By Kip-korir, Chief editor – API

http://www.africanpress.me/ A Somaliland patriot celebrating his country’s independence in Oslo Norway, 18th. May 2012

Many Somaliland citizens living in Norway celebrated their country’s independence yesterday in many parts of Norway.

The larger group of somaliland people living in Oslo, the capital of Norway celebrated in dance waving their flag gratefully showing appreciation that their country has had peace for many years since breaking away from the then central government in Mogadishu which was led by Siad Barre who was ousted by a united group of warlords.

Somaliland has, however, struggled to be internationally recognised, something that is still lacking.It is strange to see that the international community – countries in Africa and the West are not opening up to a country that has shown respect for her people and managed to keep peace for this long.

Somaliland must be recognised internationally and the people of that country be accorded the respect it deserves by all peace-loving nations of the world.

http://www.africanpress.me/ A Somaliland patriot celebrating his country’s independence in Oslo Norway, 18th. May 2012

African leaders should lead the way in officially recognizing Somaliland as an independent nation, to be followed by Europe, and America.

The country’s official  language is Somali. English and Arabic is also considered official languages. Arabic and English are the other official languages. The main religion practised is Islam – Sunni.

The serving President of the Republic is His Excellency Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud, with H.E Abdirihman Abdillahi Ismail as the vice president, elected on July 2010 for a five-year term.

The government of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to the British Somaliland protectorate, which was independent on June 26, 1960 as the State of Somaliland,before uniting with the Trust Territory of Somalia (the former Italian Somaliland) on July 1, 1960 to form the Somali Republic.

Somaliland is bordered by Ethiopia in the south and west, Djibouti in the northwest, the Gulf of Aden in the north, and the autonomous Puntland region of Somalia to the east.  The country has a coastal line which extends 460 miles along the Red Sea.

http://www.africanpress.me/ The flag of Somaliland

In 1988, the Siad Barre regime committed massacres against the people of Somaliland, which were among the events that led to the Somali Civil War. The war left the economic and military infrastructure severely damaged. After the collapse of the central government in 1991, the local government, led by the Somali National Movement (SNM), declared independence from the rest of Somalia on May 18 of the same year.

Since then, the territory has been governed by an administration that seeks self-determination as the Republic of Somaliland. The local government maintains informal ties with some foreign governments, who have sent delegations to Hargeisa. Ethiopia also maintains a trade office in the region. However, Somaliland’s self-proclaimed independence remains unrecognised by any country or international organisation

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Photo: Moulid Hujale/IRIN

Thousands of refugees are waiting for registration

DADAAB,  – For new arrivals to the world’s largest refugee complex, in eastern Kenya, life is particularly difficult.

In October 2011, when thousands of people were fleeing famine and conflict in Somalia, Kenyan authorities halted the registration of refugees arriving in Dadaab, citing deteriorating security conditions.  Some 4,500 Somalis have since come to the complex.

“We get access to food rations but what we receive is never enough, and sometimes we don’t get any,” Saney Farah, 39, an unregistered asylum-seeker who arrived at Dadaab’s Ifo camp about three months ago, told IRIN. “During the first four weeks of my arrival, I did not receive any food. Whenever I went to the distribution centre I was told that my token serial number was not in the manifest.”

When new refugees reach Dadaab, they stay with fellow refugees in the outskirts of the complex. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) then takes their details and provides them with a waiting card with which they can access food rations and health care. The refugee ration card is only issued after full registration with Kenya’s Department of Refugee Affairs entitling the refugees to shelter and other assistance.

Those who do not have waiting cards, such as Kadija Aden, a mother of four, face significant problems. “I never thought it would be so difficult here in Dadaab. We are caught between scorching sun and flooding rain under tents that prevent none of them,” said Kadija at the Kambioos extension camp.

“I feel less important since I am not fully registered and I am worried for the future of my children.”

Unregistered asylum-seekers such as Kadija often miss out on essential services such as vaccination as they have mingled among other refugees in the complex.

Regarding the resumption of registration, Emmanuel Nyabera, the UNHCR spokesperson in Kenya, said: “The commissioner of refugee affairs indicated about two weeks ago that registration will start soon but we are yet to get a date.”

Refoulement

In a March report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Kenyan government to re-open refugee reception centres in the border town of Liboi, which were closed in 2007, to ensure that newly-arriving refugees are screened for security purposes and safely transported to Dadaab, instead of suspending registration or encouraging refugees to return to Somalia.

The government has been calling for the return of Somali refugees to areas in Somalia under the control of Kenyan defence forces there, citing security and environmental concerns, noted the HRW report, which said Somalia remains unsafe for such returns.

The Kenyan army has since October 2011 been engaged in an intervention in Somalia targeting Al-Shabab militants blamed for a series of cross-border attacks and abductions as well as grenade explosions in Dadaab.

Originally intended for 90,000 people, the Dadaab complex now hosts more than 463,000 refugees with chronic overcrowding, risk of disease and seasonal floods among the challenges, according to UNHCR.

Attacks in Dadaab

While the high refugee numbers put pressure on the complex, notes a March report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Kenya’s incursion into Somalia has led to a sharp rise in attacks by Al-Shabab sympathizers in Dadaab, prompting a harsh response and widespread allegations of abuse by the Kenyan police. 

“The insecurity has placed several constraints on the operations of NGOs in the complex, reducing assistance to life-saving services. Sexual violence has become endemic, and police abuse and inaction commonplace and resented by the refugees,” said the report which called for a coordinated response from UNHCR, the Kenyan government and the international community “to prevent this volatile stew from erupting into deadly violence”.

“Refugee frustration and fear of an abusive police presence could lead to the radicalization of the refugee population, which would be an unfortunate consequence for both refugees and Kenyans,” added the report.

mh/aw/cb source www.irinnews.org

Photo: Rosie Collyer/IRIN

No roads, so health workers fly

KPONG,  – At the Kpong airfield, a few kilometres from Lake Volta in northern Ghana, Patricia Mawuli, pilot and co-founder of Medicine on the Move (MoM), a local NGO, is preparing her plane for takeoff. She is one of four health workers who fly weekly to isolated communities around the lake to raise awareness of the dangers of schistosomiasis, also called bilharzia.

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by a flatworm that enters the skin and is found in infected water. Snails – common in Lake Volta – often act as an intermediary host for the worms before they get into humans, where they eat away at the internal organs. The symptoms include fever and passing blood in urine and faeces, and are often detected very late. Bilharzia can stunt children’s growth and affect their cognitive development.

Classified as a neglected tropical disease by the World Health Organization, some 200 million people across Africa, Asia and South America are thought to be infected, but less than 15 percent are being treated, according to Lester Chitsulo, a research scientist in the Neglected Tropical Diseases department of the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO is trying to help governments put in place more effective prevention programmes by training community health workers like Mawuli, pushing hygiene and public health awareness, and negotiating drug donations with major suppliers.

Around the lake many people are unaware of the disease or its symptoms, said MoM’s other co-founder, Jonathan Porter. Many men see having blood their urine as a sign of virility he said, but doctors say it is a sign that the disease has eaten its way through the lower intestine.

Each week MoM air-drops leaflets in four languages over villages – particularly schools, so teachers can explain the contents – to inform people about how they can catch, prevent, and treat the illness.

Air drops are considered the most effective way of reaching the hundreds of isolated communities around the lake, where many are three hours from a hard-surfaced road, said Porter.

Progress

Ghana has made progress in controlling bilharzia with its national prevention programme, run in partnership with USAID, WHO and NGOs. In 2008 it treated 300,000 children, which escalated to 1.7 million in 2010.

Efforts to control bilharzia are also picking up globally. According to WHO, some 12.4 million people were treated for the disease in 2006, and this rose to 33.5 million in 2010.

Drug manufacturer Merck pledged in 2000 to produce 20 million Praziquantel tablets – the drug most commonly used to treat bilharzia – over the next decade, and in 2012 to increase output to 250 million.

Some national programmes have seen dramatic results. China, Cambodia, Egypt, Uganda and Burkina Faso have all pushed health education and access to Praziquantel, making the disease almost non-existent, WHO said.

International efforts to combat neglected tropical diseases are also picking up steam, with governments, the World Bank, major drug companies and international NGOs signing the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases in January 2012, in which signatories pledged to bring bilharzia and 10 other neglected tropical diseases under control by 2020.

But many sub-Saharan African nations are lagging behind – just 21 out of 40 affected countries have prevention programmes, and in Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo the lack of assistance means sufferers will be treated only if an NGO or UN agency is there to do so.

Health experts told IRIN that the roadmap in the London declaration will be only achieved with far more concerted efforts at the national level.

rc/aj/he source www.irinnews.org

Photo: IITA Image Library

At least 1.3 million farmers do not have any maize seeds to plant this season

MT ELGON, – At least 1.3 million farmers in Kenya – more than double the figure for 2010 – do not have any maize seeds to plant this season, despite favourable weather conditions, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
 
The “high number” of farmers without seeds is due to drought in the region and Kenya last year. “Many farmers either sold the seeds they had kept or used them as food,” Wilson Songa, secretary of agriculture at the ministry, told IRIN.
 
The problem has been getting worse over the past few years. “The country has witnessed an increasing number of farmers totally lacking seeds to plant over the past five years. Remember, the last time this country experienced a bumper harvest was in 2006,” Songa said.
 
Mary Chemutai, a widowed mother of six, is one such farmer. Her overgrown 0.4 hectare farm in the Mt Elgon region of western Kenya lies fallow, despite the good growing weather. “I didn’t have any food to feed my family because what I got last season ran out, and I couldn’t watch my children die of hunger. So we ate all the seeds I was supposed to plant this season. Now I have nothing to plant.”
 
She said she could set aside some of the 80 shillings ($US1) she earns daily as a farm labourer to buy seeds, but money was tight. “Some people think I don’t want to plant, but I can’t plant stones.” 
 
Maize meal is a staple in Kenya, which produces 25,000 tons of maize seed annually against a demand of 35,000 tons. Almost 80 percent of Kenyan maize farmers plant with seed saved from the previous harvest or obtained from community seed banks, says the ministry.
 
“Over a million people not planting maize… means even many more people who rely on it for food will not get it… It is even worse because those farmers with seeds to plant do not have fertilizers, resulting in poor harvests,” Enoch Mwani, who teaches agriculture at the University of Nairobi, told IRIN.
 
The current seed shortage is compounded by an erratic supply of fertilizer, experts say. At present, some 3.7 million people are food insecure in Kenya, according to the UN.
 
Certified seeds
 
Certified seeds, approved by Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services, are available at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) and Kenya Seed Company, but high prices mean just 1 percent of farmers can afford them, according to the Tegemeo Institute of Agriculture.
 
“Certified maize seeds give better yields than ordinary seeds, but many farmers prefer their own seeds because that is what they can afford,” Wesley Koech, a food security analyst at Nairobi University’s department of economics, told IRIN. 
 
NCPB prices have risen 9 percent since 2011; a 10kg bag of maize seed retails at Ksh 1,100 (US$13.25). 
 
Extension officers
 
Government officials say the situation can be improved with the help of extension officers.
 
“Famers lack seeds because they don’t produce enough maize and end up consuming everything. When extension officers teach them better agricultural methods like planting in time, they realize good harvest. Seed shortages will not occur because they can keep part of what they produce to plant in the coming season,” James Samo, an agricultural production specialist at the Ministry of Agriculture, told IRIN.
 
Samo said part of the extension officers’ mandate is to encourage crop diversification, since maize does not grow well in dry conditions.
 
“Drought-resilient crops like cassava can cushion farmers from hunger and provide sources of income as well, because it is very difficult to experience total crop failure with them.”
 
Farmers’ representatives, however, say the 1,600 extension officers are too few to adequately meet farmers’ needs.
 
“Just a single extension officer covering a whole district and on a motor cycle… There is a need to employ more of them,” Erick Nying’iro, a member of the Cereal Growers’ Association, told IRIN.
 
“The government should either heavily subsidize certified seeds to bring their prices down considerably to improve access by farmers, or put greater efforts in rolling out extension services to improve what is produced through traditional initiatives such as community seed banks and farm-owned seeds,” said Koech.
 
ko/am/cb source www.irinnews.org