SUDAN: Rains aggravate plight of displaced

Photo: Tim McKulka/UNMIS

On the run – again. Residents of Abyei have been displaced numerous times in the past three years (file photo)

NAIROBI, 27 May 2011 (IRIN) – Seasonal rains are among several factors to have exacerbated the crisis sparked by the sudden flight of tens of thousands of civilians from the disputed Sudanese region of Abyei, say aid workers, who point to both short- and long-term repercussions.

“Most of the roads in Southern Sudan are not passable during the rains and so that will make the movement of food difficult,” World Food Programme (WFP) spokeswoman Amor Almagro told IRIN.

This is the second large-scale exodus from Abyei in as many months. In March, some 25,000 people fled the town amid clashes.

Earlier in the year, WFP had prepositioned some 27,000MT of food in Southern Sudan in anticipation of the rains, as part of plans to feed up to 1.5 million people in 2011.

“With what is happening in Abyei now, we will have to consider moving some 2,000MT of food from our logistical hub in El Obeid [North Sudan] to an operational base we are setting up in Wunrok in [Southern Sudan] Warrap state,” said Almagro.

“We have seen thousands of people – mainly women and children – carrying bags on their heads, or sitting on mats on the side of the road, exhausted by hours of walking. The populations of both Abyei and Agok [40km to the south] have been displaced and are spread out in several different areas: near Turalei, near Mayen-Abun and on the road to Agok,” said MSF head of mission Raphael Gorgeu.

“There are severe signs of dehydration among many children who are on the move. We are very concerned about the harsh conditions the displaced population has to endure on the roads. Their health condition can deteriorate rapidly if assistance is not delivered promptly,” he added.

The International Organization for Migration, which is among many agencies responding to the crisis, noted that “tracking and assessing the displaced population has been difficult because many people are still on the move or are hiding in the bush. The continued heavy rainfall has made some roads impassable and this has impeded access to areas where IDPs may be sheltering.”

On 21 May, Khartoum government forces took control of Abyei town, after clashes with soldiers from the soon-to-be-independent south.

Straddling the border, Abyei is supposed to be under a form of joint administration until a referendum determines its permanent status. Delays in this landmark vote have heightened tensions in the region.

For Andrews Atta-Asamoah, senior researcher of the African Conflict Prevention Programme (ACPP) at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the political priority now “is for the international community to insist that the North withdraws from Abyei and reinstate the Abyei Administrative Council. This will pave the way for the thousands of displaced people to return and for normality to resume.”

Food stability concerns

“Longer-term food stability is a major concern,” added Almagro. “This is the planting season and if people are not able to plant [because they are displaced] they will face shortages down the line and will require assistance for a much longer period of time than this lean season, when food from the previous harvest has run out.”

WFP had been supplying food to some 60,000 people in Abyei. Almagro said 800MT of food, enough to feed 50,000 people for a month, had been looted from the agency’s warehouse in Abyei town.

Photo: OCHA

Population movments in May 2011

Facilities run by other UN agencies and NGOs in the town have also been targeted. “Items looted include medical supplies, surgical equipment, non-food items and water and hygiene equipment. These supplies had been dispatched to Abyei town in recent weeks to respond to urgent needs of the town residents and the rural population of surrounding villages,” the UN Country Team in Sudan stated.

The displaced need urgent assistance, the statement added. “In Turalei, 130km from Abyei town, 15,000 displaced people are living in the open. An additional 4,000 people have sought safety in near-by Mayen Abun village. Unknown numbers are believed to have fled into the bush between Agok and Turalei.”

While an emergency response in sectors such as shelter, food, health, nutrition and water and sanitation is accelerating, “there are concerns that fuel is short and that nearby airstrips may become unusable due to heavy rains”, the statement added.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “two out of three main [fuel] supply routes from the north into the south have been blocked since the beginning of May.

“A key priority for partners has been to establish the whereabouts of people who have fled to enable delivery of assistance. As of 26 May, humanitarian partners estimate that more than 30,000 people have made their way south. Reports of new arrivals continue,” OCHA’s statement added.

It also noted that while no outbreaks of communicable diseases had been reported as of 26 May, “there are concerns that the wet weather conditions increase the incidence of illnesses such as respiratory infections and water-borne diseases”.

am-cp/mw source www.irinnews.org

In connection with a meeting of the EEA Council in Brussels recently, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre informed the EU of Norway’s position on the EU’s Third Postal Directive.

“There are weighty grounds for why Norway is unable to incorporate this directive. For the Government it is important to maintain mail distribution six days a week, uniform postage rates and decent working conditions and pay for Posten Norge’s employees. There is justified doubt as to whether the Third Postal Directive would provide for this,” said Foreign Minister Støre.

“I took the opportunity to present Norway’s view at this meeting of the EEA Council. The EU took note of Norway’s position and invited us to talks to discuss our objections. We have accepted this invitation,” said the Foreign Minister, adding that he anticipated that such talks could start before the summer.

 
By the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Duty Press Officer:May 23 2011
E-mail<mailto:info@mfa.

SOMALIA: Internet lifeline cut in Mogadishu

Photo: Siegfried Modola/IRIN

AMISOM-backed government troops have intensfied their offensive against Al-Shabab insurgents (file photo)

NAIROBI,  – Telecommunications companies based in Somalia’s largest open-air market have been hit by stray shells in the latest round of fighting, leading to internet failure in the past four days.

“Our internet service has been down since 24 May,” a senior official of an internet service provider, who requested anonymity, told IRIN on 26 May.

The official said many people’s livelihoods depend on internet use; “for many businesses and journalists, the internet is their lifeline”.

He said his company was trying to revive the service. “We depend on the telecoms companies and when they get hit we are also hit.”

A local radio journalist told IRIN he was unable to send his reports to his station based outside the country. “It is very frustrating.”

The three major telecommunications companies, Nationlink, Hormood and Olympic, have their most important equipment at Bakara market, which has been a flashpoint in the fighting between insurgents and government troops backed by African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) peacekeepers in the past two weeks.

“When we were setting up, in the 1990s, Bakara market was the safest place but now it is the most dangerous,” another official of a telecommunications company said.

The official told IRIN the headquarters of Hormood – the largest telecommunications firm in the country – in Bakara had been repeatedly hit by shells, killing and injuring staff and destroying equipment.

“It is not easy for us to move the equipment we have here, so we are caught in the middle of a war zone,” the official said.

In the past eight days, government and AMISOM troops have intensified an offensive to dislodge Al-Shabab insurgents who control Bakara market and parts of the city.

AMISOM spokesman Maj Paddy Ankunda told IRIN on 27 May that the mission was urging civilians not to expose themselves to crossfire.

“We have secured the road nearest Bakara as well as the southern and western edges of the market; I cannot put a time tag on how long the fighting will go on but we are urging civilians to get out of entanglement [in the fighting] as they will become increasingly vulnerable,” Ankunda said.

“About 80 percent of civilians [in Al-Shabab-held areas] have left for areas controlled by the government because of insecurity; if Al-Shabab chooses to continue fighting, they will bear the responsibility for the damage caused to Bakara market,” Ankunda said.

Appeal for help

The Hormood official said business people in Bakara had appealed to the government to save what was left of the market.

“We can talk to the government but we cannot talk to the insurgents,” the official said.

However, another businessman who has operations in Bakara told IRIN he supported the continuation of the offensive against Al-Shabab.

Photo: Mohamed Amin Jibril/IRIN

AMISOM has urged civilians not to expose themselves to crossfire (file photo)

“They [government forces and AMISOM] are making progress and are close to the market; they should continue until they dislodge Al-Shabab,” the businessman said.

He said many other business people were in favour of the offensive even though they would not admit it: “We are all aware of the cost and I am sure once this is over we will recover but they [Al-Shabab] must be eliminated at any cost.”

Traders have been leaving the market due to the intense fighting and have moved their wares to other parts of the city, a local journalist said.

“Most of the people have left the market; only those who could not leave like these big telecom companies are still there,” the journalist, who declined to be named, said.

However, the majority affected are poor civilians who buy what they need on a daily basis, the journalist added. “They don’t have the means to buy in bulk and store at home.”

Civilian casualties

Ali Mohamed Siyad, chairman of Mogadishu’s Bakara market traders, told IRIN the latest fighting around the market had been among the worst in years.

“A lot of businesses are being lost and the government, so far, has not responded to our appeal to safeguard Bakara,” Siyad said, adding, “Many people are losing a lifetime’s worth of work.”

Siyad said Bakara was not the only place where Al-Shabab had a presence in the city. “They [government troops] should be fighting them in areas less crowded and with less property to damage and destroy, instead of the biggest market in the country. It makes you wonder what the real purpose is.”

Medical sources told IRIN the number of injured seeking help was growing daily.

Ali Muse, who runs the city’s ambulance service, told IRIN his teams had collected 75 bodies and more than 249 civilians wounded from the market area and nearby neighbourhoods in the past eight days.

“We are receiving many families, including very small children and those of school-going age,” said Duniyo Ali Mohamed, head of the medical department of Madina Hospital.

She said the beds at the hospital were full and many families were sleeping under trees. She said the hospital also had to deal with families fleeing their homes.

“We are not equipped to deal with displaced people,” she said.

She said the hospital’s generators were working 24 hours a day “and fuel consumption was increasing as the prices are rising. If our fuel situation does not improve we may not be able to help those who need operations.”

ah/mw source www.irinnews.org

SOUTH AFRICA: MSM still sidelined in HIV programming

Photo: Mujahid Safodien/PlusNews

“Biomedical strategies can only have a limited impact if MSM live in fear, live hidden or have limited access to safe and effective clinical care”

CAPE TOWN, 27 May 2011 (PlusNews) – South African men who have sex with men are twice as likely to be HIV-positive as heterosexual men, but spending on research, prevention and treatment for this group remains low, delegates at a conference on MSM and HIV in Cape Town heard.

“We see HIV incidence rates for MSM continue to increase in all studied countries; we must advocate for more research,” Linda-Gail Bekker, deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, said in a statement.

Bekker called for the introduction of specific HIV packages tailored to the needs of particular groups, including one for MSM.

Studies show that the risk of contracting HIV during anal sex is 18 times higher than during penile-vaginal sex.

According to research whose results were revealed at the conference, held on 23-25 May, more than one in 20 men taking part in the survey reported consensual participation in a sexual act with another man and MSM were twice as likely to be HIV-positive as their heterosexual peers.

The survey of 1,737 men – conducted by South Africa’s Gender Health Research Unit (GHRU) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces – also revealed that MSM were more likely to be poorly educated and suffer from food insecurity than non-MSM. Across the board there was no difference between the various race groups in South Africa.

“MSM are at risk [of HIV] because of the nature of their activities, which is underground,” said Kristin Dunkle, co-author of the study and assistant professor of behavioural sciences at the Emory Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta.

The term MSM refers to men who engage in sexual activity with other men but who may also have sex with women; they do not necessarily consider themselves to be homosexual. MSM are considered to be a bridging population for HIV into the general population.

Three-quarters of the study participants who reported being MSM had a female partner; one-third had a male partner; 20 percent had both and half those questioned had children. One in 10 MSM had also been sexually assaulted by another man.

According to Glenn de Swardt, director of the Cape Town-based Health4Men, which established the first clinic in Africa dedicated to MSM, gay people have a sense of identity that is formed through their sexuality, while MSM often view themselves as heterosexuals who take part in same-sex sexual acts purely for pleasure.

No one really wants to talk about anal sex and what is the safest way to practise it, even though the risks associated with it are huge

“Hidden group”

“Men who engage in this activity try to keep it a secret from most people in their communities; they are a hidden group in our society,” he told IRIN/PlusNews.

“No one really wants to talk about anal sex and what is the safest way to practise it, even though the risks associated with it are huge,” he added. “For instance, in the townships people use substances like butter, margarine and cooking oil as a lubricant when having anal sex, but these substances are harmful to condoms.

“We are trying to get the message out there that water-based lubricants need to be used, but then the question for most people is, where do you get it?”

Training health workers

Delegates were told one of the main barriers MSM encountered when trying to seek HIV-related care was the attitude held by many medical and healthcare providers who were not trained properly to deal with this group.

Nelis Grobbelaar from the public health NGO, Anova Health Institute’s West Coast Winelands Project, said his experience of training health professionals was that they were initially uncomfortable talking about sex to their patients.

“When we started some of the MSM sensitivity training, the clinic staff were very clearly very opposed to the idea of [homosexual] sex and were not comfortable talking openly with their patients about their sexual practices,” he said. “Through MSM training we are changing people’s minds – not just about homosexual sex but about sex in general.”

Stefan Baral of the Centre for Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health noted that HIV prevention strategies needed to happen in a stigma-free environment.

“Biomedical strategies can only have a limited impact if MSM live in fear, live hidden or have limited access to safe and effective clinical care,” he said.

bc/kr/mw source www.irinnews.org

 ”The situation in Syria is deteriorating. This means that even stronger reactions are required from the international community. Norway has therefore decided to align itself with the EU’s strengthened measures against Syria, which now also target the highest level of political leadership in the country,” Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre commented.

On 23 May, the EU decided to extend the restrictive measures against Syria adopted on 9 May to the highest level of leadership in Syria. The measures include an assets freeze, visa ban and an embargo on exports to Syria of arms and equipment that could be used for internal repression.

The demonstrations in Syria are continuing, and dozens of protesters lost their lives at the weekend. Several hundred people have been killed in the demonstrations that began in the middle of March, and many more have been injured or arrested.

“Norway deplores the continued use of violence by the Syrian authorities,” Mr Støre said. “We urge the Syrian authorities to end the use of violence against protesters immediately, to allow peaceful demonstrations, release political prisoners and enter into dialogue with the opposition. For every person killed, the chances of this happening diminish further. President Assad must either lead the transition to democracy or step down.”

 
By the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Duty Press Officer:May 23 2011

CHAD-LIBYA: Agencies prepare for more migrants

Photo: Kate Holt/IRIN

The inhospitable terrain in Western Chad

DAKAR, 25 May 2011 (IRIN) – As thousands of Chadian returnees continue to cross from Libya into Chad – via Niger – villagers near the arrival points face a “double burden” with remittances drying up and their scarce resources overstretched, said International Organization for Migration (IOM) operations officer Craig Murphy.

Some 25,000 Chadians have returned since the conflict in Libya began, according to IOM. Most arrive in the small village of Zouarké, 600km northwest of the town of Faya from where returnees find transport to return to their home villages and towns.

There are now many more migrants than residents in Faya, which is usually home to 15,000, said Felix Léger, head of the NGO International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Chad.

Though no one can estimate how many more migrants are on their way, according to Murphy 1,566 turned up in Faya in just two days – on 23 and 24 May – and there is no sign of the number abating.

While the immediate concern is to get food, water, and health care to returnees, in the long term they will need assistance in finding work, said Murphy. “It [the influx of returnees] puts a strain on all these towns – a lot of them are dependent on remittances and those have dried up. Now they have to support them, which is a double burden,” he told IRIN.

IOM is starting by profiling migrants to assess what they did and what they earned in Libya, with a view to perhaps assisting them in re-starting work in Chad, said Murphy.

According to IOM, 90 percent of the returnees are young men who have worked for years as manual labourers, farmers, and guards in Libya; the rest are women and children.

Tensions have risen in Zouarké, usually home to just a couple of hundred people, where there is one well which must now serve thousands. Murphy saw 1,000 people trying to access the well in one day. 

Photo: Reliefweb

Measles

Following arduous journeys of about 30 days with minimal food or water on overloaded trucks, migrants arrive in Zouarké and Faya exhausted, hungry and sick. Common illnesses include advanced dehydration; respiratory illnesses; diarrhoea; and about 20 cases of measles – mainly among adolescents and children, according to IRC.

To stem the spread of measles, the organization will launch a one-week vaccination campaign in Faya targeting 10,000 people. It also screens incoming migrants for health problems, sending them to the local hospital if they need treatment.

Due to severe staff shortages at the hospital, IRC has put in place one doctor and two nurses.

In the immediate term, in Zouarké, IOM is sending food, and will set up a water tank to enable returnees to access well-water from a second point. Meanwhile, in Faya it is registering returnees, providing food, and helping find transport so they can return home.

Migrants in Faya are receiving more or less enough help, said the IRC’s Léger, but the response must be scaled up in Zouarké and along the roadside in Niger – both before migrants arrive in Chad and once they have left Faya, he said, adding that IRC is considering setting up medical “way stations” on busy migrant routes.

aj/cb

source www.irinnews.org

BY   DICKENS WASONGA.

 
A FAMILY of a nine-year old school boy who was electrocuted at Manyatta Estate in Kisumu has faulted the Kenya Power and Lighting Company for not handling the case genuinely.
 
The victim identified as Bruce Omondi, a class four Pupil at Migosi Primary school, reportedly sustained severe injuries in both arms when he was electrocuted by an electricity wire which was hanging near their house at Corner Legion in Manyatta when the incident occurred early three weeks ago.
 
He is now undergoing treatment at the New Nyanza Provincial General Hospital where his four fingers from the left hand has been amputated following the incident that almost claimed his life.
 
The electricity wire reportedly hanged after the pole was tilted to the ground following a heavy down pour witnessed in the area at the time of the incident on May 9 this year.
 
Speaking to the press in Kisumu yesterday to explain the family predicament, Maurice Onono who is the elder brother to the victim said efforts  to have the Kenya Power and Lighting to help them over the incident has bore no fruit at all.
 
Onono said the Kenya Power and Lighting Company should admit liability and compensate the boy who is a total orphan.
 
He said he went back to the KPLC Kisumu regional office in a bid to pursue the matter but without success after reporting to office.
 
When contacted to comment on the matter, Western Kenya KPLC Regional Manager Eng. Jared Othieno said the matter had not been brought to his attention but instead referred the press to his deputy who is based in Kisumu.
 
The Deputy western Kenya KPLC Michael Adhiambo could not be reached for comments as his cell phone was switched off.

Meanwhile, Kisumu Town West Member of Parliament John Olago Aluoch wants Kenya Power and Lightning Company to admit a liability following the incident.

In a letter addressed to KPLC Managing Director Eng.Joseph Njoroge, the MP, a lawyer by profession says, “you failed and or ignored to keep live power transmission wires away from contact with the public with the tragic outcome that a minor came into contact with the same causing near fatal injuries that have left him paralyzed.

The legislator lamented that even after the onlookers alerted both the police and KPLC’s emergency crew, who came to the scene, no action had been taken by the company..

In his letter to the KPLC Managing Director, Olago concluded that, we regret to advise that if your admission of liability will not have been received within 15 days from May 17, we will have no option but to file appropriate common law proceedings against you.

END:

BOTSWANA: Public sector strike hurts poor

Photo: WHO/Paul Garwood

Striking essential workers, including health workers, have been fired

GABORONE, 25 May 2011 (IRIN) – Patients and schoolchildren are emerging as the biggest losers from a strike by public service workers in Botswana which is entering its sixth week.

Close to a 100,000 public servants, including about 1,500 considered essential workers, are staying away from their posts while government and unions tussle over salaries.

Medical practitioners have disregarded warnings by the Botswana Health Professions Council to go back to work or risk being deregistered – with the result that major health centres like the Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital in Francistown and Princess Marina Hospital in the capital, Gaborone, are barely functioning, and smaller clinics have closed completely.

Maria Bogadi, 24, is expecting her second child any day and is unsure where to go when her labour pains begin.

“What will I do if there is no one to attend to me at the hospital?” she said. “I cannot afford to go to a private clinic, they are very expensive.”

Bogadi and her husband usually survive on the small income they receive doing casual labour at public facilities through a government initiative called `Ipelegeng’ which provides limited employment to some 50,000 beneficiaries. While Bogadi’s husband continues to do work through the programme, he has not been paid since the strike began.

Winfred Rasina, an activist from the opposition Botswana Movement for Democracy, told IRIN the poor and the marginalized had been hardest hit by the disruption of public services.

“The projects meant for the poor such as `Ipelegeng’ are at a standstill because staff… are on strike,” she told IRIN.

Rasina added that the rich and middle classes were less affected because they were not dependent on government handouts and mostly used private schools and doctors.

When the strike action started on 18 April, it was meant to last only 10 days, but the government said it could not afford unions’ demands for a 16 percent wage increase and offered 5 percent. That figure has now been revised to 3 percent.

In a public address, President Ian Khama slammed union leaders for failing to appreciate that the country was recovering from a recession which had left the government with a significant deficit.

“You cannot give what you don’t have, that is a fact,” said Khama. “We should all be in this together and I have no intention of drawing out this painful recession any longer than it has to be. So I am afraid we have stood our ground and we will continue to stand our ground.”

Schools shut

The minister of education closed all public, primary and secondary schools indefinitely on 16 May following violent clashes between the police and students who were protesting about the absence of teachers in classrooms.

Later that day, the government announced that it had fired all essential workers who had refused to return to work in contempt of a court order that barred them from striking, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists already in short supply at public hospitals.

The Botswana Centre for Human Rights (Ditshwanelo) released a statement noting that the stalemate between government officials and union leaders had already led to the loss of lives due to the absence of adequate medical staff at health facilities.

Delays in the supply of medication and problems with waste collection caused by the strike have also had an impact on public health.

The Botswana Confederation of Commerce, Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM) said the protracted strike had also had a negative impact on the economy, causing serious cash flow problems for many companies that relied on government orders for goods and services.

“Businesses in all categories and sectors have experienced, in general, a slow growth period,” said the Confederation in a statement.

“We’ve had some instances where BOCCIM business members indicated that they may close shop within a month if the situation does not subside.”

vs/ks/cb source www.irinnews.org