January 23, 2012
Erin Weir
Africa, Kenya, Somalia, Peacekeeping
It was six months ago that famine was declared in Somalia. The steady
flow of refugees already fleeing conflict was joined by a torrent of new
asylum seekers – people fleeing because of hunger and looking for a
more hopeful place in which to re-build their lives. During the past
six months, hundreds of thousands of people made their way to
neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, and aid organizations scrambled to ramp
up their operations in order to serve these new arrivals.
July 21, 2011
Erin Weir
Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Neglected Crises, Peacekeeping
Do you ever feel like you are caught in a bad cycle of déjà vu?
Since June 5th the Nuba people in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan state have endured attacks on their homes, executions, arbitrary detention, and – perhaps most terrifying of all – indiscriminate bombing from the air. Roughly 73,000 people have been displaced at the hands of their own government.
In a display that surprises no one, the Government of Sudan is once again mounting a vicious offensive against an ethnic minority inside their own borders.
July 07, 2011
Erin Weir
Africa, South Sudan, Sudan
In just two short days southern Sudan separates from the north. I wasn’t there when they signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, but I suspect that the southern Sudanese in the room imagined this day a little bit differently.
May 13, 2011
Erin Weir
Africa, DR Congo, Peacekeeping
In peacekeeping the attention (and pressure) tends to be focused on the military part of the mission, the military “blue helmets” patrolling villages and deterring physical attacks. People often forget that peacekeeping missions also include a huge range of civilian staff who work on activities including monitoring human rights abuses, engaging with communities and fostering reconciliation, analyzing political developments, promoting peace processes, and civilian policing. The list goes on.
February 28, 2011
Erin Weir
South Sudan, Sudan, United Nations, Peacekeeping
About a year and a half ago, I was interviewing peacekeepers on a tiny temporary base in eastern DR Congo. I met a man in his 80s who had walked five hours on an injured leg to deliver a letter. It was a message for the peacekeepers. And that message was: “Please, don’t leave.”
This base was only accessible by foot or helicopter. There were just 50 soldiers and so they had a really limited reach. But
