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Kenya: Protect Somalis Facing Conflict, Abuses, Drought:
Kenya should protect and assist Somali refugees and asylum seekers facing ongoing conflict and a humanitarian crisis in Somalia, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. In line with a recent High Court decision, the authorities should abandon their decision to close the Dadaab refugee camp and publicly declare that the more than 249,000 Somali refugees living there can remain in Kenya until conditions exist for them to return in safety and with dignity.
On March 24-25, 2017, Kenya will host an Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit that will bring together Eastern African heads of state to discuss the situation of Somali refugees in the region, as the threat of pervasive drought and food insecurity in Somalia looms. Kenya’s role as host is marred by its continued insistence on closing Dadaab refugee camp, host to over 249,000 Somali refugees, by May.
“Kenya should demonstrate leadership by declaring that Dadaab will remain open and that it will resume prima facie recognition of Somali refugees,” said Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Kenya and neighboring Eastern African countries, supported by international partners, should urgently assist and protect refugees facing continuing conflict and drought in Somalia.”
In May 2016, the Kenyan government removed prima facie refugee status – meaning recognizing refugee status based simply on nationality – for Somalis and disbanded its Department of Refugee Affairs, charged with processing asylum claims. It also announced plans to speed up the repatriation of Somali refugees, and to close Dadaab camp in north-eastern Kenya by November, subsequently extended to May.
On February 9, Kenya’s High Court ruled that the government’s May 2016 directives were unconstitutional and discriminated against Somalis. The High Court also ordered the Kenyan government to restore the administration of refugee affairs to the status quo prior to the government’s decision. The Kenyan government has not taken steps to carry out the ruling. On March 8, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya repeated that Kenya’s decision to close Dadaab camp was final.
In 2016, Kenyan authorities, with officials from the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, stepped up a 2013 “voluntary” repatriation program. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International research in Dadaab and interviews with more than 100 Somali refugees found that Kenya had not given them a real choice between continuing to receive asylum in Kenya and returning to Somalia, and that the program violated the international principle of non-refoulement – forced return of people to places where they would face persecution, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, or other threats to their lives or freedom – which is binding on Kenya as party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1969 African Union Refugee Convention.
Registration of refugees in Dadaab has been sporadic since 2011 and has been entirely suspended, with some exceptions, since August 2015. In 2016, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International spoke to many unregistered people in Dadaab, including new arrivals and people who had already returned under the repatriation program but then fled back to Dadaab. The people interviewed said they feel particularly vulnerable both due to their lack of legal status and because of their lack of access to food rations. Most recently, in mid-March, over 100 Somali refugees and asylum seekers were arrested in a security operation in Dadaab. According to a refugee agency, those with refugee documentation were released, while 28 Somali asylum seekers were charged with unlawful presence.
Under Kenya’s Refugee Act, the Commissioner of Refugee Affairs must recognize people as refugees if they meet the definition of the 1969 African Union Refugee Convention. The African Union definition includes people fleeing events seriously disturbing public order.
The lack of sufficient international support for Kenya, including through consistently underfunded UN humanitarian appeals and very limited refugee resettlement, has contributed to the appalling situation in Dadaab, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said. The World Food Program has repeatedly cut food rations to people in Dadaab due to funding shortfalls. The most recent cut, in December, reduced rations by 50 percent. Refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International in 2016 who had signed up to return to Somalia often cited the ration cuts as a factor influencing their decision to return, and to accept a one-time UNHCR repatriation package – despite fears for their security and survival in Somalia.
UNHCR’s own assessments indicate that conditions in south-central Somalia are not conducive to mass refugee returns due to ongoing conflict, insecurity, and humanitarian conditions. In May 2016 UNHCR’s guidelines on returns to Somalia found that: “Civilians continue to be severely affected by the conflict, with reports of civilians being killed and injured in conflict-related violence, widespread sexual and gender-based violence against women and children, forced recruitment of children, and large-scale displacement.”
The humanitarian situation remains dire. According to the UN, half of Somalia’s population – 6.2 million out of 12.3 million people – are currently in need of humanitarian assistance. Many of the communities affected by the 2011 famine are once again at risk.
More than 260,000 people have been displaced by the drought within Somalia since November, adding to the country’s 1.1 million internally displaced people, who live in deplorable and unsafe informal displacement camps in the country’s main towns. Most of those recently displaced in south-central Somalia have fled into Baidoa and Mogadishu, among the areas to which UNHCR is facilitating returns from Dadaab. The UN has also recorded an increase in displacement into neighboring Ethiopia, which currently hosts 245,500 registered Somali refugees. So far, contrary to the period leading up to the 2011 famine, very little movement into Kenya has been recorded.
According to UN data on returns, over half of those returning from Dadaab to Somalia said they would not return to their areas of origin. Returning refugees, especially those unable to return to their home areas or those who have been gone for many years, risk ending up internally displaced in Somalia, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, among others, have continued to document serious abuses against internally displaced communities in Somalia at the hands of government and non-state actors, including sexual violence and violent forced evictions from their temporary shelters. According to a UN monitoring network, forced evictions increased in late 2016, with more than 60,000 new evictions since November alone.
“Given the ongoing drought and security crisis in Somalia, it’s high time Kenya’s international partners help to ensure that Somalis can find safety and humanitarian assistance in neighboring countries,” said Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International. “International community and donor countries should guarantee adequate technical and financial support to the Kenyan government and civil society to come up with sustainable, long term durable solutions for refugee integration into the country.
Distributed by APO on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
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IMF Executive Board Concludes 2016 Article IV Consultation with the Republic of South Sudan:
On March 15, 2017, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation[1] with the Republic of South Sudan.
South Sudan faces enormous economic and humanitarian challenges in the aftermath of internal conflict and external shocks. The relapse into violence a few months after forming a transitional government of national unity in April 2016 compounded the humanitarian crisis and derailed the peace process. The conflict has contributed to the deaths of thousands and led to severe food insecurity for nearly half of the population, as well as a substantial flight of refugees to neighboring countries. Moreover, famine was recently declared in some areas of the country.
Economic conditions have deteriorated rapidly since the beginning of the civil conflict in late 2013. Real GDP growth declined by nearly 20 percent in the two years through 2015/16, and annual inflation rose to about 550 percent in September 2016 before declining to 370 percent in January 2017. The conflict and the collapse of oil prices led to a decline in oil production and export proceeds. Falling government revenue and rising security-related spending caused the fiscal deficit to rise rapidly, which exacerbated the economic instability. Monetization of the fiscal deficit led to strong money growth, high inflation and precipitous exchange rate depreciation. Since December 2015, the South Sudanese pound has lost more than 95 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar.
The authorities shifted economic policy course in late 2016 with the passing of a new budget for 2016/17, which incorporates bold fiscal measures that could go a long way to restore macroeconomic stability and strengthen public financial management. Preliminary information indicates a substantial reduction in the fiscal deficit for the first half of the fiscal year and significant moderation in money growth.
The medium-term outlook faces challenges and significant downside risks. Without significant progress toward peace and economic stabilization, the economic trajectory for South Sudan is highly unstable, and the country risks falling into a spiraling trap of deteriorating economic performance and worsening security conditions with continued high humanitarian costs. A sustainable medium-term outlook is predicated on achieving progress on normalization of the political and security situation, sustained economic adjustment and reforms, and renewed access to external financing. Assuming that peace is achieved, the fiscal deficit could fall to 2–3 percent of GDP in the coming years consistent with a return to single digit inflation and exchange rate stability. In the next five years, annual GDP growth could increase to 5-6 percent, reflecting a recovery in oil production and in non-oil GDP.
Executive Board Assessment[2]
Directors aid organizations have access to all areas of the country to deliver assistance.
Directors agreed that restoring fiscal discipline is necessary to reduce money expansion, help reduce inflation and restore external stability. They welcomed the adoption of the 2016/17 budget and accompanying policy measures, including a decision to stop monetizing the deficit and improve public financial management. Directors urged the authorities to implement the adopted revenue measures and spending cuts, and to take additional measures to reduce domestic financing to a level consistent with macroeconomic stability. Directors emphasized the need to improve expenditure management and prevent domestic arrears, primarily through enforcement of monthly budget allocations, strict control of extra-budgetary expenditures, and setting up of a treasury single account. They also stressed the need to minimize revenue leakages by implementing domestic oil market reforms, including removal of fuel subsidies, transparent transfer of government crude oil receipts to the budget, and liberalization of the fuel market.
Directors underlined the need to tighten monetary policy to reduce inflation and gradually replenish international reserves, and to enforce the statutory minimum reserve requirements and minimum capital for all banks to reduce vulnerabilities in the banking system. They acknowledged the progress achieved in the liberalization of the exchange rate regime and elimination of several exchange restrictions and multiple currency practices.
For the medium term, Directors underscored that policies should be focused on reprioritizing budgetary spending and rebuilding international reserves. They stressed that budgetary spending should be shifted from security-related outlays towards public services and infrastructure investment. Given capacity constraints, Directors encouraged the authorities to seek assistance to develop a coherent and well prioritized public investment program. They also encouraged the authorities to seek donor support for a disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program.
Directors noted that South Sudan is in debt distress despite moderate levels of external debt due to the combined impact of a civil war, decline in oil prices and high levels of fiscal spending. They underscored that steadfast implementation of announced adjustment policies and a return to peace would improve the debt outlook and allow for a gradual resumption of external financing.
[1] Under Article IV of the IMF's Articles of Agreement, the IMF holds bilateral discussions with members, usually every year. A staff team visits the country, collects economic and financial information, and discusses with officials the country's economic developments and policies. On return to headquarters, the staff prepares a report, which forms the basis for discussion by the Executive Board.
[2] At the conclusion of the discussion, the Managing Director, as Chairman of the Board, summarizes the views of Executive Directors, and this summary is transmitted to the country's authorities. An explanation of any qualifiers used in summings up can be found here: www.IMF.org/external/np/sec/misc/qualifiers.htm.
Distributed by APO on behalf of International Monetary Fund (IMF).
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On March 23, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Minister of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Algeria Ramtane Lamamra sent each other congratulatory messages on the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries celebrated this day.
In their messages, the two foreign ministers praised the state of relations between Russia and Algeria in various areas. They also expressed mutual interest in further developing and enhancing mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and Algeria according to the letter and spirit of the bilateral Strategic Partnership Declaration signed in Moscow in April 2001.
Distributed by APO on behalf of The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
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