28 August 2009
Talks between Madagascar's ousted president Marc Ravalomanana (far right) and coup leader Andry Rajoelina (left) ended without a resolution to the country's political crisis, but the two sides have promised to form an interim government by Sept. 4.

AFP - Madagascar's power-brokers ended talks in Mozambique Friday without reaching agreement on the make-up of a transitional government to lead the country out of its political crisis, mediators said.

"The international joint mediation team regrets to inform ... (that) the heads of the movements have found it impossible to come to a consensus on the key posts of the transition," said a statement issued by the mediators.

Madagascar's rival leaders have agreed to name an interim government by September 4, mediators said.

Several institutions of the transitional government have already been decided, they added.

Marc Ravalomanana, the president who was ousted in March, and current leader Andry Rajoelina will each get to decide the leader of one of the houses of the transitional parliament.

The two rivals will also pick one vice-prime minister each.

Other institutions of the interim authority will be decided by former president Albert Zafy and members of civil society, mediators said.

Madagascar's rival leaders, together with former presidents Zafy and Didier Ratsiraka, agreed August 9 in a previous round of talks to name a transitional government that will return the Indian Ocean island to constitutional rule and organize democratic elections by the end of 2010.

This week's talks were extended an extra day to give the four factions time to settle their differences on the top posts in the transition.

But negotiations stumbled over the issue of who would be interim president.

Under the August 9 agreement, the president will be the only member of the transitional government eligible to run for election in 2010.

Rajoelina has said only he can lead the transition.

But Ravalomanana, who has pledged not to seek a direct role in the interim government, rejected giving the presidency to Rajoelina and said the post should go to a member of his movement.

"It's not normal to legitimize an author of a coup d'etat as the president of the transition," Ravalomanana said.

The August 9 agreement gives the leaders 30 days to name the new government.

Mediators said the factions agreed to settle their differences by September 4 in order to present the new government at the next summit of the Southern African Development Community, which starts September 6.

france24

26 Aug 2009
One of two French security advisors held hostage by al-Shabaab fighters has managed to escape his captors in Mogadishu, Somali officials say.

The French national escaped on Tuesday night accompanied by a white man believed to be a journalist who was also held as hostage by al-Shabaab in one of Mogadishu's environs, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The Frenchman and his colleague, who were on an official mission to Somalia for training Somali intelligent forces there, were kidnapped from their hotel room in Mogadishu on July 14 by heavily armed fighters loyal to al-Shabaab group.

"We understand he killed three al-Shabaab guys who were guarding him. I cannot understand how this good story happened but now he is in the hands of the government," Abdiqadir Odweyne, a senior police commander, told Reuters.

Earlier this month, Somali gunmen freed six foreigners -- two Kenyans, two French, a Bulgarian and a Belgian -- abducted in November.

press tv

27 Aug 2009
Somali pirates defying a multi-national anti-piracy mission in the region have reportedly opened fire on a US navy helicopter from aboard a hijacked vessel.

The US navy said Thursday that a shootout had happened the previous morning as a helicopter was carrying out a surveillance mission over the vessel.

There has so far been no report of casualties or damages from the incident in the piracy-ridden waters off Somalia.

"Somali pirates aboard the motor vessel Win Far fired what appeared to be a large caliber weapon at a US navy SH-60B helicopter," AFP news agency cited a statement from the Bahrain-based US Naval Forces Central Command as reading.

"The helicopter was conducting a routine surveillance flight of M/V Win Far, currently held at anchorage by Somali pirates south of Garacad, Somalia, when the incident occurred," it added.

According to the navy, the Win Far is a Taiwanese-flagged vessel seized along with its 30 crewmembers earlier this year and has been used as a 'mother ship' to conduct other known pirate attacks, "most notably the US-flagged Maersk-Alabama in April".

The international naval presence in the dangerous Gulf of Aden waters is unable to monitor and patrol all of the shipping lanes that connect Europe to Asia -- an area that spans more than 2.5 million square miles.

This year, the number of attempted attacks on merchant vessels rose to 114, only 29 of which were successful, according to the US navy figures.

The pirates usually hold the ships and crew for millions of dollars in ransom.

presstv

TSERNAOUA, 25 August 2009 (IRIN) - The instructions were clear for aid workers with the NGO CARE Niger who were responsible for distributing to hundreds of Niger villagers more than US$80,000 in cash transfers: Withdraw small bills from the bank. Verify the amount placed in hundreds of envelopes. Oversee the bank employee lining up envelopes in a suitcase. Accompanied by plain-clothes security forces and the bank employee, deliver the suitcases of money to 24 villages throughout the central Tahoua region.

With the UK-funded cash transfers scheduled to end later this year, IRIN visited families in one village in south central Niger to learn whether $150 a year can stave off hunger and death, some of the goals of the transfers.

In 2007 CARE was one of four international non-profits, with one local NGO, selected by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to test whether cash transfers along with agriculture support, cereal banks and animal vaccinations and treatments, can achieve those objectives.

“What good is a cereal bank if villagers do not have money to buy anything?” said Nana Tchiemago, CARE’s disaster risk reduction manager in Niger until 1 August. CARE leads the NGOs in the three-year nearly $5-million programme.

More, but less

“I had never seen so much money in my life,” said Saka Salhou, who was identified by a village committee in Tsernaoua as “extremely vulnerable”. She told IRIN she used to weave straw mats, which on good days sold for up to $1.60 each. With the $150, split into a $100 payment in April 2008 at the start of the agriculture growing season when food runs low and $50 in October during harvest season, she told IRIN she bought a goat for $40.

The remainder she spent on food for her family and millet to sell porridge in the market.

When asked how her income had changed with the transfer, Salhou told IRIN she now had a baby goat, but that it was too soon to make any money from it. “My [most recent] payment of $100 is long gone. I used it for rice and millet, which are both gone.” She said she is now back to weaving mats.

In a February government survey of almost 400 families (one-third the number of households receiving cash under the DFID grant), 38 percent said their income had “substantially increased” and 15 percent that they had “diversified” work activities. But more than half of those surveyed said their money bought less than before.
Facts
54% of surveyed cash recipients said their purchasing power had decreased
38% households reported "substantial" increase in income
Source: Niger disaster risk reduction consortium, May 2009

The mid-way evaluation noted that a bad 2008 harvest in some areas and higher food prices wiped out the increased income for certain villagers.

food insecurity following the 2008 harvest, according to Almost 12 percent of Tahoua’s population faced extreme the government.

Disincentive?

CARE’s Tchiemago told IRIN money alone cannot solve structural problems like land degradation or bad weather. “Our goal is realistic. We want to get families to a certain level of stability so they can solve their immediate problems.”

But cash transfers can obstruct long-term development, according to coordinator Josef Garvi with the NGO Eden Foundation, which has worked with farmers in Niger for two decades on seed development and reforestation.

“Such measures [transfers] create dependency on external assistance and draw people away from their livelihoods in search of free donations,” Garvi told IRIN. “Generating unrealistic expectations of a continuous inflow of donations, cash handouts reduce people’s own motivation – and later ability – of taking care of themselves, thus destroying those very mechanisms that allow them to cope with the difficulties of their everyday lives.”

But producers work harder for their own livelihoods when they are relieved of the financial burden of working as day labourers for others, according to NGO Save the Children UK in an evaluation of its cash transfer programme in Niger’s southern Maradi region.

CARE’s Tchiemago told IRIN cash does not cause dependency. “Whether it is soap, millet or cash, families can become dependent on all or none of them. It depends on the household’s engagement to improve their situation.”

Concerns

There are no conditions on how the cash is spent.

CARE’s Tchiemago said the village selection committee and CARE staff educate villagers about their transfers, which can be many more times their average annual income. “Yes, it is a family’s right to organize a marriage or baptism [with the cash transfer]. It is a huge source of frustration and loss of dignity for them to have to wait until after the harvest to organize a baptism. But most families do not use transfers for that.”

She said that while her team does its best to follow up on spending, they are covering too many villages to track in-depth each family’s expenses.

Other concerns about using cash transfers in emergencies include the heightened security risks for staff who deliver money, the potential for household conflicts, the risk of inflation, the challenges of running cash programmes and the increased competition for cash over in-kind assistance, which can complicate targeting, according to a recent ODI report.


For villages in which CARE distributed transfers, village committees ranked families from “average” to “extreme” vulnerability based on health and income criteria. Tsernaoua village chief representative Saidi Al Bakhari told IRIN some people have approached the complaint committee – set up as part of the selection process – contending that they should have been selected.

The committee has evaluated all claims, but has not yet changed a family’s vulnerability ranking.

Though not selected to receive a cash transfer, Tsernaoua resident Toulla Abdourahame told IRIN she thinks the selection committee was fair. “I have enough money to buy soap wholesale at the market and resell it here in the village. There are other families who need the cash more,” the 30-year-old mother of two told IRIN.

She said both of her daughters are in school and that she has enough income from her livestock. When asked how she was able to have cash to buy goods wholesale, she said she had inherited two cows from her family. “From those cows, I bought more animals.”

Abdourahame told IRIN she now has three cows, five sheep and 10 goats.

irinnews

Photo: Phuong Tran/ IRIN
Baby treated for malnutrition at Ouahigouya regional hospital in northwestern Burkina Faso

OUAHIGOUYA, 25 August 2009 (IRIN) - A growing number of urban families in northwestern Burkina Faso refuse to hospitalize their children diagnosed as severely malnourished because they fear being stigmatized, according to hospital officials in a regional nutrition recovery centre.

Ouahigouya regional hospital takes on the most complicated cases of malnutrition from throughout the region. The director of its nutrition centre, Etienne Zida, told IRIN city children slip through the malnutrition diagnostic system.

“We will diagnose a child as severely malnourished in need of hospitalization. If that family is from here [Ouahigouya], we are likely not to see them again,” said Zida. “Mostly from intellectual families, they feel shame and failure if their child is hospitalized because of malnutrition rather than malaria. So they simply do not do it.”

The nutrition centre director said the impact of the stigma is likely masking what he sees as a growing problem of urban hunger. “Of the [urban] children we are able to treat for malnutrition, there are others we are not reaching.”

Zida said cases of malnourished urban patients in the paediatric ward decreased after NGOs boosted nutrition services in the city about six years ago; the new services reduced the number of urban patients who sought care. But, even given the chilling effect of stigma, he said, during the first half of 2009 twice as many children from Ouahigouya city were in the nutrition recovery centre than from surrounding villages, 24 as compared to 11 rural children.

The director said the higher number of city children in the regional hospital’s nutrition ward is due in part to villagers’ increased ability to seek care for non-complicated malnutrition closer to their homes. But he said the imbalance is also due to growing malnutrition in cities.

Perception

The director of nutrition services at Burkina Faso’s Health Ministry, Sylvestre Tapsoba, told IRIN malnutrition in cities has always existed and is not significantly changing. “There may be the perception it is getting worse because the health ministry has strengthened the treatment of malnutrition in rural areas, which has led to a reduction of rural referrals in regional health centres.”

He said rural-to-urban migration plus the health and hygiene conditions of crowded urban life have long contributed to urban malnutrition. “Malnutrition in cities is not surprising nor is it a reversal of earlier trends.”

The rate of global acute malnutrition – when under-five children do not meet international height or weight standards – in both urban and rural areas in Burkina Faso is 12 percent, according to the most recent government survey, which is still undergoing verification.

Slightly more urban families reported in the same survey eating only one meal per day – 7 percent versus 5.7 percent in rural areas.

irinnews

26 Aug 2009
US military experts have presented a detailed plan to Egyptian security officials and donated high-tech equipment to uncover tunnels.

US officials told their Egyptian counterparts that Congress has approved the allocation of $50 million to secure the 13.5-km (8.4-mile) long border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

They added that the Congress-supported plan is sponsoring the installation of US-donated high-tech devices to prevent smuggling on the border.

US officials visited the Rafah border area, where the meeting was held, and inspected the tunnels that were uncovered and blown up by Egypt. Over 300 tunnels have so far been uncovered.

The officials also observed the ongoing installation of surveillance cameras and monitoring systems along the border and thanked Egypt for its efforts to destroy the tunnels on its border with Gaza.

The donated equipment can detect underground tunnels and can also detect any underground movement even if it is far away.

As a result of the crippling land, sea, and air blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed by Israel and Egypt following the democratic victory of Hamas in Palestinian elections, Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants have had to rely on 'illicit' and perilous tunnels as the sole means of obtaining essential supplies such as food and medicines.

press tv

26 Aug 2009
Libyan leader Moamer Qadhafi might be forced to kick his habit of staying in a tent during his upcoming visit to New York.

US officials may prevent Qadhafi from pitching a tent near the angry relatives of Lockerbie bombing victims during his stay in the city next month for the opening of the UN General Assembly, where Libya is presiding.

The Libyan leader observes the Bedouin customs strictly and camps in a tent when he travels anywhere in the world, from Rome's main park to a garden across from the Elysee Palace in Paris.

UN officials said it would be his first trip to the world body in his 40 years in power.

Libya's warm reception of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, whom Scotland freed last week on compassionate grounds, has angered US officials and the families of the victims of the bombing.

Senator Frank Lautenberg has urged the State Department to confine Qadhafi to the immediate UN area and block him from planting his tent on the grounds of a Libyan diplomat in the nearby suburb of Englewood, New Jersey.

Lautenberg, who represents New Jersey, says the town is very close to the homes of many families of Lockerbie bombing victims, AFP reported.

"Given recent events, I believe the State Department should ensure that Colonel Qadhafi 's entry into the United States is for official UN business only and does not allow him to travel freely," Lautenberg said.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly noted Tuesday that the US had an agreement with the UN to let in foreign leaders, noting that the agreement would make it difficult to restrict Qadhafi within the New York area.

"Of course our priority has been and will remain the families of the victims of this tragedy," Kelly said.

"We're also talking to the Libyans to highlight the concerns that we have and the very raw sensitivities of the families who live in that area," he said.

"As far as the legal levers that we would have, I'm not sure." Kelly added.

presstv

25 Aug 2009
At least 3 people, including 2 paramilitary police and a civilian, have been killed in an ambush in western Algeria.

The incident occurred Monday afternoon, when a roadside bomb detonated near a military convoy, passing through Ain Defla province, about 120 km west of the capital Algiers, witnesses told Press TV.

Gunmen also opened fire on the vehicle before the assailants escaped into nearby woods.

According to witnesses, the troops were ambushed while traveling to the Tarek Ibn Ziyad district to investigate the shooting death of a civilian.

Officials did not immediately confirm the incident, nor has any group come forward to claim responsibility for the attack.

Algeria has been witnessing an upsurge in attacks launched by al-Qaeda-affiliated insurgents, known as the “North African wing of al-Qaeda”, for the past two months.

On June 18, in one of the deadliest attacks to date, 24 people were killed after gunmen ambushed a paramilitary police convoy east of Algiers.

The country is still recovering from years of civil conflict, which broke out in 1992, and took the lives of 200,000 people.

presstv

Photo: Yasmin Omar/IRIN
A young man injured in the fighting in Mogadishu recovers in hospital: Somalia is facing the worst humanitarian crisis of the past 18 years, compounded by conflict and drought - file photo

NAIROBI, 25 August 2009 (IRIN) - Somalia is facing the worst humanitarian crisis of the past 18 years, with an estimated 3.76 million people - half the population - needing aid as security deteriorates, officials say.

"The recent post-Gu [long rains] analysis by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit [FSNAU of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization] indicates that this is the worst humanitarian crisis in Somalia in the last 18 years, since the collapse of the previous government," Graham Farmer, head of the FAO and acting UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, told IRIN on 25 August.

He said the number now needing humanitarian aid had increased due to heightened conflict in some areas and drought in others.

"Thus, despite the extraordinary efforts of humanitarian workers, the crisis factors are intensifying," Farmer said.

"I call upon all those who control territory in Somalia to recognize and respect humanitarian agencies and to support their unhindered access to populations in need."

Cindy Holleman, chief technical adviser at FSNAU in Somalia, said the current situation "signals a serious deterioration in the emergency food security and nutrition situation from earlier this year.

"More worrying is that the escalating fighting and conflict [are] occurring in the same areas where we are now recording the greatest problems of food access and malnutrition," she said. "This will not only place additional burdens on the people already in crisis, but will also make it difficult for humanitarian relief to reach the vulnerable populations most in need of humanitarian and life-saving interventions."

On 24 August, FSNAU issued a statement saying most of the people in need, or 75 percent of the 3.76 million, were concentrated in south and central Somalia – where the fighting is greatest and the areas most inaccessible to humanitarian operations.

“Death sentence”

Abdullahi Shirwa, a civil society activist, told IRIN the worst-affected were displaced people and children.

He said the spread of fighting had led to many people being displaced from their homes in small towns in south and central Somalia.

"The displaced around Mogadishu get some help, however little, but those in the smaller towns away from Mogadishu have no access to help," Shirwa said.

He called on humanitarian agencies "to be creative" and do all they can to reach these people. "Saying we cannot reach you now is a death sentence on those people [rural and small-town displaced]."

FSNAU said the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) had increased significantly since January, from one million to more than 1.42 million people now, a 40 percent increase in six months.

The agency said: "One in five children are acutely malnourished, while one in 20 are severely malnourished. Earlier this year the numbers were one in six children. These national rates of acute malnutrition are amongst the highest in the world.

''Saying we cannot reach you now is a death sentence on those people [rural and small-town displaced]''
“An estimated 285,000 children under five are acutely malnourished, of whom 70,000 are severely malnourished and at an increased risk of death if they do not receive the appropriate specialist care."

The food security and nutrition situation of the pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in the north is deteriorating after two to three consecutive seasons of below-normal rainfall, FSNAU warned.

FSNAU said humanitarian access to these regions was good, unlike south and central Somalia; "therefore it is critical that these areas receive appropriate levels of emergency livelihood support and nutrition response, to prevent a further deterioration into humanitarian emergency".

Photo: Mohamed Amin Jibril/IRIN
Opposition supporters demonstrating in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, to protest the decision to hold presidential elections without voter registration lists

HARGEISA, 25 August 2009 (IRIN) - A ruling that Somaliland will hold its oft-postponed presidential election without a voters’ list has prompted demonstrations, a boycott threat and warnings that the secessionist state’s relative stability is in jeopardy.

Somaliland, which unilaterally broke away from the rest of Somalia in 1991, is due to go to the polls on 27 September. The poll was originally scheduled for April 2008.

In late July, President Dahir Riyale Kahin announced that he and the National Election Commission (NEC) had decided to discard a hi-tech biometric voters’ register that had recently been completed after two years of work, claiming that computer server problems had generated an unreliable list. A representative of Interpeace, a Geneva-based organisation that developed the new system and disputes the extent of the problem, was abruptly deported.

The two main opposition candidates, Faisal Ali Warabe of the Justice and Welfare Party and Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud of the Development and Solidarity Party, have threatened to boycott the election and refused to even meet Riyale unless he reconsiders his decision.

For his part, Riyale has ignored a parliamentary order to reinstate the voters’ list, whose suspension the assembly deemed illegal.

irinews

The suspension led to demonstrations by opposition supporters, the latest on 19 August in Hargeisa, the capital, with thousands of people.

"We want to show the president that we are fully committed to holding the election using the voter registration lists," Mustafe Abdi, one of the protesters, said.

According to reports from Lasanod, at least 37 individuals have been arrested since the demonstrations began, including regional officials of the two opposition parties.

Credibility questions

Yusuf Abdi Gabobe, leader of the Union of Somaliland Journalists, said: "Everybody in Somaliland is worried about the country's current situation. If we continue without mediation the situation could worsen and conflict could arise."

Meanwhile, concern is mounting outside the country. The African Union’s envoy, Nicholas Bwakira, arrived in Hargeisa on 25 August and was scheduled to meet leaders of all major political parties. His visit follows that of Ethiopian Deputy Foreign Minister, Tekede Alemu.

Earlier in August, the US government expressed “profound dismay” over the registration issue. “We believe the list forms a sound basis for use in the elections scheduled for 27 September. We have directly urged President Riyale to reconsider his decision,” according to a press statement released in Nairobi.

Timothy Othieno, a regional analyst with the Overseas Development Institute, a British think-tank, told IRIN that if the minority ruling United Peoples’ Democratic Party (UDUB) went ahead with the election without the opposition, "they will have no credibility domestically and internationally and this may lead to instability. The lack of credibility may lead to pressures within Somaliland for change, which may not be attractive for Riyale both domestically and internationally."

But he warned even under current circumstances, the election date should be maintained. “Any further delays will have denied Somalilanders an opportunity to express themselves through the ballot box. There will never be a perfect election and a consistent tradition of elections will sort out these intricacies over time. The point being that Somaliland needs to get into the habit of having regular elections even if they are not perfect."

Three UK-based organisations invited to coordinate international observers during the elections have also sounded the alarm. In a statement released on 20 August, Progressio, the Development Planning Unit at University College London, and Somaliland Focus (UK) expressed “deep concern” at recent developments and hinted they would pull out.

“We feel that under the current circumstances, the only possible outcome [of the election] would be seen by a significant proportion of Somalilanders as lacking legitimacy. We are therefore concerned about whether we are able to provide the coordination and observation role to which we have been committed to date, unless the situation changes markedly,” they said.

Photo: GoK
The 2009 long rains food security assessment report found that some 3.8 million Kenyans require food assistance (file photo)

NAIROBI, 25 August 2009 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has appealed for at least US$230 million to provide emergency food assistance in the next six months to 3.8 million Kenyans affected by drought and subsequent high food prices.

"[At least] 260,000MT of food are required to feed the affected population," WFP Kenya country director, Burkard Oberle, said.

WFP, which has been providing about 32,000MT of food per month, is already distributing general food rations to 2.6 million people.

The agency also intends to expand its school-feeding programme by 100,000 to reach 1.2 million children in affected areas.

"School meals are very important, especially now when schools are about to re-open," Oberle said, adding that it was necessary to maintain and extend the programme.

More than a million schoolchildren have been receiving food during the August school holidays.

Oberle said: "We hope that through concerted efforts we can avoid people dying."

Government moves

The government is also trucking water to drought-affected communities and buying livestock at a cost of KSh8,000 (about $105) per live cow, significantly above prevailing market prices.

A 2009 long rains assessment found that "3.8 million pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and marginal agricultural farm households require urgent humanitarian food assistance”.

The assessment, conducted by the Kenya Food Security Steering Group (KFSSG) in May and July, covered 30 districts, including 27 drought-prone ones and three affected by the 2008 post-election violence.

Failure of the long rains in the marginal agricultural lowlands and some pastoral and agro-pastoral areas have caused a substantial decline in both crop and livestock production, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net).


High cereal prices have further accentuated food insecurity. The average price of the main staple, maize, has doubled over the last year.

Expected long-rains maize production will be about 28 percent below normal because of insufficient rains - further tightening supply.

Worsening food security

"The current food security situation remains highly precarious," FEWS Net noted in its outlook, which points to worsening food insecurity in the southeastern and coastal lowlands as well as in many pastoral areas up to September.

The KFSSG assessment identified poor land use, low agricultural diversification and over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture as major factors contributing to food insecurity.

Widespread environmental degradation was also cited "as an underlying cause of food insecurity in most agriculture-based livelihoods".

The KFSSG assessment estimates that "over 242,000 children under five years are moderately malnourished and 39,000 are severely malnourished and consequently, have three and nine times more chances of dying [respectively] if appropriate interventions are not implemented".

According to Oberle, the current drought is worse than the one in 2006 and could compare to the one in 2000 - the worst in 37 years - if the situation does not improve.

By June 2000, an estimated 1.7 million people needed food assistance, reaching four million by December 2000.

August 25, 2009


The United Nations has warned that parts of southern Sudan could be in pre-famine conditions, with 1.3 million people across the country in need of food aid.

The number of people needing assistance has surged since the beginning of the year due to inter-tribal conflict, poor rains and the high cost of food commodities in the region.

"On top of the one million people we already plan for assistance this year there will be about another 300,000 people who we will need to provide assistance quite urgently between now and December this year," Kenro Oshidari, the World Food Programme (WFP) representative in Sudan, said.

Between January and August the south has seen an increase in violence that has left hundreds dead and about 250,000 others displaced.

In June, boats carrying food aid from WFP to the remote area of Akobo in Jonglei state were attacked and sank, forcing the organisation to start airlifting food to the displaced with the help of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan.

The violence comes as the government in Khartoum and the autonomous government in South Sudan, led by the former rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, prepare for a referendum in 2011 on whether to split.

aljazeera

25 Aug 2009
At least 13 people have been killed as rebels launch fresh attacks on pro-government forces in Somalia, rejecting calls for a truce during Ramadan.

Only a day after rejecting a government call for a ceasefire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the insurgents attacked a group of Somali soldiers in the capital, Mogadishu.

The hour-long conflict came to an end after African Union troops intervened, opening heavy gunfire on the fighters and killing around 12 insurgents and one Somali soldier.

Some 14 others were injured in the incident, witnesses told Press TV on Monday.

A day prior to the event, President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed had called for an end to the fighting during Ramadan to allow people to pray.

The rebels, however, scorned the government plea, accusing the president of trying to hide behind religion while he rearmed his troops.

"We will not accept that call for a ceasefire. This holy month will be a triumphant time … and we will fight the enemy," Hizbul Islam leader, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys told a news conference.

Describing Ahmed's western-backed government as "a new car the United States has bought for Somalia", Aweys added that Washington had forgotten to provide the automobile with a capable driver.

"We will burn this vehicle down, and we will force the confused driver out," the rebel leader vowed.

Ahmed's interim government holds only a few limited pockets in Mogadishu and some areas in the south, while the insurgents, including the notorious al-Shabaab group, have been controlling most of the country.

In the past few months, alone, the conflict in the poverty-stricken Horn of Africa nation has resulted in the deaths of over 17,000 and the internal displacement of an estimated 250,000.
presstv

DAKAR, 24 August 2009 (IRIN) - Recently a commercial billboard near Guinea’s presidential palace featured three towering question marks on a white background. That image matches the way many Guineans describe their country’s current condition, eight months after Moussa Dadis Camara came to power in a bloodless coup: utter uncertainty.

When Camara took power citizens poured into the streets cheering; Guineans say they were celebrating a rupture with the 24-year regime of Lansana Conté.

“We hate that the military has taken power again,” a Guinean told IRIN the day of the coup. “But we hate it less than we hated the Conté regime.”

Now many Guineans are wondering where the Camara government – which calls itself the National Council for Democracy and Development – is taking the country.

irinews

JOHANNESBURG, 24 August 2009 (IRIN) - Child labourers working in Malawi's tobacco plantations are being exposed to dangerous levels of nicotine, tobacco dust, abuse and exploitation says a new study by Plan, a UK-based international children's charity.

According to "Hard work, little pay and long hours", the report released by Plan on 24 August, child tobacco pickers in Malawi were being exposed to "high levels of nicotine poisoning - the equivalent of 50 cigarettes per day".

"You reach a point where you cannot breathe because of the pain in your chest; then the blood comes when you vomit," one child told researchers.

Over 78,000 children work on tobacco estates across Malawi, with some as young as five working up to 12 hours a day for less than one US cent per hour, the report noted.

Child labour is often viewed as the norm, and an important source of income in Malawi. Many tobacco farmers struggle to break even, leading them to cut costs, and to "more children being exposed to hazardous and exploitative working conditions".

Plan urged Malawi's government to better enforce existing child labour and protection laws, and tobacco companies and estates to improve working conditions. Malawi is the world's fifth biggest tobacco producer and the crop accounts for 70 percent of export income.

timeline of some events since independence from France in 1958.


23 August 2009 – Coalition of civil society organizations, unions, political parties, religious groups call on Guineans not to allow junta “to confiscate power”

19 August 2009 – Junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara tells journalists whether he runs for president "is up to God”

17 August 2009 – Ruling National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD) accepts recommendation by civil society organizations, political parties, unions and religious groups to hold presidential election in January 2010, legislative election in March 2010

13 August 2009 – Junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara announces the formation of a national transitional council, called for by national and international groups in March

June 2009 – Following debate over the feasibility of holding elections in 2009, civil society organizations, political parties, religious groups and unions form a committee to evaluate election timetable

March 2009 – International community calls on CNDD to work with political parties, civil society organizations, unions to form a transitional council

March 2009 – Ruling CNDD says it will hold presidential election by end of 2009

February 2009 – Junta arrests son of deceased president Lansana Conté, Ousmane Conté, as part of a crackdown on suspected drug traffickers

January 2009 – The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) rejects a military-led transition in Guinea and bars junta members from attending meetings of any decision-making bodies

January 2009 – An international contact group on Guinea is formed, including representatives of ECOWAS, the African Union Commission, the European Union, the Mano River Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the UN Security Council

25 December 2008 – Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souaré and other government officials turn themselves in at Alpha Yaya Diallo army barracks, CNDD headquarters

25 December 2008 – Moussa Dadis Camara announces presidential elections would be held after a two-year transition and he would not be a candidate

24 December 2008 – Moussa Dadis Camara proclaims himself president and head of the new National Council for Democracy and Development

23 December 2008 – In the early morning hours government officials announce that President Lansana Conté died the previous evening; confusion reigns as soldiers announce on state media they have dissolved government and taken over, while Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souaré insists the government is intact

June 2008 – Police launch protests over salary arrears, provoking deadly clashes with military

May 2008 – Soldiers mutiny over pay, with several soldiers and civilians killed or injured in the unrest; Lansana Conté eventually dismisses defence minister

May 2008 – Lansana Conté sacks Prime Minister Lansana Kouyaté and names political ally Ahmed Tidiane Souaré , in a move Human Rights Watch said dealt “a serious blow to hopes that mass protest and ‘people power’ could bring reform”

May 2007 – Soldiers stage protests over salary arrears and living conditions

February 2007 – Following strike and unrest Lansana Conté names Lansana Kouyaté as “consensus” prime minister

January 2007 – In January Guineans massively heed another union call for a national strike; hundreds are killed in crackdown by military

2006 – Union-led national strikes paralyse country; several students are killed by security forces in protests over cancelled exams

2005 – Presidential motorcade of Lansana Conté fired upon in the capital Conakry

2003 – Lansana Conté re-elected in an opposition-boycotted poll

2001 – A referendum changes the constitution to allow president to run for a third term and increase the term from five to seven years; opposition rejects the vote as rigged, calls for boycott

2000-01 – Guinean army fights off incursions by rebels at borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone

1998 – Lansana Conté wins presidential election, which opposition denounces as rigged

1996 – Army mutiny. Loyalist troops eventually repulse attacks on the presidential palace

1993 – Lansana Conté wins Guinea’s first multi-party election, which is boycotted by opposition groups and marred by demonstrations

1990 – Guineans vote for new constitution, with a call to end one-party military rule

1989 – Conflict in neighbouring Liberia forces thousands to flee into Guinea; between 1989 and 2002 Guinea would receive some 750,000 refugees from the wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, thousands more from Côte d’Ivoire after that country’s 2002 rebellion

1984 – President Ahmed Sékou Touré dies in March; Lansana Conté takes power in a coup in April

1970 – Dissidents attack Guinea in an unsuccessful attempt to bring down President Ahmed Sékou Touré; the incident is seen as intensifying Touré’s repression of opponents

1965 – President Ahmed Sékou Touré cuts relations with colonial power France, until 1975

1958 – Independence, with Ahmed Sékou Touré as president


irinnews

HARARE, 24 August 2009 (IRIN) - South Africa's president Jacob Zuma, current chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), is scheduled to make his first state visit to Zimbabwe on 27 August 2009.

Zuma has made his foreign policy priorities clear since assuming the presidency in April, placing emphasis on the region and Africa. His visit to Zimbabwe comes soon after his first foreign tour, to oil-rich Angola, one of Zimbabwean President R obert Mugabe's closest allies.
Prior to becoming president, Zuma had publicly criticised Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party, in stark contrast to the approach taken by his predecessor, President Thabo Mbeki, who was appointed by the SADC to resolve Zimbabwe's political impasse.

In September 2008 the Global Political Agreement (GPA) was eventually signed, paving the way for the formation of the unity government in February 2009.

After a recent meeting in South Africa with Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's Prime Minister and leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Zuma said he would discuss with Mugabe the "very weighty issues" that have remained unresolved since the formation of the unity government.

Mugabe has embarked on a diplomatic offensive, attending relatively low-level meetings in southern African countries, including Botswana, Namibia and Zambia.

Differences between the MDC and ZANU-PF run so deep that the two parties cannot even agree on the purpose of Zuma's visit. Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba, told local media: "President Jacob Zuma is coming here to officially open the agricultural show and not to resolve the MDC's issues."

On the other hand, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Gorden Moyo, said in a statement, "President Jacob Zuma will arrive on 27 August and will hold deliberations with the three principals [in the unity government]." The three principals are Mugabe's ZANU-PF, Tsvangirai's MDC, and an MDC breakaway party led by Arthur Mutambara, the Deputy Prime Minister.

MDC grievances

The MDC claims that ZANU-PF has consistently flouted the GPA because Mugabe unilaterally appointed Johannes Tomana as attorney-general, and Gideon Gono as Reserve Bank governor, without any prior consultation, as required by the GPA.

Mugabe has also not appointed provincial governors - most of whom will be MDC supporters, reflecting the 2008 poll results - and persistently refuses to swear in Roy Bennett as deputy agriculture minister. Bennett was commercial farmer whose land was expropriated during Mugabe's disastrous fast-track land reform programme, which began in 2000.

''ZANU-PF leaders as well as their families are still prohibited to visit Europe, United States of America, as indeed in respect of their children to go to school in these countries''
ZANU-PF grievances

ZANU-PF claims that the MDC is not doing enough to persuade Western countries to lift smart sanctions targeting senior members of ZANU-PF, and that ZANU-PF continues to be "vilified" by foreign radio stations.

"ZANU-PF leaders as well as their families are still prohibited to visit Europe, United States of America, as indeed in respect of their children to go to school in these countries," ZANU-PF said in a statement.

"This does not apply to any member of the MDC, who are free to roam the world, while the country, as well as those regarded as sympathetic to ZANU-PF, continue to be subjected to a regime of brutal illegal sanctions."

The ZANU-PF Politburo commented in a statement that it was in "baffled" by reports of outstanding issues relating to the power-sharing deal, while the MDC maintained that "The issue of sanctions is a matter between ZANU-PF and the governments which imposed them."

irinnews

NAIROBI, 24 August 2009 (IRIN) - Fishermen in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, are losing their livelihoods and sometimes their lives due to foreign vessels invading their waters, says a minister.

"More and more fishermen in Puntland are coming to us to complain about foreign vessels destroying their nets and denying them access to fishing grounds," Mohamed Farah Aden, Puntland Minister of Fisheries, told IRIN.

He said these foreign vessels were destroying livelihoods. "I have a number of reports of Somali fishermen killed. These people are not only killing their livelihoods but they are killing them as well."

The minister said his office was compiling figures of how many had died in attacks by foreign vessels.

He said Puntland authorities had raised the issue with the international forces patrolling the Somali coast to fight pirates. NATO forces, as well as those from other countries, such as Russia and India, were policing the area.

Illegal fishing

Puntland has requested that the foreign navies should also deal with the influx of foreign vessels fishing illegally. "Illegal fishing off our waters is what started the whole piracy thing," he said.

According to Ecoterra, an NGO that monitors Somali waters, there is an indirect link between piracy and illegal fishing. Many of the pirates have their roots in self-help groups that wanted to defend "Somali waters and marine resources in the absence of a navy and coastguard".

Later, however, the groups became involved in business disputes and were used as mercenaries and eventually evolved into criminal gangs, said Ecoterra.

Mohamed Abshir Waldo, an independent analyst and Somalia expert, goes even further, saying the root cause of the piracy "was massive illegal fishing that has been going on for the last 19 years.

"It is because of the illegal foreign fishing that the first conflict with Somali fishermen started, when the foreign poachers came to fish within the 12-mile territorial waters.

Waldo said he knew fishermen in a small fishing boat that was run over and crushed "with all the seven-member crew killed. There were many other incidents like that one. Many were shot and others burned with boiling water poured on them."

A Nairobi-based regional analyst, however, says that even though illegal fishing occurs in Somali waters "on a serious and damaging scale", the origins of piracy lie not with impoverished fishermen, "but with prominent businessmen and political leaders who initially introduced the 'licensing' of foreign fishing vessels as a kind of extortion racket".

Figures compiled by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) show that in 2008, pirates attacked 135 ships off the coast of Somalia, "resulting in 44 ships having been seized by pirates and more than 600 seafarers having been kidnapped and held for ransom". Most of these were off the coast of Puntland.

Foreign threat

Jama Isse, a member of a fishing cooperative in the port city of Bosasso, told IRIN that many members were idle due to attacks by foreign ships. "People are afraid to go out there. Sometimes we are mistaken for pirates and sometimes these big fishing ships ram our boats or cut our nets.

"If the situation does not improve, many of us will be forced to join the pirates," he said. "We have no other means of making a living."

Ahmed Ali Abdalla, who owns several fishing boats, said the number of foreign ships had increased since the foreign navies arrived.

He said the foreign ships were using the naval forces as protection and denying locals the opportunity to fish. "They even take our nets with everything in them. It is like taking food from our mouths."

Local fishermen were caught between the pirates and the foreign forces, "but the worst are those fishing illegally", he said. "Some of them are armed and have even fired on us or taken our boats."

According to the analyst, to end insecurity in Somali waters what is needed is a comprehensive and integrated approach that addresses "not only piracy, but also the problem of illegal fishing, which pirates routinely cite to justify their actions".

Somalia has a 3,330km coastline, with major landing sites in Kismayo, Mogadishu, Merka and Brava in the south, and Eil, Bargal, Bolimog, Las Korey and Berbera, and Bosasso in the north. It also has large species, including tuna and mackerel; smaller stocks, such as sardines; sharks and lobster.

irinnews

24 Aug 2009

The head of an Islamic group in Nigeria raided by police last week has denied any links to the Boko Haram sect that started a deadly clash with the government in early August.

Police have said the crackdown on the group, which had formed a base by the name Darul Islam, and the subsequent arrest of more than 700 residents were a precautionary measure after the bloodbath in the north.

Although searches revealed no weapon caches, some 500 members, including the group's chief, remain in custody and other residents of the Darul Islam base --nearly 2,000 people-- have been relocated to a school and are under constant watch, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) reported.

According to IRIB, the detained head of Darul Islam group Bashir Abdullah told his voluntary lawyers that the group has no links to Boko Haram, and only wants to live under Islamic law.

He added that they had chosen the western state of Niger in order to be able to abide by Islamic laws.

State officials, however, maintained their stance on Monday, saying that dozens of its members had been deported to avert any repeat of violence.

Some 50 lawyers have so far volunteered to defend the detainees.

The conflict with Boko Haram, which the Abuja refers to as 'Nigerian Taliban,' spread to four states and left more than 800 people dead in the Muslim-majority north.

Clerics in the region censured the government for delay in dealing with the group, which they said they had warned was growing into a threat.

presstv

24.08.2009

ABUJA, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Virgin Nigeria Airways, which has broken its ties with founder Virgin Atlantic, signed a cooperation agreement with Ethiopian Airlines on Monday to share aircraft maintenance and staff training.

The two African airlines said the new partnership highlighted the industry's progress and independence in the continent.

'All along, airlines in Africa did their training in Europe or America. We are going to do our training here because Africa has come of age,' said Dapo Olumide, chief executive officer of Virgin Nigeria.

The partnership further separates Virgin Nigeria from British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic, which is looking to sell its 49 percent stake in the West African airline.

The agreement officially ends a four-year technical partnership between Virgin Atlantic and the Nigerian airline.

But Virgin Nigeria still carries the Virgin name, despite expectations for the renaming and rebranding of the airline last July.

Virgin Nigeria in January suspended its loss-making long haul flights to Britain and South Africa in order to focus on its domestic and regional operations within West Africa.

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