NIGER: Diffa traders hit by Nigerian border closure

Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN

Millet prices have rocketed in Diffa

DIFFA,  – For generations, Diffa, the arid southeastern corner of Niger, has benefited from being closer to Nigeria than to commercial centres in Niger: Staple grains, fuel, clothing and other items at attractive prices have made their way across the border.

Diffa’s main outputs – livestock, dairy produce and red peppers – have also found a ready market in Nigeria. Common languages and family ties have strengthened links to such an extent that the Nigerian naira is Diffa’s main currency.

But Nigeria’s latest export, Boko Haram militants, is less welcome: It has forced the authorities to close the border, with tragic consequences for Diffa, just as it is trying to deal with the worst drought in recent years.

About three weeks ago, the authorities arrested 15 people suspected of affiliation to Boko Haram, seized home-made explosives and grenades, and uncovered a plan to bomb several public places in Diffa, said Tinni Djibo, assistant secretary-general of Diffa.

Since then, the price of staple grains like millet has doubled, while livestock prices have plummeted at a time when the region’s villages and pastoral camps are struggling with drought-related food insecurity.

“We realize the negative impact the border closure has had, but we have to put out the fires in our house when our neighbour is trying to put out the fire in its house,” said Djibo.

He said that whenever members of Boko Haram, whose reported base (Maiduguri), is only about 130km south of Diffa, have felt the heat, they have rushed up to Niger. “We have information that they have been trying to set up cells in Diffa.”

Camel traders hit

Diffa residents, meanwhile, are finding it hard to comprehend the official line. Malammamane Nur, the elderly leader of a Tobou community, one of the major pastoral groups in Niger, told IRIN in Medelaram village, some 30km outside Diffa town: “Boko Haram is like distant thunder – we hear about them but don’t see them – where is this Boko Haram?”

Boko Haram is like distant thunder – we hear about them but don’t see them – where is this Boko Haram?

For three weeks his people have been unable to sell their camels at N’guel Kolo, one of the biggest livestock markets in the region, as buyers from Nigeria failed to turn up. The earnings would have helped them stock up on food for their families and animals. “We have a long time ahead still without food [another four months before rain; the next harvest is expected in November],” said Nur.

The pastoralists will now have to settle for 1,250,000 CFA francs (US$2,500) for a camel, if they manage to find buyers in Diffa, whereas Nigerian traders would have paid almost double that. “We need that kind of profit now when times are hard,” said Nur.

People will run out of food by April, according to government assessments, said Theodore Mbainaissem, head of World Food Programme (WFP) operations in Diffa.

In Diffa town’s livestock market there is an air of desolation: “Fewer and fewer people are bringing their animals here, because of the border closure. The price of sheep has dropped by 60 percent,” said Yousufa Bukar, a seller, who said he urgently needs cash to buy food. The more optimistic are holding on to their animals hoping that the border might reopen.

The Diffa region is facing a third consecutive year of drought. Many people have lost all their cows and only have a few sheep and goats; some people have a few camels. Agricultural output is the lowest in the past three years. Some farmers who grow peppers on the banks of the River Koumadougou-Yobe, which serves as the border between Niger and Nigeria, have not had a good harvest as their crop was ravaged by insects. For many, food has become unaffordable.

In normal times, money from the sale of a goat could have purchased three 100kg bags of millet. Now you need to sell three goats to get a single bag, said Hadjara Abdou, an officer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Diffa.

Photo: ReliefWeb

Map showing Diffa in Niger

Cereal prices are linked to fuel prices, said WFP’s Mbainaissem. The price of diesel has always been lower in Diffa than elsewhere in Niger because of informal imports of diesel from Nigeria. “Since the closure of the border the price has gone up by almost 200 CFA francs (40 US cents) a litre, and this has affected the price of all commodities.”

Humanitarian agencies based in Diffa also say Boko Haram poses a direct threat: “We are considering relocating our offices away from the main road as we think we are obvious targets,” said one agency head.

Help on its way?

The authorities and aid agencies say help is on its way: Djibo said the government will be providing millet and sorghum at half the market price to people in Diffa. Feed for animals is also planned. Whether this assistance will be sufficient for eight months, no one can say. “We will get a real picture in April,” said an aid worker.

One aid official IRIN spoke to called for better roads to connect Diffa to other areas of Niger, but the links with Nigeria are “deeper than that and are social”, said Djibo. “We have to accept it.”

The Niger government’s Vulnerable Populations Support Plan dated February 2012, said a November 2011 survey indicated that in rural areas 32.1 percent of households were food insecure, 25.8 percent moderately food insecure and 6.3 percent severely food insecure.

For the severely food insecure the government is planning various cash transfer, cash-for-work, and food-for-work programmes, as well as the free distribution of food. Overall, Niger has 5,458,871 food insecure people, the report said.

jk/cb source www.irinnews.org

BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Refugees face mounting pressure to go home

Photo: IRIN

Reluctant: only a few hundred Burundian refugees returned home from Tanzania in 2011 (file photo)

DAR ES SALAAM/BUJUMBURA, – Pressure is mounting on tens of thousands of Burundian nationals who fled to Tanzania during the civil war in the early 1990s to return home, despite their reluctance to leave.

Burundi’s civil war ended in 2005 but it remains in a state of acrimonious political deadlock, with widespread reports of assassinations and human rights abuses since elections in 2010. 

After several postponed deadlines since 2009, Mtabila camp, in western Tanzania and home to almost 38,000 Burundians, is set to close at end-2012, with repatriations scheduled to take place between April and November, according to an agreement reached by both countries and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Following a detailed questionnaire conducted by UNHCR and Tanzanian officials in December 2011, 33,708 refugees in Mtabila were found to be “not in need of international protection”.

In the absence of a successful appeal against this unprecedented determination, those who “are unwilling, without justifiable grounds, to return to Burundi, will find themselves liable to be dealt with under relevant Tanzanian laws, including those for immigration control and management”, according to the communiqué released on 22 February after the tripartite meeting.

Tanzania has hosted tens of thousands of refugees from Burundi over the past four decades, but is now “resolute” that the camp will close at the end of this year.

UNHCR Burundi representative Clementine Nkweta–Salami said after the meeting in Bujumbura that the reasons most Mtabila residents gave for not wanting to return to Burundi “were not based on the international [refugee] convention”.

“That is why we are going to focus our efforts on persuading them to return in security and dignity. We do not want a situation where they are forced out but they must understand that refugee status is not indefinite and if they do not have well-founded reasons they must reflect and return home,” she said.

Photo: UNHCR

Incentive: Burundi has been urged to improve educational facilities for returning refugee children

Burundi’s Minister of National Solidarity, Human Rights and Gender, Clotilde Niragira, said: “A person who fled in 1993 cannot refuse to return because of security. Even if there are still problems, the country is safe.”

Information campaign

Despite UNHCR’s offer of assistance and cash incentives, just a few hundred Burundian refugees returned from Tanzania in 2011.

In an effort to accelerate the process, government ministers are set to visit the camp in March as part of a “mass information campaign”.

If they lose the right to stay as refugees in Tanzania, those in Mtabila will have little option but to return to Burundi. Tanzania has indicated it will not extend to them a naturalization process benefiting some 160,000 Burundians in the country as a result of the 1973 influx.

Opportunities for resettlement elsewhere are limited to any places offered by third countries via UNHCR.

For many in Mtabila, fear of insecurity and the prospect of having no land seem to be the main reasons for the reluctance to return.

“If I repatriate I will be killed because the authorities that rule the country today think that whoever did not repatriate before is on the side of those who are in opposition, those who fight the government,” one female Mtabila resident told International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) during an investigation into conditions in the camp.

IRRI’s report said income-generating opportunities, education facilities, sanitation, water and freedom of movement had been significantly restricted in Mtabila.

Theo Mbazumutima of Rema Ministries, a Christian NGO working with refugees, said of those in the camp: “They are still hoping this latest wasn’t the final [decision,] because in the past the authorities have not kept to their deadlines.

“Last time they didn’t take them back by force and they’re hoping these are just threats. I don’t think so. This is genuine,” he said.

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 source www.irinnews.org

MALI: Refugee, IDP numbers rise as fighting continues in north

Photo: H.Caux/UNHCR

A refugee woman and her daughter at the Sinegodar refugee site, Niger. They fled the town of Anderboukane in northern Mali in January in anticipation of fighting between the army and Tuareg fighters

DAKAR,  – Refugee numbers are rising daily in countries bordering Mali as fighting rages between the Malian army and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), which is fighting for greater autonomy for the Tuareg.

There are also tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) within Mali.

A US$35.6 million appeal is being launched today, said Helene Caux, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) senior regional public information officer on 23 February, to deal with “the Mali displacement”.

Burkina Faso

The Burkina Faso Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation said that by 21 February there were 16,299 Malian Tuareg refugees in the country. By 23 February that figure had reached 17,499.

The bulk of arrivals entered the country at Tina-koff, Inabao and Deou in the northern province of Oudalan. The rest are in nine other provinces. They are being hosted by individual families or by communities, and some by families in the capital, Ouagadougou. However, the ministry says, most are in sites in the Sahel Region: at Mentao in Soum Province and Inabao and Gandafabou in Oudalan Province.

The government has identified two sites in the regions of Goudebo and Ingan to set up refugee camps.

Initially, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has distributed energy biscuits, kitchen kits and blankets; the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization are providing medicines and water purification; UNHCR has provided 500 tents drawn from stockpiles in Douala, Cameroon, and is coordinating the response.

Niger

By 23 February, 28,858 refugees had arrived in Niger since the fighting began in January. These include citizens of Niger, some of whom had lived in Mali for several years. Here, too, locals have been helping the refugees. The government has provided food and local NGO PLAN Niger has also been providing support.

“There has been an initial response from the Niger government that has been quick,” Caux said.

Forty tons of non-food items have arrived from UNHCR’s stockpile in Accra, Ghana. The first distribution took place on 22 February in Ayorou District, Tillaberi Province. UNHCR has made distributions to 302 households at a site in Gaoudel, Ayorou.

“This is mostly blankets and plastic sheeting because it is cold right now,” Caux said.

On 16 February, UNHCR received 2,000 family tents which will be distributed as soon as the refugees are encamped. Each tent can accommodate six people.

Initial distributions were made at the border. Right now some refugees such as those at Sinegodar village are just 8km from the border. The UNHCR standard is to have people at least 50km from a border.

Sinegodar hosts some 8,000 refugees, many of whom crossed over from nearby Malian villages. They are housed in makeshift shelters. Mangaize village also hosts refugees, many of whom know it as it is a large cattle market they used to frequent.

Photo: H.Caux/UNHCR

A Malian refugee woman in Mangaize, northern Niger, ponders her future. In January, she and her family fled Menaka, a town in Mali, because of the general insecurity and fighting between the army and Tuareg fighters

Ayorou and Abala districts are hosting refugees. All these places are in Tillaberi Region.

The government has indentified a site for the refugees at Ouallam, about 100km north of Niamey, but it will take two weeks to finish setting up the camp.

“We might need one or two other sites,” Caux said.

The initial condition of refugees is not bad but the fear is that if the situation lasts, problems could arise because of the makeshift nature of the shelters. Children could suffer from respiratory and other ailments.

Niger is one of the poorest countries in the region and is, like several Sahel countries, affected by a severe drought. Aid agencies require more for their operations in this region – a fact that is often overlooked.

“We need funding because the crisis unfolded so quickly. It’s hard to attract funding because we are competing with places like Somalia,” Caux said.

UNCHR will begin registration of refugees today at the border village at Mangaize, and will then move to other areas.

Mauritania, Algeria

Thousands of people fleeing the fighting in Lere, west-central Mali, are being cared for in the Mauritanian centres of Fessala and Hodh el Charghi. A camp at Mbera established for Tuareg refugees in the 1990s is being rehabilitated. UNHCR says the site has several water points and structures designed to serve as schools and health centres.

Fighting has been reported recently in the northeastern Malian areas of Tessalit and Tinezewadern. Refugees have been reported in Algeria.

Mali IDPs

The International Committee of the Red Cross says in northern Mali people have abandoned their homes and fields and lost their livestock. Many families are living under trees or out in the open.

At least 61,400 have been displaced from Menaka, Aguelhoc, Tessalit, Inhalid, Niafunke and Lere. Because of the drought in the Sahel, food supplies are limited in markets and prices high.

ICRC says the greatest need for the displaced is access to safe drinking water. There is also a shortage of pasture. In Menaka, in Gao Region, the main activities are animal breeding and farming.

Fighting

The fighting began on 17 January with battles in Inhalid, Tessalit, Tin-Zaouaten, Aguel Hoc, Menaka, Anderanboukan, Hombori, Nyafunke and Lere – all in the northern half of Mali.

The MNLA says it wants “to free the Azawad people from the illegal occupation of Azawadan territory held by Mali” and hold a referendum to determine if Azawadians want a separate independent republic.

The Malian government says it is fighting the MNLA and elements of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb to keep its territorial integrity. The MNLA and the Malian government each say atrocities were committed by the other side.

Algeria, France and the USA have called for an end to the fighting. However, at a two-day summit in February the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which Mali is a member, condemned the MNLA rebellion and expressed full backing for Mali in defending its territorial integrity.

On the humanitarian front, on 16 February ECOWAS and the UN Security Council approved US$3 million for victims of the food crisis and rebel attacks in the Sahel-Sahara region of West Africa.

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source www.irinnews.org

LESOTHO: Weather extremes threaten food security

Photo: Eva-Lotta Jansson/IRIN

Malira Sekho lacks the resources or manpower to farm her land

MASERU,  – Lesotho is facing a food security crisis as changing weather patterns and poverty leave some smallholder farmers with no option but to abandon farming and sell their land.

Many subsistence farmers in Lesotho are still struggling to recover from heavy rains over much of the country in December 2010 and January 2011 that devastated crops and livestock.

Damage caused by the flooding reduced yields of maize, the staple food, by an average of 62 percent compared to the previous year, according to the 2011 Lesotho Food Security and Vulnerability Monitoring (LVAC) Report, by the country’s Disaster Management Authority. Out of a population of just over two million, the LVAC report estimated that 514,000 needed humanitarian assistance in 2011, twice the number that needed assistance in 2010.

The flooding at the beginning of 2011 was followed by below-normal rains towards the end of the year during the crucial planting season, while in January 2012, the Disaster Management Authority warned farming communities to be prepared for above-normal rainfall during the first three months of the year.

In a country where nearly 60 percent of the population live below the poverty line, and some 40 percent live in extreme poverty, such weather extremes are pushing the coping mechanisms of families already devastated by the effects of HIV and AIDS to breaking point. Lesotho has one of the highest prevalences of HIV in the world. The epidemic has created a shortage of farm labour and left 130,000 children orphaned, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Malebohang Makhoathi, a 68-year-old widow, has over four hectares of land in Ha Makhoathi, just outside the capital, Maseru – more than enough for her to grow all the food she needs to feed the four grandchildren in her care, but she has not ploughed the fields for the last six years since her son, the family’s main breadwinner, passed away. She has neither the money nor the manpower to cultivate the land and is contemplating selling it for short-term relief.

“The money will make some difference in my family, even if it’s for a short period of time,” said Makhoathi, who will have to wait another two years before she qualifies for a government pension.

Too Poor to Farm

Lejoetso Thekiso, 50, who lives in Ha Mosalla, 15km from Maseru, is among the lucky few subsistence farmers whose children are employed. “Had it not been for my son’s financial support, I wouldn’t be hoeing here,” he told IRIN, as he worked a field rented from a neighbour who could not afford the necessary inputs to cultivate his land. Although the late rains prevented Thekiso from planting until late December 2011, he is hopeful that his crops will survive.

Unused seed, fertilizer

Even among the more than 20,000 families countrywide who received free seed and fertilizer through the government and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), some have not planted.

“I wouldn’t take the risk of planting under this current weather which is very unpredictable; it would be like throwing the seeds and fertilizer away, and hiring a tractor is very expensive,” said Lejang Tsotetsi, the acting chief of a rural area covering three villages, who showed IRIN bags of unused fertilizer and seeds donated by FAO.

“We expected rain in September or October and it never came,” he said, adding that those who had planted late were in trouble because winter was fast approaching, “and the frost is coming”.

Mofihli Motsetsero, a crop production officer in the Ministry of Agriculture, said merely handing out free seeds and fertilizer was not enough in a country where high rates of stock-theft had robbed many people – too poor to rent tractors – of their only way to plough their fields.

While farmers like Tsotetsi wait for the next farming season to plant and hope for better weather, they will have to buy maize to feed their families at an ever growing cost. The low production in 2011 pushed up maize prices, a trend that is expected to continue in 2012. According to the LVAC report, the price of maize rose by 10 percent between June 2010 and June 2011, while the cost of cooking oil and paraffin increased by as much as 25 percent.

According to Motsetsero, the number of smallholder farmers who have not planted this year appears to have increased. “Even though there is no officially approved data to back up my observation at the moment, the number of fields planted is smaller than the number of the fields that were planted last year. I have been on numerous fieldwork trips and witnessed it first-hand.”

The increasing amount of land left fallow is likely to further reduce Lesotho’s capacity to feed its people. The country’s mountainous topography means that it already has a shortage of arable land, a problem that has been compounded by soil erosion resulting from poor farming practices.

Coping with climate change

The Ministry of Agriculture is partnering with various other government departments and international NGOs to help farmers cope with changing climactic conditions which, based on projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will result in severe water shortages for Lesotho by 2045. “We are feeling the effects of climate change and the most important thing our farmers need to do, is know exactly what to plant and when to plant,” said Motsetsero.

FAO is encouraging farmers to plant seed varieties that can be recycled for two to three seasons, and training around 500 farmers in conservation agriculture – a technique that helps restore soil health and improve yields.

Lesotho Meteorological Services has its owns climate change programme, including a project to improve disaster preparedness through better forecasting of extreme weather, a better system for alerting rural communities likely to be affected and improving the capacity of Lesotho’s Disaster Management Authority to mount rescue operations.

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ZIMBABWE: Child labour on the rise

Photo: Obinna Anyadike/IRIN

Conditions for children working on farms are particularly poor

HARARE,  – Widespread poverty, a lack of social services and poor enforcement of legislation are hindering efforts to eradicate child labour in Zimbabwe.

According to a 2010 UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, 13 percent of Zimbabwean children are engaged in child labour which the International Labour Organization (ILO) defines as work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally harmful to children and that interferes with their schooling. In the capital, Harare, the figure is closer to 20 percent, according to Pascal Masocha, national coordinator of the Coalition against Child Labour in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s Labour Act prohibits employers from hiring a person under 18 to perform hazardous work and the Children’s Act makes it an offence to exploit children through employment. However, a 2011 US Department of Labour report on the worst forms of child labour found that these laws were poorly enforced by inspectors who had no special training or resources to address the issue.

“To date, there have been no investigations or arrests in Zimbabwe for violations related to child labour,” note the authors.

A study of child labour in Zimbabwe conducted by the Ministry of Labour together with international and local partners including ILO and UNICEF, released in June 2011, concluded that “the prevalence of the worst forms of child labour is on the rise and cause for concern.” The report identified poverty as the main driver of children being employed, along with “the breakdown of the family unit due to HIV and AIDS, as well as the inadequacy of the social services delivery system.”

According to UNICEF, of Zimbabwe’s 1.3 million orphans, some 100,000 are living on their own in child-headed households. Many such children are forced to leave school and find work as street vendors or labourers on tobacco farms, tea and sugar plantations, and in mines in order to support younger siblings.

Conditions for children working on farms were “particularly difficult”, according to the report, as children were often exposed to bad weather, dangerous chemicals and the use of heavy machinery.

The report added that the incidence of child labour would continue to increase “should the socio-economic situation in the country remain challenging for the majority of the people”, and recommended that the Social Welfare Ministry establish a child labour unit and include child rights topics in school curriculums.

Government’s commitment questioned

The government, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and the Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe (EMCOZ) are part of a national steering committee on child labour which is responsible for implementing a national action plan.

Paurina Mupariwa, the labour and social welfare minister, told IRIN that the government had “a cocktail of interventions to address the problem”, including programmes such as the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM), which aims to keep children in school by assisting poor families with school and examination fees.

“It is clear that one of the major reasons why children are forced to go and work as labourers is the inability of their parents or guardians to pay school fees,” she said.

However, according to ZCTU’s Fiona Magaya, who is the organization’s focal point on the steering committee, the government has shown little commitment to fighting child labour, forcing her organization and EMCOZ to adopt their own measures.

“Government has let us down. Under our tripartite arrangement, it is supposed to source funds for the anti-child labour programme, but it has done nothing, forcing us and EMCOZ to do our own campaigns with support from the ILO,” she said.

The labour body has produced a manual and posters on child labour which will be distributed to workers and employers in sectors where child labour is prevalent, as well as to civil society organizations. The manual describes the worst forms of child labour, national legislation, ILO, UN and Southern Africa Development Community conventions and the role of trade unions in fighting the problem.

Economic crisis

John Robertson, a Harare-based economic consultant, said Zimbabwe’s protracted economic crisis had hamstrung the government’s capacity to combat child labour.

“There is no money to fund vital programmes in the labour sector because the government is living from hand-to-mouth and there is donor fatigue. There is need to resuscitate the economy first and create employment if the issue of child labour is to be addressed meaningfully,” Robertson told IRIN.

Gertrude Shumba, deputy director of Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT), an NGO fighting child labour on farms, tea estates and plantations in Manicaland Province since 2009, agreed that “the major constraint is the economy”.

FACT has involved local traditional, church and government leaders in campaigns to educate communities about the problems associated with child labour.

“Communities now understand what child labour is and know that it is undesirable, especially as it keeps children out of school,” Shumba told IRIN. “But for as long as households have poor and unreliable sources of income, and there are many child-headed families and a dependency on cheap labour, it will be difficult to eliminate the problem.”

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 source www.irinnews.org

SOMALIA: Military emphasis at conference “puts more civilians at risk”

Photo: Kate Holt/IRIN

Somalia needs more than a military solution

LONDON,  – The London Conference on Somalia ended with a seven-point plan aimed at boosting humanitarian aid and support for African Union troops, and tougher action on piracy, but “fell short on the measures required to address the risks faced by civilians”, said Amnesty International.

“The recent surge in military operations increases civilians’ vulnerability to attacks and displacement, and brings more arms into a country already awash with weapons,” said Benedicte Goderiaux, Amnesty International’s Somalia researcher.

“This is a lethal mix that could fuel further human rights abuses. At this conference we hoped to see more efforts to improve the safety of the Somali population.”

Delegates to the 23 February conference included UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the African Union and Arab League and regional presidents, a small Somali team including the president, prime minister and speaker of the Transitional Federal Government – as well as new players, such as Qatar and Turkey.  

One speaker after another urged Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG)  to sort out the political situation, and quickly. Clinton said: “Time is of the essence and I want to be clear, the international community will not support an extension of the TFG’s mandate beyond the date set in the roadmap, 20 August…  It is time – past time – to buckle down and do the work that will bring stability to Somalia for the first time in many people’s lives… Attempts to obstruct progress and maintain the broken status quo will not be tolerated.”

Turkey is now very active in Somalia, and its foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, urged his colleagues to be less fearful. “We have to be visible and present on the ground. We cannot have conferences distant from Somalia. All of us, we have to be present there… And here we call on all participant countries to open embassies. This is psychologically very important to give the impression that things will be getting normalized in Somalia.”

Talking to Al-Shabab?

The Qatari minister, Dr Khalid bin Mohammed al Attiyah, implicitly called for Al-Shabab to be part of the process of boosting confidence and inclusion among all Somali parties. “The exclusion of any party at this stage will disrupt these efforts,” he said, “and render any talk about security and stability unrealistic and inconsistent with the realities on the ground in Somalia.”

But Clinton “adamantly opposed” any engagement with Al-Shabab, although there were signs that not all America’s European partners would be as absolute. Italy’s foreign minister, Giuliomaria Terzi, pointed out that the insurgents still controlled more than a third of Somalia and added, “Their capacity to control that territory does not lie solely in coercion.”

The main emphasis of the meeting, however, was on military solutions, worrying for humanitarian agencies trying to work on both sides of the lines in the south and centre of the country. TFG Prime Minister, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, endorsed the idea of targeted air strikes on those he described as part of Al-Qaeda.

AMISOM mandate

There was a general welcome for the Security Council resolution extending the mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), with its promise of more stable funding, extra equipment and more troops. The Kenyans already operating in Somalia (although not their Ethiopian colleagues) will now be “rehatted” as part of the AMISOM forces.  

President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia both made much of their troops’ successes in recent days, the capture of Baidoa and the extension of what they see as liberated areas in the south. The host of the meeting, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, announced the creation of a Stability Fund for these areas now on the transitional government side of the lines, to which Britain, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and the United Arab Emirates would contribute.

“This is absolutely vital,” said Cameron, “for those areas which have been freed of Al-Shabab control, to help people build safer, better governed areas, and show those people in the areas still held by Al-Shabab that there is a better alternative.”

Help for refugees

These areas are also being eyed by Kenya, which is chafing under the burden of hosting the vast Dadaab refugee camp near its eastern border with Somalia. Kibaki said: “Kenya expects this conference to map out firm and durable solutions, including the return of these populations to their home country…  The humanitarian actors should now take advantage of the areas secured from Al-Shabab to settle these populations. This is a matter of utmost urgency, as Kenya can no longer continue carrying the burden occasioned by this situation.”

However, Rahma Ahmed, coordinator of the Somali Relief and Development Forum, told IRIN: “We believe that neither the sharp deterioration in the security situation in Dadaab, nor the changing, but unstable situation within Somalia – including areas identified by the government of Kenya for repatriation – are conditions which might trigger a repatriation programme which would comply with international refugee and human rights law.”

Britain will give three-year support packages to help with the refugees – more than US$56 million to Kenya and more than $23 million to Ethiopia. A spokesman for Britain’s Department for International Development told IRIN this was not intended as money for repatriation; it was meant to be spent in the refugee camps, where it was hoped that it would improve conditions.

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source www.irinnews.org

Analysis: Senegal under President Wade

Photo: Tanya Bindra/IRIN

Defaced campaign poster of President Wade

DAKAR,  – As Senegalese presidential elections approach on 26 February, the grassroots M23 and “Y’en a marre” (“Enough is enough”) opposition movements continue to hold daily protests across the country against the decision that incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade can run for a third term. Thus far, six people have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces.
 
Senegal has long been regarded as a beacon of democracy, but President Wade’s decision to run for a third term threatens its stability and could further aggravate protests if he is declared the winner.
 
M23 is named after the protests on 23 June 2011 which erupted after the president tried to pass a new law requiring a candidate to gain only 25 percent of the vote to win in the first round of presidential elections. Wade dropped the proposed constitutional changes after the riots and the requirement to win in the first round remains 50 percent.
 
IRIN spoke to analysts, aid agencies, donors and Senegalese citizens to get a sense of what the government, under President Wade – known as Le Vieux (Old Man) – has managed to achieve for its people, and where it has let them down.
 
Under Wade’s rule the government has attracted funding and foreign investment from emerging donors, embarked on several ambitious infrastructure projects, and improved some social services.
 
Civil society groups are able to operate in a relatively open environment, while press freedom is far better in Senegal than many of its neighbours. However, transparency and good governance are perceived to have declined significantly; poverty reduction and unemployment have stagnated; the education sector is flagging; and the cost of basic commodities, such as rice, has risen year on year.
 
Meanwhile, the 30-year civil conflict in the southern region of Casamance remains unresolved, and has led either directly or indirectly to up to 900 deaths as well as eroding the region’s economy. Most Senegalese IRIN spoke to want change, yet whether they take this message to the ballot box remains to be seen.
 
Poverty down, then up
 
From 1994 to 2005, the number of Senegalese living below the poverty line fell by more than 15 percent to reach 50.7 percent, partly linked to on average 5 percent growth, according to government figures.
 
But since then, it has stagnated, linked to the high cost of basic foods and goods, the international financial crisis, shrinking remittances, inadequate support to the agricultural sector, and heavy government investment in expensive infrastructure projects, among other factors, say donors and development experts.
 
This, combined with a 2.9 percent growth in population year-on-year, means the number of poor people increased by 10 percent, according to the analysis of Babacar Ndir, an expert on poverty reduction policies at the Centre for Development Policy Studies (CEPOD), which is linked to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
 
Many Senegalese feel poorer than they did five years ago.  “We are tired,” Saliou N’ianj, a guard in the capital, told IRIN, “Everything is expensive now – rice, gas, transport – before things were easier.”
 
Since the food price crisis of 2008 cereal costs have continued to rise: one kilogram of rice costs 90 US cents (450 CFC francs), up from 60 cents in 2008. Water, electricity, cooking gas, fuel, transport and (in cities) rent have all gone up, making it increasingly hard for Senegalese to support themselves.
 
Aliou Badji, a law student in Dakar, told IRIN the family eats just one meal a day: “My father has enough to provide lunch [for us] – for breakfast and dinner, it’s every man for himself.”
 
“You can’t eat roads”
 
Some say the government’s focus on “modernizing” the capital, has come at the expense of investing in agriculture, social services or social protection such as subsidies for the poor. Ibrahima Aidara, economist at the UN Development Programme, told IRIN: “The focus on such heavy investments in Dakar could explain the stagnation of both growth rates and poverty reduction rates.”
 

Senegal Elections

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Huge sums have gone into building new roads, a motorway from Dakar to Thiès (in the centre-west), a national airport 75km from Dakar, as well as an ambitious plan by the president’s son and Minister of Energy Karim Wade, to rehabilitate the energy sector. Such spending has left many resentful. “You can’t eat roads – they don’t give you rice,” Dakar taxi-driver Aboubacar Diop told IRIN.
 
The focus on Dakar has meant many rural areas have been overlooked, said European Union delegation head Dominique Dellicour, who noted just 40 percent of the unpaved road network in rural areas is in good condition, despite the importance of decent roads to enable farmers to transport their produce.
 
Agriculture makes up roughly half of the country’s economy, but 70 percent of farmers live in poverty.
 
Working in this sector is increasingly difficult, with shrinking markets for key crops such as peanuts, and an over-reliance on rain-fed production. Drought in 2011 has made 800,000 people food-insecure this year, a problem that has been little-acknowledged by the government. Meanwhile, one in four people is chronically malnourished while 10 percent or more of children under five are acutely malnourished in six of the country’s 14 regions.
 
Peanuts were once the engine of the Senegalese economy but now farmers struggle to find buyers, partly due to a shift in international preferences for other oils, and to the privatization of the sector which dismantled state-buying structures. Adding to these woes, 2011 production dropped significantly, leaving farmers with little income to get through the next few months.
 
The president’s self-sufficiency strategy – GOANA (Grand Agricultural Offensive for Food Security) – is deemed by many to have been poorly thought-out, with the tools, seeds and fertilizers required to boost production, distributed too late and to too-few farmers.
 
One of the main problems is that the Senegalese economy is “not diversified” said Mamadou Ndione, chief economist at the World Bank in Senegal. Other than agriculture, the main sectors to carry the economy are construction, the public sector and telecoms “all industries that do not create many jobs”, according to a government (and partners) Poverty Reduction Strategy report. Construction jobs are considered to be part of the informal job sector.
 
Youths and unemployment
 
With under-employment at 23 percent and growing, according to the World Bank, and the majority of jobs found in the insecure informal job market, many well-qualified graduates find themselves jobless or working for a pittance just to get by.

Qualified microbiology technician Boubacar Dioum, graduated in 2009 but just two out of his fellow 40 graduates have found jobs – both of them with NGOs.
 
Both underemployment and unemployment increased between 2002 and 2009, according to the UN Development Programme, while the poverty reduction strategy paper notes a “virtual stagnation” in the number of jobs in the modern sector over the past 15 years.
 
Furthermore, a deeply-entrenched culture of nepotism ruins job prospects for many. Accounting graduate Boubacar Soumare, told IRIN: “I make [employment] applications from morning until night but to find work it’s not the diploma that counts, it’s who you know.”
 
Accurate formal sector employment rates are hard to gauge, with estimates from the World Bank at 10 percent and Office of National Statistics at 49 percent.
 
Youths form a core part of the grassroots M23 and Y’en a marre opposition movements, and are a heavy presence at the daily protests in the capital.
 
Shrinking transparency
 
From 2000 to 2007 good governance and transparency improved in Senegal, partly pushed by donors, said Hane Libasse, governance programme officer at the Panos Institute, a non-profit network that pushes transparent public information-sharing. But since then, it has declined: Senegal fell 22 points in two years to rank 112th out of 182 countries in the 2011 Transparency International perceptions of corruption index.
 
“Governance is the soft underbelly of the Wade regime,” said Mouhamadou Mbodj, general coordinator of the Civil Forum, the Senegalese chapter of Transparency International.
 
Examples of murky dealings include the decision that all energy-related contracts agreed by the presidency or the president’s son will not be regulated by the public works regulation body, ARMP; and the dismissal of the head of the National Unit of Financial Information Processing (CENTIF) in November 2011 after he allegedly uncovered dubious accounting issues relating to prominent government-members.
 

Photo: Ricci Shryock/Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting/IRIN

Unemployed youths form the bulk of the “Y’en ai Marre” protest movement

One of the President’s considerable strengths is seen to be his ability to attract foreign investment and aid by helping to publicize the Senegalese “brand” as a stable democracy. And by comparison to many of its neighbours, Senegal has been stable, despite widespread opposition to the president’s continued rule. So-called “emerging” donors such as China and the Gulf States have flocked to Senegal, investing heavily in infrastructure. But the accounting procedures of such investments are opaque, according to several interviewees, including a Western diplomat in the capital who preferred anonymity. While traditional donors report to the Finance Ministry, others report directly to the president’s son, with minimal communication between the two.
 
Shady economics
 
Money-laundering plays an increasing role in the economy, according to several analysts, including the European Union’s Dellicour. CENTIF has thus far received 84 reports of suspicious dealings possibly relating to money laundering, amounting to almost US$2.6 million – equivalent to 17 percent of the Senegalese economy, she said.
 
While accurate numbers are impossible to glean given the strength of the informal sector, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime studied the estimated value of the real estate market following widespread reports of its links with laundered money. Rough estimates value the market at $500 million, while building loans to professionals were estimated at $20 million, leaving a $480 million gap.
 
According to the UNODC’s Alexandre Schmidt, whether or not this is linked to the drug trade is hard to prove, but “you can easily see how drug money is used in this context,” he told IRIN.
 
While not considered to be a major hub, Senegal is one of several transit points for drugs passing from South America to Europe.
 
Health
 
It has not all been bad. Gains have been made in important areas of the health sector. Maternal mortality has dropped to 401 dying per 100,000 live births (as of 2005); infant mortality rates declined from 61 to 47 per 1,000 live births between 2005 and 2010; while under-five mortality rates dropped from 151 to 93 between 1990 and 2009, according to UNICEF. In general, Senegal’s health system is well-regarded in West Africa.
 
Drops in mortality rates partly come down to better management of child diseases, says health officer Xavier Crespin, including higher vaccine coverage for measles (from 59 to 63 percent) and extensive distribution of treated mosquito nets, among other approaches, to bring down malaria rates.   
 
The government has launched major recruitment drives to try to boost staff numbers in health clinics – many of which suffer severe shortages, particularly in rural areas, but despite this, the number of patients per health worker is increasing, partly due to population growth. More efforts are needed, say health professionals.
 
As midwifery student Marie-Francoise Diouf told IRIN: “In the health sector we have many qualified people out of work, while women continue to die when giving birth.”
 
More work also needs to go into combating polio and measles, both of which re-emerged in 2010, which is a sign, said Crespin, that “the system’s performance is declining”.
 
Water and electricity
 
Water and sanitation services have also improved – with almost 100 percent of Dakar residents officially connected to a clean water source; more rural communities connected (though numbers are unclear); and subsidies for the very poor, according to the monitoring unit of the Programme against Poverty (CSPLP).
 
Electricity access has also increased across the country, though supply remains highly irregular even in the capital. The country’s power stations have not been well-maintained and have not kept up with the demands of a growing population. Continual power cuts, combined with uneven and for many extortionate prices, led to country-wide pillaging and burning of Senelec (the state electricity company’s) offices in June 2011.
 
Karim Wade’s energy plan will supposedly address the cuts but many fear it is not sustainable, risks draining money from other ministries, and that it is out of date, laying far too little emphasis on renewable energy.
 
Education
 
The government’s education record is mixed: attendance numbers are up but quality is down – a familiar picture across the region. Hundreds of schools were built over the past decade, and primary school enrolment rates grew from 83 to 92 percent between 2006 and 2009, according to the UN, but the completion rate at 60 percent is one of the lowest in the continent, according to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
 
Teaching quality needs to improve – poor teaching is partly linked to a long-term programme of appointing under-qualified, low-paid “volunteers” to teach in public schools. This may soon change with the imminent introduction of a national teacher examination.
 
Meanwhile, universities – once vaunted as some of the region’s best – are suffering from over-subscription while efforts to boost teacher recruitment cannot catch up. Many of the nation’s schools and universities are near-crippled by perpetual strikes, with several yet to start the 2012 academic school year. “Many people wonder if this entire year will be lost to strikes,” said Serigne Laye, a teacher in Kafrine, central Senegal.
 
Election promises
 
Thus far few of the 14 presidential candidates have spellt out reform strategies – most simply stress the need for change. Presidential candidate and head of the Socialist Party Ousmane Tanor Dieng, for instance, plans to devote 15 percent of the national budget to agriculture; former Prime Minister and former President of the National Assembly Macky Sall promises universal health coverage and lowering the price of essential commodities; while the incumbent has pledged a government allowance to over-60s. None have specified how such projects will be funded.
 
It is against this background that the Senegalese go to the polls on 26 February. If the incumbent does not win more than 50 percent of the vote the question is which opposition candidate will voters back.
 
Voter turnout is likely to be low. According to unconfirmed figures, over one million Senegalese who are eligible to vote have not registered, while many among the hundreds and thousands who are, have not picked up their electoral cards. Several would-be voters told IRIN of administrative problems they faced when trying to register, while several Dakar residents spoke of people coming to their neighbourhoods offering food in exchange for their electoral cards. All such reports as yet unconfirmed. 

Assiatou Gueye, a house-keeper in the capital, who works six days a week to survive, echoed the sentiments of many Senegalese when she told IRIN she no longer trusts politicians and doubts she will vote at all.
 
cb/aj/cb
 source www.irinnews.org

INDONESIA: Bid to revitalize community-based healthcare

Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN

A room in eastern Kupang Province that doubles as a monthly health clinic

JAKARTA,  – Efforts in Indonesia to save a volunteer-led community health initiative are working, but more is needed to boost the programme, shown to improve child and maternal health, say health officials.

Pos Pelayanan Terpadu (integrated service post in Indonesian), known by its acronym Posyandu, is a monthly clinic for children and pregnant women, providing vaccinations and nutritional supplements.

There are more than 260,000 Posyandu posts nationwide, but lack of funding, political support and volunteers has rendered half of them inactive, said the head of the Demographic Institute at the Jakarta-based University of Indonesia, Sonny Harmadi.

“Times have changed. People no longer take pride in being Posyandu volunteers,” he said. “People also prefer to go to clinics [more] than Posyandu.”

Volunteers trained by local health departments have typically organized the monthly check-ups.

And even though more health clinics serve rural patients now than when Posyandu posts were launched in the 1980s, there is still a need for the community gatherings, Sugiri Syarief, head of the government’s Agency for Population and Family Planning, told IRIN.

“We cannot afford to let them die because we will lose an important vehicle for early detection of malnutrition.”

Malnutrition

According to the Health Ministry’s 2010 Basic Health Survey, 17.9 percent of children under five are underweight nationwide (weight-to-age ratio), a decrease from 31 percent in 1989.

Posyandu monthly check-ups are partly responsible for the drop, said Minarto, who, like most Indonesians, goes by one name, the Health Ministry’s director for nutrition promotion.

“Recent data shows that about 70 percent of mothers visit a Posyandu at least once every six months.”

Chronic malnutrition (as measured by stunting, or height-to-age ratio) among under-five children stood at 35.7 percent, while acute malnutrition (weight-to-height ratio, also known as acute malnutrition) was 13.3 percent.

Fifteen percent is the widely recognized indication of a nutrition emergency.

In addition, in 2007, the maternal mortality rate was 228 deaths per 100,000 live births, far short of the Millennium Development Goal target of 102 per 100,000 live births for 2015.

Boosting interest

To boost attendance, officials and NGOs are expanding Posyandu services to include early childhood education and elderly care, Minarto said.

Since 2009, the international NGO Save the Children, with Kraft Foods, has worked with Posyandu posts in 54 villages in West Java Province through its Future Resilience and Stronger Households (FRESH) programme.

“West Java is a food basket… but why does malnutrition still exist?” posited Evi Yulianti, a programme manager at Save the Children.

“Our observation shows that the biggest problems are parents’ lack of knowledge about nutrition and hygiene,” she said.

Nutrient-deficient diets coupled with water-borne diseases from unsafe drinking water have led to persistently high levels of malnutrition even during bountiful harvests.

atp/pt/mw source www.irinnews.org