14 August 2009

Army commanders from four African nations began a two-day summit in Algeria, aimed at enhancing border security and containing terrorist actions.

WesternAfrica

Commanders-in-Chief from Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger are meeting a week after a suicide bomber wounded three people at the French Embassy in Mauritania.

Mauritania's interior ministry said the attacker was trained by Salafiste, a conservative Islamic movement, in camps scattered in the open desert between Mauritanian, Mali and Algeria, according to an AFP report.

Security experts and government officials from these nations agree that recent kidnappings, assassinations and suicide bombings are traceable to new terrorism training camps in the Trans-Sahel, where borders are obscure and laws are not enforced.

These camps are believed to be fuelling anti-Western attacks that often aim to raise money for groups with links to Al Qaeda.

This is not the first time these Saharan / Sahelian countries have attempted to coordinate their security policies. Their heads of state scheduled a security and peace summit at the beginning of the year in Bamako, but this was postponed.

The connection between terrorists and drug-trafficking networks is also a real threat that has forced authorities in these countries to act.

But counterterrorism experts say these African nations' militaries may be challenged by deficits in funding and communications technologies, especially in combat against technologically advanced groups deeply hidden in the hinterland.
africagoodnews

14 August 2009

Congolese forces have arrested one of the major remaining suspects for crimes committed during the Rwandan genocide. The indicted former mayor of a Rwandan town will be put on trial at the special tribunal for genocide suspects in Tanzania.
Rwnada_genocide_poster
A wanted poster for suspects in the Rwandan genocide

Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende confirms the Congolese army has captured fugitive Gregoire Ndahimana in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Yes, Gregoire Ndahimana was arrested by our troops in North Kivu within a group of FDLR who were fighting against our troops there," Mende said.

The wanted suspect was hiding within the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, known as FDLR. The DRC and Rwanda have been engaged in joint military operations this year against the FDLR, which is largely comprised of ethnic Hutus responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Ndahimana was caught as he was looking for food among the local population. He will be tried in Arusha, Tanzania, at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

The court has indicted Ndahimana for genocide, or complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity. He is accused of conspiring with a church priest and the local ethnic militia to exterminate his town's minority Tutsi population.

Nearly all of the 6,000 Tutsis living in the former mayor's town are thought to have been killed during the outbreak of ethnic violence. More than 2,000 died when the church in which they were seeking refuge was bulldozed, allegedly upon the local priest's request.

The court indictment details the suspect's alleged pre-violence meetings with the priest and others to plan the massacre.

The indictment says local authorities first launched attacks against the Tutsi to drive them from their homes to the church. The authorities then weakened the refugees through poor sanitation conditions and continual attacks against the church until they leveled the building.

The indictment alleges that after the destruction of the church and the death of those inside, the suspect enjoyed a beer with the priest and other authorities to celebrate.

Twelve indictees of the special tribunal remain at-large.

The president of Rwanda's main association of genocide victims has called for the DRC to step up efforts to capture the remaining fugitives, many of whom are still in eastern Congo and whose whereabouts he says the Congolese government has known for a long time.

Congo spokesman Mende admits other genocide suspects are in Congo among the FDLR, and expressed hope that with the new military offensive against the group, others too would be caught and sent to the court in Tanzania for trial.

"We hope that those genocidaires that are hiding among them [the FDLR] will be caught, but we can not locate them as by now because they are hiding and they are moving here and there," Mende said.

Reelations between Congo and Rwanda have markedly improved in the past year. The two are now working together to help root out the FDLR and have formally re-established diplomatic ties for the first time in more than a decade.

The FDLR forces operating in eastern Congo have been a thorn in the side of Rwanda and DRC relations for years. After the genocide, Rwanda launched military operations into DRC territory to go after genocide suspects who fled there.

Congolese President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame met on the border last week to signal the two countries' improving relations.

More than 800,000 Rwandans died in 1994 during just three months of violence.
africagoodnews

JOHANNESBURG, 14 August 2009 (IRIN) - The European Commission has announced that it will top up a €120 million (US$171 million) humanitarian donation to Zimbabwe with a further US$13 million after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's June 2009 visit to the Belgium capital Brussels.

The monies are part of the Short Term Support Strategy, an EU initiative to cover immediate food security concerns and assist those affected by breakdowns in essential services.

"Though the food security situation has started to improve slightly, Zimbabwe continues to face a protracted emergency," Karel De Gucht, Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, through whose department the money will be facilitated, said in a statement.

"Urban populations are particularly vulnerable due to lack of access to land. It is therefore crucial in this period that ongoing food security interventions are reinforced and consolidated in order to reach the populations in need."

In the first quarter of 2009 nearly 7 million Zimbabweans required food assistance, but despite a better harvest this year, by the first quarter of 2010 about 2.4 million Zimbabweans are expected to be in need of food aid.

Since 2002, the European Commission has donated about US$817 million "in both humanitarian and essential development aid to the population", the statement said.
irinnews

NAIROBI, 14 August 2009 (IRIN) - Ethnic clashes in northeastern Central African Republic (CAR) and the activities of Ugandan rebels in the southeast have left thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) without food, protection or shelter, a UN official said.

"[There has been a] resurgence in ethnic violence in the northeastern Vakaga region, especially between [the] Goulah and Karah ethnic groups, leading to new displacement, as well as refugees fleeing to Chad," Nick Imboden, information management officer in the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in CAR, said.

"The situation has been deteriorating for several months, with frequent clashes, casualties and burning of homes," he added.

About 18,000 people have fled to Chad since the beginning of the year. Some fled clashes between government forces and rebels while others were escaping inter-ethnic skirmishes.

Recently, the UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Catherine Bragg described the humanitarian situation in CAR as "unique". The country was the second poorest on Earth after Sierra Leone.

Government institutions were "near absent" outside Bangui, the capital, the security forces very weak, insecurity rampant and rebel groups seemed more content with marginalization than any specific agenda, said Bragg, who is also Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, addressing reporters in New York.

In June, more than 600 homes were burned and 3,700 people displaced in ethnic violence in Birao (also in Vakaga), about 1,200km east of Bangui.

Sitta Kai-Kai, UN World Food Programme (WFP) representative in CAR, said the number of displaced in Birao had more than tripled since recent attacks. WFP distributed the last of its prepositioned food in August to 14,000 people, including IDPs and the local population.

"The rainy season makes road access to Birao all but impossible," she added. "WFP is urgently seeking US$500,000 to conduct an airlift operation to reach these beneficiaries in September to replenish dwindling stocks that cannot be brought in by road."

LRA attacks

In the southeast, more than 1,000 people from surrounding areas have temporarily relocated to Obo town in the far east of CAR, following attacks by the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on Goubéré (5km northwest of Obo) and Ligoua (20km southeast of Obo), according to local authorities.

Another 100 villagers from Ligoua were reported to be staying with host families in Obo.

"LRA attacks are ongoing, every week there are reports of new incidents. These are not major, but [are] frequent," Imboden said.

An estimated 2,000 IDPs and DRC refugees are in the Obo area, but more are likely to arrive. "The problem [in Obo] is that there is a limited humanitarian presence so we have not yet been able to conduct an adequate assessment," he said.

The UN was planning a two-week inter-agency mission to distribute aid and evaluate the situation, he said. At the moment, COOPI and ACTED are the only international NGOs present.

The LRA rebels fled their bases in the Democratic Republic of Congo for CAR and Southern Sudan after military operations against them.

IDPs in northwest

Fighting in 2007, particularly around Paoua, resulted in large-scale population displacement. More than 100,000 refugees fled to Chad and Cameroon and a further 100,000 people were displaced into the bush.


Peace is holding in this area and there have been no major attacks recently. People are still afraid of returning home, however, despite a 2008 peace deal between rebels controlling the area and the government and the formation of an inclusive government in January.

Generally, the situation in CAR has been aggravated by an economic downturn in the southwestern mining areas. CAR, according to the UN Development Programme, has been hit quicker and harder by the global economic crisis than most other African states.

"With the northern parts of CAR locked down in rebellion, possible social turmoil in the south would put a definite end to the country's fragile progress since the democratic elections in 2005," the Humanitarian and Development Partneship Team in CAR said on 12 August.

Imboden said possible elections in 2010 could increase tension. "[Last year] was an optimistic year but 2009 has proved us wrong, with tensions between rebel fighters and the population in the northwest, and increasing tension between ethnic groups in the north-east as well the formation of a new rebel group."

The new group, CPJP [Convention des Patriots pour la Justice et la Paix] emerged in early 2009 and set up base on the road between Ndele and Ngarba [along the Chadian border] in the northeast.

Early this year, the group fought government forces, displacing civilians and forcing some to flee across the border to Daha in southern Chad. A stalemate has since occurred, but initial attempts at mediation by the government are yet to be accepted by the CPJP.
irinnews

14 Aug 2009
Crewmembers from two pirate-held Egyptian vessels flee the Somali coast before killing and injuring a number of their captors.

On Friday, the men attacked the pirates killing at least two of them before setting sail for the Yemeni shoreline, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Initially the crewmembers unsuccessfully attempted to appease the bandits with half of the 4-million-dollar ransom the pirates had demanded. They, then, attacked them with their bare hands and blunt instruments within their reach.

The Egyptian crewmembers are said to be holding some pirates hostage.

The two cargo ships, which were carrying 40 passengers, were seized in the Gulf of Aden four months ago.

Patrolling coalition ships have recently managed to foil a number of pirate attacks and release some of the captured ships. The buccaneers, though, continue to plague the waters heavily frequented by commercial and passenger vessels.
presstv

14 Aug 2009
Crew members of an Egyptian ship have attacked their Somali captors, killing two of them and arresting several others.

The nearly forty crew members and their two fishing ships had been held captive off the northern coast of war-torn Somalia since last May by pirates who demanded ransom for their release.

Last Wednesday, the pirates refused to accept nearly USD 200,000 offered by local businessmen for the release of the hostages and their ships, a report said on Friday.

According to a commander of another pirate group, in the northeastern autonomous region of Puntland, who demanded anonymity, the pirates were attacked with machetes and metal bars.

He added that several pirates are thought to have been 'taken hostage' by the crew who are now reportedly sailing towards a Yemeni port.

Piracy in the region has decreased considerably since the deployment of foreign naval forces late last year. A few abducted vessels still remain in pirates' hands as many former pirates have denounced the activity.
presstv

14 Aug 2009
The Movement for the Emancipation for the Niger Delta (MEND) has accused the Nigerian government of deception for demanding 'false' confessions from the militants.

In a Friday statement, Niger Delta's militia claimed the administration in Abuja has demanded that MEND admit to having stolen the country's military weapons in exchange for the clemency proposed by the state in its dealings with the group.

“The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has been approached by the Nigerian government to own up to thousands of weapons belonging to the Nigerian Army which would be delivered secretly at night to an arms collection centre if we agree to the plan,” the statement read.

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua had suggested that MEND fighters lay down their arms in exchange for an amnesty for the group.

The guerrillas, however, have remained wary of the government bid.

In their Friday letter, MEND spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo, reaffirmed the militia's static posture and said, “This desperate measure which aims to give the amnesty program some semblance of progress has the input and connivance of the Amnesty Commitee, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Ministry of Defense as well as the Joint Task Force. We know that some unscrupulous individuals will participate in this scam because of the money involved and as such we are using this opportunity to raise the alarm before Nigerians and the international community is hoodwinked.”

“For a government that has perfected the art of rigging elections, this latest fraudulent attempt does not come to us as a surprise,” he went on to say.

Gbomo called for viable strategies in order to settle the anti-government disputes over the natural riches situated in Africa's largest exporter of fossil fuels, noting, “MEND believes in a holistic process where the root issues that prompted the unrest are addressed and weapons are freely given up in exchange for justice.”

The group has been fighting the government since its inception in 2005, vying for a larger share of the country's energy trade revenues.
presstv

13 August 2009

Kenya's Jamii Bora Trust has teamed up with an American nonprofit group to create Africa's first ecologically friendly town built with microfinancing. Some 2,500 families are to live in Kaputei, near Kenya's capital of Nairobi. The families, most of who are from slum areas of Nairobi, will be able to purchase these homes with micro loans.

They are building their future, one brick at a time.

Members of Jamii Bora Trust produce the bricks, tiles and other materials needed to construct what has become a first in Africa.

A town that is virtually self-sustaining, with its own water supply, primary school and other services, built by the poor for the poor.

Kaputei is a 160-hectare plot located 36 kilometers from Nairobi. It will eventually be home to 2,500 families.

By the end of May, some 300 families had already moved into the homes.

A number of families have brought their businesses with them.

The families come primarily from the Nairobi slum of Kibera, said to be Africa's largest informal settlement. Most people there earn less than one dollar a day and do not have access to electricity and running water.

Jamii Bora member Jane Ngoiri and her family used to live in Mathare, a slum similar to Kibera.

She says living in a house with several rooms, running water and electricity is a dream come true. "We are talking about [the] kitchen and now I am in my own bedroom, my children are in their own bedroom," she says, "this is great!"

Kaputei is the brainchild of Jamii Bora Trust, a nationwide microfinance company that gives loans to the poorest of the poor, usually for small-scale businesses.

Members purchasing Kaputei homes receive loans with up to a 10 percent interest rate and up to 15 years' repayment time. The monthly mortgage is $36, comparable to rents in the slum.

Jamii Bora member Ngoiri says that it makes little difference if people rise out of poverty but are still living in the slum. "If you come out of your house, from your house, outside your house you get flowing sewage. So you do not have different [life] with the person who is saying he is poor and you are saying you are able now. So the first thing we see is that now we have climbed a ladder and we have to change also our living [quarters] so that we can understand how far we have gone," Bora said.

She says she is confident that her and other children will now not be lured into lives of crime or early motherhood as they might if they continued living in the slum.

Partnering with Jamii Bora Trust is Unitus, a nonprofit microfinance organization based in Seattle, Washington. Its president, Ed Bland, explains how the project fits in with micro-finance. "It is very, very innovative and it shows another element of the rung of a ladder out of poverty. One of the last ones is housing, and really robust housing. So that is what the Kaputei project is," he said.

Kaputei is designed to be self-sustaining, with its own water and power supply.

Elijah Biamah is an engineer at the University of Nairobi who teamed up with Jamii Bora to design water and sanitation systems.

He gives the example of how waste water in Kaputei is recycled after it has been collected and exposed to ultraviolet light.

"Then that water is now safe - safe that is can be used for flushing the toilets. It can also be recycled and used for irrigating the crops around the homestead without any harmful effects whatsoever," Biamah said.

Meanwhile, residents such as Ngoiri are turning their houses into homes, looking forward to their new lives away from the slum.
africagoodnews

13 August 2009

Nigeria says the amnesty it is offering to rebels in the oil-rich Niger Delta is boosting production of crude oil that had been hurt by violence. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed the issue with Nigerian officials.

oil_barell

Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe says President Umara Yar'Adua is very optimistic that peace will be fully restored in the oil-rich Niger Delta by the end of the year.

The Yar'Adua government has offered an amnesty to rebels in the Niger Delta who have been attacking oil platforms and taking hostages for years. Maduekwe says that amnesty is boosting oil production.

"Already it is coming up," Maduekwe said. "It is improving. Just the mere perception that peace is coming back, amnesty is working, the oil levels are gradually coming up again."

Maduekwe spoke to reporters following a meeting with Secretary of State Clinton, who says Nigerian defense officials have made "very promising" specific suggestions about how the U.S. military can help bring peace and stability to the Niger Delta.

"We will through our joint efforts through our bi-national commission mechanism determine what Nigeria would want from us for help," Clinton said. "Because we know this is an internal matter, we know this is up to the Nigerian people and their government to resolve, and then look to see how we would offer that assistance."

Mrs. Clinton says the Obama administration understands the importance of stability in a country that is Africa's largest contributor of peacekeeping forces, its biggest oil producer, and the largest recipient of American direct private-sector investment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

"So given all that, it is critical for the people of Nigeria, first and foremost, but indeed for the United States, that Nigeria succeeds in fulfilling its promise," Clinton said.

Nigeria is America's fifth-largest supplier of oil. The International Energy Agency says Nigeria crude production fell to a 20-year low last month as a result of both technical problems and violence in the Niger Delta, including an attack on a Chevron pipeline.

Militants in the Delta say they are fighting against a government in Abuja that has not done enough to address the environmental degradation of oil production and has not equitably shared revenues that come from the region's oil.

Foreign Minister Maduekwe says amnesty is a way for the government to start anew to address those issues.

"There is an issue of justice, an issue of environmental degradation," Maduekwe said. "These are historic injustices that have taken place over time. Whether some of those who carried arms did it our of genuine desire for the welfare of the people or did it, as we know from evidence, out of pure personal criminal profiting, there was need for us to reset. And let's start all over again."

He says the amnesty offered by President Yar'Adua is a leap of faith.

"We clearly understood that there was need to be bold and imaginative in dealing with that," Maduekwe said. "Old methods were not going to be good enough."

Not all the Delta rebels have accepted the offer. Daphne Wysham is on the board of the U.S.-based Institute for Policy Studies. She says amnesty is one step, but does not acknowledge the government's role in the violence.

"It does not offer a counter-assumption of also any sort of obligation on the part of the government to seek forgiveness for its role in the conflict that is ongoing there," Wysham said.

The latest International Energy Agency report on Nigeria says amnesty may not end the violence because few rebel leaders have entered into direct negotiations with the government, and the offer of cash payments falls short of demands for the redistribution of oil revenue.
africagoodnews

MAGARIA, 13 August 2009 (IRIN) - Yaou Sadi, a farmer in south-eastern Niger, can remember almost exactly how much millet and sorghum he has cultivated, going back for years. Not knowing how to read or write, his memory is the most reliable record he has - until now. For the past three months, he has attended evening classes after working in the fields to learn how to write.

With US$30,000 from the Spanish government, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched 26 village literacy classes in March 2009 with hundreds of farmers in the central Tahoua and south-eastern Zinder regions.

More than 11 percent of the population in Tahoua lives in severe food-insecurity, according to the government’s most recent anti-poverty plan. “Many households are small subsistence producers and their domestic production cannot cover their food needs for more than three to five months a year,” according to the government. Nationwide, almost three million people are food-insecure, with nearly one-third facing a severe shortage.

FAO’s national food security coordinator, Moutari Souley, told IRIN that by becoming literate, the farmers have a better chance to survive with agriculture. “Basic literacy allows them to manage better their harvests and services.”

Checking market prices, negotiating with buyers and keeping records have been impossible, Sadi told IRIN.

In a thatched classroom in Magaria, 85km north of Zinder - the second largest city in Niger after the capital Niamey - Sadi crouched on the dirt floor to write slowly his name on the blackboard, deliberately pressing the chalk stub with each letter. “I started coming to classes three months ago,” he said, “Because I feared forgetting. If I forget, I lose all the numbers, all the information.”

Speaking in Hausa, the predominant language in his village Magaria, the farmer said his four children, all of them in school, help him when he runs into problems. He told IRIN he can now write numbers.

FAO’s Souley told IRIN the literacy courses, half of which are for women exclusively, also help women have more of a voice.

Rural women are responsible for more than half the food production in sub-Saharan Africa, yet have little access to time-saving equipment or profitable innovations, according to the 2008 multi-agency Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook.
irinnews

JOHANNESBURG, 13 August 2009 (IRIN) - It will take some time for Madagascar's feuding political rivals to implement their breakthrough agreement, but while hopes are high that the newly signed deal will pave the way to reconciliation and stability, there are still some serious hurdles.

"I wish this were the end of the political conflict - but alas, there is lots of scope for continuing struggles," Stephen Ellis, professor of social sciences at the Free University of Amsterdam and senior researcher at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands, told IRIN.

The power-sharing deal signed in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, on 9 August brought Andry Rajoelina, former mayor of Madagascar's capital, Antananarivo, face to face with ousted President Marc Ravalomanana for the first time since political violence began in January 2009. The standoff culminated in what the international community condemned as a "coup-style" change of leadership on 17 March.

After months of failed mediation attempts, the latest talks, facilitated by former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano on behalf of the international community under the auspices of the African Union (AU), were widely hailed.

"This was a clear sign that the leaders are now committed to seeing an end to the political crisis," said a statement on 11 August by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), a think-tank based in Pretoria, South Africa.

The Indian Ocean Island's main political factions pledged to work towards an interim government, put an end to months of political violence and hold fresh elections within 15 months. Former heads of state Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zaphy were also signatories to the document.

The modalities

While the accord agreed on an interim authority with a president, vice president, prime minister, three deputy prime ministers and a cabinet of 28 ministers, to be in place by September 2009, the modalities of how power will be shared among the parties are still sketchy. Ellis warned: "The agreement is vague enough about the transitional arrangements so as to leave scope for continuing contestation."

According to Richard Marcus, Director of the International Studies Programme at California State University, in the US, if Madagascar's recent history was an indication, the proposed process of constitutional reform and the creation of "democratic and stable institutions" could be serious stumbling blocks.

"The constitution has been altered by every president to serve his purpose since [1992]. If the very nature of the political system is subject to the whims of each individual leader, then how can we say that institutions have ever been stable?" he noted. "How will this piece of paper, creating only a transitional government, and no parameters leading to constitutional reform, lead to stable institutions?"


The amnesty

A highly contentious amnesty would be granted to Ravalomanana and Ratsiraka, both currently in exile. Ratsiraka's convictions in 2003 for alleged misuse of public funds and threatening state security would be pardoned; Ravalomanana's four-year jail sentence for embezzlement and abuse of power during his seven-year rule would be nullified; the incumbent, Rajoelina, would be protected from any issues arising from his rise to power.

"While the participants, and particularly Ravalomanana, Ratsiraka, and Rajoelina, are protected from prosecution for the political events of 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2009," Marcus noted, "the amnesty does not exonerate serious violations to human rights, fundamental liberties protected by regional and international instruments. It is therefore conceivable that a former leader could be tried on other grounds. That would be destabilizing."

The military

Those who backed Rajoelina's takeover bid, and might have benefited in the process, have yet to respond to the agreement. In particular, the position of the military, instrumental to the success of the power grab, remains unclear. "It is notable that the army officers who spearheaded the coup in March 2009 have dissociated themselves from this agreement," Ellis commented.

Marcus said, "It is easy to say that the military can return comfortably to the barracks now, and since it seems that neither sous-officers [lower ranks] nor elite are wanting to run the country, they very well might."

He pointed out that recent events meant the military had "lost much of its professionalization. While it has stayed stunningly politically unified, individual units have made significant money by serving as private guards for VIPs, and other less-than-illustrious activities. Going back to the barracks means going back to base salaries."

The roots

Ellis noted that although the struggle had "economic and social aspects, this one was primarily political. It began with rivalries within the political class, displaced by Marc Ravalomanana in his rise to power, and neglected by him subsequently."

Despite the agreement, the root causes of instability remained: "The current effort only covered political, not social or economic, considerations," Marcus noted.

The underlying reason for Madagascar's recurring situation was "because there are not the institutional channels for a frustrated, angry, marginalized population to express itself. The accord does nothing to resolve this issue in the short term," he said.

"Why was this an agreement between the heads of state? Do they represent Madagascar? Absent is any semblance of civil society. The great hope is less in the power of these leaders and more in the populace."

Social movements in predominantly rural Madagascar had generally been confined to urban areas. "It follows that if [unrest] moves to the countryside it has more profound implications for an unravelling of the state-society relationship," Marcus pointed out. "This is the point where the state can be threatened. The accord recognizes this in stating that the transition is meant to 'assure the continuity of the state'."


The election

The main purpose of the agreement is to ensure a smooth transition to internationally monitored elections around the end of 2010. Not only was 15 months "A long time for this unstable situation to last," Ellis commented, it would also be difficult "without sustained attention from the international community". The United Nations has offered to assist in organizing the poll.

Elections in Madagascar have often been hotly contested, as have the results. The agreement now throws up the question of who will be eligible to stand in the next one.

Ravalomanana, by indicating that he will not be part of the transitional authority, has put his name in the hat. "His decision should be viewed in light of the fact that the accord clearly specifies that members of the transition government may not run in the elections," the ISS statement noted.

Rajoelina's position is unclear. While there was no certainty that he would stay on as president of the transitional government, this post was excluded from the clause barring transition government members from standing in the upcoming polls.

There could also be a more serious problem: under the previous constitution Rajoelina was five years too young to be president. "Ratsiraka is too old to run," Marcus said. "He can, however, return to play a powerbroker."

Ravalomanana and Ratsiraka both claimed victory after elections in 2001. Ratsiraka's supporters tried to blockade Antananarivo, which was pro-Ravalomanana, but after a recount of the vote in April 2002, Madagascar's High Constitutional Court pronounced Ravalomanana president, ending Ratsiraka's 26-year rule.

The way forward

The process of constitutional revision could be vital in determining the success of the agreement. "Elections will be important in Madagascar. However, they will be important because of the consensus-building they bring. This should not be confused with democratic consolidation, or with building strong institutions. Madagascar first needs to survive a new constitutional convention and referendum. One step at a time," Marcus said.

"There will be more demonstrations during these 15 months. That in itself is ok. The important part is that key constituent groups remain committed to the process, and that the populace maintains its current level of patience."

The ISS was more optimistic: "It is likely that some disagreements will arise in the selection of members of the government, but if the recently ended talks are anything to go by, there is sufficient political will to ensure that eventually this transitional authority will be formed."

irinnews

CAPE TOWN, 13 August 2009 (IRIN) - Victims of South Africa's xenophobic attacks in May 2008 say they will only leave the temporary camp where they are living if they are repatriated to their home countries.

Bluewater camp outside Cape Town, in Western Cape Province, has housed 396 people - mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Somalia - for about a year, during which tension between the foreign nationals and the authorities has slowly increased, especially since the city of Cape Town ordered them to leave the site, which is also used as a holiday camp.

On 11 August acting High Court judge Arnoldus Smit put on hold a ruling on an application brought by the City of Cape Town to have the people evicted, after he was informed that the two parties were on the verge of reaching an amicable agreement.

Charlene May of the Legal Resources Centre, a humanitarian NGO representing the refugees, told IRIN they had met with city officials a few days before the scheduled court ruling.

"We are still waiting for the offer so we can put it to our clients. We think that it will be an offer of alternative accommodation, but we are not sure if this will be acceptable to the people we represent," she said.

The city has taken the view that the foreign nationals should be reintegrated into the communities from which they fled, citing the successful return of nearly 20,000 other foreign nationals to communities in Western Cape Province as a precedent.

The xenophobic violence erupted in Johannesburg in May 2008 and quickly spread through most parts of the country, killing more than 60 people and displacing about 100,000 others.

A spokesperson for the Bluewater residents, Didier Kilolokama, disputed the success of the reintegration process and alleged that many acts of violence were still being perpetrated against foreign nationals who had been reintegrated into communities.

The camp's inhabitants have endured the cold and wet winter months in tents, with no electricity or hot water and little food, but despite the harsh conditions said they would prefer to stay where they were if repatriation to their home countries was not an option.

"It is very difficult to move back into the communities. Lots of people in South Africa are ... [on strike] and looking for more money at this time because they are poor - they are angry and they take it out on us," Kilolokama said. "The conditions here are bad, but we are at least safe."
irinnews

HARARE, 13 August 2009 (IRIN) - The Grain Marketing Board (GMB), the sole buyer and seller of grain in Zimbabwe, is planning to sell agricultural inputs and become a "one stop shop" for farmers.

The GMB has been mired in controversy in recent years, and has been accused of providing preferential treatment to supporters of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party - senior party members and military officials allegedly received distributions of scarce maize, the staple food, and were handed agricultural inputs that were then resold on the informal market at greatly increased prices.

Maize is subject to price controls in Zimbabwe. GMB corporate affairs manager Muriel Zemura told IRIN that the board was paying US$265 a ton for maize, and had arranged with agricultural input suppliers to sell fertilizer, seed, chemicals and other inputs at its depots.

"After farmers have collected their money for delivering their maize to the GMB, they will, within the same complex, be able to buy most or all the inputs that they need for the new agricultural season," she said.

"The inputs on sale at our depots belong to the manufacturers, and not ourselves, so we are making it convenient for the farmers so that they don't spend a lot of money on travel costs."

Zemura dismissed any allegations of past GMB impropriety, and said so far the GMB had received fertilizer and chemicals, but not maize seed. The planting season is due to start in September/October.

The unity government, formed in February 2009 between Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, said recently it would target small-scale farmers with agricultural inputs to boost food production, but did not elaborate on how these would be distributed.

Zemura said the GMB was well-positioned to fulfil the distribution role. "Nothing has been said officially to us about distributing any inputs, but we are anticipating that it will happen. We have the skills, logistical ability, capacity, and we have a presence throughout the country."

A combination of environmental and political factors has decimated Zimbabwe's once thriving agricultural economy in the last decade; in the first quarter of 2009 nearly 7 million people depended on food aid.

Building on Malawi's success

"As the government, we want to make sure that small-scale farmers in communal areas get the requisite support from the government, since they contribute between 60 [percent] and 70 percent of our grain output," Tsvangirai told a recent meeting of businessmen and farmers in the arid province of Masvingo, 300km southeast of the capital, Harare.

He said they would borrow from the Malawian model, in which small-scale farmers had produced about 3.7 million tons of maize in 2009, compared to the 1.2 million tons produced jointly by Zimbabwe's commercial and small-scale farmers.

"We want to make sure that this coming agricultural season is a success, through the wholehearted support from the government to at least one million households that we have targeted to assist with fertilizer and seed, and we hope that is going to go a long way in providing food security."

Malawi first implemented an agricultural subsidy programme in early 2000, and by the 2008/09 farming season about 1.7 million small-scale farmers had benefited. Small-scale farmers were able to buy inputs at one-tenth of the usual price - the costs being borne by both donors and government - and were also not obliged to repay the balance of the subsidy.

However, Malawi's subsidy programme has elicited concerns over being open to corruption, and not the most cost-efficient method of delivering food security.

Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe's minister of finance, has set aside US$140 million to procure agricultural inputs for small-scale farmers. "Malawi is a very small country compared to Zimbabwe, and of the 3.8 million tons produced in that country, the bulk of the crop came from small-scale farmers who were supported to the tune of US$186 million."

Biti said several options were being weighed by the government to ensure transparency and accountability, such as communities embarking on public works programmes and being paid in farming inputs, while another consideration was that inputs would be provided as low-cost loans, with repayments being made after the harvest.

Vulnerable groups, such as child-headed households, the elderly, and the disabled would also benefit from a US$66 million scheme to distribute inputs to them.

Too late

Renson Gasela, an agricultural expert and former head of GMB, told IRIN the distribution of agricultural inputs was being left too late. "To start with, the government has no capacity to distribute the inputs countrywide before the onset of the rainy season between September and October. All serious farmers should have their implements like seed, fertilizer and chemicals by June," he said.

"Have the beneficiaries been identified? Is the maize seed and fertilizer available? If the implements can get to the farmers immediately then there would be a bit of hope. Unfortunately, it looks like the whole exercise is at the planning stage, which means inputs will get to fewer farmers very late, which will create more food shortages," he warned.

"Experience has shown that small-scale farmers have very low yields per acre. So what needs to happen is that as many of them as possible should get seed and fertilizer, so that they produce enough for their families and extra to feed the nation, but based on the lack of movement in terms of distribution of inputs, if nothing is done now, then we are facing a disaster."
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JUBA, 13 August 2009 (IRIN) - Concern is growing at the likely humanitarian impact of poor rains and high levels of insecurity in Southern Sudan, with aid workers and officials warning of a major hunger gap in coming months.

"Southern Sudan is faced with a massive food deficit caused by a combination of late rains, high levels of insecurity and displacement, disruptions [to] trade and high food prices," said Lise Grande, the UN Deputy Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Southern Sudan.

Speaking at a news conference on 12 August in Khartoum, she added: "The rains necessary for the first harvest have failed, which will extend the hunger gap from June all the way through October, when it normally ends in August."

The extension of the period between the depletion of stored food and the new harvest means extra food aid is needed. "Although it is still too early to tell for sure, the rains for the second and main harvest are likely to be moderate, if not below average," Grande added.

Aid agencies have already warned of a food aid shortfall and worry that malnutrition rates are rising. "We have been treating several children for malnutrition in Akobo," said Eunice Kavoi, team leader for the aid agency Medair in Akobo County of Jonglei State.

Medair launched a paediatric feeding programme in the area in June, providing children with therapeutic food – a fortified sweet peanut butter called Plumpy’nut.

"Logistics is complicated, but we have chartered flights to bring in special food for children, which helps enormously," Kavoi added.

The World Food Programme (WFP), a key source of food for locals in Akobo, has received some 83 percent of the food aid it requested in 2009 - 80,000MT out of 96,000MT.

It estimates it will need an additional 22,000MT, half of which is intended for eastern Jonglei State - an area hardest hit by recent fighting.

Security fears

The UN has warned that WFP's ability to deliver much-needed supplies was being hampered by the violence. "WFP and its partners have called on the government to put an end to inter-tribal fighting, which is endangering the delivery of humanitarian aid," UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said following an attack on 2 August .

More than 185 people died outside Akobo at a fishing camp of Lou Nuer people. Some had been among the more than 19,000 people who had fled to Akobo after clashes in April.

Local aid workers in Jonglei say the impact of limited food supplies is being felt.

"WFP are delivering regular supplies, and have increased the amount they are getting in using more helicopters," said Peter Yien Jal, administrative officer for the Nile Hope Development Foundation NGO, based in Akobo town. "But there is a huge demand: people receive rations but they quickly run out."

The last attempted shipment by river to Akobo of more than 700MT of WFP food was sunk or stolen in June during an attack in which some 95 soldiers accompanying the delivery were killed.

The roads to the region are impassable most of the year. "The rains and the harvest last year were not great, and the rains this year were poor," Jal added. "Combined with the recent violence, that is hurting very many people."

Lately, the rains have become a problem, regularly closing the mud airstrip at Akobo - and elsewhere in the region - to all but costly helicopter flights.

Grande warned that Sudanese authorities, aid workers and the UN were being stretched to the limits, noting that 27 major operations were under way in eight Southern states targeting 190,000 people. Initial UN plans had estimated there might be 10 projects for the whole year, she added.


No easy solutions

Meanwhile, others have warned that no quick fix should be expected. USAID’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) notes those worst affected are already those least able to cope, comprising mainly “returnees, the chronically food-insecure, conflict-affected households, and some refugees”.

Fighting in the Jonglei and Upper Nile region between the Lou Nuer and Jikany Nuer, it added, could be difficult to stop.

"Past experience [1993, 1995 and 2004] has shown that conflict between these two groups can extend for long periods of time, and often disrupts cultivation, access to dry season grazing and fishing areas, and informal grain/livestock exchange mechanisms," it warned in June.
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13 Aug 2009
At least ten Somali soldiers have been killed and 25 people injured in a sudden eruption of violence between two rival groups within the government forces.

Fighting continues in the Somali capital Mogadishu between soldiers loyal to the city's deputy-mayor, Abdi Fatah Sabriye, and supporters of the police chief, General Hassan Awale Kheydid.

Conflict broke out between the two divisions of Somali government forces over the control of a local checkpoint and its revenues, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Somalia remains the scene of continuing civil war that has grappled the Horn of Africa nation since 1991 following the overthrow of the country's junta dictatorship under Mohamed Siad Barre.

War rages on in the poverty-stricken nation over power struggle between deeply-divided militant groups and a shaky central government which has failed to claim control even in the capital.

The lawless state has been described as being on the verge of collapse despite international military presence meant to restore peace.

Over 16,000 people have been killed and a projected 250,000 others have been internally displaced across the war-ravaged nation during the past several months alone.
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KINJANDI, 12 August 2009 (IRIN) - In parts of Niger’s far-east Diffa region, animals dying from malnutrition have a direct impact on human food security and nutrition, according to local Livestock Ministry officials.

Regional livestock director Kosso Matta Kellou told IRIN 90 percent of Diffa’s residents count on animals for survival, and that poor animal health has been overlooked as a cause of human malnutrition.

“There is a chain effect and it is a precarious situation.”

According to preliminary results of a 2009 government survey on malnutrition among under-five children, currently under review, Diffa has the country’s highest rate of acute malnutrition – 17.4 percent – a five-point jump over last year, but still lower than 2007’s rate of 19.4 percent.

Matta Kellou said Livestock Ministry officials plan to look into local reports of animal deaths – with some breeders reporting to have lost as many as 25 percent of their animals.

“Most of these deaths are linked to malnutrition,” said Matta Kellou. In January 2008 the government carried out its first mass animal vaccination campaign, which has cut down on livestock deaths due to disease, he told IRIN.

But free vaccines cannot save animals from malnutrition, Matta Kellou said.

He said pastoralism accounts for more than half of Diffa’s economy, linking animal health directly to human health. “More animals are dying due to malnutrition than disease this year. Shrinking pastoral lands and animal malnutrition are still real problems.”

Niger in 2008 had a more than five-million-ton shortage of naturally grown animal feed, and Diffa was one of the most affected regions, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The pastoral and agricultural outlook is “worrying” due to weak and late rains thus far in 2009, FAO’s assistant coordinator in the emergency coordination unit, Nourou Tall, told IRIN.

A recent inter-ministerial bulletin on agriculture and pastoralism noted that rainfall in July had improved grazing land and that animal health is good overall.

But herders in Diffa region told IRIN they are being forced to sell under-fed sick animals before the animals die. “I have had that cow for five years,” said breeder Malam Sinear, pointing to a cow lying on the ground in his village of Kinjandi, 80km east of the town of Diffa.

“She is half her normal weight. If we kill her now I could earn US$34. But I could earn 10 times as much if she were in good health.” He asked if IRIN would like for him to prop her up for a picture because the cow could not stand on her own.

Sinear said the two tons of wheat he received from FAO earlier this year are long gone. FAO provided breeders in Diffa 636 tons of feed in 2009.

The breeder pointed to a growing hole in the side of his home to indicate how he had started feeding his animals sections of his home, made of dried wheat. Sinear told IRIN he has lost six of his 43 animals in 2009 and three more are now sick.

Local butcher Iliassou Idi told IRIN more breeders are trying to sell him their wasting animals. “I buy them and sell the meat at 50 cents for four pieces of meat.”

In the weekly livestock market in Djario 24km away, breeder Mamadou Difjao told IRIN he has lost five of his 20 animals to piroplasmosis in 2009 – 40 percent – versus three deaths out of 25 animals in 2008, or 12 percent.

The disease is caused by a parasite transmitted through ticks; infected animals lose their appetite and waste away.

Difjao said he vaccinated his animals rather than calling the local livestock agent because he would have had to pay for the agent’s gasoline cost to administer the vaccine.

The local agent, El Sidi Heikey, told IRIN his budget does not include money for gasoline costs to make house visits.

Regional livestock director Matta Kellou said without an official diagnosis it is hard to know if it was disease or hunger that killed the animals.
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BAIDOA, 12 August 2009 (IRIN) - Isack Abdinor Satar, 80, remembers a green and lush Baidoa, in south-western Somalia, with waterfalls in areas that are now the town's suburbs.

Over the years, population pressure, drought and changing weather patterns have caused most of these waterfalls and springs to dry up, totally changing the town's vegetation cover and ushering in perennial water shortages.

"In my youth, water was really available any time, anywhere in town," Satar said. "Water flowed in different directions from various sources but all these have now dried up. I think drought has seriously affected all water sources in Bay region."

Baidoa is facing a severe water shortage after most of its water points and wells dried up. These include the Garbadda water source, in the centre of town.

"Each day, hundreds of families brought their animals [to Garbadda] for watering," Hussein Sheikh Aden, a local resident, said. "Since last year, I have seen a very different situation. Due to lack of sufficient rainfall and increasingly high temperatures, the water point has dried up."

Farmers and pastoralists had long relied on Garbadda for their water supply, but now they have to search long and hard for small amounts of water. "We tried to dig a well; we dug really deep but we failed to find water," Aden said.

Halima Ibrahim Abdi, another resident, told IRIN: "I was born in Baidoa; I am now 60 years old. Baidoa used to be blessed with many water sources; we had water running under most bridges but, since last year, all this has changed."

A local journalist, who requested anonymity, told IRIN on 10 August that a 200-litre barrel of water cost 100,000 Somali shillings (US$3.50), a steep amount for many residents.

Grain production has also declined significantly, raising the price of cereals. Moreover, job opportunities had declined, the journalist added, as fewer traders and farmers were taking on casual labourers.

Desperate IDPs

In Geneva, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the humanitarian crisis in Somalia had reached a new low.

"There are 3.2 million people in need of urgent assistance," Elizabeth Byrs told UN radio. "Since May 2009, 200,000 people have fled insecurity in Mogadishu and there are a total of 3.9 million displaced - meaning one out of seven people is displaced in Somalia."

In the port city of Kismayo, IDPs said lack of food, health facilities and sanitation were the most pressing issues for about 30,000 people in various camps around the city.

Mohamed Muse Ali, chairman of the IDPs in Kismayo, said no aid agency was operating in any of the camps.

IDP camps between Mogadishu and Afgoye have recorded an increase in the number of new arrivals fleeing violence between government troops and Islamist insurgents in the city, according to camp leaders.

In central Somalia and the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, drought had displaced many pastoralist families who had also lost livestock. Many such families were facing hunger and disease outbreaks because of unsafe water.

For Somalis who have fled to neighbouring Kenya, congestion is the main problem in the three refugee camps in Dadaab.

Halima Aadan, a refugee in one of the camps, said congestion had contributed to a water shortage and high food prices, as well as difficulties accessing services such as health and sanitation.

"Refugees need more help because more are arriving daily; the new arrivals do not have shelter and have to live with relatives and other families; they should be allocated land on which to live," Aadan said.
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KINSHASA/KIGALI, 12 August 2009 (IRIN) - The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will continue military operations against Rwandan militias operating in the eastern provinces until they are dislodged from Congolese soil, says a minister.

"We shall review the achievements of the operations in November; before that, we shall continue pursuing the FDLR [rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda]," foreign minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, said.

Even then, the military operations would not be suspended until all the militias were dislodged from Congolese soil, he told IRIN.

The militias and the national army, the FARDC [Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo], are blamed for massive human-rights abuses in North and South Kivu, including widespread rape and sexual violence.

At least 200,000 cases of sexual violence have been recorded in eastern DRC since 1996, according to the UN. Across the country, an estimated 2.1 million people have been displaced by conflict, including about 538,880 in South Kivu Province and 1,130,000 in North Kivu.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), sexual and gender-based violence cases recorded in South Kivu increased by 30 percent in 2009 compared with 2008.

In territories such as Shabunda, west of the South Kivu capital, Bukavu, however, 80 percent of rapes have reportedly been committed by the Congolese military.

“Crime against humanity”

Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, on a visit to the eastern town of Goma on 11 August, described widespread sexual violence against women in the DRC as "a crime against humanity". She pledged US$17 million to combat the scourge.

"The US condemns the perpetrators of sexual violence, and all those who abet such violence and permit impunity to continue," Clinton said. "These individuals are guilty of crimes against humanity. These individuals harm not only individuals, families, villages and regions, but shred the very fabric that weaves us together as human beings."

Asked what should be done, she told UN Radio Okapi: "It is going to take NGOs and civil society. It has to start with making sure that the military of the DRC does not engage in any sexual and gender-based violence, and there has to be no impunity for anyone who does [and] an effort to cut off the funding for the militias and resolve the underlying political tensions in the east."

Before Clinton's visit, a coalition of 88 humanitarian and human rights organizations urged her to press the government and UN peacekeepers to offer more protection to civilians.

"Killings and brutal sexual violence against women, girls and also men have massively increased in eastern [DRC] since the start of military operations in January 2009," said the Congo Advocacy Coalition, which includes international and national organizations.

Rwandan support

The FDLR is one of the most active groups in eastern DRC. The FARDC is battling to dislodge the 6,000-strong militia, dominated by fighters believed to have participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

The militias control large swaths of land, mainly in the mineral-rich Kivu provinces; the illegal minerals trade helps to finance the war.

According to Rosemary Museminali, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, the insecurity orchestrated by the FDLR since the 1990s remains the biggest challenge to the stability of both DRC and Rwanda.

"We are now in the process of restoring the permanent commission between Rwanda and the DRC," she told IRIN. "This will enable us to foster political, social and economic cooperation for the benefit of our people."

Relations between Rwanda and the DRC soured after the former invaded the latter in 1998, claiming to be pursuing the FDLR. Recent policy changes have, however, seen the former foes mend fences.

"We don’t need to be prisoners of the past, but we want to shape the future to be bright," Rwandan President Paul Kagame told reporters on 6 August after meeting his Congolese counterpart, Joseph Kabila.

Kabila told reporters that military operations against the FDLR had been largely successful, adding that the militias were likely to be neutralized by year-end.

Last month, the International Crisis Group called for the suspension of the joint military operation against the FDLR, saying it had failed to end reprisal attacks against civilians.

"The Congolese Government... came out of many years of war, and that is very destabilizing to societies and very often human rights are considered a luxury during wartime," Clinton said. "But there are no excuses any longer and there has to be more expected from the government here."
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NAIROBI, 12 August 2009 (IRIN) - At least 16 percent of children under five in three southern provinces of the Central African Republic (CAR) are acutely malnourished while 6.6 percent suffer severe acute malnutrition, the UN Children's Fund says.

The malnutrition levels, which are above the emergency thresholds of 2 percent for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and 15 percent for global acute malnutrition (GAM), were found in Mambéré Kadei, Sangha Mbaéré and Lobaye provinces.

"In both the conflict-affected north and the more stable south, almost 700,000 children under five are living below acceptable standards," said Jeremy Hopkins, acting UNICEF representative in CAR. "Many are moving toward the outer edge of survival."

CAR is ranked 178 out of 179 on the UN Human Development Index. One in five children dies before the age of five and fewer than half complete primary school. Only 31 percent of the population have access to adequate sanitation.

"The situation of children in the south is of particular concern, due to the rapidly deteriorating nutritional status in tandem with an increasingly bleak funding outlook," Hopkins said.

According to UNICEF, some 16,710 children in the three areas surveyed were at risk. Nationally, more than one in 10 children aged six to 59 months suffer GAM while 2.3 percent suffer SAM.

UNICEF appealed for US$1.5 million for lifesaving therapeutic foods, drugs and other supplies.

"We need to ensure that all malnourished children are provided with the necessary nutritious supplements, which will restore their nutritional status to normal," Hopkins told IRIN. "Those children who are severely acutely malnourished are in urgent need of this attention to prevent them from dying.

"The chances of [severely acutely malnourished] children dying are increased by nine times due to their poor nutritional status," he added.

"Currently, we have the minimum in place to respond to these identified pockets of increased malnutrition," he said.

The ongoing conflict and insecurity in north and northeast CAR has increased vulnerability. Lasting security has remained elusive more or less since independence in 1960, with attacks by bandits and other armed rebels common, despite the signing of several peace accords.

In June, more than 600 homes were burned and 3,700 people displaced following ethnic violence in Birao, about 1,200km east of Bangui, the capital. The area is effectively cut off during the rainy season (May-October) due to impassable road conditions, limiting humanitarian access.
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NAIROBI, 12 August 2009 (IRIN) - Hundreds of children in northern Uganda have been affected by a rare and unexplained "nodding disease" that causes seizures, physical and mental stunting and at times leads to blindness and even death.

Previously reported in Southern Sudan, its cause is being investigated, according to the Ugandan health ministry. IRIN contacted researchers Sébastien Pion, Michel Boussinesq and Christoph Kaiser about the disease:

QUESTION: Is the nodding disease or syndrome a form of epilepsy?

ANSWER: The head nodding syndrome (HN) has been extensively documented in a recent article by Dr Andrea Winkler and colleagues. According to these authors, to date HN is not mentioned in any clinical classification and whether this represents a seizure disorder remains unclear.

If HN is not an epileptic phenomenon, it might be a non-epileptic movement disorder which could be caused by the same underlying brain disorder causing epilepsy in most patients with HN.

In the study of Kaiser et al. from West Uganda, HN was understood as "non-classified" seizure. Because HN has so far exclusively been reported from Onchocerciasis endemic areas, the common causative agent for both phenomena may well be Onchocerca volvulus. [Onchocerciasis is often called river blindness]

Q: Why is it reported so much among children - could it mean that those afflicted die before adulthood?

A: To our knowledge, the life expectancy of people suffering from HN has not been assessed. We have been able to evaluate that the life expectancy of epileptic people living either in Central Cameroon or west Uganda was dramatically reduced compared to non-epileptic matched controls.

Since the clinical expression of HN syndrome is similar to an active form of epilepsy, it is very likely that HN is a major cause of mortality among the afflicted young people.

Q: Why might food be a trigger for the symptoms to present?

A: Cold may also act as a trigger. We do not have any answer to this point. Neurologists may have some explanations.

Q: Why did previous studies fail to find a strong statistical link between Onchocerciasis and epilepsy (in 2004 and even in 2008)?

A: The study of Winkler et al was possibly limited because it was performed in an area where ivermectin [anti-parasitic] control programmes have been conducted over several years. A clinical study such as the (excellent) study of Winkler et al. does not allow much statistical conclusions.

More case control studies with an appropriate design are needed, especially from areas not yet covered by ivermectin treatment. Possibly such studies could be performed in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan.

There are probably many more patients suffering from this devastating disease in other highly endemic areas of Onchocerca volvulus throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

More research and publications of other kind will be helpful to bring to light the suffering of these patients. We also think that much of this suffering can be prevented because Onchocerciasis can be controlled and possibly even be eradicated.
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