Photo: Omar Hassan/IRIN

Shelters built by drought-affected pastoralist families in Djiboutiville (file photo)

NAIROBI, – Recent rains in Djibouti have replenished pasture and water resources, improving the food security situation in some pastoral areas, the Food Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) says in a September report.

The rains were three weeks late in July and relatively poor, but in general, replenished supplies. El Niño conditions are prevailing in the region and Djibouti can expect above-normal rains in late September, it adds.

Even then, the urban poor still continue to struggle with high prices of essential food and non-food items. The situation is compounded by annual school fees, especially in poor quarters of Djibouti City, such as sections of Balbala and PK 12.

According to the World Bank, Djibouti, a small country, is characterized by pervasive poverty and high inequality. All food is imported and the global rise in food prices had a disastrous effect on the welfare of the population, particularly the poorest.

In May, UNICEF expressed concern about the high levels of acute malnutrition, particularly in peri-urban areas around Djibouti City and in the northwest pastoral zone. Admissions to feeding centres rose from 7,302 to 18,417 children between December 2007 and December 2008.

eo/mw source.www.irinnews.org

Photo: UNICEF/CAR/2008/Holtz

A child at a village in CAR: The closure of diamond and gold mines in southwestern CAR, due to the global financial crisis, has left many families in increasing poverty and triggered a nutrition crisis, according to Médecins Sans Frontières – file photo

NAIROBI,  – Rising unemployment following the closure of diamond and gold mines in southwestern Central African Republic (CAR), due to the global financial crisis, has left many families in increasing poverty and triggered a nutrition crisis, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said.

Within the past six weeks, at least 1,300 children, mostly suffering from severe malnutrition, have been admitted to MSF’s four feeding centres in Carnot, Boda, Nola and Gambouula. First assessments in some of these areas have revealed severe malnutrition rates way above the emergency threshold, the medical charity said in a 21 September statement.

“In Boda and Nola… it is difficult to find patients only suffering from malnutrition, as many of them arrive suffering from other diseases and their condition is very severe,” MSF’s Clara Delacre said.

“There are many case of malaria, diarrhoea, tuberculosis or AIDS, which further complicates children’s already delicate condition,” she added. The situation has been aggravated by poor cassava-based diets and difficult access to health facilities.

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Photo: Nancy Palus/IRIN

Natural disasters displaced more people than conflicts in 2008

JOHANNESBURG,  – Climate related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people – slightly less than the population of Australia – out of their homes in 2008 alone said a new study, making a strong case for regularly monitoring displacement in the context of climate change.

A total of 36 million people were displaced worldwide by sudden-onset natural disasters, including earthquakes and landslides. During the same period 4.6 million people were internally displaced by conflicts.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre jointly conducted the study, Monitoring Disaster Displacement in the Context of Climate Change.

“Had it not been for the Sichuan earthquake in China, which displaced 15 million people, climate related disasters would have been responsible for over 90 percent of disaster related displacement in 2008,” the study commented.

Using the 2008 data as a test case, the study proposed the ongoing monitoring of disaster related displacement using existing information, such as the Emergency Events Database produced by the Belgium-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, cross-referenced with various other sources, and individually investigating events to estimate the numbers of persons displaced.

The next step is further research into displacement caused by slow-onset disasters and sea level rise. The study also called for a legal framework to protect people forced to cross a border by a natural disaster.

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Photo: Aminu Abubakar/IRIN

Patients at Yola hospital in Adamawa state have been neglected

KANO,  – A health worker strike in northern Nigeria’s Adamawa state has paralysed public hospitals, forcing patients to forgo medical treatment.

Most of the state’s 7,000 health workers, including nurses, specialists and administrators but not general doctors, began an indefinite strike on 25 June to protest the suspension of an improved salary structure by the state government, according to head of the health workers union Babangida Philibus.

People requiring medical care are frightened. Wada Jibrin broke his leg in a car crash on 16 July and requires continued orthopaedic care. “I’m praying that the strike is called off so that I can go back to hospital and continue receiving treatment. I fear I may lose my leg if the strike is prolonged because my case needs specialized care.”

Ahmad Abdulhamid, a physician at state-run Yola Specialist Hospital, told IRIN: “The industrial strike action has forced all in-patients to go back home because there is no one to nurse them here….We have been reduced to mere consultancy clinics where we only examine patients, diagnose their ailments and prescribe drugs for them to buy at drug stores.”

He said the situation is dire in public hospitals across the state. “Only a few patients who can afford high medical fees have moved to private clinics, while [most] have resigned to their homes hoping the matter is soon resolved and the strike suspended.”

Cholera response affected

Aliyu Sambo, head of the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told IRIN the strike hindered the government’s emergency response to flood and cholera victims.

A cholera outbreak in August and September 2009 killed 70 people and left 746 hospitalized, according to Adamawa information commissioner Musa Bubakari.

The government relied on volunteers from NEMA and the Nigerian Red Cross to assist cholera victims in hospitals.

Union leader Philibus said: “The government should take responsibility for all the people who are suffering from sicknesses as a result of the ongoing strike because the government caused it. Deaths in the recent cholera outbreak could have been avoided were health workers not on strike.”

Access to adequate healthcare is poor in much of northern Nigeria according to the UN, and the country is not on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals to reduce maternal mortality or improve maternal health. Life expectancy for Nigerians is 46.6 years.

Why the strike

The Adamawa state government on 9 June suspended a new salary package introduced in August 2008 for health workers in public hospitals. The package increased basic salaries for hospital staff from US$56 a month to $84, according to union head Philibus.

The state government says it is suspending the structure while it eliminates a problem of ghost workers in the health sector.

“The suspension of the new salary structure became imperative following mounting salary bills and allegations of a high number of ghost workers in the sector, in the face of dwindling government revenues due to the economic crunch,” Saidu Bobbo, permanent secretary in Adamawa health ministry, told IRIN. He said once the problem is resolved the new salary structure will resume.

Health workers have said they will strike until the government reinstates the higher wages. Philibus said the government should have consulted unions before taking action.

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Photo: Tariq Saeed/IRIN

According to UNHCR, 138,741 people are in living in 20 camps

ISLAMABAD,  – Between 56,000 and 84,000 people have been displaced by fighting between government troops and militants which broke out in the first week of September in the Khyber Agency in northwestern Pakistan, according to a 17 September report by UN OCHA.

UNHCR estimates that 87 percent of them have moved in with relatives and 13 percent are renting.

“I left our home in the Bara Tehsil [in Khyber Agency] two weeks ago. We took nothing but the clothes we wore. My cousin, with whom we are living in Lahore is a poor man himself, and I asked him not to buy us anything for Eid,” said Kamran Khan, 35, a father of four.

Just over one million people from northwestern Pakistan are still displaced, according to the National Database and Registration Authority. UNHCR said that of these, 138,741 are in 20 camps – seven in hosting areas and 13 in areas of return.

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