This article is the third in a series on the intersection between Islamic law, jihadists and humanitarian normsSearching for common ground between humanitarian principle and Islamic preceptsAre we speaking the same language? The ethical/strategic concerns Know your interlocutor Not all militants read the Koran DUBAI, 24 April 2014 (IRIN) – Humanitarian action today is largely taking place in Muslim-majority countries where some combatants turn to Islamic law, among other sources, to guide their military behaviour. As a result, in the last decade, aid and advocacy agencies have increasingly tried to understand Islamic law in order to use its humanitarian provisions as tools of negotiation…
Author: ARIN News
This article is the fourth in a series on the intersection between Islamic law, jihadists and humanitarian normsFollow @{0}DUBAI, 24 April 2014 (IRIN) – There is a renewed interest in translating classical texts about Islamic rules of war into English, adding to the increasing body of work on the intersections between Islam, international humanitarian law (IHL) and the protection of civilians. IRIN provides this study guide to get you started.Majid Khadduri’s translation (with explanation) of the Islamic Law of Nations, the first codification of Islamic rules of war by jurist Mohammad Ibn al-Hassan al-Shaybani, is a good place to start. Sahih Muslim is…
Follow @{0}Influx of returnees from Nigeria has overwhelmed Nigerien host familiesDAKAR, 23 April 2014 (IRIN) – There are now more returnees and refugees in Niger’s southeastern region of Diffa near the border with Nigeria than there are Malian refugees in western Niger, straining host populations who are already some of the poorest people in the world, and the local authorities. According to UNHCR, some 40,000 people have taken refuge in Diffa Region following an upsurge in Boko Haram violence in Nigeria. Others have fled to Cameroon and Chad. “The number of refugees who arrive here goes up nearly every day,”…
Follow @{0}Bissau-Guineans will go to the polls once more to end yet another coup regimeBISSAU, 11 April 2014 (IRIN) – Guinea-Bissau observers doubt that the long-delayed post-coup presidential election set for 13 April will be sufficient to jolt the country back to stability. But there are hopes that the polls will restore constitutional order, revive donor support and stabilize the economy.Years of political upheaval have debilitated governance, wrecked the economy and impoverished most of the country’s 1.6 million people. The impact of the political crisis following the April 2012 coup and a global cashew nut (Guinea-Bissau’s top export earner) price…
Follow @{0}Chronic malnutrition has persisted in Côte d’Ivoire’s north due to climatic, health and political reasonsABIDJAN, 9 April 2014 (IRIN) – Forty percent of Ivoirian children in the northern region are chronically malnourished, the country’s highest rate, which has not fallen for the past six years. The effects of a drawn-out conflict, desertion by aid groups and inadequate medical staff have contributed to the situation. Food scarcity here is often due to harsh weather and high food costs.The average rate of chronic malnutrition nationally is not much lower though, at 30 percent. Côte d’Ivoire’s northern region is mostly arid and…
Follow @{0}Curbing Ebola in Uganda. In Guinea, where the disease erupted for the first time last month, authorities are racing to limit infectionsDAKAR, 3 April 2014 (IRIN) – The Ebola outbreak in Guinea’s southern region which has spread to the capital, Conakry, and to neighbouring countries, has been propagated mainly through person-to-person contact, a gap that health experts and state authorities are struggling to close.“It does not spread indiscriminately. It follows people and peoples’ movement and you have to be in contact with body fluids, sweat and diarrhoea. What we see is very sad because when people get ill then…
Follow @{0} Malians returning from displacement face deep financial difficultiesBAMAKO, 28 March 2014 (IRIN) – Displaced Malians who have recently returned to their homes in the north of the country say they are facing economic difficulty as their businesses, livestock and other forms of livelihood have been wiped out, while those still displaced also say financial assistance is their main need. The conflict in northern mali following the 2012 overthrow of the government in Bamako and an Islamist occupation forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee for safety in the south or in neighbouring countries. More than a year…
Follow @{0}West Africa’s first ever Ebola outbreak has erupted in GuineaDAKAR, 26 March 2014 (IRIN) – As health authorities and aid groups work to contain the spread of Ebola in Guinea which has killed 59 people and infected scores of others since January, suspected cases have emerged in neighbouring Liberia, prompting calls for a regional response.Haemorrhagic fever symptoms first appeared in Guinea’s southern forested region. Eighty-six people have so far been infected. Authorities are urging restriction of movement and observance of hygiene to prevent further infections.The cases have mainly been reported in the four southern districts of Guéckédou, Macenta, Nzérékoré…
Follow @{0}A child receives the oral polio vaccine as part of emergency response measuresYAOUNDÉ, 26 March 2014 (IRIN) – Three new polio cases have been confirmed in Cameroon over the past two weeks, making it the country’s first outbreak since 2011 and causing alarm among health officials who link the virus’s spread to weak vaccine campaign coverage and displacement following violence in neighbouring northeastern Nigeria and the Central African Republic (CAR).Cameroon has confirmed seven polio cases since 2013. Just one case is enough to instigate emergency country-wide vaccination measures under the national health policy. It last experienced a polio outbreak…
Follow @{0}Better contraceptive provision can help cut Burkina’s unwanted pregnanciesOUAGADOUGOU, 24 March 2014 (IRIN) – One-third of all pregnancies in Burkina Faso are unintended and a third of them end in abortion, according to a study published this month by the University of Ouagadougou and the reproductive health think tank Guttmacher Institute, which also found that more than 100,000 abortions were carried out in the country in 2012, most of them performed in unsafe conditions or by untrained health workers.Abortion is illegal in most circumstances, but the practice continues in secrecy. In 2008, 25 out of 1,000 women between 15…
Follow @{0}A child who attended a Koranic school in Senegal.DAKAR, 21 March 2014 (IRIN) – Despite pledges by the Senegalese government to end child begging and to crack down on the Koranic schools that exploit the tens of thousands of boys, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on 19 March that very little has been done. Known as talibés, the children take to the streets each day in Dakar and other urban centres to beg for small change and food. The boys, some as young as four years old, are often under-weight or malnourished, barefoot and in…
Dismantling West Africa’s trade barriers can improve food security DAKAR, 20 March 2014 (IRIN) – Severe food shortages in the Sahel and West Africa are often the result of droughts and poor harvests. But inefficient intra-regional trade also places significant strain on food availability, exacerbating hunger. Poor roads and railways, high transaction costs, lack of sufficient market information, incoherent trade policies by governments and bureaucratic hurdles are among limitations to free trade in West Africa. Import and export procedures are more costly and more time consuming in West Africa than any region of the world, experts say.For instance, according to…
Follow @{0}ATT, former President of MaliBAMAKO, 18 March 2014 (IRIN) – As mali embarks on a difficult period of national reconciliation and the rebuilding of a fractured state, two key figures from the recent past – former president Amadou Toumani Toure and General Amadou Haya Sanogo, who staged a coup in 2012 – are being asked to account for their actions. Coming full circleAmadou Toumani Touré, 65, is known to all as ATT. Often described as “the good soldier”, he was the head of the presidential guard and the Red Berets, an elite parachute regiment. ATT seized power on 26…
A farmer holds what is left of his millet crop after an attack by grasshoppers. (file photo)MARADI/KANO, 14 March 2014 (IRIN) – Farmers in Niger are using dangerous, black market pesticides in unregulated quantities, with little impact on agricultural yield but with potentially severe health consequences, say experts. “In Maradi Region [central Niger], what you discover is that farmers have no fear. It’s horrific. They know the pesticides they are using are dangerous, but they still won’t take the precautions to protect themselves,” said James Litzinger, a pesticide expert and agricultural consultant who is assessing pesticide usage for an NGO…
Follow @{0}Flooding displaced 1.3 million Nigerians in 2012. (file photo)DAKAR, 14 March 2014 (IRIN) – Researchers at the Madrid-based humanitarian research non-profit DARA have developed a new methodology, the risk reduction index, that they say could help more countries assess and reduce the risk of natural hazards and disasters. But an assessment using the index, carried out in six West African countries, found pervasive risks and limited capacity to reduce vulnerability.The index assesses the capacities and conditions – such as human resources, laws and social norms – available for disaster risk reduction (DRR), according to DARA. “Basically, the risk reduction…
Follow @{0}Displaced from Borno State now sheltering in Niger’s Guesseré village.KANO, 14 March 2014 (IRIN) – Humanitarian needs are mounting in northern Nigeria, where Boko Haram attacks have displaced 350,000 people since 2013, 290,000 of them internally; the rest are sheltering in Cameroon, Chad and Niger. But the national response is inadequate and the international response minimal due to access hurdles and political sensitivities. The local government chairman in Madagali District in Adamawa State, Maina Ularamu, told IRIN: “We are grappling with 10,000 displaced people from villages in neighbouring Borno State who have fled their homes… These people have nothing…
Follow @{0}Car displaced in Cameroon’s Garoua-BoulaiYAOUNDE/GAROUA-BOULAI, 12 March 2014 (IRIN) – Up to 130,000 refugees have fled from the Central African Republic (CAR) to Cameroon, many of them wounded from attacks, dehydrated or traumatized, say local officials and aid workers, who are struggling to cope with the speed of the influx. In just two weeks of February, more than 20,000 Car refugees entered Cameroon. Overall, one in five residents of CAR is displaced, either internally or in neighbouring countries. Very few aid agencies are present to respond to the needs of the displaced, and many of the arrivals have not…
Follow @{0}Finding enough food for the children is very difficult,” said Ndeye Diagne. “ Always my children are hungry.”LOUGA/DAKAR, 12 March 2014 (IRIN) – The number of food insecure in the Sahel is expected to grow from 11.3 million in 2013 to more than 20 million in 2014, mainly due to an increase in cases in northern Nigeria, northern Cameroon and Senegal. IRIN went to Louga, in northern Senegal, to find out why the number of hungry is so high. “Nothing was harvested this year in the fields. Nothing at all,” said Ndjouga Ndianye, a farmer from Diama Nguene, a…
Follow @{0}Food shortages are severe in parts of northern MaliBAMAKO, 3 March 2014 (IRIN) – As mali slowly emerges from its 2012 political crisis and the Islamist insurgency in the north, the new government and its partners are focusing on long-term development. But aid groups warn that there are humanitarian needs that must be addressed immediately, particularly ensuring more food aid gets to extremely vulnerable communities in the north.“The humanitarian crisis is still there. There are people out there who are extremely poor and need humanitarian assistance,” said Oxfam country director Mohamed Couilbaly. The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that…
Follow @{0}Women in Maradi’s Doukou Doukou village rest after watering their small garden plotsMARADI/DIFFA, 3 March 2014 (IRIN) – Farmers in drought-ridden parts of Niger are facing a dangerous combination of stresses – chronic drought, land degradation, pests and poor seeds – which threaten to throw them even deeper into hunger and poverty.James Litzinger, an agricultural specialist studying how farmers use pesticides and fertilizers in Niger’s central Maradi Region, said there is an exponential yield loss when people face these compounded problems: “One [loss] plus one [loss] equals three,” he told IRIN.In 2009, in the journal Comptes Rendus Geoscience, scientists…