The N.E.W.S. (Nexus of Early Warning Systems) is a monthly
publication aimed at decision-makers in Ireland, on the European
stage, and in the wider world, with an immediacy which comes through
the use of new technology. The N.E.W.S provides monthly summaries of
food security situations in selected developing countries. Each
month, researchers at the famine centre compile food security
information from the Internet and the World Wide Web. Currently, a
combination of an approximate twenty five web sites and situation
reports from various active organisations are accessed.
Food insecurity alone is not a satisfactory indicator of famine,
thus problems such as conflict and unfavourable climate are also
discussed. Once this information is collected, the editorial team
decide which countries are facing problems of food insecurity.
The food security situation in both Ethiopia and Eritrea is
proving increasingly severe (USAID,
8 January, 2003). More than 11 million people in Ethiopia are
facing serious food shortages (Addis
Tribune, 3 January 2003). The levels of malnutrition found there
have been described as "frightening" (Concern,
18 December, 2003).
The food aid needs for Ethiopia for the first six months of 2003
are 960,000 mt (January 119,000 mt for 7.3 million people, February
133,000 mt for 8.1 million people, March 162,000 mt for 9.9 million
people, and between April to June around 180,000 mt each month for 11
million people). Confirmed and unconfirmed contributions currently
total over 750,000 tonnes. If the contributions can be confirmed and
mobilised quickly, the cereal requirements would be largely covered
until June. However, the situation for supplementary food for
especially vulnerable groups is less encouraging, with only around
half of the requirements for fortified blended food met for
January-March. WFP intends to cover about 40 percent of the national
level relief food requirements in 2003, through the ongoing WFP
emergency operation to the end of March, and through an expansion of
the operation scheduled to start in April (UNDP-EUE,
17 January 2003). (USAID,
21 January 2003)
An annual FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission took
place in Ethiopia from 7 November to 3 December 2002. The assessment
showed that as a result of decreased production due to drought, more
than 11 million people in Ethiopia are facing serious food shortages
and possible starvation. The mission forecasts total cereal and pulse
production at about 9.27 mt, comprising 8.92 mt from the meher
harvest and a predicted 350,000 tonnes from the belg harvest in 2003.
At this level, cereal and pulse production is about 25 percent below
last year's Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) post-harvest estimates and
21 percent below the average for the previous five years. As a
result, the cereal import requirement in 2003 is estimated at nearly
2.3 million tonnes. Only part of this will be covered by emergency
food aid requirements of 1.4 million tonnes and the remainder will
need to be covered through commercial and concessional imports. The
Mission report incorporated the results of a government led
multi-agency emergency needs assessment also carried out in November.
Full FAO/WFP mission report is available at http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/faoinfo/economic/giews/english/alertes/sptoc.htm
The Executive Director of WFP, Mr. James T. Morris, paid a
five-day visit to the country to view the impact of and responses to
the crisis between 17-21 January. He met with government officials,
including Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, as well as representatives of
donor countries and relief agencies. While welcoming the many new
contributions that have been announced recently, Mr. Morris called
for continued support (UNDP-EUE,
24 January 2003)(21
January 2003).
The livestock feed situation is particularly critical in Afar,
Shinile and parts of Oromiya regions (UNDP-EUE,
17 January 2003).
In late January WFP and USAID officials assessed the situation in
Oromiya where it is estimated that around 3.1 million people in 112
woredas of the region are looking for urgent relief food assistance.
This includes Arsi Zone, Dotota Sire woreda where 59,700 people out
of the 100,000 wait for food assistance for the coming nine
consecutive months (The
Daily Monitor, 20 January 2003).
The Oromiya regional government has announced a plan to undertake
a major resettlement programme for some of the severely drought
affected inhabitants in the region at a cost of close to 4 million
Birr. Ato Daba Gebisa, Head of the Oromiya Early Warning Bureau has
stated that the concerned government officials have identified the
resettlement areas in order to minimise the growing problem in the
region. Farmers' representatives from the severely affected woredas
of East and West Harerghe, Arsi, East and North Shoa have already
been sent to selected resettlement sites to confirm whether the
identified areas are proper or not. They did so by saying the places
were 'ideal'. Daba stated that "we believe there can be nothing more
pressing and a cause nobler than the rehabilitation of people
rendered destitute by the cumulative effects of droughts and famine"
(Daily
Monitor, 24 January 2003).
An assessment mission to Benishangul Gumuz Region in December
stated that there is a total of 31,600 people there who will need
relief food assistance for 6 months starting from March (UNDP-EUE,
10 January, 2003).
In Somali region, there has been massive migration of livestock
and displacement of people in Shinille zone where the food and water
security situation is deteriorating fast. In addition the areas where
the cattle and people are migrating to are also under severe
pressure. A limited number of tankers have been supplying water for
drinking purposes and emergency boreholes have been drilled. The
movement of cattle is likely to increase the spread of disease. And
the migration of people is likely to cause increased conflicts over
limited resources in the destination sites. Recent short rains in the
area have had limited impact. (UNDP,
26 December 2002)(UNDP-EUE,
10 January, 2003) In addition measles and diarrhoea outbreaks are
being experienced in the region (UNDP-EUE,
24 January 2003).
In December unusual rains fell in central Ethiopia with mixed
impacts. In the north, farmers used rains to begin land preparation
(South Tigray) for the belg season. In Central, Southern and Eastern
Tigray, rains helped to alleviate water and pasture shortages.
Further south, in the mid and highlands of Amhara region (North
Shewa), central Oromiya and Southern Nations, Nationalities and
Peoples Region (SNNPR) rains may complicate ongoing harvests of teff.
In the lowlands of Oromiya, including East and West Hararghe, and
Arsi, areas hard-hit by the present drought, the rains have
contributed to better water and pasture. Further east, in Shinille
and Jijiga Zones of Somali Region, short rains (hais) expected in
November were late but a few days rain (less than 30mm) in December
will have a positive effect on livestock-dependent populations there
that have been under extreme stress in December (UNDP-EUE,
3 January, 2003)
Some 36,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), who settled in
Mena Angetu, Berbere and Gololcha woredas of Bale zone of Oromiya
region, received urgent non-food assistance from the Ethiopian Red
Cross Society (ERCS), supported by the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC). The families have recently migrated fromWestern and
Eastern Hararghe and Arsi lowland zones of Oromiya (Addis
Tribune, 17 January 2003).
ICRC reported that it is extending its urgent preventive action
in Ethiopia to assist the most vulnerable people suffering from the
combined effects of poverty, severe drought and persisting threats of
insecurity. The ICRC plans to distribute over 40,000 tonnes of food,
seeds and fertilizer to up to 700,000 people over a period of 11
months between January and November 2003. The full report is
available at www.reliefweb.int
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has declared that the country stands
on the brink of sustained poverty alleviation. Addressing a
high-level meeting with donors at the weekend, he said that united
action by the international community and the Ethiopian government
would lay the groundwork. Donors have pledged some US $3.6 billion in
support of the country's poverty reduction strategy (IRIN,
12 December 2002).
In January it was announced that Canada, through CIDA, will
contribute an additional $40 million for emergency assistance in
Ethiopia. Details of Canada's donations and response initiatives are
summarised here (Government
of Canada, 16 January 2003). (IRIN,
27th January 2003).
International Development Secretary Clare Short has announced
that the British government will provide £122 million
development assistance to Ethiopia over the next 3 years. She was in
Addis to attend the African Finance Ministers' "Big Table"
Conference. £60 million will be allotted for the government's
budget support, £32 million for humanitarian related activities
(over a one year period) and £30 million pounds for technical
support. Short, was also expected to sign a memorandum of
understanding with Ethiopia that will set up a 10 years development
partnership (Daily
Monitor, 21 January 2003).
It is likely that Britain's aid will continue to substantially
increase "as long as the enabling environment remains right,"Myles
Wickstead, British Ambassador in Ethiopia has stated. A move will be
made to provide such aid through direct budgetary support rather than
projects, though this may prove problematic due to the
decentralisation process underway in the country. This will include
an increase in military aid to the country and a building up of the
capacity of Ethiopian troops for use in regional peacekeeping
operations (IRIN,
6 January 2003).
The European Commission has prepared a Euro 70 million emergency
food aid assistance programme equivalent to about 260,000 mt of
cereals and will meet food aid requirements during the first half of
the year 2003. Most of the funds will be allocated directly to the
government and local/regional purchase of cereals -whenever possible
- will be given preference. Part of this allocation will also be made
available for food aid distribution through national and
international NGOs (Addis
Tribune, 13 December 2002)(IRIN,
10 December, 2002)
.In December the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus
(EECMY) started distributing 23.7 mt of a supplementary food called
famix, medicines, medical equipment and items such as soaps, cups and
plates to people who have been displaced by the drought and lack of
food in the Oromiya region. Health workers have been assigned by the
local health office to provide health and sanitation services to the
internally displaced people (IDPs) in cooperation with the EECMY
relief team (UNDP-EUE,
17 January 2003).
EECMY are working with other members of Action by Churches
Together (ACT-International) which also includes Norwegian Church Aid
(NCA) and Christian Aid. They are working to bring relief to about
34,000 internally displaced people currently living in Showa camp
(African
Church Information Service, 21 January, 2003).
Washington has pledged 262,000 tonnes of food aid to Ethiopia
&endash; Bush states that he is deeply concerned about the situation
there (AFP,
18 January 2003).
Andrew Nasios, the USAID administrator, said that now is the time
to invest in agricultural development and to increase trade with
other countries which will help to avoid the cycle of famine
persisting in Ethiopia from getting worse and worse (Daily
Monitor, 21 January 2003).
The US government's FEWS NET has said that Ethiopia should pledge
more food to show "leadership and commitment" in tackling the
drought. In the 2000 drought, the Ethiopian government pledged
100,000 mt of food, whilst in 2002 it has committed 47,000 mt
(IRIN, 12
December 2002).
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI),
Washington, has suggested that inefficiency in the Ethiopia's grain
market system has resulted in low productivity that is exacerbating
the current famine. It is estimated that only a quarter of the food
produced in Ethiopia reaches markets. Weak agricultural
commercialisation implies that most of Ethiopia's population remain
rooted in subsistence economy and that domestic markets operate at
high costs, volatile prices and low volumes. Farmers in Ethiopia
receive a mere one-third of the final price, compared to Asian
farmers who get 70 to 80%. The high costs of transport and handling
are also passed on directly to the final consumer. The study revealed
that the marketing chain often took 20 to 30 days to go from
producers to consumers, which, otherwise, could take 2 to 3 days, if
there were enough road infrastructure available (Addis
Tribune, 24 January 2003).
Ireland's Minister of State with responsibility for Overseas
Development and Human Rights, Mr. Tom Kitt T.D. made a four-day visit
to Ethiopia in January. The purpose of Tom Kitt's visit was to view
directly the extent of the food emergency facing Ethiopia at this
time and to determine how Ireland can continue to optimally respond
to the ongoing crisis. Ireland contributed 21.56 million birr in food
aid and emergency drought assistance to Ethiopia in 2002 (Addis
Tribune, 17 January 2003).
Remarks made by Tom Kitt to the Irish Foreign Affairs Committee
concerning the food security crisis in southern Africa can be found
here (Government
of Ireland, 18 December 2002).
The Arab League has said that it was shocked by the periodic
drought that had occurred in Ethiopia in the last three decades.
Meanwhile, the Secretariat General of the League of Arab States has
contributed US 50,000 dollars towards the alleviation of the current
famine (Addis
Tribune, 10 January, 2003)
It has been suggested that ethnic conflicts are on the increase
in Ethiopia. However considering the country's administrative
structures are drawn along ethnic lines, and that most decisions are
made along the government's dictates of ethnic politics, this is by
no means something totally unexpected. Many warned against the
dangerous consequences of ethnic politics when the current government
came to power. Recently ethnic conflicts have been seen in the
regions of Gambella, Somali and Afar (Addis
Tribune, 24 January 2003).
For example dozens of people have been killed amid spiralling
ethnic clashes between rival groups in Gambella Region, on the border
with Sudan. Much of the fighting has been between the Nuer who live
close to the Ethio-Sudan border and are pastoralists and the Anyuaa,
or Anuak, tribe. Several factors have been blamed for the clashes
including control over scarce natural resources such as water and
grazing land; the question of majority population in the region and
what language should be taught in school; and a general feeling or
apprehension among Anyuaa that they are being dominated by the
pastoralist Nuers who enter Anyuaa territory in search of grazing
land and water (IRIN,
24 January, 2003).
Tribal fighting in Afar, sparked by the severe drought, is
believed to have left as many as 40 people dead. The clashes, which
occurred near Fentale in eastern Ethiopia, broke out after Afar
pastoralists moved into Kereyou territory to graze their animals
(IRIN, 8
January, 2003).
The UN's EUE has said relaxing border controls in the east may
help struggling pastoralists in their fight against the drought. For
example, the unit said that the "crackdown" on contraband in the
border area of drought-stricken Shinile Zone, Somali region in
particular, might have created additional problems to the stresses
present due to the current drought and food insecurity (IRIN,
7 January, 2003).
A Human Rights Watch report states that the Ethiopian government
is muzzling educators and students with a policy of harsh repression
that includes extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and
widespread denials of freedom of opinion and association. As an
important strategic ally in the U.S.-led war on terror because of its
position in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia has escaped international
censure for many of these violations. The 52-page report, "Lessons in
Repression: Violations of Academic Freedom in Ethiopia," documents an
ongoing pattern of impunity among federal and state security forces
accused of using excessive lethal force to disperse protests by
unarmed high school students and other civilians (Human
Rights Watch, New York, January 24 2003).
A series of meetings took place between the government (including
at times, Prime Minister Meles), opposition parties, the private
sector and civil society groups. Amongst other things the opposition
groups criticised the lack of reform on land issues, the government's
economic policies, the agriculture-based industrial development plan
and the questions over the existence of a free and independent
justice system (IRIN,
17 December 2002),
The Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA) has
condemned as "draconian", draft press regulations newly released by
the government. The organisation says the law - which could come into
force later this year - exposes journalists to heavy fines and
imprisonment "under the guise of a code of ethics…Members of the
Ethiopia free press have undergone great sufferings under the
repressive press law and civil and criminal laws that have been in
force since the last 40 years". Reporters have been harassed,
intimidated and sometimes imprisoned, it said, adding that a
newly-imposed value added tax on newspapers had also hit the industry
which is desperate for funds. The new law has also been criticised by
the International Federation of Journalists (IRIN,
23 January, 2003)(Addis
Tribune, 17 January 2003)
Despite this, visiting members of the International Media Support
(IMS) said that developments in Ethiopia's freedom of press showed
encouraging progress compared to what was prevailing a few years ago.
However, they expressed their concern that much more had to be done
to make the progress complete, for example the establishment of
independent radio stations. And they mentioned the significant role
played by independent radio stations in Democratic Republic of Congo
and Somalia in facilitating the peace processes and in developing
democracy and good governance there (Addis
Tribune, 13 December 2002)(Daily
Monitor, 12 December 2002)
It is estimated that 2.2 million people (2 million adults and
200,000 children) live with HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. The figures are
provided by the "AIDS in Ethiopia" report released in December. The
authors put the 2001 estimate of HIV prevalence in Ethiopia at 6.6
percent. Of the 2.2 million, about 10 percent (219,000 people) are
full-blown AIDS cases. Other studies also reveal that about one
million children in Ethiopia have been orphaned by the pandemic
(Addis
Tribune, 27 December 2002).
A quarter of children in Ethiopia could be orphaned by the
HIV/AIDS virus within eight years, experts warned at an HIV/AIDS
conference held in Addis Ababa (IRIN,
January 13, 2003).
Meanwhile, the first HIV/AIDS resource centre which will provide
up-to-date and accurate information on HIV/AIDS for various
stakeholders working on the area, has been opened. Services at the
counter include a comprehensive multi-media reference collection,
high-speed computer terminals with Internet access, audiovisual
equipment and databases of local and international HIV/AIDS
organisations and funding opportunities. According to the
coordinators, the centre is free to users affiliated with any
government agency, media organisations or NGOs, working on HIV/AIDS
issues. They also said that once the centre is fully operational,
centre partners are considering expanding to other regional sites.
There are also plans for an expanded audio-visual unit, additional
databases, and a national HIV/AIDS telephone hotline (Addis
Tribune, 13 December 2002).
The EU has launched an initiative to break the current WTO (World
Trade Organisation) deadlock on developing countries' access to
affordable medicines. Though all WTO Members agree that diseases
including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis should not be affected
by WTO constraints, a solution still needs to be found for other
public health problems. In its proposal the EU suggests that Members
wishing to import medicines to meet any public health concern not
explicitly covered in an initial list be encouraged to seek WHO
advice. The WHO, with its global health expertise in assessing
developing countries' public health concerns, would be entrusted with
assessing the occurrence of such situations and making
recommendations. Involving the WHO with its public health expertise
would provide a mechanism to ensure the Doha Declaration can be used
in good faith (Addis
Tribune, 17 January 2003).
Ethiopia has submitted an initial application to join the WTO.
Inclusion often requires some fundamental changes in the way
governments regulate international business. For a number of reasons,
these changes are difficult, they are typically making the economy
more open to international market competition, lowering tariffs,
making changes to strengthen international property protection and to
open up the investment regime. (Addis
Tribune, January 24, 2003).
The head of the World Bank in Ethiopia urged a greater role for
private industry as the country was pledged US $3.6 billion towards
tackling poverty. The money was pledged during the fourth
Consultative Group meeting between the Bank, UNDP, donor nations and
the Ethiopian government. The funds will be in the form of grants and
loans and will support the country's three-year Sustainable
Development and Poverty Reduction Programme (IRIN,
10 December 2002)(The
Daily Monitor, 9 December 2002).
Ethiopia is to import oil from Sudan, which could save the
country up to US $7 million per year, the Ethiopian Petroleum
Enterprise has announced. Some 50 percent of Ethiopia's export
earnings are spent on serving the nation's demands from fuel. The
Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise is the only organisation that supplies
oil in Ethiopia, storing the oil in Djibouti. General Manager Yigzaw
Mekonnen said the country must look towards diversification by not
relying on a single port like Djibouti. Currently Ethiopia imports
around two million tons of oil, costing around US $221 a year -
mainly from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. It is expected that a
total of US $7 million each year can be saved by Ethiopia in shipping
the oil through Sudan (Addis
Tribune, 10 January, 2003).
Nestle has backed down from its demand that the Ethiopian
government pay it $6 million in compensation for a business
nationalised by the previous Mengistu Haile Mariam's regime 27 years
ago. Faced with unprecedented protest - 40,000 people wrote letters
to the company complaining - it has decided to accept the $1.5
million cash settlement originally offered by the current government.
Further, the company has promised to donate the money for hunger
relief (The
East African, 27 January 2003)(The
Nation, 8 January, 2003). (Addis
Tribune, 27 December 2002).
Conflicts have been increasing between government authorities and
staff and students from Addis Ababa University. At the end of
December a new president and two new vice presidents were appointed
by the government to replace those who had recently resigned
following disagreements over the method of the evaluation of the
academic staff and other administrative matters with government
officials (Addis
Tribune, 3 January, 2003).
It is suggested that the recent events at AAU point to a
troubling development of failure to respect and protect academic
freedom which is the foundation of any true university (Addis
Tribune, 3 January 2003).
Two separate but concurrent incidents unfolded themselves in late
2002 in Makalle and Addis Ababa which have raised concern in regard
to religious tolerance and the meddling by the security forces in
spiritual affairs. The crisis at the Lideta Church in Addis Ababa now
in its second month, is over who should administer the place of
worship. In Makalle, followers of the Good Gospel Church were holding
a religious meeting at the town's stadium. Complaints concerning
noise levels from the stadium instigated a conflict with police
authorities. Throughout the country as a whole there appears to be
increasing competition between religions (Addis
Tribune, 3 January 2003).
Eritrea's food crisis is expected to worsen quickly unless rapid
action is taken. FEWS has said that Eritrea is reeling from severe
shocks to its asset base, already undermined by years of conflict and
drought, as well as pervasive poverty. In addition the declining
value of the nakfa and limited foreign exchange reserves have eroded
the country's ability to finance imports or reconstruct war-damaged
infrastructure. It is estimated that 1.4 million people - over a
third of the population &endash; are directly affected by drought,
and this number is set to increase this year. More than two thirds of
the population require food and non-food aid (IRIN,
8 January, 2003).
The European Commission is currently preparing a US$10 million
(40,000 Mt) emergency food aid assistance programme to be adopted
before the end of the year. This comes in addition to the assistance
already provided during the last quarter of 2002 (US$5.8 million
15.000 Mt). Member States are bilaterally providing US$10.2 million
in humanitarian aid and food aid in response to the present crisis in
Eritrea, bringing the total EU amount to US$26 million. The 40,000 Mt
of cereals will be allocated directly to the Eritrean Relief and
Refugees Commission (ERREC), thus complementing its distribution
plans in the country (European
Commission, 17 December, 2002)(IRIN,
18 December, 2002).
In Anseba region farmers have reported a lack of feed and
substantial loss of livestock which has provoked large scale selling
of their animals. A Drought Committee has been formed by the National
Union of Eritrean Women in Anseba that will visit the most vulnerable
areas across the region to determine the impact of the drought on
women there (WFP,
24 January).
Population movements have occurred in the Debub region. In the
Gash Barka sub regions of Gogne and Haikota. Local administrators
indicated that the small yield from the harvest had now been
consumed; the majority of families are relying entirely on WFP food
aid and other coping strategies such as the sale of livestock to meet
their primary food needs (WFP,
24 January).
OCHA has organised a meeting between key donors and Ethiopian and
Eritrean Government officials on 22 January in Geneva. The purpose of
the meeting was to alert donors of the deepening drought crisis and
reinforce the need for a rapid, coordinated response (WFP,
10 January).
WFP has warned there will not be enough food supplies to care for
the one million Eritreans needing aid in the coming months. WFP said
it had only received US $9 million of food and cash contributions
against a request last month for US $105 million. "Unless firm
donations are urgently made within the next few weeks, there will be
a break in supply from April onwards," the statement warned. In
mid-December UNICEF warned that 2.8 million Eritreans - over half the
population - were experiencing pre-famine conditions. A statistical
analysis conducted by the UNICEF in the last six months indicates
that 2.8 million Eritreans - over half the population - are
experiencing pre-famine conditions. One-fifth of the population is
immediately confronting food shortages that are leading to critical
levels of malnutrition among children. Conditions are particularly
critical in three of six provinces in the country, Anseba, in the
northern centre of the country, Gash Barka, in the west, and Northern
Red Sea in the northeast. (IRIN,
21 December 2002)(IRIN,
27 December 2002).
Eritrea is seeing a convergence of many factors that have led to
heightened food insecurity across all livelihood groups &endash;
insufficient and sporadic rainfall; the aftermath of conflict; and
dramatic economic deterioration. Female-headed households, children
and agro-pastoralists are particularly vulnerable. The current
harvest will be exhausted early in 2003 while the value of livestock,
weakened by a shortage of water and fodder, is expected to fall
further with increased distress sales. Supplies of drinking water for
human consumption could reach critically low levels early this year.
According to latest surveys, 15-20% of children under 5 years (at
least 88,000 children of those surveyed) are currently malnourished
and 10,000 are severely malnourished, requiring immediate nutritional
support. A single shock, such as drought alone, would not necessarily
push rural households into food insecurity. However, the cumulative
impact of previous shocks has severely weakened household resilience
to cope with another year of drought.
WFP plans to support 600,000 drought-affected people in 2003
through an Emergency Operation. This still leaves considerable need
for bilateral and other support. Needs of other groups can be met
through non-emergency assistance. For example, WFP plans to support
278,700 IDPs, returnees, expellees and demobilised soldiers through a
Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation, with other structured
programs for school feeding and training.
To avoid a rapid deterioration in food availability and access in
view of limited food resources, FEWS NET urges rapid action on the
following recommendations:
- WFP and food aid donors must step up their pledges and
deliveries of emergency food aid to meet immediate food needs (about
24,000 mt per month for the drought-affected population alone), as
well as nutritionally fortified foods for supplementary and
therapeutic feeding programs.
- The GSE, concerned donors and NGOs carry out urgently needed
interventions in the livestock sector to save household assets and
protect livelihoods.
- Donors should mobilise support for UNICEF and the GSE to
rehabilitate key water resources, as outlined in the UN Consolidated
Appeal for 2003.
- Concerned donors and NGOs need to work with the National Food
Information System (NFIS) to collect crucially needed baseline
information on Eritrea's main livelihood groups (USAID,
3 January 2003).
In an interview, CARE's East African regional programme
coordinator states that the mounting food-security crisis in the Horn
of Africa has largely been overshadowed in the media by other crises.
He said Eritrea's plight was particularly dire, given the proportion
of the country's population likely to be affected (AlertNet,
27 Jan 2003).
Eritrea has joined the Arab League as an observer and is to send
an ambassador to the pan-Arab body. The Arab League welcomed
Eritrea's decision as "a positive sign of the deepening relations
between Eritrea and the Arab states". In the Horn of Africa, Somalia
and Djibouti are both full-fledged members of the League (Addis
Tribune, 17 January 2003).
The deadline for the cessation of refugee status for Eritreans
expired on 31 December. As a result there was a pick-up in
registration. The majority of the refugees are in Sudan from where a
total of 103,000 refugees, out of over 320,000 in Sudan, have
returned since May 2001. Last May, UNHCR announced that the group
refugee status for Eritreans who fled their country as a result of
the independence war or the recent border conflict with Ethiopia
would end on 31 December 2002. It said the root causes of the
Eritrean refugee problem no longer existed (IRIN,
2 January 2003).
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has condemned Somali groups
for obstructing its efforts to deliver relief food to southern
Somalia. Various local authorities and militiamen have been imposing
"major obstacles" to its transportation which have been severely
delayed. The first food convoy since June arrived in Baidoa (Bakol
region) in December - it had taken 21 days, rather than the usual 3.
(IRIN, 4
December, 2002)(WFP,
3 December, 2002)
Food stocks in Baidoa were exhausted in September, and the lack
of renewed food supplies over many months has seriously compromised
the food security of the poorest people in the area. Food aid is
currently being distributed in the Bay and Bakool regions to Mother
and Child Health Centres (MCH), where WFP provides food rations to
poor families with malnourished children, reaching some 9,600
beneficiaries. Food is also being distributed in support of community
based FFW projects, benefiting some 12,000 people involved in
rehabilitation projects, such as the construction of water
catchments.
Southern Somalia in general suffers from chronic food insecurity.
This year, in the Bakool region, the main harvest was down by more
than half its pre-war level. Perpetual food shortages are further
aggravated by the prevailing insecurity. Food and relief assistance
in general is critical over the months ahead, until at least the next
harvest in January. WFP plans to send another convoy with some 700
tons of relief food within the next couple of weeks. Cooperation from
authorities is crucial to maintain the provision of live-saving food
assistance.(WFP,
6 December, 2002)
UN agencies and their partners in Somalia are appealing to donors
for some US$78 million for the year 2003, for a variety of emergency,
recovery, and development projects in the country. The 2003
Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for Somalia, launched in Nairobi,
contained 56 projects from14 UN agencies and three NGOs. The
humanitarian and recovery effort in Somalia aims to improve food
security, health and sanitation, and protect and assist vulnerable
communities, such as returning refugees, displaced populations and
minorities.
It is estimated that 750,000 Somalis are "chronically
vulnerable", and of these about 350,000 are internally displaced, the
highest concentration of whom - 150,000 - being in the capital,
Mogadishu. One of every four Somali children die before reaching the
age of 5 years, while in some areas child malnutrition rates have
reached 39 percent. Three-quarters of the Somali population have no
access to safe water, while half live without access to
sanitation.(IRIN,
28 November, 2002)
MSF has criticised the international community and the warring
factions for its neglect of the Somali people. The disengagement of
the international community since the failure of the UN military
mission 10 years ago has been slow but steady. The number of
international aid agencies working in Somalia has dropped from over
200 in 1992 to 61 today. Meanwhile, donor funding has dropped by 90%
over the same period. The needs of the people continue unabated, far
exceeding the operational capacity of all aid agencies currently
working in Somalia put together. After twelve years of conflict and
anarchy the Somali people are in more need of help than ever. MSF
calls on the warring factions to respect International Humanitarian
Law, which demands that civilians are protected from violence and
helped to get the medical care and supplies they so desperately
need.(MSF,
9 December, 2002)
'Flash' flooding has occurred in the Juba Valley of southern
Somalia due to early 'deyr' rains (September-December). The most
affected areas are around Buale in the Middle Juba region, and Hagar
and Afmadow in the Lower Juba region.(IRIN,
18 November, 2002)
Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG) and five
Mogadishu-based factions signed a joint ceasefire declaration at the
beginning of December committing themselves to ending violence in the
Somali capital. They also committed themselves to fighting bandits
and armed militias who have been killing and abducting innocent
people. However still, there are a number of factions who still
refuse to talk and/or are be party to the treaty. As a result these
factions can stand ominously in its way.(IRIN,
3 December, 2002)(The
Nation, 6 December, 2002)
The Somalia National Peace and Reconciliation Conference has now
entered a crucial second phase that could result in the creation of
an all-inclusive legitimate government in the country. Six committees
(of various experts and faction representatives) have been formed to
address core issues, including federalism and a provisional charter
for the war-ravaged country as well issues such as demobilisation,
land and property rights, institution building and conflict
resolution/reconciliation. No time frame has yet been given for the
second phase.(IRIN,
26 November, 2002)(The
Nation, 2 December, 2002)
The talks are being attended by 400 participants. There has been
conflict over these should be. The solution reached was to include
participants according to membership of clans and blood networks
drawn from 'political groups' and civil society. And 42 of the
conference seats have been reserved for minority groups. The Eldoret
talks, mediated by the regional IGAD, is the 16th such Somali peace
parley since the country slid into anarchy and clan warfare following
the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The conference
is being attended by the largely impotent Somali Transitional
National Government (TNG), armed factions, regional administrations,
elders, women groups and professionals. It aims to end decades of
anarchic violence and establish structures to pave way for the
formation of a national government. The first phase started on
October 15 and ended on October 27 with an agreement to cease all
hostilities and a signing of a commitment to ban the use of
landmines.(AFP,
20 November, 2002)(IRIN,
20 November, 2002)(East
African Standard, 20 November, 2002)(IRIN,
21 November, 2002)(IRIN,
13 November, 2002)(UN
OCHA, 28 October, 2002)
Despite the 'progress' of the peace process it still faces
considerable difficulties. A combination of mismanagement, regional
rivalry, insufficient outside political support and financial
constraints have brought the talks to the verge of collapse several
times. Somali delegates are frustrated and disillusioned with the
lack of progress that followed the Declaration. Donor representatives
express deep misgivings. (ICG,
9 December, 2002)
Somali faction leaders have appealed to the international
community to hasten the Eldoret peace process to enable Somalia to
establish a government in a bid to fight terrorism.(The
East African Standard, 30 November, 2002)
Fighting is still taking place despite the peace talks. At least
15 people were killed and 25 wounded after heavy clashes erupted in
southern Somalia at the end of October. The fighting took place in
Luq, in southern Gedo region, and involved rival factions of the
Somali National Front.(AFP,
29 October, 2002)
More than 800 refugees from Somalia and other African countries
have arrived in Yemen in the last few weeks where they have been
admitted to refugee camps.(AFP,
21 November, 2002)
The interim chairman of the African Union (AU), Amara Essy, has
appointed a special envoy for Somalia. The appointment comes within
the framework of enhancing the AU's role in conflict resolution in
Africa. The envoy, Mr Foum, will liase with the countries of the
region, with IGAD and with the AU.(IRIN,
22 November, 2002)
There are warnings that rinderpest is on the verge of spreading
from its last stronghold in northeastern Kenya and southern
Somalia.(IRIN,
21 November, 2002)
Municipal elections are scheduled for December 15, 2002 in
Somaliland. National presidential elections must occur by January 23,
2003, unless the House of Elders authorises an extension.
Parliamentary elections are slated for May 2003. These will be the
first multiparty elections since 1969 and the first occasion that
Somaliland women will be able to vote.(Addis
Tribune, 29 November, 2002)
Tension is rising in Sool and Sanaag regions of the self-declared
republic of Somaliland, to which both Somaliland and the
self-declared autonomous region of Puntland have laid claim. This
began when Somaliland elders went to the Sool regional capital to
reconcile two feuding clans found in the area. On 23 November the
Puntland leader Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf, decided to send a high level
delegation to the two regions. This has added to the tensions in the
area. (IRIN,
25 November, 2002)
Most of southern Sudan can expect below normal crop yields as a
result of erratic rainfall and insecurity. According to preliminary
forecasts based on the WFP-led multi-agency Annual Needs Assessment
(ANA), more than half a million people are likely to become highly
food insecure, particularly in the most critical areas of Gogrial,
Aweil West, Pibor, Torit, Latjor, Bieh, Ruweng and Liech. Both long-
and short-term recommendations have been made.(USAID,
FEWS-NET, 28 November, 2002)(USAID,
FEWS-NET, 20 November, 2002)
A Sudanese government agency has predicted that there will be
food shortages in parts of western, southern and eastern Sudan as a
result of the drought that has lasted three successive years. Food
shortages are expected in pockets of Darfur (in the west), Kordofan
(in the centre), Bahr el-Ghazal (in the south), and in the Red Sea
State (in the east). (AFP,
10 November, 2002)
MSF is closing feeding centres in Tanyang, Dirror District,
Sudan. A nutritional survey in October showed that malnutrition rates
fell from 40% global and 10% severe levels in May to 20% global and
2% severe malnutrition rates currently. The October figures
constitute what is considered 'normal' levels of malnourishment in
Sudan.(MSF,
18 November, 2002)
Representatives from both the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A
are expected to visit the United States in mid-December at the
invitation of President George Bush's government. They will brief US
government officials on the progress of the latest round of peace
talks held under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on
Development (IGAD), which this month wound up in Machakos,
Kenya.(IRIN,
28 November, 2002)(African
Church Information Service, 25 November, 2002)
On October 21st the US President Bush signed the Sudan Peace Act
which seeks to facilitate a comprehensive solution to the war in
Sudan. (US
Dept. of State, 21 October, 2002)
He also called for sanctions on Khartoum if he finds the
government is not negotiating in good faith with southern rebels.
However the Act has been criticised by the Khartoum government as
being biased and failing to find agreement on power- and resource
sharing.(AFP,
20 November, 2002)
During the Machakos Peace talks, which ended on 18 November, the
Sudan government and the SPLA/M agreed on a broad set of principles,
which included the extension of a countrywide ceasefire and
humanitarian access to vulnerable populations in disputed regions of
southern Sudan until March 2003. They also signed an accord outlining
the broad principles on which a post-conflict government would be
based. Both sides emphasised their commitment to achieving a just and
comprehensive peaceful atmosphere as early as possible. In a
Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) signed between the Khartoum
government and SPLM/A, and witnessed by IGAD, the parties reaffirmed
their commitment to the Machakos Protocol of last July 20, which
stipulated that unity shall be the priority of the parties during the
interim period. The talks are expected to resume in January, but a
date has yet to be set. (IRIN,
28 November, 2002)(African
Church Information Service, 25 November, 2002)(The
Nation, 19 November, 2002)(IRIN,
19 November, 2002)(Allafrica.com,
18 November, 2002)(AFP,
3 November, 2002)
An appeal has been launched for humanitarian assistance for IDPs
in north eastern Kassala state. It responds to calls from local
community leaders and from NGOs and INGOs who have on-going
assistance programmes in the area. The Flash Appeal seeks US$ 346,700
to provide essential non-food assistance to 12,000 displaced persons
in Kassala for a period of three months.(UN
OCHA, 24 November, 2002)
The chance that a lasting peace agreement between the Sudanese
government and southern rebels could be struck in early 2003 means
humanitarian actors should be prepared in case an "enormous
humanitarian undertaking" is needed, the United Nations stated as it
launched its US $255 million appeal for Sudan. While a peace deal
would not immediately end Sudan's chronic "humanitarian disaster", it
would make "new opportunities to support the people of Sudan and
create the welcome challenge of moving from humanitarian relief to
rehabilitation and rebuilding". The UN's 2003 appeal comprises 64
projects totalling US$255 million form 9 UN agencies, the
International Organisation for Migration and 9 NGOs. The projects are
designed to meet four key objectives in 2003: saving lives and
reducing human suffering; provision of essential basic social
services; building capacity and resilience; and strengthening
protection and grassroots peace-building mechanisms.
Funding of food aid had fallen significantly in 2002, and there
are insufficient stocks to sustain operations beyond a four-month
period to meet minimum daily requirements of the most critically
affected populations and to provide a buffer for early 2003. In
addition, the water and sanitation and health sectors, which were
normally assigned high priority for donors, remained "dangerously
under-funded".(IRIN,
19 November, 2002)
The WFP has already resumed food deliveries to some 66,000 people
in the Sobat region of Sudan after a three-year interruption. WFP
spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said relations with the Sudan
government had improved in a "quite remarkable way" after the signing
on October 26 of the agreement on access for humanitarian aid. The
WFP operation in the Sobat region of central eastern Sudan should
last two weeks. With the resumption of food deliveries, WFP believes
it will be able to help half a million more people in addition to the
three million it already helps in Sudan.(AFP,
3 December, 2002)
Most recently, USAID contributed 46,030 mt of food assistance.
They have estimated that in 2003 there will be 2 million Sudanese
requiring food aid, needing an approximate total of 300,000 mt.
(USAID,
3 December, 2002)(USAID,
2 December, 2002)
The International Crisis Group (ICG) has published a new report,
"Ending Starvation as a Weapon of War in Sudan". It highlights the
sordid history of the use of starvation as a weapon of war and the
importance of the current peace process. A mid-December meeting is
planned between the UN and Sudan's warring parties. The report
suggests that the Technical Committee for Humanitarian Assistance
(TCHA) provides an unparalleled vehicle to build on recent short-term
agreements and to once and for all remove the institutional barriers
to unimpeded access for humanitarian agencies. Such an opportunity
may not arise again, so it is imperative that mediators, the UN
Security Council, and interested governments provide concentrated and
immediate support for this objective.
(ICG, 15 November, 2002)
After suffering decades of civil war, recurrent drought and
widespread inter-ethnic conflict, Sudan now hosts the largest number
of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world - some 4 million
people. The main cause of this unparalleled level of displacement has
been, and continues to be, the civil war.
Despite this there are no official government policies dealing
explicitly with the treatment of IDPs. In addition, the UN Guiding
Principles on Internal Displacement have not been officially endorsed
by the government's Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC). However, it
has been suggested that at least half of the Guiding Principles are
already covered under Shari'ah (Islamic law). With this in mind,
research is under way to find ways of integrating fully as many of
the Guiding Principles as possible into Shari'ah.
In recent months, attention in the south has been focused on the
oil-rich region of western Upper Nile, where an escalation of
fighting in 2002 has heightened fears that the already grave levels
of displacement could worsen. Religious and human rights groups have
accused government forces of provoking mass displacements of
civilians in order to secure areas for oil exploration. The peace
process offers some hope for these IDPs.(IRIN,
14 November, 2002)
There are an estimated 4 million people displaced inside Sudan,
over 10% of the total population. In Khartoum alone, the estimated
number of IDPs stands at 500,000. Although agencies have been
assisting them for many years, no real data exists about who they
are, where they come from and their future needs. IOM has been
invited by the UN to coordinate a study of the IDPs living in and
around Khartoum. The surveys are being carried out by the
international NGOs CARE and CONCERN and by national NGOs in
cooperation with the Government of Sudan.(IOM,
29 November, 2002)
CWS is responding to one part of the crisis by supporting the
Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), which is assisting the recently
displaced people in the Juba area who fled there during the fighting
over the symbolically important town of Torit. The town was taken
over by the guerrillas on September 1, but the government militia and
army recaptured and regained control of the town a week later. The
fighting for the town caused a massive movement of people from Torit
to Juba. The SCC estimates approximately 11,570 people were
displaced. (Church
World Service, 3 December, 2002)
In what is seen as a threat to neutral humanitarian aid delivery
in southern Sudan, it is reported that Kenyan President Daniel Arap
Moi and the Sudan's National Islamic Front (NIF) have negotiated a
deal whereby a NIF consular/intelligence presence would be
established at Lokichokio (northern Kenya). This is the centre of
humanitarian relief efforts for southern Sudan. Moi apparently got
substantial monies from the NIF for campaign purposes in Kenya's
upcoming presidential election. It is further alleged that Sudanese
President Omar Beshir declared to Moi that Khartoum's generals had
demanded such a presence in "exchange" for permitting the cease-fire
agreement (and thus the Machakos peace process) to continue.
Questions are raised as to whether the US and the UN will show
sufficient resolve to protect the integrity of Lokichokio as the
venue for the UN's Operation Lifeline Sudan. Here, the Republican
takeover of the senate could become a factor. (Business
Day, 26 November, 2002)
Sudan's warring parties have accused each other of arming and
supporting the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the insurgent group who
are waging war against the Ugandan government from hideouts inside
Sudan. The latest accusations follow the extension of a military
protocol signed in March between Sudan and Uganda, which allows the
Ugandan army to hunt down the LRA in southern Sudan.(IRIN,
4 December, 2002)(The
Monitor, 3 December, 2002)
Sudan and Uganda have now signed the renewal of the protocol to
hunt LRA leader Joseph Kony and his rebels. The protocol has been
extended by 2 months to the end of January. The Ugandan People's
Defence Forces (UPDF) will be allowed access to Sudanese territory as
far as "four degrees latitude north", thereby defining a region which
is also subject to agreements on humanitarian access between the
Khartoum government and the UN. Any military operation north of this
area can only be mounted in close coordination with the Sudanese
army. Meanwhile, the Ugandan army has offered a reward of US $11,000
for information leading to the capture or killing of Joseph Kony. The
renewal of the protocol overturns the decision made by Sudan earlier
in the month not to allow Ugandan troops to continue because of the
failure of the Ugandan government to the specify time needed. Also
the Ugandan government had accused the Sudanese of actually
supporting Kony.(IRIN,
3 December, 2002)(New
Vision, 2 December, 2002)(New
Vision, 27 November, 2002)(IRIN,
25 November, 2002)(The
Monitor, 23 November, 2002)(IRIN,
20 November, 2002)(IRIN,
18 November, 2002)
Meanwhile Uganda has reiterated her stand not to offer any
support to the SPLA as stipulated in articles 1 and 4 of the 1999
Nairobi Agreement.(New
Vision, 3 December, 2002)
A plan by the rebel SPLM/A to introduce a new currency in the
territories it controls will hurt the country's peace process, a
senior Sudanese diplomat has said. The SPLM/A recently announced that
it was planning to introduce its own currency for southern Sudan in
December. The currency, known as the "New Sudan Pound", is part of a
plan to introduce a suitable secular financial system for the
non-Muslim southern part of the country, as opposed to the Islamic
Sharia system being utilised in the north.(IRIN,
2 December, 2002)
17 women in Munwashi, tried for adultery, have been sentenced to
100 lashes of the whip each. The charges of adultery were based
solely on the fact that all of the women are unmarried but have
children between the ages of 6 and 12 months. On 12, 14 and 20
November, the women were tried by Muhaakama Ijaaziya courts, which
are reportedly in violation of internationally accepted fair trial
standards notably in the way they carry out summary trials.
Previously this year, 2 other women were similarly punished by the
Special Court in Nyala having been charged with adultery. In both
cases, the sentence was carried out on the same day as the conviction
and no men were charged or punished.(WOAT,
26 November, 2002)
25 University of Khartoum students have been injured, at least 11
of whom were subsequently arrested and reportedly tortured. In
addition at least another 9 students have been arrested in other
parts of Sudan. The arrests were in response to a student strike in
protest against attacks on student demonstrators by security forces
on 22 October, 2002, and against the banning of Khartoum University
Students Union (KUSU). All the faculties of Khartoum University have
been instructed by the authorities to close indefinitely. In another
incident on 13 November, student hostels at Shampat were raided. As a
result least 11 students were admitted to hospital after being
seriously injured and again arrests were made. (WOAT,
20 November, 2002)
A book has been published by Operation Lifeline Sudan (UN) which
chronicles the extent of hardships southern Sudanese women face as a
result of the 19-year civil war - "Throwing the stick forward: the
impact of war on southern Sudanese women". The book contains detailed
accounts of the abductions, rape, displacements and fear women
affected by the civil are regularly exposed to. It documents Sudanese
women's daily fight for survival in a harsh environment.(OCHA,
12 November, 2002)
A serious bout of the deadly kala azar disease (symptomised by
acute fever), which hit parts of southern Sudan about six weeks ago,
is now reaching alarming levels. According to MSF, more than 1,000
patients are currently undergoing treatment, and the figure is likely
to increase.(African
Church Information Service, 18 November, 2002)
Fifteen people were killed in a terrorist attack on an Israeli
owned hotel in Mombasa on November 28. Human Righs Watch have said
that they think that Kenyan police appear to be using the November 28
attacks to justify a crackdown on refugees living in Nairobi. Since
November 29, the police have conducted three large raids and dozens
of arbitrary arrests against refugees from Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan
and the Democratic Republic of Congo in several neighborhoods of
Nairobi
Similar crackdowns against refugees occurred in September 1998,
in October 2001, twice in February 2001, and in May 2002. In the
aftermath of the Mombasa attacks and in the lead-up to Kenya's
elections later this month, Human Rights Watch called on the Kenyan
police to stop arbitrarily arresting and detaining refugees and
otherwise violating their human rights.(Human
Rights Watch 6 Dec 2002)
Over 242,800 people are threatened with severe hunger in West
Pokot and Turkana in the mainly arid- and semi-arid districts of
Northern Kenya.
With close co-ordination, ANF commissioned a consultant to
evaluate the drought situation, who carried out a Rapid Appraisal
exercise, covering West Pokot and Turkana districts between 11th to
22nd November 2002. The appraisal results were as follows:
West Pokot
a. This season's rainfall amounts and distribution was the
worst ever experienced in the District since 1984. The amount
received was neither adequate to neither sustain planted food crops
nor support the regeneration of pasture and browse for livestock.
This has led to a near total crop failure with mixed farming zones
realising less than 10% food harvest.
b. During this year's harvest season (which normally starts
from September to October) the main food producing zones in the
District registered a 97% drop from the normal maize production
levels
c. Further, apart from the poor rains this year, there was
a decrease in acreage of arable land under maize crop occasioned by
poor prices and delayed payment of delivered produce to the National
Cereal and Produce Board (NCPD) by farmers last year. This affected
the farmers ability to timely procure and utilise, the necessary
farming inputs.
d. With W/Pokot experiencing only one planting season per
annum, failure of the rains implies food shortages will continue
unless rains surfaces.
e. Hundreds of the pastoralists and Agro pastorlists have
relocated their livestock's to neighbouring Trans-Nzoia district and
Uganda. Hence complicating further the household food security of the
remaining family members i.e. children, women and the elderly.
Turkana
a. Pasture availability within most dry season grazing
areas is worse than normal for the season with deterioration forage
for livestock. Most surface water sources are drying up forcing
pastoralist communities to migrate.
b. There is an increased number of animals offered for sale
and prices have started to drop, with average sale prices of goats
and sheep dropping from $US 12 during Sept to $US 9 in Oct. 2002.
This downward prize trend has partly been triggered by increased
prices of cereals, indicative of the significant drop in pastoralist
purchasing power.
c. Community security and peace is also threatened as large
herds of livestock moving from East Baringo through West Pokot to
traditional dry season grazing areas in South Turkana is frequently
creating tension and conflict along the Turkana/West Pokot
borders.
d. A rapid rise in malnutrition levels in the 3 divisions
of (Lokori, Kakuma and Lokitaung) is particularly severe among
households that had not fully recovered from the effects of the
previous droughts.
Both the situations in West Pokot and Turkana warrants
urgent humanitarian intervention. The rapid assessment has confirmed
the concerns of the looming famine disaster indicated by the
churches.(Action
by Churches Together 5 Dec 2002)
A simultaneous missile attack on an Israeli charter airliner
which was taking off from the Mombasa International Airport with 261
passengers on board. The missiles, however, missed the aircraft,
which later landed safely in Tel Aviv.
Banditry activities have been on the rise in the pastoral
districts of Northern Kenya. In Turkana and West Pokot districts,
nine bandits were killed in a spate of cattle raids on November
23-24. Meanwhile, the police have stationed guards at cattle watering
points along the Turkana/ West Pokot border in order to reduce
friction between the two tribes at shared/disputed watering
holes.
The Kenya Government and other partners are to start Food for
Assets programme in six food insecure districts. Isiolo, Mandera,
Turkana, Marsabit, Garissa/Wajir and Ijara will be covered by the
programme.
Five incidents of localised flooding have been reported in
the country since the onset of the short rains at the beginning of
November. The above normal rainfall caused two makeshift dams to
collapse killing a total of 18 people in Tana River (Coastal area)
and Kiambu (Central Kenya). Uncharacteristically heavy, yet poorly
distributed rainfall, has been the distinguishing feature of the
season in several areas of the country. Already, exceptionally heavy
rainfall has caused flooding in the eastern pastoral and coastal
areas of the country, reminiscent of the El Niño of
1997/98.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has issued an alert over serious
food shortages for the refugee programme in Kenya. From March 2003,
WFP will only be able to meet 65 per cent of commodity requirements.
The project has a cumulative, un-resourced shortfall of 21,851 MT of
commodities until the scheduled end of the current programme in
September 2003.(UN
Resident Coordinator 30 Nov 2002)
Kenyan President, Daniel arap Moi, has visited two opposition
leaders in their London hospital. National Rainbow Coalition (Narc)
leader Mwai Kibaki will presumably be further helped in his recovery
by the results of an opinion poll, which predicts a landslide victory
in this month's election. The poll, commissioned by a United
States-based think-tank, the International Republican Institute (IRI)
says that 68% of Kenyans will vote for Mr Kibaki, with just 21%
supporting Uhuru Kenyatta, the candidate of the ruling Kanu party. Mr
Moi is barred from standing after 24 years in power (BBC,
9 December 2002)
WFP's food pipeline remains weak. The cereals pipeline is
now expected to break in April followed by pulses in May. WFP has
already completed the buffer stocking of January food requirements in
provinces with difficult road access during the rainy season. UNHCR
and WFP jointly assessed the food security situation of 6,500
Congolese refugees currently receiving food assistance in Luanda. It
was agreed that assistance would continue pending the organization of
a verification exercise by the end of February 2003. WFP is
boosting its presence in Zaire province with a new field office being
established in M'banza Congo to allow stronger management and
monitoring of WFP's programme, particularly in light of further
expected refugee returns from DRC during 2003. (WFP
3 January 2003)
Angola's leading opposition party, UNITA will hold its 9th
extraordinary congress in March to solidify the ongoing reunification
process. UNITA combated the MPLA government for 27 years
before signing a cease-fire agreement with Angolan Armed Forces (FAA)
officials on 4 April 2002. UNITA has 70 legislators in the
Angolan parliament (PANA
6 Jan 2003).
Angolan troops seized a " considerable quantity" of weapons in
"clean-up operations" against separatist guerrillas in the oil-rich
enclave of Cabinda in the last few days, the Angolan army announced.
(Xinhua
2 Jan 2003.)
The WFP announced that it was suspending delivery of humanitarian
aid to some areas of Angola's northern Malange Province due to the
threat of landmines. Jonas Hifan, the WFP chief in Malange,
said that the suspension affected four areas east of the provincial
capital, where 4,000 people depended on food aid, local media
reported. During the past three months, explosions of three
anti-tank mines in the targeted area killed 17 people and injured 12
others. About 12 million landmines were planted in Angola's
territory during the fight against Portuguese colonialism and 27
years of civil war which broke out in 1974 and ended on April this
year (Xinhua
2 Jan 2003).
Angolan head of State, José Eduardo dos Santos, set
the year 2004 as the deadline for the total integration of the
victims of the country`s armed conflict into the national production
process. In a year end message to the nation, the head of
State said that in the year mentioned the victims will be able to
rely on their own with a view to developing their potentials of
creation of wealth and generation of incomes, without depending on
the national programmes and Government`s and international
organisations` food aid. (Government
of Angola 28 Dec 2002).
The latest report by the Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Luanda has warned that the number of
people requiring food assistance has reached 1.8 million and an
additional 300,000 people may become food insecure in the months
ahead. Credible reports indicate that as many as 200,000 vulnerable
people may be in critical distress in inaccessible areas. Also cause
for concern were high rates of severe malnutrition in at least 15
locations, there was also the real danger that "additional pockets
[of distress] may be present in remote communities"
Meanwhile, reports indicated that more than 86,400 Angolan refugees
had spontaneously returned from neighbouring countries since January,
primarily to Kuando Kubango, Moxico, Uíge and Zaire provinces.
"Of this number, local authorities and humanitarian partners
have registered approximately 61,300 people. As many as 400,000
Angolan refugees remain in the neighbouring countries of Zambia,
Namibia, Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo," the OCHA
added (UN
OCHA 24 Dec 2002).
As of 10 December, pledges and contributions covering 61 percent
of the 2002 Consolidated Appeal had been received. The most
underfunded sectors include mine action, emergency response,
resettlement and reintegration, education, protection and water and
sanitation. For 2003, UN Agencies and NGOs are requesting
approximately US$ 386 million for 166 projects. UN Agencies have
identified the following priorities as necessary for meeting the
Appeal's main goals and ensuring the effective functioning of the
operation: a) the four core pipelines for food, non-food items, seeds
and tools and essential drugs and emergency health care kits; b) mine
action; c) the logistics and security framework; and d) coordination.
(OCHA
19 Dec 2002).
The absence of rain has extinguished any hope for a successful
planting season. Crops that were planted in November and December are
failing, if they grew from the ground at all. Rain at this stage will
not undo damage that has already been done by the lack of ground
moisture, and farmers giving up the idea of planting at all. Zimbabwe
is plagued by drought that may not end in the near future, as the
SADC has predicted below normal rainfall for the south and west of
the country due to El Nino patterns. This is the second spoiled
farming season this year and its consequences will not be fully
realised until well into 2003.
The drought, however, has not only decimated crops, but has
decimated livestock populations as well. The lack of rain in southern
Zimbabwe, contributed to the death of 15,000 cattle in the region.
The decimation of cattle is likely to complicate famine in Zimbabwe.
Survival coping mechanisms have been extended to meet basic needs,
which include the selling of remaining livestock, gold panning, an
increase in black market trading, prostitution and a risky practice
of consuming wild foods, which has, in some instances, led to death
by poison. This precarious situation faced by many Zimbabweans is
what is necessary to survive, as the goods that they need are
unavailable or unattainable, with regards not only to food and farm
inputs, but also to recurring fuel and other commodity
shortages.
To date, approximately 6.7 million people are affected by food
shortages that are attributed to the effects of President Mugabe's
land reform policies in 2000, drought, and Zimbabwe's weak economy.
The crisis is exacerbated by alarmingly high HIV/AIDS infection
rates.(World
Vision 07/01/03)(AFP
01/01/03)(USAID
20/12/02)
The most difficult season for survival has begun for Malawians in
December. The period between December and April are notorious for
food shortages as people struggle to the next harvest. However,
flooding in early January has intensified Malawi's food shortages. In
the northern district of Rumphi alone, three thousand hectares of
crops were destroyed and left thousands homeless. One third of the
population (or 3.3 million people) is now affected by food shortages,
and the flooding has made the situation more chronic. Malawi's acute
crisis arises from drought, flooding and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Prices of farm inputs and maize remain excruciatingly high, although
the government reintroduced price controls mid-December to increase
the accessibility of poor farmers and subsistence farmers to
necessities, specifically maize, seed, and fertiliser. With the vast
majority of the population classified as poor (with 65% of the
population living on less than a dollar a day), this is a step
forward. Despite efforts, including subsidies, prices are still too
high for many, and some families have already sold their livestock to
cope with the prices and have left themselves susceptible to
fluctuations of the market. The WFP has also received reports that
thousands have died to date from hunger and disease, although these
reports remain unconfirmed. However, prospects for relief are
positive, as the Nacala railroad is under repair, which will
facilitate expedient movement of food aid and distribution.
(Reuters
13/01/03 )(WFP
20/12/02)(IFRC
12/12/02)
As of 11 January, Malawi has been officially declared as in "a
state of national disaster" by its president, President Bakili
Muluzi. It all began in October, the normal planting season, with a
large drought so many of the crops were not planted. When their
typical rain came in December it was a blessing until it didn't stop.
Cyclone Delfina decided to flood the crops that could be planted in
October. The rain, a naturally occurring element for this time of
year, has caused a third of Malawi's 10 million people face food
shortage. Unfortunately, "The great majority of those affected are
extremely poor women who are predominantly engaged in crop
production," United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, noting that such crops as maize,
tobacco and rice that have been wiped out are the main source of
livelihood for most Malawians. The number of people needing food
assistance has increased from 15, 000 to about 20,000 people within a
week and almost 60,000 farming families have lost their crops. WFP
plans to aid by supplying food relief to 2.8 million people during
the month of January. Their current supply of maize is 28,000 metric
tonnes, however, there is also 250,000 metric tonnes of commercial
maize being imported through the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA)
with European Union assistance. With these collaborations, the
Malawian government is trying to defeat the tragedy that has been
occurring since October. To further exacerbate hunger, a scandal has
surfaced that some of the national food reserves have been sold to
Kenya during the drought in October. This is being investigated by
the government.
After months of drought last year, ares of Mozambique face
another poor rain season. The south and central regions, which have
not fully recovered from last years drought, will experience yet
another season of poor crop productivity if rains do not come in the
next two weeks, reported the SADC to the UN Resident Coordinator in
mid-December. The southern and central regions are characterized by
semi-arid land and sandy soil, which is perhaps better for livestock
breeding than maize, or even sorghum production. Swaziland, Malawi,
Tanzania, Botswana and South Africa are affected by by below average
rainfall as well. This widespread rain shortage is exascerbating
relief efforts as well as nearly gauranteeing prolonged food
insecurity in the next year. The government, however, is encouraging
alternate drought resistant crops in provinces dependent on
suitability of land, including cassava, pineapple, sweet potatoes,
and especially sorghum. UN
Resident Coordinator 17/12/02 ; FEWSNET
20/12/02 ; IRIN
17/12/02 ).
Like every other African nation facing food insecurities,
Mozambique's situation is complex. Flooding has affected Sofala,
Inhambane, and Gaza which are dependent on fishing. Livestock in the
provinces of Manica, Maputo, and Sofala are also threatened by
drought and economic insecurity. Rising prices of food are also
contributing to the security of urban populations, particulary in
Maputo. Despite government agricultural mitigation techniques,
approximately 1.4 million people, up previously from 590,000, are now
in need of aid, as sharp flooding due to Cyclone Delfina occured in
the northern region on December 31, 2002 (SADC
09/01/03;
IRIN 06/01/03;FEWSNET
20/12/02).
During his New Year's address to the nation, Burundi's President,
Pierre Buyoya, pushed for the National Liberation Forces (FNL), the
country's second largest rebel group, to enter peace talks with the
government. Since November 2001, based on the Arusha Accord, the
country has operated with a transitional government that shares power
between the Hutu and Tutsis. The peace agreement in Arusha was signed
in 2000 and called for the equal distribution of power in government,
policing, and the military. In 2002, the government signed three
cease-fire agreements with Hutu rebel groups in an attempt to stop
the fighting that has killed nearly 300,000 citizens since 1993.
Buyoya vowed that all possible measures would be taken to bring an
end to the violence. The three accords are scheduled for
implementation in the first two weeks of 2003, when an African
cease-fire monitoring force is expected in Burundi. Burundi's Foreign
Minister, Therence Singuruza, is optimistic and believes that the
peace process is underway, despite the fact that the FNL is being
blamed for a recent attack on the capitol that claimed three lives.
(AFP
1 January)
On January 18, the death of ten soldiers in Gisuru in the
eastern province of Ruyigi sparked a widespread military offensive.
Large numbers of people have been displaced and targeted food
distributions have been disrupted. On the 27th and 28th of January, a
six person OCHA led inter-agency assessment team visited the area.
When the group returned to the capital, their main concern was the
fact that much of the province remained inaccessible due to military
operations. (IRIN
31 January)
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) launched an appeal for
food aid donations in early December 2002 based on estimates of a
large food shortage. It is believed that 580,000 to 1.2 million
people will need assistance due to a two month delay in rains and a
poor harvest from the previous year. The WFP is trying to collect
40,000 metric tons of food, valued at US $19 million, to feed
Burundians until the main harvest in April 2003. Food aid is being
distributed to the most affected areas but more resources are needed
to strengthen the work force in the northern provinces. The
food-for-work activities are vitally important in containing the
spread of hunger. Workers are traded food for their labour on
projects such as field preparation for cultivation, soil erosion
prevention and the restoration of swamps and forests. Additionally, a
current outbreak of malaria threatens an already weak population. In
2000, an estimated 600,000 people suffered from the disease.
(WFP 2
December)
The WFP's first report of 2003 indicates that Burundi needs
more timely food deliveries to meet the country's needs. Even though
the organisation recently received over 1,500 tons of cereal, there
is hardly enough food to cover distribution plans scheduled for the
next two weeks. The WFP worked with CARE and World Vision from the 23
to the 29 of December to provide assistance to more than 23,600
people at risk of food insecurity in the Karuzi and Kayanza
Provinces. (WFP
3 January)
The FNL rejected an appeal from the UN Security Council
asking the rebels to sign a cease-fire. The group's political
advisor, Pasteur Habimana, told AFP, "The government and army have
massacred hundreds of thousands of Burundis since 1965 without the
Security Council or the international community stepping in to demand
justice in Burundi…We will fight till the last drop of blood to
see justice done." (AFP
31 January)
UN relief agencies have lost contact with thousands of
people in central Burundi due to recent fighting and officials warn
that the danger of malnutrition is rising. Between 47,000 and 65,000
civilians have been displaced from their homes. The WFP has been
unable to deliver almost 82 tons of food to 7,400 people in Gitega.
In Ruyigi, 15,000 people wait for suspended deliveries. (AFP
31 January)
353 Burundian refugees were repatriated to the northern
part of the country despite the fact that fighting in central Burundi
has displaced an estimated 40,000-60,000. Many of the refugees,
returning from Ngara, Tanzania, said they were aware of the conflict
but still felt confident that they would be safe in the north. Each
person received a package of food and domestic supplies and many were
greeted by waiting villagers. (UNHCR
24 January)
The food insecurity in Burundi is compounded by the influx
of refugees from Uvira, DRC. 14,000 people have fled the area and
experts believe the number could grow as large as 40,000. (WFP
2 December)
Recent reports indicate that 3,000 Democratic Republic of
Congo refugees have crossed the Cibitoke border into Burundi
following the resumption of fighting in the Uvira district.
Additionally, WFP is preparing distribution to five communes in the
Muramvya province. (WFP
10 January)
Eight civilians were killed in what is believed to
retaliation by Burundi's Tutsi dominated army in the Taba district, a
Hutu neighbourhood in the capital. Local authorities denied the
claims but witnesses said the incident took place after a group of
people robbed a paramilitary policeman of his gun. Several dozen
witnesses said that army soldiers arrived, surrounded the area, and
then gunshots were heard. Jean de Dieu Niyongabo, a government
official, told reporters that rebels dressed in civilian clothes shot
at the soldiers first and they returned fire. (AFP
6 January)
Fighting near Burundi's capital claimed the lives of 13
soldiers, two rebels, and one civilian. 16 others were wounded in the
battle between government forces and the FNL. In Ruvyagira, 20
kilometres south of Bujumbura, a similar stand off killed 12 soldiers
and two rebels while wounding another 14 people. It is believed that
fighting broke out after the FNL ambushed a soldier and executed a
woman. (AFP
11 January)
In Kangunzi, 55 kilometres north-west of Bujumbura, ten people
were killed in an attack on a convoy of vehicles. According to a
survivor, a group of unidentified armed men sprayed the vehicles with
bullets and then searched everyone for valuables. The army says they
have been chasing Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD) rebels in
the area but the group's spokesman has denied responsibility for the
attack. The FNL has also denied carrying out the ambush but suggests
that elements of their force may have collaborated with Mayi-Mayi
militias from the Democratic Republic of Congo to raid the convoy.
(BBC 13
January)
Burundi's army is returning items stolen by soldiers in a suburb
north-east of Bujumbura. In an operation that claimed ten lives,
soldiers looted homes in Taba, an area in the Kamenge district.
Locals were happy to recover their belongings but the programme has
also been seen as proof that the military cannot be trusted.
Currently, two soldiers have been arrested for theft. (BBC
14 January)
In 1998, in what was once termed Africa's first continental war,
government forces supported by troops from Angola, Namibia and
Zimbabwe, began battling rebel groups backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
The fighting, which came after the 1994 genocide of Rwanda's
ethnic Tutsi community by the former Hutu army and militias who then
fled west into the DRC, has destroyed much of the infrastructure of
the vast mineral-rich central DRC. Rights organisations have
estimated that 2.5 million people have been killed, either as a
direct result of fighting or because of hunger and disease in what
they said has become Africa's worst humanitarian crisis in recent
years.
For this reason, and given the pockets of ongoing fighting and
misery at various points across the country, analysts have been
cautious to express optimism about the recently negotiated
withdrawals. This is in part because none of the parties
involved have given clear figures on how many troops they deploy in
DRC, or whether they will be able to meet the withdrawal deadlines
set in separate accords, mostly mediated and spurred by South Africa,
which the government of President Joseph Kabila has signed with
various parties (AFP
21 Sept 2002).
The last group of Rwandan soldiers left the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC) on the 5th October, an AFP correspondent in the border
town of Goma reported. The 1,150 men of the third battalion of
the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) crossed the border by foot in a
single file at a small border post separating Goma from the town of
Gisenyi on the Rwandan side of the border. A total of 22,000
RPA troops have left the DRC as a whole, by plane or by road,
according to the general staff. This figure does not include
sick and injured soldiers, men on leave or those or were in Rwanda
before the operation began. The entire operation is estimated
to have cost about 17 million dollars, according to Rwandan Army
Chief of Staff General James Kaberebe (AFP
5 Oct 2002).
Unarmed opposition and civil society groups in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) began informal talks with South African
President Thabo Mbeki, aimed at finding common ground between them
and the other stakeholders in DRC's war (AFP
4 Oct 2002).
The withdrawal of foreign forces from the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) has been applauded by Zambia, but the southern neighbour
is also worried by the instability that could follow, Zambian
officials told IRIN. "There are still some clashes here and
there and things are not going as smoothly as we would have expected.
That causes concern for us, as when affected people start running,
the first place they end up is Zambia," a government official
explained (UN
OCHA 1 Oct 2002).
The governments of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo
have set up a joint commission to establish peace in the war-torn
Ituri region of northeastern DRC and along the countries' shared
border. The withdrawal of Ugandan troops from the DRC has
almost been completed, except for two battalions which remain in
Bunia, with the permission of both the Congolese government and the
United Nations Mission in the Congo (known as MONUC). (UN
OCHA 27 Sept 2002)
The resumption of the rainy season will increase the difficulties
to access certain regions and add to the factors constraining the
implementation of programmes. In some provinces such as South Kivu,
roads rehabilitation under FFW activities has been given top priority
to mitigate the impact of the rainy season. To overcome these access
difficulties, WFP has initiated an airlift operation in Northern
Katanga. Under the third phase of this operation, WFP intends to
support a seeds protection project involving 30,000 families in
Kongolo, Manono, Kabalo, Mpiana, Kiambi and Mulongo, all areas only
accessible by air. Together with their 15 days food rations, the
beneficiaries will receive seeds and tools provided by FHI. Over
1,150 tons of food still need to be airlifted (WFP
20 September)
Parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are on the
brink of a food crisis because deliveries from drought-ridden Zambia
and Zimbabwe have dried up, the United Nations warned. The
UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said
three southern provinces of DRC -- Katanga, East and West Kasai --
relied on the southern African countries for 80 percent of their
basic foodstuffs. (AFP
20 Sept 2002).
IOM has signed an agreement with the Governments of the Republic
of the Congo (RoC) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to
help in the voluntary return and reintegration of some 4,000 former
combatants from the Forces Armées Zairoises (FAZ), the Forces
Armées Congolaises (FAC), and their families (IOM
17 Sept 2002).
The movement of refugees and returnees continued to slow down. In
the UNHCR facilitated repatriation of Sierra Leoneans from Guinea,
WFP provided food aid to 1,500 returnees during their two-day transit
at the Port Loko Way Station and also supported about 500 returnees
from Guinea being resettled in Daru. WFP supported 13,500 Liberian
refugees in Jembe and Gerihun Camps (WFP
17 January)
The African Development Fund (ADF) and the government of Sierra
Leone have signed agreements for a loan of 15 million Units of
Account (UA)* and a UA 1 million Technical Assistance Fund (TAF)
grant to finance the rehabilitation of the country's basic,
non-formal and vocational education. The agreements cover a
total of 21.75 million US dollars.(African
Development Bank 16 Jan 2003).
Widespread and systematic sexual violence during a decade of war
in Sierra Leone was committed on a far larger scale than the highly
visible amputations for which the country became notorious, according
to a new report from Human Rights Watch. "Sexual violence has
remained Sierra Leone's silent war crime," HRW says. The
report highlights the legacy of ongoing sexual and domestic violence
in the country and the need for urgent attention from the
international community. (The
Guardian January 16, 2003). Human Rights Watch has
accused all parties that were involved in the ten-year old conflict
in Sierra Leone of wide spread atrocities and sexual violence. The
report further stated that the initial atrocities were committed by
the then AFRC renegades but further accused the then Sierra Leone
Army, the CDF and the United Nations peace keepers that were later
deployed of the same violations (Standard
Times Freetown January 17, 2003).
The judges appointed to sit in Sierra Leone's Special Court
for war crimes committed during the 10-year civil war have been sworn
in. The judges - two Sierra Leoneans and six expatriates - swore to
serve the court "honestly, faithfully, impartially and
conscientiously". The court has a three-year mandate and was
established by the United Nations and Sierra Leone earlier this year.
The ceremony was a significant step in the development of the Special
Court, which aims to punish those who bear the greatest
responsibility for atrocities committed the civil war (BBC
2 December, 2002).
The WFP has said that in-country stocks are insufficient to cover
the food needs for the next two months. From 2 to 17 December,
WFP, in collaboration with Action Contre La Faim (ACF) distributed
355 tons of rice to 34,600 families with young children in
Bouaké. A Post Distribution Monitoring mission was carried out
among 400 families. The evaluation shows that an estimated 60 percent
of the families in Bouaké do not have any income, while the
remaining 40 percent have lost 80 percent of their purchasing power.
The quality of food consumed daily has also decreased significantly.
Although the situation is not yet critical, the combination of these
factors is likely to have a serious negative humanitarian impact,
unless access to food and medical support is restored. (WFP
3 January 2003)
Ivory Coast's main rebel group warned that President Laurent
Gbagbo will not keep his pledge to respect a truce or expel
mercenaries, and said it was pinning its hopes for peace on former
colonial power France. "Gbagbo will not respect his pledges,"
Sidiki Konate, a spokesman for the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement
(MPCI) group, which has held the northern half of the west African
country since an uprising on September 19, told AFP.
The war -- which has severely dented Ivory Coast's reputation as a
haven of peace and stability in troubled west Africa -- has been
complicated by the discovery of two mass graves thought to contain up
to 200 bodies. The three rebel groups say they are fighting
for the rights of the Muslim-majority people of the north and ethnic
groups in the west who, they claim, have been marginalised since the
death of the country's first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, in
1993 (AFP
6 Jan 2003).
Ivory Coast rebels armed with mortars attacked French
peacekeepers in the western town of Duekoue leading to "serious"
clashes, two days after the government and the main rebel group vowed
to respect a shaky truce. Some 2,500 French troops have been
deployed in Ivory Coast to enforce the ceasefire and protect
foreigners in the biggest military intervention by Paris in Africa
since the 1980s (AFP
6 Jan 2003).
Reports of fighting in the southwestern Cote d'Ivoire was causing
increased populations movements with the situation becoming "more and
more" desperate for especially Liberian refugees living in this area,
humanitarian sources told IRIN. (UN
OCHA 6 Jan 2003).
IOM is continuing to assist Guineans and third country nationals
who fled war-torn Danané and Man regions in western Côte
d'Ivoire and who are stranded in and around
Nzérékoré and Lola in south-eastern Guinea.
(IOM
3 Jan 2003).
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has sent a special envoy to DPR
Korea to assess the humanitarian needs of its people, a United
Nations spokeswoman. The envoy, Maurice Strong's main purpose is to
assess humanitarian aid but he is willing to listen to any subject
will be put forward. A former Canadian businessman, Strong, 74, was
the first director of the UN Environment Programme in the 1970s and
later presided over the Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero in
1992(AFP
6 Jan 2003).
The United States warned that although it would not halt food
shipments to DPR Korea for political reasons, they could be in doubt
over concerns that the aid does not reach famished intended
recipients. "We need to know that this can be verified, we need
to know the people who deserve this food are going to get this food,
we need to know that there have been improvements in the monitoring
situation," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
This year, WFP had to cut its operations in DPRKorea to help only
3.4 million people, compared with 6.4 million last year, WFP
executive director James Morris said. "We will need 550,000
metric tonnes of food in DPR Korea next year; at this stage we have
commitments for 33,000 metric tonnes -- 23,000 from the European
Community and 10,000 from Italy," he said. "It is conceivable
that, come April 1, we will not have resources to do our work and
that there will not be a WFP, and ultimately a United Nations
presence, in that country." (AFP
6 Jan 2003)
Continuing its campaign to revive international attention to DPR
Korea's faltering agricultural sector and critical food shortages,
the World Food Program said in a new report that more than 10 percent
of DPR Korea's population would be dropped from its grain
distribution program early this year if more donations are not
forthcoming (JoongAng
Ilbo 3 Jan 2003).
Without immediate, additional contributions WFP has said that it
will not be able to reach some 2.9 million of the 4.5 million most
vulnerable aid recipients it is feeding. These at-risk beneficiaries
include almost 2 million children in nurseries, kindergartens and
primary schools, 130,000 pregnant/nursing women, 550,000 elderly
persons and 225,000 caregivers in child institutions and hospitals.
In addition, all Food for Work activities must be suspended and some
Local Food Production factories will be forced to stop functioning
towards the end of January (WFP
3 January 2003)
Many DPR Koreans will spend winter in air-raid shelters to
protect themselves from the freezing cold. With Siberian winds
pushing temperatures to lows of minus 30 degrees Celsius they have no
choice, according to RENK (Rescue The North Korean People), a group
that assists DPR Korean refugees (AFP
2 Jan 2003).
Aid workers in Tajikistan have welcomed a Saudi-funded project to
reconstruct a stretch of road damaged by landslides and mudslides
over the years. The road is a vital link between the remote eastern
Badakhshon Province and central areas and is critical for food aid
deliveries to Afghanistan from Central Asia.
The European Commission has resumed its assistance project known
as TACIS (Technical Assistance to CIS) to Tajikistan following a four
year suspension according to an EC official. The programme was
suspended in 1998 after two French programme experts were taken
hostage by a terrorist group - one died during the rescue operation.
The programme has been resumed in the light of events in the region
post 11 September.(UN
OCHA 30 Aug 2002)
The French Foreign Ministry is to provide emergency aid in
response to requests from the Tajik government. The aid is destined
for people affected by the landslide in Tajikistan, in the region of
Upper Badakhshan (Pamir), in the night of August 7 and to enable the
Tajik authorities to ensure that the school year begins in
satisfactory conditions.(Government
of France 26 Aug 2002).
A fatal typhoid outbreak in Dushanbe has been blamed on the
appalling living conditions most of the capital's residents are
forced to endure. Dushanbe health chief Nina Kravchenko said that one
local had died and 276 have been diagnosed with the disease - 88 of
them children. Other reports in the independent media put the figure
at around 500 with three deaths. The Tajik ministry of health, which
does not have enough money to buy a vaccine against the disease, is
advising people to wash their hands and boil water before using it
(Institute
for War & Peace Reporting 23 Aug 2002)
An increasing number of Tajiks are being kidnapped by Afghan drug
dealers, taken from their border villages and held hostage until
their families pay ransom money to clear debts. In mid July, three
residents from Porvor, including a border guard holding the rank of
captain, were taken to Afghanistan, and a price of 80,000 US dollars
was set for their return.
More than 100 Tajiks are now thought to be in such captivity.
While some have been taken by force to clear money owed to the drug
lords, many choose to be imprisoned as "security" for heroin supplied
from Afghanistan. The confined man's associates sell the drugs in
Tajikistan or elsewhere, pay for the release of the "hostage", and
keep the difference as profit.(Institute
for War & Peace Reporting 13 Aug 2002)
The Gulf War witnessed one of history's heaviest bombing
campaigns, a 43-day bomb-fest, largely by units of the US Air Force,
left something in the region of $170 billion-worth of damage. The
subsequent enforcement of sanctions has meant that much of that
damage has never been repaired, and it is the lack of safe water,
housing, food and medicine that is exacting the greatest toll among
children and the elderly (The
Observer September 22, 2002).
Military intervention would greatly exacerbate the humanitarian
crisis in Iraq: pushing a population already suffering from poverty
and sanctions over the edge, warned Save the Children UK - the
longest-standing non-governmental organisation operating in Northern
Iraq.
After 12 years of sanctions, infant mortality in Iraq has
doubled and the civilian population is highly vulnerable to external
shocks that impact on food supplies and basic service provision.
Military conflict will interrupt the supply of food under the UN Oil
for Food Programme if neighbouring states close borders, central
administration and distribution systems break down, transport routes
are obstructed and humanitarian agencies cease operations (SCF
13 Sept 2002)
The Government of the Republic of Iraq has decided to allow
the return of United Nations weapons inspectors to Iraq without
conditions. The Foreign Minister has also indicated that his
Government is ready to discuss the practical arrangements necessary
for the immediate resumption of inspections (UN
Security Council 16 Sept 2002)
The following is an extract from a joint letter from ActionAid,
Cafod, Christian Aid, Oxfam GB, Save the Children which appeared in
the The Guardian newspaper on Thursday 26 September 2002.
"As British aid agencies working either in Iraq or in the wider
region, we believe military action could cause a humanitarian
catastrophe. Across the country hundreds of thousands of people,
especially children, are already in a weakened and highly vulnerable
state. War is highly likely to further destroy the water, power,
health and sanitation infrastructure and interrupt vital supplies of
food, fuel and medicines. It could well lead to the cutting of food
supplies to northern Iraq, which is not government-controlled, as
well as to areas that are controlled by Baghdad. In certain scenarios
the danger of large-scale civilian casualties is very great, as is
the likelihood of significant movements of displaced people and
refugees. Already Iraq has nearly three-quarters of a million
internally displaced people. The possibility of a period of civil
strife between Iraq's various ethnic and religious groups cannot be
ruled out. If military action takes place, the international
community then has a responsibility to help the Iraqi people with
short-term and long-term security, protection, and material and
financial support. Our experience in Afghanistan is not encouraging.
There, despite numerous pledges, there still remains a yawning gap
between rhetoric and reality (Christian
Aid 30 Sept 2002)"
A severe budget gap is hampering the United Nations
"oil-for-food" programme, which allows Baghdad to use a portion of
its crude revenues to purchase humanitarian relief, Benon Sevan, the
UN official in charge of the operation has told the Security
Council.
Iraqi oil exports have dropped from an average of over 2 million
barrels per day in 2000 to under 1 million barrels per day in recent
months. The UN calculates that the reduced exports have caused a $3.2
billion loss of revenue. The situation is further exacerbated by the
cumulative revenue shortfall from earlier phases of the programme,
which has left over $2.3 billion worth of UN-approved humanitarian
contracts without funding. The possible disruption of Iraq's oil
output as a result of political developments is one of the factors
causing difficulties, according to the Programme. Others include
disagreements over the pricing of Iraqi oil, Baghdad's occasional
unilateral export suspensions, and the practice of "retroactive
pricing" which is employed as a means of discouraging illegal
kickbacks.
Malnutrition is slowly decreasing, but a recent UN Children's
Fund (UNICEF) survey of over half a million Iraqi children found that
one in five was malnourished (UN
News Service 25 Sept 2002).
A leading NGO dealing with the plight of Iraqi refugees living in
Iran has renewed its calls to the international community for
urgently needed assistance to thousands living in squalid and
destitute conditions. "There is no real humanitarian work being done
for these people in Iran," Khadijet Ak Kubra's director, Sami Mahdi,
told IRIN in the Iranian capital, Tehran. "Not even one percent of
these people's needs are being fulfilled," he complained.
Khadijet Ak Kubra maintains that over the past 23 years, hundreds
of thousands of Iraqi refugees have entered Iran, particularly during
the eight-year war period between the two countries between 1980 and
1988 (UN
OCHA Integrated Regional Information Network 23 Sept 2002).
This
page is Bobby approved.