Small fishing boats, like this one in Bossaso's busy commercial port, carry up to 125 people when used to smuggle migrants from the Somali coast across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen

SANAA, 17 September 2009 (IRIN) - At least 16 Africans died, and 49 others are missing and presumed dead, in three separate incidents as boats smuggling them from Somalia to Yemen capsized in the Gulf of Aden on 13 and 14 September, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Ahmad Akam, a Yemeni coast guard official, said the people smuggling season had just started. "It usually begins in September every year as the weather becomes milder, helping smugglers traffic Africans to Yemen by boat."

He said each passenger paid smugglers about US$50 to get from the Somali port city of Bossaso to Yemen.

On 13 September a boat carrying 142 Somali and non-Somali citizens had engine failure and capsized near the Yemeni coastal town of Radfan, 150km east of the UNHCR-run Mayfaa Reception Centre for Somali refugees, according to Leen al-Mugahed, a public information assistant at UNHCR’s Sanaa office.

"Ninety-eight passengers managed to swim ashore while 43 others are still missing and presumed dead," she said. Survivors said one person had died of suffocation in the boat's engine room.

In another incident, a boat carrying 122 Africans capsized near Yemen’s shores and 13 passengers lost their lives because of severe mistreatment at the hands of smugglers, said a 15 September statement by UNHCR. It quoted survivors as saying the dead passengers had been accommodated in the boat’s engine room since departing from the Somali village of Marera.


A third incident was reported by a European Union warship, the Louise of Belgium, which detected a sinking boat. The warship proceeded immediately to the scene and rescued 38 people.

UNHCR quoted survivors as saying there were originally 48 people on board. Two dead bodies were spotted by navy helicopters engaged in the rescue but were not recovered as priority was given to survivors. Agency officials said another six passengers were missing and presumed dead.

3,000 new arrivals in September

Rocco Nuri, external relations officer at UNHCR’s Aden office, told IRIN on 16 September there were a total of five boats trafficking refugees and economic migrants from the Horn of Africa to Yemen when the incidents occurred.

About 3,000 Africans have fled to Yemen since 1 September, he said.

"The influx of new arrivals from the Horn of Africa is likely to continue due to a number of push factors which are forcing people to flee Somalia and neighbouring countries, such as ongoing conflict, political instability, famine and extreme poverty,” Nuri told IRIN.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Middle East, with scarce resources and limited employment opportunities, yet it hosts over 140,000 refugees and grants refugee status to all Somalis entering its territory, according to UNHCR.

Since the beginning of 2009, 860 boats carrying 43,586 people have made the perilous journey to Yemen across the Gulf of Aden; 273 people have died or are missing and presumed dead, according to UNHCR.

irinnews

Besides grappling with hunger, Kenya is also anticipating El-Nino rains, which could displace at least 100,000 people (file photo)

NAIROBI, 17 September 2009 (IRIN) - Kenya has appealed for help to combat drought and food shortages as humanitarian actors fine-tune disaster reduction preparedness ahead of El Nino-related rains, expected across the country between September and December.

"Let's appreciate the seriousness of the crisis and support where we can," Prime Minister Raila Odinga said on 15 September in Nairobi, in an address to a Kenya Consultative Group meeting, co-chaired by the World Bank.

Saying the situation was "extremely grave" as at least 10 million Kenyans were facing hunger, Odinga urged the donor community to help the country cope with the impact of drought as well as the anticipated El-Nino rains.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA Kenya), urgent concerted action is required to mitigate the humanitarian consequences of the prevailing drought, which has extended food insecurity conditions.

The country's revised 2009 Emergency Humanitarian Response Plan, OCHA said, had only received 48 percent funding as of September 2009, yet sustained funding was critical to responding to life-saving humanitarian emergencies.

Workshop

On 14 September, representatives of government ministries, UN agencies and relief agencies held a day-long preparedness planning and scenario development workshop in Nairobi focusing on the anticipated enhanced rains and the expected flooding.

Chaired by the Ministry of State for Special Programmes and OCHA Kenya, the meeting discussed the likely scenarios for the El Nino rains, the pre-positioning of food and non-food aid in areas where flooding is expected as well as the short- and long-term interventions that those affected by the rains would require.

Most likely scenario

The workshop focused on the most likely scenario, described as the "mid-case scenario", which estimates that at least 100,000 people will be displaced by floods and a total of up to 750,000 will be in need of humanitarian aid.

Under this scenario, flooding is expected along the river basins of Tana, Nzoia, Nyando, Yala and Galana as well as along the plains of the Tana river in North Eastern and Coast provinces; Budalang'i in Western Province and Nyando and Nyatike in Nyanza Province.

As the rains continue, more areas will be affected in the country including other districts in Nyanza, Eastern, Rift Valley and Central provinces, according to this scenario.

La Nina

"We must also prepare for the effects of the la Nina phenomenon that often follows El Nino, where the country will be faced with renewed dry conditions; we must ensure the enhanced rains are harvested and dams are de-silted so that millions of Kenyans are relieved from water stress next year," Jeanine Cooper, head of OCHA Kenya, said.

Ali Mohamed, permanent secretary in the Special Programmes Ministry, said the government was determining what needs to be done to adequately respond to the expected enhanced rains and its impact on the population.

"A lot is expected of us as humanitarian actors; in terms of sounding the early warning, sensitizing the public and providing emergency aid to the affected," he said.

Abbas Gullet, secretary-general of the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), which serves as the government's focal point in disaster response and intervention, said all relief agencies need to work together to prepare for any eventuality.

He said the KRCS had already pre-positioned non-food items in most of the regions where flooding is expected to occur during the rains.

irinnews

17 Sep 2009

Two massive blasts have rocked an African Union peacekeepers' base in Somalia, when two suicide bombers in vehicles bearing UN logos detonated explosives.

Witnesses told a Press TV correspondent that at least four people--three Somali soldiers and one civilian--had been killed in the blast in the capital, Mogadishu.

Six peacekeepers were also injured in the attack.

Thursday's incident occurred at the African Union (AU) base near the airport in the besieged capital where officials from the new transitional government in Somalia were meeting their AU counterparts.

The troops at the gate allowed the Land Cruisers to enter the base, believing they belonged to the United Nations.

The al-Shabaab rebels, one of the main groups battling President Sharif Ahmed's government, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Al-Shabaab vowed Tuesday to avenge a US raid in southern Somalia, which reportedly killed an al-Qaeda suspect.

There are some 5,000 AU troops, mostly from Uganda and Burundi, to assist the UN-backed government in bringing some sort of stability to a country without a functioning government, since warlords overthrew the former dictator, Siad Barre, in 1991.

Earlier, al-Shabaab issued a list of demands that they insist must be met for the secure release of a French security advisor held since July.

One of the demands states that the French naval fleet, part of a NATO-led naval force on an anti piracy mission in the region, must leave Somali waters.

They have also called for the withdrawal of African peacekeepers from Somalia, especially the contingent from Burundi.

presstv

17 Sep 2009

Somali insurgents have issued a list of demands which they say must be met in return for
the secure release of a French security advisor held since July.

Militant al-Shabaab group issued a statement on Thursday, saying France must withdraw its warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden -- part of an effort to uproot relentless piracy in the Somali waters.

The statement also wants Paris to stop its military and political support for Somalia's 'apostate government' and pull out all its security advisors from the Horn of Africa country.

The French foreign minister rejected their demands, saying the current government 'represents Somalia'.

The al-Qaeda-inspired militants called for an exchange of prisoners and demanded the 'freeing of mujahedeen prisoners in countries whose names will be announced later'.

The rebels also called for the withdrawal of African peacekeepers from Somalia, especially those from Burundi.

But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner flatly rejected rebel calls on Paris to stop supporting the Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed as a condition for the release of the hostage security advisor.

"It is a government that was founded in Djibouti with the support of a majority in Somalia," Kouchner told France Info radio.

"I have met President Sharif and his ministers on two occasions, and they represent Somalia," Kouchner added. "It is completely false to say we are supporting an illegal government."

The foreign minister reaffirmed that France 'hopes to secure the release of this last hostage', but warned that 'negotiations cannot just be carried out simply via the media'.

Thursday's demands came nearly two months after the two French advisors were seized from their hotel in Somalia's lawless capital, Mogadishu, on July 14.

One of the kidnapped Frenchmen, captured by a different militant group on the same day, managed to escape last month and returned to France.

presstv

A sign in Senegal's Casamance region warning of potential presence of landmines

ZIGUINCHOR, 16 September 2009 (IRIN) - This club does not want any new members.

One of the principal goals of Senegal’s Association of Mine Victims (ASVM) is to ensure that its membership will not grow, by travelling around Casamance, southern Senegal, to educate people about the hazards of mines.

“Many areas still pose a risk of landmines,” ASVM president Bacary Diédhiou told IRIN. “And we – who have survived mine accidents – are well-placed to tell people about the potential danger.”

At least 93 villages and more than 70km of roads and paths are believed to be contaminated by antipersonnel mines or unexploded ordnance – part of the fallout of Casamance’s armed conflict dating to 1982. The government antimines action centre (CNAMS) has recorded 748 mine accident victims, 586 surviving, since the 1990s – 52 since 2005; landmine experts say the number of victims is likely higher.

Along with educating communities about mines, ASVM advocates for mine survivors and supports them and their families.

International momentum

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) – a coalition of NGOs – recently called on signatories to the Mine Ban Treaty to step up assistance to victims as stipulated in the treaty. ICBL is watching countries’ progress in the run-up to the November summit in Cartagena, Colombia, the second review conference on the status of the treaty, which entered into force in 1999.

“States should come to Cartagena ready to firmly declare their determination to remain true to the humanitarian objectives of the Mine Ban Treaty,” ICBL said in a 15 September statement.

''Help [a mine victim] to become self-reliant. Outside assistance is not forever''
In its communiqué ICBL says it often hears that the current financial and political environment is not conducive to long-term commitments to mine action. “If the environment puts pressure on states’ budgets, what about the constant pressure on those for whom daily survival is already a challenge?”

CNAMS head of education and victim assistance, Seyni Diop, said the centre has supported ASVM and has provided funds to a local hospital and orthopaedic centre for victim assistance; he said CNAMS will continue to provide financial assistance to survivors. The centre is also supporting NGOs in seeking donor funds for demining, mine awareness programmes and victim assistance, he said.

Boubine Touré, ICBL representative in Senegal, told IRIN the government has fallen short of its obligation to victims, adding that the government must take the lead in funding. “The Senegalese government must stop waiting for aid from outside donors to assist mine victims. It must begin by putting up its own funding; it is an obligation.”

Self-reliance

For ASVM members, assistance is not just medical care and counselling, but also education, skills training and agricultural assistance. Self-sufficiency must be the aim, members told IRIN.

“It is not about just giving handouts to mine victims,” said ASVM member Mamady Gassama. “Help him or her to become self-reliant. Outside assistance is not forever.”

One project ASVM is working on would make 30 hectares of land south of Casamance’s main city Ziguinchor available to mine victims as well as to local residents, for market gardening, livestock farming and other agricultural work.

“The fact that someone has a mine injury does not mean he or she cannot be productive and take part in the country’s development,” ASVM’s Diédhiou said.

Gassama, a mine survivor and university student, said it is not one’s injury in itself that constitutes a handicap – it is rather a lack of access to the means to make a living and improve one’s life, family and community.

“Everyone has some kind of ‘handicap’ compared with someone else; the key is that a person be given the means to work and improve his/her living conditions.”

He said support by UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has been critical in his and other survivors’ ability to continue their education.

Christina de Bruin, head of UNICEF in Casamance, told IRIN over the years ASVM in partnership with UNICEF has helped young mine survivors attend school and play an active role in society.

“It is important that survivors are able to actively participate in all parts of family, school and community life.”

ASVM members have taken part in discussions on a new action plan, for 2009-2014, which Senegal – as a Mine Ban Treaty signatory – is to present at the November summit, Gassama said. “We must have a voice in that process. No one can know our priorities as we do.”

irinews

Back to good schooling?

HARARE, 16 September 2009 (IRIN) - Donors have given Zimbabwe's ailing education system a US$70 million boost in an attempt to reverse the rapid decline of a sector once regarded as the finest in sub-Saharan Africa.

The UN Children's Agency (UNICEF), in partnership with the Zimbabwe unity government, will be distributing funds from donor countries that include Australia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the European Commission on behalf of the European Union.

Text books have become a rare commodity in schools - UNICEF estimates the ratio of text books to pupils at about one book to every 10 children - and teachers in the capital, Harare, said there were cases of 40 pupils sharing one text book at some schools.

''The objective is to reach every child in Zimbabwe with a text book within 12 months''
"The objective ... is to reach every child in Zimbabwe with a text book within 12 months. An assessment by the education advisory board has revealed that in about 20 percent of all primary schools there is not single text book for English, Mathematics or an African Language," Peter Salama, the UNICEF representative in Zimbabwe, told IRIN.

"It is no surprise therefore that grade seven pass rates have declined from 53 percent in 1999 to 33 percent in 2007; almost 50 percent of primary school pupils are not going on to secondary schools."

Widespread food shortages, cholera outbreaks, an almost year-long strike by teachers in 2008, the country's economic meltdown and political violence have all contributed to the near total disruption of education.

The formation of the unity government in February 2009 returned some stability to the sector, with public servants, including teachers, being paid in foreign currency as a hedge against hyperinflation, but the path back to Zimbabwe's golden age of education will be steep.

"Although enrolment has risen in 2009, there are many signs that quality education is eluding most children," Salama said. "In addition, one in four children in Zimbabwe is an orphan, struggling to survive with little or no public social safety net or systematic access to social services."

Health services also fell victim to the economic implosion, and in 2007 UNAIDS put national HIV prevalence at 15.3 percent, but shortages of antiretroviral drugs and medicines to treat opportunistic illnesses led to many AIDS-related deaths.

Two-pronged approach

The attempt to resuscitate the education system will take a two-pronged approach: the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM), and the Educational Transition Fund (ETF), which will provide technical capacity to the ministry of education to disseminate text books.

"BEAM will help address the demand side, ensuring that over 700,000 of Zimbabwe's most vulnerable children, including disabled children, are able to get to school," said Salama.

Education minister David Coltart said this was a major step forward, but industrial action by teachers could mar progress. "My most important task in restoring a basic education is to ensure ... a body of motivated, committed and professional teachers ... it does not matter how many educational materials we purchase, because [without teachers] children will continue to stagnate."

irinnews

A MONUC contingent is in the south of Ituri to repel and neutralize militias (file photo)

BUNIA, 16 September 2009 (IRIN) - Militia attacks in parts of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the past few months are worsening the humanitarian situation there and preventing access to affected populations, says a UN official.

The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the zones under militia attack in Irumu Territory, south of Ituri District, has risen from 30,000 to 105,000 in a year, said Jean-Charles Dupin, a senior humanitarian affairs officer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Bunia, Ituri's capital.

"Zones south of Aveba [town], Boga, Bukiringi, Kamachi and Zunguluka remain difficult to access due to insecurity. Any humanitarian interventions there would endanger beneficiaries who are attacked after aid distributions," said Dupin.

"NGOs have been forced to evacuate four times in the locality of Gety [south of Bunia] in the last two months... During the day, the displaced population returns to their fields to look for food. In the evening, they return to their places of displacement."

A 16 September OCHA update said close to 200 families had fled the locality of Mandibe, 9km south of Irumu, after a militia attack and were seeking refuge in Komanda, 75km south of Bunia.

The Congolese army has added to the displacement, according to humanitarian sources.

Between a rock and a hard place

Recently, army soldiers dislodged residents from localities neighbouring Gety in retaliation for the killing of a soldier during an FRPI/FPJC (Front de resistance patriotique en Ituri/Front populaire pour la Justice au Congo) raid in the Munobi area.

The soldiers, who blamed the death on the villagers, also arrested three village leaders, according to local authorities.

Affected populations are in a difficult situation, said local reporter Annuarite Unyuti: They are afraid of militia reprisal attacks and of the army, which accuses them of collaborating with the militias.

Local traders are opting to defend themselves, said Zebedée Zigiabo, a local nurse.

According to a resident of Lengabo, 7km south of Bunia, it has also become very difficult to distinguish between the militia and army soldiers.

Many people are without protection, said the coordinator of the Ituri parliamentary security initiative, Jean Baptiste Detchuvi. An initiative of 32 local parliamentarians is seeking to improve security in Ituri.

''NGOs have been forced to evacuate four times in the locality of Gety [south of Bunia] in the last two months''
According to Detchuvi, there are still a lot of weapons in illegal circulation despite the demobilization of ex-combatants. An estimated 2,000 FRPI/FPJC militia members have not been demobilized, according to the national demobilization programme.

A contingent of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) is south of Ituri to repel and neutralize FRJC/FRPI militia. For the moment though, its operations, which include logistical support to the army, have stopped, after local politicians decided to pursue a political solution to the conflict, said Lt-Col Jean Paul Dietrich, MONUC's military spokesperson.

The army staff major in Ituri, Eugene Walungu, said: "We have not recorded militia attacks recently [but] raids to steal and loot from the population. I take them [the raids] to be [the actions of] armed robbers."

Child soldiers

According to a report by the international NGO Save the Children, there are still many children serving as soldiers. Between September 2008 and August [2009], at least 117 child soldiers were rescued from different militia groups in Irumu. Most of those rescued in the last month were from the FPJC.

The children claimed that more child soldiers wanted to leave the militias but were afraid of reprisals or army attacks when trying to leave militia ranks, said Dupin.

irinnews

NAIROBI, 16 September 2009 (IRIN) - Since Somaliland unilaterally broke away from the rest of Somalia in 1991, it has prided itself on its relative peace and the development of democratic institutions, but political events in recent months have rocked its stability.

This article offers a brief overview of Somaliland’s political landscape.

Dahir Riyale Kahin, who leads the United People’s Democratic Party (UDUB), was elevated from Somaliland’s vice-president to president in 2002 on the death of Mohamed Ibrahim Egal. He very narrowly won a presidential election in 2003.

Riyale, who once served as a colonel in Somalia’s infamous National Security Service under the late president Mohamed Siad Barre, comes from Borama near the Ethiopian border and belongs the Gadobirsey clan. He used to enjoy considerable support from the Isak, Somaliland’s dominant clan, whose internal divisions made an outsider more appealing than conflict. This support has waned over the last few years.

He is now facing his biggest political challenge from two opposition parties who hold a majority in the lower house of parliament. “It is very hard to see how he can overcome this challenge. The numbers are against him," said one political observer in Hargeysa, the capital.

Ahmed Mohamed Mahamoud, universally known as Silaanyo, leads the Development and Solidarity Party, or Kulmiye, and is considered the leader of the opposition. He lost by fewer than 100 votes to Riyale in 2003.

Silaanyo, in his 70s, served in different ministerial positions in the Somali government in the 1970s and 1980s before joining the armed opposition. He was one of the main leaders of the Somali National Movement, which helped oust Siyad Barre in 1991, and later served in the Somaliland government as a minister under Egal.

He belongs to the Habar Jelo, a subclan of the Isak, and hails from Burao, the second largest city in Somaliland. He is the man most likely to be the next president of Somaliland if he can unite the Isak vote.

Faisal Ali Warabe, leader of the Justice and Welfare Party, or UCID, is an engineer by profession. He was a senior civil servant in the Somali government before the fall of Barre. He is a latecomer to Somaliland politics but is considered one of the most charismatic politicians in the region and one of the few to advocate the rights of marginalized communities. His party holds the third largest number of seats in the lower house. Warabe is from Hargeysa and is a member of the Isak subclan, Iidagale.

Suleiman Mahamud Aden is the leader of the upper house of parliament, or Guurti, and is one of the people publicly working for a peaceful solution to the current crisis. Suleiman Gaal, as he is better known, will be the main beneficiary if an impeachment process launched by the opposition against Riyale goes through. As leader of the Upper House, under the constitution, he will assume the presidency until elections are held.

Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi, widely known as Iro, is a member of UCID and close ally of Warabe’s. He is the speaker of the lower house of parliament and among those the government has accused of fomenting the current crisis by pushing for Riyale’s impeachment. Iro is seen as a likely candidate for interim vice-president should Suleiman Gaal assume the top job.

irinnews

Men sharing a calabash of blood gotten from a slaughtered bull. There is acute food shortage in Karamoja (file photo)

MOROTO, 16 September 2009 (IRIN) - Karamoja Region in northeastern Uganda is unlikely to benefit from the anticipated El Niño rains for crop production because rains failed during the normal planting season in March, local officials said.

"Our projection is that from November to April, we shall have no food," Nahaman Ojwe, the Moroto resident district commissioner, told IRIN. "Looking at the harvest, it is pretty clear that what we got is not what we expected. When it rained, people planted, but the crops withered, meaning we lost an entire season."

"Our forecast suggests that the El Niño rains that are expected in the country are less likely to reach this region and even if they did, the first rain is what matters in this region," John Lodungakol, Moroto District agricultural officer said.

"The second rains are always associated with diseases and migratory pests," he told IRIN in Moroto, the regional capital. "Historically, the second rains are not conducive for agriculture."

El Niño rains are expected to hit Uganda from mid-September until November, according to meteorological experts.

"We shall wait for March [rains] but before then, the population can only survive on relief aid," Lodungakol added. "The crop for this year withered at knee level, that is why we expect no food until maybe May next year."

Karamoja Region, which is made up of Abim, Kaabong, Kotido, Moroto, and Nakapiripirit Districts, has suffered intermittent droughts in the past decade reducing agricultural output to 30 percent of normal levels and posting worrying rates of malnutrition, according to surveys.


Malnutrition

An April 2009 survey by the Ugandan Health Ministry found Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates exceeding the emergency threshold in the districts of Kaabong and Nakapiripirit (12.1 and 11.6 percent respectively). The emergency threshold is 10 percent.

"Malnutrition has been going from bad to worse for the last three years," Martin Ngiro, a health educator of Bokora sub-district, recently told a visiting team from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UK development agency, DFID.

"In 2006, we admitted at the hospital 407 cases of malnutrition and we recorded a fatality rate of 8 percent," he added.

The harsh climate has also compromised the health of cattle herds, the mainstay of the pastoralist Karamojong, reducing milk output which was the main source of nutrients for women and children.

Since the beginning of the year, the weather station in Moroto has recorded only 122mm of rainfall.

"This is an area where you cannot find a mango tree or a tuber like cassava," said Peterken Lochap, the Moroto District council chairman. "It is unbearable now."

Uganda’s most marginalized region

Karamoja is Uganda’s poorest and most marginalized region and experiences cycles of natural disasters and inter-communal conflicts mainly over pasture, water and livestock. It has also received very limited investment, perpetuating underdevelopment and hunger.

In February, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said the region had had no decent harvest for three years and was "on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe". That time, the government decided to treat it as an "emergency area" and WFP launched an operation to save 970,000 people from starvation.

Since then, the situation has not improved. Across the region, scorched vegetation can be seen struggling on the plains. The pastures where the nomadic inhabitants of Karamoja normally graze their livestock, have turned into dust bowls.

Karamoja, unlike the rest of Uganda, does not enjoy two annual harvests but one. As a result, a poor harvest is felt more deeply in the region than elsewhere, with the resulting “food gap” lasting twice as long.

According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net), over 95 percent of the region’s population (about 1.15 million people) remains food insecure or dependent on food aid.

''The crop for this year withered at knee level, that is why we expect no food until maybe May next year''
In an update published in August, Fews Net said some harvest was expected in the western wet agriculture zone in September, but the agropastoral and pastoral areas (which are the largest) would have minimal or no harvests at all due to poor rains.

Low harvests in neighbouring districts like Lira, Soroti, and Mbale, which are key supply areas for Karamoja, and insecurity along the roads, had also limited supplies to the region.

Weapons

The insecurity is due to weapons which the Karamojong keep to defend their herds and rustle cattle from neighbouring communities. Efforts by the Ugandan government to recover these illegal arms are yet to fully succeed.

Between June and July, for example, 56 cattle raids and 37 incidents were recorded in the region resulting in 65 deaths, mostly in Kaabong, Moroto and Nakapiripirit districts, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"Prices will remain high into the foreseeable future, limiting households’ access to alternative food sources," Fews Net said.

irinnews

16 Sep 2009
Somalia's most powerful militant group, al-Shabaab, has vowed to take revenge from the government over the killing of al-Qaeda's point man in the country.

Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Raghe expressed outrage over the murder of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and his colleague by the US Special Forces in South Somalia, Press TV correspondent reported.

On Monday, US Special Forces in four helicopters struck a convoy carrying Nabhan and nine other al-Qaeda members near southwestern Somali port town of Barawe about 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu.

Nabhan is currently being wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over the bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel that killed 15 people and a failed missile attack on an Israeli airliner departing from Kenya's Mombassa airport in 2002.

presstv

16 Sep 2009
Somali pirates have failed to hijack a North Korean cargo ship after the crew responded with Molotov cocktails while speeding away, says a maritime official.

The North Korean ship was adrift off the Somali coast near Mogadishu on September 5 for engine work when the crew saw 10 pirates approaching in two speedboats, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center based in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

The captain later told the maritime bureau that a US warship arrived at the scene, but the pirates had already fled, Choong added. He could not confirm it was a US ship.

The vessel was heading to the Middle East when it was attacked.

In a separate incident, a Greek-managed ship with 22 Filipino crewmen was freed by Somali pirates after they had spent five months in captivity, the Philippine officials said.

So far this year, 156 ships have been attacked off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

Piracy has flourished off the coast of Somalia, which has not had an effective government since 1991.

presstv

16 Sep 2009
Somali pirates have failed to hijack a North Korean cargo ship after the crew responded with Molotov cocktails while speeding away, says a maritime official.

The North Korean ship was adrift off the Somali coast near Mogadishu on September 5 for engine work when the crew saw 10 pirates approaching in two speedboats, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center based in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

The captain later told the maritime bureau that a US warship arrived at the scene, but the pirates had already fled, Choong added. He could not confirm it was a US ship.

The vessel was heading to the Middle East when it was attacked.

In a separate incident, a Greek-managed ship with 22 Filipino crewmen was freed by Somali pirates after they had spent five months in captivity, the Philippine officials said.

So far this year, 156 ships have been attacked off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

Piracy has flourished off the coast of Somalia, which has not had an effective government since 1991.

presstv

Flooding in the north during this year's rainy season has contributed to the risk of cholera breaking out (file photo)

KANO, 16 September 2009 (IRIN) - Floods in northern Nigeria’s Adamawa state have left over 2,000 people displaced, many of them with no access to clean drinking water, leaving officials worried about a potential cholera outbreak.

Five districts – Fufore, Demsa, Yola North, Yola South and Numan – were flooded in August and early September, when the River Lagdo burst its banks, according to the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

Demsa and Fufore districts, along with nearby Maiha, were hit with a cholera outbreak in August and September; the illness killed 70 people out of over 300 infected, according to local government official Yahaya Hamman-Julde.

Adamawa state health commissioner Zainab Baba Kwanci says the outbreak was caused by floodwaters contaminating wells used for drinking water.

"We are really worried about the possibility of the resurgence of the [cholera] outbreak in flood-hit areas and our priority now is averting that looming disaster," Aliyu Sambo, head of NEMA in the northeast, told IRIN.

There is not enough clean water for the displaced, most of whom are living in temporary shelters or in local schools, according to NEMA.

"We are doing our best to provide clean water for the displaced but our efforts are limited to a few trucks a day so people have to [turn to] unsafe water [to meet their needs]," Sambo said. "It is an emergency situation and there is no time to sink boreholes, so we have to make do with what we can provide.”

Nigeria is among four West African countries where less than half of the population can access safe drinking water, according to the UN.

Health commissioner Kwanci said a health worker strike over pay conditions across the state worsened the recent cholera outbreak, as many of the victims were unable to seek medical care.

Medical workers across the state began an indefinite strike on 25 June to protest the state government’s 9 June suspension of an improved salary structure.

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Nigeria's main armed rebel group has said it is prolonging its truce by 30 days while warning that it is not giving up the fight.

"The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is extending its unilateral ceasefire which expired midnight (2300 GMT), September 15, 2009 by 30 days," the group said in a statement.

“The government should use this extension of time to do the right thing instead of pretending to talk peace while arming the military for a war it cannot win,” it added.

"The Oil and Gas industry who will bear the brunt of renewed hostilities should not be deceived by the amnesty charade or the recent military hardware purchases as this is only leading to another cycle of violence."

In August, MEND said it was ready to maintain the ceasefire 'and even extend it if the conditions are encouraging'.

On June 25, Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua offered amnesty to all militants who laid down their arms in the Delta region.

The arms were to be handed over in centers where the fighters would be registered under a reintegration program running from August 6 to October 4.

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At least twenty-nine people have been killed and dozens more injured in central Kenya after unidentified hustlers mounted night raids to steal cattle.

Local community leader Joseph Leparia said that attackers from the ethnic Pokot tribe raided a field with animals belonging to Samburu herders late on Monday, the Press TV correspondent in Kenya reported.

The men then killed 21 Samburus and made off with more than 600 cows.

Local lawmaker Raphael Letimalo underscored the fact that women and children were among those killed in the deadly attack. The authorities say that in addition to the 21 Samburu casualties, 8 Pokot raiders also died in the attack.

Clashes over water, livestock, and pastureland have long plagued Kenya's remote regions, particularly during severe dry months.

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afrol News, 15 September - A top United Nations official has warned today, that although Sierra Leone had embarked on a remarkable journey towards a stable, peaceful and democratic country, this journey will be bumpy, long and even, at times, dangerous.

“We must anticipate accidents, derailments and mistakes along this road… there are no easy benchmarks that will tell us that Sierra Leone is out of the woods,” Michael Schulenberg, the Secretary-General’s Executive Representative for Sierra Leone, said in his briefing to the Security Council.

“What Sierra Leone will need to succeed is time, patience, determined national leadership and continued international support,” he added.

Mr Schulenberg noted that Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world, it does not have a large educated middle class and over 70 percent of the population remains illiterate. In addition, state institutions remain weak and the nation’s journey towards prosperity is taking place in a “difficult” regional environment.

The political and security situation in West Africa remains “highly precarious,” said the Executive Representative, noting worrying signs of military coups and ethnic and inter-religious conflicts, as well as threats from illicit drug trafficking and international crime.

Given the interdependence of most countries in the sub-region, this could ultimately threaten Sierra Leone’s achievements. On the other hand, a successful and peaceful Sierra Leone could have a positive influence on the developments in the region, added Mr Schulenberg, who also heads the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL).

“Sierra Leone will need the international community for continued political, financial and economic support, but let us not forget that we too will need Sierra Leone for fostering regional peace and stability,” he warned.

He noted that, over the last year, UNIPSIL has been able to prove that it is possible to draw down a large and expensive peacekeeping operation and replace it with a “much cheaper and leaner” peacebuilding mission.

With a staff of only 73, UNIPSIL - which last August replaced the previous UN political office in the country, known as UNIOSIL - has maintained a strong role as a political facilitator in the country, as demonstrated by the Office’s role in helping to resolve the recent outbreak of violence in the country, he said.

In his latest report on the Office, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recommended a one-year extension of the mandate of UNIPSIL, which works closely with the UN Peacebuilding Commission in supporting the post-conflict peacebuilding efforts of the country.

afrol News, 15 September - The Deal, Awarded to ECtel and its Partner, the LR Group, Reinforces the Company's Leadership as Revenue-Management Provider in Africa.

The principal telecommunications company in Angola, has selected ECtel's fraud management solution to protect revenue through real-time detection and prevention of fraud losses.

ECtel Ltd. was announced today to have been selected for the project together with LR Group, a leading company operating worldwide in financing, managing, developing, producing, and maintaining medium and large scale national projects, with a special focus on Africa.

"ECtel's FraudView(R) provides us with the tools to maximize our revenue potential and prevent fraud losses critical in a fast growing company such as ours," said Dr Antonio Alberto Briffel Neto, Administrator of Angola Telecom. "As the country's leading national, international and domestic communications provider, we require the innovation and flexibility provided by ECtel's leading solution, offering us an unparalleled fraud management solution. Not only did ECtel provide us with the market's best solution, but they packaged it together with supreme service and support as well."

Angola Telecom, Angola's primary telecommunications provider, currently serves over 110,000 Angolan customers, and is the country's international gateway for communication.

ECtel's FraudView will provide Angola Telecom with a wide variety of unique, state-of-the-art fraud detection and prevention technologies, including risk management systems, new subscriber evaluation, best in class network traffic and usage monitoring.

FraudView, the most comprehensive fraud management solution for telecom operators, is designed to meet the needs of wireline, wireless, convergent and next generation communication service providers. The system enables real-time detection and prevention of numerous fraud types, both internal and external, allowing its users to stem revenue losses across all business lines and services. Deployed at over 75 operators worldwide, FraudView boasts the industry's largest installed base for wireline and wireless operators and the market's first solutions supporting 3G and VoIP networks.

"We are excited to work with Angola Telecom, one of Africa's leading telecom providers, as we continue to place substantial emphasis on this fast growing region," said Mr. Itzik Weinstein, President and CEO of ECtel. "This order from Angola Telecom attests to our commitment to the African region and establishes ECtel as one of the leading revenue management providers in Africa."

afrol News, 15 September - The government of Zimbabwe, UNICEF and the international donor community yesterday unveiled a $70 million partnership through the Educational Transition Fund (ETF) and the revitalisation of the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) to ensure access and quality education for the country’s children.

“The programmes we launch today are momentous. BEAM will ensure that over 700 000 of Zimbabwe’s vulnerable children are in school, creating a huge demand for education,” said UNICEF representative in Zimbabwe, Dr Peter Salama. “On the other hand the ETF will boost the supply side, ensuring that every child has a text book in all of the country’s 5,300 primary schools, within 12 months.”

Recent assessments have revealed serious shortages of learning materials, textbooks and supplies in schools. One assessment showed a ratio of 10 pupils per every text book, across Zimbabwe. Another assessment showed that a staggering 20 percent of primary schools had no textbooks at all for English, Mathematics or an African Language. The impact of the deteriorating quality in education is stark. Grade 7 examination pass rates declined from 53 percent in 1999 to 33 percent in 2007. In addition, statistics showed that almost 50 percent of Zimbabwe’s children graduating from primary school were not proceeding to secondary school.

The support - one of the largest social sector initiatives in the last five years in Zimbabwe - will also see school fees paid for a large number of the country’s orphaned and vulnerable children. The funds will provide text books, stationary and improve capacity for the education sector.

Commenting on the support, Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart said; "The education sector still faces numerous challenges, but the transition fund we launch today is a positive step towards the revival of the sector. Indeed it is extremely gratifying to see donors, government and the UN come together to ensure quality education for Zimbabwe's children. As a government we are grateful and encouraged."

Zimbabwe’s education sector, once a model in Africa, continues to be riddled with challenges. Public financing of the sector declined significantly over the last decade leaving most schools with no funds to purchase, even the most basic teaching materials such as text books and stationary.

With support from the governments of Australia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and the European Commission, the Education Transition Fund is a stop gap funding measure aimed at reinvigorating the educational system, while BEAM, a programme of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, provides a crucial safety net for vulnerable children.

“Support from these donors represents a bold and visionary recommitment to Zimbabwe’s children,” said Dr Salama.

afrol News, 15 September - A study exploring the healing of diabetic skin ulcers using topical oxygen/ozone gas mixtures could not proceed to completion and was now abandoned, according to Ozonics International, LLC, a veteran-owned biotechnology company engaged in the research and development of ozone-based medical therapies.

"This fully scientific study, a world-first in its scope, was to be performed in Egypt, recruiting the collaboration of US and Egyptian experts," said Gerard Sunnen, MD, Ozonics president.

The study was to focus at Egypt which has a diabetic population estimated at 5 million and the prevalence of diabetes is said to be rising rapidly in the Middle East, noted the study group further adding that, 20 percent of diabetics develop skin lesions such as leg ulcers, and 15 percent of those will eventually require amputation.

In the US, the group also noted that out of 24 million diabetics about 80,000 undergo lower limb amputations yearly.

"Pilot research studies have shown that topical oxygen/ozone treatment can dramatically reduce these amputation numbers," Dr Sunnen emphasised, adding, "The FDA has already approved topical oxygen for skin healing in diabetes and vascular conditions. This proprietary technology adds a natural element's remarkable antimicrobial properties to accelerate wound resolution. No other antimicrobial can claim such wide range of action against the entire spectrum of wound-invading bacterial and fungal families, nor claim such unwavering defense against bacterial resistance, the bane of all antibiotics."

Other reported unique features of ozone include its ability to neutralise wound bacterial and fungal toxins - well known to inhibit healing - and to enhance local circulation via the activation of nitric oxide, in biochemical pathways shared by drugs like sildenafil (Viagra).

The study, named "Safety and efficacy of ozone therapy in the treatment of diabetic skin ulcers: A randomized double blind controlled clinical study," was to be sponsored by the University of Cairo, and endorsed by the National Research Centre, Cairo, the Egyptian National Institute for Diabetes and Endocrinology, and the Egyptian National Cancer Institute.

"The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), despite its denials, has long shown adversity to complementary medicine and to ozone-based medical therapies in particular, and research initiatives have suffered. Another US medical ozone company, for example, had to back off from its groundbreaking clinical investigations on hepatitis C and now focuses on ozone disinfection of hospitals," said the doctor also saying NYSDOH's interference has proven to be a potent deal breaker.

"Inhibition of medical ozone development, possibly motivated by commercial interests, is done by discouraging potential business partners from collaborating with US - based medical ozone companies and by discrediting US researchers and entrepreneurs. Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia are consequently now far ahead of the US in the development of these forward-looking biotechnologies," he said.

Dr Sunnen concluded, "Let us hope that the abandonment of this study will only be temporary and that research avenues will unlock. Diabetics need not suffer the travails of protracted skin ulcer treatments, often experienced as interminable. Amputations devastate the body and often profoundly demoralize patients. Looking into the future, research in oxygen/ozone topical therapies will find applications in all manner of acute and chronic wound care, including diabetic and pressure ulcers, circulatory skin lesions, post-surgical wounds, and complex accident and war wounds."

15 Sep 2009

The Tanzanian military has vehemently denied reported claims that Rwandan rebel groups are fleeing to the central East African country.

Media reports had earlier accused the Tanzanian government of allowing rebel groups responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide to cross its borders.

"We have no cases of rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (DFLR) in Tanzania and we are yet to receive official reports that this group is fleeing" its strongholds in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzanian military spokesman said on Tuesday.

Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich, the military spokesperson for the UN mission in DR Congo, has however confirmed the reports, saying DFLR rebels, hidden among displaced civilians, have been seen moving into Tanzania.

"There have been movements of civilians and people … along with some DFLR rebels into Tanzania … but there is no evidence to suggest that these rebels are evacuating their DR Congo bases," Dietrich stressed.

The presence in eastern DR Congo of FDLR rebels, accused of taking part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, before fleeing across the border, has always been a major source of instability in the region.

That is why in January, the Congolese and Rwandan governments launched a joint offensive to fight the remnants of the Hutu rebels, mainly active in North Kivu.

As a result of the recent spark in fighting, over 35,000 people have been displaced in the region, mostly seeking relieve in the wild refuge of the African jungle to escape terror and hostilities.

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