Madonna who broke up with model Jesus is said to have been so smitten that she reportedly spent $1,000 (Sh75,000) a week on his English classes. Photo/FILE

Considered to be one of the most influential women in contemporary music, Madonna has been known for continually re-inventing both her music and image and for retaining a standard of autonomy within the recording industry.

source.nation.ke

KHARTOUM, Jan 28

Refugees in parts of Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region are desperately short of food and water due to a lack of rain, and problems have been exacerbated in at least one area by Khartoum’s expulsion of aid groups, officials said on Thursday.

UN officers told Reuters the remote western region only received “a fraction” of the rainfall of previous years and aid groups were planning to step up efforts to reach millions of people displaced by seven years of conflict.

“Due to low levels of rainfall last year, state authorities and the humanitarian community expect significant food shortages in IDP (internally displaced persons) camps in 2010, increasing the possibility of further conflict,” read a statement from Darfur’s joint U.N./African Union UNAMID peacekeepers.

An estimated 4.7 million people rely on humanitarian aid in Darfur where mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the Khartoum government in 2003, accusing it of neglect.

UNAMID said a joint assessment mission with UN agencies had found worrying signs of shortages around the North Darfur settlements of Dar El Salaam and Shangil Tobay and their surrounding displacement camps.

“IDPs in both regions were found to be in desperate need of food and water,” it said.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told Reuters thousands of members of the Birgit tribe fleeing fighting moved into the area around Shangil Tobay late last year, sparking tensions with locals.

“We have people on the ground at the moment assessing the situation and supporting mediation efforts,” said OCHA spokesman Samuel Hendricks.

“One of the root causes of the tension is the shortage of water and the resulting competition for resources.”

Unknown gunmen shot dead two UNAMID peacekeepers while they were distributing near Shangil Tobay, about 65 km (40 miles) south of the capital of north Darfur El Fasher, in December.

Another U.N. official, who asked not to be named, said the aid group Oxfam had provided water services in Shangil Tobay before it was expelled last year. “That gap has not been properly filled,” said the official.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ordered 13 foreign aid agencies to leave north Sudan in March, and closed three local groups, after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him to face charges of war crimes in Darfur.

Bashir accused the groups of passing information to the Hague-based court, an accusation they denied.

No one was immediately available for comment from Sudan’s Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs. In the past it has said the work of expelled groups has been taken up by local organisations and new international groups.

Khartoum mobilised mostly Arab militias to crush the Darfur revolt, unleashing a wave of violence that Washington and some activists call genocide.

Sudan’s government dismisses the accusation and says the Western media have exaggerated the conflict. Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the conflict range from 10,000, according to Khartoum, to around 300,000, according to U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes.

-Reuters

By Standard Reporter

International Criminal Court (ICC) is educating Kenyans about its operations before proper investigation begins.

ICC Head of Outreach Unit and Public Information Claudia Perdomo and co-ordinator Maria Kamara said their mission was to engage locals through organised groups.

Ms Perdomo denied claims the Office of the Prosecutor had sent investigators to Kenya to get evidence from witnesses and victims.

Terming this as erroneous, she clarified that there is no way investigators can be sent until after the pre-trial judges give Chief Prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo the go ahead to institute investigation.

“To facilitate any investigation people must understand the process,” said Perdomo.

Speaking when they called on The Standard News Editor Ben Agina at I&M Building offices yesterday, the officials said the ICC team has been in the country twice to talk to focus groups and make them understand how the ICC works.

Impending verdict

They raised concern on the high expectations Kenyans have over the impending verdict by the pre-trail judges. “We ought to manage Kenyans’ expectation. The expectation they have is very scary,” they said.

There is anxiety with respect to the intervention of the ICC and most Kenyans, according to opinion polls, want this matter dispensed with expeditiously.

The team is preparing Kenyans for any eventuality as the pre-trial chambers prepares to issue its verdict on whether ICC should proceed with investigation on the Kenyan case.

ICC Head of Outreach Unit and Public Information Claudia Perdomo (left) and Outreach Co-ordinator Maria Kamara expressed concern at the high expectations Kenyans had over the pending verdict of the pre-trial chamber when they called on The Standard News Editor Ben Agina (right) at I&M Building offices in Nairobi, Wednesday. [PHOTO:Boniface Okendo/STANDARD]

The prosecutor must obtain the permission of the three-judge bench before initiating investigation.

The Chamber is supposed to determine whether crimes committed after the 2007 General Election meet the ICC threshold.

Meanwhile, a human rights organisation says it has secured Sh8 million to protect 30 post-election violence witnesses whose lives are in danger.

Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (CHRD) Executive Director Ken Wafula said the witnesses would be covered for three months, as they await the verdict of the International Criminal Court pre-trial chamber.

“The programme will be reviewed after three months depending on the ICC process,” Mr Wafula said.

Some witnesses will be relocated outside the country together with their families.

A sub-committee of the Cabinet is also working on recommendations to make far-reaching changes to the Witness Protection Act to give witness protection absolute independence.

The director said though the sub-committee chaired by Prime Minister Raila Odinga might come up with proposals to radically change the Witness Protection Act, the recommendations may be shot down by influential figures in the Cabinet and who are suspects.

He said Cabinet efforts to strengthen the Act might also be delayed, as it will seek funding from the Consolidated Fund.

Next budget

“The earliest the envisaged changes will come into effect will be after the next Budget reading and that is why we have come up with the programme to protect the witnesses in the meantime,” he added.

Wafula said CHRD has launched the initiative due to the Government unwillingness to protect witnesses expected to testify during ICC trials.

He said: “The Coalition Government has clearly demonstrated it is not willing to have the post-election violence suspects punished and has refused to offer protection to potential witnesses.”

According to the organisation, witnesses who testified to the Justice Waki Commission and to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights are living in fear after their names were leaked to the suspects.

Witnesses from North and South Rift, which were the epicentre of the post-election violence, will benefit.

“They were the most affected areas and most of the witnesses have been expressing fears over their safety,” Wafula said.

— Additional reporting by Karanja Njoroge