Day: December 25, 2022

Situation Analysis

Across the region, millions of people are living in poverty and facing multiple daily threats to their food security. An estimated 146 million people are facing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa. Climatic shocks, such as prolonged drought and recurrent flooding, conflict, desert locusts, and economic downturns, exacerbated by the effects of COVID-19, have combined to hit communities hard. The impact of global drivers is compounding the effect of pre-existing deep-rooted local drivers such as poverty and marginalisation.

The crisis has spread across all of Africa – from East Africa with the fourth consecutive failed rains in the Horn of Africa and extreme flooding for four successive years in South Sudan, to the Sahel region of West Africa plagued by insecurity and political instability, to Southern Africa where countries, such as Zimbabwe, are experiencing surging inflation. Unfortunately, this is not new and in 2010–2011, in spite of early warning signs that failed rains in East Africa would result in acute food insecurity and a loss of lives, the humanitarian response was too little and too late. History almost repeated itself in 2016–2017, but governments and humanitarian organisations mobilised a response sufficient enough to head off mass mortality.

Warnings of the current situation were given as early as 12 months ago when African Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies started to launch hunger crisis emergency appeals. So far, 17 African National Societies have responded to the hunger crisis across the region with the limited resources they have. However, to respond to the rapidly escalating humanitarian needs and scale up, for the National Society response, funding for the crisis needs to be urgently increased. The IFRC, in turn, must quickly and massively scale-up life-saving assistance to millions of people facing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity, of which hundreds of thousands are at immediate risk of or experiencing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, but also to decisively address the root causes of this crisis through longer-term commitments.

The report details how the African Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies plan to scale up life-saving assistance to millions of people and the response efforts since the launch of the emergency appeal. At the same time, through longer-term programming, African National Societies will address the root causes of food insecurity. IFRC will build on our previous successes and work in support of government plans and frameworks to improve the resilience of the most impoverished communities, including displaced populations.

Source: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies

HARARE– Zimbabwe and China have renewed their extradition treaty with effect from Dec 23, 2022, Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister, Kazembe Kazembe, said.

The two countries first signed the treaty in 2018. Under the treaty, each country undertakes to extradite to the other, those found in its territory and wanted by the other country for trial on criminal charges, for a crime common to both countries, or to serve their sentence, if they have already been tried, the Herald newspaper reported, yesterday.

Neither country, however, has to extradite its own nationals, but in that case, it undertakes to handle a prosecution under its own law.

Source: Nam News Network

Dutch King Willem-Alexander welcomed the government's apology for the Netherlands' role in 250 years of slavery in his Christmas address on Sunday, saying it was the "start of a long journey."

Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday officially apologized for the Dutch state's involvement in slavery in its former colonies, calling it a "crime against humanity."

"Nobody today bears responsibility for the inhumane acts that were inflicted on the lives of men, women and children," Willem-Alexander said from the palace of Huis ten Bosch in The Hague.

"But by honestly facing our shared past and recognizing the crime against humanity that is slavery, we lay the ground for a shared future — a future in which we stand against all modern forms of discrimination, exploitation and injustice," the king said. "The apology offered by the government is the start of a long journey."

The Netherlands funded its "Golden Age" of empire and culture in the 16th and 17th centuries by shipping around 600,000 Africans as part of the slave trade, mostly to South America and the Caribbean.

The Dutch government says several major commemorative events will be held from next year and has announced a $212 million fund for social initiatives.

Willem-Alexander promised that the topic would retain the royal family's attention during the commemorative year and that they would remain "involved."

But Rutte's move went against the wishes of some slavery commemoration organizations who wanted the apology to be offered on July 1, 2023.

Descendants of Dutch slavery will then celebrate 150 years of liberation from slavery in an annual celebration called "Keti Koti" (Breaking the Chains) in Suriname.

The leaders of the Caribbean island Sint Maarten and Suriname in South America regretted the lack of dialogue from the Netherlands over the apology.

Some former Dutch colonies have demanded compensation for slavery and criticized the government for not offering concrete actions.

Source: Voice of America