Briefing Notes Group 62 – Information Centre for Asylum and Migration 9 November 2020 Afghanistan Fighting, attacks, civilian victims The fighting that began on 11 November 2020 in the southern province of Helmand is continuing, particularly in the districts of Nawa-e-Barakziay, Nad-e-Ali, Lashkargah and Nahr-e-Saraj. Some 13,970 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been registered since then (as of 5 November 2020); partner organisations of the United Nations are trying to provide relief. Several hospitals have been closed, others have reached their capacity limits. Heavy fighting has also been reported from parts of Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces. In Kandahar, 16,000 new internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been counted (as of 5 November 2020), some of them coming from Helmand and Uruzgan provinces. Several aid organisations have had to cease their activities in parts of these provinces. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) Project reports a total of 783 security incidents in 31 provinces in October 2020, which is an increase of 209 compared to September. NATO reports that the number of civilians killed or injured increased in every quarter of the year. In the third quarter, 2,561 civilians were killed or injured, which is an increase of 43 percent compared to the previous quarter. In an attack by ISKP fighters on the premises of Kabul University in the morning of 2 November 2020 (see BN of 2 November 2020), clashes with security forces lasted for hours, leaving at least 22 people dead and over 40 injured. Most of the victims were students. The ISKP has now stated to have targeted the new judges and prosecutors of the infidel government. Government representatives, however, also suspect the Taliban to be behind the attack, which those have denied. Only a week earlier, the ISKP attacked a school in a Shiite district of Kabul, killing at least 24 pupils (see BN of 26 October 2020). On 7 November 2020, three civilians (a former Afghan TV presenter and two Central Bank employees) died when an explosive device attached to their car detonated in Kabul (Makrorayan-e-Char). On 8 November 2020, two police officers and a defence ministry employee were killed in two attacks in Kabul. In Ghazni (Naw Abad) a house was hit by several mortar shells, killing at least seven civilians and injuring seven others (including nine children and four women). On the evening of 9 November 2020, a car bomb was detonated in Maiwand (Kandahar province) near the police headquarters, injuring at least 30 people, including ten civilians. In the morning of 9 November 2020 at least two civilians were injured in the explosion of a bomb placed on a street in Kabul’s Pul-e-Charkhi district. 1 Armenia / Azerbaijan Battle for Nagorno-Karabakh - Azerbaijan declares important victory After six weeks of fierce fighting, the war over Nagorno-Karabakh seems to be at a crucial point. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has declared the capture of the strategically important city of Shushi (Azerbaijani Shusha) by his troops. The city is located on the access road to the Nagorno-Karabakh region, near the capital Stepanakert. From there, the Azerbaijani troops would be able to control most of Nagorno-Karabakh. In recent days, fighting concentrated on the region around Shushi, after Azerbaijani troops had advanced far into Nagorno-Karabakh from the south. It is unclear whether Shushi is already completely in Azerbaijani hands. Reports from the Armenian side spoke of heavy fighting around and in the city. The capital Stepanakert has been under rocket fire for weeks. About 90,000 people out of a total population of about 150,000 are said to have fled the region to Armenia in the meantime. Due to the disruption of gas, electricity and water supplies the humanitarian situation is tense. Apparently, evacuation of the remaining inhabitants of Stepanakert began on 7 November, while it is still possible to reach Armenia by another road. Tense situation in Armenia The Armenian government, civil society organisations and private individuals are providing shelter and food, hygiene products, medicines and clothing to the refugees. So far, aid has also reached Armenia from European countries such as France and from diaspora Armenians living in the USA. The situation in Armenia, which has a population of around three million, is tense due to the corona pandemic and the difficult economic situation. The majority of the population still seems to support Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and radical opposition politicians have so far met with little response to their calls for the government to resign. Belarus Continuing protests against President Lukashenko Last weekend, protest rallies against President Alexander Lukashenko were again held in several cities. On 8 November 2020, a total of 1,024 people were arrested, the human rights organisation Vyasna reports. Most of the arrests took place in Minsk, where several thousand people participated in a protest march. In its report of 5 November 2020, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) notes widespread ballot rigging in the presidential election, which had ended on 9 August. The organisation recommends a repeat of the election, which Lukashenko officially won with 80.1 percent of the votes. The OSCE report notes serious human rights violations before and after the election, including widespread arrests of peaceful protesters, excessive police violence and systematic torture. Cameroon New attacks on schools On 3 November 2020, armed attackers allegedly stormed a school and kidnapped eleven teachers in the town of Kumbo in the Anglophone North-West region. Apparently, no children were abducted. The background to the crime was unclear. Since 2017, however, riots have been raging in the Anglophone northwest and southwest regions, with violent clashes between separatists and security forces. Schools have also repeatedly been targeted by attacks. On 5 November 2020 a representative of the school in Kumbo informed that the eleven abducted teachers were released. On 4 November 2020 another attack on a school was reported. Apparently, armed militants attacked Kulu Memorial College in the town of Limbe in the Anglophone south-west region. According to the United Nations (UN), five attacks on schools in the two Anglophone regions occurred in the last two weeks. It was only at the beginning of October 2020 that several schools in the two Anglophone regions reopened after closure for over four years. 2 China Hong Kong: Hotline for suspected breaches of security law On 5 November 2020, the police have set up a hotline to report suspected violations of the security law in Hong Kong. It is possible to send text messages and audio, photo and video files by email, SMS or via the short message service WeChat. Xinjiang: USA no longer classifies ETIM as a terrorist organisation With an instruction published on 5 November 2020, the US government removed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) from its list of terrorist organisations. A representative of the U.S. Department of State said that for more than ten years there has been no credible evidence that the group still exists. China, on the other hand, considers the organisation as a major culprit for terrorist activities in Xinjiang and abroad, justifying measures against the Muslim minority in Xinjiang, inter alia, by the need to fight ETIM and other terrorist organisations. Independent experts, however, question the importance of the ETIM. Colombia Better protection for threatened ex-guerrilla fighters The Colombian government has agreed to increase the security of former FARC guerrilla fighters and to speed up their reintegration into society. A spokesperson for the former rebels informed that this was the result of a meeting with Colombia's President Iván Duque on 6 November 2020. Now, meetings are planned with representatives of the interior ministry and other authorities. In the days before, hundreds of ex-FARC guerrillas had marched for several days to the capital Bogotá, drawing attention to continuing violence and lack of protection. On their way, the participants apologized for earlier acts in several places. Media report that more than 235 ex-rebels have been killed since 2016. The peace agreement reached between the FARC and the Colombian government in November 2016 explicitly provides for the protection of demobilised fighters by the government in exchange for the surrender of weapons. Côte d'Ivoire Ouattara wins presidential election President Alassane Ouattara won the presidential election of 31 October 2020 by an overwhelming majority. The 78-year-old secured 94.27 percent of the votes, the electoral commission stated on 3 November 2020. The three other remaining candidates follow by a wide margin: Kouadio Konan Bertin and former President Henri Konan Bédié with about two percent each and former Prime Minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan with about one percent of the votes. It should be noted that the latter two had explicitly called on their supporters to boycott the controversial presidential election. The result has yet to be confirmed by the constitutional council of Côte d'Ivoire. According to the Electoral Commission, the turnout was 53.90 percent, but opposition representatives claim that in fact far fewer Ivoirians went to the polls. Media report that political opponents of Ouattara were taken into police custody in the days following the election, including the presidential candidate Pascal Affi N'Guessan on 6 November 2020. Large parts of the opposition say that Ouattara's candidacy was unconstitutional, as he has already completed the two five-year terms as president permitted by the Ivorian constitution (he had been elected for the first time in 2010). On 14 September 2020, the constitutional court confirmed Ouattara's argumentation that the counting of terms of office started all over again when a new constitution was adopted in 2016.