Five Stories You May Have Missed This Week

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.

This week, Voice of America published an article giving accolades to Zereda AIDS Information Center group in Yambio, South Sudan for their encouragement to members of their community to get tested and seek treatment. Additionally, the article is a call to action to increase the creation of such groups. 

On June 26, President Obama embarked on his 2nd trip to sub-Saharan Africa, AllAfrica highlights advocacy leaders' hopes for Obama's trip, including encouraging him to prioritize development  during his trip. They places emphasis on the reassurances by aides and National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes that the president will be making democracy and food security a priority,

 "The president has made it a priority to support the consolidation of democratic institutions in Africa so that Africans are focused not just on democratic elections, but institutions like parliaments, independent judiciaries and strengthening of the rule of law." 

International Press Service reports that in Zimbabwe, an NGO focused on increasing women’s participation in politics, Women in Politics Support Unit , or WiPSU, has launched “Vote for a Woman Campaign” in an effort to create gender equality. One of their goals is to ensure that widows are granted their new constitutional right to inherit their late husbands’ property by getting women into Parliament to implement the provisions.

Cecelia Jamasmie provides an account of the troops that are being deployed to Katanga by the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or MONUSCO, necessary for the security of the country's copper mining hub. The U.N. considers the growing rebel attacks and threats a serious concern and recently stated,

“At least 53 children were at risk of being re-recruited by the M23 rebel group in Nyiragongo Territory, North Kivu Province and that the same was believed to be happening in the rest of the country.”

Armin Rosen of The Atlantic describes his visit to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and outlines the conflict in his piece The Origins of War in the DRC. He details the complexity of ongoing war and the trauma the Congolese people experience. He writes,

 “The DRC's conflict might be the deadliest since World War II, and one of world's worst active crises. But it also may be the most obscure — the most anonymous.”