A Tanzanian campaign to eradicate mosquitoes includes indoor residual spraying

DAR ES SALAM, 3 September 2009 (IRIN) - Health officials in Tanzania are confident they are on track to eradicate malaria deaths by 2015, even if significant challenges stand in the way of the target.

The National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) says malaria is a leading killer in the East African country, infecting about 18 million people annually.

The disease is responsible for between 60,000 and 80,000 deaths each year – at least nine deaths every hour - mainly pregnant women and children under five.

Official records also show that 30-40 percent of attendance at health centres and hospitals are related to malaria cases, burdening overstretched facilities.

Malaria, according to the National Planning Commission (NPC) costs the country an estimated loss that is equivalent to 3.4 percent of gross domestic product.

Alex Mwita, a senior NMCP official, said initiatives being implemented under the Roll Back Malaria programme, such as insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying (IRS), had helped reduce malaria cases, along with deaths of children under five and infants (younger than one).

“Under-five deaths have dropped to 91 per 1,000 live births in 2008, down from 147 in 1999,” Mwita said, presenting a paper in Dar es Salaam recently.

He said that although the decline could not be attributed to the fall in malaria cases alone, research showed a decline in prevalence of the disease had a big impact on childhood and maternal mortality.

“Since intervention initiatives have proven to work, we are now scaling up distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor spraying and behavioural change communication,” Mwita said.


Bed nets

Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete told the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan, who visited Tanzania recently, that his government was committed to attaining universal bed net coverage by December 2010 and eliminating malaria by 2015.

Kikwete told Chan there were plans to distribute 14 million mosquito bed nets within the next 16 months to cover all households. The move complements the current programme where all children under five are due to receive bed nets free of charge. NMCP said in its latest report that so far 30 percent of children under five had nets.

The UN Special Envoy for Malaria, Raymond Chambers, told a news conference that the Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis had approved a grant of US$110 million to Tanzania to support the procurement of 14 million bed nets.

"We are impressed by Tanzania's initiatives and political commitment shown by the country's leadership. It is our hope that malaria will be eliminated within the next seven years as planned," he said.

Chambers, however, said the challenge was to make all 40 million Tanzanians sleep under the insecticide-treated bed nets. "There must be an aggressive campaign by politicians and the media on the need to use the bed nets for the intended purpose instead of fishing," said Chambers, who accompanied the WHO chief on her visit to Tanzania.

"I know there is a lack of adequate resources, health personnel and infrastructure. I am, however, convinced that you don't have a shortage of political will," Chan said.

Treatment costs

David Mwakyusa, Tanzania’s Health Minister, said since 2006, the country had used Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) as a first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria and the drug had shown great success.

The minister, however, expressed concern over the cost of the medicine in pharmacies and private outlets, where a dose is up to 15,000 shillings (about $11).

He said that in public facilities a drug called ALU is prescribed and prices are affordable at between 300 shillings and 1,000 shillings (about 20 cents and 80 cents).

“We are working on a programme that will enable ACT to be available in all public and private facilities at affordable prices,” he said.


Photo: John Kulekana/IRIN
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan greets a mother and child at a health centre in Bagamoyo town near Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on 18 August 2009
Drug resistance

Mwakyusa said his ministry was following up reports of malaria parasites’ resistance to ACT along the Cambodia-Thailand border earlier this year.

Chan blamed doctors and patients. She said there were cases where patients did not use the whole dose and in others, doctors under-prescribed the medicines.

“If patients use only half a dose, there is the likelihood for the parasites to mutate and develop resistance to drugs administered,” she said. “We must be very careful in handling and administration of medicines,” she added.

Financial crisis

Despite the confidence expressed by government officials, the NMPC is worried that the global financial crisis might undermine the country’s efforts to wipe out malaria by 2015.

“When you have financial problems in countries like the United States, which contribute heavily to the Global Fund and other anti-malaria programmes, you cannot rule out adverse effects on our initiatives,” Mwita said. “Eradication of malaria by 2015 is possible, but I can assure you it is a tall order,” he added.

Zanzibar success

In semi-autonomous Zanzibar, authorities said they were on target to eliminate malaria by 2015.

“We have been recording admirable success in combating malaria in the islands through multiple interventions. We have managed to reduce the prevalence from 41 percent in 2001 to 0.4 percent this year,” Zanzibar Malaria Control Programme (ZMCP) manager, Abdullah Suleiman, told Chan.

However, he said, sustaining these achievements remained the biggest challenge for Zanzibar, and availability of funds was critical in sustaining the anti-malaria programme.

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A southern Sudanese woman recovers from a gunshot wound after surviving a recent massacre (file photo): Officials say women and children are now being deliberately targeted in escalating attacks

NAIROBI, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - Women and children are being increasingly targeted in the escalating attacks against communities in Southern Sudanese states, exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation, say officials.

"We have seen a drastic escalation in violence across Southern Sudan this year - from the Equatorial States besieged by LRA [rebel Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army] attacks, to the brutal clashes in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Lake States," Jonathan Whittall, head of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Southern Sudan, said.

"The violent clashes are different to the traditional 'cattle rustling' that normally occurs each year," he said in a 3 September statement. "Women and children, usually spared in this fighting, are now deliberately targeted and the number of deaths [is] higher than the number of wounded."

On 1 September, Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul Yak of the Episcopal Church said the church no longer viewed the clashes as "tribal conflicts", but rather as "deliberately organized attack[s] on civilians by those that are against the peace in Southern Sudan".

At least 140,000 people have been displaced by clashes between communities in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Lake States. Separate attacks by the LRA in the Equatorial states have also reportedly forced 65,000 Sudanese from their homes this year.

"This combination of violent attacks across the region aggravates an already dire humanitarian situation for the people of Southern Sudan," MSF warned.

In the latest attack, 42 people were reported killed in a 29 August clash between communities in Twic East County, Jonglei State. More than 60 were wounded and 24,000 displaced from 17 villages, mainly in Panyangor and Kongor.

"In the last six violent incidents that MSF responded to in Jonglei and Upper Nile States over the last six months... 1,057 people were killed in contrast to 259 wounded, with more than 60,000 displaced," the medical charity said. "This is new - the intention is to attack a village and to kill. The result is a population living in total fear, with significant humanitarian and medical needs."

Undermining CPA

Continuing violence, the Archbishop warned, could damage the smooth implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), under whose auspices elections are being planned for 2010 and a referendum on possible Southern autonomy in 2011.

"The timeframe given for the elections and referendum is already too short for the democratic processes to be effectively organized, and by the provisional dates chosen for voting... much of the South will already be suffering from logistics problems caused by the onset of the wet season," he warned in a statement.

"This is an indication to the citizens of the Sudan that the people on the ground are not being regarded or included in the politics of peace and that we are vulnerable to future violations of the CPA and an uncertain future for peace in the Sudan."

Food shortages

Separately, the UN World Food Programme warned that an urgent food security situation had been created in the region by poor rainfall, continued high levels of insecurity and high cereal and low livestock prices.

According to the recently released Annual Needs and Livelihood Assessment Mid-Year Review, about 1.5 million people in Southern Sudan face severe food insecurity, while aid delivery has been complicated by insecurity and poor roads.

irinnews

4 September 2009

Harare — THE Sadc Summit to be held next week in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has a difficult task in convincing President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai to bring to finality the outstanding issues threatening the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

The 14-member bloc is increasingly coming under pressure to resolve the stalemate between Zanu PF and Tsvangirai's MDC, with calls for Sadc to be firm in pressing Zimbabwe to implement what they agreed on last September.

Sources in the MDC-T said while some progress has been made, there were serious issues threatening the stability of the inclusive government.

Tsvangirai's MDC formation wants Sadc to ensure the full implementation of the GPA and to see key issues outlined in the January 27 Pretoria Sadc summit communiqué resolved.

These unresolved issues, they said, were related to the appointments of the provincial governors, Governor of the Reserve Bank and Attorney-General, the swearing-in of deputy Agriculture minister Roy Bennett, and the arrests of MDC-T legislators.

However, Zanu PF is maintaining that it is the MDC which has in fact not fulfilled key elements agreed to under the GPA.

Zanu PF is accusing MDC-T of not doing anything to address the removal of sanctions against Zimbabwe and to stop the beaming of anti-Zimbabwe messages by "pirate" radio station.

Presidential spokesperson George Charamba was quoted in the state media saying sanctions were the greatest threat to the survival of the inclusive government and that President Mugabe would draw the summit's attention to the issue.

Meanwhile, head of a five-member delegation of the United States Congress, Congressman Gregory Meeks of the 6th District of New York told the Zimbabwe Independent that the removal of sanctions would depend on the commitment of all the parties to fulfilling the GPA.

"Outright human rights violations and other things -- there has to be something that can show that there is going to be a change. I believe that the first thing that has to happen is that everybody, both sides, have to live up to their agreements with the Global Political Agreement," Meeks said.

"Show us that you can live up to that agreement and then that tells me that maybe we should change our policies because there is a difference. But if you can't even live up to that agreement, how can I convince my colleagues to change the policies?" he said.

The delegation was in Zimbabwe for a two-day visit during which they met Tsvangirai, Mugabe, Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo and the co-chairpersons of the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution.

The Sadc summit of January26-27 resolved amongst other issues that the equitable distribution of ministerial posts would be reviewed after six months.

MDC-T wants this review to be part of the summit in Kinshasa.

The review might see government ministries being reallocated if Sadc leaders adhere to its resolution.

The MDC-T source said: "The MDC is expecting that the review process will be part of the next Sadc summit agenda in Kinshasa and the MDC president plans to attend the summit with his delegation."

Tsvangirai is expected, the source said, to make a separate submission for consideration of the Sadc chairman, South African government and the summit regarding the need for the review of equitable distribution of ministerial posts.

The inclusive government, the sources said, has also had problems related to interpretation of certain sections of the GPA, accusing other parties of implementing it in bad faith.

MDC-T will bring to the attention of Sadc the unprocedural alterations to the final Act of Constitutional Amendment 19.

The Act signed into law, the sources said, differed significantly from the Bill assented to by parliament, thereby rendering it null and void.

On the appointments of the provincial governors, Reserve Bank governor and Attorney-General, the MDC sources said these were done in violation of the Memorandum of Understanding.

These, the sources said, were not reviewed as outlined in the Sadc Communiqué of January 27.

The MDC-T now wants the posts of Governor of the Reserve Bank and Attorney-General to be declared vacant and subsequently filled in line with article 20.1.3 (p) of the GPA, which states that the president has to make such key appointments in consultation with the Prime Minister.

On the provincial governors, MDC-T wants the five people it chose to be sworn in this month and it is also demanding that Bennett be sworn in immediately.

It also wants the issue regarding the mandate of the Ministry of Information Technology, whose communication department was taken away, to be addressed by the summit.

"The chairing of Cabinet in the absence of President Mugabe is clearly outlined in the GPA but Zanu PF continues to subvert this issue. There is also continued abuse of the law and selective application of the rule of law," said one source.

Meanwhile, Africa director at Human Rights Watch Georgette Gagnon said Southern African leaders should stop looking at Zimbabwe through "rose-coloured glasses".

"The region's leaders need to press Zimbabwe openly and publicly for human rights reforms to prevent the country from backsliding into state-sponsored violence and chaos."

allafrica

NAIROBI, 3 September 2009 (IRIN) - At least 1,556 East African Community (EAC) military personnel are participating in a three-week joint field training exercise codenamed Ex–Mlima Kilimanjaro (Mount Kilimanjaro) 2009 in Arusha and Tanga, Tanzania, to share knowledge on the regional challenges in peace support, counter-terrorism and disaster management.

The EAC personnel, comprising representatives from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, will also provide medical, veterinary and infrastructure rehabilitation services to neighbouring communities.

The exercise is being conducted under the EAC Memorandum of Understanding on Co-operation in Defence Matters, which also provides for EAC partner states' armies to offer mutual assistance in disaster management and technical co-operation. The MOU is set to be upgraded into a Protocol.

Three other joint, mainly command post, military exercises were held in 2005; Ex-Ongoza Njia (lead the way) on peace support operations and Ex-Trend Marker on counter-terrorism, and another in 2006, the Ex-Hot Springs, on disaster management. Kenya and Uganda have in the past held joint exercises to address the cattle-rustling problem in the West Pokot and Karamoja border areas.

This exercise is the first to be fully funded by the EAC states.

Future joint military training will involve more elaborate field exercises and battle simulations with larger numbers of personnel and military hardware, says EAC.

allafrica

03 Sep 2009
Arab League Secretary General, Amr Moussa, has demanded the dispatch of more troops to the Somali capital Mogadishu by Arab states.

The additional troops are needed to help the African Union (AU) troops who are fighting rebels in the war-torn country.

Moussa said that Arab troops will bring back law and order to Somalia due to their neutrality, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Meanwhile, al-Shabaab militant group leader, Abu Subeyr, described Somaliland Administration leaders as non-Muslims and vowed to attack them.


presstv

04 Sep 2009
At least 6 civilians have lost their lives and eleven others injured during fierce fighting between African Union soldiers and Somali rebels.

Violence broke out after the local fighters launched an attack on the international forces under the AU mandate for the establishment of peace in the lawless Horn of Africa state, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Heavily-armed Al Shabaab militia on Thursday attacked the Burundian peacekeeper's base in northern Mogadishu with portable rocket launchers.

Despite a public call by Somali clerics for the renunciation of bloodshed in the holy month of Ramadan, Al Shabaab guerillas intensified their anti-government campaign and vowed to hammer out the foreign troops during the Muslim's holy period of fasting.

There are conflicting reports on the number of casualties inflicted upon the adversaries in the assault as each side claims to have slaughtered 'dozens' of the opponents.

Living conditions in the poor violence-plagued nation have exacerbated as more families struggle to survive the dire humanitarian situation in the country.

Recently, there have been reports of missing children as parents fear that they might be recruited as child soldiers for Somali rebels.

presstv

03 Sep 2009
A renowned aid agency has drawn attention to the deplorable condition of refugee camps in Somalia, decrying the living standards as "barely fit for humans."

Oxfam, a confederation of more than 13 aid organizations worldwide, on Thursday slammed the swamped and badly managed camps in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, which shelter hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the deadly civil war gripping the country.

The agency said that the international community had failed Somalia, which has been struggling to rebuild itself with the formation of a new government, by not doing enough to end the war.

It added that the suffering and mass exodus of Somalis to neighboring countries has come at a time when Somalia is also struggling with hits worst drought in a decade.

"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," Robbert Van den Berg, a spokesman for Oxfam International in the Horn of Africa, was quoted by CCN.

One example of overcrowded camps is the Dadaab camp in northeastern Kenya. Originally meant to hold 90,000 refugees, it now has a population of 300,000 people that rises by some 8,000 new arrivals each month.

Oxfam has called on the Kenyan government to allocate more land, adding that the war has displaced some 1.4 million people and prompted 500,000 more to flee to nearby countries.

Somalia had lacked a functioning government since warlords overthrew Mohamed Siad Barre. The new government of President Sharif Ahmed, elected in January, has been fighting a heavy battle with rebels, especially in the capital of Mogadishu.

The 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.


presstv

NAIROBI, 2 September 2009 (IRIN) - Somalia has experienced conflict since 1991 when the late President Mohamed Siad Barre's government was overthrown by opposition forces. Up to 2006, the fighting was largely between clan-based warlords clashing over territory and resources. In the process, one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world was created.

In 2006, Islamic groups in Mogadishu fought fierce battles against a combined force of the warlords and defeated them. The groups, known as the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), initially enjoyed considerable civilian and business support from a community fed up with insecurity in areas controlled by the warlords, including the capital.

The UIC ranks contained both radical elements, in the form of Al-Shabab, and moderate members, but the radicals were a small minority. From June-December 2006, it brought unprecedented calm to Mogadishu and other areas of south and central Somalia.

In December 2006, Ethiopian forces, with backing from the United States - which regarded the UIC as a terrorist organisation - entered Somalia and installed the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Mogadishu, where it had hardly made its presence felt since coming into being in 2004 after two years of talks in Kenya.

Subsequently, fierce fighting continued between UIC remnants, including Al-Shabab and their supporters, and the combined forces of Ethiopia and the TFG. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes.

In December 2008, the Ethiopians withdrew from Somalia, leaving a small African Union (AMISOM) force to defend the government.

In January 2009, a peace deal signed in Djibouti between the UN-backed TFG and a faction of the opposition, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) saw the creation of a parliament which elected Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as president of the TFG. The former UIC chairman was considered by many as a moderate Islamist.

Many Somalis hoped Ahmed’s election and the departure of Ethiopian troops would end the violence and launch a new era of peace in the country. They were wrong.

Ahmed’s government was opposed by a breakaway group from his own ARS, led by his former ally Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. Aweys, who was based in Asmara, Eritrea, returned to Somalia and set up Hisbul-Islam (Party of Islam).

The Djibouti peace deal was also opposed by Al-Shabab, which had long split from the main UIC.

Whereas previous struggles for power in Somalia were fought along the lines of the country's complex clan system, the current conflict is, ostensibly at least, a war between groups with different interpretations of Islam.

The protagonists

TFG forces comprise fighters who used to serve various warlords, former members of the UIC, clan militia and Ethiopian-trained forces. These disparate groups have weak central command and control, despite the government’s efforts, so are rarely able to carry out a coordinated attack. There have been incidents of fighting between the different units.

The main threat to the TFG is posed by Al-Shabab. It is on a US terror list and is accused of having links with Al-Qaeda. The group controls much of southern and central Somalia, including parts of Mogadishu. Al-Shabab is reportedly led by a shadowy figure who goes by the name of Abu Zubeyr. His real name, according to Somali sources, is Ahmed Godane and he is originally from secessionist Somaliland. His main contact is through taped messages given to Somali radio stations. The group's professed aim is to spread Islam across the globe.

The movement has been accused of kidnapping, assassinating government officials and journalists, and other criminal activity.

While a keynote of Al-Shabab's official rhetoric is that clan affiliation and geographic origin should play no part in governance, and that any Somali should be able to serve as "amir", or leader, in any part of the country, this policy does not appear to be followed in central Somalia, where only locals are appointed amirs.

Al-Shabab views President Ahmed as a traitor to the Islamic cause and has described him and his government as "Murtadiin" (apostates). It believes in the strict application of Sharia law.

Like Al-Shabab, Hisbul-Islam is also fighting the TFG but is not known to engage in kidnapping and assassinations. It also differs in outlook. Hisbul-Islam is inward-looking and concerned with local rather than international issues, according to Somali analysts. Aweys, its leader, considers the Djibouti peace deal a betrayal. The group is reportedly supported by Eritrea, a charge Eritrea consistently denies.

Hisbul-Islam insists it will stop fighting if all "foreign forces" leave Somalia, including AMISOM troops (see below).

Ahlu Sunna Waljama is a Sufi sect, regarded as more moderate in its interpretation of Islam than Al-Shabab. It joined the fighting in late December 2008, dislodging Al-Shabab from the towns of Guri-Eil and Dusamareb in Galgadud region. It now controls all of Galgadud in central Somalia.

Ahlu Sunna Waljama has two branches. The first was formed by Sufi clerics and enjoys support from Ethiopia. This branch is mainly concentrated in central regions. The other is led by former warlords, who apparently are using the name to reinvent themselves. This group is mainly in the south around Gedo, Bay and Bakol regions. They have some links to the TFG.


African forces
AMISOM, staffed mainly by troops from Uganda and Burundi, has been in the country since 2007. In the past the force was confined to protecting the president and prime minister and vital infrastructure, such as the airport and port. In recent months its troops have been drawn into the fighting as insurgents targeted them. Somalis have accused the force of indiscriminate shelling when responding to attacks, a charge they deny.

The 5,000 or so AMISOM troops, supported by the US and UN, are concentrated in Mogadishu.

Ethiopian troops

In January 2009, Ethiopia said it had completed the withdrawal of its forces from Somalia. Since then there have been reports, denied by the Ethiopians, of Ethiopian troops in parts of central Somalia. Local sources in Beletweyne town told IRIN Ethiopian forces entered the town on 28 August and are still there.

irinnews

OUAGADOUGOU, 2 September 2009 (IRIN) - Flooding has affected an estimated 150,000 people in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, claimed at least five lives and partially shut down the country’s main hospital, according to government and hospital officials.

Dozens of patients were evacuated from the Yalgado Ouédraogo hospital’s paediatric, infectious disease, respiratory and kidney disease departments. Emergency care services have been relocated to other health centres.

“We were surprised as everyone else [by the storm],” said Lansandé Bagagné, a doctor at the hospital. “We will try to see now what to do to save all [the equipment] that can be saved and we will see for the rest. We have evacuated patients from wards that were flooded.” Hospital staff are researching which other health centres have surgical capacities to take on more patients, the doctor added.

Some patients’ families are not waiting for further evacuation orders. “We are taking him [father] home to wait to see what will happen,” said Adama Coulibaly who told IRIN her father was a renal patient. “We do not know if the building will hold up to protect the patients here. The situation can only get worse,” she said.

Doctors are also agreeing to discharge patients early, the hospital’s communication officer, Sanou Souro, told IRIN. “We have to make do until the situation improves.” She said hospital officials’ priority is to first disinfect the hospital, and then they will finalize the count of patient evacuees.

Scattered

Schools and churches at 193 sites across Ouagadougou are sheltering 110,000 flood victims, based on a preliminary government count. The actual number of people needing shelter may be 20,000 more because of those who have “refused” to join public shelters, according to the Prime Minister Tertius Zongo. An additional estimated 20,000 have relocated to live with family and neighbours.

“Houses continue to crumble,” said the Minister of Social Welfare, Pascaline Tamini, at noon on national radio. “Measures [we have] taken are [creating] shelter, doing everything necessary to ensure that a level of sanitation, health services and food are in place by this evening.”

In a visit to Yalgado Ouédraogo hospital on 1 September, the prime minister said the country had not seen a storm of similar magnitude since 1919. The country’s head of meteorological services, Didier Ouédraogo, told IRIN that though weather service staff knew of the storm’s approach, “the quantity and intensity was not foreseen.”

The country has on average 1,200mm of rainfall annually. Within only hours on 1 September, the city was deluged with 300mm, said Ouédraogo.

President Blaise Compaoré has mentioned the possibility of launching an international appeal for disaster relief upon his return to Ouagadougou on the afternoon of 2 September, saying the country faced “an exceptional situation.”

irinnews

02 Sep 2009
Libya has celebrated the anniversary of a coup that brought Colonel Moamar Gadhafi to power 40 years ago in the North African country.

Gadhafi kicked off the celebrations early Tuesday with a feast at a former US air base that was later turned into a Libyan military camp.

A parade was held on Tuesday afternoon while a large-scale celebration took place in a Tripoli stadium in the evening after the end of the Ramadan fast.

Libya invited many heads of state, but most of them sent lower-level representatives or stayed away in a sign of the still touchy relationship many Western countries have with Libya and concern over how to treat the Mediterranean country following the Lockerbie bomber's release.

Scottish officials released the bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, on August 20, saying that doctors had determined that he had terminal prostate cancer and had only three months to live.

Megrahi is the only man convicted of the 1988 plane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 259 people aboard the aircraft and 11 people on the ground.

presstv

02 Sep 2009
The British prime minister is faced with mounting pressure after new details were revealed on the discussions about the release of the sole man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

Gordon Brown and his Foreign Secretary David Miliband have been drawn into furor after the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was sentenced to life in prison by a Scottish court for his role in the bombing of a PanAm flight over Lockerbie in Scotland in which 270 people were killed.

On Tuesday, the British and Scottish governments released a series of documents in which former Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell confirmed he told Libya's Europe minister in a February meeting that Brown did not want the Lockerbie bomber to die in a Scottish prison.

The message had come amid warnings from Tripoli that allowing Megrahi to die in prison would amount to a 'death sentence'.

Later Rammell told the BBC he had conveyed Brown's feelings to the Libyans: "I did say that. But we need to put it in context. I was making it emphatically clear that this was a decision for Scottish ministers."

Scotland released terminally-ill Megrahi on August 20, sparing him the remaining 19 years of his 27-year sentence.

presstv

30 Aug 2009

The first minister of Scotland says the release of the Lockerbie bomber was not in line with UK trade interests with Libya, as the plot thickens with the publication of leaked papers.

Ministerial letters leaked to the Sunday Times daily showed UK ministers had negotiated with the oil-rich country and agreed to include him in a prisoner transfer deal in 2007 because it was "in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom."

Correspondence between British Justice Minister Jack Straw and his Scottish counterpart Kenny MacAskill, dated 19 December 2007, clearly indicates a change of stance over Megrahi's fate, allegedly in the middle of a stalled oil deal.

The negotiations were over a lucrative oil exploration contract for BP worth billions of pounds and the difficulties were quickly resolved afterwards.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond reiterated Sunday that the decision to free the bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, was on compassionate grounds permitted under Scottish law.

He told the BBC that Nelson Mandela, “not just as the towering figure of humanitarian concern… in the last generation but as somebody who brokered the agreement that led to the Lockerbie trial in the first place,” had lent his voice to the "international support" for the move.

MacAskill released terminally-ill Megrahi on August 20, sparing him the remaining 19 years of his 27-year sentence.

The 57-year-old Libyan is the sole man convicted for the 1988 bombing atrocity abroad the PanAm 103 that killed 270 people.

While Scotland mulled over whether to consider a prison transfer or release Megrahi, London repeatedly said the decision rested with Scotland, but suspicions about the motivations behind the move have not been satisfied.

UK opposition parties want an inquiry into the matter as well as detailed notes on any trade or other deals made with the Libyan government prior to Megrahi's release.

Last week, Cabinet papers showed that three ministers had paid visits to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in the months leading up to Megrahi's release.

Straw has so far maintained that the negotiations were not over an oil deal, but sought to improve relations with the country after Tripoli agreed to give up its "weapons of mass destruction."

presstv

30 Aug 2009
As the release of the sole man convicted of the Lockerbie plane bombing stirs up controversy, leaked governmental letters reveal that the bomber was set free over lucrative Libyan oil contracts.

The Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, suffering from terminal prostate cancer, was allowed to return to Libya from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds earlier in August.

He was initially imprisoned in 2001 after having been found guilty of the 1988 bombing of PanAm Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people.

Amid growing anger over the issue, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill assured those concerned that the decision to release the prisoner, which under the Scottish law is up to the Justice Ministry, was solely his and not based on "political, diplomatic or economic considerations."

Meanwhile, according to a report published by Times Online, leaked ministerial letters reveal that the British government decided that it was "in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom" to release the Libyan convict.

Letters sent in 2007 by Jack Straw -- the justice secretary -- to MacAskill -- his Scottish counterpart -- makes it clear that the key decision to release al-Megrahi was, in fact, made in London for Britain's national interests.

According to the report, the issue of the release of al-Megrahi was mentioned in ministerial correspondence as discussions over a multi-billion-pound oil exploration deal between energy giant BP and Libya had reached a stalemate.

The exploration deal for oil and gas, potentially worth up to 15 billion pounds, was announced in May 2007. Six months later, the agreement was still waiting to be ratified.

The issue, however, was resolved soon after Straw wrote to MacAskill on December 19, 2007 allowing the prisoner transfer.

"The wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and, in view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom, I have agreed that in this instance the [prisoner transfer agreement] should be in the standard form and not mention any individual," he wrote in a letter leaked by a Whitehall source.

Within six weeks of the government withdrawal, the BP deal was ratified by Libya.

Saif Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, has also confirmed the report, saying that the release of al-Megrahi was linked with the BP oil contract.

"At all times we talked about the [prisoner transfer agreement], it was obvious we were talking about him. We all knew that was what we were talking about.

"People should not get angry because we were talking about commerce or oil. We signed an oil deal at the same time. The commerce and oil deals were all with the [prisoner transfer agreement]."

presstv

JOHANNESBURG, 2 September 2009 (IRIN) - South Africa's government has acquired thousands of farms to redress racially skewed land ownership, but more than half have failed, or are failing, Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti told parliament on 1 September.

The government intends redistributing 30 percent of agricultural land (24.6 million hectares) to black South Africans by 2014, but by June 2009 only 6.7 percent (5.5 million hectares) had been parcelled out and many recipient farmers were struggling to survive.

In a written reply to a question in parliament, Nkwinti said 2,864 farms had been acquired, "29 percent of the 1,250 LRAD [Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development] projects reviewed have failed, and a further 22 percent are declining."

Of the 1,250 failed LRAD farms, 362 were unproductive and an additional 275 were on the verge of being unsustainable "if no agricultural support is received". The land reform programme so far had cost about US$800 million, Nkwinti said.

Karen Kleinbooi, of the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape, told IRIN: "The biggest problem [with land redistribution] is there is no real vision as to what it is they [the government] want to achieve with land reform."

Under apartheid 87 percent of farmland was owned by the minority white population, leaving the black majority with 13 percent; reversing this situation has been a political imperative since the African National Congress (ANC) government came to power in 1994.

During President Thabo Mbeki's tenure, from 1999 to 2008, the 30 percent benchmark for land redistribution became a holy grail, resulting in often bitter spats between predominantly white commercial farmer organizations and the government over the slow pace of land redistribution.

The arbitrary 30 percent target

Analysts say the 30 percent target has hobbled rather than enhanced agrarian reform, as achieving it has overshadowed other considerations necessary to creating sustainable rural livelihoods.
''She was not suggesting there were no people wanting land, but rather that beneficiaries had become necessities for transferring hectares, rather than hectares being sourced to serve the needs of beneficiaries''

The 30 percent target is not rooted in some sense of post-apartheid justice; it originated in a 1992 meeting of local and international experts convened by the World Bank on behalf of the ANC.

"Two members of this team focused on financial issues, including the cost implications of a future programme of redistributive land reform," Michael Aliber, a PLAAS senior researcher, noted in the organization's quarterly bulletin in June 2008.

"For good measure, they considered three scenarios: a 10 percent, a 30 percent, and a 50 percent - these were good round figures that captured the boundaries of what was thinkable at the time," he said.

The 50 percent option was dismissed as "out of sight", the 10 percent was seen as "politically unacceptable", and the "30 percent option was a reasonable compromise. That's it," Aliber said.

He recounted a discussion with an "overworked" provincial official tasked with land redistribution, who complained about how difficult it was to find beneficiaries.

"She was not suggesting there were no people wanting land, but rather that beneficiaries had become necessities for transferring hectares, rather than hectares being sourced to serve the needs of beneficiaries."

Kleinbooi said the failure of redistributed farms fitted "squarely" into Mbeki's era, but there were indications of "a shift away from chasing targets ... and a shift towards more efficient land reform" by the new administration of President Jacob Zuma.

Policy decisions reached at the ANC congress in 2007, when Mbeki was deposed as the party's leader and replaced by Zuma, placed a "new focus on agrarian reform, including the restructuring of value chains, [that] is appropriate and much needed, given the complete neglect of these aspects in the past," Ben Cousins, director of PLAAS, said in the organisation's June 2009 quarterly review.

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02 Sep 2009
Nigerian police reportedly claim that a gunman from the country's hotly-pursued militant sect has confessed to receiving training in Afghanistan.

The man, named Abdulrasheed Abubakar, was arrested in the northern city of Yola on Sunday during a police crackdown on the country's notorious Boko Haram gunmen, the local newspaper Next reported.

On Wednesday, the police said the 23-year-old had "confessed" that he had been paid USD 5,000 to do the training and promised USD 30,000 on his return, BBC reported.

The police has not clarified who has provided the funds to the man and whether his confession was volunteered.

"The bomb maker was trained outside the country and he is understood to possess extensive knowledge of how to handle, produce and detonate bombs of the most lethal magnitudes," the daily had quoted Altine Daniel, Police Public Relations Officer as saying.

Boko Haram, the man's alleged militant handlers, have been implicated in last July's violence in northern Nigeria which left around 700 killed.

The Boko Haram was shaped in 2002 in the northeastern state capital of Maiduguri. The group's continuous attacks against the police have made it the focus of Abuja's anti-terror efforts.

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02 Sep 2009

The International Criminal Court has reportedly put off the trial of two Congolese militiamen charged with using child soldiers, murder, rape, and sexual slavery.

"The chamber found that compelling reasons require that the date of September 24 initially set for the commencement of the trial be put back," the court said in a statement.

The ICC also said the trials of two accused Congolese warlords, Germain Katanga, 31, and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, 38, will now start in The Hague on November 24 instead of September 24 as originally scheduled.

The defendants are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is said that the militia leaders directed a joint attack in February 2003 on the village of Bogoro in the mineral-rich northeastern Congolese district of Ituri.

There is evidence that more than 200 children, women, old people, and civilian men were killed and that women were detained in camps and repeatedly raped.

The ICC has also issued arrest warrants for two other war crimes suspects in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In addition, there are two other suspects -- ex-militia chief Thomas Lubanga, who is currently on trial in The Hague, and another warlord, Bosco Ntaganda, who is still at large.

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ADDIS ABABA, 1 September 2009 (IRIN) - Ethiopian health authorities have dedicated three hospitals in Addis Ababa to patients suffering from acute watery diarrhoea (AWD), according to a health official.

Thousands of people have been infected and 34 killed by the outbreak, says the Health Ministry. Ahmed Imano, head of public relations in the ministry, said there were fears it could escalate with the rains.

"If the people do not take extra care, the number of patients will increase and the outbreak will escalate," Ahmed told IRIN on 1 September. "The public should treat water before use."

The hospitals - Zweditu, Ras Desta and Yekatit - have set up tents to accommodate patients. So far, about 5,700 cases have been reported across the country, including 4,200 in the capital, over the past two weeks.

Some 27 died in 31 woredas (districts) outside Addis Ababa. "The fatality rate in Addis Ababa is 0.2 percent," Ahmed added.

He blamed the outbreak on poor sanitation and hygiene, as well as contaminated water. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diarrhoea is spread through contaminated food or drinking water or from person-to-person.

AWD is one of the three clinical types of diarrhoea, which can be caused by a variety of bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms.

"There are a number of diseases that causes diarrhoea; we [have] not identified which specific type of disease caused AWD," Ahmed said. "We are still studying that. Now our main focus is saving lives."

In a bid to contain the situation, residents of Addis Ababa have been advised to take precautionary measures such as frequent hand-washing, avoiding raw food and ensuring that drinking water is boiled, filtered and cooled before consumption, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"The number of hospitalized patients has dropped to 140," Ahmed said. "In the first week around 500 patients came to hospital."

Diarrhoeal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years old, killing 1.5 million every year, according to WHO.

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JOHANNESBURG , 1 September 2009 (IRIN) - A new species of mosquito has been discovered by South African researchers, adding to the pantheon of some 140 species of Anopheles mosquitoes in Africa, of which seven are known to be malaria vectors.

"A lot of Africa['s mosquitoes are] not investigated - the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] is a huge blank in the map. Who knows what is happening in the remote regions of the Rift Valley?" said Prof Maureen Coetzee, of the University of the Witwatersrand's School of Pathology in Johannesburg, South Africa, who discovered the new species.

Coetzee is one of the authors of the report: A New Species Concealed by Anopheles funestus Giles, a Major Malaria Vector in Africa. "Understanding the vectors is absolutely key; if we don't do anything about mosquitoes, we will never do anything about malaria," she told IRIN.

The previously unknown species - provisionally named Anopheles funestus-like - was discovered during field studies by researchers from the university and South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases in and around rural villages in northern Malawi near the town of Karonga, on the western shore of Lake Malawi.

The new species is related to the major African malarial vector, Anopheles funestus, but the "jury is still out on ... whether it carries [the] malaria [parasite]," Coetzee said.

The Anopheles funestus Giles group of mosquitoes has nine known African species, and "although the members of the Anopheles funestus group may be similar in morphology [its form and structure], their efficiencies as malaria vectors vary greatly," the report said.

Anopheles funestus s.s. is recognized as one of the primary causes of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa because it is anthropophilic, meaning that it prefers to feed on humans rather than other animals, and endophilic, meaning it associates with humans and their domestic environment.

While "anopheles rivulum has only once been implicated in malaria transmission in Tanzania, it generally elects to blood-feed on domestic animals rather than humans," the report said.

The new species were "common inside houses [which] makes them potential [malaria] vectors", the researchers found, "although none of the 61 specimens examined for malaria parasite infection during this study were positive for Plasmodium Falciparum, [the parasite that causes malaria in humans]."

Coetzee said it was important to ascertain whether Anopheles funestus-like was a malaria vector or not, but this could only be determined after further research.

If it did not carry malaria it would be unnecessary to spend money on disease containments like spraying; if it did, strategies should be developed to limit its impact.

We don't know as much as we thought we did

"Using the unique mosquito breeding facilities at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases [in Johannesburg], we were able to carry out a range of experiments to show that the mosquitoes from Malawi were not the same as Anopheles funestus, and that we were dealing with a species new to science," Coetzee said in a statement on 1 September announcing the breakthrough.

''Here we are in 2009, discovering a new species [of mosquito] - it really is quite remarkable. The more we look, the more we will find; we might think that we know an awful lot [about mosquitoes and malaria], but there is a lot to learn''
"The results have implications for malaria-vector control, particularly any attempt to use genetically modified mosquitoes. They also demonstrate how little we know about the malaria mosquito vectors in Africa despite over 100 years of research into this important disease."

Nobel Prize winner Sir Ronald Ross, working in Secunderabad, near Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh State, India, scientifically proved in 1897 that mosquitoes carried the parasite that caused malaria.

Coetzee remarked, "Here we are in 2009, discovering a new species [of mosquito] - it really is quite remarkable. The more we look, the more we will find; we might think that we know an awful lot [about mosquitoes and malaria], but there is a lot to learn."

The incidence of drug-resistant malaria in Cambodia was "causing worldwide panic", she said, but there were differences between Asian and African mosquitoes - "African vectors are very good [at transmitting malaria]."

According to the World Malaria report for 2008 by the UN World Health Organization, half the world's population is at risk, and an estimated 247 million cases led to nearly one million deaths in 2006. Pregnant women and children in sub-Saharan Africa are especially threatened.

irinnews

01 Sep 2009

The president of the African Union (AU) holds Israel responsible for all the woes facing Africa, calling on member-states to cut diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv.

Israel is "behind all of Africa's conflicts," Muammar Gaddafi said on Monday and demanded the closure of all Israeli embassies across Africa.

The Libyan leader, who holds the rotating AU presidency described Israel as a "gang" which uses the "protection of minorities as an excuse to launch conflicts."

Gaddafi made the remarks at a meeting of 30 African leaders, who had convened in Tripoli for a one-day summit on the continent's trouble spots, including Sudan's Darfur and Somalia.

Israel has acknowledged operating what it called a forward policy in Africa between the 1960s and 1980s, intervening in wars from Ethiopia to Uganda and Sudan, he stressed.

"As African brothers, we must find solutions to stop the superpowers who are pillaging our continent," the president of the AU added.

The one-day meeting ended without any agreement on concrete steps. The leaders merely adopted a 'Tripoli Declaration' and a plan of action 'to find urgent solutions to crises and conflicts' in Africa.

That plan urges member-states who have pledged to contribute troops to reinforce the AU peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM) to honor their promises "rapidly".

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BAMAKO, 1 September 2009 (IRIN) - Legislators in Mali will have to try harder to win support for the next draft of their new family code after the president sent it back to parliament on 27 August for re-drafting.

The current draft code recognizes only secular marriages, increases the legal marrying age to 18, gives girls inheritance rights, and makes women equal with their husbands at home, according to lawmakers who said they had not done enough to get backing for controversial parts of the family code.

“We demonstrated intellectual laziness in adopting the last code so quickly. This time, the assembly will start from zero,” parliamentarian Mountaga Tall told IRIN. He said legislators will hear the arguments of the nation’s highest Islamic body on 10 controversial points which have sparked demonstrations and threats of civil disobedience and violence.

President Amadou Toumani Touré sent the code back to the assembly, recognizing the government’s more than two-decade struggle to pursue “the dual objective of promoting a wave of modernization while preserving the foundations of our society”.

Since the adoption of the country’s first family code in 1962, the president said repeated failures to update and enforce it “proves that societal change is not ordered by decree”. Touré said the “door of debate is still open”.

The secretary of Mali’s highest ruling Islamic council, Mohamed Kimbiri, told IRIN that despite consulting the council about the code, lawmakers had not heeded Islamic leaders’ input on contentious points.

Following the president’s recent move, the Islamic council called off planned demonstrations against the code “until further notice”.

Opposition to the code

The head of a national non-profit group of Muslim women in Mali, Hadja Safiatou Dembélé, told IRIN that while she recognized the code was intended to benefit women, she had not supported it. “We say we agree with revolution and equality, but not an equality which shatters family harmony and puts us on a par with our spouses.” She said Muslim women want a code that respects societal and religious values.

Secondary school professor Bintou Camara told IRIN women cannot have equal standing with men. “There cannot be two bosses in the same family. It is the man who is always in control. I want to leave the term ‘obedience’ in place.” She said the legal marrying age of 18 is too old. “At 12 years old already, many girls are mature and know much about life at that age.” She told IRIN 15 is a good legal age for marriage.

Oumar Coulibaly, a baker working 400km south of the capital Bamako in Koutiala, told IRIN he did not understand why the code was being reconsidered. “We already have our daily problems with the rising cost of living. Why do they want to foist on us a code the origins of which I do not know?”

The president’s head of communications, Kader Maïga, told IRIN the president did not sign the code - which included more than 1,100 articles, about 10 of which are contested - out of respect for public opinion. “We are in a democracy. Why impose something that does not have unanimous support?”

The 13-year history of the most recent attempt to adjust the 1962 family law included regional meetings, and multiple readings and revisions, which resulted in parliament approving the family code, according to President Touré.

Round two

Maïga told IRIN lawmakers would “listen to all sectors of society” while reconsidering the articles which sparked the most heated dissent, and address this criticism in the revised code. “We will then ask all parties to go to their bases of support to explain the code,” he told IRIN.

Municipal adviser Walett Rachette in the country’s northern region of Timbuktu told IRIN the controversy surrounding the code’s passage mirrored past attempts to enforce the family code. “We should not wake old demons here.” She told IRIN lawmakers could only avoid a backlash by working with leaders to redraft the code.

Oumar Touré, a lawmaker who had voted for the code, said he felt dejected at having to contend again with the first bill to have been sent back for redrafting since multi-party democracy was founded in Mali in 1992. “Our constituents did not take the time to try to understand the code, which explains the toxic reaction we witnessed… The lawmakers who adopted the code are for the most part of the Muslim faith… I do not think they would engage in an act that went against their own religion,” he told IRIN.

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