Effective measures to combat the causes of flight! Crimes in Ethiopia and Sudan must be persecuted!

On Wednesday, a few days before Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Africa, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) organized a human rights action at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, as a means to express criticism of the refugee policy of Germany and the EU. Together with dozens of Oromo, Amhara, other refugees from Ethiopia and Darfuris from western Sudan, the STP protested against the complaisance towards African – presenting banners, a symbolic wall, a dinghy, and a rescue ring wrapped with barbed wire.

"The causes of flight cannot be resolved in cooperation with tyrants who oppress their own people or lead a war against them – thus forcing them to flee," explained Ulrich Delius, the STP’s Africa expert. "Chancellor Merkel must find clear words concerning the dramatic human rights situation in Ethiopia. As long as tens of thousands of people from the country at the Horn of Africa are on the run, cooperating with Ethiopia concerning questions of migration would not only morally questionable, but also a pure waste of money. The only possibility to combat the causes of flight in the long run would be to show commitment against oppression and expulsion," said Delius. In Ethiopia, hundreds of Oromo were killed in a bloody crackdown on protests last weekend. During her visit to Africa, Chancellor Merkel will also visit Ethiopia.

"It is unbelievable that European politicians are simply watching how – on behalf of the EU – a gang of rapists and murderers are kidnapping refugees in Sudan to keep them from fleeing to Europe," Delius criticized. By order of Sudan’s government, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – who are notorious for their crimes in the civil war areas – are involved in securing the borders.

The EU has promised Sudan more than 150 million Euros for border protection and refugee projects. “The arsonists must not be employed as firefighters. The Sudanese security forces and their allied militias are responsible for the flight of about 200,000 people from Darfur and the Nuba Mountains since January 2016. In 2005, Germany and the EU planned to prosecute Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al Bashir for crimes of genocide in Darfur. Now, they are partners,” Delius said. "In view of so much ignorance, and due to the fact that there are no effective measures to combat the causes of flight, the number of refugees from Africa will continue to rise."