Pius Okello points at the entrance of his new home

NAIROBI, 18 September 2009 (IRIN) - At least 1,300 slum dwellers from Kibera - Nairobi’s largest informal urban settlement - have been moved to new blocks of flats under a slum-upgrading programme.

"I can't believe I have left Kibera for good! My new home is so clean, we have a toilet inside the house; it is a dream come true," Pius Okello, 46, father of six, said.

Okello, who had lived in Kibera's Soweto East zone for 10 years, was one of those who moved on 16 September. The government provided trucks and workers to help the residents settle into their new homes, which they have dubbed `Canaan’, the Promised Land.

Kibera is one of the largest informal settlements in sub-Saharan Africa. According to UN-HABITAT, estimates of its population range from 500,000 to 800,000, with densities of over 3,000 people per hectare - one of the most densely populated informal settlements in the world.

The monthly rent for a room in the new flats, about a kilometre from Kibera, is Ksh 500 (US$7) and tenants pay an additional Ksh300 ($4) for electricity and Ksh200 ($2.5) for water. The kitchen, toilet and bathrooms are shared but if a family takes three rooms, they get exclusive use of these facilities.

"I took three rooms because I have six children and I take care of four other children of my dead brother when schools close; at least now my wife and I have our privacy and the children have a bedroom for the first time," Okello said.

"The only problem is that I feel that water and electricity charges are high because they are charged per room; I should be charged a single fee for the whole house."

The ongoing $300,000 Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme (KENSUP) was mooted in 2000, and jointly funded by the government, HABITAT and the World Bank Cities Alliance.

Targeted intervention

Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister and member of parliament for Langata, in which Kibera falls, participated in moving the slum dwellers to their new homes.

"Absence of decent housing means abundance of other problems," he said in an address to the residents. "Today, we take the first step towards meeting the basic needs and rights of slum dwellers and saying No to slum related problems. This is an initial step towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals."

Nairobi has some of the most dense, unsanitary and insecure slums in the world, according to HABITAT, with almost half of the city's population living in over 100 slums and squatter settlements.

"The objective of the programme is to improve the overall livelihoods of people living and working in slums through targeted interventions to address shelter, infrastructure services, land tenure and employment issues, as well as the impact of HIV/AIDS in slum settlements," according to HABITAT.

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Children sing at a pre-school in Ziguinchor

ZIGUINCHOR, 18 September 2009 (IRIN) - On a recent morning in Ziguinchor, the main city of Senegal’s Casamance region, pre-school children sang the national anthem in a bright blue classroom as muffled artillery fire sounded several kilometres away.

Neither war, nor peace.

Recent clashes between the army and separatist troops in Casamance have underscored that the 27-year conflict is far from over, and observers warn that recent years of relative calm must not be taken for granted.

After years of fighting in which tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes, the government and the rebel Movement for the Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) signed a peace accord in 2004; yet the region remains plagued by occasional violent crime, political killings and bouts of fighting between the army and the splintered MFDC.

Landmines continue to claim lives and limbs and block access to farmland.

In the most recent unrest, beginning with a clash on 21 August, some Casamance residents once again got a taste of the upheaval seen during the height of fighting in the 1990s.

“People have the impression they are reliving the onset of the crisis,” said Lucien Gomis, president of the rural council of Boutoupa-Camaracounda, a community about 30km southeast of Ziguinchor. He said some families who recently returned after several years worry they will have to flee again.

Nouha Cissé, deputy coordinator of Alliance for Peace in Casamance, told IRIN: “After years of relative calm when the people had just started to believe that things could remain stable, people have plunged back into a psychosis.”

“Desperate to return”

Despite the uncertainty in recent years, families have returned to their home villages and are working to rebuild their lives.

“These are people impoverished by exile but really desperate to return,” said Martin Evans, international development lecturer at the University of Chester, who frequently travels to Casamance for research.

The number of internally displaced (IDPs) – most of whom live with relatives – is uncertain. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre in 2008 put the number of IDPs at “10,000 to 70,000”. Thousands of Casamancais are also living in neighbouring Gambia and Guinea-Bissau.

Given the sporadic nature of violence in the region, many people regularly shuttle between where they sleep and where they farm, eager to resume their livelihoods but unable to fully resettle in their home villages.

Why now?

Local media pose a question many Senegalese are asking themselves: Why the resumption of violence in Casamance?

Residents, intellectuals and civil society leaders say there is consensus on a few points: The current impasse is unsustainable, and the government and MFDC have had no strategy to overcome it; division in the MFDC is a considerable barrier; and fresh negotiations are indispensable.

“The protracted conflict stems from absence of a clear and committed political engagement,” Evans said. “This comes from a lack of vision and coherent policy on the part of the Senegalese government, and chronic fragmentation and lack of a clear political structure on the part of the MFDC.”

The government has repeatedly pointed to division in the MFDC as precluding dialogue.

Researcher Vincent Foucher of the Centre d'études d'Afrique noire, Bordeaux, questions this argument.

“The Senegalese state does not seem to really want negotiations on the core issues – the status of the region – and does not really acknowledge the MFDC, arguing that it is too divided,” Foucher told IRIN. “The division of the MFDC is a real problem, but this is a troublesome argument because the divisions in the MFDC owe something to the government’s policies.”

Divide and rule?

Critics say the government’s way of dealing with skirmishes has been to dole out money to this or that MFDC faction. The Collectif des cadres casamançais, a coalition of Casamance civic and business leaders, in a 5 September communiqué called it “an ignoble strategy, consisting of dividing and weakening the adversary through the magic of money”.

But Foucher said those in the MFDC accused of taking government money do not necessarily abandon the group’s cause.

“In examining the recent clashes one should not miss the fact that even among those MFDC combatants who have taken money from the government to abide by a de facto ceasefire, some still want independence or at least believe that since the government is not amenable to real negotiations, war should resume so as to force Dakar at least to grant some form of recognition.”

In a 4 September communiqué Caesar Badiate, head of an MFDC faction, said ‘Atika’, MFDC’s military wing, prefers negotiations but in recent clashes had reacted when provoked by the army.

President Abdoulaye Wade on 7 September in an address to the nation said he “deplored” the recent violence and that he would pursue "peace efforts" with the MFDC. Wade is scheduled to meet with the Collectif des cadres casamançais on 19 September.

Residents of Casamance told IRIN there is no substitute for renewing talks.

“We do not know the precise cause of these clashes and we have no idea what tomorrow holds,” said Ndeye Marie Sagna Le Caer, programme manager for the women’s conflict resolution group Kabonketoor (“let us forgive ourselves and one another” in the Diola language). “Right now the most important thing is to sit at the negotiating table to work towards a definitive peace.”

Robert Sagna, ex-mayor of Ziguinchor and former minister in charge of Casamance affairs, said it is also important to recognize the initiatives of local organizations that are "moving things forward to save Casamance and Senegal."

Ibrahima Badji, who lives in the neighbourhood of Lyndiane on the outskirts of Ziguinchor – hit by recent fighting – told IRIN the MFDC seems determined to ratchet up the conflict. “Perhaps they want to show the international community that the war is far from over here.”

However, Casamance-based journalist and author Oumar Diatta said there is reason for optimism: "The current situation is destructive but at the same time it has reminded people of the dangers of war, which spares no one."

Geopolitics

Observers say any solution must take into account Gambia to the north and particularly Guinea-Bissau to the south. The political situation in these countries has heavily influenced conditions in Casamance.

One factor favouring the recent attacks is the change in Guinea-Bissau since the assassination of army chief of staff Tagme Na Wai, who used to control the MFDC’s southern front and force it to abide by a de facto ceasefire, researcher Foucher said.

Hours after the army chief’s death, President João Bernardo Vieira was assassinated. “With the new leadership in Guinea-Bissau that country’s stand regarding Casamance is still uncertain.”

If violence escalates…

Casamance residents told IRIN that if violence were to escalate waves of newly displaced would stream into Ziguinchor, whose population is already poor and resources are strained. The recent unrest has disrupted farming, and at a critical time for rice, maize and groundnut cultivation.

“Families who are being displaced now [and blocked from their plantations] will have nothing to eat next year,” said Kabonketoor’s Sagna Le Caer. “People will not be able to send their children to school.”

Abdoulaye Diallo, technical adviser for GTZ-Procas, a Germany-funded development organization, said: “Everyone is hanging on to the hope that the government and the MFDC will come together and work this out for the sake of the people of Casamance.”

“We are more than ever in a state of neither war, nor peace,” Sagna Le Caer told IRIN. “But today we are closer to war. That is why everyone involved must sit down and talk.”

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JOHANNESBURG, 18 September 2009 (IRIN) - Billions of dollars pledged by governments to help eradicate poverty and other social ills in the developing world have not been received, according to a United Nations report launched on 16 September.

The report, Strengthening the Global Partnership for Development in a Time of Crisis, by the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Gap Task Force, highlighted an annual gap of US$35 billion in the 2005 pledge made by the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized countries at a summit in Gleneagles, United Kingdom.

This amount includes a $20 billion annual shortfall in its commitments to Africa, even though 2008 saw the highest levels of development assistance to the continent.

In a preface to the report UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon recognized that since the adoption of the MDGs in 2000 there had been "great progress" in reducing poverty and hunger, and promoting access to education and health services.

"But the economic crisis threatens to reverse these hard-won gains, and time is running short," he said. "Without strong and concerted international responses the crisis could become a development emergency."

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JOHANNESBURG, 18 September 2009 (IRIN) - A shift in emphasis by South African president Jacob Zuma's administration to give priority to domestic issues rather than foreign policy concerns could create cost constraints in fulfilling peace-keeping commitments on the continent.

"If the domestic priorities are poverty alleviation and job creation, how can the government avoid spending less on peace missions abroad to spend more on education, health and other social spending in South Africa?," asked Kathryn Sturman, acting head of the Governance of Africa's Resources Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs, in a research note.

Zuma's predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, put great emphasis on the country's commitment to the African Union (AU) and resolving conflicts in the continent. But unlike UN peacekeeping efforts, such as the United Nations Organization Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), where costs were reimbursed, South Africa's contributions to AU peacekeeping were in the main paid for by Pretoria, Sturman told IRIN.

"Developing a predictable and sustainable funding mechanism for African-led peace missions remains an important area for dialogue in the European Union-South Africa strategic partnership," she said.

"This would enable South Africa to continue the peacekeeping operations that are in the long-term interests of all Africans and South Africans alike. At the same time, it would free resources to be spent on our [South Africa's] own pressing domestic needs."

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Senior Sudanese officials (file photo): Sudan’s future beyond the April 2010 elections and a referendum on southern autonomy the following year is uncertain, says a report

NAIROBI, 18 September 2009 (IRIN) - Sudan is planning to hold elections in April 2010 and a referendum on southern autonomy the following year, but beyond this the future is uncertain, says a report entitled "Sudan 2012 - Scenarios for the Future".

The report is based on a study by Jaïr van der Lijn of the Netherland Institute of International Relations and commissioned by IKV Pax Christi and Cordaid.

Two key uncertainties will define possible scenarios in 2012 - will Sudan be united or will the North and South have gone separate ways? Or will there be a new war between the North and the South, or will there be no war?

"At present, the international community, governments, international organizations and civil society groups are primarily focused on stimulating implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and making sure an election and referendum take place...little time is given to thinking strategically about the period after 2011. What will happen in 2012 is barely touched on," the report says.

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Beds are not the norm in Nigerian prisons (file photo)

ABUJA, 18 September 2009 (IRIN) - In June 150 prisoners escaped from Enugu state prison in southeastern Nigeria, beating wardens and raping female prisoners before they fled.

A few weeks earlier eight inmates reportedly were killed in another jailbreak, at Agodi prison in Ibadan in the southwest.

Escape may appear to some prisoners to be the only way out, given that some two-thirds of Nigeria’s prisoners have been detained without trial, according to a report by the Centre for Social and Legal Studies (CSLS) in Abuja, which calls on the government to pass criminal justice reform legislation immediately.

The May report, ‘Justice sector reform and human rights in Nigeria’, says in the Kuje prison in the capital Abuja 85 percent of the 622 prisoners have not been tried. A 2008 Amnesty International report estimated the overall number of detainees without trials at 65 percent.

The researchers saw prisoners who have been awaiting trial for nine years.

Why

All stages of the criminal justice system contribute to delays, said Yemi Akinseye George, senior lecturer in legal studies at the University of Ibadan and co-author of the report.

Police often arrest and detain people on “holding charges” while they collect evidence, George said. “That is wrong. It is illegal…It is against the constitution.”

Bail conditions are often impossible to meet, said Adekunle Ojo, a human rights lawyer and vice president of the Nigeria Bar Association.

With few government-subsidized legal aid programmes, prisoners often cannot afford a lawyer, said Professor George, leaving courts in a bind. “People cannot afford assistance, but courts cannot release them when there are no lawyers to take up their cases.”

In some cases, ineptitude has led to the loss of hundreds of files, the report says.

When a case does go to court, witnesses – with no official protection scheme in place – are often too frightened to give evidence, leaving cases hanging.

With no trial, many prisoners end up spending more time detained than they would have under a conviction, according to human rights lawyer Ojo. Minor offences such as petty theft or traffic offences incur a maximum six-month sentence in Nigeria.

Justice Minister Michael Aondoakaa says the problem lies in the structure of the criminal justice system, whereby the federal government owns and operates prisons but state courts sentence prisoners.

“I cannot sit here and predict the volume of people that will be taken to the prisons because they come from the state courts, the magistrate courts, the high courts, the sharia courts, the sanitary courts, etc. All these [institutions] pour people into the prisons.”

Disease, torture, squalor

With the ensuing overcrowding, most prisoners sleep on the floor and are provided with minimal food rations, the reports say. Overcrowding and poor sanitation leads to a high incidence of disease such as tuberculosis, skin infections and malaria, and most prisons have no health facilities, says Amnesty International. Most prisons also have no functioning toilets, researchers say.

On top of overcrowding, torture and ill-treatment are common, CSLS researchers found, noting: “beating often leading to the death” of inmates, and “…whipping, mostly with cow-hide whips and batons was a common way of punishing stubborn prisoners”.

Almost 80 percent of Nigerian prisoners surveyed said they had been beaten, threatened with weapons or tortured in prison cells, according to Amnesty International’s 2008 report.

Reform

University lecturer George said such appalling conditions point to the need for urgent reform; he said pledges by successive governments to implement reforms have yielded “scant results”.

Former president Olusegun Obasanjo set up a committee to propose improvements in prison conditions. This committee drew up reform recommendations, including detailed updates to the criminal code – which is over 100 years old – and to criminal procedural law, which dates to the 1960s. They drafted a bill over two years ago and the national assembly has yet to take it up.

“The most urgent thing that should be done is to push for the passage of this bill,” George stressed.

Only one state – Lagos – has so far reformed its criminal justice law, he pointed out, with the reforms already helping reduce prisoner numbers, he said.

George says the Attorney General must push harder on the bill. “[He] is supposed to provide leadership on this issue and make the national assembly feel the bill is urgent, but he isn’t doing so.”

But Peter Akper, adviser to the Attorney General, told IRIN his team has approached the Justice and Human Rights committees to speed up the bill’s passing.

The government is making some progress on other fronts, Akper said, referring to a programme to eliminate overcrowding run by the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice, that has cleared a backlog of some 5,000 cases in recent years, he said.

Other ongoing reforms include reviewing sentencing guidelines, he said.

George said such changes mark progress but “there is no alternative” to the legislation for system-wide change.


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A newspaper article suggests that Algerian children are kidnapped, trafficked to Morocco where they are sold to Israelis or American Jews for the sake of organ harvest.

17 Sep 2009
An international Jewish conspiracy to kidnap children and harvest their organs is gathering momentum as another shocking story divulges Israeli plot to harvest organs from Algerian children.

The story, published in the Arabic-language Algerian daily al-Khabar, charges that Interpol, the international police organization, has revealed the existence of 'a Jewish gang' that was 'involved in the abduction of children from Algeria and trafficking of their organs.'

According to the story, bands of Moroccans and Algerians had been roaming the streets of Algerian cities in an attempt to hunt for young children. They then trafficked the kids across the border into neighboring Morocco.

The children were then sold to Israelis and American Jews in Oujda, the capital of eastern Morocco, for the purpose of organ harvesting in Israel and the United States.

The story is based on statements made by Mustafa Khayatti, head of the Algerian National Committee for the Development of Health Research. Khayatti maintains that the abduction of children in Algeria is linked to arrests made in New York and New Jersey at the end of July, in which several Jewish men were arrested in connection with an investigation into illegal organ trafficking and political corruption.

The story comes in line with the article published last month in Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest circulation daily, suggesting that the Israeli army kidnapped and killed young Palestinians to harvest their organs. It shed light on the case of Bilal Ahmed Ghanem, a 19-year-old Palestinian man, who was shot dead in 1992 by Israeli forces in the West Bank village of Imatin.

Bostrom, who witnessed the man's killing, said Ghanem's body was abducted following the shooting and was returned at midnight -- during an imposed curfew -- several days later by the Israeli military with a cut from the stomach to the neck that had been stitched up.

Bostrom argued that an autopsy would be required if the cause of death was not apparent, while in this case it was clear that Bilal was shot dead.

After that incident, at least 20 Palestinian families told Bostrom that they suspected the Israeli military had taken the organs of their sons after they had been killed by Israeli forces and their bodies had been taken away.

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UNMIL soldiers (file photo)

MONROVIA, 17 September 2009 (IRIN) - In Liberia citizens’ reaction has been mixed to a 16 September UN Security Council decision extending the UN peacekeeping mission (UNMIL) to assist with the planned 2011 presidential and legislative elections.

“Without UNMIL there would be problems for Liberia,” Augustin William, an electrician in the capital Monrovia, told IRIN. “It is not feasible for the mission to leave now because that would risk another round of conflict.”

UNMIL was set up in 2003 to bolster a ceasefire agreement ending a war that killed some 150,000 Liberians and displaced 850,000.

Kingston Kolleh, a Monrovia-based commercial photographer, said: “Security is not yet in place. Some parts of the army are not functional…Liberian forces and UNMIL still need to train the national army and police and deploy more of them at borders before UNMIL can move on.”

UNMIL staff have been providing security at strategic government sites, helping the government restructure its police and military forces and developing a police training programme, among other duties.

But newspaper seller Wilson Denis told IRIN he is ready to see UNMIL leave. “It’s not necessary for UNMIL to be here because they are no longer doing much….When there [is violence] they don’t go to the scene; they ask the Liberian national police to respond instead.”

UNMIL’s troop strength will remain at 8,000 until the 2011 elections after which the exit will accelerate, according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

At the height of the mission in March 2006, some 15,000 UN troops were deployed throughout the country.


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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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