaliland’s recognition. This came just three days after Muse Bihi had met with the President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mahamoud, in Djibouti on 29 December 2023, at the invitation of President Ismael Omar Guelleh, where a communique was signed by Hassan Sheikh Mahamoud and Muse Bihi on the continuation of talks between both sides.

6 - A Crisis Undeclared: 21 Years of Refuge in the Chad-Sudan Borderlands

by Andrea Behrends, African Arguments 23.01.2024

Crisis develops on the ground, as fast rupture and growing turbulence. At the same time, it develops internationally, if global attention is drawn to it and a crisis is effectively declared. A declared crisis or humanitarian situation necessitates consequences on different levels: funding flows into mitigations of crisis effects; aid organisations provide food and the most needed goods to the displaced to survive. Sometimes, international military operations attempt to provide security. These interventions are apart from efforts to initiate political debate. A major crisis, “the first genocide of the 21st century”, was declared on the Chad-Sudan border in 2004. At the time, this reaction to declare for the first time an ongoing situation as genocide was connected to the international reluctance to react to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and the (self-) accusations this had caused.

7- Is a Peaceful Somalia Possible? Alternatives to Total War on Al-Shabaab

by Bereket Tsegaymay, Afrrican Agruments 26, 2023

Somalia has been plagued by a persistent, escalating instability and political crisis for over three decades. The threat from al-Shabaab, a militant Islamic insurgent group, has created a state of perpetual political tensions and conflicts. After the new Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) came to power in May 2022, it put forward a directive that made fighting the group its top priority. Since then, al-Shabaab has intensified its indiscriminate attacks against civilians. There are several critical questions. Can the 7,000-12,000 fighters of al-Shabaab be defeated through ‘total war’ or al-Shabaab’s political Islam be accommodated? Is a peaceful Somalia possible through political engagement?

8- The European Union in a crowded Horn of Africa

Clingendael 19.12.2023

This policy brief explores the engagement of the European Union (EU) in the Horn of Africa, in light of the growing regional presence of other foreign actors, namely the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, China, and Russia. Although the EU has defined the Horn as a “geo-strategic priority”, the bloc’s approach to the region is not yet well defined. The EU’s engagement would benefit from a clearer definition of the EU’s interests and objectives in the region in a clear order of priority. This could then inform a reflection on which tools can be best mobilized to achieve such interests. In this regard, the EU’s development cooperation efforts are an important added value that the bloc brings to the region, which may be leveraged more strategically to achieve the EU’s objectives.

Campaigns

Egyptian authorities must end arbitrary detentions and forced deportations of Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers: The statement, initiated by the Refugees Platform in Egypt, gives an excellent overview of the situation of Sudanese refugees in Egypt and their disenfranchisement. The undersigned organisations urge the Egyptian authorities to immediately stop the serious abuses against Sudanese seeking refuge in Egypt.

Events

The next POMAF Thursday will take place on Thursday 11 April at 3pm CET:

"Digitalizing Population and Mobility Control in Africa: The Challenges of Inclusion and Efficiency in West and East Africa".

With:Alphoncina Lyamuya, Agnes Doe Agbanyo. The session will be held in English and moderated by Kossigari DJOLAR. Zoom link :
https://univ-amu-fr.zoom.us/j/83914585892?pwd=VXo3RmdTQWJUVEZiNnh6ZmMzMExOUT09
Meeting ID: 839 1458 5892Password: 704432

Seminar

18.04.24 10 am - 1 pm: Shores of Collaboration – Unpacking the Italy-Albania Protocol on the Externalisation of Asylum Processing by the Utrecht University: A joint seminar to discuss the Italy–Albania Protocol on the Externalisation of Asylum Processing.