#Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)

[northgazaupdates]

From the statement by Darfur Women Action Group:

Darfur Women Action Group is extremely alarmed by the disturbing news coming out from El Fasher, North Darfur. We are reaching out to you with an urgent appeal to seek your support to call on the US government and the United Nations Security Council to take serious action to protect civilians and avert the unfolding and deadly mass atrocities that are currently underway in El Fasher, North Darfur.

From the latest information on the ground, we just got the news that there is a huge mobilization among Arab tribes affiliated to the RSF to circle El Fasher and also mobilization from those rebel groups sided with SAF and interborder tribes from Chad and other parts of Darfur. There is already a blockade of fuel coming into the city and there are no water tankers operating to supply water for the large numbers of the Internal Displaced Person(IDP). The limited commercial food supply that used to come from Libya or Chad is now blocked from reaching those in need, isolating civilians from all survival means. People are already dying and all indicators point out the fact that the RSF is preparing for a new decisive attack on El Fasher and try to wipe out not only the SAF forces and the existence of African tribes who sought refuge there. The situation in El Fasher, if allowed, will be beyond any one can imagine.

DWAG Homepage and opportunities for support and action

[fuckyeahplattenbau]

Residential building

Tbilisi, Georgia

Constructed 1982 (unfinished)

Architects Dimitri Odisharia and Medea Edzgveradze

Photo: Architectonic Travels

Designed to resemble an open book, the building was originally intended to be a hotel named "Odishi" but the project ran into financial difficulty and was never realised. Nowadays, the structure is occupied by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who arrived here as a result of the ethnic-related Georgia-Abkhazia conflict which took place between August 1992 and September 1993. According to one source, the building is known as ‘arashenda’, which translates as ‘never finished’.

[mariacallous]

Assist Ukrainian Kids During the School Year

Children across Ukraine returned to school this September, but once again, their classrooms are far from normal. As the new school year begins, Ukrainian cities have experienced some of the worst attacks in recent months. Many children are now studying in bomb shelters, online, or in places far from their homes. For those who have been displaced internally, the school year brings even greater challenges as they continue to navigate life amidst the ongoing war.

How to Support Ukrainian Children in Need

You can help Ukrainian schoolchildren this fall by supporting various communities across the country as they face the challenges of war and continue their education.  These children need more than just school supplies—they need a sense of stability and hope.  By purchasing items from our Amazon Wishlist—backpacks, lunch boxes, educational materials, and comforting toys—you’ll ensure they have what they need to succeed throughout the school year. PURCHASE AN AMAZON WISHLIST ITEM

If you'd prefer, you can also donate directly to this effort, ensuring that these children have what they need to succeed, no matter where their classroom may be.

DONATE TODAY

Our Impact in Action: Brody, Lviv Region

Since 2014, UHU has supported the children of Brody, initially helping 21 kids from 13 families of helicopter pilots who were killed or wounded that year. Over the years, we’ve also provided aid to pilots in 2022 and Christmas presents during the holiday season.  Today, UHU continues to work with this community, supporting 45 school-age children who are adjusting to new realities as they work toward a successful school year. Now, through this project, we remain committed to helping these children thrive in their education, despite the ongoing war.

United Help Ukraine’s Humanitarian Aid Program supports internally displaced persons (IDPs) and other civilians with food, clean water (especially in besieged areas), and everyday necessities. In addition, UHU distributes power generators and vehicles for first responders and rescuers, which are donated in the U.S. and shipped to Ukraine. 

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, we have provided over $11.9 million in aid through this program. Learn more...

SUPPORT OUR WORK

[khizuo]

(this article was published oct. 30, 2023.)

Geneva/Kinshasa – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is intensifying its efforts to address the complex and persistent crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as the number of internally displaced people climbs to 6.9 million people across the country – the highest number recorded yet. For the first time, nationwide displacement data has been collected in all 26 provinces of the country by the United Nations through IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix.   

As of October 2023, most internally displaced persons, about 5.6 million (81 per cent of the total IDPs) live in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, and Tanganyika. Conflict has been reported as the primary reason for displacement. In the eastern province of North Kivu alone, up to 1 million people have been displaced due the ongoing conflict with the rebel group “Mouvement du 23 Mars” (M23). More than two-thirds of the internally displaced persons, nearly 4.8 million people, live in host families.   

[dozydawn]

“Sudanese school girls drink water between school activities in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp of Sisi, homing over 20,000 people 35 kilometers southeast of of El Geneina.”

Photographed by Cris Bouroncle.

13 September 2004.

[palms-upturned]

Israel continues committing crimes against civilians and putting out propaganda to weakly justify their sieges on hospitals, now not only in Gaza, but the West Bank, too. They’re even committing precisely the crime they keep accusing Hamas of by using seized schools and health centers for military purposes.

Via Al Jazeera:

Israel’s defence minister claims ‘Hamas has lost control of Gaza’

Nov 13th, 18:30 GMT

Yoav Gallant says Hamas does not have the power to stop Israel’s military, saying Israeli forces have intensified operations against Hamas tunnels in Gaza.

“Hamas has lost control of Gaza. Terrorists are fleeing south. Civilians are looting Hamas bases,” he said.

Gallant said that “each day”, Israel kills more Hamas commanders and fighters, adding that Israel’s army continues to operate “in the heart of Gaza City”.

(Emphasis mine)

UNRWA says received reports Israel used school, health centres for military operations

Nov 13th, 20:50 GMT

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said it received reports that Israeli forces “conducted interrogations and arrests” of internally displaced Palestinians in the installations in Gaza City.

They entered one school and two health centres with tanks, UNRWA said.

“In one health centre, five people were reportedly killed. According to the reports, IDPs [internally displaced persons] were subsequently forced to leave the UNRWA installations and move south towards Wadi Gaza. Witnesses reported that Israeli forces then struck the two health centres with artillery fire,” the agency said, adding that it was verifying the reports.

“If confirmed, the military use of UNRWA facilities raises serious concerns, as such use puts civilians at serious risk of harm. Directing attacks against civilian objects is a serious violation of international law. Health centres, in particular, are also afforded special protection against attack.”

Israeli military says ‘signs indicating’ captives were held at al-Rantisi Hospital

Nov 13th, 21:00 GMT

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari has said “signs indicating hostages were held” in a basement room within al-Rantisi Hospital in north Gaza had been discovered.

Hagari made the claims in a video shot by Israeli forces in the children’s hospital.

In the video, Hagari pointed to women’s clothing, what appeared to be a rope on the leg of a chair, as well as an “improvised” toilet and other infrastructure.

He also pointed to what he called a “guardian list” on the wall, where he claimed fighters signed into shifts to watch the captives. He called the items evidence that captives had been held there.

(Emphasis mine)

Israeli forces stormed West Bank hospital, interrogated medical staff: Health ministry

Nov 13th, 21:15 GMT

The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces left after interrogating staff at an eye hospital in Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah.

In a post on social media, the ministry condemned the raid as a blatant violation of health institutions, similar to what Israel has been doing in Gaza.

[neshamama]

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A post shared by Artism (@artism.___)

Context: IDP= Internally Displaced Person. Mari is referring here to the +300 000 people who were displaced in Georgia, mainly from the Abkhazia region. As a child she had to leave her house with her family and to this day still can't come back to her place of birth. 

[cheshirecatqueerio]

I am so rarely serious here, I mainly post fandom stuff and on some ocassions weird day to day shit. However, a personal note today. Per my bio, I am Ukranian (from Kyiv).

As such a reminder: this war has been going on for ten years not two. Just because people in the West decided to remember that IDPs exist and Russia annaxed Crimea within the past two years, doesn't change the fact that Russia invaded Crimea ten years ago all of my paternal family is from Donetsk/Luhansk and have been internally displaced for years. I am privileged that my lived experience is that of IDPs, refugee registrations, destroyed property, and not lives lost. I am lucky to say I lost the city of Mariinka not specific people. R*ssians are delusional and genocidal. When ~80% of your country supports a war you cannot look at the victims and declare that they are Russaphobic for the very accurate assessment that the majority of R*ssians want Ukrainians dead and do not believe in the sovereignty of a Ukranian state.

As such if you have the financial means, I leave a couple fundraiser links here, both for the armed forces and humanitarian aid. While humanitarian aid is greatly appreciate, I urge people to remember we save ten dollars on humanitarian aid for every dollar folks give directly to the armed forces. This is not about finances, but about the fact that humanitarian aid is vital but doesn't stop Russian forces. Drones and artillery shells and the bravery of Ukrainian armed forces does. We ask only for armament, we will do the rest ourselves.

Finally, while I acknowledge that we live in a finite attention economy, and I chose to spotlight Ukraine today (because the onus is on us as Ukranians, no one else will advocate for us) doesn't mean peopel shouldn't stand in solidarity and support other folks suffering from armed conflict. I personally stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine (I urge people to keep boycotting organizations funding genocide and to continue calling for a ceasfire), of Armenia, Myanmar, Sudan, Syria and the DRC. We arguably understand each other's experiences the most, and can achive lasting change only through collation. I also acknowledge the racist treatment of most of these wars. It is fundamentally unjust my family has an easier time with refugee registration because we are white.

I have to keep on believing this war will end and we will rebuild one day. Слава Україні і героєм Слава! 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

[silicacid]

Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #58 (UNOCHA)

Heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land and sea across Gaza, as well as ground operations and fighting and firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups to Israel continue. From the afternoon of 2 December to the afternoon of 3 December, at least 316 people were killed and at least another 664 injured in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza. On 3 December, one Israeli soldier was reportedly killed in Gaza and another succumbed to his wounds sustained in previous days.

On 3 December, aid trucks carrying humanitarian supplies entered from Egypt into Gaza. However, their number and content were unclear as of 23:00. Additionally, the Egyptian border was open for the evacuation of 566 foreign nationals and dual citizens, 13 injured people and 11 companions, as well as for the entry of ten humanitarian staff.

On 3 December, the Rafah governorate was the one in Gaza where limited aid distributions, primarily of flour and water, took place. In the adjacent Khan Younis governorate, aid distribution largely stopped due to the intensity of hostilities. The Middle Area was largely disconnected from the south, following Israeli forces’ prevention of movement, including of humanitarian supplies. Access to areas north of Wadi Gaza (hereafter: the north) from the south came to a halt following the resumption of hostilities on 1 December.

On 3 December, the Israeli military designated an area covering about 20 per cent of Khan Younis city for immediate evacuation. The area was marked in an online map published on social media. Prior to the onset of hostilities, this area was home to nearly 117,000 people. The area also includes 21 shelters with about 50,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), the vast majority of whom were previously displaced from the north. Instructions accompanying the map call residents to move to Al Fukhari town, east of Khan Younis, and Ash Shaboura and Tell As Sultan neighbourhoods in Rafah, which are already overcrowded. The scope of displacement as a result of the order to evacuate is unclear.

Under international humanitarian law, parties to a conflict must take all feasible precautions to avoid, and in any event to minimize, civilian harm. This can entail evacuating civilians or giving effective advance warning of attacks, which provides civilians enough time to leave, as well as a safe route and place to go. All possible measures must be adopted to ensure that those civilians displaced can afford satisfactory conditions of safety, shelter, nutrition, and hygiene and ensure that family members are not separated. Civilians choosing to stay in areas designated for evacuation do not lose their protection.

Read more

[collapsedsquid]

After the Russian invasion, the app’s remit was expanded. Diia began allowing users to apply for internally displaced persons certificates as well as state benefits (IDPs receive a monthly sum of UAH 2000, or about 60 euros). When Russian forces destroyed numerous TV towers, Diia launched broadcasting services to ensure an uninterrupted stream of Ukrainian news sources. Ukrainians can also register destruction to property from Russian military strikes, which the government says will guide the country’s post-war reconstruction. Beyond the introduction of these useful wartime services, Diia has rolled out an array of ‘civil intelligence’ features. With Diia eVorog (‘eEnemy’), civilians can use a chatbot to report the names of Russian collaborators, Russian troop movements, the location of enemy equipment and even Russian war crimes. Such reports are processed through support services at Diia; if deemed legitimate, they are submitted to the headquarters of the Ukrainian armed forces. At first glance, the interface looks like a video game. Icons are illustrated as targets and army helmets. After users submit a report about the location of Russian troops, a muscle-flexing emoji pops up. When they submit documentation of war crimes, they click an icon of a drop of blood.

[vyorei]

12 IDPs killed at UNRWA school and almost 180 injured

Definition of an Internally Displaced Person from Wikipedia for you:

[tieflingkisser]

UN rights office reports escalation in strikes on schools in Gaza

Since last Monday, at least seven schools have been targeted – all reportedly serving as shelters for internally displaced persons (IDPs), while one was also serving as a field hospital. The Israeli military claims that five of the schools were being used by “Hamas operatives”. OHCHR emphasized that if this were the case, the use of civilians by armed groups to shield military objectives is also a major violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). “[However,] it does not negate Israel’s obligation to comply strictly with International Humanitarian Law, including the principles of proportionality, distinction and precaution when carrying out military operations,” the office said. “Israel, as the occupying power, is also obliged to provide the evacuated populations with basic humanitarian needs, including safe shelter.”

[...]

In a separate news release, the independent human rights expert on freedom of opinion and expression, Special Rapporteur Irene Khan, condemned the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami Al-Rifi in Gaza on 1 August. The deliberate targeting by Israel, she said “adds to an already appalling toll of reporters and media workers killed in this war.”

[warningsine]

The junta has detained more than 170 civilians in Rakhine State since fighting resumed between its troops and Arakan Army (AA) last month, according to data collected by civil society organizations (CSOs) in the western state.

A former lawmaker said the purpose of the arrests is to create fear.

“The regime can’t defeat the AA, so it has been arresting and prosecuting civilians to instill fear,” explained U Aung Thaung Swe, a former Lower House lawmaker from Rakhine’s Buthidaung Town.

He also accused the regime of trying to starve Rakhine State residents. “It imposes travel restrictions and cuts off delivery of food to starve the local population … They do not hesitate to commit any war crime,” he explained.

A member of a Sittwe-based CSO told The Irrawaddy that the number of civilians arrested in Rakhine could be higher than the data collected shows. He estimated that more than 200 civilians had been detained since fighting erupted between the AA and junta troops.

“Some of the detainees are business owners and wealthy people. [Their] families do not want their arrests known … There are also cases in which family members dare not post [on social media] about arrests, or they don’t have access to the internet,” he explained.

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been arrested for leaving camps that are running out of food. On Dec. 17, junta troops arrested 13 Rohingya from Kyauktalone IDP camp after they entered Kyaukphyu Town for food.

“We are running out of food, but the military does not allow us to enter the town,” a resident of the camp told The Irrawaddy. The camp opened in 2012 to temporarily house Rohingya people displaced by sectarian violence in the state.

“When [camp residents] tried to enter town through another entrance point [besides the main one], they were arrested by soldiers on patrol. We don’t know where they are,” the camp resident said.

The regime has reportedly demanded ransoms of 30 million kyats (about US$ 14,300) for the release of detained business owners. It has also charged ethnic Rakhine detainees under the Unlawful Association Act for alleged ties to the AA.

On Dec. 14, junta troops arrested 54 boat crew members at a port in Sittwe. Only four of them were released after paying fines.

Data collected by CSOs found that 174 civilians had been detained from Nov. 13 to Dec. 17 in 11 of the state’s 17 townships.

The number of civilians arrested by township are: 50 from Sittwe, 33 from Kyaukphyu, 30 from Thandwe, 21 from Buthidaung, 17 from Taungup, six from Maungdaw, five each from Mrauk-U and Ponnagyun, three from Pauktaw, and two each from Ramree and Rathedaung.

Junta troops and the AA are fighting in northern Rakhine State as well as neighboring Paletwa Township in Chin State. The two sides also clashed in Ramree and Taungup townships in southern Rakhine State on Monday.

The regime habitually dismisses reports of civilian arrests in Rakhine State as fake news designed to create misunderstandings between it and local communities.

[mariacallous]

Since it gained semi-autonomous status in 1992, Iraqi Kurdistan has largely charted its own course, separate from the federal government in Baghdad. But in recent months, increasingly organized federal authorities have attempted to impose greater control over the region. And ethnic and religious minorities are caught in the middle.

Since the start of the year, Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court has eliminated seats in the Kurdistan Parliament that had been reserved for Christians, Turkmens, and Armenians. The Ministry of Displacement and Migration also announced that remaining camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Kurdistan Region, which house tens of thousands of Yazidis and Sunni Arabs, must close by the end of July.

The Kurdistan Region’s image on the world stage has long been one of exception; Kurdish leaders have carefully cultivated a reputation that, “whereas in the rest of Iraq and the Middle East, minorities are prosecuted for being Yazidi or Christian … in the Kurdistan Region, they are protected, they are given a shelter,” said Shivan Fazil, a researcher at the Institute of Regional and International Studies, housed within the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani.

On Easter last year, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cited a “culture of coexistence and unity between the different communities.” The frequently invoked line is a central plank of the KRG’s pitch for political support and economic development aid to foreign partners and donors, including the United States.

The situation on the ground was never as rosy as Kurdish officials claimed, however. The KRG “might claim coexistence, brotherhood, and peaceful living together, but none of this is true,” said Toma Khoshaba, an official with the Assyrian political party Sons of Mesopotamia. “We still feel a lot of bias and prejudice.” Christian communities, for example, regularly complain that their land is taken without compensation. Last year, Yazidis were subjected to attacks and abuse online after baseless rumors circulated on social media that a mosque had been burned in Sinjar.

Now, Baghdad’s steps to dismantle vehicles for minority representation and protection could imperil the KRG’s global stature—and leave minorities in the Kurdistan Region even more vulnerable to discrimination. These communities are caught in the middle of a larger shift in Iraq’s federal system that empowers Baghdad at the expense of the KRG in Erbil.

When the Kurdistan Parliament was set up in 1992, it included five seats specifically for Christians. In 2009, the body added five additional spots for Turkmens and one for Armenians. The 11 seats for minorities—out of 111 total in the last parliament—enabled the KRG to claim that its institutions reflected its diverse constituency.

In recent years, however, the reserved seats became more and more controversial. Critics alleged that the representatives acted as de facto representatives of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which has been accused of being increasingly undemocratic. By subsuming state institutions under party authority, the KDP has co-opted some legislators within the minority communities and allegedly gamed the electoral system to ensure loyalists win the reserved seats. Minority communities also complained that open voting lists allowed KDP-affiliated security forces and KDP supporters to dilute authentic minority participation. Some activists, like Khoshaba, feel that voting on these lists should have been legally restricted to members of the minority communities rather than to all voters. Many felt that the MPs failed to stand up for the interests of their communities once elected.

The Kurdistan Region’s other parties argued that the system provided the KDP with an unfair advantage in parliament by giving the party an 11-seat head start. Seeking to capture some of those positions for itself, the KDP’s rival, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), in May 2023 filed a lawsuit in Baghdad challenging the Kurdistan Region’s electoral law.

This intra-Kurdish division gave the authorities in Baghdad an opening to exploit. In a bombshell Feb. 21 ruling that went beyond what the PUK sought, the Federal Supreme Court abolished the seats entirely. It did not outline a specific logic in its decision. While opponents of the KDP celebrated the decision, Christian and Turkmen parties felt as if they had lost, even if they harbored complicated views about how the reserved seats worked in practice.

“By eliminating the reserved seats, they are eliminating our ethnic rights and our votes,” Khoshaba told Foreign Policy. He had hoped the court would reform the system rather than scrap it.

The KDP reacted furiously to the court’s decision, writing on X that the verdict violated “the principles of federalism and the principle of separation of powers enshrined in the Iraqi constitution.” But many consider the KDP’s protests political because the party so clearly benefited from the minority representation system.

“We are not even able to select a cleaner to work in our schools because the KDP selects them. The Kurdish authorities must select them. We do not have the right to select a mukhtar for any of our villages or in any Assyrian area because they are always selected by the KDP and the Kurds,” Khoshaba said. “We want to have authority. We want to be in a real partnership and not just to live and be safe and practice out religion.”

The Kurdistan Parliament could still pass a new, better electoral law to ensure authentic minority representation in the future, Fazil told Foreign Policy. “If they genuinely care about representation of those minorities, they can still salvage something,” he said. Instead, the KDP chose to boycott new regional legislative elections slated for June 10 in reaction to the court’s decision.

Baghdad is playing a bigger game. The court’s ruling is consistent with a pattern of decisions by Iraq’s federal government that undermine the Kurdistan Region’s ability to manage its own political and economic affairs—and instead boost the fortunes of the country’s ruling Shiite Coordination Framework, which came to power in 2022 after the election of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani. It is made up of a range of Shiite parties, many with strong ties to Iran.

While the Coordination Framework includes many major parties, some important factions like the Sadrists are not present in the current cabinet. Both the KDP and PUK have ministerial posts, but their presence is the result of Iraq’s sectarian power-sharing system rather than a reflection of their ability to drive policy. Reducing Erbil’s ability to govern its own affairs is key to rebalancing federal power toward Baghdad and centralizing decision-making across all of Iraq.

Minority communities are also significantly affected by Sudani’s order to close the remaining IDP camps in the Kurdistan Region, most of which were established in the 2010s. In January, Iraq’s Ministry of Displacement and Migration set a deadline of July 30 for the facilities to cease operations. Baghdad is also providing monetary incentives to tempt displaced families to go back to their homes in federal-controlled territory.

Fazil said that the government’s campaign to close the camps is partially an effort to move past a period defined by the Islamic State, but there is a clear political dimension to the decision as well. IDPs are a rich source of votes at election time, with the next round of federal parliamentary polls expected in 2025. The closure policy will likely push many IDPs back into disputed territories where they can be integrated into political patronage networks. Most IDPs are vulnerable and can be threatened or incentivized into voting a certain way. When they are located in the Kurdistan Region, the KDP can exert greater influence over IDPs’ voting behavior than if they returned to the disputed areas.

Asaad Barjas was a teenager when the Islamic State attacked his hometown in the Yazidi district of Sinjar in August 2014. He and his family escaped the militant group and have lived in the Kabarto IDP camp in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok governorate for the last nine years. Life is hard in the camp and, like many others, Barjas hopes to return to Sinjar. But his village of Tel Azer lacks basic services, adequate housing, and jobs.

In January, there were an estimated 161,000 IDPs living in the 22 camps currently operating in areas controlled by the KRG, according to statistics published by the International Organization for Migration. It is not clear from publicly available data how many of those in the camps are members of minority groups, but it is likely to be a high proportion given the IDPs’ places of origin. Almost 90 percent of those living in the camps are originally from Nineveh governorate, which includes diverse areas like Sinjar, Mosul, and the Nineveh Plains. Shabaks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Yazidis, Kurds, Sunni and Shiite Arabs, Kaka’is, and Turkmens all call this area home.

“I think this is a political decision. If they really want people to return to their homes—it’s been 10 years—they could have done something about that earlier,” Barjas said. “This decision is not well-studied. It’s not right. It’s not the right time, and we don’t see it as something logical to do.”

International humanitarian actors and foreign governments are closely watching the camps’ impending closures. As part of a shift from emergency humanitarian assistance to development, they are also in the process of shifting programming for IDPs to the federal government and the KRG, who will be primarily responsible for providing services to this population once they leave the camps. Nevertheless, the question of what will happen to the IDPs and where they will go looms large.

The KRG’s Joint Crisis Coordination Centre, the local department in charge of the camps in the Kurdistan Region, did not return a request for comment.

Since November 2023, three camps have shut down in Sulaymaniyah governorate, which is run by the PUK. The most recent to close was the Tazade camp on March 19. But so far, no camps have ceased operations in areas where the KDP is in charge. Those facilities host 94 percent of the IDPs currently living in the Kurdistan Region’s camps. The Ministry of Displacement and Migration has filed a lawsuit to force the KRG to act.

“The federal government is pressuring the KRG, and the decision to push the IDPs to return is part of a broader campaign to reduce the KRG’s authority,” Fazil said.

But it is minority groups that will suffer amid this escalating conflict between Iraq’s federal government and the Kurdistan Region. “As long as this minority-majority mindset continues, we are going to be continuously persecuted,” Khoshaba said. “We will not have a bright future here and everyone will leave.”

[caalaadd]

Faulty investigations, listless prosecution aggravate conflict-related sexual violence

Inadequate criminal investigation, inconsistent and uncoordinated documentation, and faulty prosecutorial practices undermine the reporting of gender-based violence against internally displaced persons (IDPs) in at least three regional states, according to a new study. The Ethiopian Human Rights Defenders Center (EHRDC), a civil society organization founded in 2019, highlights that intersecting…

[dozydawn]

“A young Sudanese girl follows a relative at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp of Krinding on the outskirts of the western town of El Geneina, near the border with Chad.”

Photographed by Cris Bouroncle.

14 September 2004.