Armed Conflict and Emergencies

Eastern Africa
(Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda)

Sudan: Helping the Most Vulnerable People in Darfour (November 24, 2004) 
(Article in French) 
The people who have to flee their homes because of the war in Darfour need food, water and healthcare. Among them the elderly are the most at risks because they usually have no special care, while the children and the disabled do. That's why in a few towns, hundreds of older people stay alive, thanks to MSF or the Red Cross. Economists say both of these organizations will likely be needed in Darfour until the end of 2005. But both organizations actually plan to leave six months before that date. And the war continues.

Sudan: Fight for Survival in Sudan Killing Fields (November 15, 2004)
This Thursday, the UN Security Council meets in Nairobi in a move intended to pressure the Sudan government and southern rebels to sign a final peace deal which will end two decades of civil war. Meanwhile, the government militia attacked villages in Shilluk. Ninyang Kir died because she was too old to run away when military motorboat raked villages with gunfire from a river. Her family returned to find her burned body inside her grass hut. Oil lies below the ground in this area, fuelling much of the hidden competition among major nations seeking Sudan's riches but hiding their moves behind local players. And a grandmother gets burned alive in a grass hut because she was too infirm to run away.

Sudan Emergency: Older People's Voices (November 12, 2004)
This HelpAge International report demonstrates the harsh living conditions and problems of the elderly caught in the Sudan conflict. The accounts given by two women in their late 70s mirror problems typical of internally displaced people of their age group: they are too fragile to flee conflict zones and must rely on the generosity of neighbors for food supplies. One of the women Halima Ahmed Hissein, almost 80, says: "People help sometimes with what little they have. Without them I would have nothing and die." 
Most elderly have lost their sons and daughters and are left alone to care for their grandchildren. All of them need special attention but aid organizations or assisting governments often ignore older civilians. 

Kenya: Land Clashes Imminent (October 24, 2004)
Kenya elderly are trying to solve the potential armed conflict in their land. Cases of double allocation of land at Gachembe Settlement Scheme in Nakuru District could result in another round of land clashes. Six hundred people already armed themselves against another group that claims to be in possession of title deeds for the land.
Elders from the two warring communities resolved to bury the hatchet, help police arrest inciters and banned the carrying of offensive weapons. They petitioned the government to issue title deeds for demarcated land, saying this was a frequent source of conflict.

Sudan: Life and Death in Darfur (October 6, 2004)
Separated from her family and her home destroyed, Halima is just one of the thousands of elderly victims of the nightmare that has ravaged Sudan. Abandoned by her relatives she has to take care of her grandson by herself. Her village and home were destroyed in a battle and Halima lacks strength to build a new home because of her age.

Sudan: Geneva: Too Little, too Late for the Victims of Darfur (September 17, 2004)
The impact of the conflict in Darfur on the Sudanese population is overwhelming. As little distinction has been made between civilians and combatants, the elderly happen to be among the most vulnerable groups of the one million people who are facing the horrors of this war. Destruction of livelihoods means that they will continue to depend on outside help to survive. Both the International Red Cross and the Sudanese Red Crescent are trying to ease the suffering. So far, the world press has not looked at the underlying international competition over the oil that lies underground in the Darfur area and its responsibility for stoking the conflict. Should the Sudanese brace themselves for a major power invasion masked with a response to human tragedy?

Kenya: Elders Now Rally to Speaker's Defense ( September 14, 2004)
A group of Maasai elders decided that it was their place to intervene into the disagreement between House Speaker Francis ole Kaparo and Cabinet Minister William ole Ntimama. Apparently the House Speaker had urged Maasai to reclaim tribal lands that were given over to white ranchers at Independence decades ago. Left out of the process at that time, the Maasai now want these lands but are divided over methodology. In this article the elders argue that the government must take action.

Kenya: Kenya Repulses Land Grabs Akin to Those in Zimbabwe (September 5, 2004)
The land controversy around the 100th anniversary of an agreement reached between British colonialists and Masai elders turned into armed conflict in Kenya. Heavily armed police officers fired tear gas at the demonstrators who were marching to the British High Commission to highlight their rejection of colonial-era agreements that stripped them of their land. The Masai were carrying their traditional wooden staffs, knives and wooden clubs to fight with the well-equipped police forces. An elderly Masai man has died, shot during a confrontation with the police. The government officials justify themselves by the fact that Kenya's economy very much relies on Western assistance and  uprooting the ranchers would be disastrous for it.

Sudan: Darfur Elders Say United States Demonises Sudan to Hurt Islam (August 28, 2004)
The bloody 18-month conflict between the two main rebel groups continues in the Sudan. In an attempt to mediate the problem, the Sudanese government sent 11 elders - tribal chiefs from the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur -- to Nigeria as part of a delegation to the African Union peace talks. The chiefs criticized the United States for blaming Muslims for the conflict, saying that the superpower has tried to "demonise" Muslims. Information about the underlying international competition over Sudanese oil reserves not emerged in syndicated press reports.

Sudan: Life Gets Harder, as Violence Increases in Darfur (August 22, 2004) 
It is difficult for a person fortunate enough to have never been affected by armed conflict to understand the magnitude and depth of human tragedies of the people victimized by violence. The Darfur crisis of a year and a half now has spoiled the relations between the Arab nomads and black African tribes, both earlier relatively peacefully co-residing in Sudan, for several generations. Suliman Hassid, the 87-year-old chief of Shiga Karo, blames Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir for emboldening Arab nomads and escalating long-standing tensions between them and the country's black African tribes.

Sudan: The Meaning of Suffering, From the Farms of Darfur (August 20, 2004)
The Darfur crisis of 18 months has brought about devastation and hundreds of thousands of civilian victims. The whole situation is especially difficult for the old people. In addition to the pain and fear shared by all who have been forced to flee their villages or seen family members killed or assaulted, the elderly carry the fear that they will never be able to return to their homes and land in their lifetime - that they will die in a foreign land. Khamis, a Masalit man in his 70s has lost all of his moveable and immoveable property in repeated assaults of the Arab militia. Now in a hospital in Chad, he is waiting for the recovery and sanity of his son Mohammed - the only one of his four sons still alive.

Sudan: Rain's a Curse for Sudan's Refugees (July 20, 2004)
The rains in Darfur, a city in western Sudan, are a curse in more ways than one. Muddy roads make it difficult for humanitarian aid to get through to the refugees. Heavy rains serve as a fertile ground for the outburst of infectious diseases and epidemics. One year-old Asha lies in a hospital covered in sores and lesions, her skin peeling. Her grandmother who is looking after the child says that their village was burnt to the ground by the Janjaweeds militia.

Sudan: Singers of Sudan Study War No More (July 12, 2004)
Now in her 70's, Ms. Fatimah Mohamed Sanusi, a traditional Sudanese singer, has sung about love, celebration, and mourning. Of late her songs on war have inspired the militias in the violent clashes in Darfur, west Sudan. After attending a special peace-building workshop, Ms. Sanusi is going to use her considerable power for peace and good. As both nationals and outside commercial interests compete viciously over the oil resources in the region, the news report focuses on old women who sing.

Sudan Refugees Too Scared to Bury Dead (July 6, 2004)
Many of the elderly Darfur Sudanese are unable to bury their family members for fear of repeated ambush from the Janjaweed militias. A lot of elderly die shortly after they reach the refugee camp and are presumably safe. They die from the fear of not dying in the foreign land. 

Sudan: Violence, Food Crisis in Sudan Worsen as Militias Keep Hold (July 1, 2004)
The recent visit of the US Secretary of State Colin Powell has intensified the world media attention to the massive famine of Darfur Sudanese refugees, mostly the elderly, woman and children.

Sudan: UN Teams Visit Burnt Villages in Darfur Region of Sudan (April 29, 2004)
A United Nations humanitarian mission was sent in western Sudan , to face the situation of the civilians, facing Arab militias' attacks. The representatives of the UN World Food Program (WFP) met three elderly men in Bandago. They were the last persons remaining alive in that place. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the hospitals are in bad condition, and underlined the situations of civilians whose villages had been burnt. 

Western Africa
(Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo)