(HRW) – There was a marching band, a choir, dignitaries, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony. On Tuesday, some 300 Burundian soldiers serving in the African Union peace support force in Somalia (AMISOM), finally abandoned their military base on the Somalia National University campus in Dharkenley district, west of Mogadishu. The troops have been encamped at the university for 10 […]
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(US. Department of State) – The Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 (CSPA) was signed into law on December 23, 2008 (Title IV of Pub. L. 110-457), and took effect on June 21, 2009. The CSPA requires publication in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report of a list of foreign governments identified during the previous year as having […]
(AFP) – As a teenager, Aden Hussein chose to become a refugee to get an education. With Somalia in collapse, he left his family for neighbouring Kenya where Dadaab, one of the largest and oldest refugee camps in the world, offered a de-facto city served by the UN and dozens of aid agencies. Link
(UN News Centre) – Calling for immediate humanitarian action amid rising malnutrition, thirst and disease, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today that millions of lives are at risk in four countries stretching from Africa to the Middle East. The welcome announcement of an end to famine conditions in South Sudan earlier this week should […]
(African News Agency) – Vulnerable Somali street children are falling prey to terrorist groups forcibly recruiting them, or enticing them into their ranks using money. The Islamic militant al-Shabaab has emerged as the worst violator of international agreements regarding child soldiers. Muktar Ali Issak, chairman of a disabled persons organisation in the southern Bay region, said […]
(AMISOM) – Soldiers serving under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have completed a three-day training on preventing recruitment and use of child soldiers in armed conflict. The exercise organized by AMISOM’s Protection, Human Rights and Gender Cluster, held in Mogadishu, is part of the ongoing in-mission training activities for uniformed personnel from AMISOM Troop […]
(New York Times) – First the trees dried up and cracked apart. Then the goats keeled over. Then the water in the village well began to disappear, turning cloudy, then red, then slime-green, but the villagers kept drinking it. That was all they had. Now on a hot, flat, stony plateau outside Baidoa, thousands of people pack into destitute […]
