“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.”  – Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Education and literacy are fundamental human rights.  They open doors to economic opportunities, break cycles of poverty, and enhance personal and societal growth.  They also facilitate effective communication and participation in democratic processes, strengthening community engagement and cohesion.

Unfortunately, South Sudan has one of the worst literacy rates in the world. Approximately 70 percent of adults cannot read or write, roughly 84 percent of girls over the age of 15 are illiterate, and an estimated 2.8 million children are out of school – according to recent United Nations data.  While the transitional government has failed to meet the needs of the people it purportedly serves, the U.S. government has provided more than $328 million to help millions of South Sudanese citizens develop foundational literacy and numeracy skills, advance their economic well-being, improve their health, reduce poverty, and increase their participation in the labor market.

To mark International Literacy Day, we renew our call on the transitional government to invest public resources to meet public needs and take meaningful action to fulfil its obligations to the people of South Sudan.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of U.S. Embassy in South Sudan.

On 9 September 2024, Ylva Johansson, European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Badr Abdelatty, Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emigration and Expatriates, met in Cairo and they discussed ways to further deepen the cooperation between the European Union and Egypt in the field of migration.

They highlighted the successful longstanding partnership in the field of migration which is currently being strengthened following the signature of the Joint Political Declaration on the Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership on 17 March 2024, with migration and mobility as one of its six pillars.

They stressed the importance of promoting their holistic approach in dealing with the migration phenomena in line with the Joint Declaration, including through linking migration to development, and addressing the root causes of irregular migration.

The European Commissioner for Home Affairs welcomed Egypt’s successful efforts in preventing irregular migration and controlling its borders, including preventing the departure of vessels carrying irregular migrants from Egypt through the Mediterranean Sea since September 2016, and conducting search and rescue operations to save lives at sea. Commissioner Johansson also welcomed Egypt’s efforts in managing migration, and combating cross-border criminal networks involved in trafficking in human beings and migrant smuggling. Both sides emphasised the importance of cooperation to enhance border management and combating criminal networks involved in trafficking in human beings and migrant smuggling, including cooperation in the framework of the Global Alliance to counter migrant smuggling launched by the EU, through ongoing practical cooperation.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates of Egypt stressed the importance of facilitating pathways for regular migration and increasing awareness of the dangers of irregular migration, as well as enhancing cooperation with a view to developing education, vocational and technical training to improve skills and employability, creating job opportunities and facilitating mobility to the EU, including in the framework of the Talent Partnership initiative.

Both sides agreed to continue supporting the priorities included in Egypt’s third national strategy to combat and prevent human trafficking (2022-2026) and the national strategy to prevent illegal emigration (2016-2026) and the action plans pertaining to it.

Both sides emphasised Egypt’s longstanding role in hosting large numbers of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, adopting an out-of-camp policy and providing basic services. The European Commissioner for Home Affairs expressed appreciation for the efforts that Egypt exerts for hosting over nine million migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers from different nationalities, and acknowledged the related burden, while stressing the continued support of the European Union to Egypt’s efforts in this regard, including through supporting the Egyptian Governments’ endeavors to enhance the provision of services to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, and to strengthen the resilience of host communities, in addition to  exploring resettlement opportunities as well as safe and legal pathways to the European Union for refugees hosted in Egypt, in line with the principle of burden and responsibility sharing. 

Both sides reiterated their commitment to the protection of the human rights of migrants and refugees in accordance with their obligations under international law including international human rights law.

The two sides explored the prospects of enhanced cooperation between Egyptian national authorities and European Union Home Affairs agencies such as the EU Agency for Asylum (EUAA), European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL), and the EU Drugs Agency (EUDA).

The two sides also discussed issues related to facilitating the dignified and sustainable return, readmission and reintegration of Egyptian citizens irregularly staying in the EU. They also discussed how to increase support to voluntary returns of irregular migrants from Egypt to their countries of origin. They agreed on continuing coordination and  exchange of best practices for the implementation of bilateral agreements concerning return, readmission and reintegration, while Egyptian embassies and consulates abroad continue to facilitate the return of Egyptian citizens irregularly staying in the EU after accurately and timely verifying their identity and issuing travel documents for them, where needed,  and abiding by the relevant national procedures, along with the support of the EU to activities conducted under “The Fund for Combating Illegal Migration and the Protection of Migrants and Witnesses”, pertaining to the return and reintegration of Egyptian nationals.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Delegation of the European Union to Egypt.

Increased rates of acute malnutrition in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has put 4.5 million children aged under five and over 3.7 million pregnant and breastfeeding women at heightened risk of contracting and dying of mpox, Save the Children said.

The latest figures on malnutrition from the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) – the leading international authority on food insecurity – come as DRC is at the epicentre of an outbreak of a new strain of mpox that has so far killed at least 632 people, adding further pressures to a country where about a quarter of the population are in need of humanitarian assistance [1].

Greg Ramm, Country Director for Save the Children in the DRC, said:

“These grave new figures add extra urgency to the critical need to prevent the spread of mpox and other diseases across the DRC. We know from decades of experience that malnutrition weakens immune systems, making it harder to fight off disease and more likely that children die from conditions such as diarrhoea. We know from just the past few months that malnourished children across the country, living with poor sanitation and healthcare, are contracting and dying of mpox at a far higher rate than adults. This new variant exacerbates challenges caused by conflict, displacement and poverty that many families are already facing.

“We are now at a crossroads – do we let this deadly mpox virus spread and cause a catastrophe among children, knowing what we know? Or do we use this knowledge to act urgently to prevent the spread of the virus, to treat children, strengthen the country’s health systems and water, sanitation and hygiene services and protect children and families?

“For several years now, the country has had some of the world’s worst rates of hunger and malnutrition. For far too long the world has let down children in DRC. It’s time for donors and agencies to step up to protect them.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Save the Children.

Libyan authorities are failing to provide adequate compensation and reconstruction support a year after devastating floods wrecked the eastern Libyan city of Derna and left thousands dead or missing, Human Rights Watch said today. Armed groups have yet to face accountability for emergency response failures that prevented people from seeking safety. 

The slow recovery and lack of a national response plan is having a severe effect on the economic rights of survivors, including to housing, health, electricity, and education. Flood survivors said they face hurdles getting equitable compensation and reconstruction support amid a political stalemate, severely limiting the ability of displaced people to return to their homes. In Derna, the hardest hit city, devastation and damage to infrastructure remains widespread, including to homes, water and sanitation networks, electricity grids, hospitals, and schools. Access to financial and government services is limited and thousands of victims remain unidentified or missing.

“Displaced residents from Derna and other eastern Libyan towns, whose lives were upended after the calamity, face burdensome and often impossible hurdles accessing any kind of state support,” said Hanan Salah, associate Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities need to ensure an equitable approach to reconstruction efforts and remedy for residents.”

On September 10, 2023, heavy rainfall caused two dams upstream of Derna to collapse, resulting in devastating flooding and leaving at least 5,923 dead, thousands missing, and more than 40,000 internally displaced, according to the United Nations, and large-scale destruction in eastern Libya. Despite flood warnings up to three days before the storm, officials in Derna issued conflicting evacuation orders and imposed a curfew that effectively trapped people, preventing them from seeking safety. A joint assessment by the World Bank, European Union, and UN found US$1.65 billion in damage and losses mostly in infrastructure.

Human Rights Watch spoke with 16 flood survivors displaced from the eastern cities of Derna and Ajdabiya to the western city of Misrata, who described the impact of shelter in place orders and severe barriers to getting any kind of government support after losing their livelihoods. Most said the only support they received in the immediate aftermath was from private Libyan or foreign charities and local initiatives. Only one person said they received government compensation because they were in Derna when the eastern authorities offered one-time compensation to people who were there. The others said they could not even apply for compensation, as they were not in Derna when the disbursements were made. 

A resident of the Deir al-Wadi area in Derna said that forces affiliated with the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF), the de facto authority in eastern Libya, ordered his family to shelter in place on the day of the flooding. “There is no freedom in Derna,” he said. “The army is involved in everything.” Two of his children were killed in the floods and authorities had yet to find and identify their bodies. “At the beginning, the dead were buried randomly and often in mass graves. Authorities are now excavating those bodies and then they bury them again. I want to know where my children are. Were they buried? Or are they in the sea?”

On July 28, the Derna Criminal Court convicted and sentenced 12 Libyan officials to prison terms of up to 27 years, and fined them, for their role in the collapse of the two dams. It acquitted four others. The 16 officials did not include senior commanders and members of the LAAF, which managed the crisis response and issued and enforced the questionable orders to shelter in place. There has been no accountability for the orders that prevented people from leaving their homes as the storm hit and during the flooding. 

The LAAF and affiliated security apparatuses and militias control eastern and southern Libya, including the area affected by the floods. A civilian affiliated administration is known as the “Libyan Government.” Their rivals, the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, appointed by consensus through a UN-led process as an interim authority, and affiliated armed groups, control western Libya.

Both rival governments have announced separate reconstruction funds for compensating victims and reconstructing Derna, yet the Central Bank of Libya appears to have withheld funding. Only the eastern administration tied to the LAAF proceeded with the limited one-time compensation payments to some victims. Derna residents said paymentsranged between 20,000-100,000 Libyan Dinar ($4,200-$21,000), depending on the level of damage and destruction to their homes. 

The eastern Libya Development and Reconstruction Fund, controlled by Belqasim Hiftar, the son of the LAAF commander Khalifa Hiftar, also announced multiple reconstruction projects, including new housing units and bridges in Derna. However, the systems for financing the project and selecting the beneficiaries are unclear. 

A displaced Derna resident and father of four children said he had not received any support or compensation from Libyan authorities since he had been forced to leave. Two of his children required specialized care for autism and cancer treatment.

“I didn’t get any compensation, unlike my brothers who got LYD30,000 [$6,000] each from the eastern government,” he said. “They were not able to request my share on my behalf because I was not physically in Derna. All of my belongings are lost, including my papers. I cannot get a passport, or ID or driver’s license or a confirmation of the status of my family, because this all has to be issued in Derna. I don’t even have the means to go back to visit. I had to sell my daughter’s earrings, my wife’s gold, and other belongings just to cover costs.” 

Survivors in Misrata said that they faced barriers getting cash and that Libyan commercial banks required displaced people to return over 1,000 kilometers to Derna to make simple cash withdrawals or transfers, refusing them services in Misrata. Displaced flood survivors said they had to resort to expensive private transfer options to get any access to cash. 

Survivors also said that access to public records, such as house ownership documents, was often difficult because authorities required them to go to the public administration branch in Derna, even if they lacked the means to do so. Some also said they faced barriers to getting replacements for civil status documents, identification cards, and passports that they had lost in the floods. 

They said they also faced barriers accessing education, including schools and universities, day care, and other specialized care centers because they were unable to pay the transportation costs and received no support from the authorities. 

Human Rights Watch has backed a call by Libyan organizations for an independent international investigation into the Derna disaster. The mandate of the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya ended in March 2023 and no international investigative entity is currently in place for Libya. 

Libyan authorities are obligated to realize the rights to health, housing, education, electricity, and water and sanitation, including for those affected by the floods, and should ensure that the relief and reconstruction response respects people’s rights. 

“Only an independent investigation into all aspects of the Derna calamity can shed light into officials’ responsibility for the dam collapse and the key role armed groups played in managing the response that resulted in such a high number of deaths,” Salah said. 

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).