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Tag: international assistance

  • Three foreign aid groups suspend work in Afghanistan after Taliban bars female employees | CNN

    Three foreign aid groups suspend work in Afghanistan after Taliban bars female employees | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Three foreign aid groups said Sunday that they were moving to temporarily suspend their operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban barred female employees of non-governmental organizations from coming to work.

    “We cannot effectively reach children, women and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without our female staff,” aid organizations Save the Children, Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE International said in a joint statement Sunday.

    “Without women driving our response, we would not have jointly reached millions of Afghans in need since August 2021. Beyond the impact on delivery of lifesaving assistance, this will affect thousands of jobs in the midst of an enormous economic crisis,” said the statement, which was signed by the heads of the three NGOs.

    “Whilst we gain clarity on this announcement, we are suspending our programmes, demanding that men and women can equally continue our lifesaving assistance in Afghanistan,” the statement added.

    The Taliban administration on Saturday ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female employees from coming to work, according to a letter by the Ministry of Economy sent to all licensed NGOs. Non-compliance will result in revoking the licenses of said NGOs, the ministry said.

    In the letter, the ministry cites the non-observation of Islamic dress rules and other laws and regulations as reasons for the decision.

    “Lately there have been serious complaints regarding not observing the Islamic hijab and other Islamic Emirate’s laws and regulations,” the letter said, adding that as a result “guidance is given to suspend work of all female employees of national and international non-governmental organizations.”

    Earlier this week, the Taliban government suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan.

    In a televised news conference on Thursday, the Taliban’s higher education minister said they had banned women from universities for not observing Islamic dress rules and other “Islamic values,” citing female students traveling without a male guardian. The move sparked outrage among women in Afghanistan.

    A group of women took to the streets in the city of Herat on Saturday to protest the university ban. Video footage circulating on social media showed Taliban officials using a water cannon to disperse the female protesters. Girls could be seen running from the water cannon and chanting “cowards” at officials.

    The new restrictions mark yet another step in the Taliban’s brutal crackdown on the freedoms of Afghan women, following the hardline Islamist group’s takeover of the country in August 2021.

    Though the Taliban has repeatedly claimed it would protect the rights of girls and women, it has in fact done the opposite, stripping away the hard-won freedoms they have fought tirelessly for over the past two decades.

    Some of its most striking restrictions have been around education, with girls also barred from returning to secondary schools in March. The move devastated many students and their families, who described to CNN their dashed dreams of becoming doctors, teachers or engineers.

    The United Nations on Saturday condemned the Taliban’s NGO announcement and said it would try to obtain a meeting with Taliban leadership to seek clarity.

    “Women must be enabled to play a critical role in all aspects of life, including the humanitarian response. Banning women from work would violate the most fundamental rights of women, as well as be a clear breach of humanitarian principles,” the UN statement read. “This latest decision will only further hurt those most vulnerable, especially women and girls.”

    UNICEF said the order was an “egregious rollback of rights for girls and women (that) will have sweeping consequences on the provision of health, nutrition and education services for children.”

    Amnesty International called for the ban to “be reversed immediately” and for the Taliban to “stop misusing their power.”

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also condemned the move Saturday. “Deeply concerned that the Taliban’s ban on women delivering humanitarian aid in Afghanistan will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions,” he wrote on Twitter. “Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world. This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people.”

    Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahid said US officials should “not interfere in the internal issues of” Afghanistan.

    “Those organization operative in Afghanistan are obliged to comply with the laws and regulations of our country,” he tweeted Sunday, adding, “We do not permit anyone to state irresponsible words or make threats about the decisions or officials of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the title of humanitarian aid.”

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  • UN chief urges nations to consider deploying forces to help Haiti | CNN

    UN chief urges nations to consider deploying forces to help Haiti | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the international community to consider deploying forces to Haiti to address growing humanitarian and security crises in the country.

    Guterres’ comments come just days after the Haitian government itself asked for international military assistance as the country deals with rampant gang violence, a deadly cholera outbreak and anti-government protests that have paralyzed the country since late August. e country have mostly been shuttered as Haitians have been demonstrating against chronic gang violence, poverty, food insecurity, inflation and fuel shortages.

    “I am calling the international community to help us, to support us in every necessary way to avoid the situation worsening. We need to be able to distribute water, and medicine as cholera is making a comeback. We need to reopen businesses and clear the roads for doctors and nurses to be able to do work. We asking for their help to be able to distribute the fuel and for school to reopen,” Prime Minister Ariel Henry said Wednesday.

    Guterres on Sunday urged the international community “to consider as of matter of urgency the request by the Haitian Government for the immediate deployment of an international specialized armed force.”

    What exactly that force would consist of remains unclear.

    Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, was the sight of brutal gang battles this summer that saw whole neighborhoods set aflame, displacing thousands of families and trapping others in their homes, afraid to leave even in search of food and water.

    Hundreds were left dead, injured or missing. Criminals still control or influence parts of the country’s most populous city, and kidnappings for ransom threaten residents’ day-to-day movements. In recent weeks, demonstrators in several cities called for Henry’s resignation in the face of high fuel prices, soaring inflation, and unchecked crime.

    Their fury was further fueled last month when Henry announced that he would cut fuel subsidies in order to fund the government – a move that would double prices at the pump. Haiti’s powerful gangs have exacerbated the fuel crisis by blocking the country’s main port in Port-au-Prince.

    “We hope the international community sends rapidly the specialized armed forces in response to our demand before things get worse,” Jean Junior Joseph, an adviser to Henry, told CNN on Monday.

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  • Sudan’s Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces sign agreement intended to lay groundwork for humanitarian assistance in Sudan, say US officials | CNN Politics

    Sudan’s Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces sign agreement intended to lay groundwork for humanitarian assistance in Sudan, say US officials | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The warring Sudanese parties have signed an agreement intended to lay the groundwork for humanitarian assistance to resume in Sudan, senior US State Department officials said Thursday.

    The agreement signed in Jeddah by representatives from the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is not a ceasefire, but rather “a declaration of commitment to protect the civilians of Sudan.”

    The purpose of the declaration “is to guide the conduct of the two forces so that we can get in humanitarian assistance, help begin the restoration of essential services like electricity and water, to arrange for the withdrawal of security forces from hospitals and clinics, and to perform the respectful burial of the dead,” one of the officials explained.

    The next step will be to negotiate a ceasefire which would allow those actions to take place, the official told reporters, and talks on that could begin as early as Friday.

    Children caught in the crossfire as rival factions fight in Sudan

    “We will move as fast as we can with the parties to get to actual actions. We’ve already made specific recommendations to each side to take actions and some of that is happening,” the official told reporters on a call.

    A ceasefire monitoring mechanism has been developed to “help hold the parties accountable to what they’ve agreed to do,” the official said.

    The declaration, the name of which was “requested by the parties to emphasize that they’re interested in trying to help the civilians who are suffering from this fighting,” was signed following days of “pre-negotiation talks” which have been mediated by the United States and Saudi Arabia.

    Those talks began this weekend in Jeddah, weeks after the outbreak of fighting in Sudan that has left hundreds dead and thousands injured, caused tens of thousands to flee their homes and left the country on the brink of civil war and a massive humanitarian catastrophe.

    A second senior State Department official said that it took longer than expected to get an agreement on the declaration, and “the negotiations were very tough,” particularly given “the depth of enmity” between the RSF and the SAF.

    The first official said that the SAF and RSF negotiators “with the support of the Saudi and American mediators,” will now “begin to negotiate an actual short term ceasefire.”

    The goal is to reach a ceasefire of up to 10 days, they said, “but we’ll have to see what’s possible to facilitate those activities.”

    A ceasefire monitoring mechanism, which will be supported by the United Nations, Saudi Arabia, the US, “and other members of the international community,” has been developed. The second official said the mechanism includes “overhead imagery, including satellite data,” social media analysis, and on the ground reporting from Sudanese civil society members.

    The official noted that “we’ve seen violations by both sides in all the ceasefires to date and don’t expect that to change.”

    They said they intend to establish a committee that the ceasefire monitoring mechanism would report to, which would include representatives from the RSF, SAF, and international community. Asked about punitive measures, the official said that “the biggest one here would frankly be public attribution where possible,” which would help combat propaganda and misinformation about who was responsible for the violations.

    The first official noted that this was just the initial phase of talks, telling reporters, “this is going to be a process so we are just at the first stage.”

    “We did this in partnership with the Saudis, at the request of the two sides,” the first official said of the talks in Jeddah. “The two sides asked us to help them out with this, but there is every expectation that this process will be expanded to include, first and most importantly, Sudanese civilians, and secondly, regional partners in Africa and in the Arab world, and then the international community.”

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