The EU has framed its criteria for engaging the Taliban government around five benchmarks. Having spent years outside their home communities, rebuilding their life back in Burundi is a challenge for returnees and the receiving communities. The Talibans practices are driven primarily by ideology and the groups perceived need to consolidate its grip on power. The EU continues to provide support to Burundian refugees in their host countries and returnees who voluntarily return home. They see the possibility of Europeans re-establishing diplomatic presences in Kabul as a stepping stone to formal recognition. After three months of no meetings, representatives from Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan met in August to discuss transport and communications but further fighting could stall progress once more. They seem inclined to blame the countrys economic woes on Western donors, whom they regard as inflexible and bearing grudges, even if it is clear that their own policies and actions, many of which are anathema to European values, are the chief factor obstructing the resumption of non-humanitarian aid. But they have set no timeline for when girls will be able to resume their studies, making vague excuses for the delay. Meanwhile, the countrys economic woes are deepening. Almost 300,000 Burundian refugees remain displaced in neighbouring countries, with most of them having fled Burundi after contested elections and violence in 2015. Per recent EU pledges, it will likely get more help with demining. Russia, the U.S. and France disagreed and convened the first meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers since the war under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on 24 September. Since then, however, Iran, which had a presidential transition in August that completed a conservative takeover of all centres of elected and unelected power, has moved slowly to resume negotiations. A failure to criticise increasing repression or impose costs for election fixing would send a dangerous signal, and increase the risk that other Latin American leaders resort to destabilising anti-democratic tactics in their own countries. The EU increased its planned humanitarian aid spending for 2021 from 57 million to 200 million, almost a fourfold increase but more money is needed.

At the same time, the EU, U.S. and OAS countries should draw up a roadmap for how Ortega can revitalise declining diplomatic relations, including eventual reintegration in the Inter-American system (should Nicaragua be suspended) and the lifting of sanctions. The negotiations yielded considerable progress toward Washington and Tehran resuming mutual compliance with the JCPOA, but they stalled in mid-June as Iran held an election and inaugurated a new president. These publications identify major crises and conflict situations where the European Union and its member states can generate stronger prospects for peace. National and regional media reported this statement as fact, undermining the publics understanding of the negotiations. Both the Facilitator, the late Julius Nyerere, and the chair of the Committee IV have visited the camps and supported their participation in the talks. The EUs internal dissonance has distorted perceptions of the EU position in Burundian circles and could complicate talks going forward.

Several smaller periodic outflows of refugees, in 1965, 1969, 1988 and 1991, augmented the 1972 caseload numbers. Despite their initially egregious mishandling of COVID-19, the ruling couple of President Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, managed to reestablish a firm grip on the country by late 2020. Moreover, in order to revoke the suspension of financial assistance under Article 96, member states in the EU Council will need to adopt a legal act that requires unanimity, which may take time, particularly in the event of enduring concerns about Burundis progress. At the same time, the EU could evaluate the feasibility of a more expansive development aid program. EU diplomacy with Baku and Yerevan can also help define what role, if any, the OSCE Minsk Group might have in future discussions, whether concerning borders, Nagorno-Karabakhs political status or humanitarian issues. Ortegas authoritarian moves risk stirring up the grievances at the heart of the countrys unresolved crisis. These should include a plan for the Burundian authorities to rein in the Imbonerakures abuses and hold to account those of its members responsible for grave human rights abuses. Already, these conditions plus stepped-up repression are having an effect: more than 16,000 Nicaraguans booked hearings to file asylum requests in Costa Rica between June and August, marking the start of a second wave of arrivals, according to a UN official. Where they diverge, however, the movement will put internal and domestic imperatives ahead of EU demands. The goal for the EU, its member states, Russia and the U.S. is to coax Baku and Yerevan to the negotiating table to discuss immediate post-war issues such as border demarcation and other measures to stabilise the situation on the ground, with a view to the potential launch of talks to normalise relations among the conflict parties. The ministry has thus far abstained from regulating citizens behaviour nationwide. After years of strained ties, the European Union (EU) and Burundi again are on speaking terms. Enjoying only roughly half the popular support he enjoyed before 2018 (surveys show his ratings are stable at around one third of the population) and having damaged, perhaps irreparably, relations with the private sector and the Catholic Church after the crackdown on mass protests, Ortega is operating in an increasingly hostile environment. Maximise humanitarian assistance. Any attempt by Ndayishimiye to roll back these practices is likely, however, to meet resistance from top generals in the CNDD-FDD, which started its life as a rebel outfit but has held power since 2005, when it transformed itself into a political party. Returnees need support to reintegrate into their new or original communities. The EU special representative for the South Caucasus is particularly well placed, and indeed mandated, to continue this work. Fleeing Burundian families make the next step of their journey, on their way to LakeTanganyika Stadium where they will get registered.

In coordination with the U.S., Canada and other regional governments, draw up a roadmap including clear conditions for lifting sanctions and restoring better working relations with Ortegas government. First, EU diplomats themselves appear to hold different views as to how hard they should push for reform. Around 92 million since 2015 to assist Burundian refugees and Burundians, European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, This site is managed by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), Follow the European Commission on social media, EU humanitarian initiative to support COVID-19 vaccination rollout in Africa, Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC). The Taliban takeover prompted the EU to suspend non-humanitarian aid altogether and re-evaluate its conditionality framework. In the event the UN Human Rights Council creates a new special rapporteur position to take the place of the Commission of Inquiry, which is likely to be disbanded, Brussels should provide the support needed to make it a meaningful oversight mechanism. Since April, with the U.S. wishing to rejoin the pact, the EU has coordinated six rounds of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington through the three European parties plus Russia and China (the other two JCPOA parties). The militia, which Ndayishimiye oversaw when he was CNDD-FDD secretary general, is known for shaking down, torturing, abducting, sexually abusing women and killing opposition members and ordinary citizens alike. Scepticism is all the more warranted given many powerful Taliban commanders opposition to girls education beyond the sixth grade. It's amazing how much can be achieved with just a small amount of money from people like you and a little help from Oxfam. This is often a precondition for receiving assistance, both for refugees and returnees. In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has already been concentrating power and chipping away at judicial independence; among other things, the Salvadoran Constitutional Court newly packed with the presidents political allies has overturned a constitutional prohibition on presidents running for immediate re-election at the end of their term.

The two sides failure to talk about borders or Nagorno-Karabakh has forced Russian, U.S. and European diplomats to engage in painstaking shuttle diplomacy, by telephone and in person, to make incremental progress on basic humanitarian issues like sharing information about the location of landmines and detainee exchanges. Even so, the government has proven unwilling to take the risk of confronting an electoral challenge, opting instead for the iron fist.

According to Human Rights Watch and the UN Commission of Inquiry, the Imbonerakure and intelligence services continue to violate human rights, mainly by targeting opposition members, young Tutsi and members of the armys old guard, also mostly Tutsi, whom the CNDD-FDD sees as security threats. The UN made a flash appeal for humanitarian aid that was the focus of a 13 September donors conference in Geneva, seeking $606 million to meet immediate needs. One is a better understanding of what Baku plans for both reconstruction and resettlement of the previously displaced in earlier phases of the conflict. Additional nutritional support is given to pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, children under 5 years of age, chronically ill people and hospital patients. A Perilous Free-for-all in the Eastern DR Congo? Nor does it define what authorities should actually do to curb abuses by the youth militia and intelligence services. Even some CNDD-FDD hardliners may thus be inclined to continue negotiation. The group has also curtailed womens ability to work outside the home. The refugees are now about 470 000 in Tanzania, which represent more than 7 % of the Burundi population. Brussels could, for example, put in place a new and upgraded blocking statute (a law that shields EU companies from U.S. sanctions by prohibiting compliance as a legal matter) linked to the anti-coercion instrument that the EU plans to establish as part of its new trade strategy. Work with Russia, France and the U.S. to keep possibilities open for the OSCE Minsk Groups return to a mediating role, and continue shuttle diplomacy to mitigate tensions and resolve immediate problems. CNDD: Centre for the Defence of Democracy, with its splinter group CNDD-FDD (Forces for the Defence of Democracy). Preventing such collapse will require provision of funding for some civil servants salaries, such as for health care providers. They should work through their few remaining diplomatic channels and with parties to which Managua might be receptive (including the Vatican and friendly regional governments such as Bolivia and Peru) to persuade Ortega that his best interests lie in meeting minimum electoral standards in order to restore working relations with foreign partners and financial institutions, and to warn that without improvements in these areas, they will respond robustly including with additional targeted sanctions to credible accounts of election rigging. The Rwandan refugees situation provoked a sharp debate within the international community criticised for providing a safe haven to the gnocidaires in those camps.Hide Footnote perpetrators of the genocide.

The impasse in negotiations is concerning, particularly as Irans advances in nuclear capability risk making the JCPOAs restoration ineffective as a non-proliferation arrangement within a matter of weeks or, at best, months. As for more concerning developments, tensions between Iran and Israel are running high on several fronts, with tit-for-tat attacks, including covert operations against Iranian nuclear facilities and maritime intrigue that could rapidly escalate. Such cooperation is the one thing that Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders have tentatively begun discussing since the 2020 war, participating in Russia-led talks on the subject. The EUs support for Armenia includes potential financing of a road cutting deeper through Armenias mountainous territory and bypassing the existing route crisscrossing the border with Azerbaijan that has proven problematic. The fate of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 deal placing limitations on Irans nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, looms large in the countrys relations with Europe. Meanwhile, most foreign governments engaged with Nicaragua became absorbed in their own pandemic-related woes. At the start of 2021, almost three years after security forces met mass protests with violence over 300 people, most of them demonstrators, died in the unrest Ortega appeared to have consolidated his hold on power, in spite of the pandemic, and reaffirmed his political supremacy over a weak and fragmented opposition. The regional Burundi refugee response plan is among the lowest funded globally. Benchmarks should also reflect the expectation that Burundi will cooperate with human rights monitoring mechanisms backed by Brussels. The EU has already answered a portion of a UN flash appeal for additional such aid.

This temporary deal might head off an escalatory spiral and buy time for a more comprehensive understanding.

The Taliban generally attribute occasional interference in humanitarian organisations work to lack of discipline among the rank and file, and the group claims to be taking steps to curb such behaviour. The Talibans leaders appear to believe that if they can get even a fraction of the aid the country previously received, then they would be able to run a functioning government. Even though mass protests are unlikely to resurface in the short term given the highly repressive climate, state violence and economic despair could rekindle the protest spirit, in the words of a Nicaraguan security expert. Moreover, past attempts to increase the reception capacity of other countries have not prevented large numbers of Afghans from attempting the risky journey to Europe. It has enjoyed political stability and peace since independence and also possesses a wealth of natural resources. Some refugees were killed, some were dispersed, others went home. Iranian officials indicate they plan to return to the table in the near future, but have not offered an exact timeframe. The Taliban have claimed that the exclusion of girls is temporary. It also extended the permissible pre-trial arrest period from 48 hours to 90 days. We are working hard with the Government of Tanzania and other aid agencies to meet basic needs, but more funds are urgently needed in order to purchase essential materials such as tents, water pipes, water storage tanks and medical supplies. With 8.1 million inhabitants in 2008, more than half the population is under 17 years old and life expectancy is only 51 years. Pending such talks, however, they must do what they can to help defuse what remains a dangerous situation.

Today, Bakus rejection of that process renders EU involvement crucial. They were, however, aware of the broad contours of EU demands, given that various regional and other states have been pushing similar agendas to varying degrees. Since 2017, more than 185,000 Burundians have returned to their country. Based on this beginning, it could support separate projects in Armenia and Azerbaijan, cross-border cooperation on non-political issues, or both. Maintain a clear, fixed negotiating position based on the precise benchmarks and monitoring mechanism being sought and avoid sending mixed messages to the Burundian authorities as regards EU expectations. At first, many observers assessed that the new legislation would be little more than a latent threat. Almost a year after a Russian-brokered ceasefire ended the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan and Armenia remain at loggerheads. But with Costa Ricas migration system overwhelmed since 2018 with a backlog of 89,000 unresolved asylum requests, Nicaraguans are increasingly looking to other destinations, above all the U.S. After three years in which Nicaraguas GDP contracted by more than 3 per cent, the World Bank predictedthe country to be the third worst economic performer in the Western Hemisphere in 2021, behind Venezuela and Haiti, though its recent update is more optimistic. Depending on the country of asylum, refugees receive life-saving in-kind and/or cash-based food assistance. While there is little if anything outside actors can do to change Ortegas immediate electoral strategy, looking away is not a good option, either. Through diplomatic engagement with the Taliban, keep making clear the benchmarks that the new government would need to meet in order to receive European development assistance. Armenia wants aid to flow both through its territory and Azerbaijans, while Azerbaijan insists on treating the territory as under its sovereignty and fully controlling access.

The EU, which drafted the resolution that would provide the special rapporteur with his or her mandate, should also allocate sufficient resources to finance the work of local non-governmental organisations on which previous reporting mechanisms have relied heavily for information. The milestones that they set forth should draw on the requests made by the EU upon adopting its sanctions framework in October 2019, namely: government compliance with the agreements struck with the Civic Alliance in March 2019, including respect for civil and political rights and release of political prisoners; access to Nicaragua for international human rights bodies; and resumption of talks with the opposition. In the event there are not enough votes for the special rapporteur position on 8 October, a fallback would be for the EU to strengthen its own capacity to monitor the authorities compliance with any agreement to which Burundis government commits. In addition to clean water we are providing hygiene education; essential to disease prevention. But while the two central protagonists in such an effort are the U.S. and Iran, whose respective sanctions policy and nuclear program are the core issues that must be addressed, the EU and its member states are not mere bystanders. Consistent with this framework, the EU and its member states should: Since the Taliban seized power, the overall level of violence in the country has dropped considerably. Prospects for a solution to the plight of the refugees are closely linked to a political settlement in Burundi and now the resolution of the 1998-99 DRC war. Following those visits, a delegation from the camps attended the June session of the talks. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether they will be able to sway Azerbaijan to rejoin talks. One area in which the Taliban have not come anywhere close to meeting European conditions is the protection of rights and fundamental freedoms for women and girls. While a large number of refugees subsequently returned, a steady outflow of refugees predominantly from the south continues up to the present day. Lastly, the EU member states should prepare for large numbers of Afghans potentially fleeing the country.

Although humanitarian assistance may be able to stave off disaster for the Afghan population, it will not replace the provision of public services. There are also things the EU can do right away, even as Baku and Yerevan remain unwilling to talk about most items. There was another mass exodus of over 400,000 Hutu refugees following the October 1993 crisis.

Afghanistans dire straits mean that donors, including the European Union (EU), have to grapple with the dilemma of how to support a population in growing distress while adhering to principles including protection of fundamental freedoms, equal rights for women and the rule of law that conflict with emerging Taliban government policies and practices. Because further migration seems inevitable, donors should also scale up financial and technical assistance such as legal counselling to migrants and humanitarian aid to neighbouring countries shelters and civil society organisations, as well as to multilateral agencies that support migration authorities and Nicaraguan migrants and refugees. Explore the extension of development assistance to uncontested border areas, beginning with a comprehensive needs assessment. In late July, clashes culminated in a six-hour battle, with the sides using small arms, machine guns and grenades. But the UN Human Rights Council will likely not renew its mandate, and it remains to be seen whether there is sufficient Council support for replacing it with another oversight mechanism. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Particular attention is needed to ensure that the health care system, already in a precarious state, does not completely fall apart. Although the Biden administration and the Iranian government agree in principle on the need to revive the accord, progress has been halting. More fighting seems likely if Azerbaijan and Armenia do not demarcate a border that takes into account changes in territorial control following the 2020 hostilities. Refugees themselves are also exposed to a situation of high tension and insecurity at the border between the two countries and as a result of the cross-lake military activity due to the Congo war. Many will probably head for Pakistan and Iran, the countries next door, where millions of refugees already reside. In 2016, due to concerns about Burundian government abuses, the EU invoked the suspension provisions in Article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement its partnership pact with various African, Caribbean and Pacific states as the basis for cutting that support amid the violent turmoil following former President Pierre Nkurunzizas contested 2015 election bid. The Taliban have so far let many media outlets continue broadcasting. This matter will be resolved on 7 or 8 October when the Council votes on its Burundi resolution, which includes an EU proposal to create a new mandate for a special rapporteur who could take over some of the Commission of Inquirys monitoring functions. First, the EU should propose clear benchmarks on human rights that Burundi needs to meet if it is to receive renewed budgetary support from Brussels. Brussels can take heart that several rounds of negotiations with Gitega, Burundis official seat of government, have yielded a general Burundian commitment to embark on human rights and good governance reforms. The few opposition leaders who remain in Nicaragua have fallen silent and seem unable to agree on whether to boycott the polls or to ask supporters to spoil their ballots. At the same time, numerous journalists report being harassed, arrested and even severely beaten by the Taliban. It is good news that Burundi and the EU are back in regular contact. With cases of cholera already confirmed in both Kagunga and Nyargusu, clean water, medical care and proper sanitation are urgently needed. For over 25 years, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs (Russia, the U.S. and France) have mediated between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Over 70,000 have already arrived at Kagunga beach, on the border between Burundi and Tanzania, from where they are being bussed to Nyarugusu camp.