August 18, 2010
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees // Policy Development and Evaluation Service
Abstract:
This review examines the response of UNHCR and other stakeholders to three distinct
but interrelated mixed migratory movements that are currently taking place to and
within southern Africa. First, a movement of people from the Horn of Africa to South
Africa, generally transiting through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and, to
some extent, Zimbabwe; second, a movement of people from the Great Lakes region
of Africa (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda) to South Africa, a
proportion of whom are also taking up residence in Malawi and Mozambique; and
third, the large-scale departure of Zimbabwean citizens from their country of origin,
the majority of them also moving to South Africa. The
second chapter of the report focuses on the irregular movement of people to and
through Malawi and Mozambique. The chapter examines the way in which the
journey is organized, the protection risks encountered by those engaged in this
movement, as well as the challenges that it has posed for UNHCR and the two states
concerned.
The report draws attention to the fact many of the refugees involved in this
movement, especially those from the Horn of Africa, have their own notion of
protection - one that does not correspond to UNHCR’s traditional approach to the
issue of asylum. Chapter 3 of the report analyzes the much larger movement of people from
Zimbabwe to South Africa, an influx that continues at a rapid rate, despite the recent
political and economic changes that have taken place in their country of origin and
despite the xenophobic violence that continues to threaten foreign nationals living in
South Africa. The fourth chapter of the report provides a more detailed account of the way that
UNHCR, the authorities, regional organizations, civil society and other actors have
responded to the large-scale mixed migration that South Africa has experienced in
recent years....
June 18, 2009
Small Arms Survey // Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva // Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:
In a region apparently awash with weapons and plagued with rising levels of
armed crime, Malawi is a welcome exception to these characteristics. In early
2007 there were only 9,320 legally registered firearms in Malawi excluding
those used by the security forces, compared to just under 87,000 in Zambia and nearly 4 million in South Africa. Though a country of an estimated 13 million people,
in the 5 years between 1996 and 2000 Malawi suffered just 2,161 reported
cases of armed robbery. For 2005
the figure was 316 and for 2004 it was 263, according to figures provided by the
Malawi Police Service (MPS). Even leaving aside South Africa, where there were
119,726 recorded cases of aggravated robbery in 2006, Malawi’s
armed crime statistics still compare favourably with the rest of the region. In
neighbouring Zambia, for example, where there is a population of only 10
million people, there were 3,168 reported cases of armed robbery in the 5 years
between 1998 and 2002....
January 7, 2009
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies // Centre for Military and Strategic Studies // University of Calgary
Abstract:
The problem of civilians becoming unintentional victims of landmine detonation in the world today is one that cannot be underestimated in terms of its importance to global and local humanitarian efforts. The human-life and financial costs associated with landmine detonation are paramount, and are being addressed by the Global community via the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping and its associated agency UNMAS (The United Nations Mine Action Service). In terms of human-life cost, the current statistic is that every 28 seconds a person steps on a landmine, resulting in 6500 – 20,000 new casualties per year. These tragic events are happening in at least 84 states, and every world region is affected. It is the intent of this literature review to enlighten the reader in two main topic areas. The first is that of mine action and our understanding of it, with specific regard to what is generally understood to be the most affected continent: Africa. A comprehensive description and discussion of the geo-political status of mine action in Southern Africa and its relation to development will be set out.
The second topic area that will be reviewed is that of predictive GIS modeling, as it applies to mine action. The intent is to put forth the scientific (i.e.: based on peer-reviewed publications) background information that justifies and supports an experiment that will be conducted. The goal, in general lay terms, will be to see whether it is possible to predict with a reasonable, usable, and repeatable amount of accuracy the delineating outlines of where minefields are located in a specific geographical study area. It is hoped that the effort with predictive GIS modeling will yield a technique that is valid for use across a variety of study areas. Having said this, the study area that is the concentration of this review is the region of Southern Africa and it must be acknowledged that the results, if positive, may not be transferrable to different Geo-political regions....
November 14, 2008
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
IPI is pleased to introduce a new series of working papers on regional capacities to respond to security
challenges in Africa. The broad range of United Nations, African Union, and subregional peacekeeping,
peacemaking, and peacebuilding initiatives in Africa underscore a new sense of multilayered partnership in the
search for the peaceful resolution of conflicts in Africa. As the total number of conflicts on the continent has
been significantly reduced in the past decade, there is widespread recognition of the opportunities for a more
stable and peaceful future for Africa. But there is also a profound awareness of the fragility of recent peace
agreements, whether in Kenya, Liberia, or Côte d’Ivoire. Furthermore, continued violence in the Sudan, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zimbabwe; the long absence of a viable central government in Somalia;
and continued tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea—to name only a few cases—reflect the legacy of
unresolved historic disputes and ongoing power struggles...The southern African region is now
generally defined in political terms as
those countries that are members of the
Southern African Development
Community (SADC) (the geographic
definition is usually somewhat more
limited). Currently there are fifteen
member states of the SADC: Angola,
Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Madagascar,
Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique,
Namibia, the Seychelles, South Africa,
Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and
Zimbabwe.
These countries are disparate in many
ways: they vary greatly in size, population,
and levels of economic growth, and
include some of the poorest countries in
the world, but also some of the richest in
Africa. Six of them are landlocked; two of
them are Indian Ocean islands. They
share a common history of colonization—variously
involving French, British, Belgian, and German
imperial powers—and this continues to impact
significantly on the nature of governance and
politics in the region. Many, but not all, of the
countries of the region experienced periods of
European settler colonialism, resulting in armed
liberation struggles for independence. Several of
them also endured apartheid or various forms of
racial segregation and oppression as a result of that
history of settler colonialism.
Conflict and war has marked the region considerably,
particularly conflicts over apartheid and
colonialism, which engulfed most of southern
Africa and led to millions of deaths. Angola and
Mozambique suffered further from post-independence
civil wars, fueled in part by South Africa and
Rhodesia. After a bloody civil war following the
collapse of Mobutu Sese-Seko’s authoritarian
regime in the DRC in the second half of the 1990s,
however, the region is, for the first time in forty
years, almost completely at peace, except for
residual conflicts in the east of the DRC.
Nevertheless, there remain profound threats to
human and state security, many of them fueled by
poverty, marginalization, and the weakness of
states....
October 23, 2008
Norwegian People's Aid
Abstract:
Humanitarian mine action refers to activities undertaken to reduce the effect caused by land-mines and other explosive remnants of war in terms of social, economic and environmental impact of mines. The objective is the reduction of risk to a level where people can live safely and where economic, social, and health development can occur without hindrance from land-mines. This report documents how Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) are working in humanitarian mine action. Case studies are presented include Bosnia Herzegovina, Cambodia and Croatia, Ethiopia and Iraq and Malawi.
The document recommends that the mine action community needs to develop, implement and standardise new globally accepted methods and approaches to de-mining. Full mine and battle area clearance is costly and time consuming; hence such activities should be a last option, only to be used when the presence of land-mines and/or explosive remnants of war has been confirmed by technical survey. The immediate objective of mine action programmes should be to release land suspected to be hazardous as cost efficiently as possible and with a quality that meets the requirements of international and national mine action standards. NPA believes that land can be released through three different actions:
* cancellation: the process in which an area is released based on information gathered and analysis only
* reduction: the process in which one or more mine clear- ance tools have been used to gather information about the presence/absence of mines
* clearance: "full clearance" according to International and National Standards for Mine Action....
Southern Africa 
