With more outside communications, traditional elders and leaders are losing their stabilising influence. Further, as PNG modernises, traditional cultural and tribal structures are rapidly changing. Few opportunities and limited employment in the region push many youths towards violence. In the ICRC's experience, the Highlands have an even higher proportion of youth. While tribal fighting is not new to PNG or the Highlands, several factors have made the situation worse in the last 20 years.įor one, more than 50 percent of the nation's population is under the age of 24. On top of immediate needs, the impact of violence remains even after the fighting has stopped - fleeing villagers are often displaced for months or even years. Regrettably, at times sexual violence occurs during these fights. The Highlands' limited access to healthcare only adds to the anguish.
Many are wounded or killed during these intense battles. Unfortunately, the civilians who do not participate in the fights are the ones who bear the brunt of the violence. By taking over the enemy's land, the occupying party is better positioned during future peace and compensation negotiations. Fights generally take place in or around remote villages without access to medical assistance or law enforcement. The aim is simple – to destroy the enemy, mentally and physically.
While this number is tiny in comparison to other places where the ICRC operates like Syria and Yemen, these fights have considerable effects on Highland communities. In 2021, approximately 30,000 people were displaced by communal violence in the areas in which the ICRC operates. Since 2012, the ICRC has responded to tribal violence in PNG's Enga, Hela and Southern Highlands provinces. While only four kilometres in the Torres Strait/Zenadth Kes separate Australia and PNG, an understanding of the struggles faced by our next-door neighbours is distant for most Australians. This is the usual response I get when I tell people about the work the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) undertakes in PNG alongside the PNG Red Cross. One of the secretaries was a Kikuyu and another one was Taita and a Luhya and this mad mzee very happy ,"Lee added.Content warning: This article mentions sexual violence. "Mzee wanted regional balance, he wanted people from everywhere. Lee admitted that employees who had the mandate to recruit would at times get people from their own villages but it wasn't Moi's policy. However, he noted that Moi may not have known about the messengers because as head of state he might have been too executive. In the P ress Secretariat my deputy was a swahili from the Coast region, had a Chief Information Officer who was a Luhya from Western, several others including cameramen, producers who were Meru and photographers were from Mt Kenya region," Lee added. "I was the director throughout and I'm an Embu.
#Tribal wars log in tv
Speaking on Citizen TV on Tuesday, he recounted how he served with various staff who were from different regions unlike people's assumptions. That is a misconception because Moi was not a tribalist," Lee added. "When you look state house and they see any black person, especially in the presidential press, you were labelled a Kalenjin. He claimed that people had a tendency to think that all staff especially at State House were from the Kalenjin tribe. Former president Daniel Arap Moi's press secretary Lee Njiru has dismissed claims that his boss was tribal.
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