Cases of rape of and violence against women in Darfur and in refugee camps in Chad are well-documented. These occur while women are collecting water, fuel or animal fodder, or during imprisonment. There have also been cases of women being…
A report from UK NGO Ockenden International investigates the current and potential impact of returns to Western Equatoria, the effects of returns on physical resources, how ‘stayees’ perceive returnees and the potential fault lines between those who stayed, those who…
The Darfur conflict erupted in early 2003 when the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army and the smaller Justice and Equality Movement took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum. The NCP responded by backing Arab militia known as the Janjawid. Humanitarian…
“The best solution to the plight of millions of refugees and displaced persons around the world is to ensure they attain the right to return freely to their countries and to have restored to them housing and property of which…
In December 2005 the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)[1] endorsed a ‘cluster’-based mechanism to address gaps in the humanitarian response to IDP and refugee situations. How will it work? The cluster approach is evolving in response to a key recommendation of…
Through its Humanitarian Aid service (DG ECHO), the European Commission puts particular emphasis on helping people caught up in ‘forgotten crises’. For those who work in international relief the phenomenon is well-known. Some disasters are publicised globally, thanks to the…
Half a century after the UN General Assembly demanded a self-determination referendum, the Western Sahara conflict remains as insoluble as ever. In 1975 the rapid withdrawal of Spain – which had amalgamated the territory into a single colony since the…
As Spanish colonial rule ended in 1975, Morocco took control of Western Sahara, triggering a conflict which resulted in mass displacement of Sahrawis to camps around the southern Algerian city of Tindouf. Thirty years on, the conflict remains unresolved.[1]An estimated…
For more than thirty years the people of the Carteret Islands – six tiny islands just 1.5 metres high – have struggled to prevent salt water destroying their coconut palms and waves crashing over their houses. In November 2005 the…
After six years of decline in asylum applications Europe now hosts only five per cent of the world’s refugee population. Only a tiny proportion of the world’s 20 million refuges and asylum seekers ever get to Europe. In 2004 the…