Photo: Mohamed Amin Jibril/IRIN

A man stands next to a shallow water dam in Sayla district: Officials said at least eight children in Sayla had contracted the disease daily since 26 March

HARGEISA,  – UN agencies and health authorities in Somalia’s self-declared republic of Somaliland have set up a taskforce to check the spread of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD), which has broken out in several regions, killing several children and infecting hundreds of people.

In a statement on 31 March, Health Minister Ahmed Hassan Ali said members of the taskforce had been drawn from the ministries of health, water and minerals, and interior, and from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Somaliland Red Crescent Society.

Meanwhile, officials in Sayla district, 45km southwest of the capital, Hargeisa, said at least eight children had contracted the disease daily since 26 March.

“Three children have died in Sayla in the past 72 hours,” Abdirahman Sheikh Hussein, the mayor of Sayla, told IRIN on 31 March.

Sayla residents complained of inadequate medicine to cope with the outbreak.

“We do not have any idea [how to deal with] the disease, so we put acacia dye, gypsum calcium as well as diesel in the water,” Aw Khadar Hassan Ahmed, 72, a resident of Sayla, said.

Ahmed added: �We have limited medicine in the area yet the disease is jumping from place to place; for example while I was in Laf-lamood [about 1km southwest of Sayla], three children died of the disease and several other children in Bargal had been infected.�

Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, the public health officer in Sayla, said the disease was spreading fast due to the movement of people. “Some children are getting infected following visits by relatives coming from seeing other [AWD] patients.”

Contaminated barkads

Hussein said many people were drinking water fetched from shallow dams, known as “barkads”, which were contaminated.

“Yes the colour of water in some of the barkads has changed and we used to drink it as usual without any problem, but late last month, the seasonal river of Wajale burst its banks and some of the water has entered the barkads and I think this has led to the recent diarrhoea in the area,” Hussein said.

Health officials in many regions across Somaliland were reported to be struggling to control the spread of the disease.

Photo: Mohamed Amin Jibril/IRIN

The outbreak of AWD also hit internally displaced persons in Sayla

“We have been struggling to control the virus that causes diarrhoea in the remote areas of Gabiley, Hargeisa and Awdal regions; we have controlled the spread of the disease in Toon [20km south of the capital, Hargeisa], which so far has the highest death toll, six children dead and 85 others infected,” Ali Sheikh Omar, the public health director in the Ministry of Health and Labour, told IRIN.

The disease outbreak follows heavy rains, health officials said. AWD is endemic in Somalia, according to WHO. Poor sanitation and lack of clean and safe drinking water are among the key causes.

“It is too early to say it is cholera because we are yet to identify the virus that causes such diarrhoea,� Omar said.

According to WHO, a case of cholera is confirmed when “Vibrio cholera O1 or O139″ is isolated from any patient with diarrhoea.

Omar said of those infected in Toon, only six children were still in the local hospital, adding that mobile health teams had since been sent to most regions.

“The most seriously affected place was Wajale, where not only children caught the disease but even adults have reported having diarrhoea; more than 240 people – both children and adults – have been infected and three children have died of the disease in Wajale,” Omar said.

Health officials expressed concern that the disease could continue to spread.

Omar said: “The disease broke out just as the people were emerging from the worst drought they ever encountered in a long time; when the rains started everyone [collected] rainwater as there had been a severe water shortage. We suspect that the disease broke out after people drank contaminated rainwater [that had been stored].

“The good news is the [health] ministry has controlled the outbreak in Toon and, working in collaboration with UNICEF and the Red Crescent, we have sent several mobile teams to Wajale.”

maj/js source.irinnews

Photo: Mohamed Amin Jibril/IRIN

Anti-human trafficking billboard in the streets of Hargeisa

HARGEISA, – Officials in Somalia’s self-declared independent state of Somaliland are concerned over a rise in human trafficking in the region. Children are mainly trafficked from south-central Somalia, because of the lack of government there, says a senior government official.

�Human trafficking is increasing in Somaliland. Before, no one believed that human/child trafficking existed in Somaliland but such kinds of crimes occur here�� Fadumo Sudi, the Minister for Family and Social Affairs, said during a recent ceremony to reunite a girl with her family. She had been trafficked to Hargeisa in February from Qardho, in the autonomous northeast region of Puntland.

�One day, my sister went to school as usual, but she disappeared. We searched for her everywhere but we didn�t find her. Finally, we heard from the media that she had been trafficked to Somaliland and by Allah�s mercy she was saved. We are happy to have her back,� Najib Jama Abdi, the girl�s brother, said.

In January, the Somaliland immigration office in the area of Loyada, along the border with Djibouti, sent home more than 60 minors in the company of about 200 illegal immigrants who were hoping to proceed on to Europe via Eritrea, Sudan and Libya.

Ethiopian Oromian children also travel to Somaliland without their parents in search of work; most end up in petty trade or as street children. Older people, claiming to be the children�s parents, use them to beg.

“The children are used in different ways … and are exploited for child labour in Somaliland,” Lul Hassan Matan, the director of child protection in Somaliland’s National Human Rights Commission, told IRIN. “Whenever you see a child in the street crying and ask him or her why, they respond they are not with their parents, but have been brought in to work.” (Since speaking to IRIN, Matan has left this position).

Raising awareness

According to Khadar Qorane Yusuf, the victim referral mechanism lead person in the Ministry of Family and Social Affairs, the children are initially enticed with false promises and told not to share the information with anyone, only to be later violated.

Whenever you see a child in the street crying and ask him or her why, they respond they are not with their parents, but�have been brought in to work

“With the collaboration of the International Office for Migration (IOM), we are raising awareness by holding forums to discuss the issue of trafficking, as well as debates and seminars,” added Qorane. Information posters have been strategically placed along the borders and airports.

IOM defines trafficking in persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

Exploitation includes the exploitation or the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

Forced into sex work

According to Mayumi Ueno, the counter-trafficking project manager at IOM�s Somalia Support Office, the scale of human trafficking in Somalia is not known. �But [a] rapid assessment conducted by IOM indicated [the] existence of international trafficking of Somali women to Djibouti, Kenya, and the Gulf States, mainly the United Arab Emirates, for sexual and labour exploitation. Moreover, further investigations confirmed the widespread practice of domestic human trafficking of Somali women and children [who are] lured into forced prostitution in some areas of Somalia [Somaliland and Puntland],� Ueno told IRIN.

In 2009, IOM launched a Counter Trafficking Project for Somalia, in Somaliland and Puntland, whose activities include awareness-raising campaigns targeting the local population to inform them of the dangers and risks of being trafficked. It has also supported Somaliland and Puntland in setting up National Counter Trafficking Taskforces.

Challenges remain, however, with the public and authorities not familiar with the concept of human trafficking and the best ways to respond, Mayumi said. �Furthermore, the general lack of social services and issues of culture and social stigma make victims’ reintegration extremely difficult.�

maj/aw/mw source.irinnews

Mystery as German couple found dead

By Ally Jamah

An elderly couple was found dead in their plush home with a suicide note naming an heir.

Tigoni residents in Limuru are reeling in shock after the German couple, both in their 70s, were found in a pool of blood on Sunday morning.

Peter and Angelica Dreinerd were found dead in their living room, with Peter having a bullet hole on his forehead, while Angelica�s arms were tied with a rope. She appeared to have been suffocated.

One of the bodies at a Tigoni home where a German couple was found dead on Sunday.

Their two black dogs lay dead, one in the kitchen and the other in the dining room. Blood was spluttered all over the huge colonial house enclosed within a large grassy garden.

Police found a suicide note next to the bodies, written in German, transferring all their wealth to Angelica�s sister, Susan, who lives in Germany. The couple had no children.

Peter also had severe cuts on his arms, sustained from a panga, later found by police.

The retired couple used to work for Germany�s Luftansa Airlines and have lived in Tigoni for more than ten years. They spoke fluent Kiswahili and interacted freely with locals.

Assets intact

Neighbours said they did not hear gunshots on Saturday night, probably because it was raining heavily.

Kiambu OCPD Samuel Muinda said nothing appeared to have been stolen from the house, including money in Euro notes found on the bedroom table.

There were also two high-end laptop computers in the dining. The house is lavishly furnished.

On Sunday, police officers scoured the house for leads on the killings. A team from the German embassy joined them.

A security guard manning the home on the fateful night, is yet to resurface.

The house help Gladys Mulongo, who sleeps in a servants� quarter near the main house has been arrested. Police said her account of what may have happened do not add up.

Mr Mukinda said initial investigation shows Peter might have shot himself and the dogs, but they are not sure who killed Angelica.

“We are still scrutinising pieces of evidence and hope to unlock the hidden facts of this sad incident. There are so may baffling things in this case,” he said.

Police recovered a Czech-made Karo-Barno revolver with three spent bullets and another three unused. More than 150 unopened bullets were found in an unlocked safe in a bedroom upstairs.

Police sources said at 3am Sunday, Peter made an emergency call to Pada Security and Alarms, saying his watchman is “in trouble”.

He hung up without explanation.

“When the Pada team arrived at 3:47am at the couple�s house they found the gates closed and no one responding to their sound signals. They jumped over the gate and found the housemaid in her house,” said Mukinda.

One of the family�s two dogs shot dead. Photos: Collins Kweyu/Standard

The watchman was missing and the maid led them to the main house to find out why Peter had called. The maid then came out screaming.

“They have been killed! They have been killed, they are dead,” she cried out. The Pada team immediately drove to Tigoni Police Station and reported the matter.

Inside job

Later, when the police came, the maid told them that the house had been attacked earlier that night by three armed gangsters who killed the couple and the dogs.

“We don�t see any evidence of a break-in and nothing has been stolen from the house. We suspect this to be an inside job,” said Mukinda.

On Sunday afternoon, neighbours were making arrangements to transfer the bodies to a mortuary for an autopsy. One of them, who knew the couple, said they seemed a loving couple and were always together.

“They seemed so at home when together. I always wanted to be like them when I grow old and retire. I am shocked that they are now dead,” she said, but declined to be named.

Photographs in the living room showed happy faces of the couple and their two dogs in various locations in Kenya and abroad.

As the downcast neighbours departed from the couple�s house, they were left with many unanswered questions, hoping the police will uncover what happened in the home whose serenity has now been shattered.

Angelica�s sister spoke to the German embassy officials on telephone, saying the police should get to the bottom of the case.

“I want the best autopsy on my sister and her husband and I want the best lawyers to handle the issue,” she said.

source.standard.ke