Posted: 31 January, 2025 Filed under: Michael Aboneka | Tags: abduction, adequate nutrition, Boko Haram, conflict, Convention on the Rights of the Children, DRC, education, Ethiopia, forced displacement, gross human rights violations, Israel-Hezbollah, livelihood, property, right to food, sexual violence, Somalia, Starvation, starvation tactic, Sudan, violence against children
Author: Michael Aboneka
Advocate of the Courts of Judicature of Uganda
There is a new shift from the conventional war of state-to-state confrontations to new forms of conflict with no clear boundaries between military and civilian spheres.[1] According to the Alert 2024 Report, 2023 recorded 36 armed conflicts the highest ever since 2014 with new cases in Ethiopia, Somalia, DRC, Sudan and Israel-Hezbollah.[2] This article explores how these new forms of conflicts have increased starvation, forced displacement and violence against children, in the face of increasing rise of non-state actors involved in conflict.
Increasing rise of Non-State Actors
The new conflicts make it difficult to distinguish between state and non-state actors thereby making accountability for human rights violations difficult as most operate in disregard of international law. There are 120 armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo,[3] and several rebel groups in Sudan[4] and CAR. In Sudan, since 2023, there have been 5,550 events of political violence and more than 15,550 reported fatalities.[5] The UN Human Rights Council has condemned these violations in Sudan[6] and the CAR[7] and urged states to take action, which is not a simple task as the insurgencies continue to happen because of the fluidity of the perpetrators and blurred mechanisms of accountability.
Starvation
The use of starvation and deprivation of food is now common. Israel has been accused of using starvation as a weapon with 1.1 Million people in Gaza facing famine due to the inaccessibility of food and aid supplies,[8] due to the blocking of these necessities by the Israeli military. Similarly, the UN has condemned insurgents in Sudan for using starvation by obstructing aid delivery against 25.6 million civilians the highest in modern history.[9] The starvation tactic deprives people of the right to food with a dire impact on the right to life and therefore needs serious attention and action from all actors.
Forced displacements
The situation is worsening as the number of people displaced due to conflicts, and human rights violations is approaching 120 Million.[10] As of August 2024, there were 6.74 Million Ukrainians displaced externally and 3.7 internally which is the largest displacement crisis since World War II.[11] 3.3 million people have been internally displaced in Myanmar,[12] 8.4 million in Sudan,[13] and 1.3 Million in CAR [14] . This is a crisis as many people have lost their homes, property, livelihood, dignity and only surviving on aid and yet the funds are dwindling. For example, Sudan needs $1.44 billion for humanitarian assistance and has only received 50.8% of the funding.[15]
Violence against children
In 2020, more than 19,000 children were recruited, killed, maimed and suffered sexual violence and abduction.[16] In Yemen, 10,000 children have been killed or maimed since 2015[17] and every 4 minutes, somewhere in the world, a child is killed by an act of violence.[18] As of January 13 2025, more than 17,492 children have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military[19][20][21] In June 2024, Russia abducted about 20,000 children from Ukraine in the name of protecting them from the war zone yet they were taken without the authority of their parents or guardians.[22] Boko Haram in Nigeria has abducted over 1,700 children since 2014 of which many were forced to marry their abductors.[23] Due to conflict, children are not able to receive vital services such as vaccination,[24] education, adequate nutrition and being cared for by their parents in violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Children.[25]
Conclusion
The loss of lives and the gross human rights violations from the fluid nature of conflicts is alarming and there is an urgent need to address the same. The international community, the United Nations, and regional organisations must adapt their strategies to respond to the changing nature of the conflicts. This should include revising legal frameworks to provide robust accountability mechanisms, especially against non-state actors and strict enforcement of international law.
[1] https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/irrc-872-2.pdf (accessed 8 November 2024)
[2] https://escolapau.uab.cat/en/publications/alert-report-on-conflicts-human-rights-and-peacebuilding-2/ (accessed 8 November 2024)
[3] https://www.globalr2p.org/countries/democratic-republic-of-the-congo/ (accessed 8 November 2024)
[4] https://acleddata.com/2024/04/14/sudan-situation-update-april-2024-one-year-of-war-in-sudan/ (accessed 8 November 2024)
[5] As Above.
[6]A/HRC/RES/57/2 para 1,6 accessed at https://www.globalr2p.org/resources/resolution-57-2-sudan-a-hrc-res-57-2/ (accessed 8 November 2024)
[7] A/HRC/RES/57/35 para 2 accessed at https://www.globalr2p.org/resources/resolution-57-35-central-african-republic-a-hrc-res-57-35/ (accessed 8 November 2024)
[8] https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/alerts-archive/issue-97/en/ (accessed 8 November 2024)
[9] (n 7) para 2 and further reported at https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/10/sudan-faces-one-worst-famines-decades-warn-un-experts
[10] https://dtm.iom.int/ukraine#producttabs (accessed 13 January 2025
[11] https://unric.org/en/ukraine-over-6-million-refugees-spread-across-europe/#:~:text=The%20war%20has%20caused%20the,community%20to%206.74%20million%20people. (accessed 8 November 2024)
[12] https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/myanmar-conflict-and-population-displacement-un-rchc-myanmar-dg-echo-echo-daily-flash-06-may-2024 (accessed 8 November 2024)
[13] https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/10/sudan-faces-one-worst-famines-decades-warn-un-experts (accessed 8 November 2024)
[14] https://reporting.unhcr.org/operational/situations/central-african-republic-situation#:~:text=By%20the%20end%20of%202023,about%2030%2C000%20newly%20arrived%20Chadians. (accessed 8 November 2024)
[15] (n 9).
[16] https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Children-Armed-Conflict_Report-Summary-2020.pdf (accessed 8 November 2024)
[17] ‘Shameful milestone’ in Yemen as 10,000 children killed or maimed since fighting began (accessed 8 November 2024)
[18] https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/fast-facts-violence-against-children-widespread-affecting-millions-globally (accessed 8 November 2024)
[19] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker (accessed 13 January 2025)
[20] https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/more-women-and-children-killed-gaza-israeli-military-any-other-recent-conflict (accessed 8 November 2024)
[21]https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/average-least-16-children-killed-or-injured-ukraine-every-week-escalation-war-nears (accessed 13 January 2025)
[22] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-children-abducted-by-russia-left-with-psychological-scars-campaigners-2024-06-15/ (accessed 8 November 2024)
[23] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/04/nigeria-decade-after-boko-haram-attack-on-chibok-82-girls-still-in-captivity/ (accessed 8 November 2024)
[24] https://www.unicef.org/media/108161/file/SOWC-2023-full-report-English.pdf (accessed 8 November 2024)
[25] Articles 7,24,28,29.
About the Author:
Michael Aboneka is an Advocate of the Courts of Judicature of Uganda and Partner at Thomas & Michael Advocates. He is the Team Leader of Walezi Wa Katiba Foundation, and a constitution building, civic space and governance expert. Michael is a member of Uganda Law Society, East Africa Law Society, Pan African Lawyer’s Union, International Society of Public Law & World Youth Alliance. He hold an LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa from the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
