As MPs prepare to debate the worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the tragic suffering of some of the conflict's youngest victims has come to the fore. Two years since the civil war began, at least 1,546 children have been killed and 2,450 maimed. Nine-year-old Ali wears two hearing aids and barely speaks after an airstrike hit a building near his home in Sa’ada Governorate. The blast threw him from a window and he fell two stories, before landing on his neck. “Blood was coming out of Ali’s ears and nose," his mother Enas said. "Blood was even coming out from his mouth… it was hard for him to even breathe.” She added: “We took shelter in a small ground room that was made from mud. It was the most horrible night of our lives. Ali was injured and we couldn’t take him to the hospital – there were the sounds of the flying jets and missiles falling one after the other very close to our home.” Khalil and his sister Noor, aged nine and six, were peppered with shrapnel when an airstrike hit their home on New Year’s Day. The attack killed their grandfather, three-year-old cousin and three guests. Khalil has since stopped going to school and Noor is too afraid to leave the house. “I was playing in the yard with my brother, and then we heard the missile coming towards us," Noor said, adding that she was "so scared," she kept her eyes closed. “My wounds still hurt and I am very afraid when I hear aircraft overhead," she said. "I have nightmares at night – I see aircraft hitting our house again and again. My brother and I cannot sleep properly. Sometimes I wake up because I hear my brother Khalil shouting while he is asleep.” Khalil and Noor were injured when their home was destroyed by an airstrike (Mohammed Awadh/Save the Children) Leading charities believe all parties involved in the conflict, which has displaced more than three million people, are guilty of violating international law, with reports of homes, schools, and hospitals being targeted. The bloodshed started in March 2015 after an opposition offensive led by Houthi rebels drove the government out of the capital Sana’a, sparking an intervention by Saudi Arabia and its allies to support the internationally-recognised government. More than 7,600 people have been killed so far in the fight for control between forces loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and those allied to the rebels. The UN human rights office said the Saudi-led air campaign, seeing rebel-controlled areas heavily bombarded, was responsible for 60 per cent of civilian deaths – almost 2,300 lives. British-manufactured weapons, including cluster bombs, have been used in the strikes, despite calls by MPs to suspend sales to Saudi Arabia over war crimes allegations. Peter Salisbury, a senior research fellow in the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House, said Britain was the principal sponsor of a UN Security Council resolution used by Saudi Arabia to justify its intervention. “The UK is also a huge arms supplier and provides a great deal of logistical support to Saudi forces,” he told The Independent. “Arguably the UK has also given political coverage to the Saudis by preventing various resolutions and investigations from happening.” Save the Children is calling for the UK to ban arms sales to Saudi Arabia as the crisis rages. The charity also wishes to see an independent international inquiry into alleged violations of international humanitarian law. “In this crisis children are not just being bombed – they are also being starved. The Saudi-led coalition is stopping vital supplies getting in by sea, while warring parties are detaining aid workers and obstructing deliveries by land,” Save the Children’s Interim Country Director for Yemen Grant Pritchard said. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Independant “Millions of children and their families have no idea where their next meal is coming from, or where the next bomb will fall.” Tuesday’s meeting will see MPs debate the motion: “That this House notes the worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen; and calls upon the Government to take a lead in passing a resolution at the UN Security Council that would give effect to an immediate ceasefire in Yemen." A landmark judgement to determine the legality of British arms transfers to Saudi Arabia is also expected to be announced in the near future.

America must speak strongly and plainly about the facts of the Armenian Genocide and denounce all crimes against humanity, Represntative Adam Schiff (D-CA) says. “Over a century ago, 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire in the first Genocide of the 20th century. America must speak strongly and plainly about the facts of the Armenian Genocide and denounce all crimes against humanity, if we are to live up to our moral and historic responsibility,” Rep. Schiff said in a Facebok post. “We cannot take a principled stand against modern day genocides like those carried out by ISIS against religious minorities in Iraq and Syria if we are to pick and choose which horrors to recognize, or shrink from our responsibility because it might alienate friend or foe,” he added. U.S. Representatives David Trott (R-MI) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) last week joined with their Congressional Armenian Caucus colleagues in introducing a bipartisan anti-genocide resolution calling on the United States to apply the lessons of the Armenian Genocide in seeking to prevent modern day atrocities across the Middle East __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Public Radio of Armenia

Musanze Prison: Inmates here discuss ways to fight genocide ideology. Regis Umurengezi. IT IS TUESDAY MORNING inside the Musanze prison. Two groups of inmates sit separately on benches. Females on one side as their male counterparts at another. A prison guard stands sentry at a distance. The inmates, members of the ‘Anti-Genocide Group,’ are in a session where they sit and discuss how genocide ideology can be uprooted among inmates and in society in general. The club, made up of over 50 members, most of whom are Genocide convicts, was formed four years ago after the inmates were taken through intensive correctional training to help them transform and bear in mind that the crime they committed was against humanity and inhumane. The objective of the club is to fight genocide ideology and denial by sharing knowledge and experiences on Genocide to ensure that it never happens again. Such training, inmates say, transformed them and they committed to change and be active fighters against genocide ideology to prevent the tragedy from reoccurring anywhere in the world. The inmates believe that once they transform, then society will be safe as at the end of the day the same prisoners are members of society. Patricie Dusabemariya, 57, is serving life sentence for her role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. She is against anyone who ignores the impact of the Genocide on the country and still harbours its ideology. Through the club, members channel their messages that promote unity and reconciliation and through ‘’Ndi Umunyarwanda’’ programme. Learning from the tragedy Dusabemariya says that she has been positively transformed, thanks to knowledge she acquired from the prison officials and later became one of the club founders. Her task now, just like her colleagues, is to help inmates who still nurse genocide ideology to live a transformed life. This, she says, will help them when released. Dusabemariya has no kind words for people who ignore the tragic history that Rwanda has passed through instead of learning from it to shape the future. “Our motherland was on the verge of being a failed state but rose again from the ashes and changed for the better. However, it is a shame that some some Rwandans, including inmates here who should be reflecting on their gory deeds, still harbour genocide ideology. As members of anti-Genocide club, we are out to tame the mindset of such people, we want all of them to join hands to build the country,” ,” says Dusabemariya. Emmanuel Manirakiza, who is serving time for genocide ideology, said the club has been a transformative agent and believes that he would no longer fall into the trap that led him to prison. “After understanding the essence of Ndi Umunyarwanda programme through our club, I changed and committed to never go back (to the negative mindset) again. Nothing good comes out of divisions, I don’t wish anybody to fall into the same trap as I did. We are striving to ensure that Ndi Umunyarwanda initiative spreads among all the inmates,” says Manirakiza. Speaking to The New Times, Hillary Sengabo, Rwanda Correctional Service (RCS) spokesperson, said there are several anti-genocide clubs in every prison countrywide supported by prison officials to transform inmates. “Inmates are taught by prison wardens as it is among the responsibilities of Rwanda Correctional Service; they are provided with civic education, unity and reconciliation and correctional related trainings among others,” Sengabo said. He noted that the clubs have registered a positive impact so far and many inmates participate in commemoration activities compared to the past years especially between 1997 and 1998 when no one could talk about commemoration in prison. “Hearts were still heavy and inmates were hard to manage but today there is an improvement, thanks to anti-genocide clubs, genocide perpetrators are writing letters requesting to meet with families they offended, some of those perpetrators are being pardoned as most of Rwandans are aware of unity and reconciliation programme,” he added. Over the past years, some inmates have sought apology from survivors and were granted clemency as part of unity and reconciliation among Rwandans. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The New Times

Lessons from survivors Megan DeLaire/Metroland Participants in a survivors' panel at the Day of Humanity, Inclusion and Acceptance, from left, Denyse Umutoni, Vera Gara, Cevag Belian and Mirza Ismail, took questions from the audience after sharing their experiences with genocide at the Ottawa Torah Centre on March 20. In the name of humanity, inclusion and acceptance, four Canadians affected by genocide gathered under one roof on March 20 to share their experiences with an audience. Mirza Ismael was born to a Yazidi family in Iraq. He was forced to flee the ongoing persecution of Yazidi people – a non-Muslim ethno-religious group – but went on to found and chair the Yazidi Human Rights Organization International in Canada. Vera Gara, born an Austrian Jew, survived life as a child in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Since 1970 she has toured schools and conferences, sharing her story of survival and promoting inclusiveness. Cevag Belian is a descendant of survivors of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian genocide, carried out during the First World War. He directs the Armenian National Committee of Canada. Denyse Umutoni was 24 years old and living in a village of 3,000 Tutsi people in Rwanda during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. When the genocide ended, she, her sister and five other people were the only survivors left in their village. Together they formed a panel of survivors and representatives of survivors, one of several features of the Day of Humanity, Inclusion and Acceptance hosted by MPP Lisa MacLeod at the Ottawa Torah Centre in Barrhaven. “In all of these instances, what we have is true positivity,” said Rabbi Reuven Bulka, who moderated the panel discussion. “People who lived in the ultimate negativity of murder, brutality, genocide, and escaped from it to do great things.” Although their stories are different, they share a common motive for telling them: to promote inclusion through education and advocacy and, maybe, prevent future genocides. In 1970, 15 years after she was liberated by Soviet forces in Germany, Gara moved to Canada – specifically Ottawa – with her husband and two daughters. The family was met with acceptance, and it’s acceptance that she encourages Canadians to demonstrate today. “Nobody ever charged me of being a refugee or a foreigner,” she said. “Let’s keep on doing that and tell our children that no matter what, we are one … We have to remember that. We are all the same people, good and bad among all of us.” Belian, the voice of a different generation affected by genocide, echoed the importance of keeping stories of genocide and inclusion alive long after they’ve taken place. “I’m a descendant of survivors and victims … but their legacy and the stories that they’ve left behind is of course trans-generational,” he said. “The horrors of genocide and persecutions such as genocide transcend time and space.” Anyone, the panellists agreed, can use that transcendence, to prevent future atrocities, whether or not they have been directly affected by genocide. “April is the month to remember the (Rwandan) genocide, so invite your friends to come to listen to survivors,” Umutoni said. “Start where you are and it’s going to be OK … Pay attention to what’s happening. Look, judge and do better.” Other highlights of the conference were the Tour for Humanity – a mobile human rights education centre – a lecture about Canada’s changing population demographics and presentations by local religious leaders and representatives including Jewish Rabbi Menachem Blum, Muslim Imam Zijad Delic and Aisha Sherazi, a spiritual counsellor for students and teachers at Merivale High School. “One of the reasons why I love this conference is because there’s no negative words in it,” said Bulka. “We’re not talking about anti-Semitism, we’re not talking about anti-this or anti-that. This is all positivity, humanity, inclusion, acceptance." _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Nepean Barrhaven News

Women wait with their children to be examined and possibly give supplementary food at a mobile clinic run by UNICEF in the village of Rubkuai, Unity State, South Sudan. February 2017. Photo: UNICEF/Modola United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today stressed the need for the leadership of South Sudan to achieve an immediate cessation of hostilities, restore the peace process and ensure unrestricted humanitarian access in order to pull the world’s youngest country back from the abyss, and back from a widening famine. “All the optimism that accompanied the birth of South Sudan has been shattered by internal divisions, rivalries and the irresponsible behaviour of some of its leaders,” Mr. Guterres saidduring a Security Council briefing. “As a result, a country that had seen a brief glimmer of hope for a better future has plunged back into darkness. We have to do everything in our power to change this,” he stressed. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 but a political face-off between President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar plunged the country into full blown conflict in December 2013. Providing a detailed overview, Mr. Guterres said civilians continue to be subjected to horrendous attacks, including rape and the recruitment of children. More than 1.9 million people are displaced internally, more than 220,000 of whom are seeking safety in protection sites of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Some 1.6 million people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. “The humanitarian crisis continues to deepen. One hundred thousand people are enduring famine, one million are on the verge of that fate, and 5.5 million may be severely food insecure by this summer,” he explained. Moreover at least 7.5 million people across South Sudan – almost two thirds of the population – need humanitarian assistance. Three years of conflict have eroded livelihoods and disrupted farming, including in the Equatorias, the country’s breadbasket. Wide view of the Security Council Chamber during its meeting on South Sudan. UN Photo/Manuel Elias The UN chief also said that violence has spread to include previously stable areas of northern Jonglei. Noting that the peace process remains at a standstill, Mr. Guterres said that Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous, who returned yesterday from a trip to South Sudan, emphasized the critical importance of an inclusive political process in ensuring the well-being of the country’s people. Mr. Guterres warned that despite the alarm sounded by the UN and the international community over this crisis, the Government has yet to express any meaningful concern or take any tangible steps to address the plight of its people. “On the contrary, what we hear most often are denials – a refusal by the leadership to even acknowledge the crisis or to fulfil its responsibility to end it,” he said. Mr. Guterres underscored the need to ensure unrestricted humanitarian access, including freedom of movement for UNMISS and a future Regional Protection Force, which was authorized by the Security Council in August 2016. “But no such force, and no amount of diplomacy, can substitute for the lack of political will among those who govern the country,” emphasized Mr. Guterres, noting that there is a strong consensus that South Sudanese leaders need to do more to demonstrate their commitment to the well-being of the country’s people, who are among the poorest in the world. “If there is to be any hope of those leaders changing their current calculations, greater pressure is needed. This means first and foremost that the region and the Security Council must speak with one voice,” he stated. He also warned that the dangers of South Sudan’s trajectory should not be underestimated. “Atrocity crimes have occurred with impunity, and the potential for serious deterioration remains very real. Credible mechanisms for accountability are a must,” he said. (c) 2017 United Nations

An Egyptian farmer feeding cows fresh fodder. Photo: FAO/Giulio Napolitano Food security and nutrition levels have sharply deteriorated over the last five years in the Near East and North Africa due largely to the spread and magnitude of conflicts and protracted crises, reversing the pre-2010 trend of improvement, a new United Nations report said today. “A peaceful and stable environment is an absolute pre-condition for farmers to respond to the challenges of water scarcity and climate change,” said Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in a news release. “Achieving food security is still at hand, provided we take concerted efforts and make the right moves now,” he added. The FAO 2016 Regional Overview of Food Insecurity in the Near East and North Africanoted that the deterioration is largely driven by conflicts and protracted crises. The FAO assessment shows that the prevalence of severe food insecurity in the adult population of the Near East and North Africa was close to 9.5 per cent in 2014-2015, representing approximately 30 million people. Before 2010, the prevalence of undernourishment, stunting, anaemia and poverty were decreasing. “The region is facing unprecedented challenges to its food security due to multiple risks arising from conflicts, water scarcity and climate change. Countries of the region need to implement long-term and comprehensive sustainable water management to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of ending hunger by 2030,” said the FAO official said. The Syria crisis in particular has deepened during the period 2015-2016, leaving more than half of the population in need of food assistance and 4.8 million refugees, mostly in neighboring countries. The numbers of food insecure and the internally displaced are also rising in Iraq and Yemen. Beyond conflicts and crises, the report argues that water scarcity and climate change are the most fundamental challenges to ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture by 2030. Water scarcity is the binding factor to agricultural production in the Near East and North Africa region and the driver of the region’s dependency on food imports. The report explores other major options for the adaptation to climate change impacts on water and agriculture, including the need for designing and implementing social protection measures for building resilience of farmers to extreme events, cutting food losses and improving trade policies. (c) 2017 United Nations

The menu at Tea-N-Bannock reflects traditional dishes of different tribes and features baked or fried bannock. (Frank Gunn/THE CANADIAN PRESS) Canadian cuisine might include a mix of culinary traditions, but the food of one of the country’s founding groups is largely missing. An emerging group of indigenous chefs and restaurateurs is hoping to change that. Rich Francis, chef-owner of Seventh Fire Hospitality Group in Saskatoon, says he’s “cooking for reconciliation” as he specializes in his interpretation of modern indigenous cuisine. “Everything that’s been taught in school is through a colonial lens. It’s not our story. It’s colonial books, so now I’m stepping into a time where we are telling our own stories through our own lens and our own vision.” Francis, a member of the Tetlit Gwich’in and Tuscarora Nation and originally from Fort McPherson, N.W.T., was a finalist on season 4 of “Top Chef Canada” and is looking forward to opening a restaurant this summer. Meanwhile, he’s catering and conducting events like a recent Cooking for Reconciliation dinner series in Vancouver, where he focused on local indigenous foods such as halibut, razor clams, stone fruits and sage for flavouring. He took buffalo meat with him to do a play on surf ‘n’ turf. “I’ve been travelling raising awareness just to go beyond what people know us for, like the Indian taco and bannock and all that. That’s not truly us, who we are,” says Francis. “It was given to us in our cultural genocide and the residential school system and all that happened to us. We’re starting to find our culinary identity now in the industry beyond bannock and all the colonial stuff that was designed to destroy us.” Lenore Newman, a B.C. professor with a Canada Research Chair in food security and environment, says the country is seeing a resurgence in indigenous food “and a very timely one that needs to happen.” “I think there is still serious reparation to be made though,” she adds. During field work for her recent book, “Speaking in Cod Tongues: A Canadian Culinary Journey,” Newman found indigenous groups played a huge role in helping early settlers learn to survive. “Then you enter this horrible period where indigenous cuisine was actively destroyed and used as a weapon. The biggest example is the clearing of the bison and how that was basically a genocide,” says Newman, who teaches at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C. “Out here on the West Coast the potlatch was banned. In residential schools, people were taken away from their indigenous foods. They were prevented from using them or talking about them. “We have a lot of reckoning to do and some of that is culinary. And so what that meant was for a very long time you didn’t hear about indigenous cuisine except very peripherally as kind of exotic.” Newman has eaten in indigenous restaurants in Vancouver, Haida Gwaii, B.C., at a Songhees First Nations food truck in Victoria and at Tea-N-Bannock in Toronto. Tina Ottereyes, who manages Tea-N-Bannock, agrees First Nations food is “very underrepresented” in Canada’s restaurant sphere and is happy more eateries are opening. “We’re starting to share more of our culture and more of our food,” says Ottereyes, from Wemindji Cree First Nation on James Bay in Quebec. “When I grew up we hunted and we trapped and we fished. That was my culture, that was the food that I ate.... Each tribe has a different diet according to their area.” The menu at Tea-N-Bannock reflects traditional dishes from different tribes. Hominy corn grown by a local farmer is the base for their Ojibwa corn soup, made through a labour-intensive process. The corn is dried after picking and the kernels removed. They’re boiled for several hours in wood ash to remove the hard outer shell, allowing the inner kernel to get “nice and cooked and plumped up,” says Ottereyes. Wild rice comes from First Nations people in northwestern Ontario. Teas include a fruity herbal blend made by the grandmother of a staff member in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory near Belleville, Ont. Though meat like elk and bison are prepared in a traditional way, they are farmed, not wild, because the product has to be certified and inspected. Francis believes there should be some leniency when it comes to wild food. “The regulations that are put in place by the government don’t allow us to fully express ourselves.” Elsewhere in Toronto, NishDish, a cafe focused on Anishinaabe recipes, was slated to open this month in Toronto. Pow Wow Cafe, which launched last fall, features Objibwa tacos using fried bannock instead of tortillas. A smattering of colleges also offer indigenous culinary courses. Francis, who received his chef training at Stratford Chefs School, originally learned traditional recipes in Moose Factory on James Bay and Iqaluit in Nunavut from people who still live off the land. “You won’t find any of this stuff in history books, or cookbooks for that matter.” __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The Globe and Mail

Children attend a math class in grade 3 in Yasin Bay Primary School in the city of El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan. Photo: UNICEF/Shehzad Noorani Fewer children have been recruited to fight in parts of Sudan, but they are still killed and injured, and victims of sexual violence in the country, according to a new report by the United Nations Secretary-General. “Boys and girls continued to be victims of grave violations committed by all parties to the conflict, including killing and maiming, sexual violence and attacks on schools and hospitals,” said Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. The report, released on Friday, details the impact of the armed conflict on children in Darfur, South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Abyei between March 2011 and December 2016. During that time period, nearly 1,300 children were either killed or maimed in conflict as a result of hostilities between the Government and the armed groups. The majority of the casualties took place in Darfur, according to the report. Rape and sexual violence were also a major concern in Darfur, where the UN confirmed at least 372 children were victimized. “In most cases, children were raped during attacks on their villages or while getting wood or water in the vicinity of camps for displaced people,” the report authors wrote. Despite these ongoing atrocities, the report notes a positive trend in recruitment and use of children – with fewer being conscripted. However, there are concerns about cross-border recruitment and use of children by Sudanese and South Sudanese groups, notably the SPLM/N, Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in Opposition and Justice (SPLA-iO) and Equality Movement (JEM). Since 2011, the Government of Sudan has strengthened its national framework to protect children and raised the minimum recruitment age for national forces to 18. In addition, the UN has signed three Action Plans with national authorities to protect children, as well as separately with SPLM/N and JEM. The Special Representative has called on the Government and all other parties to conflict to take concrete measures to protect children. (c) 2017 United Nations

Newly displaced Somali women and children gather, just outside of Mogadishu, in Somalia, Monday, March, 27, 2017. Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP A stepped-up air campaign against the Al-Shabaab terror group in Somalia would be complicated by the famine and drought crisis sweeping the Horn of Africa, the head of U.S. Africa Command said Monday. Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, who has requested more "flexibility" from the White House to attack the al-Qaida-linked Al-Shabaab, said AfriCom would have to coordinate closely with relief agencies to avoid hitting civilians on the move in search of food and water. "We need to have good communications," Waldhauser said at a breakfast with defense writers. "You need to be very, very careful in terms of certainty" before approving strikes by manned or unmanned aircraft. The drought in Somalia, where locals report that it has rained only twice in the last two years, is threatening three million lives in a nation of 10-12 million that has been wracked by civil and tribal warfare for decades, according to the United Nations. Earlier this month, Stephen O'Brien, the U.N. under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council that more than 20 million people in four countries -- Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and northeast Nigeria -- are facing starvation and famine. Without coordinated global efforts, he warned, "people will simply starve to death" and "many more will suffer and die from disease." In Somalia, the U.S. military is prepared to assist aid agencies in relief efforts but has not yet been asked to do so, Waldhauser said Monday and in a separate briefing to the Pentagon last Friday. Waldhauser's "flexibility" request would give field commanders more leeway to approve airstrikes without going through the White House National Security Council, but "we are not going to turn Somalia into a free-fire zone," he said. The White House has yet to sign off on his request, Waldhauser said. Over the weekend, Kenyan forces from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) attacked two Al-Shabaab bases in the southern Somali region of Jubaland, and killed at least 31 militants, the Kenyan military said Monday. "Ground troops were supported by attack helicopters and artillery fire," the Kenya Defense Forces said in a statement. Waldhauser said he could not immediately confirm whether U.S. forces backed the Kenyan attack. Newly installed Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a dual U.S.-Somali citizen who was formerly commissioner of the Buffalo, N.Y., Municipal Housing Authority, has pledged to rout Al-Shabaab while also calling on members of the group to surrender. At his inauguration in February, Mohamed said, "To those who work with al-Qaida, Al-Shabaab and IS [Islamic State], your time is finished. You have been misled, destroyed property and killed many Somalis. Come and we shall give you good life." The U.S. has had a fraught relationship with Somalia since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 led to civil war and famine, triggering a humanitarian intervention by U.S. forces to support aid deliveries. In October 1993, 18 U.S. troops were killed in the "Black Hawk Down" incident. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Military News

With famine already ravaging Somalia, the U.N. warns South Sudan, Nigeria, and Yemen are also in danger. 1.Internally displaced men and children shelter from the sweltering afternoon sun under a tree beside a hut on March 14 at a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Baidoa, in the southwestern Bay region of Somalia, where thousands of people arrive daily after they fled the parched countryside. The United Nations warned of an unprecedented global crisis with famine already gripping parts of South Sudan and looming over Nigeria, Yemen and Somalia, threatening the lives of 20 million people. For Somalis, the memory of the 2011 famine, which left a quarter of a million people dead, is still fresh. Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images 2.An elderly woman weakened by hunger lies on the ground as her daughter watches over her at the Baidoa camp on March 15. Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images 3.Women carry firewood on March 15 as they walk back to a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Baidoa. Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images 4.A dust storm sweeps through the makeshift camp in Baidoa on March 26. Feisal Omar / Reuters 5. A woman leads her donkeys loaded with jerrycans in the drought-stricken Baligubadle village near Hargeisa, the capital city of Somaliland, on March 15. Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but is not recognized by any other country. Red Cross and Red Crescent via Reuters 6.A man walks in a dry underground water pan in Baligubadle village, Somaliland, on March 15. Red Cross and Red Crescent via Reuters 7.A young boy fills a water drum loaded on a donkey cart before selling it on March 15 in Baidoa. Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images 8.A malnourished child is fed a special formula by her mother on March 15 at a hospital in Baidoa, part of a UNICEF- funded health program for children and adults displaced by drought. Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images 9.A malnourished child is examined by an aid worker in Baidoa on March 15. Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images 10.Women carrying jerrycans of water from a collection point set up by a U.N. aid agency walk on March 14 toward the camp on the outskirts of Baidoa. Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images 11.The carcass of an animal that died from severe drought lies on the ground in Bandarbeyla in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland on March 24. According to locals, the area has seen only two days of rain in more than a year. Somalia's drought is threatening 3 million lives, according to the U.N. In recent months, aid agencies have been scaling up their efforts but they say said more support is urgently needed to prevent the crisis from worsening. Dai Kurokava / EPA 12.Ali Asair, who left his family behind and traveled hundreds of kilometers in search of a pasture for his animals, tends to his camel in the Bandarbeyla district of Somalia on March 24. Dai Kurokawa / EPA 13.A displaced Somali woman who fled a drought-stricken region prepares a meal outside her shelter in Baidoa on March 26. Feisal Omar / Reuters 14.A malnourished young boy with a mental disability lays inside his family's shelter in a camp on the outskirts of Qardho, in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland on March 26. East Africa has been suffering from a severe drought since 2015 due to the El Nino weather phenomenon. Dai Kurokawa / EPA 15.Children drink water delivered by a truck in the drought-stricken Baligubadle village in Somaliland on March 15. Red Cross and Red Crescent via Reuters _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 NBC News

Angelina Jolie calls issues confronting the world including war, nationalism, refugee crisis 'deeply troubling' during UN speech. AP Two of her five children died as Pauline Nyaluok navigated her way from war-torn South Sudan to this refugee camp in northern Uganda where she expected to be welcomed with open arms. Uganda is celebrated around the world for its generosity toward those desperately fleeing violence. Unlike other East African nations like Kenya, where refugees are restricted to camps, Uganda in the past gave refugees land to farm and build a home, plus free health care and education. But a three-year civil war has sent 700,000 South Sudanese refugees fleeing, many to their southern neighbor. Refugees also are escaping violence in nearby countries such as Burundi. That is putting pressure on camps in Uganda, which can't provide enough shelter, food, water and medical care, leaving the most vulnerable struggling to survive. “I haven’t eaten anything for a week now,” said Nyaluok, 43, while holding her 2-year-old. “There’s not enough food, water and toilets. I have been skipped twice for a monthly allotment of grains, because of the huge number of people living here. My children are feeling very hungry, and I have nowhere to live.” A year ago, only a few huts dotted the northern Ugandan town of Bidi Bidi. Today, more than 200,000 South Sudanese refugees live there, according to the United Nations. The camp — now one of the largest refugee settlements in the world — opened last summer after a new round of clashes erupted in South Sudan. People wait in line for food at the Bidi Bidi refugee camp in Uganda on Feb 22, 2017. (Photo: Dan Kitwood, Getty Images) “We don't have enough food to feed all the refugees, and some are getting half rations of corn meal and beans,” said Apollo Kazungu, a Ugandan commissioner in charge of refugees. “We are very hospitable as a country, and our people are friendly to refugees. But allocating them plots (of land) may not be possible if they continue to arrive daily due to violence. We are now building dormitories for them.” Kazungu said the government is set to build three more refugee settlement camps in northern Uganda to house more South Sudanese refugees, but the situation is dire. The U.N. refugee agency recently said South Sudan's fighting has created the third largest refugee crisis, after Syria's civil war and Afghanistan's chronic conflict. “The people of South Sudan are suffering, as we’ve seen by the record numbers that have fled to Uganda and other neighboring countries in recent weeks,” said Bornwell Kantande, the U.N. refugee agency’s representative to Uganda. At the Bidi Bidi camp, 64% of the new arrivals are children, and around 20% are women. Many people still have bullet wound scars from the fighting in their home country. Jasina Nyapal, 28, from South Sudan's capital of Juba, said militants attacked her family this year as they targeted tribes. Ethnic violence in South Sudan has a long history among its varied groups. “My husband was shot dead because he was from a Nuer ethnic tribe,” Nyapal, a mother of three, said as she began crying. “I had to flee on foot with my children until I found buses taking people across the border to register as refugees in Uganda. We passed several groups of rebel and government soldiers on the way who could demand that we identify ourselves by our tribes. I saw soldiers raping young girls and shooting anyone on sight.” South Sudan is the world’s youngest country after gaining independence from Sudan in 2011. But civil war ensued at the end of 2013. South Sudan was on track last March toward peace, but violence rocked the capital again in July when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir clashed with those loyal to former vice president Riek Machar outside the presidential palace. The renewed violence led Nyaluok to vow that she would never return to her native country, no matter how many challenges she faces in Uganda. “I can’t go back home,” she said. “I would rather die here of hunger than face bullets and rape." _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 USA Today

Relatives of the six aid workers who were killed grieve as they wait outside a morgue in Juba, South Sudan, March 27, 2017. Unidentified assailants took the lives of six aid workers in South Sudan on Saturday, the highest number killed in a single incident since South Sudan's conflict began in December 2013, according to the United Nations. Working for a local NGO called GREDO, they were killed in the Magri area of Central Equatoria State, as they traveled from South Sudan's capital, Juba, to the town of Pibor. GREDO program director Jaffar Mbugua told VOA's South Sudan in Focus that a seventh person riding with the convoy — a man who had hitched a ride so he could seek construction work — was also killed. A spokesperson for the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs confirmed a seventh person had died. Motive no so obvious Jerry Farrell, the South Sudan representative of Catholic Relief Services, says he does not believe aid groups are being politically targeted. Instead, he says they are likely singled out for the same reasons that perceived wealthy individuals would be. “Because NGOs have Land Cruisers and very often have Thurayas, or satellite phones, often are carrying cash to the field to pay vendors and pay staff, they are being targeted for those reasons by criminals,” said Farrell. But Ken Isaacs, the vice president of programs and government relations at U.S.-based charity Samaritan's Purse, hesitates to comment on motive. “There is a lot of nuances and I just know from my own experience doing this for 30 years that it is premature right now to make any speculation about it, but it rarely is as simple as it appears on the surface,” said Isaacs. South Sudan's government told VOA's Daybreak Africa that opposition forces loyal to former First Vice President Riek Machar are responsible for the deaths. Contacted by VOA, the deputy military spokesman for the opposition SPLA-IO said the area where the incident took place is under the control of the government and allied militia groups. Relatives of the six slain aid workers grieve in Juba, South Sudan, March 27, 2017. Twelve aid workers have been killed so far this year in South Sudan. Aid Groups Vow to Continue Work Samaritan's Purse had 15 staff members abducted in Mayendit in mid-March by an independent armed faction, but all were rescued shortly thereafter. Isaacs says the weekend's attack will cause his group to operate at heightened alert. “So it does not cause us to hesitate, it makes our resolve stronger, but it also makes us more cautious,” said Isaacs. “So we will put certain measures into place, about how we move, when we move, how many vehicles are in a convoy, how many meters distance can be between them, it will affect our movements all over the country.” The attack also will not prevent the International Committee of the Red Cross from delivering aid to South Sudan, says spokesman Jason Straziuso. “This extremely tragic incident is at the top of our attention right now. It has added to the latest of the security concerns in South Sudan,” said Straziuso. “But at the same time, given how we operate, because we mostly travel through the air, to carry our personnel, this is not likely to affect our operations, our food assistance, or our medical assistance. We are going to be able to continue this because of the way we travel.” Resolve strengthened Ferrell of Catholic Relief Services says the killings have only strengthened the resolve of NGOs working in South Sudan. “We are doubling down,” said Farrell. “No, I think that is the case for everyone. It is very, very sad, but everyone is more determined to help people who are in desperate need of assistance.” Save the Children provided a statement that “while humanitarians will continue to do all that is possible to alleviate suffering and save lives, the fact remains that unless the guns fall silent, the humanitarian situation will continue to deteriorate.” ‘Entirely unacceptable’ The U.N. humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, Eugene Owusu, said “At a time when humanitarian needs have reached unprecedented levels, it is entirely unacceptable that those who are trying to help are being attacked and killed.” South Sudan's Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission has asked monitors of the country's shaky 2015 ceasefire agreement to investigate the incident. The United Nations says since December 2013, at least 79 aid workers have been killed in South Sudan, including 12 this year. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Vox