Photo: Heba Aly/IRIN

Darfur IDPs are expected to flee southwards in search of relief aid

JUBA, – The expulsion or closure of 16 relief agencies in Darfur could trigger an exodus into Southern Sudan, aid officials warned.

In preparation, the UN and the Southern Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SSRRC) are preparing for potential inflows of Darfuris, said Lise Grande, the UN’s Deputy Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Southern Sudan.

“Here in the South, under the SSRRC, we are going to have a contingency planning exercise that will look at how we might try and mount support,” Grande said.

“There are technical assessments going on between the [Khartoum government's] Humanitarian Aid Commission in the North and the UN agencies,” Grande said on 13 March.

“They are creating assessments throughout the three Darfur states, looking at the gaps in assistance created by the departing NGOs.”

The expulsions are expected to leave an estimated 1.1 million people, especially in Darfur, without food, 1.5 million without healthcare and more than a million without drinking water.

“One of the things that those assessments will look at is possible migration flows,” Grande said. Of particular concern were potential movements from south Darfur into the neighbouring South Sudanese state of Northern Bahr el Ghazal.

“This is something that we may expect,” Grande added, warning that South Sudan already faced a major humanitarian crisis of its own.

Attacks by the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have affected more than 100,000 people in South Sudan, half of whom were children, she said.

These included families in Western and Central Equatoria fleeing reprisal attacks by the rebels following a joint military operation against the LRA that began last December.

“Assessments� confirm that more than 100,000 people are vulnerable as a result of the upsurge of LRA attacks,” said Grande.

These include over 36,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) who fled their homes in South Sudan, and more than 16,000 refugees from the DRC.

“An additional 50,000 people in host communities … are reported to be vulnerable and need humanitarian assistance,” Grande told reporters in Juba, capital of Southern Sudan.

Conditions deteriorating

Conditions were growing worse, the UN warned in an additional statement.

“Assessments confirm that food security and nutrition have deteriorated dramatically over the past three months,” it said. “The incidence of communicable diseases has increased.”

More than 350 cases of watery diarrhoea, 230 of dysentery, 1,650 of malaria and 25 of measles were reported, according to UN and Southern Sudanese data.

Photo: Peter Martell/IRIN

South Sudanese children displaced by attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army

LRA units have scattered widely since the joint campaign by Ugandan, DR Congolese and South Sudanese forces.

“Attacks by small groups of LRA soldiers are expected to continue, destabilising the area for the foreseeable future and creating humanitarian needs which cannot be met through existing resources,” the UN statement noted.

Extra support needed

More support, including seeds and farming tools, was needed. “The numbers are getting too big, and conditions are sliding,” Grande said, adding that a request for extra support had been submitted to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

“With the rains coming shortly, the next stage of the humanitarian operation is likely to be very costly,” she added.

Protection of the vulnerable – especially children and former abductees – was a “major gap” in the emergency response. Up to 2,000 unaccompanied or separated children needed help.

Meanwhile, Grande expressed concern over a recent outbreak of “violent tribal clashes” in the Pibor region of Jonglei state. “We have preliminary reports that may indicate … as many as 100 people have been killed,” she said.

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Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN

A woman selling bananas in a Nairobi market (file photo): Food insecurity is set to escalate due to late long rains

NAIROBI, – Food insecurity in Kenya, already affecting millions of people, is set to escalate because the long rains are late and unlikely to be sufficient, officials warned.

The forecast has contributed to an upward revision of the cost of humanitarian needs in 2009, from US$390 million to $575 million.

“Predictions are that the long rains [which normally start in the second week of March] could be poor; this would lead to a more serious drought later in the year,” Jeanine Cooper, head of the Kenya division of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IRIN on 17 March.

Abbas Gullet, secretary-general of the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), told reporters on 17 March that Kenya’s humanitarian situation was deteriorating with the failure of the rains.

“The situation has not improved; we were expecting rain but it has not started,” he said while collecting donations in Nairobi for distribution in the worst-hit areas.

Gullet said most of northern Kenya, Samburu, Moyale, Tana River, Narok, Muranga, Nyeri and the Ukambani areas of Makueni Kitui and Mwingi were affected.

Combination of factors

Launching their revised Emergency Humanitarian Response Plan (EHRP) on 16 March, UN agencies and NGOs said poor rains, food shortages and high commodity prices had deepened food and livelihood insecurity across many parts of the country.

They said instability and conflict in neighbouring Somalia had prompted a marked increase in refugees entering Kenya, hence the review of programme requirements in line with existing and emerging needs.

The humanitarian community said emergency interventions were now essential to ensure life-saving food aid for an estimated 3.5–4.5 million. Increasing water availability through enhanced harvesting and storage was also vital.

“Long-term non-food interventions to support the livelihoods of vulnerable populations are also required to mitigate the impact of the current crisis and to cushion future shocks,” OCHA Kenya said.

It said thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs), especially those displaced in poll-related violence a year ago, were another target group for the revised EHRP.

Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN

An internally displaced persons, IDP, camp (file photo): An estimated 3.5–4.5 million people including IDPs will require life-saving food aid

The IDPs’ situation stabilised over 2008 due to political progress and joint humanitarian efforts, OCHA Kenya said, and, as a result, an estimated 347,418 IDPs had returned to pre-displacement or transit areas.

Building resilience

“Nevertheless, many of the transit sites have inadequate basic services, including sanitation, hygiene and health facilities and limited access to schools,” OCHA Kenya said.

“Peace-building and reconciliation for displaced people and the communities that host them urgently need more and sustained engagement, while increased investment in livelihoods is essential to ensure that returnees can lead productive lives and meet their basic needs while rebuilding socio-economic security.”

Aeneas Chuma, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Kenya, who presented the humanitarian organisations’ plan to support populations affected by climatic shocks, food insecurity and livelihood deterioration, post-election violence and a growing number of refugees, said: “As development partners in Kenya, we recognise the importance of tackling chronic, recurrent and predictable problems with durable and effective solutions.”

Cooper said the government and aid agencies were capitalising on the spirit of collaboration to strategise, prioritise and plan for 2009, “in order to tackle persisting chronic food insecurity, peace-building initiatives and restoration of livelihood to build the resilience of most vulnerable populations”.

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Photo: Kenya Food Security Group

The area covered by the 2009 short rains food security assessment for Kenya

NAIROBI, Immediate, medium and long-term priority interventions, including controlling food prices, providing food aid and creating employment, are required to stop more Kenyans going hungry, an inter-agency assessment of the 2008/2009 short rains recommends.

The interventions in livestock, agriculture, fisheries, water, education, health and nutrition sectors would address Kenya’s food insecurity, which is becoming “increasingly entrenched”, states the report compiled by the Kenya Food Security Steering Group, with several Kenyan ministries, UN agencies and NGOs.

Poor October-December 2008 short rains precipitated the food security crisis, with the south-eastern, coastal and central lowlands receiving exceptionally poor rains, according to the assessment.

Besides crop failure, the poor rains caused severe water shortages, mostly in the north-eastern pastoral districts; aggravating resource conflicts in the region.

The short rains assessment, undertaken by nine field teams, covered 37 traditionally drought-prone pastoral, agro-pastoral, marginal agricultural districts, including five agriculturally high potential districts affected by post-election violence in early 2008.

For agriculture, the report recommends providing drought-tolerant seeds and farm inputs to farmers in areas affected by months of post-election violence in early 2008.

For the water sector, the assessment recommends water-trucking; fuel subsidies, borehole rehabilitation; desilting water sources; rain harvesting; rehabilitation of shallow wells and the rehabilitation of irrigation canals.

In the food sector, the report says at least 123,000 metric tonnes of food commodities will be required from April to September and recommends the prioritising of food and association costs for 2.5 million drought-affected people; 850,000 school children and 150,000 internally displaced persons; and a supplementary feeding programme.

On 18 March, the UN World Food Programme said it was scaling up food aid in the country to feed 3.5 million people hit by drought and high food prices.

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Photo: Feroz Noman/IRIN

Despite the billions of condoms made available throughout world every year, UNFPA says it is still not enough

DAKAR, – In his first public statement on condoms and AIDS earlier this week, Pope Benedict XVI reignited an international debate between religious leaders working with AIDS patients and European governments that fund anti-HIV programmes in developing countries.

En route to the capital Yaounde in Cameroon, the pope said: “You can’t resolve [the problem of HIV] with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem.” In addition, he said a responsible attitude toward sex would help fight the disease.

The French Foreign Ministry responded this week that the Catholic leader’s comments are “a threat to public health policies and the duty to protect human life.

For couples in which one person is infected with HIV, with the consistent use of condoms there is a less than one percent rate of transmission, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

About 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, according to the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

In 2007 three-quarters of the world’s AIDS deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa, as were two-thirds of all people living with HIV.

No change

Paul Sagna with the Catholic NGO AIDS Service Association in Senegal told IRIN there is nothing in the pope’s comments that warranted the latest outbreak of international concern. The Catholic Church has not changed its position. The pope has a right to express the church’s convictions. Doctors have their scientific convictions and we have our religious convictions. What is the problem?

Sagna said those who visit his NGO in Senegal’s capital Dakar know they will not find condoms there and will find instead other HIV support services.

Jose Manuel, parish priest of Maria Auxiliatrice Church in the Togolese capital Lome, told IRIN that in addition to condoms there are other ways to avoid HIV infection, and that the Catholic Church has been at the forefront of HIV services. We have long supported medication, therapy, accompanying patients on doctor visits. It is not the church’s role to promote condoms. But to say we are against the protection of human life because of our doctrine against condoms is incorrect.

Catholic priest Pierre Marie Chanel with the Commission to Fight Sexually-Transmitted Diseases, based 50km north of Lome, told IRIN that despite 20 years of condom distribution campaigns, the situation has improved little in Togo. We cannot follow blindly [supporters of condoms] who may have ulterior profit motives. We need to instead delay the age youths engage in sexual relations and encourage abstinence.

According to government records, infection rates in Togo have fallen from 4.7 percent in 2003 to 3.2 percent in 2006.

In addition to Catholic NGOs that teach abstinence, the government supports free condom distribution.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that the current supply of condoms in low- and middle-income countries falls well short of the number required to protect people from HIV.

Reality calls for condomsReverend Mulbah Reeves with the United Methodist Church in Liberia’s capital Monrovia told IRIN the Catholic Church’s doctrine against condoms does not address the reality in countries like Liberia, which is recovering from a 14-year civil war.

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…Our people will not adhere to abstaining from sex and neither will they be faithful to their partners. The only language they listen to is condoms.

No amount of HIV and AIDS education without talking about the use of condoms can help protect our younger generation, said Reeves. Our people will not adhere to abstaining from sex and neither will they be faithful to their partners. The only language they listen to is condoms.

Up to 100,000 people are infected with HIV in Liberia, mostly women, according to 2006 government data. Health workers say rape remains a challenge in containing HIV.

In recent years some leaders of the Catholic Church have said condoms are necessary in emergency situations. In 2005 Cardinal Georges Cottier said the use of condoms was “legitimate” to save lives in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia.

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By�REUTERS