06 September 2009
Highway Africa, the single largest gathering of journalists from across the African continent, has launched in South Africa this weekend.
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Highway Africa delegates partaking in a workshop

The conference is based in Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape province, and hosted by the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University.

The theme of the three day conference is Reporting Africa: 2010, Development & Democracy and will see key players from across the African media landscape coming together to debate the impact journalists will have in the promotion of Africa through the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The conference will also look at how African media has reported on development and democracy, and how ICTs can be used to enhance democracy and development in the African continent.

The conference was aptly launched by MTN at a reception held in the Nelson Mandela Stadium, in the neighbouring city of Port Elizabeth. This stadium is one of the seven built specifically for the FIFA World Cup tournament.

Besides the focus on the 2010 FIFA World Cup the conference also affords journalists and media personalities from the continent the rare opportunity to meet and discuss partnerships and mutually beneficial collaborations.

"We have to have quality print media, quality radio, quality television and quality online media to be able to rise above 'the culture of mediocrity' - as a leading African journalist calls it," said Chris Kabwato, Director of Highway Africa, in a statement.

"The World Cup is only months away now. How different will be our framing of the narrative of this soccer spectacle from that of the global media."

The 2009 Highway Africa Conference marks the 13 anniversary of this gathering. The conference organisers have high hopes for this years event, with a record attendance of 735 persons in 2008.

"The annual Highway Africa Conference is the flagship event of our University, and we are proud of it's continuous growth and evolution," said Dr Saleem Badat, Vice Chancellor of Rhodes University, in a statement.

The conference also plays host to the Highway Africa annual Awards, aiming to recognise excellence in ICT journalism in Africa. The awards acknowledge those companies and individuals that aim to reach the widest possible audience through the innovative use of ICT technology.

"Africa exists because we relate. Africa exists because we stand on its earth and our identities are contingent on that. Africa deserves great story-tellers and chroniclers," said Kabwato.

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06 Sep 2009
French oil company Total has relocated its employees in Gabon amid fears of attacks on workers over allegations of French intervention in the presidential election.

Total announced the "temporary withdrawal" of the oil company's staff from Gabon's second largest city, Port-Gentil, on Saturday to the capital Libreville in a move to protect the employees from the post-election unrest prompted by allegations of vote fraud to instate Ali Bongo, the pro-France son of the late Gabonese president Omar Bongo, as the next leader of the West Central African country.

However, the oil firm has emphasized that it will continue to run the oil works at Port-Gentil's oil reserves with minimum workforce stationed in the fossil fuel hub.

Total's decision comes only days after the country declared the current Defense Minister Ali Bongo as the winner of the August presidential ballot with around 42 percent of the votes.

Bongo's victory drew the opposition's ire, which deems the polls as rigged and has called for “resistance” to Bongo's claim on power. The opposition has accused France of exercising its influence to help fix the latest polls in favor of the late leaders' son.

On Thursday, protesters scorched the French consulate and a number of French company offices in Port-Gentil amid anti-French sentiments stirred by the so-called Françafrique ties that is interpreted as the continuing French influence in its former African colonies including Gabon.

The situation in Gabon remains tense despite the deployment of troops to clamp down on the opposition that has thus far staged rallies during which two people have been shot dead and a number of others have received injuries after clashing with government forces.

Ali Ben Bongo, due to replace his father who ruled Gabon for 41 years before his death in June, has invited the opposition to embrace peace as around 1,000 security forces patrol Port-Gentil, which remains under a curfew due to renewed clashes between police and demonstrators on Saturday.

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06 Sep 2009
Somalia's Al Shabaab militia say they have recaptured a key town in battle with pro-government forces, leaving 13 people killed and many others wounded.

Al Shabaab guerrillas claim to have retaken control of the key Somali town of Beledweyne in the central Somali region of Hiiran where a large military base sheltering pro-government troops was located.

At least nine government soldiers and four Al Shabaab insurgents have been killed in the ongoing fierce fighting initiated by the anti-government fighters in the surprise pre-dawn attack, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Al Shabaab group has also reportedly seized a number of soldiers at the base and injured scores of others during the nocturnal raid.

Fighting continues over the strategic border town of Beledweyne which links Mogadishu with Ethiopia and central Somalia and has so far been swapped several times between the fighters vying for control in the country's polity and Somali government forces.

The news of Al Shabaab's recapturing of some Somali towns and districts comes in the aftermath of a recent international troops rise under an African Union mandate in order to boost the government strongholds across the war-ravaged country.

Somalia has lately witnessed a resurgence of militancy across the poverty-stricken Horn of Africa nation that has been grappling with an ongoing civil war after the 1991 overthrow of the country's last military dictatorship under the former leader General Mohamed Siad Barre.

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05 Sep 2009
The International Crisis Group has predicted violence in Ethiopia's upcoming June 2010 elections unless the country's leadership embraces democracy.

The group, through its director for African Affairs Francois Grignon, called on the international community to stop ignoring ethnic tensions in Ethiopia, a Press TV correspondent reported.

"Ethnic federalism has dampened conflict, but rather increased competition amongst groups fighting for land, natural resources, boundaries and government budgets," said ICG's Grignon.

In the 1990's, The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Front led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, had turned the country into Federal Republic in a bid to improve cohesion but it has increased ethnic polarization in the African nation instead. the report added.

"Donors must convince Ethiopia to improve current standards of governance and promote democratic reform or risk a future wave of violence and further destabilization of the Horn of Africa," said International Crisis Group Deputy Director of Africa Programs, Daniela Kroslak.

Many opposition groups in Ethiopia, preparing to challenge Zenawi's EPDF, have voiced fears of a violent government crackdown during the electoral period as it has happened in the past.

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05 Sep 2009
A call by Madagascar's head of the transitional government Andry Rajoelina for a 'consensus government' falls flat due to refusal from main opposition movements.

On Friday, the leader of the island's March coup dismissed arguments against his choice of prime minister, Monja Roindefo, and offered the opposition -- led by three former heads of state -- to form a 'consensus government' within 72 hours.

The three opposition groups on Saturday rejected the transitional authority's attempt to keep both posts of president and prime minister, saying they would not give their confidence to a cabinet set up by Rajoelina's camp.

They accused the coup leaders of a breach of a power-sharing deal inked by ousted president Marc Ravalomanana, Rajoelina, and ex-presidents Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy in August in regionally-brokered talks in Maputo, Mozambique.

Under the deal, rival political parties should have agreed to form a transitional government with the presidential elections scheduled to take place in 2010. The deal also stipulated that, for the power-sharing transition period, the president and prime minister should be decided by consensus.

The Maputo talks, however, stopped short of an agreement on the key transitional posts of president, vice president and prime minister. Ravalomanana is also totally rejecting the motion to keep Rajoelina as head of the transition.

Rajoelina, who is constitutionally too young for the presidency, says he has plans to call for constitutional amendments that would allow him to run in the upcoming election.

The 35-year-old ex-mayor of the capital city, Antananarivo, has been seeking the presidency ever since he overthrew Ravalomanana following a series of deadly protests starting in late January that resulted into a military-backed coup in March.

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05 Sep 2009
Clashes between gunmen and Sudanese forces have left at least 25 people dead and several more wounded in south Sudan, amid intensifying tension.

In the first incident, heavily armed fighters ambushed an ethnic Dinka settlement in Bony-Thiang, in Wilaya, early on Friday, according to a military spokesman.

The victims of the attack in oil-rich Upper Nile region of south Sudan included the chief of a local tribe and his family, Major General Kuol Diem Kuol of the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) added.

The attack prompted a retaliatory raid by Dinka groups on the nearby Shilluk village of Bon, killing five people including a woman and two children.

Kuol accused a splinter group from the south's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), known as SPLM Democratic Change (SPLM-DC) for backing the militia behind the Friday's attack.

Officials from the SPLM-DC denied the charges, threatening legal action against further "fabrications", aimed at linking the group to any militia.

Tribal disputes over cattle, land or water access, often turn deadly in southern Sudan, a region marred by more than two decades of civil war until the 2005 pact ended Africa's longest-running strife.

More than 2,000 people have died and 250,000 been displaced in inter-tribal violence across southern Sudan since January, according to the United Nations, which says the rate of violent deaths now surpasses that in the war-torn western region of Darfur.

Some southern officials have accused the political rivals in the north of fomenting and supporting tribal violence to hamper national elections, which under a 2005 peace past are likely to take place in 2010.

The officials say the north is using the unrest as an excuse to represent efforts by the semi-autonomous government in the south as inadequate in protecting civilians, as United Nations said the recent rise in tribal fighting could further delay the poll.

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05 Sep 2009
The United Nations has sought greater international cooperation in controlling the increasing incidents of piracy near the Indian Ocean.

"The war against piracy off Somali waters will not be won unless more emphasis is laid on containing pirates on land before they reach the sea," a UN military advisor said.

Military advisor to the UN Political Office on Somalia (UNOPS), Colonel Victor Gamor, made the remarks at a regional maritime forum currently underway in the Kenyan capital, Mombasa.

"A total of 5,100 foreign troops are stationed in Somalia, while at least 8,000 were needed," Gamor said.

According to Colonel Gamor, the high numbers of firearms flowing into Somalia have encouraged piracy despite an international campaign to eradicate it.


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05 Sep 2009
Somalia's foreign minister says the government is in direct negotiations with insurgents as a step in stabilizing the lawless horn of Africa nation amid escalating violence.

Ali Ahmed Jama Gengeli told reporters in Mogadishu on Saturday that the government of President Sharif Ahmed would soon regain complete control of the country.

He said Mogadishu was set on moving forward with reconciliation plans with "rebel groups of Hezb al-Islam and al Shabaab… We are working closely with community groups and the country will be under government control soon."

"Some of them have already joined the government and we hope our mission for broader reconciliation will be fruitful soon," the minister said without elaborating on the names or number of new members.

Hezb al-Islam led by former Sharif ally, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, is more political than Al Shabaab, and both rebel groups, that began waging a war against the country's new government almost from the start, have vowed to continue until the departure of African Union (AU) peacekeepers.

Although deadly clashes still erupt on a near daily basis in the conflict-torn capital, there has been less overall fighting since al Sabaab launched a military offensive against forces of the Transitional Federal Government on May 7.

Clashes have left scores of people dead this month alone, prompting a call by the Arab League on Thursday for troops from Arab countries to assist the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.

Renowned aid agency Oxfam said this week that the international community had failed Somalia by not doing enough to end the war in a country that has lacked an asserting functional government since 1991, when warlords toppled the regime of Siad Barre.
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JOHANNESBURG, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - The production of maize, South Africa's staple food, could drop by as much as 30 percent in another two decades as climate change brings more intense droughts, but little is known about how this will affect farmers.

Now, an analytical tool based on a study, Mapping South African Farming Sector Vulnerability to Climate Change and Variability, has been developed to help policy-planners identify the communities most vulnerable to climate change and help them prepare for radically different farming conditions.

South Africa has approximately 100 million hectares of agricultural land, of which 14 million receive sufficient rainfall to grow crops.

In the densely populated rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal Province on the east coast, the largest agricultural contributor to South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP), small-scale farmers dependent on rain-fed agriculture were found to be among the least resistant to global warming. HIV prevalence is also particularly high. Farmers in Limpopo Province, in the north, and Eastern Cape Province, on the southeast coast, were also vulnerable.

“The farmers in those provinces have less resilience because the areas they live in are undeveloped, with no means to access drought-tolerant crop varieties,” said Glwadys Gbetibouo, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa, at the University of Pretoria, and one of the study’s two authors; the other writer was Claudia Ringler, a senior researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute, a US-based think-tank.

''The farmers in those provinces have less resilience because the areas they live in are undeveloped, with no means to access drought-tolerant crop varieties''
The tool is an index of 19 environmental and socio-economic indicators that are used to determine vulnerability, such as frequency of droughts, percentage of irrigated land, farm income, farm size, HIV prevalence and farm assets in the country’s nine provinces.

The Western Cape and Gauteng provinces, which have a high level of infrastructural development and literacy but make a much lower agricultural contribution to GDP, are relatively low on the vulnerability index.

What can be done

The study suggests reducing pressure on natural resources, improving environmental risk management, and providing social safety nets for the poor.

In the highly vulnerable provinces policy-makers should enact measures to promote market participation, especially among small-scale farmers; encourage the diversification of livelihoods to make people less dependent on agriculture; put in place social programmes and increase spending on health, education and welfare to help maintain and strengthen physical and intangible human capital.

Gbetibouo called for the development of infrastructure in rural areas, and the provision of agricultural insurance. In high exposure regions, especially coastal zones, priority should be given to developing more accurate systems for early warning of extreme climatic events such as drought or floods.

According to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, food production in South Africa has increased over the last 40 years, mainly through improvements in productivity, but production per capita in the Southern African Development Community as a whole is declining.

"There have been large drops in production (notably 1981–1983 and 1989–1993) that coincided with major droughts followed by periods of recovery. But these recovery periods have not been sufficient for food production to keep up with population growth. This could become an area of concern, as it may have an impact on food security, not only in South Africa, but in the region also."

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BOSSO, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - Sex workers crossing into Niger’s east, as well as busy border traffic of livestock breeders, businessmen and migrants, boost the risk of HIV infections in Diffa region, according to the government. But despite the region having the country’s highest recorded HIV prevalence, there are too-few testing centres and little awareness about the virus among a transient population, local officials told IRIN.

Diffa’s official HIV prevalence rate is 1.7 percent, based on a 2006 government study.

But the real infection rate is likely to be much higher, according to Boukar Ousmane Moktar, director of a health centre in Bosso, Niger’s last border post before crossing into Chad. During the first half of 2009, he told IRIN 73 of 169 HIV tests given in his centre came back positive. “Of them are tuberculosis patients in whom we suspected co-infections,” said Moktar. He said nine out of 10 tuberculosis patients on average tested positive for the virus.

Nana Youssey, head of the local non-profit National Association for the Promotion of Public Health and a trainer of NGOs under the World Bank-funded Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program (MAP), told IRIN government surveys have largely overlooked Diffa until recent years. “In the country’s national health survey of 2002, Diffa was not even included. It was not until 2006 Diffa was included. We are so far out here and the terrain is really difficult that access even just to study HIV risk is itself a huge problem.”

Youssey told IRIN she trained local NGOs to raise awareness of HIV from 2004 until December 2008 and is in the process of evaluating this project’s impacts.

Sex workers

In Bataoungour, a village 10km from the border town of Bosso, a group of women told IRIN they stopped working as sex workers when they received microcredit from a World Bank-funded project. Altogether, seven groups of 20 sex workers each received microcredit.

Bawa Ari, a 33-year-old mother of four told IRIN she started prostitution in 2005 after leaving her husband to whom she was married at age 12. “He never took care of me and did not feed or clothe us.” She and other sex workers received small credits in exchange for promising


to leave prostitution and helping to educate other sex workers about HIV risks.

Ari told IRIN she never used condoms and did not see one until 2008 as part of the microcredit and HIV training she received.

But when IRIN asked her and the other women in her credit group how many had been tested for HIV, all replied no.

The head of the NGO that worked with the women, Madou Abbakoura, told IRIN the NGO’s goal was to get the women out of sex work.

The coordinator of Niger’s HIV-AIDS coordination group, Moussa Idé, told IRIN that a 1990s influx of sex workers fleeing a religious Islamic law crackdown on prostitution in neighbouring Nigeria has now tapered off and there are as many local sex workers as foreign ones.

Idé said the government is preparing to launch a nationwide survey in September with sex workers as well as men having sex with men in order to “improve targeting and cut disease prevalence.”

In Niger’s east, there is a year-round steady demand for sex workers he told IRIN. “Socio-economic activities – agriculture, fishing, timber – bring together people from 12 different nationalities who co-exist in permanence,” he said. “All these people, far from their respective homes, live on average half the year near lake [Chad] and go home only when they have made enough money.”

One-hundred kilometres west of Bosso in the region’s capital city, also called Diffa, Mohamane Issa, told IRIN he found out in his fifth year of marriage to his ex-wife – a prostitute – that he was infected by her. He said he lost one child to AIDS. “There are so many prostitutes here in town,” he told IRIN. “There is no push to get them tested.”

There are eight HIV testing centres for less than half a million population spread out over 450 villages, according to the national HIV-AIDS coordination group.

Mother-to-child transmission

Preliminary results from a 2009 government study of HIV infection among pregnant women in Diffa is 2.2 percent, but Diffa region’s health centre deputy director Kiari Fougou L. Aïssa – who oversees two programmes for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in the region – said not all mothers are getting tested. “There is widespread stigma of being tested and some women are not able to get their husband’s approval,” said Aïssa. “We cannot break up family harmony and can only advise them to inform their spouses.”

Of the centre’s 3,593 women who came to the clinic for pre-natal visits from January until June 2009, 672 were tested and 19 were HIV-positive, the doctor told IRIN.

The national HIV coordination group’s Idé said the group’s goals for Diffa is to increase the rate of HIV testing, boost condom sales in remote places, work more closely with traditional and religious leaders and increase HIV awareness outreach near Lake Chad.

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MBABANE, 3 September 2009 (IRIN) - Population growth, adherence to land distribution customs, and a small country are combining to make Swaziland a crowded place, rapidly running out of room to achieve food security.

The population has doubled to more than one million since independence from Britain in 1968, but according to custom each Swazi son is given a portion of land on the family farm, located on communal Swazi Nation Land administered by traditional chiefs, to build a home, cultivate maize and graze cattle.

The effects of relentless subdivision are beginning to be felt in a country where about 80 percent of the population reside in rural areas, under the rule of sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, King Mswati III, a staunch traditionalist.

"If you divide a meal into smaller and smaller pieces to feed more people there comes a time when everyone goes hungry," Samuel Dlamini, 25, a farmer in the central Manzini region, 70km east of the capital Mbabane, told IRIN.

"When we were children there were eight of us living off this small farm," he said. Dlamini is married with two children, but his three older brothers, their wives and children, and one of his two sisters all still live on the family homestead.

"Now there are 19 people. When we took our wives our father gave each son part of the farm. We must support our families on the parcel, but it's not possible," he said.

Sedentary living is a relatively new concept; in earlier times a pastoralist lifestyle saw Swazis migrating to various seasonal grazing pastures, and it was not until the 1800s that maize, now the staple food, began to be cultivated.

The number of people has finally caught up with the land area available. "There are no new places now for young people to go," Dlamini said.

The growing scarcity of land is moving the goal of achieving food security further out of reach, and a drought in 2007 made nearly half the population dependent on donor feeding schemes.

''We see that the farms are shrinking all the time; we are seeing more and more land going over to housing. We are seeing less cattle production, with less rangeland due to deterioration caused by overgrazing''
Dry weather conditions expected

"It's true; we've noticed what Mr Dlamini is saying. Even the people we give seeds to, they tell us their farms are one hectare or 1.5 hectares, and we ask, 'Is it worth it?' They can't feed themselves," Olga Tsabedze, of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's Swaziland office, told IRIN.

The land under cultivation is also diminishing. During the 2001/02 season, 71,000 hectares were cultivated with maize, in 2004/05 this dropped to 56,000 hectares, and in 2006/07 - the last year statistics for which were available - the amount of land under maize cultivation fell to 51,000 hectares.

"We see that the farms are shrinking all the time; we are seeing more and more land going over to housing. We are seeing less cattle production, with less rangeland due to deterioration caused by overgrazing," Bheki Bhembi, head of the research department at the Central Bank of Swaziland, told IRIN.

"People feed themselves more by growing maize than raising cattle. With cattle it is more of stock-wealth issue [wealth and status are measured by the number of cattle owned] instead of food production," Bhembi said.

A Swaziland Central Bank report noted that "Prospects for maize production, like all other dry-land agricultural produce, are not encouraging. This bleak outlook is due to unpredictable and unreliable weather conditions. Output will also be negatively affected by rising input costs, coupled with the inherent risks of dry-land production."

Even with good rains, the shrinking size of farms as each new generation carves up the land into smaller slices heightens the threat to food sufficiency. "Some of the agriculture ministry extension officers are encouraging small landholder farmers to pool their land and resources," Tsabedze said.

Eric Simelane, a government agricultural extension officer, told IRIN: "It's economy of scale - if the farmers can patch their fields together to the size they once were, then farming would be more efficient and yields would increase."

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ZIGUINCHOR, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - At least 600 people have fled their homes on the outskirts of Ziguinchor, the main city of Senegal’s Casamance region, after clashes between the Senegalese army and separatist rebels.

On 4 September families were seen streaming out of the Diabir neighbourhood – which is just outside of Ziguinchor proper – toting mattresses, televisions, clothing, suitcases and other belongings on their heads, on bicycles or on donkey-carts. People also fled their homes in nearby Baraf.

Many families walked toward areas of Ziguinchor; they told IRIN they were going to join relatives who live in the city. But as of late afternoon at least 150 people were sitting on luggage or on the ground in an area on the edge of Ziguinchor called Grand Yoff.

“We have nowhere to go,” said one man, standing next to his wife and four young sons.

“Rebels came into Diabir,” he said. “Initially we all hid under beds and did not move. Then eventually we decided to leave because we were afraid something worse was to come.”

Heavy weapon fire could be heard in the centre of Ziguinchor throughout the morning of 4 September. The mortar fire followed an attack by rebels of the separatist Movement for the Democratic Forces of Casamance on an army base.

Into the night on 4 September humanitarian organizations and local authorities were evaluating the situation and determining people’s immediate needs.

“It is yet not clear exactly how many people fled their homes,” said Christina de Bruin, head of UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ziguinchor and UN area security coordinator. “A rapid estimation is that at least 600 people – 85 households – have left the areas of Diabir and Baraf.”

She added: “For UNICEF protection is the first concern. We need to find out first whether people are safe and whether any children are separated from their families.”

UNICEF and other agencies are readying emergency stocks in case of need, including mosquito nets, water filters, tarpaulins and jerry cans.

UNICEF’s de Bruin told IRIN the situation appears to have reached a new level of gravity. “For a long time the situation in Casamance has been described as ‘neither war, nor peace’. But things have degraded significantly in the last month and these latest events, sadly, have a direct impact on the population.”

The governor of Ziguinchor on 4 September called an emergency meeting with UN agencies and their partner organizations.

The UN has temporarily suspended movement of staff outside of Ziguinchor.

The incident marks the third time since 21 August rebels have clashed with the army.

Casamance is the site of one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts, sparked when MFDC separatists launched a rebellion in 1982. The region – where agriculture is the main source of local income – is hit by sporadic violence as a definitive settlement has yet to be achieved, five years after the government and rebels signed a peace agreement.

Vast parts of the lush region are not cultivated because of land mines and the recent fighting has many people afraid to return to their fields and so they risk losing what they recently planted.

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OUAGADOUGOU, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - The most destructive rains in Burkina Faso in almost a decade, which have led to seven reported deaths thus far, have forced officials to open the main gate of a hydroelectric dam in the Volta River basin, near the Ghana border, threatening local populations in both countries with additional flooding.

The water rushed out at 90 cubic metres per second when state electricity company, SONABEL opened the gate of Bagré dam at 10am on 4 September, according to the firm’s director of hydroelectric power, Venance Bouda. Before opening the gate, Bouda said the dam was at 86 percent capacity and he estimated it would have reached 93 percent by 5 September.

“Even when we operate normally and release water, some people drown while crossing [the river] downstream,” said the Bouda.

When the gate opened, the water was only 66 millimetres away from the dam’s capacity of 1.7 million cubic metres.

This is the sixth time officials have had to open the reservoir’s gate since its construction in 1994. A similar opening of the dam in 2007 caused flooding in Ghana’s north. Bouda told IRIN officials are trying to control the flow this time so as to not endanger those living downstream of the Volta River. “We anticipate increased levels of water in the reservoir, so cultivated land on the reservoir’s shores and further upstream will be flooded. We warn riverside residents to stay away from the shores,” Bouda told IRIN.

Ghana National Disaster Management Organization’s (NADMO) Diana Boakye told IRIN that despite regular consultations with Burkina Faso officials in recent days about the dam, NADMO had less than 24-hour notice before the gate was opened. “Only days ago, they told us the water level was fine. No one could have expected the intense rains would fill it so quickly.”

NADMO’s regional representatives are trying to warn residents in low-lying river communities to move, she said. In 2007, NADMO had more notice to evacuate and no lives were lost, she pointed out. “Both then and now, it is not enough time to save their fields. There will be inevitable land damage if there is flooding.” While rains have tapered off in southern Ghana, there is still rainfall in the north according to NADMO.

“We do not know if, when and how our population will be affected. There will likely be flooding, especially coupled with the rain we are still getting in the north,” said Boakye. She said it would take more time to allow people to protect their fields, and that early warning is still a weak link in the country’s disaster prevention planning.

“The way it works is through word of mouth. Our meteorology services are not advanced enough to give accurate and timely information.”

In 2008 Burkina Faso officials upped the height of the Bragé dam by 1.5 metres to decrease likelihood of flooding.

Flood response

As of 4 September the Burkina Faso government has estimated it will cost US$152 million to face the consequences of flooding, according to Prime Minister Tertius Zongo. He said the government needed $15 million for immediate humanitarian assistance and infrastructure repair. The rains have destroyed a dam in the capital Ouagadougou and another in the northern Sahel region, damaged 12 bridges in the capital and flooded 75 percent of the country’s main hospital, forcing patient evacuations and early discharges.

The biggest challenge remains stocking the dozens of sites sheltering flood victims with enough drinking water, latrines and lights, government officials stressed.

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LUNSAR, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - The child rights act ratified in November 2008 in Sierra Leone criminalizes child labour, but some child rights experts say instead of prosecuting parents, the government should focus instead on getting children into school.

“We don’t want to penalize or criminalize poverty. Many of these parents have few options,” said Annalisa Brusati, child and youth protection coordinator at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Sierra Leone. “The aim of the act is to reduce child labour, not to have everyone committing crimes. Parents need to be aware of how to make new choices,” she said.

Exploitative labour is defined in the act as work that deprives children of their health, education or development opportunities. Full-time schooling at state-approved schools is required for all under-13’s who must complete primary and junior secondary levels; those aged 13 and above can engage in “light labour” and are not legally required to attend school, according to the act.

An estimated 18,000 children still work or live on Sierra Leone’s streets, according to the government’s National Commission for War-Affected Children’s executive secretary Alhaji Mohamed Kanneh. Most of them are involved in street-selling, stone-breaking, fishing, or work as porters and cooks for diamond miners. Many are deprived of attending school as a result.

Advocacy efforts by child rights groups to pull children out of diamond mines and into school have been successful, Brusati told IRIN, but have not stamped out the practice altogether.

High numbers of street children involved in exploitative labour are partly a hangover from the civil war that officially ended in 2002 and partly because of high living costs and unemployment, said Kanneh.

“A community issue”

Getting children out of work and into school involves all sectors of society, says Josephine Conteh, who set up a primary school to educate working children in Lunsar in northern Sierra Leone. More than 100 working children – many of whom were orphans or separated from their families and all of whom worked full-time as guides to blind beggars – have attended since the school’s opening in 2006, Conteh told IRIN.

“Before this school opened the future of these children was bleak, as they would spend most of their time begging with no consideration to their education,” Conteh said. With no official funding, her school relies on donations.

IRC is helping communities set up child welfare committees to find ways to send working children back to school in each of Sierra Leone’s 148 chiefdoms that make up the country's 14 districts.

“This is a community issue, not a family issue,” said IRC’s Brusati. “Seeing it [child labour] as a community problem will show us the way out.”

Committees that have already been set up have helped families save money for school fees, urged schools to cut fees and encouraged communities to set up funds to support families unable to pay, Brusati told IRIN.

At the district level, the National Commission for War-Affected Children is holding workshops with district councils in Bo, Bombali and Koidu on dangers faced by working street-children and how to get them into schools.

Dangers include greater vulnerability to sexual abuse, accidents, disruption of education, delinquency, health hazards and teenage pregnancies, according to UNICEF.

But national-level progress is slow. A commission to monitor enforcement of the act, including monitoring by-laws, which districts must pass in order to implement it, has been announced but not yet set up, the government’s Kanneh said.

“It [child labour] is a serious embarrassment to the nation because not enough has been done both by the government and other stakeholders to address the problem,” he told IRIN.

The Ministry of Social Welfare charged with enforcing the act receives 1 percent of the government’s annual budget, according to the IRC. The ministry must develop a work plan and budget to implement the act, Brusati told IRIN, for only then can it appeal to the president for more financing.

Attending school is children’s best chance to find more meaningful, less exploitative work when they are adults, said IRC’s Brusati. While recognizing the high unemployment rates across the country, educating children is a vital step to getting youths into a tight labour market, she said.

“Education is a part of breaking the cycle of poverty in which the majority of Sierra Leoneans find themselves…Everyone needs to be educated...not only to negotiate their basic rights but to overcome the lack of skilled labour in this country.”

irinnews

AGADEZ, 3 September 2009 (IRIN) - Four days of intense rains in Niger’s northern Air Mountains and desert towns at its base have affected 7,000 households, damaged 3,500 homes and caused widespread livestock and agriculture losses mostly in the commune of Agadez, according to local officials.

Agadez commune is one of 15 communes in Agadez region.

Intense rains led to a dam breaking 7km from Agadez commune, according to a preliminary government and UN assessment on 2 September. The storms damaged 400 hectares of crop land and at least seven schools in the commune.

The commune’s mayor, Hamma Dilla, told IRIN this is the most intense weather that he can recall in more than 30 years. “But even that flooding was not as bad as what we are seeing now. This [destruction] is the result of … intense continuous rains and the tributary overflowing its banks.”

Sociologist Issouf Bayard who has specialized in Agadez told IRIN that not since pre-independence times has there been an early warning system to alert residents living near the city's various tributaries, fed from mountain rain runoff, of oncoming storms. “People do not know when there is rain in the mountains. It is only when the tributaries rise that people are caught unaware.” He said before independence in 1960, the French military sounded horns to warn people of rising water levels.

Bayard said the departure of the military coupled with the droughts starting in the 1970’s ended this form of early warning. “These dried out tributaries are now where the poorest families and recently arrived migrants settle,” the researcher told IRIN. “With the growing urban population, people built on places they did not even know were former waterways. But we have a proverb in this part of the country: water always finds its way home.”

The official preliminary death toll from flooding is one infant and one adult as of 2 September.

''Water always finds its way home''
In one of the most battered areas on the outskirts of Agadez commune, Azmalam, school director Moussa Ibrah told IRIN the human death toll is too low. "We [residents] are talking about dozens of deaths,” said Ibrah. He said in addition,1,200 livestock have died and all the area homes have fallen.

A vendor in front of the Agadez bus station, Abdallah Alal, told IRIN his shop was vandalized after it collapsed from the rains in the middle of the night. "This boutique was my only source of income. I sold my animals to do business.”

A widow in Agadez commune told IRIN the floods had stranded her with eight children. “This home my husband left us was all we had,” said Aminatou Malam. “And now it is gone along with our food, our animals. Where do we go from here?”

In the neighbouring commune of Tchirozérene, more than 70 homes and one school are completely destroyed, according to the preliminary assessment.


Response

The secretary general of Agadez region and commune mayors have formed a crisis committee, which has set up 11 teams headed by village leaders to conduct house visits to assess damages.

Trucks from Agadez commune are transporting flood victims to schools for temporary lodging, according to mayor Hamma. He said his office has purchased manioc flour and water to distribute to flood victims.

The committee has identified dam repair, lodging flood victims and clean drinking water among its top priorities.

The UN is planning in-depth evaluations in the coming days, according to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

irinnews

4 September 2009

The pronouncement of Ali Bongo as winner of the presidential elections in Gabon has not gone down well with opposition supporters, throwing the country into turbulence.

The unrest makes for a difficult start to Ali Bongo’s presidency. Already, an employee of a Franco-American business group, Schlumberger, has been seriously wounded and damage has been reported from three petrol filling stations belonging to the French company Total. The opposition leader, Pierre Mamboundou, has announced the death of one of his party members, blaming the current disturbances squarely on the army.

Ali Bongo is calling on all interested parties to respect the election results. According to him, "Gabon is a lawful and democratic country country, the people have spoken and the verdict must be respected."

Opposition supporters claim the French government has been involved in manipulating the election and wasted no time in setting on fire the French consulate at Port-Gentil. There are reports that the French have deployed a battalion to their embassy to protect it.

The French Secretary of State for Cooperation and Francophony, Alain Joyandet, has called on French citizens in Gabon to stay indoors. Speaking before the results were announced, foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said "all measures” had been taken to protect French citizens, but also firmly denied his government's involvement in the elections.

Article excerpted and translated from the original French by Michael Tantoh.

allafrica

NAIROBI, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of drought-affected people in Somalia’s central and southern regions need urgent help after losing most of their livestock, the economy’s mainstay, Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar, the Interior Minister, told IRIN.

"I have been in touch with people throughout the regions and the reports we are getting is that the drought is widespread and the situation of the people is very grave, with water shortages the biggest problem for both animals and people," Omar said on 3 September.

He said almost all the regions were affected. “Livestock are dying in their thousands, with families losing everything.”

He said the drought was forcing many families into towns that had no way of coping. “On the outskirts of most small towns from Gedo [southwest] to Galkayo [northeast], you will now find nomadic families in flimsy shelters looking for help.”

Omar said the transitional government could not address the situation alone and appealed to the international community for assistance. “This is bigger than anything we have seen in a long time. I hope our partners will do their utmost to mitigate the suffering of the people.”

Ahmed Ali Hilowle, president of the self-declared state of Galmudug, in Central region, told IRIN by telephone from Galkayo that most of the area was suffering from prolonged drought: "Even camels are dying. It is a disaster.”

He said: "We had two years of dismal rains and the people are on the verge of dying.” The area is dependent on barkads (water catchments) for water “and almost all are dry. We are now trucking water sometimes over 100km,” he said, adding that one water tanker, with 200 drums [each 200l], costs US$200. “Few, if any, can afford that.”

"Catastrophe" looms

An aid worker in Dusa Mareb, Galgadud’s capital, said the town was already hosting many people displaced from war-torn Mogadishu and that the arrival of pastoralists was overwhelming the host community. He warned: “if the coming Deyr [short] rains fail, we will be facing a major catastrophe”.


The Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization) said in a recent statement the country was facing the worst humanitarian crisis of the past 18 years, with an estimated 3.76 million people - half the population - needing aid.

Omar said the transitional government was prepared to do whatever it could to help the agencies obtain the access they need.

“We will also help them identify reliable local partners who will deliver the aid to those people the foreign agencies cannot reach.”

Meanwhile, the international aid agency Oxfam said the country was suffering the worst drought in a decade and a major increase in conflict.

In a statement issued on 3 September the agency said: "A total failure of the international community to deal effectively with the Somalia crisis and help end the war is resulting in a spiral of human suffering and exodus to neighbouring countries."

It said hundreds of thousands of Somalis who fled the violence were now trapped in horrifically overcrowded or poorly managed camps in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia itself.

“Somalis flee one of the world’s most brutal conflicts and a desperate drought, only to end up in unimaginable conditions in camps that are barely fit for humans. Hundreds of thousands of children are affected, and the world is abandoning the next generation of Somalis when they most need our help. Why does it seem like you matter less in this world if you are from Somalia?” asked Robert van den Berg, Oxfam International’s spokesman for the Horn of Africa.

He called on the international community to "put Somalia top of their list and do more than simply keeping the country on life-support".

irinnews

03 Sep 2009
The son of Gabon's long-time leader Omar Bongo has been declared the winner of the country's presidential election amid protests and allegations of fraud.

The Thursday announcement of Ali Ben Bongo's victory with 42% of the vote sparked a rampage by opposition supporters, with police using teargas and batons to disperse protesters.

The French consulate was torched and the crowd attacked a prison releasing hundreds of inmates, AFP reported.

Hours after the ballots closed on Sunday, all of the country's three main candidates, including opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou and the ex-interior minister Andre Mba Obame, claimed victory with the majority of the vote.

Omar Bongo, who passed away in June, was at the helm of power in the oil-rich nation for four decades. The ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) had endorsed his son as their candidate.

The late leader was seen as a major element in enhancing Paris' influence in the former French colony as well as Central Africa.

Paris reportedly warned around 10,000 French nationals to avoid going outside as rumors of a fix in the election aided by France fueled anger in the country.

presstv

04 Sep 2009
The eccentric Libyan leader, Muammar Qaddafi, will ask the United Nations to split Switzerland up among the Alpine country's neighboring states -- France, Germany and Italy.

As open wounds keep the two sides from reconciliation, Qaddafi wants to propose Switzerland's disintegration The Telegraph reported on Friday.

"Switzerland is a world mafia, not a state," he said.

The 67-year-old president is to come up with the proposal when his country takes over presidency of the UN General Assembly later this month.

The motion, however, contradicts with the UN principle of respect for territorial integrity.

Tripoli and Bern fell out last year when Swiss officials accused Qaddafi's son, Hannibal and his wife of assaulting the servants at a Geneva hotel. The issue was set to grow into a legal battle but the complainants withdrew their claims saying they had been compensated.

Libya subsequently expelled the Swiss diplomats in the country and suspended visas for Swiss citizens. Two Swiss businessmen have also been detained for apparently violating the ban.

Last month, Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz appeared in person in Tripoli and offered his apologies. Merz has been pressured to resign after the move which has been denounced in Switzerland as a sign of weakness.

The two sides are to task a bilateral panel with investigating the differences over last year's arrest.

presstv

05 Sep 2009
Major rainfalls have hit West Africa causing serious floods while affecting more than 350,000 people in the region, United Nations reports.

The worst affected countries by torrential rains and floods are Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal and Benin.

"Since June, the rainy season has been more significant, there has been much more rain than usual," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"Just like in 2007 when serious flooding had affected almost 800,000 people in this region, we have the impression that this year again, torrential rain has affected an enormous number of people," she said.

Five people have been killed and 150,000 affected in Burkina Faso, while in Ghana, 25 deaths have been linked to the floods.

Ten thousand people have been affected by the floods in Niger and Guinea while some 3,500 homes have been destroyed.

In Benin, 20,000 people have been affected while in Senegal, emergency services had to be called in to drain out water which had swamped 30,000 homes.

presstv