On the two-year anniversary of the outbreak of violence in South Sudan, IRRI has published a new report, “Protecting some of the people some of the time: Civilian perspectives on peacekeeping forces in South Sudan”. The report examines civilian perspectives of peacekeeping forces in South Sudan within the broader context of the conflict and…
(Kampala, 6 September 2016) Five years after the start of the conflict in Sudan’s Blue Nile State, attacks against civilians continue unabated according to a report released by the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) and the National Human Rights Monitors Organisation (NHRMO) today. A Crisis Normalised: Civilian perspectives on the conflict in Sudan’s Blue Nile…
July 30, 2016 The Honorable John F. Kerry Secretary Department of State Washington, D.C. 20520 RE: The Office of the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan Dear Secretary Kerry: Given the urgent crises in Sudan and South Sudan, we, the undersigned 70 human rights groups, activists, scholars and civic leaders, write to request the…
We hope you enjoy this update on our activities between April and June 2016 and want to thank you for your continued interest and support of IRRI. We continue to expand our sphere of influence with our twitter following increasing by almost 15% in the last three months alone and if you are not following…
To: Hon. Chairperson, Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) of the Agreement for Resolution of Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan. Cc: The Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) 17 June 2016 Your Excellency, We, the undersigned non-governmental organisations working in and outside of South Sudan, urge you to be un-deterred by…
After thirteen years in the country the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), deployed at the end of the country’s civil war in 2003, is preparing to leave the country and hand over full responsibility for security back to Liberia’s government by the end of next month. What is remarkable about this is not that…
On 15 April 2016, a cross-border raid from South Sudan into Ethiopia’s Gambella region left more than 200 dead. According to the Ethiopian government, more than 108 women and children were abducted and some 2,000 head of cattle stolen during the attack that targeted Nuer villages in the districts of Jikawo and Lare. Following the…
To: Hon. Chairperson, Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) of the Agreement for Resolution of Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan. Cc: The Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) 17 June 2016 Your Excellency, We, the undersigned non-governmental organisations working in and outside of South Sudan, urge you to be undeterred by an…
We hope you enjoy this update on our activities from January to March. Thank you for your continued interest and support of IRRI. We are extremely grateful and if you would like to make a donation to help us to continue our vital work, please click here. In this newsletter you will find updates on…
Since the outbreak of civil war in December 2013, more than 600,000 South Sudanese have fled to neighbouring countries. More than 226,000 of them have made their way to Ethiopia, contributing to the country overtaking Kenya as the country hosting the most refugees in Africa. The western region of Gambella hosts more than 270,000 of…
Despite all the time, energy, and rhetoric invested in trying to figure out how to protect civilians from atrocities, the vast majority of civilians in armed conflict are exposed and unprotected. This is very much the case in South Sudan, where, despite the presence of a peacekeeping mission, thousands of civilians have been targeted over…
Welcome to IRRI’s first quarterly newsletter (although as this is the first we have covered July to December 2016). We all live in busy times, and receive numerous emails with useful and important information that we just must read, but then somehow, we don’t always get round to it. With this in mind, we’ve decided…
Members of the AU Peace and Security Council African Union Headquarters P.O. Box 3243 Roosevelt Street Old Airport Area W21K19 Addis Ababa Ethiopia Cc: Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson, AU Commission Ambassador Smaïl Chergui, Commissioner, Peace and Security H.E. Olusegun Obasanjo, Chairperson, AU Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan Your Excellencies, RE: PUBLICATION OF THE…
While Europe squabbles over the acceptance of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers arriving over the Mediterranean, over the past year 154,134 refugees of South Sudanese origin alone have been assisted in Uganda, with Adjumani District receiving around 87 new arrivals every day. Despite the fact that Adjumani is itself recovering from decades of conflict,…
IRRI Submits Evidence on UK and International Engagement with South Sudan On 3 July 2014 IRRI submitted a statement to the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Sudan and South Sudan in response to a call for written evidence into “UK and International Engagement with South Sudan 2011-2014”. While mindful of the humanitarian crisis in…
“We could not wait for our dead bodies to be found first” Nearly a quarter of a million South Sudanese have fled to neighbouring countries, with Uganda taking the largest number – around 87,000. The International Refugee Rights Initiative’s report, Conflict in South Sudan: Refugees seek protection in Uganda and a way home explores the…
South Sudan is currently on the edge. Reports of an alleged attempted coup in South Sudan on Sunday 15 December were followed by days of reports of firefights all over the capital Juba. On December 19, these were followed by the news that the town of Bor in Jonglei state has fallen to rebel forces…
IRRI’s Senior Researcher Lucy Hovil has written UNHCR’s latest working paper on the process of repatriation of Southern Sudanese refugees in Uganda. While the official repatriation process continues, the paper demonstrates that refugees are creating their own durable solutions through a combination of economic and social integration and ongoing movement in and out of Sudan….