KENYA: Sudanese influx strains Kakuma refugee camp

Photo: Hannah McNeish/IRIN

Once source of refugees is South Sudan’s Jonglei State, where clashes have affected an estimated 140,000 people (file photo)

NAIROBI,  – Over the past few weeks refugees fleeing violence in parts of Sudan and South Sudan have been arriving in Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya in large numbers, and aid agencies fear the camp’s capacity could soon be exceeded.

Kakuma was initially designed to accommodate 100,000 people, and currently accommodates some 91,000, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

“We have been seeing rising inflows of refugees since the violence began both in parts of Sudan and South Sudan, and we are following closely the situation in the two countries. Our worry is that Kakuma could reach its full capacity by June [2012], unless the violence is stopped,” Emanuel Nyabera, spokesperson for UNHCR, told IRIN.

An estimated 4,500 refugees have crossed into Kenya since the beginning of the year, many of them from South Sudan and Sudan, according to the UNHCR.

“Since the military clashes began, 500-800 refugees from both Sudan and South Sudan have been streaming into Kakuma every week over the last few weeks,” said Martin Pepela, refugee programme manager for local NGO Refugee Consortium of Kenya.

Providing shelter for the newly arriving refugees has been the greatest challenge. Many have been forced to stay at the camp’s reception area, Pepela told IRIN.

“There is no shelter for the newly arriving refugees and this has been a big challenge.”

New camp?

UNHCR has begun talks with the Kenyan government on the setting up of a new refugee camp capable of hosting 100,000 people. Nyabera said a site near Kakuma had already been identified.

However, negotiations between the government and UNHCR on an extension of the Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya took years to finalize, and officials say it might be a while before any new site in Kakuma is ready.

“Proposals have been made [for an alternative site] and once the host community agrees and the government approves, the whole process of preparing the site will begin but it will take time,” Omar Dhadho, head of protection at the department of refugee affairs within the Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons, told IRIN.

One source of refugees is South Sudan’s Jonglei State. At least 140,000 people have been affected by inter-ethnic conflict there, and some civilians have fled across the border to Kenya, according to aid workers.

Some of those now in Kakuma fled from South Kordofan and Blue Nile, Sudanese states on the border with South Sudan where rebels have been fighting government troops since July in the case of South Kordofan, and September in the case of Blue Nile. Earlier this month forces from both countries engaged in direct conflict. South Sudan has consistently denied Khartoum’s accusations that it is supporting the rebels across the border.

In all, some 140,000 civilians have fled South Kordofan and Blue Nile, mostly to refugee sites in South Sudan.

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source www.irinnews.org

CLIMATE CHANGE: Eye on the oceans

Photo: Sudhanshu Goyal/Flickr

Hundreds of millions depend on fishing for food and income

JOHANNESBURG,  – The tide seems to be finally turning for the oceans. After years of neglect, there is a growing focus on the health of the oceans, which helps sustain life on earth, particularly in light of the impact of rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and higher temperatures.

Higher CO2 levels are causing the oceans to acidify at rates not seen in the last 20 million years, says Wendy Watson-Wright, assistant director-general and executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO-IOC).

Several UN agencies led by UNESCO-IOC have developed a Blueprint for Ocean and Coastal Sustainability, to highlight the role of oceans in sustaining life. They offer suggestions ahead of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20). 

The oceans not only supply the oxygen in every second breath we take, but also absorb at least 33 percent of the CO2 human beings produce. The oceans have already absorbed more than 80 percent of the heat added to the climate system over the past 200 years, says the International Programme on the State of the Ocean.  

As CO2 dissolves in seawater, the pH (indicator for acidity and basicity of an aqueous solution) of the water decreases – a process known as “acidification” (a lower pH value indicates an increase in acidity).

This can reduce the availability of calcium for plankton and shelled species, threatening their survival. This in turn could affect the entire ecosystem, as much of the marine food chain depends on these organisms for food.

Acidification impact

Studies on ocean acidification’s potential impact on marine life and ecosytems have been presented regularly at side events during UN climate talks, but have never made it to the main negotiations

Studies on ocean acidification’s potential impact on marine life and ecosytems have been presented regularly at side events during UN climate talks, but have never made it to the main negotiations, even though such talks frequently mention the impact of high CO2 on sea-level rise.

Mean ocean pH has decreased (which means the acidity in water has increased) by 30 percent since 1751 and if we continue to emit CO2 at the same rate, the pH could decrease by a further 150-200 percent by 2100, says a new book, Valuing the Ocean, by the Stockholm Environment Institute.

“This rate of change is around 10 times faster than that caused by any other event experienced by the ocean in the last 65 million years,” it says.

Yet only one percent of the oceans are protected, according to UNESCO-IOC.

Proposals

The Blueprint calls for the creation of a global “blue carbon market” similar to the proposal that led to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD), a mechanism within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to generate funds for the protection and conservation of forests.

In 2009, over 80 percent of the world’s fish catch was consumed by human beings, providing 4.2 billion people with more than 15 percent of their average per capita intake of animal protein, says the Blueprint. That year, fishing and aquaculture provided full or part time jobs for about 180 million people, supporting the livelihoods of over half a billion people.

The paper calls for the launch of a global inter-disciplinary programme on ocean acidification risk assessment. “The goal is to provide global, regional, and national forecasts and to identify `point of no return’ tipping points where acidification could lead to marine ecosystem collapse.”

It calls for support for small island states which are heavily dependent on the ocean – to help them use and manage marine resources sustainably.

The Blueprint also urges UNFCCC to include the impact of CO2 on the oceans in their deliberations; calls for stronger governance of the high seas; and the promotion of responsible fishing and waste disposal.

Pollution – especially that caused by fertilizer run-off, sewage and industrial waste – causes hypoxia, a reduction of the content of dissolved oxygen which makes life unsustainable in many parts of the ocean. There are now over 500 known hypoxic “dead zones” in the world’s oceans.

These problems were highlighted at UNCSD meetings in Rio (1992) and Johannesburg (2002). However, pledges to restore fish stocks to sustainable levels by 2015, and commitments to create networks of protected marine areas by 2012, have not got very far, say UN agencies.

Watson-Wright says she is hopeful, as the daft declaration released on 10 January by the UN, includes the proposals set out in the Blueprint.

UNESCO-IOC has also announced the launch of a Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT), which provides a 40-year record of CO2 accumulation in the surface ocean. The dataset was assembled by a team of over 100 scientists from around the world, coordinated by various universities and research centres.

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source www.irinnews.org

HORN OF AFRICA: Greater food insecurity forecast

Photo: Wendy Stone/IRIN

Poor rains could further undermine food security

NAIROBI,  – Food insecurity in the eastern Horn of Africa is expected to worsen as a result of less rain than previously forecast falling in the key March-to-May season.

The US Agency for International Development’s Famine and Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) warned that rainfall in this period would be 60-85 percent of the long-term average and that there was a 30 percent chance of the lower figure materializing.

“An expansion in the size of the food insecure population and an increase in the severity of food insecurity is likely,” FEWS NET said in an 3 April report.

The report warned of “significant impacts on crop production, pasture regeneration, and the replenishment of water resources” in a region that in 2011 suffered one of its worst drought-related food crises in decades.

March to May is the major rainfall season for pastoral and agricultural areas of northern Kenya and Ethiopia and parts of Somalia, and accounts for 50-60 percent of annual rainfall in the region.

In an effort to prevent future weather shocks translating into new humanitarian crises, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional body, and international development partners, have launched an initiative to strengthen resilience in the region.

“We have mobilized funds [US$340 million] to support resilience programmes, and while the problems cannot be solved overnight, it is important to appreciate the need for long-term investments in such areas as education, water, and the need to identify problems early and deal with them in good time. People need to be helped to recover quickly from disasters,” Kristalina Georgieva, European commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response, told IRIN.

Political commitment from IGAD member countries, apart from development partners’ support, will play a crucial role in creating sustainable solutions to help people cope with the effects of the region’s recurrent droughts, according to Sileshi Getahun, Ethiopia’s minister of agriculture, in whose country some 3.2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Time to “stand up and be counted”

“We [regional governments] can’t talk about the same thing [drought] over and over and yet do nothing to help people. This is the time for regional governments to stand up and be counted,” Sileshi said.

Speaking to IRIN, the UK’s development minister, Stephen O’Brien, said: “Resilience programme support is an important part of humanitarian support and response and provides a more sustainable way to deal with disasters.”

Among things to be prioritized will be the provision of drought-resistant seeds, water, education, investing in weather forecasting technology, and scaling up nutrition programmes.

Solving the various conflicts in the Horn of Africa, which have seen thousands of people displaced and many more killed, will be crucial in improving the ability of people in the region to be resilient in the face of disasters, Mahboub Maalim, executive secretary of IGAD, told IRIN.

“In the face of disasters like drought and famine, people’s livelihoods are disrupted and efforts towards halting the various conflicts we see [in the Horn of Africa] cannot be ignored, because people can’t cope when conflicts persist,” he said.

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source www.irinnews.org