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UNHCR report shows a record 800,000 people forced to flee across borders in 2011
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Geneva - A report released today by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) shows 2011 to have been a record year for forced displacement across borders, with more people becoming refugees than at any time since 2000.UNHCR’s 2011 Global Trends report details for the first time the extent of forced displacement from a string of major humanitarian crises that began in late 2010 in Côte d’Ivoire, and was quickly followed by others in Libya, Somalia, Sudan and elsewhere. In all, 4.3 million people were newly displaced, with a full 800,000 of these fleeing their countries and becoming refugees.
“2011 saw suffering on an epic scale. For so many lives to have been thrown into turmoil over so short a space of time means enormous personal cost for all who were affected,” said António Guterres, the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees and head of UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. “We can be grateful only that the international system for protecting such people held firm for the most part and that borders stayed open. These are testing times.”
Worldwide, 42.5 million people ended 2011 either as refugees (15.42 million), internally displaced (26.4 million), or in the process of seeking asylum (895,000). Despite the high number of new refugees, the overall figure was lower than the 2010 total of 43.7 million people, due mainly to the offsetting effect of large numbers of internally displaced people (IDPs) returning home: 3.2 million, the highest rate of returns of IDPs in more than a decade. Among refugees, and notwithstanding an increase in voluntary repatriation over 2010 levels, 2011 was the third lowest year for returns (532,000 returns) in a decade.
Viewed on a 10-year basis, the report shows several worrying trends: One is that forced displacement is affecting larger numbers of people globally, with the annual level exceeding 42 million people for each of the last five years. Another is that a person who becomes a refugee is likely to remain as one for many years – often stuck in a camp or living precariously in an urban location: Of the 10.4 million refugees under UNHCR’s mandate, almost three quarters (7.1 million) have been in protracted exile for at least five years awaiting a solution.
Overall, Afghanistan remains the biggest producer of refugees (2.7 million) followed by Iraq (1.4 million), Somalia (1.1 million), Sudan (500,000), and Democratic Republic of the Congo (491,000).
Around four-fifths of the world’s refugees flee to their neighbouring countries, reflected in the large refugee populations seen, for example, in Pakistan (1.7 million people), Iran (886,500), Kenya (566,500) and Chad (366,500).
The United Kingdom was sixth on the list of destination countries in Europe for new asylum seekers, with 25,500 applications, and was in eighth place globally. South Africa, meanwhile, was the largest recipient of individual asylum applications (107,000), a status it has held for the past four years. With regard to the total number of recognised refugees per country, the United Kingdom dropped out of the list of the top ten refugee hosting countries in 2011.
UNHCR’s original mandate was to help refugees, but in the six decades since the agency was established its work has grown to include helping many of the world’s internally displaced people and those who are stateless, i.e. lacking recognized citizenship and the human rights that accompany this. The 2011 Global Trends report notes that only 64 governments provided data on stateless people, meaning that UNHCR was able to capture numbers for only around a quarter of the estimated 12 million stateless people worldwide.
Of the 42.5 million people who were in a state of forced displacement as of the end of 2011, not all fall under UNHCR’s care: Some 4.8 million refugees, for example, are registered with our sister agency, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Among the 26.4 million internally displaced, 15.5 million receive UNHCR assistance and protection. Overall, UNHCR’s refugee and IDP caseload of 25.9 million people grew by 700,000 people in 2011.
Ageism holding back Africa’s future leadership, warns Tutu
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Nairobi – Africa’s younger generation of leaders is being held back from contributing to the development of the continent because of ageism, Archbishop Desmond Tutu warned here today.“The tragedy of elite leadership in Africa has been its focus on benefiting a small minority…The ageism towards young Africans in the sphere of leadership cannot be overstated in spite of the fact that they make up the vast majority of the African population,” Archbishop Tutu said in a video recording to participants at the King’s Africa Debates.
The Debates were organised by King’s College London’s African Leadership Centre (ALC) here where Fellows on a Masters peace and security programme took part in a simulation exercise covering the issues relating to the international criminal justice system and Africa, and the threat of terrorism to Kenya and Nigeria.
Archbishop Tutu said that young Africans “must captain the ship that is Africa and speak for themselves and all of us”.
He added: “The world is a fast changing place and young Africans continue to fight for a place in the global space irrespective of the shambolic heritage that they have been given.”
Young people are one of Africa’s greatest resources, crucial to its future development.
The continent has the world’s highest population growth, which is projected to double by 2050.
It also has the youngest population of any region in the world, which will continue to be the case for many years.
But Archbishop Tutu noted: “While condemning terrorist activities in all its forms, it is essential to recognise that these actions are energised by vast numbers of young people that work as foot soldiers and have reached a point where they feel there are no alternative options.
“So they are willing to risk their lives and ostracisation from broader society to exercise the only form of voice that they feel is available to them.
“Unfortunately attempts to address the violent use of terror tactics are unlikely to reap the benefits unless root cause issues are examined.
“It is essential to ask why substantial numbers of people are willing to ply such a dangerous path,” Archbishop Tutu said.
He said the challenge of leadership was responsible for this state of affairs.
That was why he backed the ALC because it “is an initiative that is set up to help young Africans steer this continent through its highly innovative Fellowship Programmes that aim to contribute to Africa’s long-term security and development by mentoring the talent of young African leaders”.
The ALC was established here in 2010 and it trains and mentors young Africans with the potential to lead and enable innovative change in their communities and in the continent.
The vision of the ALC is one of “transformative change in Africa”.
Its goal “is to create a pool of leadership talent with the abilities, skills, experience and confidence to engineer African solutions, grounded in African realities, to meet the challenges facing Africa”.
Peace and security issues, crucial to the development of Africa, play a central part at the ALC.
Its founding Director is Nigerian Dr. ’Funmi Olonisakin.
She has also served as the Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Group at King’s since 2003.
Although the ALC took off last year, King’s has been running a similar programme in London for a number of years – especially the Peace and Security Fellowships for African Women, which was introduced in 2005.
It is designed to expose young and mid-career professional African women to the complexities of conflict, security and development and provide them with the practical tools needed to develop policy and drive change.
It has already developed a network of African women working in the field and linked them with African regional institutions.
The programme has been tremendously successful with hundreds of applications received annually from African women.
“I was awakened to a reality of complex aspects of peace and security that I never thought existed,” says Claudine Inamahoro from Burundi.
Gihan Eltom from Sudan noted: “The women I met throughout the fellowship were a great source of inspiration and they left an empowering effect indeed.”
A critical component of the ALC programme is its mentoring programme.
It can call on more than 70 mentors who are drawn from a network of African and non-African scholars, policy developers, implementation experts and expert practitioners engaged in a wide range of fields that facilitate peace, security and development in Africa.
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Malian heritage sites on endangered list
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Saint Petersburg, Russia – The World Heritage Committee yesterday accepted a request from the Malian government to place Timbuktu (pictured) and the Tomb of Askia on the List of World Heritage in Danger.“The decision aims to raise co-operation and support for the sites threatened by the armed conflict in the region,” according to a news release from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
The Committee, meeting here until 6 July, also asked Mali’s neighbours to do all in their power to prevent the trafficking in cultural objects from the sites.
“There is concern that such objects, notably important ancient manuscripts, be looted and smuggled abroad by unscrupulous dealers,” UNESCO added.
The 21 members of the World Heritage Committee urged the African Union and the international community to do everything possible to help protect Timbuktu, inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage in 1988, and the Tomb of Askia, inscribed in 2004.
According to UNESCO, Timbuktu was an intellectual and spiritual capital and a centre for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The 17 metre high pyramidal structure of the Tomb of Askia was built by the Emperor of Songhai in 1495, and bears testimony to the power and riches of the empire that flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries through its control of the trans-Saharan trade.
Northern Mali has experienced upheaval, with thousands of people forced to leave their homes due to fighting between government troops and Tuareg rebels, which resumed in January.
In addition, Mali is also dealing with the impact of a coup by rebel Malian soldiers who took control of the country earlier this year.
The World Heritage Committee meets once a year, and is responsible for the implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, which defines the kind of natural or cultural sites which can be considered for inscription on the World Heritage List.
The Committee’s other responsibilities include the inscription or deletion of properties on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, has repeatedly urged international co-operation to protect the sites in Mali.
In April, following reports that rebels had over-run and looted centres containing thousands of ancient books and documents in Timbuktu, Ms. Bokova voiced concern about the risks posed by the fighting.
In May, following reports of wilful damage to mausoleums at the site, she sent a mission to the country to advance ways to work with the authorities on the preservation of the two sites.
During the mission, UNESCO and the Maliian government defined measures to safeguard World Heritage Properties in the country’s north – including Timbuktu.
The agreed-on steps to preserve the country’s cultural heritage include Mali finalising its accession to the 1999 Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, as well requesting the inscription of Timbuktu and the Tomb of Askia on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Mali will also draft a report on priority measures for its World Heritage sites, in line with international heritage conventions, and it will request technical and financial assistance from UNESCO and the international community.
The List of World Heritage in Danger is designed to inform the international community of threats to the outstanding universal values for which a property has been inscribed on the World Heritage List, and to encourage corrective action.
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Mali appeals for UN help after extremists attacked shrines
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Bamako - Mali appealed to the United Nations on Sunday to take action after extremists ravaged shrines in the fabled city of Timbuktu which UNESCO has listed as an endangered site.
"Mali exhorts the UN to take concrete steps to stop these crimes against the cultural heritage of my people," Culture and Tourism Minister Diallo Fadima Toure said at UNESCO’s annual meeting in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg.
Islamist militants, swinging pick-axes, destroyed at least three ancient tombs of Muslim saints in a rampage just days after the ancient trading hub was put on UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger.
The attacks were reminiscent of the Taliban blowing up the giant Buddhas of the Bamiyan valley in Afghanistan -- an ancient Buddhist shrine on the Silk Road and a world heritage site -- in 2001 after branding them un-Islamic.
Mali's Tuareg MNLA rebels withdrew from Timbuktu on the orders of rival militant group Ansar Dine (defenders of the faith) who has instituted strict Islamic law in several northern cities jointly seized by the groups after a March 22 military coup in Mali.
Residents in the capital Bamako said no fighters from the Tuareg National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) could be seen in the last positions they had occupied around Timbuktu and at the airport.
"Ansar Dine gave them two hours to leave" and they did so, according to witnesses.
The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) had carried out patrols all through the night and arrested at least four civilians who were carrying arms, residents of the town reported.
The Tuareg fighters, who spearheaded the late March takeover of northern Mali by various rebel groups, lost their regional headquarters and part of a military camp near the airport in Wednesday's clashes.
Several sources reported a column of vehicles packed with Islamist fighters for Ansar Dine had left for Gao from the town of Kidal, which is under their command.
The fighting in Gao took a heavy toll. Witnesses counted at least 21 bodies around the town.
Two dead still lay in front of the governorate, the former headquarters of the MNLA.
MNLA secretary general Bilal Ag Acherif was wounded and evacuated from Gao to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.
"He was mostly hit with shrapnel," a hospital source said.
Witnesses said two former colonels who defected to the rebellion were killed, and many Tuaregs were transferred to Algeria with injuries.
"In total 41 people with bullet wounds were treated in the town hospital which has been supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross since April," the ICRC said in a statement.
The Tuareg have demanded a secular independent state, but have increasingly been pushed aside by the Islamist group Ansar Dine.
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