In an effort to clear up his name, the Lockerbie bomber, Libya's Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, claims that a key witness in his conviction was paid up to two million dollars in a deal approved by the US.

The Libyan published new documents in his website on Friday that showed the US Department of Justice was also involved.

Megrahi insists on saying that he was not guilty in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.

Megrahi abandoned an appeal against his conviction for the bombing after Scotland freed him last month on compassionate grounds as he is terminally ill with prostate cancer.

Megrahi was convicted in January 2001 at an extraordinary Scottish court convened in the Netherlands. He mounted an unsuccessful appeal in 2002. In 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) sent his case for a subsequent appeal.

His lawyers said the documents released on the website were not produced at the trial but would have been used in an appeal, AFP reported.

According to the documents, the US Department of Justice was asked to pay two million dollars to Tony Gauci, the Maltese shopkeeper who sold clothing found to have been in the suitcase that contained the bomb.

US authorities were also asked to pay Gauci's brother, Paul, one million dollars for his role in identifying the clothing, although he did not give evidence at the trial.

The previously secret payments were uncovered by the SCCRC, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice.

The commission found the information about the request for payments in the private diaries of detectives in the case, but not in their official notebooks.


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03 Oct 2009

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir vows to hold a free election after the National Congress Party nominated him for the 2010 presidential elections.

The party's general conference "has decided to support the nomination of Omar Hassan al-Bashir as candidate for the presidential elections," the closing communiqué of the conference said on Saturday.

Bashir told the closing session of the conference that he was "committed to free and fair elections," Reuters reported.

Bashir's NCP party is the first major political party to officially nominate a candidate for president.

Earlier, over 20 Sudanese parties, along with the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), threatened to boycott the vote if the NCP did not push through promised reforms in two months.

These include legislation to ensure the independence of the media and reform the powerful national security forces.

The multi-party elections set for April 2010 will be the first in Sudan in 24 years.

The NCP decision comes after the Hague-based International Criminal Court last year issued an arrest warrant for Bashir on charges of war crimes against humanity in Darfur.

The United Nations says some 300,000 people have died in Darfur, with more than 2 million driven from their homes. Khartoum rejects that description and puts the death toll at 10,000.

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A Hizbul Islam gunman is seen behind a heavy machine gun as he heads for Somalia's southern port of Kismayo on October 1.

03 Oct 2009
A senior Hizbul Islam member has been killed by unknown gunmen in the town of Hiiran, making Hizbul Islam fighters launch a house-to-house search for the killers.

At least six armed men gunned down Sheikh Aden Abdi, a top Hizbul Islam commander in the town of Hiiran on Friday, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The wife of and children of the slain fighter, who witnessed the crime said the gunmen came inside the house disguised as Hizbul Islam members. They said they had thought that the gunmen were his guards.

Meanwhile, Hizbul Islam has vowed retaliatory action against al-Shabaab fighters if the latter do not refrain from "killing Hizbul Islam commanders and do not vacate the town of Kismayo".

Hizbul Islam has given al-Shabaab a seven-day deadline to pull out of Kismayo.

According to the UN refugee agency, the number of civilian casualties is rising because of the latest upsurge in fighting in the troubled South Central region of Somalia. The UNHCR says the renewed fighting is sparking a new wave of displacement.

According to local humanitarian organizations in Somalia, in September alone, 145 people were killed and another 285 injured during heavy clashes in Kismayo, Beled Weyne and the capital, Mogadishu.

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03 Oct 2009

Somali gunmen have released three aid workers who were captured in a cross-border raid in July in northern Kenya, a report says.

"They have just been released and taken to Nairobi," Sheikh Abdirisak, an official with Hizbul Islam, told Reuters Saturday.

He said the group came to Luq in southwestern Somalia several days ago and asked to use the airstrip. "The administration accepted their proposal and worked the security of the deal," he said.

It was not clear if a ransom had been paid for the release of the aid workers, taken from Kenya's remote Mandera province that borders Somalia and Ethiopia.

A witness confirmed the report. "I have seen with my own eyes those three aid workers being put on a plane heading to Kenya this morning," said Mohamed Ahmed, a member of a militia loyal to Hizbul Islam in Luq.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991 and 3.8 million people are in dire need of humanitarian food aid for survival.

Kidnappings for ransom have risen in recent years, with journalists and aid workers often targeted.

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02 Oct 2009

Clashes between rival factions have resulted in the death of over 145 people and the injury of 280 more in various parts of war-torn Somalia last month, the UN reported.

The deaths have occurred mainly in Kismayo and Mogadishu in September alone, said UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic, a Press TV correspondent reported late on Friday.

Mahecic said civilians are bearing the brunt of the deadly civil conflict mostly in the south central region of the country, resulting in massive displacement of civilians in the last two months.

But the rate of displacement within Somalia has diminished over the last two months when compared to the months of May and June 2009, the spokesman said, and added that the 17,000 figure is still high for September alone, including 11,000 from the capital.

Rebel forces comprising of al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam launched a major offensive on May 7 against the embattled UN-backed transition government, which controls little more than a few blocks of Mogadishu.

However the two rebel groups have also been engaged in deadly infighting in recent days over the control of the southern port city of Kismayo, where more than 30 people have been reportedly killed.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991 and, almost half of its population, 3.8 million people, is in dire need of humanitarian food aid for survival.

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02 Oct 2009

After a month of calm, Somali pirates hijack a Spanish fishing vessel with 36 crew members in the Indian Ocean, the EU anti-piracy mission says.

During early hours of Friday, the 35-meter Spanish tuna fishing vessel, Alakrana, was hijacked some 360 nautical miles off the east coast of Somalia, European Union's Operation Atalanta said in a statement on Friday.

A Press TV correspondent quoted the statement as saying that the pirates are heading the Alakrana towards Somali waters.

Andrew Mwangura, the East Africa Coordinator of Seafarers Assistance Program, who monitors maritime activities in the region also confirmed the hijacking, saying the crew consists of 16 Spaniards, eight Indonesians, four Ghanaians, three Senegalese, two from the Ivory Coast, two from Madagascar and one from the Seychelles.

Piracy along the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, is common place.

Dozens of multinational warships are currently patrolling the waters under a UN mandate to deter pirate attacks but the sea gangs sometimes carry out attacks right under the watchful eyes of international fleets.


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The ASK camp in April 2008: After days of stalling, hundreds of people IDPs have begun leaving the camp after receiving cash handouts from the government (file photo)

NAIROBI, 2 October 2009 (IRIN) - After days of stalling, hundreds of people displaced by Kenya's post-election violence in early 2008 have begun leaving a camp in the western town of Eldoret after receiving cash handouts from the government.

Most of the estimated 2,700 internally displaced persons (IDPs) had, between 28 September and 1 October, declined to accept KSh35,000 [US$460] from the government to help them resettle. President Mwai Kibaki recently directed administrative officials and those in the Ministry of State for Special Programmes to ensure IDPs in camps were resettled within two weeks.

The IDPs, who have been living in the camp at the Eldoret showground of the Agricultural Society of Kenya (ASK), are among the last of hundreds of thousands of people displaced when violence erupted across the country following disputed presidential elections.

"At first, those who feared to return to their homes declined to receive the money being given out by the government. But this has now changed, a lot of people have agreed to dismantle their tents, get the money and hope that the government will consider them when the time comes to get land," Ndung'u Wanjohi, chairman of the camp, told IRIN on 2 October.

The government provided trucks to move those who dismantled their tents and took the money.

Wanjohi said those who had declined the cash were mostly former tenants in informal settlements in Eldoret town and those who lived in rural areas of Uasin Gishu district.

"Some of these people feel that they are not welcome in the areas they lived in before the violence; many others were tenants in slum areas like Langas and Maili Nne. They do not have the money to rent new premises so they were hoping the directive by Kibaki that land should be found for IDPs would apply to them," he said. "We hope such people will actually get land or they will be helped to rebuild their lives somehow."

Wanjohi said he expected the move out of the camp to be completed by 7 October - "that is when we will have a meeting with government officials to discuss the issues of those who might have been left out of the lists of those getting the money from the government".

Left off the list

However, Tabitha Wambui, 35, said she was among a group of IDPs who have been left off the government's lists because she was away from the camp when officials counted camp members.

"What happens to me and my four children now? I was in hospital caring for my sick child when the counting was done, how will I survive when the camp is closed yet I am not getting the money?"

Another IDP, Grace Wairimu, 60, said the government should give special consideration to women-headed households who were left out of the government lists because they were not in the camp during the headcount.

"For instance, I came to this camp in January 2008 with my five children; two of my daughters have their own children but we all ended up in one tent because they are unmarried. Can the government consider treating my daughters as heads of families in their own right and give each of them the KSh35,000; after all, we were all affected by the violence?" Wairimu asked.

She said she was taking care of several grandchildren as her daughters undertook petty trade in Eldoret town. "I missed out on being counted because I had taken one of the children to hospital."

Wanjohi estimated that more than 200 families had, since 30 September, received the cash handout from the government and had left the camp, leaving at least 300 families.

The district commissioner for Wareng, Alex Ngoiyo, said he expected the camp to close in a week's time. "Anyone who will be left here after we pay those registered will be a stranger and we will not allow them to be here at the showground."

irinnews

Three Luganda stations have been off air for more than a fortnight

NAIROBI/KAMPALA, 2 October 2009 (IRIN) - Criminal charges and the closure of several radio stations over alleged incitement to violence in Kampala have sparked a debate about the limits of free speech in Uganda.

The Uganda Broadcasting Council (UBC) silenced four Luganda* radio stations during three days of riots in September 2009 sparked by the government's refusal to allow the king of Buganda, Kabaka Ronald Mutebi, from travelling to a district within his kingdom.

UBC accused the broadcasters, one of which has since gone back on air, of "inciting violence and hatred" during the riots. According to the government, 20 rioters and seven bystanders died.

Criminal charges have been brought against several guests and members of the public who telephoned the stations, while a handful of radio presenters have been questioned by the police's Criminal Investigation Department.

Criticism of the UBC's decision was swift and harsh, with media rights groups saying the government was “not fooling anyone” with its sweeping measures to crack down on critical media.

Opinion in the country, however, is more divided; while some feel shutting down the stations was the desperate action of an unpopular government, others felt the tone of some of the programmes was indeed inflammatory.

He said, she said

"The stations were merely expressing their support for the Kabaka; one of these stations, CBS [Central Broadcasting Services], is owned by the Buganda Kingdom, so inevitably they will side with Buganda in any debate," said Ssemujju Nganda, a senior editor at The Observer, an independent newspaper. "The government knew this would always be the case when they gave them the licence to broadcast."

Nganda did, however, admit that in the heat of the moment there may have been “excesses” by radio presenters.

Police documents charging Elias Lukwago, Member of Parliament for Kampala Central, with inciting violence after a 9 September talk-show on Akaboozi Kubiri, accuse the MP of making statements implying that it would be "incumbent or desirable to do acts calculated to lead to the destruction or damage of property".

"Those of you who are working in markets, shopping arcades, canteens, restaurants, those of you seated idle on verandas and those of you who are tending their gardens, what have you done so far about all the challenges that have hit us before? Will you wait until you are hit directly?" reads part of an English translation of a police transcript of Lukwago's appearance on the show. "Are you waiting for His Majesty to be attacked and in his palace?"
''If there is anything they think was inciting [violence], then it was not by design''


According to Godfrey Mutabazi, chairman of the UBC, presenters, guests and talk-show callers were indeed inciting hatred among the Baganda, much of it directed towards people from western Uganda, who are perceived to have been favoured above other ethnic groups during the presidency of Yoweri Museveni, who hails from that region.

"Sometimes the messages are coded and other times they were blatantly inciting violence and hatred," he said. "I had no choice other than to suspend broadcasting by these radio stations – otherwise we could have been dealing with a situation like Rwanda, where Radio Mille Collines was able to incite thousands into ethnic violence that resulted in the genocide."

In addition, Mutabazi said, the stations were actively encouraging Baganda in general to defy the police's orders and travel to Kayunga.

"After the police advised the Kabaka and his supporters not to travel to Kayunga for security reasons, CBS became like a mobiliser, openly defying the police, urging supporters of the king to go against the police directive and head there anyway," he added.

The UBC was unable to provide IRIN with copies of transcripts from the broadcasts in question.

Denials

For their part, the stations' managers have vehemently denied any of the charges made against them. "We did not make any broadcast that could qualify as inciting violence; we were reporting events as they unfolded," said CBS chief executive officer Kaaya Kavuma. "We had reporters all over the place and they were telling us the reality on the ground; if that is inciting violence, then this is a matter of interpretation."

However, some members of Kampala's listening public disagree. "These radio stations are insulting even when there are no riots; during the violence the programmes definitely became more threatening to non-Baganda," said Joseph Tushabe, a shop owner from western Uganda in the capital. "I am sure some of the rioters were responding to the attitudes they heard on the radio."

However, according to Bogere Masembe, CEO of Ssuubi FM, there was no plan to incite violence. "If there was anything they think was inciting, then it was not by design," he said.

One thing most analysts agree on is that the UBC was excessive in its decision to take the stations off the airwaves completely.

Heavy-handedness

"Whatever the presenters said, there are ways of dealing with it within the law without using such arbitrary methods as closing stations down," Nganda said.

CBS's Kavuma accused the UBC of failing to follow the rule of law in the decision to close down the stations; the council, he said, broke into the station's transmission system with the aid of the Uganda People's Defence Forces. Ssuubi FM's Masembe said his station was attacked in a similar manner.

"The Broadcasting Council wrote to us two days after we were closed down; we were not given any hearing or a warning," he said. "When you break the law, there are institutions that are supposed to interpret the law; it was high-handedness."

"One of the complaints we keep hearing from government is that the presenters are not professional journalists, but you cannot criminalize lack of professionalism," said Peter Mwesige, an independent media consultant and one of the founders of Uganda's Daily Monitor newspaper.

"We don't see the UBC on a day-to-day basis regulating station programming; they seem to exclusively focus on sanctions," he added.

Mwesige noted, however, that there was a need for greater professionalism in political talk-radio in Uganda, as without it, broadcasts could turn dangerous.

"There is a legitimate case for greater professionalism, for proper research and better moderation of talk shows," he said. "But the way to do this is to engage with radio stations' management in order to achieve this, not to shut them down."

*Buganda is a kingdom in south-central Uganda inhabited by the Baganda people, who speak Luganda.

irinnews

The threat to boycott Sudan’s first elections in two decades was issued in Juba, capital of Southern Sudan, by some 20 political parties, which demanded changes to laws relating to civil liberties, such as press freedom, and democracy (file photo)

JUBA/NAIROBI, 2 October 2009 (IRIN) - A new boycott threat by several political parties in Sudan illustrates how next year’s elections, billed as a milestone in democratic transformation, in fact present considerable challenges and could destabilize the country and further undermine an already shaky peace deal between north and south.

The threat to boycott Sudan’s first elections in two decades was issued in Juba, capital of Southern Sudan, by some 20 political parties, which demanded changes to laws relating to civil liberties, such as press freedom, and democracy.

A few days earlier, the London-based African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies said there had been an “increasing crackdown on freedom of expression in Sudan, targeting public discussion of, and preparation for, the elections. Since the beginning of August, Sudanese authorities have systematically targeted any activities, symposia, public rallies or lectures related to the elections.”

Signatories to the Juba Declaration include the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which governs the semi-autonomous Southern Sudan and has been a partner in a fragile national government since a 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) put an end to 20 years of north-south war.

In the Juba Declaration, the parties also said they would stay away from the presidential, parliamentary and local polls unless a row over the results of a census – which affects electoral constituencies - was resolved.

The National Congress Party (NCP), led by President Omar el-Bashir, did not take up an invitation to participate in the talks.

The argument in favour

Although neither the SPLM nor the NCP was keen to include elections in the CPA negotiations, foreign sponsors of the peace process were convinced polls would help reverse the extreme centralization of power that has long been a major driver of conflict in Sudan.

The CPA originally scheduled elections for 2009, halfway though an interim period that culminates in an independence referendum in Southern Sudan in 2012. It was foreseen that the elections would also serve as “plebiscite on the CPA, engage political forces that were not included in the agreement and instil among the Sudanese population a sense of ownership of the peace process”, states Ticking the box - Elections in Sudan, a report by Jort Hemmer of the Netherlands Institute for International Relations’ Conflict Research Unit.

Opening the Juba conference, Southern Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, said: “I believe that the general elections, if properly conducted, shall be a critical impetus for change and empowerment of our people to choose their political leaders and elect their democratic institutions.

“If properly conducted... elections shall be a good opportunity for the Sudanese people to bring a real change through their free will as one major impetus to the process of democratic transformation,” he said, adding pointedly: “But those are two big ‘ifs’.”

Caveats

Kiir’s principal caveat concerns this year’s population census, whose results he described as “too flawed and lack[ing] the minimum acceptable level of credibility.

“Without the resolution of this issue… the election process, despite our preparedness for it, may be put in jeopardy.”

There are also concerns about the level of this “preparedness”. In late August, the Carter Center warned in a report of “serious concerns about slippage in the overall electoral calendar” as well as “delays in key operational, policy, and budgetary decisions; continued restrictions on civil liberties; and the lack of adequate reform legislation needed to fully protect the fundamental freedoms of Sudanese citizens”.

It said the “ambitious” election schedule would “only be viable” if swift steps were taken to ensure further delays are avoided.

US Special Envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, has spoken of the many challenges for the electoral process. “Not only do all the legislative laws need to be passed, but there is also election training, voter education, the security that is involved in it, the ballot boxes, the monitoring - all those kind of issues are very, very difficult.”

In a country where many citizens have never voted in their lives, the complexity of the poll is likely to be bewildering. The election will determine the presidencies and legislatures of both the Government of National Unity and Southern Sudan, state governorships and state assemblies. Some victors will be chosen under a first-past-the-post system, others by proportional representation.

In a recent report, the Rift Valley Institute noted that the numerous elections and referendums held in Sudan since 1953 “have not so far produced the kind of stable yet dynamic government that the secret ballot is intended to encourage” largely because of “widespread and massive” fraud under authoritarian regimes and lack of necessary resources.

While the report argued that elections should take place in Sudan, it warned of a “strong possibility that the forthcoming election will suffer from a combination of all the weaknesses that have undermined previous elections. There is widespread public scepticism and suspicion of possible malpractice, based on people’s experience in previous authoritarian elections; and there are immense logistical challenges.

“The stakes are very high. If the election should lack credibility, it is hard to see how the Comprehensive Peace Agreement can survive,” it said.

In Ticking the Box, Hemmer wrote that “Sudan’s political context presents an extremely unfavourable environment for an open and honest competition for power.

“Contested elections that spark large-scale political violence and, in the worse case, constitute a prelude to a new war is a realistic scenario,” he added, concluding that Sudan “had much to lose and little to gain” from holding elections in 2010.

This sentiment is shared by Sudan analyst John Ashworth. “By having elections you could actually derail democracy because of the context – a ceasefire between two warring parties. It doesn’t make sense to disrupt that before the end of the interim period.”

irinnews

DAKAR, 2 October 2009 (IRIN) - Guineans strain to find the words to describe the violence they saw on 28 September when soldiers opened fire on demonstrators, stabbing people with bayonets and gang-raping women and girls. Hundreds of Guineans have been unable to collect the remains of their loved ones, as soldiers blocked entry to morgues and – residents say – loaded up bodies in trucks and took them away.

Residents of the capital Conakry said tension was high on 2 October, as the junta held a ceremony to bury the bodies of the 57 people it says died, most "by asphyxiation" in a stampede. People in Conakry received mobile text messages the evening of 1 October, calling on Guineans to demonstrate the following day, wearing red, to protest the junta.

Here is some of what Guineans told IRIN on 28 September and the days following:

"The barbarity we saw cannot be described."

"We saw soldiers walking on cadavers."

“They shoved their Kalashnikovs into women’s vaginas – I saw this.”

"I was completely destroyed by the brutality I saw. If I had a bomb that day I would have pulled a kamikaze."

"The military is loading up bodies in trucks and hiding them. At the very least leave us the bodies of our loved ones."

"People were afraid to seek treatment in hospital because some doctors refused to treat the injured, saying the demonstrators were to blame for the violence."

"We fear civil war. There were militias who were out the next day going through neighbourhoods with machetes."

"Soldiers are prowling the neighbourhood [Bambeto, on 29 September]. When they see a resident they say: "You move, we shoot'. They say: 'It's you, Peulhs, who want to get in our way. We are going to exterminate you all.'"
[Peulh is one of Guinea’s main ethnic groups; junta leader Camara is Guerze, a group from the Forest Region]

"Anyone who is not on their [the soldiers'] side, they are going to slaughter us all."

"If the impunity continues, that is it for Guinea. Civil war. It will be worse than Liberia."

"No one is safe."

irinnews

Nigeria's rebel leader, Ateke Tom

01 Oct 2009

A key Nigerian militant leader, Ateke Tom, has officially accepted an amnesty offer during a meeting with Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua.

Ateke Tom told a news conference on Thursday that the government had offered him a pardon, adding that "I hereby formally accept the amnesty offer and lay down my arms."

President Yar'Adua, who had proposed the amnesty earlier this year, said he praised Commander Tom's decision.

The amnesty, which officially began on August 6 and ends on October 4, has recorded "some remarkable progress," the Nigerian leader said earlier in the day in a nationwide radio and television broadcast to mark the nation's 49th independence anniversary.

Officials said militants, who give up their weapons by October would benefit from a rehabilitation program, including educational and training opportunities.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said militant leader Farah Dagogo would follow Tom's example and disarm within days.

"The MEND has encouraged known commanders and affiliates to step aside and move on due to safety concerns for their families," the group's spokesman told Reuters in an e-mailed statement.

If Dagogo accepts the amnesty, Government Tompolo will be the only known factional leader with links to the MEND that has not surrendered.

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Women with their children in Kanem, western Chad, one area where conditions contribute to high child malnutrition

DAKAR, 1 October 2009 (IRIN) - Aid workers are looking at how to boost children’s nutrition and overall health in eastern Chad’s main city, Abéché, after a survey revealed that 20.6 percent of children under five suffer acute malnutrition.

The survey by Action contre la Faim (ACF) in the city of Abéché showed that of these, 3.2 percent suffer severe acute malnutrition – a very low weight for height, visible severe wasting or the presence of nutritional oedema.

The results paint a “worrying” picture of Abéché’s nutritional situation, ACF says in a preliminary report.

Acute malnutrition is the cause of 50 percent of deaths of under-five children in Chad, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which is assisting the government in tackling malnutrition in hard-hit regions.

ACF and UNICEF’s Chad representative Marzio Babille said the country’s health and nutrition problems have several profound causes.

“Chad bears the impact of multiple factors namely climate change, food price rises and post-conflict [conditions]. Increasing child malnutrition is observed in both rural and urban communities. The recent data of increased GAM [Global Acute Malnutrition] in Abéché points to this worsening trend.”

In Abéché the 20.6 percent GAM rate surpasses the UN World Health Organization’s “critical” threshold of 15 percent. WHO classifies GAM between 10 percent and 14.9 percent as “serious”, warranting supplementary feeding; 15 percent and above constitutes an emergency.

The ACF study in Abéché was carried out from 22 June to 1 July – during the lean season, “when a peak of malnutrition is generally observed”, the report said. The sample was 854 children.

More children at nutritional centres

But ACF and UNICEF in Chad say the number of children admitted to nutritional centres in Abéché has increased over the past few months, beginning long before the lean season.

Abéché is one of three areas of Chad hard hit by high food prices in the last year, according to UNICEF’s Jean Luboya, inter-agency nutrition coordinator in Abéché. The others are Kanem and Bahr el Gazel in the west.

Aid officials in Abéché say tackling malnutrition requires not only boosting measures to prevent and treat malnutrition but improvements in general health and hygiene.

ACF head of mission in Chad, Manuela Moy, told IRIN the focus in must be on malnutrition treatment and prevention as well as educating families on proper nutrition and hygiene. "It is an effort all actors – NGOs, authorities and communities – must invest in, to prevent a deterioration of an already worrying situation."

In the preliminary report ACF says 19.8 percent of under-five children had diarrhoea in the two weeks prior to the survey, and 13.3 percent acute respiratory infection. These levels are due in part to often poor hygiene in households and improper nutrition for infants, ACF said.

Difficult to detect

UNICEF’s Luboya said access to basic services like safe water and basic health care is lacking in Abéché and this must be addressed as part of an integrated approach, which will be an extension of an ongoing community-based programme.

In Abéché ACF and UNICEF run a US$1-million programme with outpatient treatment centres and supplementary feeding, according to UNICEF. They also survey communities to detect malnutrition cases.

But detection has been difficult, Luboya said. “Home visiting is still erratic with the community outreach volunteers. The increased incidence of acute malnutrition remains difficult to detect because of insufficient human resources and a lack of [nutritional knowledge and practices] at the household level.”

In eastern Chad aid agencies are assisting some 258,000 Sudanese men, women and children in refugee camps and 170,000 displaced Chadians, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

A nutritional survey conducted in the refugee camps in 2008 showed a GAM rate of 12.3 percent and severe acute malnutrition of 0.8 percent, according to UNICEF’s Luboya.

irinnews

Jestina Mukoko at one of her court appearances

HARARE, 1 October 2009 (IRIN) - Jestina Mukoko's abduction, detention and torture in 2008, and the subsequent dropping of all charges by a full bench of Zimbabwe's Supreme Court on 28 September 2009, is serving as a timeline in a country emerging from the depths of despair into the first glimmer of hope.

Mukoko, a single mother, journalist and human rights campaigner, became a cause célèbre for both local and international human rights organizations, with her personal ordeal seen as a representation of the state's repression and its contempt for the rule of law.

The Supreme Court said in its judgment: "The court unanimously concludes that the state, through its agents, violated the applicant's constitutional rights protected under the constitution of Zimbabwe to an extent entitling the applicant to a permanent stay of criminal prosecution associated with the above violations."

Mukoko was charged with banditry, but many believe her work of collating the litany of human rights abuses committed against political activists, unionists and civil society members by President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government - which held power before the current unity government - ensured that she would occupy the same dank prisons and suffer the same beatings as those whose stories she had documented.

After the judgment she told IRIN: "I came out of this experience not a bitter person, but a better person; better in the sense that I was able to understand what fellow Zimbabwean activists had been going through all this time."

In 2008 Zimbabwe was trapped in a vortex of political violence, widespread hunger, hyperinflation and keenly contested elections that threatened to end Mugabe's nearly three decades of rule.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and now prime minister, withdrew from the second round of the presidential poll - after narrowly failing to win the first round outright - in protest over the deaths of scores of activists, and the torture of hundreds if not thousands more.

Mukoko, head of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, a non-governmental organization that detailed human rights abuses such as gang rape and political violence allegedly perpetrated by the security forces, patiently transcribed the harrowing experiences of those who survived while they recuperated in hospitals or safe houses, fearing further arrests.

The international community, including African election monitors, declared Mugabe's uncontested presidential victory as hollow. On 15 September 2008, ZANU-PF and the MDC signed a power-sharing agreement, but it was only enacted in February 2009 with the formation of the unity government. The intervening months were marked by increased reports of state violence, meticulously documented by Mukoko.

"I am so relieved to know that the charges against me have been dropped, but I think the victory was only possible because of the support from the international community, fellow journalists and colleagues in civic society, and human rights defenders," she told IRIN.

The abduction

In the early hours of 13 December 2008 a group of masked men and a woman hauled Mukoko from her bed, and under the terrified gaze of her teenage son, bundled her into an unmarked car and disappeared as fast as they had arrived.

''I view the judgment in a positive sense, in that it resulted in a reform of the judiciary, especially at a time when the country is going through a constitution-making process''
Dressed in only her nightdress, her prescription medicine left by her bedside, she disappeared without a trace. Over the next few days, then weeks, people expected her body to be found by the roadside, or stumbled upon in a shallow grave by someone collecting firewood in the bush.

In fact, she was constantly being moved from one police station to another and other places of detention. Disorientated and suffering round after round of interrogation, during which she was made to kneel on gravel, punctuated with beatings on the soles of her feet, to try to force her to admit she was recruiting Zimbabweans for military training in neighbouring Botswana.

On 2 March 2009, a month after the unity government was formed, amid a furore over her detention by local and international journalists as well as human rights organizations, she was released on bail. She immediately filed a court challenge over the manner of her "arrest", and violation of her human rights.

Emotional scars

"I view the judgment in a positive sense, in that it resulted in a reform of the judiciary, especially at a time when the country is going through a constitution-making process, and that the same charges brought against other activists will be dropped," she said.

''I am a widowed mother, and what I went through brought a lot of trauma to my family, especially to my son, who did not know if he had lost the only remaining parent that he had''
The emotional scars of her ordeal are still fresh. "It is difficult at this stage to give a detailed account of what I went through because it is such an emotional subject. I would really have to psych up for that kind of discussion."

The question that Mukoko cannot answer is why she was targeted for abduction. "It has been suggested that it may have been because of the work that our organization was doing, but I was shocked that I was being charged for recruiting people to undergo military training."

The ordeal has not deterred her or her organization from documenting human rights abuses. "I am a widowed mother, and what I went through brought a lot of trauma to my family, especially to my son, who did not know if he had lost the only remaining parent that he had."

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In 2006 Swazi women were granted equal status with men

MBABANE, 1 October 2009 (IRIN) - Simmering animosity and tension between non-governmental organizations and the conservative authorities of donor-dependent Swaziland are threatening to boil over, bringing legislation that could restrict the activities of civil society.

"It has been building for some years. The deeper Swaziland sinks into poverty, hunger and AIDS, and the more dependent we become on non-governmental organizations [NGOs], the more hostile government officials, like MPs and some chiefs, become to NGOs," said Amos Ndwandwe, who works as a counsellor for an HIV/AIDS NGO he declined to identify, in the second city, Manzini.

King Mswati III, the last absolute monarch in sub-Saharan Africa, heads a traditional system of chiefs that ensures the perpetuation of customary laws, and appoints the country's prime minister in a parliament that excludes any opposition.

The prospect of imposing stringent controls on the NGO sector has been on the horizon for a while, but the looming possibility of such legislation is creating a stir among aid organizations.

A parliamentarian, who declined to be identified, told IRIN discussion of such legislation, which has yet to be introduced in parliament in any form, might be adequate to send a message to NGOs deemed as troublesome.

"Swaziland needs food aid and other aid and there are those who know such a law might not go down well with international donors, but the idea of it under consideration might be enough to get activist groups to re-think," he said.

A senior traditional leader, who declined to be identified, told IRIN chiefs see donor assistance as food and medicine and not the propagation of views contrary to Swazi traditions.

''The country is now opened up by these new highways and here come these NGOs preaching gender equality and human rights''
"The country is now opened up by these new highways and here come these NGOs preaching gender equality and human rights. By custom, no person may set foot in a chiefdom without first going to the chief’s kraal, stating their business and receiving permission to proceed. If NGOs wish to engage the people they must first educate the chiefs and convince them they are not involved in politics," he said.

Parliamentarians have routinely criticize NGOs for perceived extravagance, despite frequent denials by the National Emergency Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA), a government office responsible for dispersing monies from international donor organizations.

NERCHA has pointed out that the sector’s finances are stringently scrutinized by donors, as has also often been stated by the Congress of Non-Governmental Organisations (CANGO), an umbrella body for NGOs.

"Both sides are partly correct. It is true that the NGOs operate under a microscope, but to the average Swazi they live lavishly," said Jabulani Dlamini, a Manzini Region pastor whose church works with the poor but is not a registered NGO.

"The workers are well paid, they have nice offices, and cars. Donors in Europe may not think twice about paying for a fleet of pricey vehicles as 'part of doing the job,' but Swazis see these off-road vehicles zooming around city streets as luxurious."

Regulation motivated by politics

"This particular campaign is said to be based on a misguided perception that NGOs are turning the people against the monarch through their civic education," Musa Hlope, a political commentator and former Chairman of the Swaziland Federation of Employers, told IRIN.

"If the relationship between members of parliament and civil society is not mended soon we may have a law that will seek to close all available spaces for NGOs to operate freely and effectively throughout the country," he said.

Some NGOs have become strident critics of human rights abuses and have embarked on education campaigns to inform people of their rights under the new constitution approved by Mswati in 2005; among other things, it ended customary and institutional discrimination based on gender after centuries of tradition that relegated women to second-class status.

Prince Mahlaba Dlamini, Mswati's elder brother and a leading proponent of traditional laws, recently condemned the constitution for stripping the king of some of his powers, the local media reported.

Swazis for Positive Living (SWAPOL), a support group for HIV-positive women, has been scorned for becoming "politicized" after it protested against an MP’s proposal that HIV-positive people should be branded on their buttocks.

The protest was condemned by traditionalists, who demanded to know where the women’s husbands were while their wives were showing disrespect to the nation’s elders.

''We are not a political organization, but we must engage government on issues that affect our members. When we cannot access ARVs [antiretrovirals] because of poor governance, it is our duty to challenge that governance''
"We are not a political organization, but we must engage government on issues that affect our members. When we cannot access ARVs [antiretrovirals] because of poor governance, it is our duty to challenge that governance," SWAPOL director Siphiwe Hlope told IRIN.

According to UNAIDS, about 26 percent of Swaziland's sexually active population are infected with HIV/AIDS, the world's highest prevalence of the disease.

Hlope said any possible restrictions on NGOs would be unconstitutional, and an abrogation of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly - both of which are enshrined in the constitution as inalienable rights - and she expected "a lot of litigation on this until our constitutional rights are respected".

However, should court action be decided in favour of an NGO’s constitutional rights, such legal sanction may prove redundant, as Swaziland's dual system of governance gives chiefs unilateral powers on Swazi Nation Land, where 80 percent of the about one million population live.

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01 Oct 2009

A row between Rival Somali rebel groups over a strategic port town has erupted into violence, amid fears that the clashes has claimed up to 30 people.

Both groups, Al Shabaab and Hizb al-Islam, controlled Kismayo port under an uneasy alliance that shattered last week when the former seized control and appointed its own government.

A Press TV correspondent reported that fierce gun battles that broke out early on Thursday, killed more than 30 people in five neighborhoods of the port town, which lies 500 kilometer (310 miles) south of the capital.

Witness said Hizb al-Islam rebels had fled the town to nearby bases in Afmadow, with Al Shabaab fighters patrolling streets.

Al Shabaab, which has been waging a war against the UN-backed government of President Sharif Ahmed in Mogadishu, is considered Somalia's most powerful rebel militia.

Thousands of people have fled the new conflict in the strife-torn country.

"Kismayo is under the control of Al Shabaab, who were assisted by foreign fighters," Ahmed Mohamed Abdullah, a Hizb al-Islam supporter, told Reuters.


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UPDF troops on patrol: The UPDF is in the CAR's south-eastern region of Haut-Mbomou with the blessing of the government, whose own army has failed to tackle the threat posed by the LRA (file photo)

OBO, 1 October 2009 (IRIN) - As three truck-loads of newly arrived soldiers from the Central African Armed Forces (FACA) drove through Obo, local residents talked with bitterness and resignation about the continuing security problems and inability of either local forces or their allies from the better-equipped Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) to flush out combatants from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

A UPDF spokesman talked recently in the Ugandan capital of “seeing the end of the LRA. We continue harvesting them like mangoes,” he added, pointing to the killing and capturing of several key figures in LRA ranks. The UPDF is in the south-eastern region of Haut-Mbomou with the blessing of the CAR government of President François Bozizé, whose own FACA has failed to tackle the threat posed by the Ugandan rebels.

The LRA first became active in the CAR in February 2008, staging a series of raids, pushing west from Bambouti, on the border with Sudan. Local human rights associations and other civic groups raised the alarm, backed by the UN, urging a much tougher military response.

After a one-year lull, LRA attacks resumed with much greater intensity in mid-2009. Small groups of combatants have hit villages within a 20km radius of Obo: Ligoua, Kourouko, Gassimbala, Koubou, Gougbéré, Dindiri, Kamou and Ndigba and others.

More than 3,000 internally displaced villagers have fled to Obo. Housed initially in school and church buildings, some have sought refuge with host families, but most are in hurriedly constructed huts and shelters, organized by villagers.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is trying to locate safe water sources, build wells and provide latrines. Obo also plays host to several hundred refugees from across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who fall under the responsibility of the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR. They too are in flight from the LRA.

Ugandan patrols

The UPDF has a strong presence in and around Obo, its troops patrolling the town centre and surrounding villages, backed by helicopters. Among the villages now rendered “safe” by the UPDF is Ligoua, 20km south of Obo.

“The Ugandans brought us the head of an LRA fighter to show they are in the bush, pursuing the enemy,” Ligoua’s chief, Elie Bitimoyo, told IRIN. But Bitimoyo and the chiefs of other displaced communities say their fields and houses are off-limits. There is serious concern in Obo about the loss of crops and livestock, as the LRA is predictably targeting the most fertile and prosperous areas, with potentially dire consequences for the local population.

“The government must make the villages safe and get people back on the land,” local pastor René Zaningba told IRIN. “It is the villages which supply Obo with our food needs and if they stay empty we starve.”

Obo itself has suffered from years of isolation. More than 1,200km east of the capital Bangui, Obo is the capital of Haut-Mbomou prefecture, bordering both Sudan and the DRC. In the past, there were serious clashes between the local population and incoming fighters from the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

Attacks on agencies

The landmarks in Obo are the Catholic Mission and the Protestant evangelical African Inland Mission complex, which missionaries first established in the 1920s. Both have housed large displaced communities in recent years.

The recent attack by the LRA on a truck belonging to the Italian relief organization COOPI has raised new security concerns in the southeast. Two local employees of COOPI were killed in a road ambush on 21 September, 45km west of Obo. COOPI, which has worked in CAR since 1974, has suspended activities in the southeast, while appealing for the impartiality of aid organizations to be respected by all parties. The truck was transporting materials for the rebuilding of a school in Obo.

As news broke of the attack, local residents complained of new levels of fear and insecurity. “This region desperately needs help with schools; we have 80 percent illiteracy,” one man told IRIN, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But how can you expect NGOs to work here when they will be putting people’s lives in danger?”

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DAKAR, 1 October 2009 (IRIN) - According to (yet another) new climate change report, this time from development think-tank CGD, these are the 20 cities where the most people will be at the greatest risk from sea level rise and storm surges in the developing world.

The report’s basic assumptions were:

• one metre sea-level rise

• 10 percent increase in the intensity of a 1-in-100-year storm

• UN medium population projections.


Manila, Philippines

Alexandria, Egypt

Lagos, Nigeria

Monrovia, Liberia

Karachi, Pakistan

Aden, Yemen

Jakarta, Indonesia

Port Said, Egypt

Khulna, Bangladesh

Kolkata, India

Bangkok, Thailand

Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire

Cotonou, Benin

Chittagong, Bangladesh

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Yangon, Myanmar

Conakry, Guinea

Luanda, Angola

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Dakar, Senegal

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Villagers nursing injuries at a hospital after an earlier attack on their village near Akobo in which 185 people were killed (file photo)

JUBA, 1 October 2009 (IRIN) - A month before the recent attack in Jonglei State that left scores dead, Daniel Dau had moved his family from Duk to Twich East County, about 100km away, believing they would be safer there.

But he was wrong. On 20 September, Duk Padiet village in Twich was attacked and at least 167 people killed, according to Jonglei State statistics.

The dead included Dau’s uncle. "[He was] the only surviving member of his family," said David Dau, Daniel's son and head of the Agency for Independent Media, a media development organization in Southern Sudan.

Fifty-four civilians died, along with 28 policemen, prisons officials and wildlife conservation staff. A military counter-offensive killed 85 attackers. Another 50 people were ferried to Juba for treatment.

"There were no cattle to be raided," Kuol Manyang Juuk, Jonglei State governor told IRIN, adding that although some raiders stole plastic chairs from the village, many more went without taking a thing.

"It was an attack against government," he added.

Locals claim the attackers were Lou Nuer targeting the Dinka Hol in Duk Padiet. Jonglei officials say they numbered about 1,000. Some wore military uniforms, according to Kuol, and others civilian clothes.

"The worst thing is there [were] killings of children, women and elderly people," the head of the Sudan Council of Churches, the Rev. Ramadan Chan Liol said.

The incident showed that communal violence was escalating in Southern Sudan, Ecumenical News International (ENI) quoted him as saying.

According to the UN, the rate of violent deaths in the south now surpasses that in Darfur. Lise Grande, UN Deputy Resident Coordinator in Southern Sudan, recently said more than 2,000 people had died and 250,000 been displaced by inter-ethnic violence across the region.

Who was responsible?

"There is a general lack of faith in the government of Southern Sudan's efficiency and capacity to combat illegal activity," Dau told IRIN. "Some enemies of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement [CPA] may be exploiting [this]. The future of Sudan as a united country is uncertain; some people don’t want to see it happen."

A key Northern Sudanese official threw the ball back into the Southern court.

"Despite all the positive developments in the peace process, the [Khartoum] government notes with profound concern the recent armed tribal conflicts in Southern Sudan," said Ghazi Salahuddin, presidential adviser and head of the Sudanese delegation to the recent UN General Assembly.

"These conflicts threaten not only the stability of the Sudan and the South but also the stability of the whole region."

Politics, not cattle

"Some of the more recent attacks have... had little or nothing to do with cattle rustling, a traditional cause of violence between neighbouring tribes and ethnic groups in the region," the UN Mission in Sudan said in a 23 September statement.

"This will become a source of mounting concern as the country heads towards the April 2010 national election and the referenda in southern Sudan and the Abyei region scheduled for 2011."

Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) forces rushed to Jonglei after the attack, bringing relative calm to the area, but locals remain apprehensive.

"The situation is normal, under control," Kuol told IRIN. "[But] it is still tense because those people can come and attack again. It is a very big area, and you don’t know which area they are going to hit next."

Blaming the north

Southern church leaders believe some Khartoum leaders are arming militias to destabilize their homeland, according to ENI.

Officials in Khartoum strongly deny such claims. Osman al-Agbash, spokesman for the Sudan Armed Forces, has called such allegations "baseless".

Salahuddin urged Southern authorities to ensure security. "In accordance with the CPA, the responsibility for the maintenance of peace in the south of the Sudan belongs to the government of Southern Sudan," he told the UN.

"Therefore, it is everybody's duty to urge and encourage the government of Southern Sudan to discharge its duty for the sake of its citizens' security and prosperity."

In Juba, a Lou-Nuer meeting blamed its community members for the attack on the Dinka in Duk Padiet, but noted that both the GoSS and the Jonglei state governments could have done more to stop the incident.

Arms flows

Analysts fear that continuing violence will have a devastating effect on the 2010 elections and 2011 referendum.

Giorgio Musso of the University of Genova argues that relations between the north and south have become strained and elections are more likely to threaten peace than to bring long-awaited democratization.

The referendum could also "cause the separation of the country, with lasting consequences for the Horn of Africa and the entire continent.

"The GoSS is unable to protect the population because it is spending the largest amount of its budget [on] heavy armaments," he noted in a paper, "led by the idea that weapons are the only effective guarantee for Southern Sudan self-determination [and] that an armed confrontation with Khartoum is likely."

Between 30 and 40 percent of the Southern budget since 2006 has been spent on SPLA affairs - roughly equivalent to its spending on education, health and infrastructure combined, according to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey.

"While much of the international community’s attention remains focused on Darfur, the CPA continues to falter, and organized armed violence in Southern Sudan continues to escalate," it wrote in a paper, Skirting the Law.

The current focus on the “enemy” in the north and on increasing military capacities to counter it has diverted Southern political and economic resources from improving governance and managing internal security threats.

"With ongoing violence in Southern Sudan and Darfur, and mounting tensions between the Northern and Southern governments," said Eric Berman, Small Arms Survey managing director, "persistant arms flows should be a cause for great concern in the international community."

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Divisions emerged when al-Shabaab refused to recognize a power-sharing deal with Hizbul Islam.

Al-Shabaab militants have launched an offensive on the Hizbul Islam positions in the southern Somali port of Kismayo, where hundreds of families have fled their homes.

The pre-dawn attack triggered heavy fighting between the rival insurgent groups on Thursday in the relatively peaceful Kismayo, some 300 kilometers (185 miles) south of Mogadishu.

The once allied factions routed government forces in August to take control of the key port under a power-sharing deal.

But relations between the two groups soured in recent weeks after the rotating six-month rule they had agreed on failed upon al-Shabaab's refusal to relinquish the administration.

On Wednesday, many residents left the city center to seek refuge on the outskirts at the prospect of an imminent war between the rival groups who prepared for combat.

"We were attacked by our brothers with no reason," AFP quoted local Hizbul Islam spokesman Sheikh Ismail Haji Adow as saying.

Al-Shabaab fighters "launched their offensive on several fronts very early this morning. The fighting is very intense but we are holding up," he said.

Deepening division between al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam could partly relieve President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, whose western-backed administration has been seriously challenged by a massive military offensive from the country's main insurgent alliance since early May.

Al-Shabaab, once the military wing of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), has recently pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda's notorious leader Osama bin Laden.

Hizbul Islam is headed by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former ally of Sharif's in the UIC.

Somalia dipped in civil strife following the ouster of former dictator Mohammad Siad Bare in 1991, which led to a tug of power between rival factions.

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Custodia Mandlhate, WHO representative to Zimbabwe and Gerald Gwinji, Permanent Secretary to the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health and Child Welfare during the launch of the H1N1 control initiative in the country

NAIROBI, 1 October 2009 (IRIN) - There has been an increase in the number of pandemic HIN1 influenza cases being reported in the East African region, say medical officials. Some of the new cases have been recorded in schools.

"Some 350 H1N1 influenza cases have been confirmed in Kenya," Shahnaaz Sharif, the Director of Public Health, told IRIN, adding that the cases had been mild. "There may be more cases out there."

The first case in Kenya was that of a visiting British student on 29 June. So far, no deaths have been reported.

"The most affected are younger people between 14 and 26 years," Sharif said. Children, young adults and pregnant women, as well as those with pre-existing medical conditions, such as asthma, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, heart and blood diseases, are at increased risk of severe and sometimes fatal illness.

Sharif said the affected schools in the Nairobi and Central regions had been provided with guidelines and other assistance on disease control.

H1N1 symptoms are flu-like and include fever, headache, cough, sore throat and muscle and joint pain. It is caused by a new influenza virus, which most people have no or little immunity against and could thus cause more infections than are seen with seasonal flu.

In Uganda, at least 33 H1N1 cases have been confirmed, mainly in the western district of Bushenyi. Health ministry spokesman Paul Kagwa told IRIN that nine seminarians at the Kitabi Catholic Seminary in Bushenyi had tested positive for H1N1 while another 300 people were undergoing treatment for flu-related symptoms.

"A team of experts is in the area to help fight the pandemic; fortunately we have not yet lost anybody," Kagwa said.

Sam Zaramba, the director-general of health services, told IRIN the health ministry was intensifying an awareness campaign because "the disease was quickly spreading in the country".

Uganda confirmed its first case of H1N1 on 2 July - of a British visitor to the country.

As of 28 September, 24 countries in Africa had officially reported 12,018 laboratory-confirmed human cases of H1N1, including 58 deaths, according to a UN World Health Organization (WHO) update. South Africa was leading with 11,253 cases and 47 deaths in the week ending 14 September - statistics are compiled weekly and there is also stronger surveillance in that country.

Tanzania had 143 cases and Ethiopia four.

Paul Garwood, a communications officer with WHO, told IRIN that control measures were ongoing. Vaccines would also be sent to developing countries.

Initially, an estimated 300 million doses of vaccine will be distributed to more than 90 countries, he said.

"Distribution of the first batches of donated vaccines is expected to begin in November," he said. "WHO continues to recommend that health workers be given high priority for early vaccination."

WHO, with the International Federation of the Red Cross/Crescent, the UN Children's Fund and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in August launched an initiative to reduce the threat posed by H1N1 in developing countries.

The initiative, which calls for the identification of populations at increased risk of disease and death, treating acute respiratory illness and pneumonia and continued critical services provision, among other measures, will initially be applied in Zimbabwe, borrowing on lessons learned there in the 2008-09 cholera outbreak that infected almost 100,000 people and killed 4,000.

As of 20 September, 300,000 H1N1 cases with 3,917 deaths had been confirmed in 191 countries and territories. "As more and more countries have stopped counting individual cases, particularly of milder illness, the case count is significantly lower than the [actual] number of cases that have occurred," noted WHO.

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