Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.
As returnees arrive every day in southern Sudan from the North, many of whom have spent years in Khartoum, NPR’s Frank Langfitt told the story of two men, William Madouk and Sabit Abdullah Batali. A son of southerners, William recently moved to the South for the first time in his life, and Sabit returned when the CPA was signed in 2005. Their experiences illustrate the contrast between the expectations of what life will be like and what many people are finding when they arrive.
On the occasion of the unveiling of the six suspects under investigation by the International Criminal Court for post-election violence in Kenya, Scott Baldauf of The Christian Science Monitor wrote this detailed piece about documents that reveal proposed plans by one group in the Rift Valley to launch fresh, ethnicity-driven attacks if a key ICC suspect is arrested.
As a special feature for the Week in Review, the NYT published “Why We Might Fight, 2011 Edition,” an interesting read for those of us focused on conflict prevention. The piece describes why “natural security” flashpoints like minerals, food, water, and land are increasingly on the radar of intelligence and defense specialists.
As the end of 2010 nears, the year-end reviews and best-of lists are cropping up. The New Yorker’s Alexis Okeowo compiled this list of the top 10 stories from Africa this year. Congo conflict and mining in the east should have made the list, since 2010 did mark a breakthrough in terms of attention from both the international community and the Congolese government. It’s also important to note that while it may be that “many Sudanese won’t be happy” about the likely independence of the South, the population in southern Sudan seems overwhelmingly ecstatic about the prospect.
While they may have managed to escape the firefights of Mogadishu and other parts of south-central Somalia, women living in camps in the northern part of the country are hardly free from the risk of violence. The BBC’s Zeinab Badawi spoke to three women who survived rape since moving to the camps. Badawi writes about a conversation she had with a Somali women’s rights campaigner about the prevalence of sexual violence in the war-torn country: “Somalia, she tells me, never used to be like this. If the husbands, brothers, fathers say nothing, then it becomes a culture.”