April 28, 2013 (KHARTOUM) - Eritrean women fleeing their country’s oppressive regime are increasingly finding themselves the repeat victim of abuse, exploitation and violence once outside their homeland, a new report by a women’s rights group has found.

This document provides an overview of developments in the Mediterranean Basin and other regions of interest from 05—18 February 2013, with hyperlinks to source material highlighted and underlined in the text. For more information on the topics below or other issues pertaining to the region, please contact the members of the Med Basin Team, or visit our website at www.cimicweb.org

Inside this Issue

In Focus 1
North Africa 2
Northeast Africa 4
Horn of Africa 5

The report “Louder than words: An agenda for action to end state use of child soldiers” is published to mark the tenth anniversary year of the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. It examines the record of states in protecting children from use in hostilities by their own forces and by state-allied armed groups. It finds that, while governments’ commitment to ending child soldier use is high, the gap between commitment and practice remains wide.

At least 17 people were arrested yesterday in Tel Aviv for acts of violence against African immigrants during a demonstration against the presence of asylum seekers and illegal migrants in Israel, from various African nations.

According to the Haaretz newspaper, Some 1,000 protesters rallied in Tel Aviv’s Hatikva neighborhood, where numerous people from Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan live.

By Jenny Vaughan (AFP)

SHIRE, Ethiopia — For 12-year-old Eritrean refugee Ablel, the decision to flee his country was relatively simple.

"I didn't want to be a soldier," he says with a shy smile, revealing a mouthful of crooked teeth.

Getting out, however, was a harder challenge. He is one of thousands of youngsters risking death to sneak across Eritrea's heavily militarized border every month into neighbouring Sudan and Ethiopia.

KHARTOUM/KASSALA, 1 July 2011 (IRIN) - The first official Eritrean refugees arrived in Sudan in 1968; today, an estimated 1,600 cross the border every month to seek refuge in Shagarab, a large camp in the east of Sudan.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that northern Sudan has more than 100,000 Eritrean refugees but in 43 years, the profile of the refugees has changed.

This week saw serious disruption at the Choucha camp near the Tunisia - Libya border where around 4,000 migrant workers and refugees from the conflict in Libya are accommodated pending humanitarian evacuation to their countries of origin or other solutions.

Four Eritreans died in a fire in the Eritrean block of the camp on Sunday night as residents were sleeping. Twenty tents were lost, and the cause is being investigated. At the time, the Choucha camp was hosting some 4,500 people - mostly Somalis, Eritreans, and Sudanese.

Eritrea is a one-party state that became independent in 1993 after its citizens voted for independence from Ethiopia, following 30 years of civil war. The People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), previously known as the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, is the sole political party and has controlled the country since 1991. The country's president, Isaias Afwerki, who heads the PFDJ and the armed forces, dominated the country. The government continued to postpone general elections which have not taken place since independence in 1993.

General Situation during March 2011

Forecast until mid-May 2011