News Highlights: concerns for minor refugees, Libya detention centres, Sudanese politics

 

In this week’s news highlights, the European Court of Auditors report shows dangerous conditions in Greek and Italian refugee camps especially for the 23000 children, while Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) again denounces the appalling conditions in Libyan detention centres. In the Horn of Africa, the UN Monitoring Group will deliver the midterm report on the 30^th of April; Eritrea figures again at the bottom of the list in the Freedom of Press Index; furthermore, Sudanese politics are a house of cards, according to the Institute for Security Studies.

 

Europe

Europe: emergency situation for minors in Greek and Italian hotspots
The Guardian reports on the EU Court of Auditors’ concerns on the situation of the hotspots and refugee camps in Italy and Greece. Specifically, alarm was raised over the situation of minors subject to abuse, smuggling and rape.

• ‘Horrific’ levels of child abuse in unsafe refugee camps, warns the EU

European Union: new report on the reform of the asylum system
The International Commission of Jurists released a report analysing the European Commission’s proposal for a new Common Asylum Procedure Regulation, providing comments and recommendations.

• Common Asylum Procedure- ICJ comments on the current proposal of the regulation

North Africa

Libya: commanders in Brussels to discuss assistance needed to tackle illegal migration
EU Observer reports on the meeting held in Brussels between the European Commission and two commanders from Libya to help Europe tackling illegal migration. The EU is about to provide more support to the Libyan Coast Guard in order to complement the EU’s naval operation Sofia.

• Libya commanders in Brussels for migration talks

Libya: MSF denounces the appalling conditions of Libyan detention centres
Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) denounces the conditions of the detention centres in Tripoli and Syrte. They report the appalling conditions in which people are detained in these structures.

• Libya: From Misrata to Tripoli, a first-hand account from Dr Tankred Stoebe

Horn of Africa and Middle East

Eritrea: UN Security Council vote on the lift of the sanctions
On the 30^th of April, the UN Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group will release a midterm report. One of the topics under review is altering or ending the sanctions to the Eritrean regime. IDN-InDepthNews depicts the general framework surrounding this vote.

• Invest More in Averting and Resolving Conflicts, Chair of the Security Council Committee Says

Meanwhile the Eritrean government has been trying to secure China’s support within the UN Security Council.

• Eritrea presses China for help on Security Council sanctions

Eritrea: no rights for the media
Reporter Without Borders released its annual ‘World Press Freedom Index’ and Eritrea is located at 179 position out of 180.

• Eritrea: a dictatorship where the media have no rights

Somalia: foreign interests in the failed state
Mary Harper for BBC highlight the principal interests of foreign powers in Somalia. She provides a geopolitical analysis of the current situations and traces some possible future scenarios for the failed state.

• Target Somalia: The new scramble for Africa?

Yemen: 1.1$ billion collected by pledging event in Geneva
On the 25^th of April, Swiss and Swedish governments co-hosted a pledging event calling for help for the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Public and private donors reached the sum of 1.1$ billion. The UN, however, declared that this was just half of the necessary sum for combating the devastating hunger crisis – Al Jazeera reports.

• A cry for help: Millions facing famine in Yemen

Sudan: unstable conditions complicated by factional politics
The Institute for Security Studies delivers an analysis on the unstable conditions and President Al-Bashir’s diminished capacities of governing the country and realigning the political factions.

• Inside Sudan’s house of cards

Enough Project’s report provides a detailed analysis, stating that the Sudanese government brought the state to be a kleptocracy and indicating the possible solutions to put an end to it.

• Sudan’s Deep State: How Insiders Violently Privatized Sudan’s Wealth, and How to Respond 

Sudan: Khartoum accuses South Sudan of backing rebels
Reuters reports on the Sudanese government’s warning to South Sudan to stop supporting rebels in the Darfur, Blue Nile and Kordofan regions.

• Sudan accuses South Sudan president of meeting rebels

Ethiopia: 98 Eritreans arrested within the last two months
Africa News reports the arrest of 98 Eritreans in Ethiopia, which is currently under a state of emergency, within the last two months. According to a senior security official, they were suspected to be “anti-peace elements”. Ethiopia accused Eritrea of infiltrating elements within the protests going on in the country.

·      Ethiopia announces arrest of “98 Eritrea sponsored” rebels in the last 2 months

Sincerely,

The EEPA-Team