Kenya Backpedals on Closure of Somali Refugee Camp

IRIN || 29 April 2015

Kenya appears to have softened its stance on the imminent closure of a camp hosting more than a third of a million Somali refugees, weeks after the deputy president announced it would happen within three months, as he reacted to the massacre at Garissa University.

“While we are committed to the return of the refugees, you will not see us holding them by the head and tail and throwing them across the border,” Ali Bunow Korane, who chairs Kenya’s Refugee Affairs Commission, said Wednesday.

Korane was addressing a forum where officials from the UN, aid agencies and civil society discussed the implications of closing Dadaab refugee complex, where more than 330,000 Somalis live.

He acknowledged that, while it was Kenya’s policy to encourage refugees to go back to Somalia, the country, “does not provide a conducive environment for mass return.” This is also the position of the UNHCR, the UN’s agency for refugees, and most aid agencies working in Somalia.

Korane said Kenya was working to mobilise international support to improve security and build up social infrastructure, such as houses, schools and hospitals, in order to make potential areas of return more viable.

On 11 April, Deputy President William Ruto announced that the Kenyan government had asked UNHCR, “to relocate the refugees [in Dadaab] within three months, failure to which we shall relocate them ourselves.”

Ruto spoke shortly after 148 people, mostly students, were murdered in a university in the northern town of Garissa, in an attack claimed by al-Shabab. Although al-Shabab is primarily a Somali jihadist insurgency, it has recruited many Kenyans, including, by many accounts, some of those who carried out the university killings.

But Korane said of the attackers: “They stayed in the (Dadaab) refugee camp, they assembled the arms there.”

“Kenya has very serious security challenges that have a direct bearing on refugees,” he added.

Voluntary return?

In 2013, Kenya, Somalia and the UNHCR signed a tripartite agreement in which all parties committed themselves to the principle of voluntary return. Kenya remains engaged with the tripartite process and, according to the UNHCR, on 29 April took part in a technical committee meeting convened to discuss the agreement’s implementation.

“The only way forward is to continue working for the implementation of the tripartite agreement,” UNHCR’s Senior Regional Protection Officer Eva Camps said at the gathering.

Camps noted that a pilot project launched in December to assist refugees returning voluntarily from Dadaab to three locations in Somalia had not delivered “satisfactory results.” Of a target of 10,000 returns by June, so far just 2,048 have gone back under the project.

Several thousand others have however left Dadaab for Somalia with no involvement of the UNHCR.

 

Does Community-Driven Aid Need a Makeover?

IRIN || By Obinna Anyadike || 27 April 2015

Community-Driven Development (CDD) instinctively makes sense – give people the power to determine and control their own development projects and you get better results, right? Wrong. This briefing explores why, at least in some post-conflict countries, CDD doesn’t deliver as promised.

What is CDD?

CDD/R (the R stands for reconstruction) has three principal goals: improved socio-economic recovery, enhanced social cohesion and better governance. It’s regarded as particularly useful in post-conflict countries where infrastructure is often weak, institutions absent, order and society disrupted.

Over the past 10 years, the World Bank alone has approved financing for more than 600 CDD projects worth over $28 billion. The Bank believes, given the means and right conditions, “poor men and women can effectively organise to identify community priorities and address local problems by working in partnership with local governments and other supportive institutions.”

Buzzword bites the dust?

According to a 2013 impact evaluation by UK Aid and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) assessing programmes in Afghanistan, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia and Sierra Leone, “the record of CDD/R in conflict-affected contexts is mixed and, on the whole, discouraging.”

The evaluation found that while there were some positive short-term economic welfare outcomes (although no gains were recorded in DRC and Liberia), overall results for governance and social cohesion indicators across all five programmes were far more mixed. It “speaks to the difficulty of effecting social and political change,” the study said.

Sheree Bennett, IRC’s research and evaluation advisor, believes the ambition of the projects could be part of the problem. “It’s hard to think through what kind of intervention could effect change in all three areas – welfare, governance, social cohesion – at the same time,” she told IRIN. “How about we just prioritise one of these outcomes.”

Going large

The first phase of the Tuungane programme in eastern DRC, implemented by IRC and CARE, reached roughly 1.8 million people in 1,250 conflict-affected villages – it’s among the largest interventions of its kind. The $46 million UK-funded initiative organised the election of local committees to work with the communities to select development projects (mostly schools), and the disbursement of small livelihood grants.

The programme built 1,700 classrooms and 150 clinics in a region mired in conflict and neglect. In 2011, an exhaustive impact assessment was undertaken in which, in a randomised trial, the evaluators gave Tungaane and non-Tuungane villages small cash handouts, and then watched to see what happened. Was the money embezzled or well spent, and how were the decisions reached?

The study found little evidence of behavioural change: the cash grants were reasonably well spent, whether a village was enrolled in Tuungane or not; they all tended to democratically elect committees to determine spending; and, moreover, “estimates of welfare effects [were] weak across the board and [trended] negative on some items.”

Lessons learnt?

Lessons from Tuungane have been incorporated into a second phase. The new programme, valued at $95 million, raises per capita investment from $1 per person per year to $4 in response to concerns the original intervention was under-resourced (by comparison the Millennium Village initiative has a per capita aid spend of $120 per year).

Dana Olds, IRC’s director of governance programmes in the DRC, told IRIN that Tuungane 2 is an evolution: governance goals are prioritized; there is a narrower focus on accepted sectors for development funding; and new social accountability elements – notably community scorecards to measure the quality of social services and foster social accountability, which involve the staff of schools and health clinics as well as the village committees.

“What is the alternative to CDD? To go in and build some things and possibly not take the community’s priorities into account?” asked Olds. “We have done a lot of supporting work that has really helped to improve the effectiveness of Tuungane” – which is reflected in positive results from the community scorecards.

That has involved engaging with the national authorities, to try and clear the barriers to service delivery – a level that communities in eastern DRC, still recovering from conflict, have difficulty accessing.

Better project design

Are the theories of change enshrined in the CDD/R approach too unrealistic – especially in post-conflict settings? Are the timeframes to observe change too short? Is the reach of the projects chosen too small to register impact? Do the projects effectively relate to the state and institutions (after all, new schools and clinics need teachers and doctors)?

Bennett believes that CDD has for too long been viewed as a panacea, with a jumble of goals thrown into the project mix. Now, some hard thinking is needed across a range of issues, from how objectives are set, their appropriateness, the gauge for measuring success, to the definition of community, and more philosophically, choice.

Sound social theory “is the foundation of programme logic and design,” Bennett and her IRC colleague Alyoscia D’Onofrio wrote in a paper earlier this year. “Despite our urgent desire to develop scalable and easily replicable solutions to problems in conflict-affected contexts, the process is long, and an iterative one in which we have to try, learn, adapt and try again.”

 

How Fragile is Burundi's Peace?

IRIN || By Ignatius Ssuuna || 22 April 2015

The number of Burundians who have fled abroad to escape pre-election violence has swollen to more than 12,000 in less than a month, and they are taking with them allegations of murder, torture and intimidation by ruling party thugs.

A 13-year civil war between 1993 and 2005 claimed an estimated 300,000 lives. International alarm bells are ringing, amid fears that the fragile peace could unravel over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s presumed bid for a third term, which many see as unconstitutional.

The UN Security Council has warned that the June 26 elections could “spur violence and undermine the peace sustained for almost a decade.” The US State Department urged all parties to refrain from “hate speech, violence, or other provocations, that could feed the climate of fear and instability.”

But this “climate of fear and instability” has already caused many to flee: 9,521 to Rwanda and 2,740 to the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the latest count by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

IRIN spoke to several refugees after they entered Rwanda. Many said they had fled for fear of the Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the president’s party, widely described as a militia and a law unto itself.

Dieudonne, a 36-year-old mechanic, said his family members had been targeted because they were known supporters of Hussein Radjabu, a political rival of the president’s who was sprung from jail in March.

“Since March this year, arms have been distributed to members of Imbonerakure in our village in Kirundo province,” Dieudonne said. “Those (Imbonerakure) who knew my family as Radjabu sympathisers visited us on March 12 and threatened us.”

Dieudonne said the militiamen claimed to have killed before and threatened to kill them if they didn’t support Nkurunziza. He decided not to hang around and took his family to Rwanda for safety.

“The biggest problem is that guns are distributed to civilians who can do anything for simple inducements,” he said. “Burundi is at a crossroads because some people are determined to defend the constitution yet the president is also determined to extend his rule. Innocent people will die.”

The government denies arming the Imbonerakure.

What chance of free and fair elections?

Sixty-five people who took part in a demonstration last week to protest against Nkurunziza’s plans to run for a third term have been charged with insurrection. If convicted, they face up to 10 years in jail.

In its latest report on Burundi, the International Crisis Group warned that it is increasingly unlikely that the local, parliamentary and presidential elections will be free and fair.

A “return to violence would not only end the peace that was gradually restored after the 2000 Arusha [Peace and Reconciliation] Accord, but would also have destabilising regional implications and would mark a new failure in peacebuilding policies,” the report warned.

The governor of Burundi’s northern Kirundo province, Révérien Nzigamasabo, attributed the exodus to “political motives” and implied many were only going because UNHCR vehicles were “parked on the border to ferry the refugees” with “well-prepared rations to feed them.”

The refugees, however, told a different story.

“On February 20, strange people came to my house,” said Didier. “Fortunately, I was not in. But they took my brother, whom they accused of campaigning for other political parties, instead of working for the ruling party.”

The 34-year-old farmer said they were later told that his brother had been shot dead while attempting a robbery.

“We have looked for his body in all police stations, without luck. The Imbonerakure have also warned my family several times that they will kill us because we are Tutsis,” he said.

“Imbonerakure have committed serious crimes against innocent civilians. They should be brought to justice. But how will they be held accountable by the same people who send them to commit crimes?”

Augustin, a 40-year-old shop assistant who had sought refuge in Rwanda with his wife and three children, said his father had been killed simply for belonging to a rival political party.

“I am tired and want peace. Imbonerakure came to my neighbour’s house and told him, while everybody was listening, that they would kill his son for supporting Nkurunziza’s opponents.”

President is 'obstacle' to truth and justice

Charlotte’s husband disappeared after being arrested in connection with a mysterious five-day border battle over new year in Cibitoke province that left around 100 people dead.

“My husband was accused of working with the rebels and was taken to unknown destination. I tried to follow his case but I was warned by Imbonerakure to drop the matter for my life’s sake,” the 26-year-old teacher told IRIN.

Winnie, 44, said life had become unbearable, and not just for members of political parties opposed to the president.

“Even those not in politics. They keep an eye on them day and night, and we fear for our safety. Night meetings involving our local leaders are taking place and we don’t know what is being discussed and planned,” she said.

“It’s double standards by government to say nothing is happening or Imbonerakure is not killing people. Yes, in my village in Kirundo, it’s very clear that they are beating and torturing people.”

Burundi’s civil war was fought along ethnic lines, and the essence of the 2000 peace and reconciliation accord was to ensure, through a quota system, a balance of power between the long dominant Tutsi and the Hutu majority, which makes up 85 percent of the population.

Recent years have delivered significant reconciliation and Burundi’s political fault lines are less defined in Hutu-Tutsi terms than they used to be, with the fulcrum of tension being whether Nkurunziza should be allowed to run again.

Ruth, a 30-year-old mother-of-two, said the president must give up power because he had become an "obstacle" that was preventing the investigation of widespread abuses by the army and the police.

“I think this will be fair to Burundians, as they seek justice,” she said.

 

Islamic State Murders 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya

Telegraph || By Louisa Loveluck || 19 April 2015

Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have released a video apparently showing the murder of Ethiopian Christians in Libya.

The footage bears chilling echoes of an earlier mass murder by the group, in which at least 20 Egyptian Christians were beheaded on Libya’s northern shore. The new video shows two separate mass killings. In one, around 15 men are beheaded on a Libyan shoreline. In the other, a similar number are shot in the head in an area of scrubland.

The video said the victims were Christians belonging to “the hostile Ethiopian Church”.

Ethiopia condemned the killings and promised to continue its fight against extremism. “We strongly condemn such atrocities, whether they are Ethiopians are not,” said Redwan Hussein, the communications minister.

Ethiopia’s embassy in Egypt was working to verify if those killed were Ethiopians, he added.

Isil gained a foothold in Libya last year. It has declared the establishment of three branches in the North African country, uniting disparate groups of militants under its banner.

The group’s latest video ends with a warning that Christians will not be safe unless they embrace Islam or pay protection money.

Militants professing loyalty to Islamic State have claimed several high-profile attacks on foreigners in Libya this year, including an assault on the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli and the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians in February.

The killings of the Egyptians prompted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to order air strikes on Islamic State targets in Libya.

In the latest video, a man dressed in black clutching a pistol stood behind some of the victims.

"Muslim blood shed under the hands of your religions is not cheap," he says, looking at the camera. "To the nation of the cross: We are now back again."

The video concludes with a warning that Christians will not be safe unless they embrace Islam or pay protection money.

Islamic State controls large parts of Iraq and Syria and wants to redraw the map of the Middle East.

It is not clear how many fighters it has in oil-producer Libya.

Egyptian security officials estimate thousands of militants who share Islamic State's ideology moved from the Sinai Peninsula to Libya after the army toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.

 

Nobel Prize Winning Teen Malala Writes Open Letter to Abducted Nigerian Girls

Aleteia || By John Burger || 16 April 2015

Pakistani Yousafzai calls on Nigeria and international community to redouble efforts

If hope is fading for recovery of the 219 Nigerian school girls abducted a year ago by Boko Haram, one young woman at least is not giving in to despair.

Nobel Peace Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by Muslim extremists in her native Pakistan who believe girls should not be allowed in school, said in an open letter for the first anniversary of the Chibok school abduction, that she believes the missing girls will one day be reunited with their parents. 

"Today and every day, we call on the Nigerian authorities and the international community to do more to bring you home," she wrote in the letter. "We will not rest until you have been reunited with your families."

Like you, I was a target of militants who did not want girls to go to school. Gunmen shot me and two of my friends on a school bus. All three of us survived and are back in school. Now we speak out on behalf of all girls about the right to get a proper education. Our campaign will continue until you and all girls and boys around the world are able to access a free, safe and quality secondary education.

She said that when she turned 17 last July, she spent her birthday in Nigeria with some of the missing girls' parents and five of their classmates who escaped the kidnapping. After that meeting, she met with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and urged him to work harder to recover the missing girls.

"In my opinion, Nigerian leaders and the international community have not done enough to help you, Malala said. "They must do much more to help secure your release. I am among many people pressuring them to make sure you are freed."

There are reasons for hope and optimism. Nigerian forces are re-gaining territory and protecting more schools. Nigeria’s newly-elected president, Muhammadu Buhari, has vowed to make securing your freedom a top priority and promised his government will not tolerate violence against women and girls.

According to the Associated Press, Nigerian President-elect Muhammadu Buhari said he must be honest about the prospects of getting the missing girls back to their families.

"We do not know if the Chibok girls can be rescued. Their whereabouts remain unknown," Buhari said in a statement. "As much as I wish to, I cannot promise that we can find them."

The statement by Buhari, a former military ruler of Nigeria who was elected last month and takes over May 29, is a marked departure from President Goodluck Jonathan. After Jonathan's administration initially denied there had even been a kidnapping, he made repeated hollow promises that the girls would be rescued.

 

‘Je suis Garissa’– The Unheard Cry

The Tablet || By Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator, SJ || 13 April 2015

 

The murder of nearly 150 students, selected because they were Christians, highlights the need for greater international collective will to defeat terrorism

This article was published by Tablet. It was forwarded to CANAA by Fr. Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator

The news broke on Holy Thursday of the deadliest terrorist attack in Kenya since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi. At dawn, elements of the Somali-based Islamist group al-Shabaab stormed the campus of Garissa University College, in the north-eastern town of Garissa, and took several hundred students hostage.

By the time security agents ended the siege 15 hours later, at least 142 mostly Christian students had been slaughtered, and several dozen injured. Survivors crawled out of hiding to give chilling accounts of cold-blooded murder presided by terrorists who took their time to taunt and then either stab or shoot innocent students to death. In some cases, the terrorists took calls on victims’ cellphones and callously informed anxious parents and relatives of the progress of the slaughter of their loved ones.

As the butchery unfolded, one of the group’s representatives boasted to a BBC journalist that Kenyans would be horrified when they saw the scale of what happened in the hostels. True to their colours, al-Shabaab did not disappoint. The official casualty count has risen to 148 dead. Security sources and Red Cross officials estimate a much higher figure. As these things go in Kenya, we might never know the full extent of this carnage.

There are several disturbing aspects of this horrific attack. First is the religious motive of the terrorists. Not for the first time, al-Shabaab deliberately targeted Christians as part of their quest to foment religious conflict in Kenya.

The attackers separated their victims on the basis of faith allegiance. Those who could show evidence of Muslim faith or instant conversion to Islam were spared. The Christians were gunned down. There is a clear intent to drive a wedge between the already polarised Christian and Muslim communities in Kenya – a pattern of religious zealotry characteristic of other Islamist militant groups, such as Boko Haram in Nigeria.

Then there is the issue of how the Kenyan authorities handle intelligence information – the consensus among analysts is that they do not take intelligence warnings as seriously as they should. The latest attack is one in a string of carefully coordinated assaults by al-Shabaab. Security agents and the intelligence services should have seen it coming, not least because several foreign Governments, including the UK, recently issued a terror alert that covered parts of Kenya, including the border with Somalia. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta rubbished the ensuing advice not to travel – the day before the terrorists stormed Garissa.

Kenya is a top tourist destination in East Africa, and the Government is keen to reassure travellers that it is a safe place to take a vacation. Balancing the economic benefits of foreign leisure seekers with security threats to ordinary Kenyans has proved a daunting task for the Government. Sadly, the tendency to dismiss warnings and project an image of the country as a tourist haven has repeatedly proved costly for innocent Kenyans.

Al-Shabaab maintains that its attacks are justified as retaliation for Kenya’s military incursion into Somalia. In 2011 Kenyan forces crossed the border to stem the rising tide of terrorist attacks and kidnappings masterminded from Somalia. Other African countries soon joined in the effort under the auspices of the African Union. There have been repeated calls for the Kenyan Government to review its engagement in Somalia and to determine whether it is meeting the stated objectives.

The Government remains adamant that the strategy is working. But incidents like Garissa indicate that the tactic of curtailing the menaceof terrorism at source could leave citizens vulnerable to attacks inside Kenya. The morass of the ongoing military entanglement in Somalia poses a huge strategic and political challenge to the Government of Kenya.

All of this suggests that part of the problem is inept leadership. Kenyans are familiar with the ritual response from their leaders whenever terrorists strike. The President, flanked by his deputy and security chiefs, delivers a televised address, offers condolences to victims’ families, declares a period of mourning and makes a stirring pledge to defeat the terrorists and bring the perpetrators to justice. But nothing really changes – until the next attack happens.

This time, in his address, President Kenyatta was right about two things. First, he admitted that the terrorists are “deeply embedded” in Kenyan Muslim communities. This observation is undeniable. But the preferred government response – a security sweep and the mass arrest of Kenyan-Somalis, especially in Nairobi’s ethnic Somali district of Eastleigh – only stokes the resentment of law-abiding Kenyan Muslims, who are just as traumatised and afraid of al-Shabaab as the Christians.

Second, Kenyatta confessed to a chronic shortage of security personnel to guarantee the safety of all Kenyans. Everybody knows that. There were only two security details assigned to the sprawling campus of Garissa University College. A planned recruitment of 10,000 new security personnel has been marred by allegations of corruption and is stalled as a legal battle between competing security agencies and politicians rumbles on. The president’s executive order to proceed with this recruitment exercise immediately is a step in the right direction.

Attacks like Garissa reflect a situation of great complexity. But to deal effectively with this threat, we need a Government that has the capacity to remain focused and transparent, to provide credible intelligence-based information, and to correctly assess security risks and act decisively on terror alerts. Besides, the threat from al-Shabaab targets several East African countries that form part of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom).

These countries face a common enemy that demands a coordinated response. The level of cooperation and intelligence-sharing among them needs to improve considerably. The simple wisdom that two heads are better than one should be recognised. The religious undercurrents of recent attacks ought to be taken seriously, albeit religion serves only as fig leaf for the criminality of a distorted jihadist ideology. Notwithstanding the terrorists’ claim to act in the name of Islam, their actions are morally repulsive and they soil the image of Islam as a peaceful religion.

Religious communities and their leaders should do more than just condemn these actions. If the growing radicalisation of Africa’s youth by religious bigots and terrorist organisations is to be reversed, community leaders must develop a counter-narrative, backed by strategic interreligious activities and cooperation. This task cannot be left to self-interested politicians. This is a moment for religious leaders to stand up and be counted.

Although world leaders have roundly condemned the Garissa attack, the incident is mostly portrayed as a Kenyan problem. Unlike the global outpouring of solidarity in the wake of the attack on the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, there are no throngs of presidents and prime ministers heading to Kenya to proclaim “Je suis Garissa”.

Kenyatta is right when he argues that simply increasing the number of warnings to tourists not to travel to certain areas is not the solution. Al-Shabaab is inebriated by the same witches’ brew that nourishes al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Islamic State and a growing network of terrorist organisations with a global reach. The lack of solidarity and collective will to resist and defeat their agenda emboldens pedlars of sectarian violence and sponsors of jihadist insurgency. They know that they can strike again and get away with it. And they will.

At times like these, as we have seen in Nigeria, the biggest casualty of this cycle of terrorist impunity is trust in the ability of the Government to protect its citizens. We are all sitting targets united in grief and fear.

Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator SJ is a Nigerian Jesuit priest who heads an educational institution in Kenya.

 

Hear it from the people: What's wrong in CAR?

 

IRIN || By Crispin Dembassa-Kette || 08 April 2015

 

The room was packed. Everyone wanted to speak: unsurprising after years of conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and seen the Central African Republic riven by ethnic and religious cleansing.

After a lifetime of being ignored, the ordinary people of CAR are finally having their say, taking advantage of a unique opportunity to speak truth to power.

In the town of Baoro, 400 kilometres from the capital Bangui in northeastern Nana Mabéré prefecture, power took the form of Minister of Communications Victor Wake. Loud applause and ululations punctuated each intervention.

Many spoke of the horrors the town suffered under the control of the rebel Seleka alliance that toppled president Francois Bozizé in March 2013 and remained in power for 10 months.

“There was violence here and brutal attacks by the ex-Seleka which cost the lives of 163 people, including 30 women and 10 children.,” said a man who identified himself as secretary of the town’s self-defence units.

“They burned houses, including my own. We counted 1,586 burned houses. But nothing has been done for the victims here,” the man added.

Another speaker recalled: “When the [rebels] came they threatened me and I hid in the bush. I drank dirty water and fell sick and was evacuated to a hospital in Bangui for two months.”

“The Selekas came and torched my field and stole all my animals. Many houses were burned here but the owners have got no help at all. It’s sad. That’s what we want you to tell the president.”

Since late January, meetings like this, called grassroots popular consultations, have been taking place in all of CAR’s 16 prefectures as well in neighbouring countries such as Cameroon, Chad, and the two Congos - where some 190,000 CAR citizens live as refugees.

The consultations are a prelude to the Bangui Forum on National Reconciliation, due to be held from 27 April to 4 May, which aims to shore up a new peace deal and determine the eligibility criteria for elections slated for later this year. 

“Mr. Minister, unemployment is rampant here in Baoro. Young people are just hanging around town with nothing to do. Bring the NGOs here to give them work,” said a woman who took the floor.

“Then there is security. The gendarmes and police don’t have the resources to do their job; they don’t even have a motorbike. Think about giving the security forces at least a vehicle,” she added.

The Bangui Forum will bring together peoples’ representatives chosen during the popular consultations, leaders of armed groups, transitional authorities and political parties, as well as prominent members of civil society.

CAR’s constant political unrest can be directly linked to a failure of governance, a failure to deliver basic services and security to most of the population, especially the farthest-flung and most marginalized areas that are prone to armed opposition.

Wake explained that the object of the consultations was to “let the people speak, encourage everyone to unburden themselves, to let loose their fears and hopes, to identify the challenges to overcome and hear their ideas about how to emerge from crisis for once and for all.”

The people of Baoro did not waste their rare opportunity to tell it like it is, and provided a grim snapshot of the ills and dire needs that plague most of the country.

Another speaker railed at the sense of impunity and called for the town’s jail to be rebuilt.

“FACA (CAR’s dilapidated army) and the police and gendarmes should be given weapons to provide security. Also, our hospital must be given medical supplies and competent staff,” he said.

“I call on the government to build an agricultural development centre in our town, to support farmers and livestock-raisers with subsidies and loans. Young people must also be helped by giving them income-generating activities,” said another speaker.

The grievances are much the same all over the country, according to summaries of the consultations presented recently at the Bangui headquarters of CAR’s provisional parliament.

The nation’s preoccupations, “hinge on impunity, security, meeting basic needs, peaceful coexistence between communities, national reconciliation and social cohesion,” General Babacar Gueye, UN envoy to CAR, said in remarks to open the Bangui presentation.

In eastern Haut-Mbomou prefecture, “people feel abandoned to the mercy of armed groups such as Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army [a rebel group of Ugandan origin] and groups of armed peuhls [an ethnic minority],” said consultation facilitator Bernadette Gambo.

“People also told us of the kidnapping of around 2,000 children by rebels in South Sudan. Their parents are demanding their return and want better security in their area,” she said.

Minister of Reconciliation Jeanette Détoua conducted the consultations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where some 75,000 CAR citizens live as refugees.

“Our compatriots in DRC said that former presidents Francois Bozizé and (Seleka leader) Michel Djotodia should come back to the country to seek forgiveness because they are to blame for this division between the people of Central Africa. They also said that those who are not Central African and who came to divide the country should be sent home,” she said.

CAR has tried before to seek reconciliation by involving government officials, party leaders, civil society and rebel commanders in peace talks or dialogue, but there is hope that this effort is different.

“Previous processes have always favoured politico-military actors to the detriment of these crises’ innocent victims,” said interim President Catherine Samba Panza. 

Applauding this new approach, the UN Development Programme’s Africa Director Abdoulaye Mar Dieye said on a recent visit to CAR: “Solutions to peace and development lie with the people. If we listen to them, we can find the solutions.”

Former Seleka rebels at first openly opposed the public consultations, but may now be coming round to the idea.

“In five of the 16 prefectures, there was resistance from armed groups and the facilitators came back to Bangui,” said Detoua, the reconciliation minister.

In the central town of Kaga-Bandoro, the rebels briefly abducted the regional prefect and the town’s mayor who had been set to lead the consultation there. And, in Bambari, they chased a whole team of facilitators out of town.

However, after negotiations with the rebels, consultations were later held successfully in both locations.

Everyone is finally getting a chance to have their say. For those unable to attend the consultations, the government has even set up a special hotline.

 

South Sudanese MPs Extend President Kiir’s Term Till 2018

 

Sudan Tribune || 24 March 2015

 

South Sudanese lawmakers on Tuesday passed the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2015, extending for more three years president Salva Kiir’s mandate in office.

President Kiir’s term, according to South Sudan’s Transitional Constitution, officially ends on 9 July. This prompted the introduction of the Bill, which sought to extend the president’s term in office for two additional years.

270 lawmakers attended Tuesday’s session with 264 voting in support of the extension while six opposition MPs voted against parliament’s decision.

The motion passed by parliament will see president Kiir in power until July 2018.

“It is unanimously agreed that the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2015 is passed and will become law on its signature by the president,” said speaker Manasse Mangok Rundial.

Opposition lawmakers had earlier tried to block the Bill but failed due to their few numbers in the assembly compared to their counterparts from the ruling party (SPLM).

Currently, there about six members from the main opposition, SPLM-DC in parliament, while the ruling SPLM party consists of 325 lawmakers.

The Bill will now be sent to the presidency before it is eventually signed into law.

Thomas Kundu, head of parliament’s information committee, said the extension will enable the country organise national census, draw its constituency borders and plan elections.

The mandate of current parliamentarians was equally extended for three additional years.

Dengtiel Kur, the chairperson of the assembly’s legal affairs committee said the ongoing conflict necessitated the decision by MPs to extend the terms of elected positions based on Article 100 (2) of the constitution.

 

Ebola and HIV: How to Change Behaviour for the Long Term

 

IRIN || By Obinna Anyadike || 20 March 2015

 

There have been no new Ebola infections in Liberia in the past three weeks, but it’s still far too early to say the virus has been defeated – Liberia’s borders are porous and its neighbours have been less successful in taming their outbreaks.

[After this article was published an Ebola case was confirmed in Liberia on 20 March]

For Liberia to be deemed Ebola-free, there must be no new cases over 42 consecutive days. But even with that goal achieved, the World Health Organization (WHO) is unlikely to immediately declare the crisis over, said WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris.

“We have good surveillance, we’re pretty convinced we don’t have cases at the moment in Liberia, but they are so at risk from the outbreaks still going on along the borders,” she told IRIN.

Guinea and Sierra Leone have suffered setbacks in their fight against Ebola, with a recent spate of cases in both countries. And compliance by Liberians with Ebola advice has not been total; high-risk activities such as the transportation of the dead for funerals is still occurring, said Harris.

But when the day does come and the crisis is declared over, how can prevention lessons be made to stick? Are there models to emulate from the global HIV campaign?

The other epidemic

Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment has reduced the fear of AIDS, but there were 2.1 million new HIV infections globally in 2013. South Africa bears the bulk of the burden with a prevalence rate of 12 percent. Data from South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) indicates that 469,000 new HIV infections occurred in 2012.

Despite more than 25 years of HIV awareness campaigns, the HSRC survey found only 27 percent of South Africans had accurate knowledge about sexual transmission and prevention of HIV in 2012, and condom use had fallen to just over one-third of sexually active men and women.

The HIV prevention mantra was the simple ABC – abstain, be faithful and use condoms. But “the ball game has changed with the widespread availability of treatment”, Leickness Simbayi, a lead investigator at HSRC, told IRIN. “You hardly see any [prevention] billboards or posters, let alone media-based HIV/AIDS campaigns which were abundant over a decade ago.

“This is partly because of the over-emphasis on biomedical solutions, including the belief that we can treat ourselves out of the epidemic,” he said. “I’d like to see us go back to the basics and highlight ABC.”

Both the HIV and Ebola public health campaigns have had to make the complex science of infection and disease control accessible, tackle stigma and counter rumour and misinformation. 

“People need clear, accurate information in their own language, delivered by people who they trust and believe in; then they can act on advice given if basic resources are provided. Just as with HIV, people need to know how Ebola is transmitted, how it is not transmitted and how they can protect themselves. Education is the best vaccine to stop the spread of Ebola,” wrote Breda Gahan, global HIV/AIDS programme adviser with Concern Worldwide.

Better understanding

But health authorities in West Africa struggled with the messaging at the beginning of the emergency – which undermined their credibility. Essentially the approach has focused on changing risky behaviour related to “traditional” practices, and in so doing has ignored the social context and belief systems of the communities they are trying to persuade, according to an article in the medical journal The Lancet by the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform.

“WHO is going to have to get a lot better at understanding the decisions people make, and that’s really the hard part,” said Harris. “We are actively recruiting people with these skills so we can understand the message to action better.”

Behaviour change “requires buy-in from the community” and recognising “people’s priorities”, said Simbayi - a far cry from old “top-down” approaches that treated the audience as passive recipients of information.

“We found that for the majority of the population, HIV was not their number one concern. Getting food on the table and a roof over their heads was. Out of the top 10, HIV was fifth or sixth,” Simbayi noted. Some of the drivers of HIV could therefore be addressed “simultaneously with other structural interventions, such as social grants, or keeping girls in school”, tackling the roots of vulnerability.

That creativity could be applied to the Ebola prevention campaign, to keep it relevant and avoid message fatigue. “Those tasked with asking people to change practices and activities associated with Ebola transmission should be allowed the time and flexibility to negotiate mutually agreed changes that are locally practical, socially acceptable, as well as epidemiologically appropriate,” the Lancet article argued.

 

Women and Malnutrition – the Case of South Sudan

 

IRIN || By Jason Patinkin || 18 March 2015

 

Pregnant and breastfeeding women are the demographic group most at risk of malnutrition in South Sudan after children, making up some 12 percent of all those on supplementary feeding programmes.

Such women’s vulnerability can be largely attributed to the higher nutritional needs associated with supporting a foetus or nursing an infant.

But there is also a social component. In a country with strict gender roles, women do more physical labour than men, but may not get as much food. Pregnant women traditionally refrain from eating certain high-nutrition foods, such as eggs and liver, for (misplaced) fear they could cause birth defects. Women have little say in family planning decisions even during lean times. 

They also often go without food so their children have enough.

"I can't take more than my children," explains Khadija,* a malnourished mother of four, a refugee from a rebel war in neighbouring Sudan who now lives in Fashoda County of South Sudan's Upper Nile State.

(A separate civil war has been raging in several parts of South Sudan since December 2013.)

Nursing her youngest, a boy of six months, she said: "I don't like to see my children suffering more than me."

While providing additional food is the first line of defence against malnutrition, it also important to educate both men and women about how to attain adequate nutrition for mothers.

"Malnutrition persists because there is a cultural line to doing things," says Zahra Mokgosi, gender adviser for the World Food Programme. "Fighting patriarchy is like changing the status of the culture...we really have to work with women, the community leaders, with the religious leaders."

Fashoda has only moderate rates food insecurity, nutritionists here say, so the fact that even here there are cases of severe malnutrition among pregnant and lactating women shows the fragility of that group's health.

Adult deaths from malnutrition are extremely rare, but malnourishment can have negative effects on pregnant or lactating women and their children.

Malnourished women can experience prolonged labour because they may not have the energy to push the baby out, and malnourished mothers often give birth to malnourished babies.

"Nutrition starts in utero," says Carol Kaburu, a nurse in the ante-natal clinic in Fashoda's hospital run by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Kaburu warns that poor nutrition can lead to birth complications.

"If you are not well nourished, you get anaemia, then when you give birth you will have low haemoglobin levels and you will tend to bleed a lot. So nutrition is key in pregnancy."

Day to day, being pregnant without enough to eat is exhausting.

"It's like I'm sick, but I'm not sick," says Angelina,* a malnourished mother in Fashoda who is seven months pregnant. "Talking is not easy. When I start to move to work, my head spins. I can even fall down."

Angelina eats just one meal a day, a half kilo of sorghum made into porridge shared with her husband and child. Sometimes two spoons are all that's left for her once the rest of her family finishes eating, she says.

Malnutrition isn't only related to the amount of food going in, it's also the amount of energy going out, and women in South Sudan work hard.

"Women have to look for firewood, they have to cook what little they have, they have to wash, there is quite a range of activities they are doing using their energy so their nutritional status is a bit low," says Joel Makii, a nutrition adviser in South Sudan with CARE International. "Men, they don't engage in a lot of manual jobs, they just sit and chat." 

With few jobs available, but children to feed, women each day walk up to an hour to forests where they cut logs before transporting the loads on their heads. When sold, the wood is worth enough to buy a kilo or so of flour.

Most men refuse to help in the endeavour because it is seen as women's work.

"In our culture men cannot collect firewood," says Mary*, a nursing mother of three whose left bicep measures less than 21 cm around, an indicator of severe malnourishment. "The men will not share the work, even if I'm not feeling well."

Mary says on days she is too weak to cut wood, she begs from neighbours.

Even when there is enough food, pregnant South Sudanese women may not be able to access the nutrition they need.

Each month since January, pregnant and lactating women in Fashoda whose middle upper arms measure less than 23 cm around have received an additional 7.5 kg of an enriched corn-soy blend from World Vision.

The extra food appears to have contributed to declines in malnutrition among mothers in the area, but it may take months for the women to fully recover.

The supplement doesn't address more unpredictable needs of a pregnancy. Angelina, in her third trimester, says lately she's craved potatoes and tomatoes with no recourse. Mothers often give the corn-soy blend to their children.

"We try to discourage them from sharing," says Dorothy Matyatya, World Vision's head nutritionist in Fashoda. "You know women being women they would want to share everything with their children."

Food handouts also address only one side of the malnutrition equation.

"It's not just about food," says Kaburu, the nurse at ICRC's ante-natal clinic. Kaburu says pregnant women need deworming pills in case there are parasites which divert nutrition from the mother. They need Vitamin A too, and to fight anaemia, iron supplements and mosquito nets which prevent malaria.

With only one hospital in Fashoda distributing all these supplements, not all women get what they need. Malnourished women may not know to seek medicine when their immediate concern is food, yet the nutrition program doesn't always refer them to the ante-natal clinic.

"Unless you have a [medical] problem you don't get medical care," Kaburu says.

A potential longer term solution to malnourishment among pregnant and lactating women is better family planning, but men often control such decisions, and contraception is rare and even scorned in deeply religious South Sudan.

"If she's your wife, she's your wife," said a local male chief, emphasizing the possessive. "A man cannot wait."

Angelina, who became pregnant after South Sudan's conflict began, said she'd rather have waited for a more stable time to have a child.

"If I could choose I wouldn't have become pregnant during a war," she says.

Mokgosi from WFP says her organization attempts to work with men to improve nutrition access for women, but the process is slow.

Men at times react with hostility at suggestions to change entrenched customs, she says. South Sudan’s low levels of development exacerbates the challenge.

“When you explain to an educated person that if you don’t feed your wife she’ll have teeth rotting [due to lack of nutrients], you’re talking to someone who understands what calcium is and what iron is,” she says. “But if you are talking to someone who says, ‘my mother and father used to say all the invited guests must eat first before the mother,’ these are barriers that are related to education, to poverty.”

 

Mobile Reading Platform Worldreader Wants to Double Its African Reach

 

AllAfrica.com || 15 March 2015

 

 

The much repeated truism is that Africans don't read much. But the steady spread of young book readers on the Worldreader mobile platform gives a tantalizing glimpse of a day when that may no longer be true. Russell Southwood spoke to Elizabeth Hensick Wood, Managing Director, Worldreader Europe about new developments on the platform.

Worldreader was set up to bring books to children and families to help them improve their lives. It started out by running a programme offering Kindles in schools in Ghana but has moved to a much wider platform on mobile. It partnered with featurephone platform biNu to offer books on this platform. Through this route, it reached 1.2 million unique readers in 2014, who on average spent one hour reading:"We average about 200,000 active monthly readers and 125,000 of those are across the African continent."

It is now looking to double that reach in two different ways. Firstly, biNu is extending its platform to include Android users.

Secondly, it is partnering with Opera Mini and Mozilla to build browser apps for these platforms. The Opera platform has 300 million users globally, many of which are in Africa:"We want to be completely device agnostic."

On the content side, it added a further 10,000 books in 2014 and now has a catalogue of 15,000 available books.

In addition, it has a couple of translation projects in the works with South African publisher Big Bug Books and Translators Without Borders. It will offer books in 10 local African languages including Twi, Swahili and Yoruba.

"This is great for publishers as we pay for the translation. It's a huge amount of work and funding for local translators. We digitize the whole lot into e-publications and say to the publisher, market them how you like.

The majority of its books are free to use and require the user only to have a data connection. Whilst data rates vary enormously, the cost of reading text is typically in the region of US2 cents a thousand words.

It also now has books for sale at a variety of different prices:"It's an experiment and we want to see revenues go back to the publishers. Although mobile money is very big, payment gateways aren't really there yet. So it's possible in some countries and not others."

Nevertheless, it sold 5,000 books in 2014 and in terms of its African sales, 90% were in Nigeria and Zimbabwe:" On the biNu platform, we use biNu credits and these are easy to buy in Zimbabwe. In Nigeria there's also a great payment gateway. We believe that these gateways are being established and that it will be much easier in the future."

When surveyed (see link at bottom of this story), the content readers wanted fell into three categories: 1) Love (a high proportion of existing reading by their women readers is romance); 2) education (particularly science, maths and languages for school); and 3) Inspiration (the continent's ubiquitous appetite for self-help books). In addition to getting this content, it also wants to make it available in as many languages as possible.

But Wood is also keen to recruit more African authors to the platform:"There's so much great writing coming out of Africa. Currently children are not able to get access to it. We did a stories project in schools in Uganda and the teachers were amazed to find Ugandan stories. They hadn't realized there were Ugandan authors on a digital device like a Kindle or a mobile. Those children can now say I would like to be an author."

So will it do audiobooks?:"That's a super interesting space. African parents engaging with the children's reading are not always literate themselves. We'd like to be able to offer books where you can see the words and hear them spoken. You could have bi-lingual editions, for example Kikuyu-English and we're exploring that with Mozilla. We can take reluctant readers and turn them into readers."

This article was originally posted on Smart Monkey TV.

 

Plan to Export Medics ‘threatens Uganda’s epidemic response’

 

IRIN || By By Samuel Okiror || 11 March 2015

 

Uganda’s ability to respond to major epidemics will be undermined if plans to send 263 doctors, nurses and midwives to the Caribbean are carried out, civil society activists have warned.

The healthcare workers are due to travel on renewable two-year contracts to Trinidad and Tobago under a bilateral agreement the Ugandan government says will improve the skills of those who take part.

Uganda suffers from a chronic shortage of health workers – more than 21,000 posts in the sector are currently unfilled – largely because of low pay and poor working conditions. Upon qualifying, hundreds of nurses leave Uganda every year for better-paid jobs in western countries as well as in Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa.

“This dangerous plan should be stopped - a government plan to exacerbate brain drain is indefensible. Unless reversed, this move will undermine the fight against maternal mortality, HIV and other leading killers in Uganda,” Asia Russell, the executive director of Health GAP, a local NGO, told IRIN.

It will also leave communities more vulnerable to the ravages of outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Ebola and Marburg. Governments should be fixing this emergency by increasing health worker pay; instead they want to make an emergency shortage of health workers worse,” she said.
There have been five Ebola outbreaks in Uganda over the past 14 years, which claimed hundreds of lives, and three of the Marburg virus.

“Government participation in the exportation process is retrogressive and thus an indication of failure under its human rights obligations. In the absence of a comprehensive study projecting that the benefits of this exportation outweigh the damage, government has no point to make in such a process,” Moses Mulumba, director of the Kampala-based Centre for Human Rights and Development told IRIN.

He added that international norms required all such overseas recruitments to “be conducted in accordance with the principles of transparency, fairness and promotion of sustainability of health systems in developing countries, which this particular recruitment has not witnessed.”

The United States, whose training and paying of 17,000 Ugandan health care workers makes it the biggest donor to the sector, found the plan “troubling,” according to embassy spokesman Daniel Travis.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ role in actively recruiting health professionals to work overseas when there is a compelling need for health workers in Uganda undercuts our efforts in the health sector, especially when the Ministry of Health still seeks donor assistance in training and paying for health professionals here in Uganda,” he said.

The mood among those heading to the Caribbean was more enthusiastic.
“We can’t turn down the offer. It’s just amazing and attractive. The remuneration looks so good. We are fed up of being paid peanuts in Uganda with all our expertise,” one of the recruited pediatricians who has been working at a public hospital, told IRIN.

The state minister for primary health care, Sarah Opendi, said the main problem was not a shortage of “health workers in the public sector per se. Our main challenge is the shortage of the resource envelope to recruit them in service.”

Opendi called on civil society activists to pressure the government to allocate more resources to the health sector to enable it to fill all vacant positions.

 

No Efforts Should be Spared in Saving South Sudan

Kenya Standard Digital || By the Standard || 09 March 2015

The South Sudan peace talks that were being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, have once again collapsed.

The warring factions led by rebel leader Reik Machar and President Salva Kiir had until Thursday last week to come up with a comprehensive peace agreement that was to help South Sudan find its footing again.

The crisis in Africa’s youngest nation began in December 2013 after President Kiir fired his then deputy, Machar and sparked off a crisis that precipitated a civil war that has, to date, claimed more than 10000 lives and displaced close to two million people.

Whereas President Kiir’s action may have been dictated by political expediency, Machar’s dismissal took on ethnic connotations that have since pitted the Dinka tribe against the Nuer.

Mediation efforts headed by the African Union (AU) and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have failed and, to save the country, sterner measures that go beyond diplomacy might be necessary.

The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution last week to impose sanctions on the people impeding the delicate peace process.

The resolution demanded that President Kiir and Mr Machar adhere to the January 23, 2014 Cessation of Hostilities Agreement and respect human rights. President Kiir and Mr Machar have shown little political goodwill in solving the political impasse and must therefore be held responsible for the collapse of South Sudan.

While Mr Machar insists on being appointed the first Vice President, Mr Kiir has shown no willingness to consent to that. The African Union appointed former Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo to head a task force on South Sudan whose handed-in report is yet to be officially released.

It is believed the AU team recommended that the two antagonists be barred from being part of a transitional government under the auspices of the African Union. Continued hostilities deny the citizens of South Sudan the fruits of their 21 years struggle for self-rule.

The government is shaky and unable to offer basic services to its citizenry. The country’s oil reserves are not being exploited to the maximum because the civil war has either stopped or greatly slowed down production.

The loss of oil revenue has denied the country the much-needed foreign exchange to facilitate vital imports. Agricultural production has been adversely affected and the country is faced with looming hunger.

Kenya is likely to continue witnessing an influx of refugees escaping the war in South Sudan.

This, apart from putting a strain on the country’s stretched resources, poses a security threat.

Many Kenyans have set up businesses in South Sudan that stand to suffer losses if the hostilities are not stopped.

Further, no investors will be keen to put their investments in a country that is politically unstable. To save South Sudan, the AU, IGAD and the UN must come up with a formula for lasting peace or, if necessary, put travel bans and asset freezes on the belligerent parties.

 

Disaster-Prone Madagascar Battles Flooding and Drought

 

IRIN || 05 March 2015

 

Authorities in Madagascar are struggling to respond to increasingly severe flooding in the central highlands region of the country that includes the capital, Antananarivo, in addition to a prolonged drought in the south.

The latest round of flooding, which started when three rivers that cross Antananarivo – the Sisaony, Ikopa and Imamba – burst their banks during a storm on 24 February, has left 19 people dead and an estimated 36,000 displaced, according to the National Office for the Management of Risks and Catastrophes (BNRGC in French). A further 40,000 people were displaced in 13 other districts.

On Wednesday, BNRGC issued a new alert warning that a low-pressure system just off the island’s west coast was expected to bring more torrential rainfall to the central highlands region. Several neighbourhoods in Antananarivo remain braced for further flooding and landslides over the coming days. 

The current flooding adds to the many challenges already facing the city in the wake of Tropical Storm Chezda, which caused 68 deaths and almost 80,000 displacements across Madagascar - over 16,000 in Antananarivo alone - during the weekend of 17 January. In the aftermath, several of the city’s public spaces, such as sports stadia, have been providing temporary shelter for the displaced.

Antananarivo’s topography means the heavy rains have had varying impacts on different parts of the capital. While residents of lower lying areas like Soavina have had to contend with waist-high gushing waters, the city’s hillier areas have experienced landslides and significant infrastructural damage. 

BNRGC has issued a warning for landslides in several locations. The agency’s staff have been going door-to-door warning residents in affected areas to examine their homes for cracks or other signs of damage.

Many of the worst affected are the city’s poorest residents who violated city planning policy by constructing their houses in riverside areas prone to cyclical flooding during the high plateau’s December to April rainy season.

The National Assembly has organised a telethon to collect donations from members of the public while also asking for more support from the international community. City residents have also been mobilising to assist those affected by the flooding with various church groups calling for donations.

Meanwhile, southern areas of this vast Indian Ocean island have been enduring a protracted drought. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which is supporting the national response, estimates that 80,000 people are in need of urgent food assistance. However, an additional US$3 to $4 million is needed to respond and the funding gap is expected to increase in the coming weeks.

 

Namibia President Pohamba Gets $5m Award for African Leadership

 

BBC News Africa || 02 March 2015

 

The outgoing Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba has won the world's most valuable individual award, the Mo Ibrahim prize for African leadership.

The $5m (£3.2m) award is given each year to an elected leader who governed well, raised living standards and then left office.

But the previous award was the fourth in five years to have gone unclaimed.

Mr Pohamba, a former rebel who fought for his country's independence, has served two terms as Namibian president.

He was first elected in 2004, and again in 2009. He is due to be succeeded by President-elect, Hage Geingob.

Mr Pohamba was a founding member of the South West Africa People's Organisation (Swapo), an armed movement that waged a decades-long campaign against South African rule.

Since the country won independence in 1990, Swapo has dominated politics, usually winning huge majorities in elections.

Mr Pohamba, 80, was named recipient of the 2014 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership at a ceremony in Nairobi, Kenya.

Mo Ibrahim is a British-Sudanese mobile communications entrepreneur and philanthropist who made billions from investing in Africa.

He launched the prize to encourage African leaders to leave power peacefully.

The inaugural prize was awarded in 2007 to Joaquim Chissano, Mozambique's former president, who has since acted as a mediator in several African disputes.

The $5m prize is spread over 10 years and is followed by $200,000 a year for life.

Who is Hifikepunye Pohamba?

• Born in 1935 in northern Namibia - a region that would become a base for the Swapo liberation movement
• Educated by missionaries and employed in a copper mine as a young man
• Co-founder of Swapo and close ally of Namibia's first President, Sam Nujoma
• Jailed for political activism by South African-backed authorities, later left to study in the Soviet Union
• Worked on land reform as minister in post-independence Namibia
• Was chosen by Mr Nujoma to succeed him as president in 2004

Gradually emerged from Mr Nujoma's shadow as a soft-spoken consensus builder

 

Three Words of Advice for WHO Africa's New Chief

 

IRIN || By Jennifer Lazuta || 24 February 2015

 

The World Health Organization says the number of new Ebola cases per week rose twice this month for the first time since December.

This rise in incidence of new cases - if proven to be a trend - will be just one of the challenges facing WHO’s new regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti, as she attempts to overcome the multitude of criticism launched against WHO in recent months for its failure to act earlier and more competently during West Africa’s ongoing Ebola outbreak.

“This is a critical moment for the WHO,” said Michael Merson, director of Duke University’s Global Health Institute. “It’s a real crossroads as to whether or not they’ll be able to reform and become an effective and efficient organization, particularly at the regional level.”

Moeti, who officially took office 1 February, has vowed to make fighting Ebola WHO’s “highest priority,” while supporting countries to develop strategies to build up their health care systems, and reduce maternal and child mortality, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and non-communicable diseases.

Many international observers say they have high hopes for Moeti, a medical doctor who has more than 35 years of experience working in the national and global public health sector. But she has a tough road ahead – particularly as the number of Ebola cases continues to rise, nearly a year after the outbreak was first declared.

Here’s some advice from a few experts as Moeti begins her five-year term:

1. Think Local

Having competent and qualified staff on the ground, whose skills and expertise are matched to the needs of the country, is key to effectively implementing WHO policies and recommendations.

“Everyone tends to discuss WHO at the global level and the regional level, but I don’t think this is where the problem lies,” said Fatou Francesca Mbow, an independent health consultant in West Africa. “It really lies in what the WHO is meant to be doing at country level. It is of no use to have very technical people sitting in Washington [D.C.] or Geneva, and then, where things are actually happening, [they become] politicians.”

Mbow said that despite a wealth of technical documents being produced at headquarters, very often the staff from the field offices are appointed based on political motives. Country and field-level office meetings are often dominated by talk that, while politically correct, says “nothing of real meaning”.

Staff reform at the local level will require both investing in employee development, including recruiting new and existing talent to the field offices, as well as making posts in “hardship” countries more attractive to the most qualified experts.

“What often happens is that when people in-country are seen as being quite effective, they tend to get headhunted by the headquarters of the institutions that represent them,” said Sophie Harman, a senior lecturer in international politics at Queen Mary University of London. “So we see a type of brain-drain among people working in these sectors.”

She said that improving salaries and offering more benefits, as well as taking into account what these people have to offer, could go a long way in incentivising them to stay at their field-level posts.

“Good documents are interesting,” Mbow said. “But unless you have people at country level who understand them, who participate in writing them, who are able to implement them, who are passionate and committed to doing so, they’re just going to be reports.”

2. Strengthen health systems

There were many factors that contributed to the unprecedented spread of the Ebola outbreak, but inherently weak local health systems in the three most-affected countries meant that local clinics did not have the capacity, resources or expertise to handle even the smallest of caseloads.

WHO must now work with local governments, partners and other on-the-ground agencies in all African countries to train and employ more doctors and nurses, implement universal health care coverage, and invest in better vigilance and surveillance measures.

“I think the real test will be… how the WHO turns this outbreak into an opportunity to use our energy and thoughts and actions to build health systems that will not only help people [day-to-day], but will be able to respond to health crises like this in the future,” said Chikwe Ihekweazu, a managing partner of the health consulting firm EpiAfric.

Increasing the number of health workers will be particularly important post-outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where more than 400 health workers have died from Ebola, including some of the countries’ top doctors and nurses.

“The WHO also needs to help minimise the knock-on effect that the Ebola outbreak is having on other health priorities in the region, such as HIV/AIDS and maternal health,” Harman said. “What we are seeing is that because of Ebola, people are afraid and so they are not accessing health facilities, which might actually reverse some of the many gains we’ve seen in the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals].”

3. Rebuild credibility

Despite WHO having, admittedly, acted much too late, both in terms of identifying the Ebola outbreak and then mobilizing resources to contain it – and losing much of its credibility in the process – experts agree that WHO remains a much-needed and relevant global health body, particularly when it comes to technical expertise.

“We all recognize that the WHO has had a fairly good history in the past,” Ihekweazu said. “And while it was certainly criticized for its slow response at the beginning of the outbreak…the WHO is seen as the leading organisation that provides guidance for countries and I think…we are at a stage where [Africa] needs the WHO as a mutual partner who provides leadership for the continent going forward.”

Mbow agreed: “What I would say is that when you are criticised, take the blame fairly, but don’t lose sight. And don’t lose confidence in the resources you do have to offer.”

Restoring donor confidence in WHO will be particularly important, as the regional office for Africa has the largest budgetary needs, the most countries, and, in many ways, the most challenging health problems to deal with.

“No one wants harm done to the WHO,” Merson said. “We will be a much better, healthier planet, if the WHO is strong and effective… But it is never going to have a huge budget and so I think its strengths should be in standard-setting, norm-setting and providing the best technical sound advice in health that countries need.”

 

Ebola: Back to School, But is it Safe?

 

IRIN || By Prince Collins and John Sahr Sahid || 20 February 2015

 

More than two million pupils in Liberia and Sierra Leone are heading back to school after a six-month shutdown caused by the Ebola outbreak. Authorities have taken steps to prevent further transmissions but conditions in both countries leave room for concern.

“I am afraid to go to school,” said Sam Joekor, a 15-year-old student in Monrovia. “We are still hearing news about Ebola in some communities. You don’t know who you will come into contact with on campus, so I am really afraid. I don’t want to die from Ebola,” he told IRIN.

But according to local authorities, both countries are ready. Some schools in Liberia resumed class 16 February; the rest must open by 2 March, or face fines. Sierra Leone says it plans to reopen schools nationwide by the end of March.

“We don’t think [the decision to reopen] is premature, because we now have the ability to adequately deal with any cases that are reported, particularly in the schools,” said Abdulai Bayraytay, government spokesperson in Sierra Leone.

There and in Liberia, hundreds of teachers have been trained on how to limit transmission.

Hand-washing stations have been installed at many schools across Liberia and will soon be in place in Sierra Leone. Before any child or teacher enters the classroom, he or she must disinfect their hands with a chlorine solution. The temperature of each student and teacher will also be checked each morning.

At the first indication of fever or sickness, students will be sent to an on-campus emergency isolation room, before being referred to a local health clinic, as part of a newly created referral system in Liberia.

Liberia’s Ministry of Education says parents have also been warned against sending their children to school if they show any signs of illness.

Nagging concerns

In Liberia, more than half the schools don’t have a regular supply of water. Large quantities will have to be carried to the hand-washing stations each morning from neighboring wells.

Some schools in in the more remote areas of Liberia, where schools were originally scheduled to open nationwide on 2 February, still have not received safety supplies, such as buckets, chlorine solution or thermometers, due to poor road conditions.

“Imagine the practicality of 300 children washing their hands one by one…and then having each of their temperatures taken each morning,” said Steve Morgan, country director for Save the Children in Liberia. “There’s a real time factor for those children moving through and doing all those things before they even get into the classroom.”

While teachers have been trained on how to prevent transmission, many complain that such healthcare duties will only add to the burdens of large class sizes and lack of assistants.

“So there will be a lot of challenges and we are aware of these challenges,” Morgan said. “But that notwithstanding, it’s a great thing that kids are going back to school.”

Fear and poverty

Ramsey Kumbuyah, the deputy education minister for administration in Liberia said many children “have no hope of getting back this year [because] they lack the funding” for fees, uniforms and other supplies.

Many were orphaned by Ebola, while the parents of others lost their jobs due to the outbreak.

“My father died from the virus in August,” said 26-year-old mature high-school student Elijah Toby. “He was the only person that was responsible to pay my school fees. Now I have no hope…I have no money and my Mum is not working…. Ebola has put me way behind.”

Experts IRIN spoke to warned that many of these older students, such as Toby, will likely drop out altogether. Some, even the younger ones, may have had to take on work to help their families during the outbreak and will also not return.

Other students will be forbidden by their family to go to class for fear of catching Ebola.

“I am really worried about the safety of my children,” father Samuel Tar told IRIN, in Monrovia. “I still have doubt that they will be safe. I don’t trust the school.”

There is also concern that ongoing stigma problems could keep children who are Ebola survivors out of the classroom.

Education lag

Despite the creation of ‘teaching by radio’ programs in Liberia and Sierra Leone, which allowed students across the country to listen to daily lessons and complete exercises in their homes, not everyone participated and the lessons were often generalized to include more than one class level.

“What they probably have done is help to continue to whet to the appetite to learn and continue to ensure that children were engaged in the education system,” Morgan said. “So in that sense they played an important role. But it could never be more than a bridge.”

Sierra Leone’s Inspector Directorate of the Ministry of Education, Mohamed Sillah Sesay, told IRIN: “The Ministry knew that such programs would not have a very huge impact. But we had to do something to help the students.”

Teachers, who themselves were also idle for many months, say they worry that the long delay in “real” education will affect student’s school performance.

“Ebola made our children forget lots of things in school,” said Mary Thomas, who works in Liberia. “Some of them have forgotten about basic math and hardly know how to comprehend. I am worried.”

 

Life after Combat in CAR: The Challenges

IRIN || 17 February 2015

Helping thousands of fighters in the Central African Republic return to civilian life presents a dilemma for aid workers: offer too many incentives and risk rewarding violence; offer too few and potentially fail to stem it.

Either way, the process of disarming, demobilising and reintegrating (DDR) armed groups - according to the UN mission in CAR - is “absolutely indispensable”.

Here’s a look at the challenges.

How many combatants are there?

Around, 2,000 in the coalition of predominantly Muslim insurgent groups known as Séléka, which held power in CAR for 10 months after a March 2013 coup, and 1,500 among the anti-balaka, the name used for disparate groups which coalesced to fight the Séléka. Together, they “pose a permanent threat to peace, security and stability,” according to an October 2014 report by a UN panel of experts on CAR. In addition, around 1,000 Séléka fighters are confined to barracks in the capital Bangui. In November, a group of these fighters threatened to blow up an ammunition dump in the city if they did not receive back-pay they thought they were owed.

Much higher figures have been quoted for the anti-balaka by its own leaders, such as Joachim Kokate (also a former government adviser on DDR), who claimed last December that they numbered 20,000 in and around Bangui and 50,000 elsewhere. Sources within the UN mission in CAR, MINUSCA, dismissed these figures as “way off the charts” and suggested a total of 3,000 to 4,000.

Most DDR programmes offer some ex-combatants a chance to enrol in a national army – in theory after they have been vetted. The army officially has about 7,000 troops, but the actual number is probably around 3,000, and few of them have weapons.

How ready is anyone for DDR?

MINUSCA has drawn up a DDR strategy but says the programme won’t start until there is a credible peace agreement signed by armed groups and the government. The Séléka and anti-balaka have seldom fought each other since early 2014 - although they have continued killing civilians. An agreement signed in January by fringe elements of both groups has widely been dismissed as irrelevant.

Kokate told IRIN that most of the anti-balaka have already “returned to their villages” where they are waiting for DDR.

Diplomats and senior aid workers have told IRIN the anti-balaka will not meet the criteria for DDR as they are too disorganised and fragmented. However the spokesperson for international NGOs in CAR, Jacques Terrenoire, said “they need to be offered economic alternatives.”

What’s on offer now?

Mamert Sinarinzi, a spokesperson for MINUSCA’s DDR section, said last month that whereas DDR programmes in the past had been “aimed at individuals with weapons, a more community-based approach should now be envisaged.” Conventional DDR for those ex-combatants who are not enlisting with the army often focuses on providing individuals with money, tools and training for civilian life. In a community-based approach, reintegration incentives are offered to host communities as well as former fighters.

Reintegration of ex-combatants can be as much an issue for communities as for the ex-combatants themselves. “Communities cannot be forced to accept people who may have committed serious abuses,” said the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative in CAR, Jean Alexandre Scaglia.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says its cash-for-work programme in Bangui, which targets members of armed groups and the wider community, could be “a second generation alternative to DDR”. The programme employs “vulnerable people” for 10 days, mainly digging ditches, and pays them a total of 40 euros.

Nearly 50 percent of the programme’s 7,800 participants in 2014 were women while about 10 percent were from armed groups. According to Colonel Kalle Seppala of the European Union force deployed in CAR to protect civilians and humanitarian operations, the programme has helped to reduce violence in Bangui.

IOM hopes the programme will have reached 20,000 people, inside and outside Bangui, by September 2015. The agency reported that 43 percent of participants used the 40 euros they earned from the programme to start up a business as street vendors. However, IOM does not provide training in business skills, and other livelihoods. In some parts of Bangui there now appear to be far more street vendors than the market can sustain.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is working on a $5 million project to train some 10,000 people as builders, auto mechanics, carpenters, electricians, metal workers and plumbers. UNDP’s livelihoods adviser, Eric Levron argues the training could foster a middle class of artisans capable of running productive businesses.

In recent months, FAO’s mission in CAR has trained nearly 300 agricultural advisers in “farmer field school” techniques, a training due to be passed on to hundreds of additional facilitators all over the country.

“The facilitators can help to create livelihood opportunities for ex-combatants,” said Scaglia.

FAO’s CAR office also plans to hire a hunting expert to advise on how this important activity in remote areas could become more viable for communities and youth at risk.

The agency is also looking at ways to help young cattle herders restart livestock production after their animals have been stolen or killed, when they become prone to recruitment by armed groups.

 

South Sudan Cabinet Calls off June Election, Extends President’s Term

Sudan Tribune || 13 February 2015

 

 South Sudan’s general elections, initially set for 30 June this year, will not take place as planned, the country’s council of ministers resolved at its regular meeting.

Members of cabinet on Friday agreed to extend, through parliament, the mandate of the president and the national legislature for two more years.

All amendments discussed will be tabled before MPs next week.

“In our quest for peace, the cabinet has decided to call off the elections and extend the lifespan of the elected positions so that we give peace a chance,” the country’s information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth, told reporters in Juba.

According to the country’s 2011 transitional constitution, the mandate of president Salva Kiir and entire government officially expires on 9 July.

“Cabinet will now work with the national parliament to amend the constitution in a way that extends the mandate of the movement to 9 July 2017,” he said.

The council’s decision comes barely a day after the High Court set 3 March as the date to hear a petition filed by 18 political parties against the National Elections Commission (NEC).

The petitioners say elections cannot be conducted without a permanent constitution in place.

 

Why Government is Right to Postpone Elections in South Sudan?

 

Sudan Tribune || By Luka Biong Deng || 16 February 2015

 

 

The decision of the Council of Ministers to initiate a process of amending the constitution that would allow the postponement of general elections is constitutionally right as per the provisions of the constitution. The elections act like other laws was poorly drafted as it does not give powers to the elections commission to postpone the entire elections and as such the government was legally bound to propose the amendment of the constitution. The timing of the decision was also appropriate as the country was posed to a crisis of constitutional illegitimacy. Importantly, such a decision will not only give peace talks a chance but it will also allow the current parliament to continue to exist legally and to be able to rectify any peace agreement to be concluded as well as making the necessary amendments in the current constitution in the light of any future peace agreement.

Politically, the government has strategically and smartly handled the elections well. It has established the elections commission that managed to discharge its constitutional obligations by declaring the conduct of elections on 30th June 2015. Despite the enormous changes
facing the conduct of elections, the government took strategic move to support the decision of the elections commission. This expressed intention of the government to support the conduct of elections has worked very well in creating popular demand by all stakeholders such as civil society, political parties and international community to demand for postponement of elections. In fact the government has succeeded to ensure its constitutional legitimacy that will hardly be challenged by any if it follows the provisions of the constitution.

The real question is what is expected from the parliament to amend in the current constitution so as to allow for postponement of elections and to create conducive environment for the conduct of the next elections? First the proposed amendment should clearly define the extended period of transitional period. Interestingly and with abundance of competent lawyers in the cabinet and parliament, the current constitution does not clearly define the transition period but it is implicitly referred to in the article that defines the expiration of legitimacy of government by 9th July 2015.

Secondly, the two years proposed by the government for the conduct of the next elections may need to be reviewed carefully. It seems the government is subscribed to the narrative that the conduct of population census is necessary for determining the number of constituencies as per provisions of Article 194 of the constitution. It has been shown from cumulative wealth of evidence that population census is not the necessary prerequisite for determining the number of constituencies and it should not be politicized as a technical exercise. Also a credible conduct of population census would require at least three years. The lawmakers may need to review the provisions of Article 194 with the view that the number of constituencies will, inter alia, be determined by the outcome of population census. This will allow the elections commission to use other mechanisms such as the results of last population census as the basis for determining the number of constituencies. If the conduct of elections is delinked from the conduct of population census, the proposed period of two years may need to be reduced to one year.

Thirdly, it is a common practice that the decision to postpone general elections rests with the election commission that is expected to be an independent body. The power to postpone general elections should not be left to the government because of conflict of interest. The current elections act does not give such powers of postponing the entire elections to the election commission and the lawmakers should seriously consider of how to limit the powers of the government to interfere in the future general elections. The lawmakers can either amend the elections act or to provide a provision in the constitution that gives the power of postponing elections to the elections commission.

Fourthly, as the tenure of the current government will be extended, the parliament may need to define the mandate of the caretaker government at national and state level. For example, the caretaker President may need to be given powers to redeploy the caretaker governors to states that are not states of their origin as successfully tried before by Dr John Garang during the pre-interim period of the CPA. This may contribute in creating conducive environment for fair and credible elections in the states as well as solidifying the sense of unity.

The other question is whether the government will be interested to conclude peace agreement since its legitimacy will be extended? One may see four factors that may push the government to conclude peace; first the economic conditions, second the report of AU Commission of Inquiry, third the Arusha agreement and fourth the next and the last round of peace talks in Ethiopia. These factors can provide pressure or incentive for the government to conclude the peace agreement in the next round of peace talks. Although the government is militarily well equipped, the deteriorating economic conditions will make the military option not a viable option in putting an end to the current civil war. As the government may have exhausted all options for internal and external borrowing and coupled with depleting foreign reserves, the government may be left with economically unpopular option of simply printing money that will push up the prices of basic commodities with far reaching political consequences including the public unrest.

Although the government is happy that the release of the report of the AU Commission of Inquiry has been delayed, it is apparent that the report is likely to be released after the next and final round of peace talks in Ethiopia. The government is aware that the report will
eventually be released and that may not only damage its popular legitimacy but some of its members may face criminal charges.

The Arusha SPLM Reunification Agreement provides a basis for the SPLM in government to take a lead in unifying the SPLM under the leadership of Cde Salva Kiir by taking practical steps in implementing the agreement as well manifested in its endorsement by the SPLM National Liberation Council. At least the Arusha Agreement has strengthened the political legitimacy of government and the SPLM should be keener than other factions of the SPLM to fully implement this agreement. Although IGAD, especially Ethiopia and Sudan, have shown lukewarm attitudes towards Arusah Agreement, the SPLM in government should take further
initiative of inviting the SPLM former detainees to return back to South Sudan and to work jointly in implementing the Arusha agreement.

As they have been gradually marginalized in the peace talks in Addis Ababa, the SPLM former detainees may run the risk of being irrelevant unless they put their remaining political weight in joining hands with the SPLM in government to implement the Arusha Agreement. As Ethiopia felt marginalized in the Arusha Agreement and with Sudan having strategic interest of seeing SPLM divided with the SPLM former detainees isolated and coupled with uninformed decision by some members of international community not to support Arusha Agreement, IGAD will not be keen to use Arusha Agreement to enrich the next round of peace talks. Juba is aware that the next round of peace talks will be detrimental to its legitimacy and it must play its cards very well.

Juba has been loosing its neighbours rapidly, particularly after the visit of President Salva to Egypt. Although Juba may know better what they have achieved with such visit, it is apparently clear that Juba has angered Ethiopia, Uganda and Sudan. Paradoxically Kenya and
particularly its Vice President seems to be diplomatically closer to the SPLM-IO than to Juba. Uganda seems to have opted to diversify its political and diplomatic investment in South Sudan by engaging and increasingly extending support to the SPLM-IO. Ethiopia is getting
closer to Sudan over the Renaissance Dam and probably with SPLM-IO since Juba has started showing diplomatic uneasiness towards Addis Ababa. Sudan seems to have taken a strategic and diplomatic choice to work closer with SPLM-IO than with Juba in pursuing its security interests in South Sudan. International community and lately China with its long standing good relations with Sudan have not been impressed by the performance of Juba. With such increasing regional and international isolation, Juba may need to take the next round of peace talks seriously. The last IGAD proposal on power-sharing may need to be carefully negotiated in light of what heads of IGAD agreed on 25th August 2015 including the agreement on creation of a position of Prime Minister.

In case no peace agreement is concluded in the next round of peace talks, there is a need for the SPLM in government to initiate a national dialogue on what type of government needs to be put in place to manage the extended transitional period till the next elections. One would expect the SPLM in government to initiate a process of putting its house in order on the basis of Arusha Agreement and to take the lead in building national consensus with other political
parties and civil society guided by a comprehensive proposal for forming a government of national unity. The government will certainly gain more in concluding peace agreement than any other stakeholders.

The author is the Director, Centre for Peace and Development Studies, University of Juba, a Global Fellow, Peace Research Institute Oslo, an Associate Fellow, Carr Centre at Harvard Kennedy School. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

 

Why South Sudan’s Children are Fighting Again

 

IRIN || 12 February 2015

 

Thousands of children are fighting with government and rebel forces in South Sudan, reversing a painstaking demobilization program and fanning calls for war crimes trials as a better way to protect minors from recruitment.

To mark the International Day Against the Use of Child Soldiers, this article examines the dynamics of recruitment and the prospects for sustainable demobilization.

Many thousands of children have been killed, wounded, orphaned or displaced since December 2013, when a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar split the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) and triggered a conflict that still shows little sign of ending.

Doune Porter, a spokeswoman for UNICEF, said armed groups including government troops and allied militias as well as an array of opposition forces are currently using more than 12,000 children, and that recruitment is ongoing.

“There had been enormous progress made by the government of South Sudan and the (army) in the release of children and in not recruiting further children. But of course that was all reversed when the conflict started,” Porter told IRIN. “We have reports that recruitment is continuing in many parts of the country and we are extremely concerned about that.”

The figures are a serious blow to the UN-sponsored demobilization effort begun before the country seceded from Sudan in 2011, and raise serious questions about the effectiveness of such programs: Why was the earlier progress so easily reversed? How can future programs be strengthened? Would high-profile prosecutions deter recruitment? Or are they counterproductive?

Naming and shaming

The UN has led efforts to combat the use of children in armed groups around the world since the turn of the millennium, with mixed results.

From 2002, the UN secretary-general has ‘named and shamed’ offending governments and non-state groups in a high-profile annual report on children and armed conflict. Subsequently, the UN Security Council has required those on this list to implement action plans to release children and prevent their future use, as well as to end other “grave violations” of children’s rights, including sexual violence and the armed occupation of schools.

Under its 18-point plan, South Sudan deployed over 1,000 child protection officers throughout the armed forces; trained 30,000 military officers on the subject; and ordered commanders to comply with the process or face sanction.

By December 2013, the SPLA had released 955 children and rejected 450 who had tried to enlist. UNICEF helps the demobilized children find their families and begin the often troubled process of returning to school and civilian life. According to Porter, only about 500 children were still serving with the SPLA when the latest conflict broke out.

South Sudanese officials insist they are still committed to the process.

In October, the government adopted the UN-sponsored “Children, Not Soldiers” campaign to end the recruitment and use of children by government security forces in armed conflict by the end of 2016.

In January, a former rebel militia released 250 children under the program, eight months after making peace with the government. More than 2,000 more are expected to demobilize from the group – the South Sudan Democratic Army Cobra Faction - in the coming months.

(The challenges involved in providing effective reintegration support to demobilised children in remote parts of South Sudan will be the subject of a future IRIN article.)

But no more children have been released from the SPLA’s own units.

Breakdown

Oluku Andrew Holt, who heads the children’s section of the government’s demobilization commission, said identification and release of children from the army had “slowed down in some areas due to insecurity.”

He insisted most of those who remain are cooks, porters and cleaners rather than front-line troops, and said he was optimistic the demobilization process would eventually resume: “The South Sudan army wants to get its name removed” from the list, Holt told IRIN.

Meanwhile, the recruitment of minors has resumed.

“There has been a lot of difficulty getting the messages down into the more remote command areas and so some units have been recruiting children, despite the direction from the central command not to do so,” UNICEF’s Porter said.

While neither the UN nor the government are providing any detailed figures, the problem may well be greatest on the opposition side.

Last May, Machar signed a commitment with the UN to immediately end all violations against children. Many opposition commanders have been through the same education process in the SPLA before they rebelled. However, Machar has repeatedly stated that he doesn’t have full control over opposition forces. These include the so-called White Army, a loose collection of ethnic Nuer militias believed to include thousands of minors.

Some observers argue that, for powerful historical, cultural and economic reasons, the setback over child soldiers was inevitable once conflict re-surfaced, and that only a patient co-operative approach will bear long-term fruit.

Thousands of children were recruited into the SPLA and other groups who fought in the decades-long civil wars that ultimately led to the independence of South Sudan.

South Sudanese minors are often familiar with weapons, including boys routinely sent off to guard livestock against raids from rival communities; and both boys and girls are widely viewed as adults once they reach the age of 15.

“Children growing up in these (pastoralist) communities, they actually start using guns as young as 11 or 10,” Holt said. “For them, a gun is just like a stick.”

Accountability

While those factors could take a generation or more to overcome, the action plan agreed by the government also includes a commitment to investigate and hold accountable perpetrators of grave violations against children – a measure aimed squarely at commanders and leaders and meant to deter backsliding, whatever the circumstances.

 “The promise of the Action Plan is that children will be protected from recruitment and use and other grave violations at all times, including during periods of instability or conflict”, Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, said last year. “Accountability is key. If those who recruit, kill, maim and rape boys and girls, attack schools and hospitals never face justice, no lasting peace will be possible.”

To that end, the UN has helped train SPLA judges to stiffen the army’s internal justice system. Children’s rights have been enshrined in law.

However, rights groups complain that South Sudanese legislation proscribing the recruitment and use of children remains weak and that no high-profile commanders have ever been prosecuted in either a local or international court.

Skye Wheeler, South Sudan researcher with Human Rights Watch, said that lack of accountability represented a fatal weakness.

“No commander in South Sudan has ever had to pay any kind of serious cost for the use and recruitment of children. There’s never been any justice,” including for a string of pardoned former rebel leaders integrated into the SPLA, Wheeler told IRIN.

“So of course it is unsurprising that, when you get a conflict (and) commanders are under pressure to recruit large numbers, as well as forcibly recruiting thousands of young men and middle aged men, they also take hundreds if not thousands of children,” she said.

Asked if high-profile prosecutions such as those against former militia commanders in the Democratic Republic of Congo would have helped, Wheeler said: “Absolutely yes.”

Isabelle Guitard, Africa Program Manager for Child Soldiers International, a U.K.-based rights group, said the earlier experience of DRC had demonstrated that “impunity and integration of those responsible for child recruitment into the armed forces has simply led to more rebellions and further child recruitment.”

“Where amnesties must be used for the sake of peace, stability or demobilisation efforts, we recommend that they exclude war crimes, including the recruitment and use of children in hostilities,” Guitard told IRIN by email.

She said Child Soldiers International’s partners in eastern Congo were finding that the 2012 conviction of militia leader Thomas Lubanga before the International Criminal Court was persuading commanders of some armed groups to release children from their ranks in the hope of avoiding prosecution.

In South Sudan, the prospect of political or military leaders facing legal consequences for the use of children or other crimes committed during the current conflict appears remote.

Most recently, rights groups have criticized a decision by the African Union to delay the release of findings from an AU investigation into crimes committed in the first months of the conflict – apparently out of concern that it could upset efforts to mediate a peace agreement that would see Kiir and Machar share power.

“This bodes badly for accountability writ large, including for the commanders who are using children to fight in this conflict,” Wheeler said. “You need very clear messaging that there will be repercussions for commanders who use kids or who recruit kids, both from the government and from the international community.”

But for Holt, who has spent more than a decade trying to return young fighters to civilian life, the only real hope for South Sudan’s children is an end to its chronic instability, so that minors can go to school and avoid the pressure to pick up a gun.

“As long as there is no peace in South Sudan, children will be seen carrying weapons,” he said.

sg/am

 

South Sudan's Cobra Faction Releases Hundreds of Child Soldiers

 

NBC News || By Matthew Grimson || 11 February 2015

 

 

Hundreds of child soldiers were released in South Sudan on Tuesday, UNICEF said, as part of a broader plan to free up to 3,000 young fighters from the country's civil war.

The release of 300 kids in Pibor, Jonglei State, is part of a peace deal between the South Sudan Democratic Army (SSDA) Cobra Faction and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

An initial 280 children, aged between 11 and 17, were released late January. UNICEF said between 2,000 and 3,000 should be freed from the Cobra Faction as it integrates into the SPLA.

The use of child soldiers in South Sudan surged after civil war broke out in December 2013, with UNICEF estimating the number to have peaked somewhere around 12,000. Violence was so rife that many of the children joined the Cobra Faction for protection, according to UNICEF spokeswoman Doune Porter.

"They thought they would be safer in the ranks of the military where they were surrounded by people with guns, and of course many of them were trained in how to use guns," she said.

However, Porter said the children found life extraordinarily difficult were now "delighted" to be leaving the Cobra Faction.

"I don't want to be a soldier," one boy, aged 12, told UNICEF. "I will end up with nothing by being a soldier and I know one day I'll get killed if I continue being a soldier. First, I want to go to school, then later I want to study medicine."

Cobra Faction Lieutenant General Khalid Butrus Bura said there was no longer any need for the children to be among their ranks.

"We want to change the mind-set of the community, so that a father will not need to buy gun and give it to a 10-year-old child so he can take care of the cattle," he told UNICEF. "We want to change that practice so that the community can send their children to school rather than taking to a gun."

Porter said the children would now receive counseling and a much sought after education.

"Many of them have never been to school before," she said. "Most of them can't read or write and they are so excited about starting their education."

UNICEF estimates more than 1.9 million people have been displaced since the civil war broke out, with more than 1.4 million currently displaced within South Sudan. More than half of those internally displaced people are estimated to be children.

 

Why Democracy May Have to Wait in the Central African Republic

 

IRIN || By Crispin Dembassa-Kette || 09 February 2015

 

Insecurity and a lack resources could derail elections in the Central African Republic, crucial for the return to normality after almost two years of intense conflict.

Already delayed once, the parliamentary and presidential polls - now scheduled for July and August - are provoking a debate over what should come first: national security or democratic process.

“The whole UN system and its partners are engaged in supporting this process,” UN Development Programme’s Africa Programme Director Abdoulaye Mar Dieye said last week at the end of a five-day visit to the country.

He added that holding elections were an “indispensable condition” for the success of detailed plans drawn up in 2013 by regional leaders to restore democracy to CAR. This roadmap was drafted after a coalition of rebel groups known as Séléka ousted then president Francois Bozizé.

Although this coalition has been out of power for a year (and is now known as “ex-Séléka”) thousands of its fighters are still armed and hold sway in six of the country’s prefectures. They have prevented the National Election Authority (ANE) from setting up offices in those areas and in one case even briefly abducted officials who were trying to raise public awareness of the election process. In all, the ANE has opened 83 of a planned 141 offices across the country.

In a 5 February letter to the Security Council requesting authorisation for the UN mission in CAR to be boosted by 1,030 soldiers and police, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that “the security situation [in CAR] remains volatile and clashes between anti-Balaka [militias] and ex-Séléka elements continue, while criminal activities aimed at, among other things, controlling the country’s natural resources are increasing.”

Ban said the reinforcements would “be especially important for the additional capability to be made available in time to enhance security before, during and after the electoral period…”

Within CAR, opinion is divided over whether elections should held soon or be delayed until security improves.

Presidential candidate Charles Armel Doubane, also a former minister and one-time ambassador to the UN told IRIN it was important voting took place soon.

“I am among those who think that, whatever the will of the people of Central Africa, we cannot hold elections in three or five years, that is to say [only] when we have 100 percent peace,” he said.

“The conditions CAR functions under now do not permit it to have full sovereignty over its decisions,” he added, explaining this was because foreign donors were funding the elections. “Whatever happens, we must have elections to put an end to this transition [period].”

But for Christophe Gaza-Mbeti, former Séléka spokesperson and government minister, there are more pressing priorities. “Disarmament must take place. Just as an election date is imposed on us, we must also impose on those who impose election dates a date for disarmament. The people of Central Africa demand disarmament,” he told the Diaspora Magazine website.

Presidential candidate Jospeh Bendouga asked: “How are we going be able to campaign if people still have guns?”

Others also wondered about the urgency of holding elections. A retired civil servant in the capital, Bangui insisted, ““What’s important for us is that first there is peace and security so that people can vote calmly.”

On a similar note, a farmer in the western town of Bossangoa told IRIN, “We will vote when the time comes, but what about the people still living under the control of armed groups.”

Finance gap

Money is one of the biggest problems facing the ANE, and as things stand now the authority is not able to guarantee the election timetable will be respected.

“Unless the required technical and financial means are made available very soon, we run the risk of delaying these elections,” ANE Chairman Dieudonné Kombo Yaya told a recent press conference in the capital.

Voter registration is already behind schedule. It failed to get off the ground as planned in January and it is not clear when it will start. Kombo Yaya attributed this delay to inadequate security and to the absence of government officials and of necessary administrative documents in much of the country.

ANE is a long way from having the 22 billion CFA francs (US$38 million) it needs to run the elections. According to documents obtained from the authority, the European Union pledged 20 million euros ($22.6 million) in January but this has not yet materialized. The African Development Bank has chipped in one billion CFA francs ($1.7 million) and the UN Development Programme has given ANE 100 million CFA francs and a $2 million line of credit. France gave 100,000 euros ($113,000) for the elections in November. This leave the authority with a deficit of around 20 billion CFA francs.

After his trip, UNDP’s Mar Dieye said he had “no doubt the elections would be financed.”

He added, “Of course, we have to move quickly. A minimum of resources need to be secured to allow enrolment to start. By starting the electoral process, you give people faith that we will succeed.”

Sixteen politicians have put themselves forward as candidates for the presidential election, and more are expected to do so in the coming months.

 

The Invisible Lesson of Invisible Children

IRIN || By Paul Currion || 03 February 2015

 

Amid the barrage of depressing news that accompanied the start of 2015, you may have missed the announcement late last year that the activist NGO Invisible Children is winding down. Maybe you barely remember Invisible Children now, but a few years ago, it was everywhere you turned on the internet. This was thanks to its infamous KONY 2012 film, which became the most viral video of all time, with a little help from retweets by well known experts in African politics such as Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga.

KONY 2012 highlighted the atrocities committed by Joseph Kony’s Lords Resistance Army (LRA) and focused international attention on one simple narrative: Get Joseph Kony! This worried traditional humanitarian organisations because it exposed how much better than us Invisible Children was at shaping media discourse (and staging musical numbers). It was a campaign so compelling that even the Ugandan rebel leader himself might have been tempted to send off for an Action Pack, if only to bring an end to those musical numbers.

Invisible Children was accused of oversimplifying the situation in Uganda, as well as vastly exaggerating its own impact. So you may not be completely surprised that its closure announcement was accompanied by predictably grandiose and completely unsubstantiated claims about its achievements. This was one reason why so many took an instant dislike to the group: its attitude recalled some of the worst aspects of humanitarian fundraising, with Teju Cole dubbing it the White Saviour Industrial Complex.

While it may have been terminally confused about what it was doing, in one very important way Invisible Children was ahead of the game. Its digital-first media strategy reached a target audience previously considered politically apathetic: “predominantly young, privileged, evangelical Christian, female Americans.” For this demographic, the real Joseph Kony wasn't that important: this was Kony as Lord Voldemort, J.K Rowling’s evil antagonist, with Invisible Children co-founder Jason Russell’s son standing in for Harry Potter.

No, the most important person in Invisible Children's narrative, driven by social media, was not Kony, and not even Invisible Children, but you, the reader. This is why Invisible Children couldn't fail. Not because it didn't fail – it failed in the most important sense, since we have clearly not captured Joseph Kony, and its resource base subsequently collapsed – but because it could never admit that it had failed. To admit to failure would be to destroy the narrative that you – yes, you, small-town teenager in the American Mid-West – are changing the world.

That narrative was more important than anything, which explains the spirited defence that Invisible Children's believers presented. Its critics weren't just attacking the campaign, they were attacking the campaigners themselves. You'd have to be spectacularly cruel to destroy the hopes of a generation, but reality is often both spectacular and cruel. In the end, it was the gap between the narrative and reality that led directly to Russell's tragic breakdown.

Before KONY 2012, Jason Russell says, "I was under the impression that I could will people's opinions to the truth and to what was right. I thought if we did a good enough job, said the right thing, made the right video, did the right interview, people would understand the truth."

And was it a hard lesson to learn that the world simply doesn't work like that? "It's what made me manic," he says simply.

Post KONY 2012, the aid industry agreed that we needed to learn how to use social media as effectively as Invisible Children, but with more integrity. We didn't learn that lesson, because if there's one thing the humanitarian sector is good at, it's not learning. Instead we learnt that going viral was the Holy Grail, and we've been trying to go viral ever since - at least until Ebola made the phrase “going viral” really, really inappropriate.

The limits to going viral are clear: Joseph Kony is still at large, and Invisible Children is shutting down. If branding was the only problem, then all the LRA would need is to restyle themselves as “My Little Kony: Friendship is Magic” and every brony in the world would be behind them. Yet even more responsible advocacy has its limits. Save the Children UK's “A Second a Day” video got a lot of hits (and deservedly so; it was excellent), but the money it raised was a drop in the ocean compared to the requirements of the UN-managed Syrian crisis response plans, which were barely over 50 percent funded in 2014.

This isn't an argument against using social media. As a sector, we need to get better at reaching out, but we're reaching out in the wrong way. We have these tremendous tools of communication and connection, but all we use them for is to spin the thinnest of stories, asking for more financial support for our own organisations – and the public has started to recognise and resent this.

The subtext of Invisible Children's narrative was simple: give us your support, and most importantly your money, and we'll take care of this. If that tactic sounds familiar, it's because it's the subtext of every single humanitarian fundraising appeal ever. Humanitarian organisations don't connect those affected by disasters with those who can help. They mediate between the two groups, and so contribute to keeping them separate.

The power structures that prevent vulnerable people from having access to resources are the same structures that prevent them from having access to communications – which has long been recognised as a vital resource itself. Humanitarian organisations need to ask themselves whether trying to hold on to their mediating role – the role that brings in the cash – fits with their wider ethic of social and economic justice.

Invisible Children held a mirror up to the aid industry, and we didn't like what we saw. That mirror's gone now, but that doesn't mean that we look any better. Source...

 

South Sudan Peace: Deal? What Deal?

 

IRIN || 02 February 2015

 

Expectations were low after more than a year of catastrophic conflict in South Sudan and many failed peace deals, but even so, some analysts and activists say they are disappointed at how little this weekend’s talks achieved.

On 1 February, South Sudan President Salva Kiir and vice-president turned rebel leader Riek Machar signed a document in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on “Areas of Agreement” for a future transitional government of national unity, after a power struggle between the two men tore the newly born South Sudan apart. They recommitted themselves to an existing, frequently violated cessation of hostilities, and promised to sign a permanent ceasefire, but only after a final agreement was reached. 

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the regional body that has led - with little success - efforts to end the civil war that erupted just two years after South Sudan’s independence, described the deal as an important step towards a comprehensive peace agreement to be signed later this month.

But others were much more sceptical. 

“Nothing substantial has come out of this round of talks,” Peter Biar Ajak, director of the Centre for Strategic Analysis and Research in the South Sudanese capital Juba, told IRIN.

The two parties “did not agree on the fundamental issue, the structure of government that will bring an end to the conflict,” he said.

Since it escalated from a split within the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in December 2013, the conflict has claimed thousands of lives and forced around two million people to flee their homes.

The two parties arrived in Addis expecting to resume faltering negotiations over a particular power-sharing structure that included a post of prime minister, earmarked for Machar, Ajak explained.

Instead, IGAD presented them with a very different governance blueprint which had not been discussed previously: one comprising a president, a first vice-president and a vice-president. The relative powers of these last two positions led to unresolved disagreements.

“Both Juba and the rebels had serious problems with the [new] structure,” said Ajak.
Asked if the latest signing would bring an end to the war any closer, he said, “I don’t think so. Even yesterday there were reports of fighting in Unity State.”

“What happened in Addis was a series of missed opportunities, largely due to the incompetence coming out of the mediating teams,” he said.

A spokesman for the rebels, officially referred to as the SPLM-In Opposition, lent credence to Ajak’s scepticism.

“The agreement has only outlined the mandate of the would-be transitional government of national unity. The document does not carry any agreement on leadership structure and power-sharing ratios,” Machar’s spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, told the Sudan Tribune. 

“This transitional government would be formed by 9 July 2015 if a final peace agreement is signed. There are however many issues pending for further negotiations before a final peace agreement,” he said.

These negotiations are due to resume on 19 February, with a deadline of 5 March established for finalizing a power-sharing agreement.

Further criticism of the Addis Ababa talks came from the Enough Project. Instead of being a turning point, South Sudan policy analyst Justine Fleischner said in a statement, the outcome shows that “IGAD has reached another non-agreement.”

“The bottom line is that in the absence of the promised regime of regional travel bans and asset freezes, the warring parties see no reason to adjust their behavior. IGAD's unwillingness to impose sanctions is in part due to competing regional economic interests and business ties. Meanwhile, the cost of war is being paid by the people of South Sudan,” she added.

Ajak was less pessimistic, pointing out that the near collapse of South Sudan’s economy had greatly undermined the business interests there of IGAD member states Kenya and Uganda and other neighbouring countries.

Previous talks held on 21 January in the Tanzanian city of Arusha - the most recent in a long list of sub-deals signed over recent months, many of which went on to be broken - garnered similar criticism. 

The Sudd Institute, a Juba-based think tank, noted the “apparent disconnect” between the political opposition who signed the agreement and “the military commanders of its armed wing.” 

Another concern reinforced by the latest talks in Addis is that the desire to secure a lasting peace agreement and   keep Kiir and Machar engaged will further delay the release of the African Union’s Commission of Inquiry report on South Sudan (AUCISS).

This had been scheduled to be presented to heads of state at a meeting of the AU’s Peace and Security Council on 29 January.  But, according to an account by South Sudan Law Society Research Director David Deng, the chairman of IGAD, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, successfully moved to delay publication until peace had been achieved, so as not to jeopardize the IGAD process. 

The “decision not to publish the AUCISS report casts doubt on the prospects for justice and accountability in South Sudan. It also raises questions as to whether the AU and IGAD are genuinely committed to ending the impunity that they themselves acknowledge to be a driver of violence in the country,” Deng wrote in the African Arguments website.

“Withholding the AUCISS report may actually serve to embolden perpetrators of mass human rights violations, who already feel as though they are untouchable and can act with impunity,” he warned.

“The last year has witnessed a string of agreements to cease hostilities, all of which were violated days or hours after signing. Twenty percent of the population has been displaced, an untold number of people have been killed and relationships among communities are at an all-time low,” he wrote.

“The warring parties continue to pursue military victory at all costs and civilians are bearing the brunt of the conflict. To the extent that it may sometimes be necessary to delay justice in the interest of first consolidating peace, the IGAD-led peace process is not demonstrating enough progress to make that sacrifice,” he concluded. Source...

 

First Group of Child Soldiers in South Sudan Freed

 

BBC || 27 January 2015

 

A South Sudanese militia has freed 280 child soldiers as part of a wider deal to release about 3,000 underage fighters, the UN's children agency Unicef has said.

More releases will occur in the coming weeks, said the agency, which helped negotiate the children's freedom.

The soldiers were recruited into an armed group which has now made peace with the government.

Other rebel militias have been locked in a civil war since 2013.

Fighting began after President Salva Kiir accused his deputy of trying to foment a coup, triggering a descent into nationwide violence and forcing about 1.5 million people from their homes.

According to Unicef, around 12,000 children have been forcibly recruited by armed groups in South Sudan over the past year.

Child soldier case study: Silva, 11 years old:

I have been fighting for more than two years. I haven't seen my mother and father since last summer.

I've seen many people killed when I was on missions.

I had an AK-47. It was heavy. I was fighting to protect my family and village.

Now I want to go to school and learn. I don't want to fight anymore, I was scared.

The 3,000 young fighters due to be released were members of a militia called the South Sudan Democratic Army Cobra Faction.

The group, which had been fighting to win greater rights for the Murle ethnic group, did not join the wider rebellion that erupted in December 2013.

Led by David Yau Yau, it was often involved in cattle raids and deadly revenge attacks and had been fighting for almost four years in Pibor county in Jonglei state.

"These children have been forced to do and see things no child should ever experience," said Unicef's South Sudan representative, Jonathan Veitch.

Unicef said it was trying to reunite the demobilised child soldiers with their families. Source...

 

South Sudan releases 280 child soldiers: UN

 

Sudan Tribune || 27 January 2015

 

 

280 child soldiers from South Sudan Democratic Army (SSDA) Cobra Faction, a former rebel group based in Jonglei state, have been set free, the United Nations said Tuesday.

The SSDA, whose activities were in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA), struck an agreement with government last year, leading to creation of GPAA led by former leader, David Yau Yau.

The UN children fund (UNICEF), in a press statement, said a group of 280 children was released by SSDA on Tuesday in Gumuruk county.

“Some have been fighting for up to four years and many have never attended school,” reads the statement extended to Sudan Tribune.

According to UNICEF, 12,000 children, mostly boys were recruited and used as soldiers by armed forces and groups in South Sudan.

The demobilized children are aged 11 to 17, the agency stressed.

The Gumuruk ceremony to release the children from the armed units was witnessed by South Sudan Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) Commission and Yau Yau’s Cobra Faction.

"These children have been forced to do and see things no child should ever experience," said Jonathan Veitch, the UNICEF South Sudan representative.

"The release of thousands of children requires a massive response to provide the support and protection these children need to begin rebuilding their lives," he added.

The released children will be reportedly supported with basic health care and protection services and necessities such as food, water and clothing to help them get ready to return to their families.

Such forms of support, UNICEF said, will also involve counseling and other psychological support programmes urgently being established.

The children will also access education and skills training programs.

Meanwhile, UNICEF said it is working to trace and reunite the children with their families, a daunting task in a country where over a million children have either been displaced internally or have fled to neighbouring countries since fighting broke out in December 2013.

Support will extend to local communities to prevent and reduce discrimination against those returning, as well as possible recruitment.

"The successful reintegration of these children back into their communities depends on a timely, coordinated response to meet their immediate and long-term needs,” stressed Veitch.
“These programmes require significant resources," he added.

Approximately $2,330 is required for the release and reintegration of each child over the next 24 months, UNICEF estimates show. Source...

 

What Next for West Africa’s Health Systems After Ebola

 

IRIN || By Obinna Anyadike || 26 January 2015

 

As rates of Ebola infection fall in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, planning has begun on how to rebuild public health systems and learn lessons from the outbreak.

Nobody is declaring victory yet. But in Sierra Leone, the worst-affected country, there were 117 new confirmed cases reported in the week to 18 January, the latest statistics available, compared with 184 the previous week and 248 the week before that. Guinea halved its cases in the week to 18 January – down to 20 – and Liberia held steady at eight. 

The epidemic is not over until there are zero cases over two incubation periods – the equivalent of 42 days. “It’s like being only a little bit pregnant – there’s no such thing as a little Ebola. We have to get to zero, there can be no reservoirs of Ebola,”  Margaret Harris, spokesperson of the World Health Organization (WHO), told IRIN. 

But after 21,724 cases and 8,641 deaths in nine countries since the epidemic began in Guinea last year, there is some light. And health workers are already starting to look at what’s next. “Right now important meetings are going on in each country to work out what needs to be done to rebuild - in some significant respects to build health systems almost anew - and to build back better,” said Harris. 

A European Union donor conference is due at the beginning of March in Brussels. “What we want to see as a country is a resilient health system that can withstand shocks,” Liberia’s Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah told IRIN. “Our plan [to be presented in Brussels] will be finalized by the end of February. It will be well costed with tangible goals.”

Ebola tested the public health systems in the three West African countries to near destruction – most places in the world would have also struggled. But where the three failed was at the basic “nitty-gritty” level of “standard surveillance, testing and monitoring, the control of contagion stuff, the bread and butter of public health”, said Adia Benton, a social anthropologist at Brown University in Rhode Island.

Citizen and state

A successful malaria campaign in Sierra Leone last week, which reached 2.5 million people, and a planned polio and measles vaccination programme in Liberia, are positive signs for the health services. But the list of necessary reforms is long: stronger surveillance; healthcare that will work after the international partners leave; access to affordable services. The list much also embrace longer-term structural changes, including the relationship between citizen and state. 

According to Antonio Vigilante, Deputy Special Representative for Recovery and Governance in the United Nations Mission in Liberia, “there is a golden opportunity to have a different start, to have a more balanced development that leaves outcomes in the hands of the people. It’s a very delicate stage, full of opportunities, but also the danger that it could be easily missed.”

Liberia is one of the world’s poorest countries and Ebola has been a tragic addition to the burden. It has destroyed livelihoods; already dizzying rates of unemployment have worsened; and food prices have soared. Both rural and urban communities are suffering.

Vigilante is worried the economic impact of Ebola could put more people at risk than the virus itself did. “A number of [social protection] measures in the recovery phase would need to be universal,” he said. One example would be if Liberia scaled up its pilot Social Transfer Programme, launched in 2009, to provide just US$40 per year to two million children. There would be sizeable “knock on effects on local markets and entrepreneurship” at minimal cost, according to the Washington-based Centre for Global Development. 

Schools are due to re-open on 2 February in Liberia, and a strong case could be made for a universal school feeding programme to attract and retain children in class. “Even before Ebola many children were out of school,” UNICEF spokesman in Liberia, Rukshan Ratnam, noted. 

Money matters

But will the donors come to the party? Donors pledged $1.5 billion to a UN coordinated appeal for Ebola last year, but $500 million is still unpaid. “If we cannot close that funding gap we will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It’s as simple as that,” Bruce Aylward, WHO assistant director-general in charge of the Ebola response, told reporters on 23 January. 

Wasted dollars can be expected in a crisis when the priority is effectiveness - stopping the outbreak - rather than efficiency in how the money is spent. That equation will change if Ebola does not come roaring back with the rains in April, and donors begin to look at competing needs.

There is potential to re-purpose Ebola infrastructure - some of it now idle with a glut in treatment facilities - if donors are willing to be flexible, said Vigilante. Laboratories used for testing could be incorporated into national laboratory services; some of the more permanent treatment units could be re-launched as community-based health facilities; contact tracers could be used as community mobilizers. 

“We certainly lost staff as a result of Ebola. But the converse of that is there was a very rapid upskilling as people were trained to work in the treatment units or as contact tracers. It’s a group we should build on,” said Harris. “It’s really important we don’t lose them in the transition to a normal service.”

Local heroes

Among the lessons learned across the region has been the importance of consulting, engaging and empowering local communities: their lack of trust in central government was a major handicap in tackling the epidemic. “Community, community, community. Engagement, engagement, engagement,” said Harris. “We need to listen more. We need to do a lot of work with sociologists and anthropologists.”

Liberia in particular has a highly centralized system of government, but local communities have emerged as critical players in the response with a new can-do attitude. “People given a chance can do a fantastic job,” said Vigilante. “Expect next month to see agreement on the decentralization of a number of services [in recognition of the success].” Source...

 

South Sudan President and Rebel Leader Agree to Re-unify Ruling Party, (SPLM)

 

Kenya’s Daily Nation || PSCU || 22 January 2015

 

 

South Sudan peace talks got a major breakthrough on Wednesday as rival factions of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed an agreement aimed at reunifying the historical party.

Intense efforts spearheaded by regional leaders, which saw the Arusha meeting last into late-night hours, marks a turning point in the bloody conflict.

The signing ceremony at Ngurdoto Hotel was witnessed by an array of regional leaders, including the host, President Jakaya Kikwete, President Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya), President Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), and South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir, former Vice President Riek Machar and Mr Deng Alor Kuol signed the historic agreement after SPLM Intra-Party Dialogue Summit.

The agreement puts the young African nation back on the path of peace and development.

PUBLIC APOLOGY

Among the issues agreed upon by both parties is the restoration of peace and stability in South Sudan and the demand for SPLM leadership to make a public apology to the people of South Sudan for all the atrocities committed during the bloody conflict.

Under the signed agreement, SPLM leaders are required to reform and transform the political party by formulating and embracing policies that allow the culture of tolerance and ideals of democracy to take root.

They should also formulate and implement policies that will abolish tribalism, sectarianism and militarism in politics, and promote political pluralism.

The pact bans those found to have committed atrocities during the conflict from holding public office.

The SPLM leaders agreed to implement and comply with all provisions of the agreement and use the Igad-led peace talks in Addis Ababa to expedite the peace process.

The leaders are also required to initiate and implement a comprehensive programme for national unity, peace, reconciliation, healing and harmony among the people of South Sudan.

The three factional SPLM groups are required to embrace reunification and reconciliation of the party leadership and membership.

LEADERSHIP CODE

The party's general secretariat shall be restructured to streamline its offices and functions to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.

The National Liberation Council, the leaders agreed, shall review the contentious provisions in the draft SPLM constitution to ensure internal democracy within party structures, before its presentation to the National Convention.

The country's Political Bureau is also required to develop a party leadership code of ethics and disciplinary procedures to be applied and upheld by all members irrespective of their positions.

The term-limit for SPLM's national and state chairpersons of the party shall be two terms of five years each, the leaders agreed.

The reunified SPLM shall abide by the terms and spirit of the Igad Peace Agreement.

The party shall also form a transitional government in which all SPLM groups and other political parties shall participate proportionally so as to end the war and establish sustainable peace. Source...

 

Police Officers in Kenya Lob Tear Gas on Protesting Pupils, Criticisms Abound

 

Kenya’s Daily Nation || By By Otiato Guguyu || 19 January 2015

 

Five children and a police officer were injured as violence marred demonstrations to save the Lang’ata Road Primary School playground from a land grabber on Monday.

In scenes, reminiscent of the 1976 South Africa riots under apartheid — when police descended on protesting school children — police officers lobbed tear gas on the children and the adults accompanying them, causing chaotic scenes that spilled over to Lang’ata road.

The injured school children were treated at the Lang’ata Prison Dispensary, while two activists, Mr Houghton Irungu and Mr Boaz Waruku, were arrested.

Kenyans criticised the police for using excessive force against the children, a situation that prompted the police to issue a statement suspending the officer in charge of the operation, Lang’ata OCPD Elija Mwangi.

Another statement signed by the acting Inspector-General of the police, Mr Samuel Arachi, said the police service was disturbed by the action of the officers who lobbed tear gas at the children and other demonstrators.

WILL NOT ALLOW

“We will never allow our officers to use force, not only on any citizen but more so on children, whether in demonstrations or otherwise,” said Mr Arachi, who also criticised the adults who asked the children to join in the protest to reclaim the grabbed playground.

The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) said it had named a team of 11 lawyers who will work with the Director of Public Prosecution to charge the officers who teargassed the pupils.

LSK Chairperson Eric Mutua said the lawyers will be led by LSK council member Gertrude Angote. “The country has witnessed with horror and shock the brutality visited upon defenceless children at Lang’ata Primary School in Nairobi,” Mr Mutua told a press briefing after chairing a full council meeting at the LSK secretariat in Lavington, Nairobi.

Save The Children, an organisation that champions the rights of children, also condemned the police for using tear gas and excessive force “on children who were peacefully demonstrating against the alleged grabbing of their playground”.

In a statement signed by the country director, Mr Duncan Harvey, the organisation said: “This is a sad day in the history of Kenya. The fact that innocent children who were claiming their right to an education ... and their right to play ... in this inhumane manner is unacceptable. Schools must be places of safety and refuge; not violence”.

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa), which investigates public complaints against the police, said it was investigating “reports of brutal mishandling of pupils and members of the public” during the demonstration over the alleged grabbing of school land.

“The authority has launched investigations into the incident with a view to ensuring that appropriate action is taken against the offending officers,” said a statement signed by its secretary, Dr Joel Mabonga.

FIVE MENACING DOGS

The police, who had also called in a dog unit, had five menacing dogs during the confrontation in which activists and protesters brought down the wall built around the field.

The nearby Weston Hotel has denied allegations that it was behind attempts to take over the school land. Its lawyer, Mr Ahmednasir Abdullahi, also denied allegations that the Deputy President, Mr William Ruto, was either a shareholder or a director in the hotel.

Police had arrived at the disputed property at 6am. However, they were caught unawares when, later in the morning, pupils stormed out of classrooms wielding twigs as they protested over the alienation of their playground.

All hell broke loose when the officers lobbed tear gas at the pupils who were banging on a school gate. This sent many of the pupils running onto the busy Lang’ata Road while others fell in gutters by the road.

The learners retreated to their school compound and brought down part of the wall facing their school. Police fired more tear gas and the pupils started throwing stones. Protesters, who included Kibra MP Ken Okoth, who had gathered outside the gate then joined the fracas. However, they were dispersed when police lobbed tear gas at them.

In the melee, the two activists were arrested, with the police accusing them of inciting the pupils. Later in the day police said they had arrested three other people for vandalising guard rails during the protests.

One officer suffered a cut above his right eye after he was hit by a stone and his colleagues had to restrain him from attacking his assailant.

“We are here to safeguard the property because these people (protesters) have not followed procedure. This is disputed land but they should not use the children,” Mr Mwangi said and accused the protesters of failing to notify the police of their plans.

SOCIAL MEDIA CRITICISM

Kenyans took to social media to criticise the police and to mobilise support for the protest which was initially sold as a visit to donate sports equipment.

By yesterday, over 1,000 tweets had been shared and a hundred more on Facebook, Under the hashtag #OccupyPlayGround.

“Last time I heard of children being gassed, hospitalised and tethered by dogs was apartheid South Africa,” @gitweeta wrote on Twitter.

Cord leader Raila Odinga condemned the excessive use of force by the police. In a statement from New Delhi, India, Mr Odinga promised to stand with the parents, pupils and teachers of the school.

“This is brutality beyond words and greed beyond description. It is difficult to believe that police can actually deploy against primary school children and lobby tear gas at them to defend a land grabber,” he said.

ODM Secretary-General Ababu Namwamba said the party would not sit back and watch the land go.

“I condemn in the strongest terms possible the barbaric use of excessive police force against unarmed children at Lang’ata Primary School. We cannot allow known vile land grabbing bandits to steal the destiny of our children,” he said.

In Mombasa, Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu and National Land Commission Chairman Muhammad Swazuri said documents in their possession indicated that the land belonged to the school. Source...

 

Cows and Conflict: South Sudan's “slow motion” Livestock Crisis

 

IRIN || By Andrew Green || 15 January 2015

 

At 11 million head, cattle outnumber people in South Sudan and are central to the country’s economy and society. Now, 13 months of civil war have disrupted traditional migration routes and disease patterns in a way that has sparked fresh cycles of violence and jeopardized the country's broader social cohesion.

South Sudan’s cattle are in danger of becoming “no longer resilient, no longer economically viable, not a viable way of life,” Sue Lautze, country head of the Food and Agriculture Organization, told IRIN.

According to FAO, as a result of widespread displacement of livestock, “tribal conflicts, cattle raids, and disease outbreaks have all intensified on an unprecedented scale, threatening the national herd and tearing at the social, political, and economic fabric of South Sudan.”

Twenty-five-year-old pastoralist John Mabil, who also works as a teacher, is already bearing the impact.

“Right now, I am doomed,” he said from Juba.

His journey began from his home in Bor, capital of Jonglei state. Conflict forced him to flee first to neigbouring Lakes State, then to Juba, and then to Kakuma, a refugee camp in northern Kenya.

In the camp, he hatched a plan: he would sell a handful of his 25 cattle to pay for a university education in Uganda. Armed with the degree, he would return to a better job in a peaceful South Sudan and use his remaining cows as a down payment on a dowry. He would marry, start a family and, in time, forget the war.

Infection risks

Back in Juba in January, Mabil got a call from his father, who tends his cattle. Eleven were dead. Several more have since fallen sick and will likely die. There will be no university education, Mabil said. All his plans were shot.

From the symptoms he described – bloody diarrhea, loss of appetite – the cattle probably succumbed to the tick-borne East Coast Fever. The disease is prevalent in the area of southeastern South Sudan where Mabil’s father had taken the animals to graze. He knew the risk of infection and would normally never have driven the animals that far south, but it was the only place he felt they were safe from the war.

He is among the thousands of pastoralists who have been forced to abandon traditional migration patterns in a desperate search for security, according to an FAO report, which warned of a “new crisis unfolding in slow motion.”

FAO estimates that at least 80 percent of South Sudan’s population relies on cattle to some degree. For many groups – adolescents, lactating mothers, herders – it is their main source of nutrition.

Cattle represent much more than food, though. “If you want to get married, there’s livestock involved,” Lautze said. “If you want to resolve a dispute without getting killed, there’s livestock involved. If you want to celebrate, to atone, there’s livestock involved… Livestock are an amazing livelihood resource.”

Bankable assets

They are also “the primary bankable asset for most South Sudanese people,” said Lindsay Hamsik, a spokesperson for the non-profit group Mercy Corps, which specializes in long-term recovery. That means that if a family member falls ill or food runs short, a cow is sold off to buy medicine or new supplies.

Though the UN and NGOs assist, South Sudan’s government – well aware of the social and economic primacy of cattle – has traditionally taken the lead on animal health and protection. The army and police are deployed during the country’s dry season to deter cattle raids and community-based animal health workers assist with vaccinations.

But now conflict has taken precedence over the animals. The government has shifted resources from caring for livestock to the war effort, according to Lautze. The current national budget allocates around $130 million to be split between all natural resources activities – livestock projects, but also emergency food security and the salaries of Wildlife Service officers. In comparison, the security budget is more than $1.3 billion. Lautze said the Ministry of Animal Resources, home to her main government partners, has not had electricity since well before Christmas. Meanwhile, humanitarians lack the resources to offset all of the cutbacks.

The effects are already evident. There is an immediate risk of violence, both from cattle raiding and between farmers and herders competing for the same land.

According to FAO, “there has been large-scale and long-distance displacement of livestock from the conflict-affected states into agricultural zones outside their traditional pastoral domains.”

Moreover, “the areas where these herds have relocated have witnessed intensive and continuous movements of livestock concentrated in small areas. The arrival of large numbers of livestock … has challenged the local power structures, squeezed natural resource availability, and altered disease patterns.” That in turn is leading to confrontation.

Mabil’s father, for instance, faced threats as he drove cows through farming land in the country’s southeast. Agriculturalists “are becoming unfriendly,” Mabil said, angered by the destruction the cattle are wreaking on their crops.

“They killed some cows and when we asked them why, they started to fight,” he said. There are few officials available to mediate these conflicts or security officers to offer protection.

And then there are the diseases. East Coast Fever, but also Foot and Mouth Disease, which can spoil milk production, and trypanosomiasis, which is transmitted by tsetse flies and can cause wasting and ultimately death. In the midst of the fighting, it is impossible to keep statistics on livestock morbidity and mortality, Lautze said, but the anecdotal reports are enough to raise an alarm. Earlier this month, one community lost 8,000 cattle to liver flukes – a parasite that is easily treatable in normal circumstances. “This isn’t a problem we should have,” she said.

As with most crises, South Sudan’s poorest families are being hit hardest, Mercy Corps’ Hamsik said.

“Shocks are going to have larger affects on smaller herds. Smaller herds are typically carried by more food-insecure households,” she said. A shock isn’t even necessarily a death. An individual cow’s illness is enough to spell economic ruin for some families. There is the immediate loss of milk as a source of nutrition for the household, but it also becomes less likely the cow will reproduce and its trade value wanes.

The scale of the current crisis is now well beyond the individual household level, though, with the potential to sink entire communities.

Threats to markets

Shrinking collateral is making it more difficult for traders to secure goods, especially where fighting has disrupted normal trade routes and sent prices skyrocketing. There is a risk that markets, which would normally subsidize a community’s harvest and get people – including farmers or merchants – through the lean season, could dry up. Many markets in the areas most affected by the conflict are already struggling. That could be catastrophic, especially to the 2.5 million people international experts predict will be suffering from severe food insecurity by March of this year.  [http://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_SouthSudan_Sept%202014_Communication_Summary.pdf ]

And then there are the long-term implications. “Any kind of crisis with cattle isn’t merely a crisis that will have an effect on food security,” Hamsik said. It has put marriages and educations on hold and will make it more difficult for people to emerge from poverty.

The FAO is already hurriedly trying to patch together an immunization system to combat some of the emerging diseases, beginning with the delivery of solar-powered refrigerators to store vaccines until they can be injected. But the organization is starting virtually from scratch.

Peace is really the only viable solution, Lautze said, to allow herders to reestablish their traditional routes, return their cattle to health and rebuild markets and communities. But if fighting continues – and it has flared again this month – the country’s pastoralists “are going to lose the herd they need to resiliently recover.” Source...

 

The South Sudan Peace Process: Prospects for 2015

African Arguments || 6 January, 2015

Predicting conflict in South Sudan is easy. Those who warn that the coming of the dry season means further bloodshed are not being especially astute; they are stating the obvious. What to do about this likelihood is a much harder question.

Almost as obvious is to observe that the peace process is weakened by continued fighting. Is the sequence of a comprehensive cessation of hostilities first, then productive peace talks second, necessary? Desirable, yes, but necessary?

Almost paradoxically, limited, ongoing violence has not so far been the main obstacle to progress in the peace process: more of a problem is the inability of the parties to demonstrate goodwill and genuinely commit to finding a solution. Since the Bahir Dar talks in September 2014, violence certainly hasn’t prevented both warring parties from continuing to talk – in the earlier months of 2014 this was not always the case.

Today, more consequential to the environment for talks are the rhetoric and antagonism of preparations for escalating the conflict, rather than any individual episode of conflict itself; the increasing authoritarianism and paranoia of the government in Juba; provocative declarations that national elections will be held on schedule (all too similar to the strategy of the NCP in Sudan, unfortunately); and on both sides, prevaricating leaders who care more about their own interests than that of their so-called constituencies.

Which returns South Sudan to external intervention: the formal, IGAD peace process. For all its flaws, without the peace process, the war would be completely unconstrained.

Neighbouring states would have privileged their narrow, bilateral interests even more than they have done already. A full-fledged proxy war between Sudan and Uganda could have developed months ago – there is still a real risk that it might.

These are not achievements of which IGAD can be too proud. The peace process is at a particularly perilous juncture. The last round of talks in December 2014 went nowhere.

The consultations of the government in Juba, and the SPLM/A (In Opposition) in Pagak, have widened rather than narrowed the gaps between the parties. The participation of political parties other than the SPLM remains contested, with other political parties having had no effective presence since Bahir Dar.

The Tanzania hosted intra-SPLM dialogue in Arusha has opened a parallel process that further detracts from the IGAD effort. Arusha, only in its second round of talks, is still in a honeymoon phase, compared to the relative bitterness now felt in almost a year of talks in Ethiopia.

(An aside: Finland and Switzerland, the donors supporting the Arusha process, should have been far more cognizant of the risks of encouraging forum shopping; this failure of understanding, particularly in the case of Switzerland, so long-engaged in South Sudan, is inexcusable.)

Having effectively exhausted the classical mode of negotiations, the mediation has turned again to that unwieldy but potentially transformative option: a summit of IGAD heads of state and government, to be held sometime later this month in Addis Ababa. This will be the seventh IGAD summit on South Sudan since December 2013, and it is unclear whether the lesson of past meetings – particularly that of the August summit – have been fully learned.

This is probably IGAD’s last chance – another summit failure and the organization’s credibility and political capital will be almost spent. The need to demonstrate ‘success’ may be counterproductive: IGAD may be tempted to spin any summit outcome positively, or threaten the parties to sign up to an agreement they are not ready to believe in.

In the limited time IGAD has left to achieve meaningful progress in resolving the South Sudan crisis, it is vital that the mistakes made in the past year are not repeated. Avoiding these errors will not be sufficient for resolution – that depends on the South Sudanese (and of course, there are plenty of other pitfalls); it will, however, make the prospect of success more likely.

Here are four tasks the IGAD mediators should urgently undertake:

Adequately prepare for the next summit.

Most events involving heads of state are so tightly choreographed and well planned they might as well be ballet performances. Recent IGAD summits have suffered from a total lack of choreography.

There needs to be a clear game plan for the summit, and strategies in place to ensure traps and detours do not ensnare the meeting. Summit meetings are not wellsuited to details and can’t get bogged down on minutiae.

It is critical that heads of state are adequately prepped and briefed before they arrive in Addis. Otherwise the summit will, at best, make little tangible progress, and at worst, go backward

Make real efforts to reach out to more South Sudanese.

At this stage, the occasional press release or press conference is not enough. The mediation needs to marshal the full force of South Sudanese society towards an irreversible peace.

Most South Sudanese – even those nominally aligned to one side or the other – have little idea what their representatives are doing in their name. The parties to the talks have proven to be intransigent and stubborn; most people don’t know enough about these machinations to express their own outrage and demand change.

Individual church leaders have demonstrated a willingness to stand up and state the uncompromised truth: IGAD should more actively compliment these efforts, and itself campaign for peace in towns and communities across South Sudan. Building a constituency for peace and pressure from below may help change the behavior of those too arrogant to otherwise work for peace

Resolve the representation of political parties, and challenge civil society delegates to be useful.

No peace process outcome will be fully legitimate if it excludes the diversity of political actors in South Sudan. Feeble though most political parties are, the exclusion of the official opposition is an open sore in the process. An exclusive, SPLM stitch-up serves the narrowest of elites, and must be avoided.

Much has been said about civil society’s participation in the IGAD peace process. Regrettably, the most useful contributions from civil society have come from those outside of the peace process: the work of David Deng and the South Sudan Law Society, the Development Policy Forum and the Sudd Institute.

Unfortunately, the cogent work of such individuals and institutions has not been espoused by their civil society colleagues present in Addis Ababa. Civil society needs to raise its game.

The mediation needs to be blunt with civil society delegates: merely showing up to eat lunch and silently attend meetings is not good enough. Civil society delegates can still advance ideas, offer innovation and identify political hypocrisy; but they cannot do so if they are mostly silent.

Abandon the CPA model as the template for the mediation.

The CPA should not be understood outside of its context of time and place. It still offers useful elements for South Sudan in 2015.

But, far too often, the IGAD mediation, and most prominently the CPA’s chief mediator and his staff, have let the CPA model imprison their thinking and their tactics.

I do not wish to critique the CPA at length here: it is only necessary to point out that in so many ways, and not necessarily as the fault of the mediation of the time, the CPA failed or was inadequate. Consequently, it should be a cautionary guide for the current process, but not the only guide.

Similar advice would be well heeded by the parties, who themselves all too often refer to what happened in Machakos or Naivasha. Considering alternatives, being creative, and acknowledging past failure – rather than romanticizing the history of the CPA mediation effort in South Sudan as one of unmitigated success – would be far more illuminating.

As I wrote earlier, none of these actions are guarantees for success. But the mediators must understand where they have gone wrong, and quickly take corrective action.

Ultimately, should this incarnation of the IGAD mediation fail, the primary blame and responsibility must fall on those negotiating, no matter the deficiencies of the mediators. But the mediators can improve the odds.

Not every mediation can succeed. Witness the innumerable attempts (and innumerable mediators) who have tried to resolve the conflict in Palestine; more recently, the failure of both Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi to resolve the Syrian crisis.

There is no shame in accepting that this process, too, has its limitations. To fail to do so would be to a further disservice to the people of South Sudan. Source...

The author is a diplomat based in Addis Ababa.

 

Striving for Peace in CAR

IRIN || 07 January, 2015

Civil society and religious organisations in the Central African Republic are working to rebuild trust and harmony in a country fraught with ethnic and religious animosity since the overthrow of President François Bozizé in March 2013. 

The real impact of a national reconciliation plan by the interim government of President Catherine Samba Panza is yet to be seen and violence still continues across CAR, although the plan was revamped during July ceasefire talks in Brazzaville. It sets mediation and dialogue as objectives for community and political leaders, as well as the formation of a reconciliation commission.

A national reconciliation minister has been named; a daily radio show on reconciliation has been running for a few months, and billboards with messages of harmony are visible on the streets of the capital, Bangui.

These initiatives have mobilized religious leaders, civil society organizations and even parties to the conflict to work for peace. Former anti-balaka militia organizer Sébastien Wenezoui, and Ousmane Abakar, the country’s Muslim community spokesman, recently formed a political party. “The time has come to put Central Africans, ex-Seleka and anti-balaka on the road to peace and to rebuild CAR,” said Wenezoui.

The country’s conflict pitted the mainly Christian anti-balaka milita and Muslim ex-Seleka fighters against each other. “The cultural or religious differences should not be an obstacle to peace,” Wenezoui said.

Prayers and peace parleys

At the start of the year, the archbishop of Bangui, Dieudonné Nzapalainga, led an inter-faith forum comprising him, head of the country’s Islamic community imam Omar Kobine Layama, and Evangelical Alliance leader Nicolas Grekoyame Gbangou. The forum has been organizing regular prayer meetings and other gatherings to discuss peace and reconciliation. 

In June, the forum launched an “inter-religious campaign for social cohesion” - still ongoing and designed to narrow divisions in the country. It also held a week of prayer and cultural dialogue after two months of sensitization on social cohesion.

Debates, sporting and cultural events, as well as visits to the camps of the displaced, have been organized. A large religious ceremony that brought together the faithful of multiple confessions in a Bangui stadium was also held, while some 400 religious leaders have been trained to encourage reconciliation.

“Our role as leaders is to be peace brokers, to create space for dialogue among communities. That’s the objective of the forum where Muslims, Protestants and Catholics are seated around a table to demonstrate that it is possible to live together…

“Our role as leaders is also to show the way forward - to say the way is not barbarism and killings, but fraternity, forgiveness, unity and reconciliation,” said Nzapalainga, who in 2013 sheltered imam Layama for months after he was forced to flee his home.

Nonetheless violence has continued in many parts of the country. On 16 December, 28 people were killed in the town of Mbres, an area that has been the site of much fighting in recent weeks. 
On 22 December, Human Rights Watch warned of hundreds of Muslims trapped in enclaves living in “deplorable conditions” and document instances of attacks within the enclaves. 

Over 860,000 people are currently displaced as a result of the conflict. 

Recently, Nzapalainga and a group of Christians visited a camp where thousands of ex-Seleka rebels are being held. The former rebels had a few days earlier protested against their living conditions and demanded improvements from the government.

“The church is organizing activities where Muslims and Christians work together for social cohesion,” the archbishop said. With his encouragement, displaced Muslims have been given shelter at various parishes across the country.

Settling scores - on the pitch

In early December residents of the predominantly Christian neighbourhood of Fatima played a football match against the Muslim district of PK 5, an area from where armed men in May and April carried out a series of attacks on Fatima residents. A few months ago, it would have been unthinkable.

Also in December, an anti-balaka squad faced off with ex-Seleka’s 11 at Bangui’s Municipal Stadium in a match watched by the reconciliation minister. The match was organized by leaders from the rival sides following months of a reconciliation campaign dubbed “It’s Enough”.

“We are only seeking peace through these activities,” said Abdel Kader Khalil, a former anti-balaka officer.

Jeannette Detoa, national reconciliation minister, said: “When we see these two sides playing football it means peace is slowly returning. We need to encourage the youths… Reaching peace depends on their commitment.”

Recently, Bangui also saw its first marathon race as part of the efforts to revamp harmony. The Bangui Peace Marathon was organized by local NGO Point d’Appui and the CAR Athletics Federation. Government officials and politicians took part alongside other athletes.

“As those working for peace and social cohesion, this is an event we must attend. When the youths mobilize for cultural events and fraternity, we have to be present to show our commitment and encourage them,” said imam Layama.

“Young Muslims are taking part in this event. This shows the beginnings of social cohesion. There should be many more such activities,” he said. Source

 

South Africa's Controversial New Asylum Form

IRIN || 09 December, 2014

Refugee advocates in South Africa have reacted with dismay and scepticism to a planned revamp of the asylum application process which the government says is designed to distinguish economic migrants from people with a bona fide case for refugee status.

"The granting of asylum should not be contingent on an applicant's skills, economic circumstances, employment history or number of dependants," said Roni Amit, a senior researcher at the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) at Witwatersrand University, referring to a new 12-page asylum application form, which was published for comment in November.

The form includes detailed questions about education level, employment history and skills, including a request that applicants provide documentation in the form of testimonials and pay slips. There is also a new section on financial status that asks for details of bank accounts inside and outside South Africa and how much money the applicant has brought into the country.

The aim of such questions "is to separate economic migrants from people seeking asylum," said Mayihlome Tshwete, the department of home affairs spokesperson.

"Our refugee system is being heavily burdened by economic migrants," he told IRIN. "There are people who are genuinely in fear of their lives, and their applications are not getting the attention [they deserve]."

South Africa was the third most popular destination for asylum seekers in 2013 (Germany and the US took the two top spots) with 70,000 new asylum applications, according the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). This was down from previous years when it was the leading destination, but it has still left the department with a significant backlog. According to UNHCR, over 86,600 cases were yet to receive a first decision by the end of 2013, while a further 145,400 were awaiting appeal decisions at the end of 2012.

However, refugee rights groups have questioned whether the new form is the best way of addressing the backlog.

Amit pointed out that under both international and domestic refugee law, asylum determinations should be based solely on establishing whether individuals face a well-founded fear of persecution or general conditions of instability in their country of origin.

She added that asylum seekers fleeing for their lives were unlikely to have taken any documentation proving their previous employment with them.

UNHCR, in a submission it is preparing to send to Home Affairs, will call for the new form to be simplified. "A lot of the information that they've put there is not needed to take a decision on the merits of a refugee claim," said UNHCR spokesperson Tina Ghelli. "We feel that most asylum seekers wouldn't be able to provide that level of detail. We've offered our technical guidance to help them improve the form."

Long queues

In recent years, refugee reception offices in several cities have either closed or stopped accepting new asylum applications. As a result, new asylum seekers must join long queues at the three remaining offices where they can submit claims - in Pretoria, Durban and Musina (near the border with Zimbabwe).

Asylum seekers only have five days to submit their applications after entering the country before they become undocumented and vulnerable to arrest and detention.

Amit noted that asylum seekers already struggle to fill out the existing form and that the new form is likely to increase the barriers to accessing the asylum system.

"It's going to be much harder with translation to have to fill out this new form; I think it will be very difficult for many people to complete honestly," agreed Roshan Dadoo, regional advocacy officer at the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA). She added that the result could be a further clogging up of the appeals process which is where most of the backlog in the system already exists.

Dadoo raised concerns about other additions to the new form, such as questions about how the applicant entered South Africa, whether they received any assistance and who they travelled with.

"It looks as though they're aimed at trying to identify smuggling operations," she told IRIN, adding that naming travelling companions could prejudice those individuals' asylum claims.

Home Affairs spokesperson Tshwete insisted that the capturing of additional information through the new form would help reduce abuse of the system. "We've discovered that only 5 percent of applicants are actually asylum seekers," he said. "The best thing to help the backlog is to get economic migrants out of the system. We need to encourage [them] to apply for work permits from their country of origin."

The figure that 95 percent of asylum applicants are actually economic migrants is based on South Africa's rejection rates which hover between 85 and 97 percent, significantly higher than the global average of 68 percent, according to UNHCR.

Status determination process flawed?

But Amit, who has researched South Africa's refugee status determination process extensively, argued that "the rejection rate in no way presents an accurate reflection of who is in the asylum system because the status determination process is so flawed." 

"An individual's actual asylum claim has almost no relationship to the decision he or she will actually get... So while 95 percent of people are rejected, that doesn't mean that 95 percent of them don't have valid asylum claims."

She added that the new questions about skills, education and financial situation also have no bearing on whether or not someone is a genuine asylum seeker, "as an asylum seeker can be rich or poor, educated or uneducated, highly skilled or not...

"It seems more likely that what it will do is just weed out the poor, unskilled asylum seekers, who will just get labelled as economic migrants regardless of any asylum claim they may have."

It remains unclear to what extent the Home Affairs Department will take on board the comments from UNHCR, ACMS and other refugee rights groups before implementing the new form, or how refugee status determination officers will be instructed to use the new information it captures. "If you're a genuine asylum seeker, your economic situation won't matter [in terms of adjudication]," said Tshwete.

However, both Amit and Dadoo expressed concerns about how information that falls outside the legal criteria for determining refugee status would be used.

"Why would you ask for that information unless you needed it for the matter at hand?" asked Dadoo.

 

Male Ebola Survivors asked to Abstain from Sex

IRIN || 05 December, 2014

Male Ebola survivors in Liberia are being warned by local health authorities to abstain from sex for at least three months after being discharged from treatment centres, over fears the virus can still be passed on, even once the person has been given a clean bill of health.

"When you survive from Ebola, you need to wait until after three months before you have sex," a public service announcement tells radio listeners in Monrovia. "If you don't wait, you will infect your wife and she will get Ebola."

The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare is spreading similar abstinence messages nationwide via TV spots, billboards and word of mouth.

"I am glad the health workers have taken to the airways to educate people about this," said Musu Tuan, a mother of four from Monrovia. "I think this is a serious situation and it could make the virus stay longer in the country."

There are now more than 500 Ebola survivors in Liberia, according to the Ministry of Health.

Unfounded fears?

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that while no cases of the sexual transmission of the disease have ever been documented, studies done in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda have shown that the Ebola virus can live in the semen of recovering men for at least 82 days after their first onset of symptoms.

"We really don't know if they can transmit the virus as such," said Pieter Desloovere, a communications officer for WHO in Liberia. "There is certainly no scientific evidence as of yet and we cannot say that male patients, who are being discharged, are infecting their wives. But we do know the virus can survive in the semen for a maximum of three months, and so our advice for men coming out of treatment centres is to abstain from sex for three months."

If abstinence is not possible, then WHO says men should use condoms. WHO also recommends that men "maintain good personal hygiene after masturbation". They do not recommend isolating men for an additional 90 days, once their blood tests negative for the virus.

WHO experts say they still don't know why the Ebola virus can live in semen longer than it can in one's blood or saliva, or why it lives in only some men's semen. There have been just four studies looking at the presence of the Ebola virus in the semen of male survivors since 1977. Of the 43 patients looked at, just three had the live virus in their semen.

Better safe than sorry

A survivor from Monrovia, who requested anonymity, told IRIN that he is taking his doctor's advice not to have sex for three months seriously.

"Though I know it is a difficult rule, I have been abiding by it to save the lives of my family," he said. "In fact, since I came back home, my wife and myself do not sleep in the same room. We do not bathe together, nor do I watch her undress herself. I do all these things not to be tempted to have sex with her," he said.

His wife, who also declined to be named, said: "I know this is a hard decision, but life comes first, then sex. So I am patient for now," she said. "After observing the three months, sex will come later."

Thirty-five-year-old Sarah Jackson told IRIN she is also heeding the Ministry's advice.

"I am really scared of this news," she said. "For me, though I am not married, since the outbreak, I have stopped having sex [because] I am scared of contracting the disease. I may not know the status of my other partners, so the right thing to do is to be on the safe side. For me, no sex for now."

An uphill battle

But not all Liberians are happy about being told to abstain from sex.

Joseph Saah, a district health officer at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, said it has been difficult to convince some men to stop having sex after they have recovered.

"I tell the Ebola survivors. `If you really love your wife, you will abstain from sex for three months'," he said. "I make them understand that nothing will happen to them if they abstain from sex for three months. But we see now that most of them are getting irresponsible. and with this, if we are not careful, we will have another serious outbreak."

Saah told IRIN the Ministry is also urging the wives and girlfriends of men who are survivors not to agree to have sex with their partners during the three-month period after their recovery and that they should report any attempts by a survivor to have sex with them.

John Socree, a local businessman in Margibi County, said he is urging all Liberians to heed the Ministry's advice.

"If it will help stop the spread of the virus in Liberia, our Ebola survivors need to adhere to the advice," he told IRIN. "It is in the greatest interest of the people and the nation."

Abstinence not the answer

Despite the "potential" for the virus to spread via sexual intercourse, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) recommends safe sexual practices, over enforced abstinence, for the three months following recovery.

"Discharged cured patients have won the battle against the virus, so the continued reduced presence of virus in the semen. does not mean that a survivor is contagious or still incubating after discharge," said Laetitia Martin, a spokesperson for MSF in Liberia. "If the patient and their partner prefer to abstain during this time, that is their choice. But as long as condoms are correctly and systematically used there is no need for this."

Malay Mulbah, 46, from New Kru Town on Bushrod Island, said using protection is the more realistic option.

"For me it is difficult to abstain from sex, so the best thing I am doing now is to protect myself from the virus," she told IRIN. "I normally travel with my condoms everywhere I go."

Using condoms, however, is just one safety measure. MSF says the focus should remain on the main modes of Ebola transmission, including unsafe funeral practices, caring for or coming into contact with an infected person and coming into contact with materials that have been soiled by a sick person's bodily fluids.

"This recommendation [to use condoms]. should by no means become a priority message, as to this day we have no documented cases of sexually transmitted Ebola," Martin said. "If sexual intercourse with Ebola survivors was a major transmission route for the virus, it would make itself known to us, epidemiologically-speaking. So far it hasn't." Source...

 

Cash transfers: Good for people, bad for the community?

Irin || 02 December, 2014

Some 24 million people around the world now receive money instead of food or goods from humanitarian and development agencies. But the glowing reputation of the mushrooming cash-transfer sector is being undermined by recent ethnographic research about the unintended consequences of cash on community social relations and the inability of standard evaluations to capture the full picture.

“The official story is quite different from the real story,” said Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, principal researcher with the Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherche sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Local (LASDEL) in Niamey, which uses socio-anthropological methods to study development.

Starting in late 2012, Olivier de Sardan and his LASDEL colleagues conducted qualitative fieldwork into cash transfers in 21 villages in Niger, using local languages and immersing themselves in the communities. In contrast to the mostly positive official evaluations and reports about these programmes, LASDEL found a substantial amount of malaise in the cash transfer communities.

In papers published in April and July 2014, Olivier de Sardan examined the reasons behind this dissatisfaction.

He found it was especially linked to the way beneficiaries had been selected - only some people received the transfers - which had a negative impact on the way people in the communities felt about each other. “Almost everywhere people were not comfortable with it,” Olivier de Sardan told IRIN. “It was seen as introducing jealousy and conflict inside the community.”

Olivier de Sardan said there is no question that the emergency cash transfers given out during Niger’s many food crises help mitigate the situation. That money helps people buy food or make investments in livestock or education that support their overall resilience.

But they also lead to an atmosphere of discontent that irritates the social fault lines of the communities and pits neighbour against neighbour.  

Community members described cases of fraud where the selection process included people who were not poor, but were well connected to village leaders, or who had misrepresented their conditions in order to be included.

One local official cited in the papers said it is something the villagers know, but they do not tell outsiders. “Usually, we do not criticize each other in front of strangers, especially when it is an older person doing it,” he said.

But such silence exacts a toll on the people who maintain it, especially if they do not receive a cash transfer, too. Even in cases where the selection process worked well, community members suspected that authorities had fiddled with it. Another local official quoted in the papers explained that a cloud of suspicion hangs over the heads of those involved. “With food distributions people are already very suspicious, and they are even more so with cash distributions. They think that we elected officials always win something and it really hurts.”

In some ways, these conflicts are only to be expected, said Leila Bourahla, the Niger country director for Concern Worldwide. “As long as you choose one group that receives and one that doesn’t, there is tension,” she told IRIN.

In fact, there has long been discussion among researchers about how cash transfers might be contributing to jealousy, resentment and distrust in target communities all over the world.

Bourahla said Concern Worldwide tries to counter the tension by explaining why they choose certain poor and vulnerable people and not others. They follow a similar protocol at the World Food Programme (WFP) in Niger, said Giorgi Dolidze, the head of the rural development unit.

“We’ve been distributing cash in Niger for more than four years and have been closely monitoring the distributions every year and measuring the outcomes,” Dolidze told IRIN. “And [we] have been receiving positive feedback from the beneficiaries and communities.”  

This gap between what community members say to evaluators and what they say among themselves might be accounted for in several ways. One reason might be that people in local communities and programme implementers often do not have the same definitions of poverty and vulnerability when it comes to beneficiary selection, said Nicola Jones, a research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). She worked on a DFID-funded study about the perceptions of cash transfers in Africa and the Middle East.

“One of the tensions is that a lot of the programmes are supported by institutions like the World Bank and they have a formula that does not capture context-specific sources of vulnerability,” Jones told IRIN. She said the determination of vulnerability has to go beyond assets and money to examine issues like substance abuse and domestic violence.

According to LASDEL’s research, though, there may be a more subtle dynamic at play.

“They [the non-beneficiaries] thought it was completely unfair, but they wanted it to go on,” said Olivier de Sardan. Why? Because they hoped that the next time, they might be the ones to benefit.

Olivier de Sardan explained that in many communities, they view these transfers as gifts or as “manna” from heaven. They do not complain because they fear that this manna might disappear from their villages if the programme teams knew the whole truth.

Yoann Tuzzolino, the focal point in West Africa for the Cash Learning Partnership, said this was one of the most interesting questions raised by LASDEL’s research.

Tuzzolino posited: “Is there some kind of informal agreement, between the beneficiaries, local representatives and tribal chiefs to keep the cash transfers in the communities?”

If so, then they may need to use different methods to reveal the truth. Most cash transfer project evaluations focus on their objectives. Did it help food security? Did it help improve school attendance? Did it improve their finances? But maybe these evaluations should include another question, according to Tuzzolino. “What impact does it [the cash transfer programme] have on the organic solidarity of the community?”

Learning to communicate

For his part, Olivier de Sardan noted that cash transfers are doing some good, but also, undeniably, causing some harm. He believes that organizations need to change the process to become more responsive to each community’s needs.

“Cash transfers are not the devil,” Olivier de Sardan told IRIN, explaining that cash is not creating conflicts out of thin air. “They are sharpening conflicts that are already there.”

These are issues that implementers will have to confront as they scale up their programmes. “It’s more than ensuring that the money gets to the right person,” Jones at ODI told IRIN

She said a few measures could help minimize conflict: better communication with local people; a more inclusive selection process; and the creation of ways for local people to interact and speak with programme implementers. Many of these measures are already best practices in the cash transfer world, but are hard to do well, according to Jones.

Concern Worldwide-Niger was the organization that originally asked LASDEL to research the socio-cultural impacts of cash transfers.

Bourahla said they collaborate with research projects because they want to know how to improve their programmes. Although LASDEL’s research did not include any recommendations, Bourahla said her team is refining how to target the most vulnerable people and using more qualitative methods in their evaluations.

The team also realized they needed a better response mechanism to hear about the things the programme was doing correctly and what it was doing wrong. So, they established a hotline for community members to speak with the programme implementers. “We have more and more complaints,” said Bourahla, which, paradoxically, is a good thing. “People are being encouraged to report the errors.”

 

A message for World AIDS Day from Caritas Internationalis

Vatican Radio || 01 December, 2014

At a time when all of the world’s attention is focussed on Ebola, it is easy for the world to take its eyes off “World AIDS Day” which is commemorated annually on 1 December. Recent media reports on Ebola deaths say the number is now close to 7000. While no effort should be spared towards containing Ebola, it is important that HIV/AIDS continues to get the attention it deserves.

Globally, HIV rates are on the decline. However, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) close to 2.1 million people are said to have been infected with HIV last year and every year about 1.6 million people die of AIDS related illnesses. WHO officials warn against the risk of complacency, particularly in Africa, which still has the highest number of HIV infections and deaths.

On this day, World AIDS Day, FIND BELOW A MESSAGE from Caritas Internationalis. The message is by Michel Roy, Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis and Rev. Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo, Head of Delegation to the United Nations in Geneva and Special Advisor on HIV/AIDS and Health.

 

“A message for World AIDS Day from Caritas”

“Every person is worthy of our giving.” With these words, Pope Francis called on all Catholics, and other people of faith and good will, to open their hearts to all in need and to treat them as sisters and brothers. He then assured those willing to sacrifice their own comfort, time, wealth, knowledge and skills for the good of others, “We achieve fulfillment when we break down walls and our heart is filled with faces and names!”

The story of Caritas’ response to the HIV epidemics in different parts of the world goes beyond abstract strategies and policies, as important as they may be. Ours is a response that is measured, not only in realizing expected outcomes, but also by the greater enjoyment of human dignity among persons living with or affected by HIV. Ours is a response that reaches out with compassion and tangible support to countless widows, orphans, and other surviving loved ones as a way to honour the memory of some 39 million people who have died from AIDS-related causes during the past three decades. Ours is a response of walking with, not merely “doing for”, HIV-positive persons as they empower themselves to live fully despite the challenges they face as a result of the virus.

The international experts tell us on this World AIDS Day 2014 that we must “close the gap” between the “haves” and “have-nots” in the global response to AIDS. We can accomplish this lofty goal by opening our hearts in solidarity and in the search for the common good. We can “close the gap” by challenging and changing the structures that prevent some 25 million adults and children from access to life-saving anti-retroviral medications.

We can “close the gap” by looking beyond the “quick fix” solutions for HIV prevention that have been proposed for the last 30 years and, in the words of Pope Francis, by “going out to meet” those at risk of HIV infection “with creative love” as we “help them to rediscover their dignity and to revive those inner strengths, those personal talents” of “men and women created in the image and likeness of God.” We can “close the gap” by fully welcoming HIV-positive refugees and displaced persons who too often are denied access to health care in the countries where they have sought freedom and a more positive future for themselves and their families. We can “close the gap” when we reject “the culture of comfort, which makes us think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of other people”

Above all, let us give priority attention to the HIV-infected children who have not benefited from the same pace of progress, as that enjoyed by adults, in making medicines available. We must continue to “close the gap” in the pediatric AIDS response by advocating with governments and pharmaceutical companies to develop more “child friendly” medicines so that we can offer these children the possibility of living beyond their first or second birthdays and so that we too can benefit from the society of tomorrow which they can help us build.

Finally, we can “close the gap” by overcoming our in-born tendencies to blame others for their conditions of poverty, of marginalization, or even of HIV infection. Universal access for all people living with HIV, not just to medicines, but to full life and dignity, will only be accomplished by rejecting all forms of discrimination and stigma toward those living with or affected by HIV. Let us base our “roadmap” for Caritas’ ongoing commitment to the global HIV response on this appeal of Pope Francis: “… we must open ourselves to the peripheries, also acknowledging that, at the margins too, even one who is cast aside and scorned by society is the object of God’s generosity. We are all called not to reduce the Kingdom of God to the confines of the “little church” — our “tiny little church” — but to enlarge the Church to the dimensions of the Kingdom of God. However, there is one condition: wedding attire must be worn, that is, charity toward God and neighbour must be shown.” Source...

(Michelle Hough, Communications Officer)

Catholic Church Leader tells South Sudanese not to be ‘cattle’ of Rebel Leader or President

Radio Tamazuj || 24 November, 2014

A priest has told South Sudanese Christians in Wau that they are not ‘cattle’ belonging to either of the two politicians Riek Machar or Salva Kiir, and he slammed politicians for provoking violence and inciting ‘uneducated’ security personnel.

Apostolic Administrator Rocco Taban said, “Before the minister of youth was saying that there are some youths from Western Bahr al Ghazal who are rebels. I think this is not something that should be said in general. Because that is a way to encourage the security personnel to arrest whom they don’t want.”

“Because many of our security personnel are people who are uneducated and uncultured. So they can stir confusion and instability in the society. For that reason I say that we in South Sudan – our government and people – must urgently work for stability. Let us not sit and complain at each other,” said the priest.

In a militant speech at an ordination ceremony in Wau, the priest also mocked politicians who classify people by their political loyalties, saying that his church belongs to God and not to any politician.

“‘Oh, he belongs to Riek or he belongs to Salva’,” he mimicked. “Who here is a cow of Salva? Or a cow of Riek? I think that we as Christians in the Catholic Church we are people who have dignity because we are creatures made in the image of God and we do not accept imperialism and provocation and insult and insecurity and inequality in the society.”

Rocco called on the newly ordained priests to ‘liberate’ Christians and all people from a “mentality” of violence, vengeance and blaming of others.

He further anticipated that he would be criticized for talking about politics but brushed this aside forcefully.

“Sometimes when a priest talks and preaches to the people by the Holy Bible there are some people who say ‘That priest is talking politics.’ I think that the people who say a priest is talking politics – and he is instructing the society, as the conscience of the society – those are people who have sheep stew for a brain.”

“Because a priest has to tell the truth,” he said. “We in the Church must play our prophetic role and there are no politicians whom we are going to allow interfere in the prophetic role of the Church.” Source...

 

Christians Demand Real Action from Government and Muslim Leaders in Kenya

A press statement from the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK)

1. Preamble

The Executive Committee of the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) has met here at Jumuia Conference and Country Home, Limuru, for the last two days to transact formal business and discuss matters of national concern. We considered the word of God recorded in Psalms 7: 9 which reads: “O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure”. We now wish to share the following message:

2. Condolences Following Mandera Bus Attack

This Executive Committee wishes to restate the condolence message we shared with the families and friends of all our brothers and sisters who were barbarically murdered near Mandera last Saturday. We are mourning with you, and we urge you to wait upon God who has promised to ultimately promised to dispense justice.

3. Litany of Attacks Against Christians

The NCCK notes that since the year 2005, Christians and churches in Kenya have been subjected to incessant verbal attacks by Muslim preachers in mosques and open air preachings across the country. We further note that Muslim leaders have never expressly condemned these attacks or taken time to explain whether these attacks were the official Muslim agenda in Kenya. Notably, these verbal attacks have had an objective of ensuring radicalization and emotional mobilization of Muslims against Christians. It is thus disconcerting that this radicalization and emotional mobilization has continued before the very eyes of Muslim leaders, government organs and security agencies for more than a decade yet to date no one has been arrested or prosecuted for hate speech against the church. In addition, this verbal abuse and mobilization has in the recent years been accompanied by terrorist attacks leading to the killing of Kenyans, Christian pastors, worshippers and destruction of churches and properties. This has gone on for far too long. The recent killing of 28 Kenyans in Mandera merely because they were not Muslims portends a new phase of the strategy that Kenyans are worried may be repeated constantly in the future.

4. Message to Muslim Leaders

Over the years, NCCK has supported inter religious dialogue with sincerity and confidence that the Muslim leaders we interacted with were equally committed to peace and security. However, we have come to the conclusion that we have either been dealing with Muslim leaders who have no power or grip over their faithful, or they are conspirators who are dishonest and economical with truth regarding the radicalization and mobilization against Christians. This is especially so in the light of the strong words Muslim leaders use to defend mosques where radical literature and weapons have been found. How do weapons get into mosques without the leaders’ knowledge? It then becomes futile to remain engaged when the situation is going from bad to worse. Christians do not now trust the prompt press statements by Muslim leaders dissociating themselves and the Islamic faith from the terror attacks every time one happens. The leaders have never presented any evidence that they have ever taken any action to pre-empt and prevent such attacks on Christians before they happen. If they have they should tell us the security officers they informed and if such chose to take no action. We wish to remind all Muslims that they live everywhere in Kenya and in some locations there are only a handful of them. They just as the Christians and indeed all Kenyans will benefit from the peaceful coexistence based on mutual respect throughout the country. It is therefore in their interests to reverse the anger being built up in the church.

5. Message to the Government

The NCCK affirms that the President and his government have a constitutional and social contract to provide protection to the people of Kenya and their properties by all means. We note however that the current security arrangement seems challenged in executing its role, especially at the Coast, North Eastern and other parts of the country. The NCCK believes that the acts of terror that have been perpetrated against the church and other Kenyans happened in the full knowledge of local security agencies who are either conspirators, complacent, incompetent or compromised. We therefore call upon on the President to accurately establish the security gaps and their remedies in a speedy manner, especially in the light of the fact that there is a strong lack of coordination of security personnel and resources. Further to this, NCCK believes that the Members of County Assemblies (MCAs), Members of National Assembly, Governors, and Senators who were elected by the citizens in the areas where attacks are persistent have the political networks capable of detecting and stopping the planning of such attacks by enlisting security agencies in their endeavours. The threats by the government that where such leaders are culpable they will be arrested and charged have not been fulfilled. We wonder why the government fears ruffling such leaders.

6. Our Call to the Government

Since the government has a record of the mosques where radicalization and hate speech against Christians have been perpetrated, the perpetrators and Muslim leaders responsible for those mosques should be arrested and charged in court for conspiracy to commit crimes or failure to stop them. Further, it appears that in the new constitutional dispensation the security delivery structures have been severely constrained. The President and his government should confront Kenyans with any changes that may be required to strengthen the security machinery and check the runaway terrorism. Christians are happy to go to a referendum to enact changes which will enable the unequivocal capacity of the government to protect its citizens and their properties if that is what it takes. The first place to start should be the enactment and operationalization of the Anti-Terrorism law that most Muslim leaders have persistently resisted. There is also a need for a marshal plan on dealing with security. The NCCK observes that unless the government acts decisively on matters security and Muslim leaders find a mechanism for disowning and exposing for arrest perpetrators of attacks, the patience of Christians who have for long restrained themselves despite these attacks due to a desire to operate within the rule of law may be stretched beyond breaking point. Retaliatory attacks may become a real possibility. In the meantime, we urge the government to cease the unjust exercising of religious freedom especially at the coast. We note that Christians are not allowed to hold overnight prayers or gospel crusades yet the Muslims are allowed to do so. This discrimination must stop.

7. Message on the Extractive Industry in Kenya

As Kenyans celebrate the discovery of minerals in various areas, we are concerned that discussions regarding the exploration and exploitation of the same have neither been comprehensive nor inclusive. It is therefore critical that the communitiesliving in these areas are brought in and engaged. A case in point is Mui Basin in Kitui County where Coal is being extracted. The framework of engagement has left the community exposed to well-connected people who are out to exploit the people by buying out their land. Further, no clear benefits or compensation frameworks that takes into consideration contextual dynamics have been put in place, thereby negating social development. The fact that this is a new area of engagementmeans that there is a general weak and inadequate legislation and policy framework, which leaves the country and its people vulnerable to exploitation and economic injustices. The existing laws seem to protect and enrich the investorsto the disadvantage of the government and the community. We therefore urge the President not to assent to the current Mining Bill and instead send it back to Parliament requiring that there be more public engagement on the same. Further, we call upon the government to make public all the mining and exploration agreements that have been signed with different investors. On its part, the NCCK has established a task force of the Executive Committee to study this matter in depth and operationalize a grassroots engagement by church leaders and other stakeholders in negotiations, civic empowerment and monitoring of the developments in this sector amongst other aspects.

8. Conclusion

The year is coming to an end. We know the country has gone through a lot but we thank God for remaining faithful despite the challenges. As we prepare for the upcoming festivities, we urge Kenyans to remain focused on their daily endeavours and always trust in God for his guidance. Remember that our prosperities depend on our association with God. Let us all remember the less fortunate in society as we celebrate. We pray that all Kenyans will have a blessed Christmas and God-filled 2015.

Signed on this 26th day of November 2014 at Jumuia Conference and Country Home, Limuru.

Rev Canon Rosemary Mbogoh, CHAIRPERSON , Rev Canon Peter Karanja, GENERAL SECRETARY

 

 

The Oil Race Is on in the Cradle of Humanity

 

Newsweek || By Jessica Hatcher || 26 November 2014

“Turkana Boy” is one of the most complete early human skeletons ever found. A picture based on facial reconstruction makes him look like a morose Shrek, with almost no forehead, ears that sit in-line with his temples, broad cheeks and mouth. Scientists believe that every person alive today is related to Turkana Boy’s community, which lived 1.6m years ago in northern Kenya at  the far end of Lake Turkana, where the borders of Kenya and Ethiopia meet.

Despite being one of the world’s richest archaeological treasure troves, Turkana County is the poorest in Kenya. Home to the minority Turkana tribe, its land is unproductive - a place where until now few people chose to go. Its 73,000 square kilometres of semi-desert are inhabited by just 880,000 people, according to the most recent census. But that is changing, because the same earth that nurtured human life has fostered another highly-prized commodity: that of oil.

Turkana Boy’s skeleton now lives 800km south of where he once roamed the Earth, displayed behind a spot-lit, polished glass cabinet in Nairobi’s National Museum.

Johnson Gitonga, an undergraduate whose holiday job is to steer visitors like me around the museum, has a plan to claim his share in Kenya’s growing fortunes that will take him to Turkana’s place of birth.

“In Nairobi, everything has been earmarked. There’s nothing left,” he says. “In Turkana, there’s space for expansion and in the next ten years, it’ll be one of the best counties in the country in terms of investment and development.”

A few kilometres up the road from the museum is another flagship building, the shiny-glass West End Towers. At the top of its automated lift shaft lies the head office of Tullow Oil in Kenya.

This Anglo-Irish exploration company catapulted Turkana into the spotlight when the Kenya government announced Tullow had discovered oil there in 2012. Within two years, the company  found an estimated 600m barrels and in January, it announced that potential for drilling more than one billion barrels.

In the interests of transparency, Tullow ­voluntarily disclosed that it has paid the Kenyan government nearly $22m last year in fees as stipulated by its production sharing agreement. The Ministry of Energy says that none of that money went directly to Turkana; it stayed in Nairobi where it was included in the pot for the national budget.

In Turkana, oil is not the only thing driving change. The world’s largest desert lake, Lake Turkana demarcates the county’s eastern boundary. Islands made of volcanic craters erupt like giant barnacles from the water’s surface. Part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, they provide breeding grounds for one of the world’s largest crocodile populations (although their numbers have been decimated in recent decades) and food for some two million flamingos who fly in each year. North of the lake, Ethiopia is building the continent’s largest hydroelectric power project, including the Gilgel Gibe III dam, which many believe could, at best, shrink the lake, at worst, dry it up.

So much hope for development. So much investment. But in the scramble for resources the question is: are we ransacking one of the most historic places on earth?

When the Tibetan plateau rose-up some 50m years ago, it started sucking moisture out of East Africa, making the once rain-forested region increasingly dry. Meanwhile, a gash in the Earth’s crust beneath East Africa began tearing the continent apart. This gave rise to lakes, volcanoes, a giant valley – known as The East African Rift –  and highlands at its sides. Apes who did not wish to move west to stay with the shrinking forest had to adapt to new diversity in order to survive. And it was that ecological imperative that created the species we are today.

Turkana Boy, who was found in Turkana on the floor of the rift valley in 1984, is the poster child for this titanic change on earth. His 1.6 metre (5ft 3in) frame graced the front covers of magazines and was subject to countless works of non-fiction; you can even buy your own exact replica for $6,000 from the National Museums of Kenya. After a three-hour drive on axle-breaking tracks, I come to a barely inhabited riverbank on the edge of Nariokotome village, five kilometres west of Lake Turkana. I am standing next to ­Turkana Boy’s grave.

The only people here, an elderly couple – Ekiru and Nakwaan Ngikomosoroko – show me around. For the early part of their lives, they were Turkana Boy’s unwitting custodians. They lived on top of his final resting place, keeping their goats in corrals made from thorny acacia branches. The goats’ skulls litter his empty grave, tokens of the ongoing drought. The only evidence of his excavation is a small open quarry just ten metres wide.

Ekiru and Nakwaan make unlikely tour guides. They are angry. The fossil hunters who came here in 1984 robbed them, they say – but to this day they don’t understand of what. Their house is a circular hut overlooking the dry bed of the Nariokotome river. On the rare occasion that rain clouds muster the strength, water flows from here into Lake Turkana, where gigantic crocodiles darken the shallows.

Pictures from the excavation, which took place over a number of seasons, show a tanned and topless 39-year old paleo-anthropologist, Richard Leakey, in safari shorts sitting head down in concentration. Today, Leakey’s body is a scrapbook of the battles and triumphs of an extraordinary past – extraordinary enough to entice Angelia Jolie to direct a film, Africa, about his life. Penned by Eric Roth, the man who wrote Forrest Gump, production is expected to start next year.

By his early 20s, Leakey was already on the way to discovering Koobi Fora on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana, the richest and most varied site for early-human remains in the world. In 2005, after careers in anti-poaching and politics – and the loss of both his legs ­– Leakey founded the Turkana Basin Institute, an academic organisation that promotes new discoveries in the remote region. He now divides his time between conserving Africa’s natural and cultural heritage, and hatching a plan to see Turkana and its residents benefit from their resources. One day, he hopes, Ekiru and Nakwaan’s descendants will speak of their home with pride.

As Leakey and his colleagues came and went from Nariokotome village thirty years ago, excavating a large area in collaboration with the National Museums of Kenya, Ekiru and Nakwaan watched from afar. They recall their fear as “the white men and their helpers,” as they saw it, wrapped their spoils with great care and drove them away. Unknown to people in Turkana, specialised “preparators” then worked feverishly behind a cloak of secrecy in Nairobi, to get Turkana Boy ready to meet the world.

The government makes money from the skeleton, selling replicas and charging fees to see it in the capital. But the couple were never offered anything for the find. So they vowed to do things differently next time and made a pact to resist all future excavation on their land.

A few months after Turkana Boy was unveiled in Nairobi, a group of tourists travelled to Nariokotome to visit his grave. They found their passage blocked by an angry young couple. “We tried to obstruct them,” Ekiru recalls.

But Ekiru and Nakwaan don’t technically own this land. Outside of the urban areas in Turkana, almost no pastoralists hold legal titles to land. Most of it is communal, held in trust for the community by the county government for the people of Turkana. As the race for acquisition and development ramps up,  so the need for adjudication and allocation of land becomes critical, for individuals to have some say over what to do with it.

There is still no paved road to Nariokotome village, no secondary school, no water point, no phone signal. But now its inhabitants want Turkana Boy back. They are not alone. The 22-month old Turkana County government, one of 47 established after the 2013 elections according to Kenya’s new constitution, is making demands on its national leaders and they believe that the fossil belongs to them. The county governor, Josphat Nanok, said in June that the county needs all of its archaeological finds back to boost local tourism. “The fossil of the Turkana Boy will make more sense when tourists see it in Turkana County,” he said.

Peter Lokoel, the deputy governor, added: “For many years the Turkana story has been told by outsiders who do not understand the community and the county.”

Leakey agrees. In his Nairobi office, he slides two sheets of A4 across his desk. Working with the county government, his proposal is to construct the most comprehensive museum of the history of mankind – showing what happened, where it happened – in the desert in Turkana. He plans to include the region’s first planetarium, an exhibition with a lifesize Tyrannosaurus rex (traces of which were also found in Turkana), and interactive presentations that transition from early man into the modern world, presenting oil discovery, its recovery, and its uses.

Daniel Libeskind, the architect selected to lead the reconstruction at the World Trade Center site in New York, is on board to design it. So far, Leakey says a single donor has given $10m, but he refuses to be drawn on his or her identity.

After what he’s calling the science park, he hopes to see schools and hospitals built to rival those in the capital – not as an oil city, but a development facilitated by oil wealth. The constitution does not currently allow the county government to borrow money, so Leakey is talking about funding the development through a non-profit organisation working in partnership with the national and county governments and the local communities, mobilising grants and concessional loans from a host of partners: private companies with stakes in the region, including oil companies, multilateral and bilateral partners, and private philanthropists.

What the Turkana need, Leakey says, is not more wells or basic primary schools, but a total reversal of the status quo, where select residents in Nairobi get the best and those in Turkana get only enough to survive. In the long run, he also wants Turkana Boy to return home so the Turkana benefit from him rather than, “simply saying ‘bye-bye’ to their fossils and hearing that they’re in Nairobi”.

Turkana County is united by one tribe, and one language, bordered by mountain ranges and the lake. Its people are used to isolation and nationhood remains a foreign concept. “We’re going to Kenya,” the Turkana still say of Kitale, the nearest town south of the county border.

Thirty years after Turkana Boy’s remains were removed, Ekiru and Nakwaan believe their land is once more to provide fame and fortune for foreigners, but not for them. The planes started overhead a few years ago - small planes that never land and that fly unusually low. Ekiru has heard it said that there is oil beneath the ground, but he doesn’t know what oil is, nor what it is used for. When I point to the plastic beads around his neck and to Nakwaan’s flipflops, she squeals in disbelief: “Ei!”

Do they stand to benefit from the oil? The history of hydrocarbons in Africa is not encouraging. Research has shown that a strong democracy with transparency and accountability is necessary to avoid what’s become known as “the resource curse.”

Kenya already has a notoriously corrupt government. It is in the bottom quartile of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2013. Despite a pledge by President Kenyatta to back full disclosure of petroleum agreements, they have not all been made public. (Tullow Oil is in favour of disclosure but will only do so with the government’s permission.)

In Turkana, more than 80% of the population are illiterate. In the swathes of ungoverned semi-arid desert, guns are ubiquitous and armed conflict already rife.

The educated few among the Turkana are steeling themselves to take on the national government, oil explorers, neighbouring tribes, and even local government if they must, to ensure that their communities receive fair profit.

A local newspaper, The Turkana Times, was set up in 2013 with the strapline “the arid voice” to report on Turkana from Turkana for the first time. Paralegals and educated local leaders are demanding appropriate legislation and transparency. But if their voices are not heard, and their demands not satisfied – which means more employment, more contracts going to Turkana, and a solution to the insecurity on Turkana’s borders where pastoralists engage in reciprocal cattle raids and fight over access to land and waterpoints –  then they will be forced to use violence to achieve their goals.

Yet, despite ultimatums by Turkana leaders, and proclamations from those leaders that they are ready to be embraced by Kenya for the first time, the national government still seems keen to denigrate those living in the arid north.

Turkana’s largest urban centre is not Lodwar, the county capital and it is not Lokichoggio, the 90s boomtown that was a base for humanitarians and gunrunners during the 20-year-long civil war in Sudan. Nor is it Lokichar, the oil town stealing Lokichoggio’s boomtown mantle. It is Kakuma, a blisteringly hot, 6,000-acre refugee camp in the desert that houses 160,000 people, the majority from South Sudan and Somalia. If granted Kenyan citizenship, the refugees would swell Turkana’s population by a fifth. Having fled their homes,  they live in a haphazard, temporary city under identikit rectangular sheets of galvanised steel that have been handed out by aid groups. It’s seen as a place where nothing grows.

In September 2013, Somalia-based militants al-Shabaab attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, the worst terrorist attack on Kenyan soil since the bombing of the US embassy in 1998 by Islamic extremists. Following investigation of the attack, a Kenyan parliamentary committee reported that the terrorists who stormed the shopping centre killing 67 people came primarily from Kakuma refugee camp in Turkana.

The government’s response included rounding up some 4,000 refugees, predominantly Somalis, who were living in the capital. Those who could paid bribes to secure their release; the police netted thousands of dollars in the process. Others were kept in cages before being removed wholesale – in contravention of international law – to the refugee camps in the neglected north, the same camps that the government had declared breeding grounds for Islamic militancy. There is a real fear that the north of Kenya, with its large and vulnerable refugee population, could provide a new anchor point for militant Islam in Africa.

On 26 October 2013, thousands of angry Turkana, politicians among their ranks, stormed two of Tullow’s drill sites. The protestors believed that the government and the oil company were not giving them enough benefits. Across the county, Tullow’s staff were evacuated and its operations shut down for almost two weeks.

What a national government should provide and what a private company should provide is hard to assess. Tullow is considered to be one of the most responsible oil explorers in Africa. Even the campaign group Global Witness refers to it as “squeaky clean”.

“We consult every single day on absolutely everything that we can,” says Tullow’s social performance manager, Andy Demetriou, an engaging British man who grew up in Kenya. “But it’s just never enough.”

Analysis by data journalist Eva Constantaras suggests that their efforts are indeed not enough. Funded by the European Journalism Centre, she analysed a leaked database of sub-contractors’ employees, confirmed as genuine by Tullow Oil, showing that top management positions are held almost exclusively by foreigners, sub-contractors hire Kenyans from elsewhere and some firms hired by Tullow employ no Turkana at all.

A key problem for both the community and the oil companies is that Kenya lacks the legislation to provide operational frameworks, something that is putting off prospective investors. Kenya’s long-awaited revision of the Petroleum (Exploration and Development) Act is still under review. The act is expected to increase the obligation of oil companies towards local communities, and to increase government profits. Another key piece of legislation the Turkana hope will be passed is the Community Land Bill, which expressly provides for, “the recognition, protection, management and administration of community land.”

After decades of political isolation, violent conflicts with neighbouring tribes, an increasingly deleterious reliance on food-aid, and perennial drought, Turkana and its people are frazzled. But, if you look beyond the wornout land and the pastoralists’ daily battles to survive, there are signs of growth.

The county got its first new tarmac road in decades this year, 2.3km of progress. For the government in Nairobi, hydrocarbons present a tremendous opportunity to reduce its reliance on foreign aid and achieve ambitious development goals set for 2030. East of the lake, a giant windfarm that will power millions of homes is catalysing another new road. If the scientists tap into a vast underground aquifer, the arid parts of Turkana may one day yield crops.

Managing expectations and entitlement will not be easy. Richard Leakey has commissioned an obelisk that will be erected at Turkana Boy’s excavation site on a small area of protected land, with backing from the county government, as part of Kenya’s national heritage. Simple seating will surround it, and a sign in Turkana, Kiswahili and English will explain its purpose.

It should be up by the end of the year. Tullow is improving the main road that runs close to Nariokotome, and Ekiru and Nakwaan will put up a small curio stall, to sell their handicraft.

Standing on top of the excavation site looking at where Turkana Boy once was, I relay news of the statue to the couple. Ekiru frowns. “We need good food and water to live well. After taking the fossil from us, they come and use money from that fossil to put a monument up? I’m not sure we’ll be ready to accept that.”

Thirty years ago, the promise of shade and water lured Richard Leakey, then director of the National Museums of Kenya, and a team of fossil hunters to camp by the Nariokotome River while they explored west of Lake Turkana.

On a typically hot day in late July, world-renowned Kenyan fossil hunter Kamoya Kimeu was taking a stroll when he happened upon the holy grail of ­fossil-hunting: what looked like a piece of early-human skull bone lurking in the pebbly ground. The fossil hunters suspected it would turn out to be an isolated piece, but in the coming weeks and months, scepticism turned to ecstasy.

They had discovered not just one, or even a handful, but 150 fragments of early human bone, with teeth to boot. It was a miracle that Turkana Boy’s skeleton survived. Our ancient ancestors didn’t bury their dead, and if they were not killed by a predator, a scavenger usually got to them before sediment could preserve them. Scientists believe Turkana Boy fell into a swamp and floated face-down for a while, before being trampled by passing beasts, then embedded in mud where fossilisation took place.

He had died a sickly child aged between nine and twelve with a spinal deformity and an infection in his jaw.

Paleoanthropology has a cloak and dagger reputation: significant new fossils are often kept under wraps for years, their secrets poured over by just a select few; competition b etween teams of researchers is ferocious. Researchers must accept that they can’t study certain fossils because they can’t access them. Sometimes, people who take the trouble to find fossils don’t want to let anyone else see them, in case they steal the glory by publishing findings first. Also, governments restrict replication of fossils on the basis that it would reduce the income from foreign researchers coming to study them. Turkana Boy, however, was unveiled quite quickly, in 1985, to media and scientific acclaim. Source...

Jessica Hatcher and Guillaume Bonn’s reporting and photography in Turkana was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Learn more the project at pulitzercenter.org

 

'Avoid Stigmatising Africa,' Musician Says As W. Africa Ebola Song Launched

All Africa || By Misha Hussain || 24 November 2014

Some of Africa's top musicians launched on Monday an alternative Ebola appeal song to Band Aid's new recording of "Do they know it's Christmas' with proceeds also going to fight the virus that has killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa this year.

Despite reaching number one in the UK charts, Bob Geldof's "Do they know it's Christmas" song has been slammed by critics who say the rewritten lyrics, including Christmas bells that clang "chimes of doom" and a world of "dread and fear/Where a kiss of love can kill you", are an insult to Africans.

By contrast, "Africa stop Ebola", sung in French and local languages including Malinke, Soussou, Kissi and Lingala, uses a mixture of rap and melodies that are distinctive to West Africa, to urge people to take Ebola seriously and go to a doctor if they are ill.

Recorded by Malians Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare and duo Amadou and Mariam, Guinean Mory Kante, Congolese Barbara Kanam and Senegalese rapper Didier Awadi among others, the song also warns people to wash their hands, avoid shaking hands with others and to refrain from touching dead bodies.

Tiken Jah Fakoly, a renowned Ivorian musician who has rallied other artists to raise awareness about Ebola, said he was touched by TV images of people in quarantine in the worst-affected countries Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

"When I saw those terrible images, I called the other musicians and said that we have to do something to sensitise the people about this disease," Fakoly told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Fakoly said of Band Aid 30: "I praise Bob Geldof's initiative and he has raised a lot of money, but we must try and avoid stigmatising Africa as a continent that needs pity."

Ebola, a rare, tropical disease is spread through direct contact with infected bodily fluids such as blood, sweat and vomit. The virus has infected over 15,000 people in the region since it was first reported in Guinea in March, according to the World Health Organisation.

Although the number of cases in Liberia appears to be falling, Sierra Leone and Guinea are witnessing a steep rise in the number people who are newly infected. Mali is currently fighting its second outbreak.

According to the song's producers, 3D Family, "Africa stop Ebola" has sold 250,000 copies since it's unofficial release earlier this month with all proceeds going to medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

The launch marks the beginning of a December campaign using song merchandise including T-shirts, flyers, posters, a video with English subtitles and a social media campaign to show people how the virus can be stopped. Source...

(Editing by Katie Nguyen)

 

How the Gates Foundation is Robbing African Women of their Freedom and Their Lives

Aleteia || By Obianuju Ekeocha || 19 November 2014

As the West pushes dangerous contraceptive drugs on African women, the author stands up for their dignity.

As I tried to catch up on the latest news on Africa, I stumbled upon the recent joint announcement  of Pfizer Inc. the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) to expand access to Pfizer’s injectable contraceptive, Sayana® Press (medroxyprogesterone acetate), for women in the world’s poorest countries.

Some of the targeted countries named for this expansive contraception project include Burkina Faso, Kenya, Niger, Senegal, Uganda and my own country Nigeria.

This announcement was immediately picked up and praised by many news agencies in the western world including BBC News where it was described as, "The one dollar contraceptive set to make family planning easier."
 
One cannot help but wonder, "easier" for whom? For Ugandan, Kenyan and Nigerian women? Or for the multi-billionaire Pfizer, Gates and CIFF? 
 
Reading this announcement and the related news articles further, I realized that this project is not a new one — rather its inception can be traced back directly to the extensive contraception fundraising project launched by Melinda Gates two years ago during the Family Planning Summit of 2012. 

All of it seems now to be actualized in this cheap contraceptive device targeted towards the poorest women in the world. 
So by sheer determination and will, these wealthy figures — Pfizer, Gates & CIFF, have succeeded in rolling out in the world of the poor, the $1-per-piece device designed to become the prevalent self-injectable contraception of the developing world — the wonder device that will make it all so easy to sterilize millions of women across my Continent. 

They claim that this would be the pathway to development as well as the emancipation and elevation of African women.

They tell us that it will give African women control over their lives. 

But I dare to ask them exactly how sterilizing the wombs of the poorest women in the world would give them control over famine, draught, disease and poverty. It absolutely will not make women more educated, or more employable.

This extensive contraception project will not provide food or safe drinking water for women who submit to it. It will not make African women happier or more satisfied in their marriages. No. It will only make them sterile at the cheapest rate possible. 

This is certainly not what the African women have asked. It is not the miracle that our hearts crave amidst the trials and difficulties of Africa. But yet in a world of shocking cultural imperialism, it is what our "betters" have chosen to unleash upon us. 
 
And what is more insidious is that this product being launched is the self-injectable version of the highly controversial Depo-Provera that has been put into question in the developed world after having been shown in various studies to carry dangerous and even lethal side effects. 
 
In October 2011 the New York Times published an article entitled Contraceptive Used in Africa May Double Risk of H.I.V. This article was based on a cohort study by prestigious medical Research journal The Lancet that clearly stated that "the risk of HIV-1 acquisition doubled with the use of hormonal contraception especially the injectable methods."

And what is most shocking is that this study was partly sponsored by the Gates Foundation and yet after these findings, they have gone ahead to launch this high-risk product in targeted countries of their choice (Uganda, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria and many others) — countries where the women may never be able to raise their voices when the lethal effects set in.
 
In addition to the HIV-related effects of this product, there is also the doubled risk of breast cancer demonstrated by various studies like the extensive research done by the Fred Hutchingson Cancer Research center in Seattle and published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in February 2012, with the research team stating clearly after their studies:

"We found that recent DMPA (Depo-Medroxyprogesterone acetate a.k.a Depo-Provera) use for 12 months or longer was associated with a 2.2-fold increased risk of invasive breast cancer." 
 
In addition to this publication the team also made a compelling press release following their research. 
 
Furthermore, this same product Depo-Provera has been clearly linked to permanent bone density loss and on this very note, Pfizer has had a staggering number of  prosecutions, class-action law suits and out-of-court settlements all to the tune of millions of dollars.
 
As a direct result of this, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a compulsory "black-box" warning on this product that reads: 

"Use of Depo-subQ Provera 104 or Depo Provera may cause you to lose calcium stored in your bones. The longer you use Depo Provera, the more calcium you are likely to lose. The calcium may not return completely once you stop using Depo Provera.

Loss of calcium may cause weak bones that could increase the risk that your bones might break, especially after menopause. It is not known whether your risk of developing osteoporosis may be greater if you are a teenager when you start to use Depo Provera. You should only use Depo Provera long term (more than 2 years) if other methods of birth control are not right for you."
 
This product is flawed. It is dangerous. And from all indications it could be lethal.

And in the developed countries, it has been marked as such.

In spite of this glaring reality, that which has been deemed unsuitable and terribly flawed in the land of the rich, has now been brought in to the land of the poor. 
 
As an African woman my heart is racing today as I consider this latest collaborative move by Pfizer, Gates Foundation and CIFF. 

I think about the full implications and ramifications of this on my people, my sisters, my aunties and my friends. I think about the poor women in Africa who will have no means at all of filing class-action lawsuits against these giants from the western world. 

I think about our sorely inadequate healthcare systems in Africa that are not in any way equipped to deal with the fallout or onslaught of the medical side effects like breast cancer, osteoporosis (bone density loss) as well as increased HIV infection rates, all associated with this contraceptive product. 

I cannot help but think about the thousands of African women who will die as a direct result of this $1 per piece product. Yes, my heart is racing and my mind is reeling as I try to take it all in. 
 
Simply put, this is racism, it is imperialism and it is a form of colonialism where the poor African women are being treated as subhuman subjects to the wealthy and worldly. 
 
Who will speak up for the women of Africa? Who will lament the crass disregard for their well-being? Who will complain about the cruel disrespect with which they are being treated? Who will shed tears for the irreparable damage that could befall them? 
 
I am only one African woman, but from where I stand I choose today to speak up, to lament, to complain and to shed silent tears for my fellow African women, with the hope that by the end of today, my words and tears may reach and touch the hearts of people of goodwill around the world who will join me in defending the dignity of the African women. Source...

Obianuju Ekeocha  was born and raised in Nigeria. She has a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Nigeria and an MSc in Biomedical Science from the University of East London. She is currently living and working as a Specialist Biomedical Scientist in England. She is a founding member of Culture of Life Africa, an initiative dedicated to the promotion and propagation of the Gospel of Life in Africa through the dissemination of good information, sensitization and education. 

 

 

Africa Can Boost Economy By U.S. $500 Billion

All Africa || 18 November 2014

Africa can boost its growth by a third and generate an "economic miracle" if it invests enough in the younger generation, says a top United Nations official tasked with promoting health and equal opportunities for the world's people .

Speaking on the UN Population Fund's annual "State of World Population" report, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the fund, said that "if Africa would go the way of east Asia, adapts to its local context and makes comparable investments in young people, the region could... [add] as much as 500 billion U.S. dollars to its economy every year for as many as 30 years."

"That is stupendous," he added. "You need actually to look at that as the total transformation of Africa."

Dr. Osotimehin was briefing journalists ahead of the release of this year's report, which is entitled "The Power of 1.8 Billion: Adolescents, Youth and the Transformation of the Future ".

The report says when countries begin to benefit from lower fertility and death rates - resulting in the number of people of working age becoming larger than that of non-working age - they can achieve rapid economic growth if they adopt the right policies and investment strategies.

The Population Fund says in a fact sheet issued to accompany the report that data indicate that 40 African countries - listed below - are in the early stages of this process, which it describes as realizing a "demographic dividend".

"[The fund's] review of youth-related policies in these countries suggest that the vast majority have committed to investments in youth-related initiatives and recognize their importance, but most have failed to implement these programs on a wide scale," according to the fact sheet.

"The need for targeted, impactful youth investment in these countries is pressing. The World Bank estimates that to maintain 2005 levels of employment in sub-Saharan Africa, it will require generating a 50 percent increase in the number of jobs annually."

The fund says that sub-Saharan African countries have a high proportion of young people in their populations. In the poorest countries, children experience higher poverty rates than adults, with more than half of them living in extreme poverty. Twenty-two million adolescents who are eligible for secondary school do not attend. Fewer than one in 10 people aged between 15 and 25 have been exposed to digital technology for at least five years, compared to an average of three in 10 worldwide.

"It's not just about GDP [gross domestic product], it's also about inclusive growth," Dr. Osotimehin said in his media briefing. "The rights of young people must be front and centre, and that is where we would like to advise and advocate Africa to go."

"Of the 1.8 billion young people we are talking about," he added, "nine out of 10 of them live in the less developed parts of the world, where the young encounter obstacles to their rights, to education, to health, to live free from violence.

"Many... of these young people... never realize their full potential as leaders or as change agents, as entrepreneurs or as people with the power to transform their future."

The fund noted that sub-Saharan Africa faces "major challenges" over gender equality, women's empowerment and reproductive rights. Dr.

Osotimehin said this year's report shows that investing in young people can produce "enormous" returns, particularly if it is directed to young women and adolescent girls.

Highlighting the problem of girls being forced into marriage at a young age, he added: "These are things we need to stop if we are going to actually get to that dividend." Women would not realize their full potential until they were able to complete school and equip themselves with the skills they needed to compete in the modern world.

The 40 countries adjudged by the Population Fund to be in the early stages of realising a "demographic dividend" are: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire;

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia;

Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda; and

Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Source...

 

G20 Leaders' Brisbane Statement on Ebola

All Africa || 15 November, 2014

We are deeply concerned about the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and saddened by the suffering and loss of life it is inflicting. We are mindful of the serious humanitarian, social and economic impacts on those countries, and of the potential for these impacts to spread.

The governments and people of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are making tremendous efforts to fight the outbreak, with the support of the African Union and other African countries. We commend the brave service of health care and relief workers. We also applaud the contributions of countries worldwide, the United Nations (UN) and its bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), international and regional organisations and financial institutions, non-governmental and religious organisations, and the private sector. We fully support the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response's ongoing work to harness capacity to stop the outbreak, treat the infected, ensure essential services, preserve stability and prevent further outbreaks and urge that it act swiftly to achieve these objectives.

G20 members are committed to do what is necessary to ensure the international effort can extinguish the outbreak and address its medium-term economic and humanitarian costs. We will work through bilateral, regional and multilateral channels, and in partnership with non-governmental stakeholders. We will share our experiences of successfully fighting Ebola with our partners, including to promote safe conditions and training for health care and relief workers. We will work to expedite the effective and targeted disbursement of funds and other assistance, balancing between emergency and longer-term needs.

We invite those governments that have yet to do so to join in providing financial contributions, appropriately qualified and trained medical teams and personnel, medical and protective equipment, and medicines and treatments. While commending ongoing work, we urge greater efforts by researchers, regulators and pharmaceutical companies to develop safe, effective and affordable diagnostic tools, vaccines and treatments. We call upon international and regional institutions, civil society and the private sector to work with governments to mitigate the impacts of the crisis and ensure the longer-term economic recovery.

In this regard, we urge the World Bank Group (WBG) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to continue their strong support for the affected countries and welcome the IMF's initiative to make available a further $300 million to stem the Ebola outbreak and ease pressures on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, through a combination of concessional loans, debt relief, and grants. We ask the IMF and WBG to explore new, flexible mechanisms to address the economic effects of future comparable crises.

This outbreak illustrates the urgency of addressing longer-term systemic issues and gaps in capability, preparedness and response capacity that expose the global economy to the impacts of infectious disease. G20 members recommit to full implementation of the WHO's International Health Regulations (IHR). To this end, and in the context of our broader efforts to strengthen health systems globally, we commit to support others to implement the IHR and to build capacity to prevent, detect, report early and rapidly respond to infectious diseases like Ebola. We also commit to fight anti-microbial resistance. Interested G20 members are supporting this goal through initiatives to accelerate action across the Economic Community of West African States and other vulnerable regions and will report progress and announce a time frame by May 2015 at the World Health Assembly.

We invite all countries to join us in mobilising resources to strengthen national, regional and global preparedness against the threat posed by infectious diseases to global health and strong, sustainable and balanced growth for all. We will remain vigilant and responsive. Source...

15 November 2014

Brisbane, Australia

www.G20.org

 

How Will the UNHCR's Statelessness Campaign Affect Africa?

All Africa || By Bronwen Manby || 12 November, 2014

On 4th November the UN launched a global campaign to end statelessness within ten years. I confidently predict that the result of this campaign will be to 'increase' statelessness by many millions of people.

This is not because I think that the campaign is misconceived - far from it - but because the statistics on the numbers of stateless persons are currently so inadequate that one of the main impacts of greater attention to the issue will be that currently uncounted populations will come into focus.

This is a good thing. At the same time, the Global War on Terror, so-called, is bringing a huge push to improve documentation of populations.

The effort to ensure that all are documented will certainly mean that some who thought they were nationals, or who got by as best they could, will find that they cannot get the new documents: that they are stateless. The risk is that this second initiative may overwhelm the first.

What does this mean for Africa?

Since 2006, the UNHCR has begun to count the populations who are stateless (or of undetermined nationality) around the world. For Sub-Saharan Africa the number published in the agency's Global Trends report for 2013 was the strangely precise 721,303.

This total was made up almost entirely of numbers for Côte d'Ivoire (700,000) and Kenya (20,000), with the 1,303 coming from Burundi (1,302) and Liberia (a single person recorded).

A further six countries were marked with an asterisk, indicating that statelessness is known to be a significant, but unquantified, problem: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

The figure of 700,000 for Côte d'Ivoire is in fact a number supplied by the new(ish) government there, made up of "descendants of immigrants" (400,000) and "children abandoned at birth" (300,000).

Notoriously, Côte d'Ivoire's nationality code failed to provide any clarity on who became Ivorian at independence; while since 1972 the country has had no provision in its law attributing nationality to children of unknown parents. But it is clear that the number of stateless persons is pulled out of thin air, with no basis in any statistical method.

The number for Kenya is equally unscientific, though people of Nubian, Somali and other groups undoubtedly have problems in obtaining recognition of Kenyan citizenship; problems which have been exacerbated by the series of bombings in Nairobi attributed to people of Somali ethnicity whether with Kenyan citizenship or not, and not solved by provisions in the 2010 constitution for persons established in Kenya since independence to apply for recognition of nationality.

For the other countries, the numbers may add up to several hundreds of thousands of additional people; depending on the methodologies used.

In DRC, the nationality status of the entire Banyarwanda population is generally disputed, and their total numbers may be up to one million according to some assertions (though nobody knows); albeit some will certainly have documents showing Congolese nationality.

In Zimbabwe, the extremely literalist application of rules prohibiting dual nationality left tens of thousands without recognition of Zimbabwean citizenship and struggling to obtain documents from any other country; many were unable to do so.

The new 2013 constitution permits dual citizenship except for those naturalising as Zimbabwean, but the Citizenship Act is unaltered since the last amendments in 2003, with no proposals for reform on the table, leaving much room for confusion.

Ethiopia and Eritrea are still failing to deal with the nationality fall-out from their separation and two year war, with many thousands of people of Eritrean descent in Ethiopia still facing challenges in getting Ethiopian documents, though they are not Eritrean.

Madagascar has a long-standing population of several tens of thousands of people of Indian descent who have struggled since independence to have recognition of Malagasy nationality.

The fact that South Africa features in the list may surprise: South Africa's constitution provides for every child to have the right to a nationality from birth, and its citizenship act states that a child born in South Africa who can claim no other nationality is South African.

But the law also provides that any such child must have formal registration of birth, and the government (after a major push since 1994 to increase birth registration) is now making it more difficult for foreigners to register the birth of their children, and is contesting applications for South African citizenship in court.

We only know about these cases because national organisation Lawyers for Human Rights is providing legal assistance: other African countries without a human rights group making a systematic effort to help those who cannot get nationality documents do not have the same level of attention, and the problem of statelessness remains invisible.

But the more surprising thing about the UNHCR list is the countries that are missing: Sudan, for example, where the secession of South Sudan in 2011 has created a population of several hundred thousand at risk of statelessness, mainly persons of South Sudanese origin whose Sudanese nationality has been automatically removed by law.

Nigeria's constitution creates a pure descent-based system of citizenship, with emphasis on the idea of "indigeneity", but no legal definition of "indigene" and no system for obtaining proof of nationality.

In practice, proof of Nigerian-ness is a "certificate of indigeneity" issued by a local government area - a document for which there is no legal authority. With the concern over Boko Haram and the introduction this year of a system of biometric ID cards there is every risk that blameless individuals belonging to "suspect" social groups will find themselves suddenly defined as not Nigerian.

Meanwhile, a population of more than a hundred thousand living on the Bakassi peninsula transferred to Cameroonian sovereignty by the International Court of Justice are now left without recognition or documentation of either Cameroonian or Nigerian nationality.

There are also some thousands of former refugees from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda still living in their host countries after the invocation of the cessation clauses under the 1951 Refugee Convention. They now have no continued recognition of refugee status, nor of their original nationality, nor of the nationality of the country where they now live.

The Tanzanian government has blown hot and cold over the grant of nationality to around 170,000 Burundian refugees from the 1970s who were approved for citizenship but never received their documents; in the last few weeks, certificates of naturalisation have again been promised.

Other groups at risk of statelessness across all countries in Africa include persons following a nomadic pastoralist lifestyle, who often face difficulties in obtaining recognition of nationality in any of the countries where they habitually graze their livestock; members of ethnic groups that cross international borders, where both states see them as belonging to the other; those displaced by conflict, whether internally or across international borders, especially those who are not registered by UNHCR; children of national mothers and foreign fathers, in countries where gender discrimination is still applied; and trafficked, abandoned and orphaned children, including especially those born out of wedlock, whose identity is not documented and who cannot establish nationality on reaching adulthood.

Although members of these groups may be theoretically eligible for nationality under the law, they often face insurmountable problems in obtaining recognition of nationality in fact.

Why does this matter?

A couple of quotes may suffice. A member of a Fulani pastoralist community living in a village tellingly named Sabon-Gari ("strangers' quarter") in the far north of Benin interviewed in May of this year highlighted the consequences even for those apparently most remote from state structures: "Because no country recognises us, we live as if we were in prison".

Rebel leader - and future prime-minister - Guillaume Soro of Côte d'Ivoire emphasised the foundation of the civil war in that country in the right to a nationality: "Give us our identity cards and we'll hand over our Kalashnikovs". For both individual rights and political stability, nationality law matters.

The truth is that it is almost impossible to come up with definitive numbers for stateless persons, or those whose nationality is currently undocumented and who may be stateless.

The line between those who have a nationality and those who are stateless is not necessarily a clear one, and it may only gradually become apparent that a person is, in fact, "not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law" (the official international law definition).

For me, it is enough that UNHCR simply notes that particular countries have potentially significant numbers of stateless persons, and identifies the reasons why: far better to concentrate on addressing the problems than trying to get the 'correct' statistics; and, in any event, identification as 'stateless' may not be a helpful outcome for the people concerned, who simply seek recognition of nationality by the country where they have always lived.

The good news is that the African Union institutions are beginning to recognise this problem, as well as the UN. As a result of advocacy from a group of civil society organisations under the banner of CRAI, the Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights adopted a resolution in April 2013 calling for wider recognition of the right to nationality and commissioning a study on the problem.

In May 2014, after considering the report, the Commission resolved to draft a protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the right to a nationality in Africa.

This is progress: nationality law has been left up to state discretion for too long, and the lack of real norms has left individual countries to adopt exclusionary laws in a human rights vacuum.

In the meantime, the UNHCR campaign to end statelessness will surely help, by shining a spotlight on the issue and putting more pressure on states to address the issues - even as it will also surely increase the numbers recognised to be at risk. Source...

Bronwen Manby is an independent consultant and visiting fellow at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the London School of Economics. She previously worked for the Open Society Foundations, which have supported advocacy on the right to a nationality in Africa.

 

Wealthy Africans, Firms Donate U.S.$28.5 Million to Fight Ebola

 

AllAfrica || By Kunle Aderinokun with Agency Report || 09 November 2014

 

A total of $28.5 million has been raised from the continent's wealthiest individuals and firms for a fund to fight the Ebola outbreak ravaging three West African nations.

This cheery news came from the African Business Roundtable on Ebola at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where African business leaders and officials of development finance institutions and AU gathered to launch the emergency response fund.

The roundtable is jointly convened by the African Union (AU), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) to mobilise African business leaders on the Ebola Virus Disease and to mobilise their support in the fight against the epidemic.

In attendance were the Chairperson of the African Union, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma , Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Carlos Lopes and African business leaders.

African business leaders at the roundtable comprised CEOs from different sectors, including banking, telecommunications, mining, energy, services and manufacturing, among others. They agreed to establish a fund under the auspices of the African Union Foundation through a facility managed by the African Development Bank, to boost efforts to equip, train and deploy African health workers to fight the epidemic.

Responding to appeals from these countries, leading companies in Africa, present at the roundtable, committed logistical support, in kind contributions and over $28 million as part of the first wave of pledges. In addition, a number of businesses represented in the meeting undertook to immediately consult with their governance structures and will announce their pledges to this effort in the next few days. Roundtable participants further called on the private sector across Africa to join them in this effort. Businesses also agreed to leverage their resources and capacity to help galvanize citizen action around a 'United Against Ebola' campaign, and to provide individuals across Africa and globally with an opportunity to contribute.

The consensus at the meeting was that the funds committed would be disbursed immediately. The funds would be used to support an African medical corps - including doctors, nurses and lab technicians - to care for those infected with Ebola, strengthen the capacity of local health services and staff Ebola treatment centres in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The resources are expected to be deployed in the framework of the African Union Support to Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA), in close coordination with the national taskforces in the Ebola-affected countries and the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER). The resources mobilised will be part of a longer-term programme to build Africa's capacity to deal with such outbreaks in the future.

"Our immediate concern is to respond to the appeal for 1,000 health care workers," Chairman of Econet Wireless, an African telecom operator, Strive Masiyiwa, told reporters.

"We have also received considerable contributions in kind, which may well exceed what we have received in cash."

Ebola has killed 4,950 people of the 13,241 infected since the outbreak started earlier this year, according to the World Health Organisation, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

While countries from the United States to China and Cuba have deployed resources and health personnel in a U.N.-led aid surge, fast-growing African states and institutions have faced questions about the level and speed of their own contributions. The African Union and the African Development Bank will guide the legal set-up of the new fund, which will be administered by a board of trustees drawn from corporate Africa.

Givers to the fund also include foreign firms that do business in Africa, Masiyiwa said.

At the meeting, African telecom firms also agreed an initiative to provide a platform for their customers to give at least a dollar each, with the potential of reaching 700 million mobile phone users, he added.

AfDB has been spearheading provision of financial support to the countries severely affected by the disease, namely, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea and so far, has committed $223 million to the purpose.

The bank's estimates show that the current Ebola crisis would, in 2014, reduce GDP growth in Guinea by 2.4 per cent, Liberia by 3.9 per and Sierra Leone by 3.7 per cent. In Sierra Leone, price inflation could reach 29.4 per cent.

The African Business Roundtable will therefore serve as a "sensitisation" for action platform to mobilise African business leaders to continue investing in the countries. The involvement of the African business community is critical to creating jobs and preparing for the post-Ebola economic recovery. Source...

 

Bishops of Burkina Faso issue a Pastoral Statement for Peace and Hope

Vatican Radio || Fr. Paul Samasumo || 05 November 2014

At the end of their two-days extraordinary meeting on 3 and 4 November 2014, the Bishops of Burkina Faso have issued a Pastoral Statement on the state of the nation. The statement (in French) starts by quoting Mathew’s Gospel: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.”  

In the Pastoral Statement, the Bishops feel that it is essential and appropriate that they send a message of peace and hope to the people of Burkina Faso.

They start by reiterating their pastoral letter of 20 February 2010 in which they spoke then of the of the Church’s mission as one of service to reconciliation, justice and peace. The Bishops also draw attention to another of their pastoral letters of 15 July 2013 in which they had warned of pent-up frustration and anger among the youth of Burkina Faso.

Then the Bishops take a poignant quote from Pope Benedict XVI’s address to government and civic leaders as well as members of the diplomatic corps in Cotonou, Benin on his Apostolic visit.

Addressing these officials, Pope Benedict XVI had told his audience (Cotonou, 19 November 2011): “From this place, I launch an appeal to all political and economic leaders of African countries and the rest of the world. Do not deprive your peoples of hope! Do not cut them off from their future by mutilating their present! Adopt a courageous ethical approach to your responsibilities and, if you are believers, ask God to grant you wisdom! This wisdom will help you to understand that, as promoters of your peoples’ future, you must become true servants of hope. It is not easy to live the life of a servant, to remain consistent amid the currents of opinion and powerful interests. Power, such as it is, easily blinds, above all when private, family, ethnic or religious interests are at stake. God alone purifies hearts and intentions.”

After the quote from Pope Benedict XVI, the Burkinabe Bishops go on to express their sympathy with bereaved families and implore God's mercy for the repose of the souls of those who lost their lives in the popular uprising.

“While welcoming the initiative of citizens (popular uprising), we need above all to find legitimate national pride, work to eradicate evil and sin from our hearts and our structures. Human lives and property were broken, destroyed or looted. So we have to work towards healing hearts, showing compassion and bringing all the necessary care to those injured in their flesh and in their soul and also ensure the safety of persons and property. We call for real change, that is to say, the conversion of hearts,” The Bishops say in the Pastoral Statement.

The Bishops then call upon citizens to respect law enforcement and security agencies. More importantly, they appeal to the media. They invite the media to act in an ethical and responsible manner. The Bishops say that the onus is on the media to restore credible communication which is not only objective but one that is also non-partisan.

Lastly, they appeal to politicians, civil society, the military, paramilitary forces as well as various traditional and religious communities to work together for a better and new Burkina Faso.

The Pastoral Statement is signed by all the Bishops of Burkina Faso. Source...

 

Thousands Break Sierra Leone Ebola Quarantine for Food

Newsweek || By Lucy Westcott || 05 November 2014

Lack of food has caused thousands in Sierra Leone to break strict Ebola quarantines because aid is failing to reach them, The Associated Press reports.

Those living in the large areas of the country where quarantines have been enforced are being ordered to stay indoors, but find that food isn’t coming to them.

“This is a huge concern,” Jeanne Kamara, country director for Christian Aid in Sierra Leone, said in a statement. “People infected with Ebola are desperately searching for food and are in turn exposing others to the disease. They are jostling with people in the market and infecting others through bodily contact. We urgently have to provide food to those who need it to prevent the risk of further spread.”

While food is being delivered to Sierra Leone’s population by the government and the U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP), there are still “nooks and crannies” in unreachable pockets of the country, Kamara said Tuesday.

The WFP is working in all three of the countries worst hit by Ebola—Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone—and says it is currently reaching 12 out of 13 districts in Sierra Leone, which encompasses around 400,000 people.

In an effort to prevent the disease from spreading, Sierra Leone enforced a three-day lockdown in September and since then has continued strict quarantines, the BBC says. But those measures haven’t stopped the number of cases from rising “frighteningly quickly” in recent days in rural areas of the country and the capital of Freetown, the BBC reports.

The quarantine imposed in Kenema, the third largest town in Sierra Leone, is having “a devastating impact on trade,” according to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an umbrella group for humanitarian organizations that includes Christian Aid, Oxfam and Save the Children. Trucks carrying food can’t freely drive around Kenema, and the price of food is rising as it becomes increasingly scarce, according to the DEC.

Authorities in Sierra Leone said they intend to keep the quarantine in place for one year. In September, more than a million people found themselves unable to move around freely after the districts of Port Loko, Bombali, Moyamba, Kenema and Kailahun were put under quarantine, in addition to 12 tribal chiefdoms, Al-Jazeera reports.

Worldwide, nearly 5,000 people have died from the latest outbreak of Ebola, and more than 13,500 have been infected, according to the most recent figures from the World Health Organization. Source...

 

The Downfall of Burkina Faso's President

Newsweek || By Reuters || 02 November 2014

In the build-up to this past week's mass protests in Burkina Faso that ended Blaise Compaore's 27-year rule, statesmen from French President Francois Hollande to former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent him messages with increasing urgency.

The meaning was clear: step aside with reputation intact and a high-profile international job, or risk an undignified exit.

But Compaore stood firm. Even with hundreds of thousands protesting his plan to rejig the constitution to extend his rule, he still hoped to outmaneuver his rivals one more time.

The former soldier had survived many attempts to unseat him since he seized power in a 1987 coup that killed his former brother in arms Thomas Sankara, a leftwing hero.  

In doing so, Compaore gradually reinvented himself from a notorious backer of rebel groups and ally of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to a wily, regional peace-broker.

In the end, however, the man popularly known as 'Beautiful Blaise' spectacularly misjudged the people he had ruled with a mixture of democracy and repression for nearly three decades.

"He played for many years and he won. This was one game too many and he lost," Gilles Yabi, an independent West African political analyst, told Reuters. "He miscalculated and didn’t think there would be this level of protest."

Realizing his mistake too late, Compaore withdrew on Thursday his plan to change Burkina Faso's 1991 constitution so he could stand for re-election. But protests intensified and he had no choice but to flee the Kosyam presidential palace and seek haven in neighboring Ivory Coast, governed by his firm ally Alassane Ouattara.

His fall revealed the gulf between those he ruled and Western governments, who saw him as a useful ally against Islamist forces in the turbulent Sahel.

Before the celebratory horns and whistles had died down, the military had stepped in. The army chief of staff announced he had taken control, only to be ousted in his turn by a senior figure in the presidential guard hours later.

Despite condemnation of the military’s intervention from the opposition, the United States and the regional Africa Union bloc, Compaore's fall was still hailed as a warning to several longtime African presidents mulling moves to stay in power.

"If Blaise had been allowed to stay it would have sent a message to the old club of African leaders that they can do whatever they want," said Rinaldo Depagne, head of the West Africa Project for theInternational Crisis Group (ICG). "Now they see that they have to listen to the streets."   

The death of Sankara - whom Compaore had helped to sweep to power in a 1983 leftwing revolution - cast a shadow upon his regime. Compaore went on to win a series of elections, initially unopposed but then against an opposition that cried foul.

Yet Sankara's legacy was not forgotten. Protesters waved his photograph and signs reading "Sankara look at your sons."

The 1998 murder of Norbert Zongo, a journalist who was investigating corruption and the mysterious death of the driver for Compaore's brother Francois, underscored darker methods employed by the state apparatus to maintain authority.

"The country was peaceful but people have never forgotten the bloody episodes," Yabi said.

In her farewell cable to Washington in 2009, outgoing U.S. ambassador Jeanine Jackson described a president taking the country in the right direction through hard work.

Others, who saw the Compaore machine from the inside, remember differently. "He managed things through intimidation, killings and corruption," said one former official.    

Compaore sailed to victory in the last presidential election in 2010 with 80 percent. The result masked anger over scant improvement in the lives of Burkina Faso's 17 million people.

Perched on the Sahara's southern rim, Burkina Faso has long been one of the least developed nations on earth. It is a cotton producer and has attracted several foreign gold miners. Aid funds, however, still cover 80 percent of government spending.

In 2011, soldiers mutinied over unpaid housing allowances. Angry students and ordinary people joined them, protesting at rising food prices, police brutality and lack of development.

Compaore survived and swiftly reshuffled his military. But it showed that rivals could capitalize on anger at inequality.

"A once-admired focus on grassroots development has faded, while a well-connected elite has grown prosperous," said Paul Melly, associate fellow of the Africa Program at Chatham House.

While most battled to eke out a living, the wealth on show in the Ouaga 2000 neighborhood - home to sprawling, high-walled villas of Compaore's inner circle - fueled popular anger.

His decision to seek reelection exposed rifts in the regime, prompting defections in the ruling CDP party. Tapping into youth frustration, a rapper and a reggae singer set up Balai Citoyen, a movement at the heart of this past week's protest.

The homes of government figures - including Compaore's hated brother Francois - were looted. Protesters carried off furniture and goods as well as documents on the workings of the regime.

With few serious challengers during the last decade at home, Compaore thrived in his role as mediator in a turbulent region. In August, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry praised Compaore's role in advancing "regional peace and security".

It was a remarkable turnaround for a man who spent years as a troublemaker, often as the intermediary for Gaddafi, and supported rebels in the 1990s in Liberia and Sierra Leone's brutal civil wars.

"His government emboldened these groups and their abuses by facilitating arms transfers and in some cases, providing fighters safe haven," said Corinne Dufka, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch inWest Africa. "He later fashioned himself as a peacemaker, which was rather ironic."

Alongside the public role of supporting U.S. and French counter-terrorism efforts, behind the scenes, senior advisors negotiated the release, often for multi-million dollar ransoms, of numerous Western hostages seized in the region.

His allies sought to warn him about the shifting public mood. In an Oct. 7 letter, addressed "Dear Blaise",France's Hollande appealed to him to take a decision that would make his nation a model of the region. In return, France offered to support Compaore if he wanted a job in international diplomacy.

But, seemingly fearing justice might catch up with him or merely unable to consider a life outside power, he pushed on.  

"Blaise made a massive mistake. He lost touch with reality," said ICG's Depagne. Source...

 

Looming Military Offensives in South Sudan

International Crisis Group || 29 October 2014

Warring parties in South Sudan’s civil war are preparing for major offensives as seasonal rains ease. Hardliners in both the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-In Opposition (SPLA-IO) are entrenching their positions, and think, as one opposition commander declared, “we will settle this with war”.

Renewed conflict is likely to be accompanied by widespread displacement, atrocity crimes and famine. Despite some progress, nine months of peace talks in Addis Ababa have been unable to stop the fighting.

With splintering interests, weak command and control and proliferating militias and self-defence forces, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the regional body mediating peace talks, must expand and strengthen its political links on the ground with senior commanders, armed groups and militarised communities not represented in Addis Ababa if a future agreement is to have meaning. The coming violence will present new challenges for UNMISS as it prioritises protection of the nearly 100,000 civilians sheltering in their bases.

The soon-to-end rainy season was accompanied by reduced fighting, which allowed both sides to import arms and marshal forces that were hastily mobilised at the outset of war in December. The government is emboldened, perceiving a diplomatic swing in its favour, following Kiir’s July visit to Washington and the August IGAD heads of state summit, giving it the space to launch a major offensive while stalling in Addis Ababa.

It has spent tens of millions of dollars on arms - largely from oil revenues - (rather than humanitarian assistance for its people); strengthened its military cooperation agreement with Uganda; undertaken mass recruitment, including of children; and mobilised police units in efforts to regain some of the strength it lost with the defections of troops and loss of weapons to the SPLA-IO.

However, major government victories are unlikely to end the rebellion. Furthermore, given the Ugandan army and Sudanese rebel deployments on its behalf, government advances will likely threaten Sudan’s national security interests, increase regional tensions and further inflame the conflict.

At the same time, state and opposition-supported, ethnically-based armed groups, such as the Nuer White Armies, have flourished and are only tenuously controlled by their sponsors. Including the Ugandan army and Sudanese rebels backing the government, there are now at least two dozen armed entities operating in South Sudan.

The fragile coalitions threaten to further fracture, particularly in oil-producing Upper Nile State. Many of them, as well as some powerful generals from both the government’s Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the SPLA-IO, have expressed their intention to fight on, even if the political leaders sign an agreement.

Despite these obstacles, the IGAD mediation team has focused on trying to broker a deal between Kiir and Machar in Addis Ababa, ignoring other actors. As Crisis Group warned in July, this lack of broad-scale engagement has led many commanders and armed groups to reject the political process. Most of these parties have their own interests.

IGAD should work with the African Union High-Level Panel on Sudan and South Sudan (AUHIP)(that is supporting the Sudanese dialogue process), led by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, in order to secure the withdrawal of the Sudanese armed groups as called for in the January cessation of hostilities agreement and previous AU-mediated agreements.

Furthermore, despite many threats, IGAD has not taken punitive measures against the two main parties for violating cessation of hostility agreements, committing war crimes and otherwise undermining the peace-talks, and nor has it requested the African Union or UN Security Council to do so. Armed actors increasingly believe there is little muscle behind the mediation, which is challenged by divisions within the regional body.

IGAD should continue the process with the two main parties, but given the deteriorating situation on the ground, it must expand its efforts and strengthen its links to other groups and militarised communities not represented in Addis Ababa, through increased political presence on the ground (not simply the Monitoring and Verification Teams observing the ill-implemented cessation of hostility agreements). 

Its mediation should be supplemented by separate but linked negotiation tracks on issues not being comprehensively discussed in Ethiopia, particularly the Tanzanian-led SPLM party talks; a re-activated Political Parties Forum; engagement with armed groups; and processes to address violent communal conflict.

Promising internal SPLM party talks have begun, sponsored by Tanzania's ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM; in English Party of the Revolution), however they have not yet changed the calculus for war on the ground. The Political Parties Forum should be re-activated and the leader of the largest opposition party, the SPLM-Democratic Change, should be permitted to travel from South Sudan to re-join the talks. Much of the dialogue and work with community representatives, armed groups and militarised communities should take place in South Sudan, not in Addis Ababa.

China and the U.S. should play a more active, neutral, consistent and transparent role in ameliorating the regional divisions to help break the impasse. The two should take a harder line with their allies within the region who continue to enable the war and are party to cessations of hostilities violations.

The limited U.S. and EU individual sanctions, aimed at punishing a few commanders on both sides that are seen to have broken the cessation of hostilities, have thus far had little impact on the combatants’ calculations and individual IGAD, AU or UNSC sanctions are similarly unlikely to turn the tide unless used as leverage to further political negotiations.

In light of the anticipated intensification of fighting, UNMISS’ mandate, due to be renewed on 30 November, should continue to focus on civilian protection. This is particularly true of protection of civilians already sheltering inside UNMISS and, where possible, it should extend protection beyond bases.

Hosting nearly 100,000 civilians inside of its bases for an extended period is far from ideal, however the mission must continue to provide protection until conditions allow for their safe and voluntary exit from the bases. Civilians should not be moved into less protected UN humanitarian sites or other specially-designated sites where protection standards will not be the same as within a peacekeeping base. Supporting further ethnic divisions by moving people to their “ancestral” lands where famine and conflict are likely in the coming months is also not a viable option.

Many recommendations Crisis Group made in its December 2013, Open Letter to the UN Secretary-General, its April report, A Civil War by Any Other Name, and July conflict alert, Halting South Sudan’s Civil War, remain relevant to averting further escalation, improving the peace process and ensuring UNMISS has an appropriate mandate and posture. To stop further intensification of the war, IGAD should take the following steps:

 

• increase its political presence on the ground in South Sudan, with a specific focus on engagement with commanders and armed groups;
• start dialogue with all armed groups and militarised communities; 
• open four separate negotiation tracks, both in Addis and South Sudan, sequenced and pursued so as to contribute to the broader national political dialogue and focused on: 1) the SPLM (supported by Tanzania’s CCM party); 2) a re-activated Political Parties Forum; 3) armed groups; and 4) communal conflict; and
• work with the African Union High-Level Panel on Sudan and South Sudan (AUHIP) to secure the withdrawal of the Sudanese armed groups as called for in the January cessation of hostilities agreement and as well as previous AU-mediated agreements between Sudan and South Sudan.

As the conflict threatens to intensify once again, the United Nations Security Council should take the following actions:

 

• institute an arms embargo for South Sudan, which must then be carefully monitored to prevent further escalation; identify the government's and opposition’s sources of weapons and how they are paying for them; and increase leverage over the parties;
• establish a Contact Group that includes IGAD, the AU, UN, Troika (U.S., UK, Norway), EU, China and Tanzania to facilitate coordination and discussion on the way forward; and
• maintain UNMISS’ core protection of civilians mandate, including allowing civilians to shelter within UNMISS bases until they are able to make a safe and voluntary exit.
• Greater coordination between regional and international actors is urgently needed to ensure the high-level peace talks better reflect the growing number and power of increasingly autonomous armed groups in South Sudan as well as the regional dynamics behind the war.
• A clear strategy for engagement with armed groups and facility for linking local negotiations with a wider national process will help prevent the civil war deepening and spreading further in South Sudan and the region. Source...
  

 

Nigerian Bishop Consoles the People of Maiduguri

Vatican Radio || 25 October 2014

May the God of all consolations console all of us.

My dear people of God, the priests, religious and the entire lay faithful of the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri, I extend my fraternal greetings to all of you especially at this trying moment in our life as a church.

The menace of Boko Haram.

To say that we are experiencing severe test of our faith in this diocese hardly requires an emphasis. We are thoroughly devasted by the Boko Haram attacks. All our parishes in areas such as Monguno, Gamboru Ngala, Bama, Pulka, Madagali, Mataka, Gulak, Kaya, Yaffa, Shuwa, Michika, Bazza and Betso are under Boko Haram control. As a result of this, thousands of our Catholic faithful have been displaced. Many of them are on top of the mountains, thousands are in the Cameroun, and thousands are in Yola as well as in Maiduguri city among others. There are over twenty of our priests who have been displaced and are managing with their brother priests in the Diocese of Yola (thanks to the kind gesture of Bishop Stephen Mamza) and a few of them are squatting with their friends elsewhere.

Since the crisis began, thousands of people have been killed. There are hundreds of our women and children who have been adopted. Some of the men have been forcefully conscripted into the Boko Haram army. In the recent attacks which led to many of our people fleeing, a lot of our aged people have been trapped in these areas. Some of them have been killed by the sect members, while others have died of hunger. There are many of you whose family houses, shops and vehicles have been vandalized or burnt down. The animals and crops belonging to some of you have either been looted or destroyed. The destructions done to our church structures both in the cities and villages are enormous.

Therefore as a church, families and individuals, we are wounded, traumatized and devastated. Each of us is experiencing a lot of pain and anguish, because we have lost our dear ones, our property, our wealth and our church structures. At this time a lot of questions are being asked by many of us including myself: where is God? Has God abandoned us?  Are we being punished because of our sins? How can God allow the agents of the devil to destroy his innocent children? Is God weak? Can evil triumph over good? Etc.

As people in flesh and blood it is okay to ask these questions. Even Jesus Christ while on the Cross asked his Father as to why he abandoned him. While hanging on the cross and in terrible anguish Jesus said, “Eloi, Eloi lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God why did you abandon me?” (Mk. 15:34). But did Jesus receive any response from his Father? No. It was the Father’s will that Jesus had to die on the cross in order to accomplish his mission – the salvation of mankind. And it was not until on the day of the resurrection that Jesus’ question was answered. On this Pope Benedict XVI emeritus says:-

“Many times we ask God to deliver us from physical and spiritual evil - - - however, we often have the impression that He doesn’t hear us and we run the risk of becoming discouraged and of not persevering. In reality, there is no human cry that God does not hear - - - God the Father’s answer to His Son was not the immediate freedom from suffering from the cross or from death; through the cross and his death God answered with the Resurrection.” (Vatican City, May 30, 2012, VIS).

My dear people of God, we will not hear any response to our questions now, until God achieves his purpose through these our painful experiences. But for sure the ultimate result of our pain and anguish is for God’s name to the glorified and for our own purification and edification. Moreover, God does not need to take permission from us; before he brings any experience into our lives be it joyful or sorrowful. And this is what makes him God. As human beings, we can never comprehend the ways of the Lord. This is the reason why in the book of (Prophet Isaiah 55:8-9) Yahweh echoes; ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways and thoughts above yours.”

Keeping our Faith Alive.

My dear people, let us keep our faith alive. We should never get discouraged. Our faith should make us see beyond the immediate experience and look at the future – that is, after this temporal life with its pains and suffering, we shall share in the eternal glory of our Lord. And so we need to have unshakable faith in God despite what we are experiencing. I always tell you my people that there are two precious gifts of the Lord that on no account should we allow anybody to separate us from them. And these are our faith and our souls.

Therefore, don’t deny your faith no matter the forces around you. Even if it means death, die for your faith. How can you deny the Author of the universe because of the pressure from mere human beings?  How can human beings make you deny the One who has promised heaven for you? “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of God, who can destroy but body and soul in hell.”  (Mt. 10:28-29). I want to thank God for these our members who have preferred to die with Jesus than to deny him. They are modern heroes and martyrs. As regards our souls, the book of wisdom reveals: “But the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God, and no torment can touch them” (Wisdom 3:1). Even while in the hands of terrorists, place your souls in the hands of God the owner of your life.

All that we need to do is to constantly trust in the Lord and his works.

The Psalmist captures this well by saying; “I trust in God and I am not afraid; I praise him for what he has promised. What can a mere human being do to me?” (Psalm 56:4). The early disciples had great trust in the Lord to the extent that even when they were tortured for their faith they rejoiced. St. Paul in prison wrote the Thessalonian believers encouraging them to “be joyful always, pray at all times, and be joyful in all circumstances.” (1Thess. 5:16-18a). The experience of Job and his response to the disasters that Satan brought upon his family is edifying. On hearing the news on the calamities that had visited his family Job said, “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb and naked shall I go back there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

But is it not because we are children of light that we are being hated? Jesus declares: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in the darkness; but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). As followers of Jesus we walk in the light. And those persecuting us are children of darkness. They are children of the world and so live in darkness. Darkness and light are never friends, and can never meet. Since darkness belongs to the devil, so his agents are carrying out his works – the destruction of lives and property. But ultimately Jesus the eternal light will drive away the devil (the prince of darkness) away from us.

Be consoled my people:

The unshakable love of God. My dear people, be consoled that the love of God for you and me is unshakable. What we are experiencing does not in any way imply that God is loving us less. It is in these sufferings that our Lord draws closer to us so that his tenderness and care will be felt the more. The Lord is assuring us that he will never let down any of us his children. The Lord through prophet Isaiah reveals; “Do not be afraid – I will save you. I have called you by name – you are mine. When you pass through deep waters, I am with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you. When you pass through fire; you will not be burnt; the hard trials that come will not hurt you” (Is. 43:1-2).

Be consoled my people for God the Almighty is with us. Even though we are suffering, but it is be short lived. For Yahweh our God asks. “But the people of Jerusalem say: ‘The Lord has abandoned us. He has forgotten us’.  ‘Can a woman forget her own baby and love for the child she bore? Even if a mother should forget her children, I will never forget you. Jerusalem I can never forget you! I have written your names on the palms of my hands.” (Isaiah 49:14-16). With these assuring words from the Lord on his love towards us, let us remain confident despite our troubles.

I say be consoled my people, for St. Paul who suffered greatly because of his faith, assures us that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. He continues thus; “No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor  the world below – There is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:37-39).

The Role of Mary our Mother.

My brothers and sisters, be consoled that we have a mother who never fails. Mary our spiritual mother who stood by her Son during his passion even to the very time his body was taken down from the cross is standing by us in this trying moment of our lives. Our Mother Mary, whom the devil and his agents dread, is making it clear to us her children that this battle is her own. She has already begun the fight on our behalf and will fight until she wins.

The Virgin Mary is the Help of Christians. She is our Lady of Perpetual Help. And this is the title we have given to our Marian Centre in St. Louis Pastoral Area Mataka. There is no end to her assistance to us. Let us then not waste time in getting closer and closer to her. We must become true Marian disciples who are not only devoted to the Marian devotions, but spread these devotions among God’s children.

My people, let us become more committed to the Rosary. Through the rosary procession, our Mother has intervened in the lives of her children whether as individuals, groups, families, nations or races. She has saved them from the claws of the enemy. May our Mother Mary be honoured, cherished, loved, blessed and praised in our lives both now and forever. Amen.

Prayer remains the most powerful weapon. Be consoled my people, be consoled because we have the strongest weapon at our disposal, and that is P R A Y E R. We don’t have physical weapons such armored tanks, APC, Jet fighters, rocket propellers, rocket launchers, AK47 among others. The enemies trust in these arms, but we in the Lord. On this the Psalmist echoes: “Some trust in their war-chariots and others in their horses, but we trust in the power of the Lord our God. Such people will stumble and fall, but we will rise and stand firm. (Ps. 20:7-8).

Therefore, do not grow weak in prayer; do not give up praying. This can be the devil strategy to cut the line of communication between you and your Lord. Jesus invites us to a life of constant prayer: “And so I say to you, ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For anyone who asks will receive, and he who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to anyone who knocked.” (Lk. 11:8-10). Let us continue to ask, seek and knock, and for sure the Lord will restore the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri to permanent peace.

Draw closer to God.

My people, be consoled that God is there for us. And so a big lesson we are learning from this crisis is that we need to draw closer to God. We have sinned in many ways against God and against one another. This is the time for us to avoid all circumstance of sin which separate us from our God. The admonishing of St. James is very pertinent: “So submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will run away from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites! Be sorrowful, cry and weep, change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom! Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.” (James 4:7-10). For God to listen to our supplications, we need to struggle to live sinless lives.

Praying for the forgiveness of the Terrorists.

Again I say be consoled my dear people for the spirit of forgiveness God has implanted in our hearts. Forgiveness is the only thing we can give to the Terrorists and their sponsors. Forgiveness in this instance is very difficult. But we must forgive, since our Lord Jesus forgave his executioners: “- - -Father forgive them! They don’t know what they are doing - - -(Lk. 23:34). Jesus commands us to forgive those who hate and persecute us. This attitude gives Christians a distinct character. We are not like the gentiles, because we are taught not to take revenge on those who wrong us. The revenge is the Lord’s. No matter the magnitude of the harm these people cause us, let us still forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.

Victory is already in sight Be consoled my people because our victory is at the corner. Terrorism will certainly disappear from our environment. This is so because the ones that are with us are more than those that are with them. Rejoice my people because God the Father is with us; God the Son is with us; God the Holy Spirit is with us. Be consoled because our Mother Mary is with us. The Arch angels and our patron angels are with us. The countless saints in heaven are with us. The modern martyrs, our brothers and sisters killed because of the persecution, have joined the triumphant army in heaven and are interceding for us daily.

Be consoled, for I, as your servant (bishop) am with you in spirit wherever you are, whether in the forests or mountains, or caves or bushes, towns or villages, I am there with you sharing in your pains, troubles, anxieties and anguish.

Let me say with St. John Chrysostom that, “- - - where I am, there also are you; where you are, there too am I; we are one body. The body is not apart from the head, nor the head from the body. We are separated only by space, but are united in love. Not even death can cut us apart. For even if my body dies, my soul will live on, and will remember my people.”

Is it our property that have been destroyed? God will restore them back to us, both temporally and eternally. Be consoled my people and say with prophet Habakkuk: “For though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit appears on the vine. Though the yield of the olive fails and the terraces produce no nourishment. Though the flocks disappear from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord and exult in my saving God. (Hab. 3:17-18).  And so be consoled and rejoice in the Lord my people for our victory is at hand. The enemy is about to be overthrown.

May Our Lady of Perpetual Help, be our Mother, our love, our refuge, and our rock.

May she continue to extend her maternal care toward us her children in this diocese. May she shield us from the snares of our foes. Source...

Shalom!

Yours in Christ,

_

Most Rev. Dr. Oliver Dashe Doeme

Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri.

 

 

 

Faith in the Face of Ebola: Church in Sierra Leone Looks to Rebuild Society

 

Aleteia || John Burger || 27 October 2014

 

 

In many places in West Africa, communities are still struggling with widesrpead sickness and death from the Ebola virus. But Father Paul Morana Sandi is already looking toward the day after health officials give his country the all clear.
 
Father Sandi seemed hopeful as he spoke last week of plans the Diocese of Bo, Sierra Leone, has to rebuild after Ebola.
 
The secretary general of the episcopal conference of the Gambia and Sierra Leone spoke by phone with Aleteia, describing a society that is doing its best to live a normal life while people take a number of precautions, some of which are clearly countercultural.
 
“Some cultural practices are completely stopped—for example, shaking hands, embracing, touching, etc.,” he said from his office in Freetown. “So all of those are helping; they are part of the protective mechanisms that have been put in place. Even during Mass, we do not shake hands; we only bow to each other.”
 
For this African culture, that’s difficult.
 
“We’ve been doing that for so many years. We shake everybody’s hands, we embrace each other as a sign of welcome and appreciation, and then overnight you’re told not to. You don’t want to change, but you are forced to because of Ebola,” Father Sandi said. “It’s difficult because it’s like changing our culture, our patterns, our ways of behavior, but you have to do it because you want to survive.”
 
But what may be most difficult is when family members cannot comfort their loved ones on their deathbeds, and when the bereaved cannot even go near the bodies of deceased relatives. It’s at that point when the virus is most virulent, and until only recently, families had to resign themselves to the stark reality that anonymous crews would take the bodies away and bury them in mass graves, each cadaver in several layers of plastic and soaked with chlorine.
 
This state of affairs led to a national debate. “Religious leaders had raised up the need to bury our people with some dignity and respect,” Father Sandi said. “The initial report said nobody should go to where people are buried except the burial teams, those who were the medical personnel, but later people said that no, let people see, so they can bring a closure to a sad chapter in their life.”
 
A recent meeting the nation’s president, Ernest Bai Koroma, had with the Interreligious Council of Sierra Leone led to a resolution that burial teams now will try to put victims in coffins.

“What had been done to them [previously] could not really give them some human dignity,” Father Sandi said. “So now the religious leaders will be present to pray, but from a distance, with some of the relatives present, but watching from a distance. … It also allows people to accompany their dead, because all of this has had negative influences on our own cultural practices and way of behaving.”
 
Another problem that’s had to be dealt with is the stigmatization of those who have been infected but overcame the disease, or those who have had a victim in their family. Father Sandi and his bishop, Charles Allieu Matthew Campbell, were visiting two daughters in a treatment center after their father and two brothers had died of the disease. The daughters were discovered to be free of the virus and were released. Their being seen in public with Bishop Campbell, a public and respected figure, helped them overcome the stigmatization that otherwise would have prevented them from being reintegrated into the community.
 
“These are some of the mechanisms we want to put in place not only with the bishop but with all the priests and all our apostolates, to say that if people say they are recovered, they are not infected, they can be brought back into the community, then [people] have to believe that they are recovered and help them to be reintegrated,” Father Sandi said.
 
The Church, he added, is planning ways to address the psychological needs that will inevitably plague the nation traumatized by the epidemic.

“It will take us some time to have our people…readjusted or rehabilitated or reintegrated into these communities,” he said. “As a Church we are now putting mechanisms in place, one, to train more people so they can approach the psycho-social needs of the people and see if it has a multiplying effect in our communities. Because it’s now national, every village, every community must be involved in this as a way of preparing as to how we can get ourselves adjusted after the epidemic passes.” Source...

John Burger is news editor for Aleteia's English edition.

 

Remembering Sudan’s October Revolution - 50 years on

African Arguments || By W. J. Berridge || 20 October 2014

 

Many Sudanese intellectuals watched on with wry amusement as, in 2011, the global media announced that the popular uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya were the first civilian movements to overthrow military autocracies in the Arab world. Sudan is often overlooked because of its status as a gateway between the Arab and African worlds, but it has already experienced two such events – the October Revolution of 1964, which overthrew the first military regime of Ibrahim Abboud and ushered in a four year period of parliamentary democracy, and the April Intifada of 1985, which overthrew Jafa’ar Nimeiri, the country’s second military dictator.

Since Umar al-Bashir’s coup of 1989 overhauled the short-lived democracy that this uprising established, there has been no ‘Third Intifada’. This Tuesday will mark the 50th Anniversary of the October Revolution. However, in spite of a semi-liberated media churning out numerous opinion pieces linking Sudan’s past uprisings to the 2011 Arab Spring, today’s protestors have not yet been able to emulate the glorious past.

Why has Sudan been unable to reproduce the feats of October 1964 (or April 1985) in a post-Arab Spring world, despite its particular historical experience? Part of the reason is that the current Sudanese regime learned just as many lessons from 1964 and 1985 as its opponents did.

First, unlike the Tunisian, Egyptian and Libyan regimes, it has seen the consequences of the regular army choosing to ‘side with the people’ – and has thus learned to deploy it far away from the capital, which is safeguarded by security forces linked to the ruling party. These same security units mowed down over 200 demonstrators during the September 2013 protests – far more than were slain during the 1964 and 1985 uprisings put together.

Moreover, it also knows the dangers that professional activists pose to regimes in Sudan. In 1964, the Doctors’ Union, Bar Association and Khartoum University Teachers’ Union joined together to lead a general strike throughout Sudan, which led to the dissolution of General Abboud’s November Regime a mere two days after it was declared.

The elevated social status that Khartoum University educated professionals held amongst the capital’s closely interlinked network of affluent families safeguarded them against regime oppression – in fact, the Bar Association used Thursday evening wedding parties to garner support for the general strike.

After a similar action led by the professional unions also toppled the next military regime in 1985, the government that emerged under Umar al-Bashir resolved to be less afraid of using brutal measures against polite society. When the Doctors’ Union went on strike again, Mamoun Mohamed Hussein, its president, was executed.

Meanwhile, all professional unions were dissolved government controlled replacements created. Activists were sent to infamous ‘ghost houses’ to be tortured and over 70,000 government employees were dismissed.

It was the student body that the new regime had to subdue. On 21 October 1964, it was members of Khartoum University Student Union (KUSU) who famously clashed with the Khartoum Police as they met in the university to discuss the political situation, and yielded the Revolution its first martyr, Ahmad al-Qurayshi. Ibrahim Abboud reportedly wept when he heard the news that al-Qurayshi had been shot dead – one cannot imagine that Umar al-Bashir shed similar tears when anti-government students were killed by the Islamists who controlled the university on behalf of the Salvation Regime in the 1990s. Nevertheless, both student and professional unions have begun to emancipate themselves from government control in recent years.

There are two reasons for this – first of all, ideological confusion within the Islamic Movement following Hasan al-Turabi’s rift with Umar al-Bashir in 1999 has made it harder for Islamists to dominate civil society. Second, the 2005 Interim Constitution that followed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement should, at least in theory, have liberated the unions. Whilst the lawyers have done little to challenge the regime, the reinvigorated Doctors’ Union launched very successful strikes in 2010 and 2011, forcing the government to meet a number of its demands. Meanwhile, anti-government forces controlled KUSU between 2003 and 2008, electing Sudan’s first female student union present in this period.

Nevertheless, opposition politics has changed somewhat since the 1960s. The National Consensus Forces, the new opposition umbrella, are led by Farouk Abu Eissa – a prominent member of the Bar Association during the October Revolution. The ‘New Dawn Charter’ promoted by the NCF echoes the National Charters of 1964 and 1985 – but the professional unions have played a far less significant role establishing it.

Regional rebel movements, such as the Justice and Equality Movement, Sudan Liberation Movement and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North, are all prominent signatories. The political environment today is thus far more fluid than it was in 50 years ago, when Khartoum was a much smaller and more homogeneous place.

The war that was raging in the south in 1964 would have seemed very far away to Khartoum’s urbanites. Since then the inhabitants of Sudan’s regions have migrated to the capital en masse, often fleeing war, poverty and famine. Aging representatives of the educated elites who spearheaded previous revolutions sit drinking tea and lamenting the risk of toppling the regime when Khartoum is surrounded by armed gangs ‘with no national feeling’.

Even the Umma Party leader Sadiq al-Mahdi, who led the prayers at al-Qurayshi’s funeral in 1964 and rallied the population of Omdurman against Nimeiri’s laws in 1985, has been wary of advocating regime change, warning that if the regional rebel groups were to take power it might lead to a repeat of the Rwandan genocide in Sudan.

The increasing visibility of the rebel movements becomes all the more significant when we consider the role of the military in both past transitions and potential future one. In 1964, a cadre of senior and middle ranking officers emerged that acted as the ‘caretakers’ of the Revolution, simultaneously assistingand deradicalizing it.

It was these men who delivered a memorandum to Abboud demanding he dissolve they government, and managed the talks between the former president and the professionals and parties that had formed the United National Front.

At the same time, they were keen to prevent the kind of recriminations in Khartoum that might radically transform the social and political order while the military was still waging a campaign against rebels in the south. They demanded that clauses be inserted into the transitional constitution preventing the trial of members of the November Regime for acts conducted during their period in power.

Meanwhile, the transitional government set up courts to deal with abuses perpetrated by army and police officers during the war in the south, but then shut them down after protests from police bodies before any prosecutions could be achieved.

Today the senior echelons of the military are likely to be far more cautious. In principle, they might not be opposed to the removal of the current government. Although, as Alex de Waal has pointed out, the top ranks of the armed forces are dominated by senior Islamists, the Islamic Movement itself is divided and it is plausible, if not necessarily likely, that they might decide to sacrifice al-Bashir as well as such figures of popular odium as Nafie and Taha so that the Islamist project itself can survive.

The challenge is that, with regional rebel groups playing a far greater role in the opposition movement, they would struggle to negotiate a transition as harmonious as the one that occurred in 1964.

The New Dawn Charter proposes criminalizing denial that al-Bashir’s government perpetrated genocide in Darfur, and demands that those responsible be tried both locally and in the International Criminal Court. Senior generals will struggle to compromise with the National Consensus Forces over these points.

Whether or not the revolutionaries of today are able to repeat the feats of October 21st fifty years on, nostalgists for the 1964 Revolution must be aware that simply reproducing its feat of overthrowing an autocratic regime will not guarantee the emergence of a more democratic or liberal system. Indeed, the legacy of October itself is far from straightforwardly democratic.

The heroes of the 1960s became the villains of later periods. It was Hasan al-Turabi’s speech in Khartoum University Examination Hall condemning Abboud’s autocracy that is regarded even by many present detractors as the initial spark of the Revolution.

And yet al-Turabi – who claims to have been inspired in 1964 by studying the French Revolution whilst completing his law doctorate at the Sorbonne – is also the man who collaborated with Sudan’s present dictator, Umar al-Bashir, to overthrow the country’s third parliamentary democracy in 1989.

One of the lecturers who helped al-Turabi mobilize the university staff against the regime was a young economist, Abd al-Rahim Hamdi. Yet it was Hamdi’s neglect of Sudan’s marginalized peripheries as al-Bashir’s finance minister that led to the coining of the term ‘Hamdi triangle’ to refer to the central regions that profited from the oil wealth of the late 1990s and 2000s whilst the west, south and east suffered from poverty and conflict.

Jafa’ar Nimeiri was a member of the Free Officer organization that helped ensure a relatively bloodless Revolution in 1964 by refusing orders to fire on demonstrators. Yet it was also he, in collaboration with the same group of military radicals, who overthrew the democratic regime that it established in 1969.

Many of those associated with 1964’s professional movement joined his new government, and each of the surviving political parties that participated in the October Revolution would ally with it at some stage. And, ironically, Nimeiri was the next military autocrat to be overthrown by a popular uprising, the April Intifada of 1985.

Why did so many of those who helped topple autocracy in 1964 help preserve even more autocratic and economically exploitative regimes in future years? The reality is that October failed to bridge the social, political and ideological gulf between the educated urban elites that pioneered it and those who resided outside the major cities of the riverine North.

For instance, the urban revolution excluded the majority of ethnic southerners. Khartoum University Student Union, which led the famous campus confrontation with the security forces on 21 October, was being boycotted by southerners at the time amidst charges of racism by northern students.

The ‘Southern Front’ established itself separately from the ‘Professional Front’ after the Revolution, and whilst southerners were appointed in the interim regime, neither that regime nor its parliamentary successor was able to end the civil war between north and south.

The urban revolutionaries also struggled to reach out to the population of the rural north, which would have the greatest say in a one man, one vote democratic regime. The left wing and secular professionals and labour activists who featured prominently in the transitional regime attempted to strengthen their own position by demanding sectoral representation for the ‘modern forces’ – but the religiously orientated Umma Party thwarted them by summoning thousands of their Ansar supporters from the northern provinces to force the interim government to abandon this principle (although they did establish 15 ‘graduate’ seats).

The subsequent Umma dominated parliamentary regime targeted the secularists by outlawing the Sudan Communist Party – and a section of the ‘modern forces’ retaliated by assisting Nimeiri’s military coup in 1969.

There are uncanny parallels with Egypt’s experience between 2011 and 2013 – for ‘Abboud – Umma Party – Nimeiri’, read ‘Mubarak – Muslim Brotherhood – al-Sisi’. In the 2012 Egyptian elections, the Muslim Brotherhood relied on rural support to reap the rewards of a Revolution spearheaded by urban political forces – just as the Umma did in 1965.

In both Sudan in 1969 and Egypt in 2013, military coups conducted by officers who had previously supported popular revolutions were initially welcomed by secularist opponents of the religious parties, who they felt had exploited democracy.

However, we should beware preaching a narrative whereby educated secular liberals are consistently thwarted by Islamists exploiting democracy – in 1964, Sudan’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood had a far greater presence in the ‘modern forces’ than it did amongst the population at large, and its student wing held more seats in the KUSU Executive Committee than any other party.

The success of any future uprising will depend on the ability of both the secularists and the Islamists within the ‘modern forces’ to compromise with each other and prevent the military exploiting the divide between them.

We should not malign the October Revolution. Whilst it may have been led by a narrow elite, it created the opportunity for formerly marginalized social and political groups to mobilize themselves. Sudan’s first female MP, Fatima Ahmad Ibrahim, was elected in the polls that followed in 1965.

The first regionalist movement in Darfur, Ahmad Diraige’s Darfur Renaissance Front, was founded in the wake of the Revolution after the citizens of al-Fashir followed Khartoum’s lead in taking to the streets to condemn the November Regime, and two demonstrators were shot dead by the armed forces.

One of the Darfur Renaissance Front’s first acts was to demand the trial of the officer responsible for these shootings. However, the emergence of these new groups was overshadowed by the conflict between the Umma Party and Sudan Communist Party, and that between north and south, both of which undermined the country’s fledgling democracy.

The question, therefore, is not so much whether Sudan can ‘repeat’ the October Revolution, as whether it can escape the slide back into dependency on the military if it does. To do so today’s revolutionaries will need to reconcile the centre and periphery, and religion and secularism in a way that those of 1964 (and 1985) failed to do. Source...

Dr W.J. Berridge’s book, Civil Uprisings in Modern Sudan: The ‘Khartoum Springs’ of 1964 and 1985 will be published in January 2015.

 

Journalist Publishes Recording of Cardinal’s Controversial Interview

Catholic Herald || By Conor Gaffey || 17 October 2014

A Catholic journalist has published the audio recording of an interview with Cardinal Walter Kasper in which the German cardinal made controversial remarks about the contribution of African bishops at the family synod.

Edward Pentin published the recording along with a full transcript and explanatory statement on his personal website yesterday.

The interview was conducted on Tuesday October 16 and was published on the Catholic news website Zenit the following day. It was subsequently removed from Zenit’s website after Cardinal Kasper denied giving the interview to Zenit in a statement to German media.

In the interview, the cardinal said that the issue of homosexuality was difficult to discuss with those from African and Asian countries.

He said: “Africa is totally different from the West. Also Asian and Muslim countries, they’re very different, especially about gays. You can’t speak about this with Africans and people of Muslim countries. It’s not possible. It’s a taboo.”

He also indicated that the views on homosexuality of African bishops were not being listened to.

“I think in the end there must be a general line in the Church, general criteria, but then the questions of Africa we cannot solve,” he said.

“But they should not tell us too much what we have to do.”

Cardinal Kasper denied making the comments and said he had not given an interview to anyone from Zenit.

“I am appalled. I have never spoken this way about Africans and I never would,” he told German media yesterday, according to LifeSiteNews.

In his statement, Mr Pentin said that he had introduced himself to Cardinal Kasper as a reporter for the National Catholic Register. However, he later decided to publish the interview in Zenit, whom he also writes for. He is also the Vatican correspondent of the Catholic Herald.

He also said that he recorded the interview on a device which was clearly visible to Cardinal Kasper and that the cardinal had not requested that his comments not be published.

In the interview, Cardinal Kasper also said he thinks the Pope is in favour of a move towards communion for the divorced and remarried.

“I hoped there would be some opening and I think the majority is in favour,” he said.

“[The Pope] has not said – he’s been silent, he has listened very carefully but it’s clearly what he wants and that’s evident.” Source...

 

UN Spotlights Rural Women As 'Force' That Can Drive Global Progress

AllAfrica || 15 October 2014

Rural women are key agents for achieving the transformational economic, environmental and social changes required for sustainable development, the United Nations declared ahead of International Day commemorated as an opportunity to promote their empowerment.

"Collectively, rural women are a force that can drive global progress," said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a message marking the occasion, which he also said was especially personal.

"My mother has lived her whole life in the countryside. Although she did not receive much of a formal education, I grew up appreciate her wisdom, resilience and intelligence," he said.

When we give rural women access to productive agricultural and natural resources, we empower them. They, in turn, can contribute more to alleviating hunger and boosting the ability of their communities to cope with the effects of climate change, land degradation and displacement. This benefits all people these qualities are shared by millions of rural women around the world, said Mr. Ban. This is why women living in the countryside are essential if we as an international community to move ahead on the post-2015 development goals and conclude a universal climate agreement.

"Because they often live on the frontlines of poverty, natural disasters and other threats, rural women have an enormous stake in the successes of our global campaigns," the UN chief added.

First, we must address the discrimination and deprivation that rural women continue to suffer, Mr. Ban said. Too many lack access to land, markets, finance, social protection and services. Many also face grave security risks in the course of their life-saving tasks, such as collecting water or fuel.

The majority of rural women depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. In developing countries, they make up more than 40 per cent of the agricultural labour force. They produce, process and prepare many of society's meals, frequently taking primary responsibility for household food security, health status and education opportunities.

"When we give rural women access to productive agricultural and natural resources, we empower them. They, in turn, can contribute more to alleviating hunger and boosting the ability of their communities to cope with the effects of climate change, land degradation and displacement. This benefits all people," said Mr. Ban.

Echoing that sentiment, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said in her message on the Day that all over the world, gender inequality in land and other productive resources is intrinsically related to women's poverty and exclusion. Women's rights to access, use, control, and ownership of land and other productive resources are essential to reverse this.

"Sustainable solutions are not imposed from the outside. It is of utmost importance that rural women's voices are heard in discussion, debates and policymaking about their lives," Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka added.

Every day rural women face complex obstacles blocking their rights to land. These include discriminatory laws and practices governing inheritance and marital property; gender-biased land reform that privileges men over women; unequal access to land markets; and discriminatory attitudes and beliefs.

"This situation persists, despite international and regional instruments and policies that recognize women's rights to land and important developments in many countries to ensure and protect these rights, she said, underscoring that UN Women's publication Realizing Women's Rights to Land and Other Productive Resources, published with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), gives a comprehensive picture of the critical issues affecting women's rights to land and presents recommendations, good practices and success stories.

"It is critical that women's rights to land and other productive resources be addressed in the post-2015 road map and embraced by the future sustainable development goals," the Executive-Director said, emphasizing the need for adequate data that is gender-disaggregated to shape the evidence base for policy change.

UN Women is on the ground supporting several initiatives that promote the leadership of rural women in shaping laws and policies.

In India, for instance, UN Women is supporting the Dalit Women's Livelihoods Accountability Initiative, which is helping women marginalised by the caste system get jobs. Between 2009 and 2011, in eight districts, participation grew from 2,800 to more than 14,000. Many Dalit women now have bank accounts in their names and are unionized to defend their rights.

In Zimbabwe, along one of the poorest stretches of the Zambezi River, new equipment and training offered by UN Women has helped women from the Tonga ethnic group break into the male-dominated fishing industry. Instead of selling fish purchased from men's boats, they now market their own catch.

Because women farmers typically have less access to irrigation technology, in China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, UN Women helped educate scores of women farmers about how to advanced irrigation systems.

UN Women has also partnered up with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) for the "Accelerating Progress towards the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women" initiative, which engages with governments to develop and implement laws that promote equal rights.

First observed in 2008, the International Day of Rural Women was established by the UN General Assembly, recognizing "the critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty." Source...

 

Polish Catholic Missionary Kidnapped in CAR

Reuters || 14 October 2014

A Polish Catholic missionary has been kidnapped by eight armed men in Central African Republic who are demanding the release of their leader in return for the priest's freedom, Polish officials said on Tuesday.

The head of the organisation that runs Poland's overseas Catholic missions said the men, belonging to a rebel group known as the Democratic Front of the Central African People (FDPC), abducted Mateusz Dziedzic on the night of Oct. 12 in the town of Baboua.

"They said they wanted to exchange the kidnapped missionary for their leader, who is currently imprisoned in Cameroon," Tomasz Atlas, head of Poland's Pontifical Mission Societies, told Reuters.

The FDPC, headed by Abdoulaye Miskine, is one of a number of armed groups that has fought the Central African Republic government and also each other in an off-on conflict in the former French colony over the past decade.

It was initially allied with Seleka, a coalition of local rebels that also included fighters from neighbouring Sudan and Chad which toppled the government and seized the capital Bangui in March 2013.

After falling out with Seleka, Miskine fled to Cameroon and was arrested there in September 2013.

Atlas said the FDPC had kidnapped "a dozen or so" Central African Republic citizens and eight Cameroonians recently. He said the kidnappers had also tried to kidnap a second priest along with Dziedzic but had given up "after negotiations".

Dziedzic has been a missionary since 2009, he added.

Polish foreign ministry spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski said Dziedzic was being treated well and that he had spoken with other missionaries by telephone since his abduction. No further details were immediately available. Source...

(Reporting By Wiktor Szary and Marcin Goettig in Warsaw and Joe Bavier in Abidjan; Writing by Gareth Jones, editing by John Stonestreet)

 

Kenya’s Government Dismisses Claims that Tetanus Vaccine is for Family Planning

BBC || 13 October 2014

 

Kenya's government has dismissed allegations made by the country's Catholic Church that a tetanus vaccine can cause sterility in women.

"It's a safe certified vaccine," Health Minister James Macharia told the BBC.

Catholic priests have been telling their congregations to boycott a campaign that begins on Monday to vaccinate women against tetanus.

Tetanus is regarded as a big threat to babies in Kenya, with a new-born child dying every day of the infection.

According to Kenya's health ministry, about 550 babies died of tetanus in Kenya last year.

Some 40% of Kenyans are Catholics and the Church warning could deter many women from getting vaccinated, says the BBC's Frenny Jowi in the capital, Nairobi.

Last week, a meeting of Catholic bishops in western Kenya called on the government to stop the rollout of the vaccination campaign, saying it was a plot to target women of child-bearing age.

The bishops called for more tests to be done on the vaccine.

"The ministry must stop making noise and allow the Church to sample the vaccines before they are given," Dr Stephen Karanja, the chair of the Catholic Doctors Association in Kenya, told the BBC.

He said tetanus vaccines tested earlier in the year contained an antigen - an agent that triggers antibody production by the body's immune system - which could cause sterility in women.

But Mr Macharia said the vaccine had been approved by the World Health Organization and Unicef.

"I would recommend my own daughter and wife to take it because I entirely 100% agree with it and have confidence it has no adverse health effects," Mr Macharia said.

Tetanus

Caused by a toxin made by the bacterium Clostridium tetani

Usually enters the body through a wound - often caused by an animal bite

Symptoms include headache, fever and muscle stiffness in the back, neck, arms and jaw

Without treatment can lead to painful muscle spasms

If the muscles of the chest and throat are affected, then a person may find it difficult to breathe and could suffocate. Source...

 

Synod: The Church, A place for Families in Crisis, Testimony from Retrouvailles (South Africa)

Vatican Radio || Emer McCarthy || 09 October 2014

What can the Church do to accompany families in difficult pastoral situations such as the separated, divorced or divorced and remarried, single parents, teen mothers, children from broken homes? What is the Churches pastoral outreach concerning unions of persons of the same sex? These were the topics of discussion in the 8^th General Congregation of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on ‘The pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelization’.

The Wednesday afternoon session was led by the President Delegate on duty, Card. Raymundo Damasceno Assis, Archbishop of Aparecida (Brazil). He warned against a shortsighted legalistic approach stating that the Church wants to fathom the depths of these difficult situations in order to welcome all of those involved so that it may be a paternal home where there is a place for everyone with his or her life’s difficulties.

The discussion was introduced by the testimony of auditors Stephen and Sandra Conway, from South Africa.  They are regional Retrouvailles leaders for Africa, an organization that helps marriages in crisis.

They told participants that “financial difficulties, infidelity and family of origin issues are common problems”.  However they also pointed to a predominant “singles married lifestyle” which begins innocently but over time drives a wedge between the couple.

They described the hurt and long term anger they have encountered in couples who are in their second marriage and thus excluded from the Sacraments. In being excluded from the Eucharist, the Conway’s noted “they believe that they are constantly reminded and guilty of past relationships or mistakes”.

The couple also spoke of requests from same sex unions or couples to take part in their counselling course.  

Testimonies from married couples have introduced each session of debate at the Synod. To date a common factor running through these presentations but which has received little or no media coverage is children. Passing on the faith to children, the effects of family breakdown on children, children from mixed marriages, abandoned children, the inability to have children. 

Wednesday afternoon, the Conway’s again spoke at length about children. They emphasised that the best gift couples can give their children is to decide to love each other; to put their marriage first.

Testimony of Stephen e Sandra Conway, regional leaders for Retrouvailles (South Africa)

Good day. We are Stephen and Sandra Conway - the Co-Ordinators for Retrouvaille in Africa. Retrouvaille is an organisation that helps hurting couples who often attend our program as a last resort, before separation or divorce. We have been asked to share our experiences on difficult pastoral situations, in particular a) situations in families and b) concerning unions of persons of the same sex.

In 2008, after 21 years of marriage, our relationship had hit rock bottom. I went to my doctor, with no positive response. I tried talking to members of my family, who offered advice.I went to my Priest, who listened to my hurt and handed me a Retrouvaille brochure. It is now 6 years later - I am a different person because of Retrouvaille and our marriage relationship has been evangelised. The church, through Retrouvaille, became the “house of the Father, with doors wide open, a place for us with our problems”.

Our 3 month program begins with a live in weekend followed by 12 post sessions. We are open to any couple, regardless of their religious beliefs. Often we are approached by couples who have lived together for many years, have children but have not as yet married. Others have been married before and have a fear of making the same mistakes again. We also have couples on their second marriage, but fall into the trap of bringing the same problems from their previous marriage into the new one. The majority of couples, however, are in their first marriage but arrive at our weekend totally disillusioned and often on the verge of divorce.

What leads couples to our program? Financial difficulties, infidelity and family of origin issues are common problems which result in what we call “the singles married lifestyle”- couples married but 2 doing things separately. Often this single married lifestyle begins innocently but over time drives a wedge between the couple and they drift apart.

Our program looks at the four stages of marriage – romance, disillusionment, misery and joy. 

Most couples get stuck between the stages of disillusionment and misery. It is in the misery stage that many throw in the towel. It is our aim to equip couples with tools & techniques to get to the joy stage of marriage – where the emphasis is on US as opposed to the ME or I attitude found in the single married lifestyle. We explain that love is a decision, not a feeling; as is trust and forgiveness. We also encourage forgiveness setting the hurt party free. We use the Parable of the Prodigal Son to show that just as the Father forgave his Son, we too can forgive ourselves and each other the hurts of the past – we can come back to the Father’s house - the church and our homes. We can be the forgiving Father, by making the decision to forgive. We can also be the forgiven Son, by receiving forgiveness offered by our hurting spouse.

Children are greatly affected by an unhappy marriage. We have a few teachers on our team – they often share on the pain and hurt shown in the children of separated, divorced or unhappy marriages. We emphasise that the best gift couples can give their children is to decide to love each other; to put their marriage first; and to stand united in all decision involving the children. It inspires us when we receive letters from children, after their parents have completed our program, and thank us for their new Mom and Dad. 

We have come across couples who are remarried and feel lost or aggrieved because they are unable to partake in the Eucharist. One example is that of a couple who married outside of the Catholic Church. The wife was non-Catholic and joined the RCIA to convert. As this was her second marriage, she had to apply to have her first marriage annulled. She became disillusioned with the Church and both husband and wife left the parish, after being in RCIA for 2 years and not being able to have the marriage annulled.

If God is the ultimate forgiver and full of compassion then these couples should be forgiven for previous mistakes, however, they believe that they are constantly reminded & guilty of thesepast relationships or mistakes by not being able to partake in communion. We have also had requests from same sex unions or couples to attend Retrouvaille.

We do chat to these couples and try to show understanding and compassion to them. However, we explain that our program is presented by teams of husbands and wives and that our stories and experiences would not relate to those in a same sex marriage or union. We also have a list of professional counsellors who offer their services to same sex unions and we pass this information on.

Retrouvaille has served the citizens of Durban, South Africa for 15 years, and communities round the world for 35 years. Approximately 10 000 couples attend our programs internationally every year, about 90% of these managing to turn away from divorce, some at the last opportunity. Thank you for your time. Source...

 

Aid agencies warn of famine in South Sudan, Upsurge in Fighting Imminent

Oxfam International || 06 October 2014

A group of leading aid agencies warned today that parts of South Sudan – already the world’s worse food crisis – could fall into famine early next year if the nine-month long conflict escalates as expected. 

The agencies fear that efforts this year to prevent the crisis from deteriorating will falter as rival sides are regrouping ready to resume violence once the rainy seasons ends this month. The number of people facing dangerous levels of hunger is expected to increase by 1 million between January and March next year. 

In a report launched today, “From Crisis to Catastrophe”, the aid agencies called for neighboring governments and the wider international community to redouble diplomatic efforts to put real pressure on the parties to the conflict to end the fighting, including an arms embargo. They said so far the international community’s ‘softly-softly’ approach to the peace talks has failed to secure a meaningful cease-fire. 

They also added that there needs to be an increase in both the quantity and quality of the aid effort. 

Man-made crisis

Tariq Reibl head of Oxfam program in South Sudan said: “If famine comes to South Sudan it will come through the barrel of a gun. This is a man-made crisis not one caused by the vagaries of the weather and though humanitarian aid is vital it cannot fix a political problem. The international community is much better at saving lives than it is at helping solve the political problems that put lives in peril. Nine months of the softly-softly approach to peace negotiations has failed. If the international community really wants to avert a famine then it has to make bold diplomatic efforts to bring both sides to end the fighting.” 

The aid agencies said that a mixture of significant aid, a lull in the fighting due to the wet season and the ability of the South Sudanese to cope with hardship, has managed to stave off a famine for the moment. However they warned that now that the wet season is over, an upsurge in fighting is likely, setting back any gains made in the last few months and potentially pushing areas into famine by March 2015. 

Since the current round of conflict began in South Sudan in December 2013, the country has been pushed to the brink of disaster. However the international aid effort has saved thousands of lives, much of it generously funded by the US, the UK and the EU who have given 60 per cent of the total funding. The UN Mission in South Sudan has opened its compounds to around 100,000 civilians, saving them from ethnic violence, and peace negotiations led by South Sudan’s neighbors have come close to brokering a deal. 

Looking back over 2014, Aimee Ansari head of CARE in South Sudan said: 
“South Sudan only just missed falling into famine this year. Partly this was due to the aid effort but much of it is due to the strength, resilience and generosity of the South Sudanese people themselves. 

“But they are now at the end of their tether. You can only sell all your livestock once. Eating seeds meant for planting keeps the gnawing hunger away for the moment, but it is mortgaging the future to meet the desperate needs of the present. The people of South Sudan did what they could to survive this year – but that means they will be vulnerable next year. They need to see an end to the fighting so normal life can resume.” 

Many of the 1.4 million people displaced from their homes are facing an uncertain future. The fighting has disrupted markets and pushed up food prices. Fishermen have been barred from rivers, cattle herders have had their cattle stolen, or been forced to sell them off cheaply. The expected upsurge in fighting once the rains have ended in October will tip many over the edge. 

More funds are needed

The aid agencies called for donor governments to fully support the UN’s appeals for humanitarian work in South Sudan and the refugee crisis in neighbouring countries. They also said that the quality of aid needs to be improved. It needs to be delivered where people are rather than where it is easier to reach. And it needs to build on the way people cope with the crisis and to enable them to face any future crisis better prepared. 

The aid agencies also called on all the government of South Sudan, the opposition and other armed groups to immediately stop fighting and work towards a long-term, sustainable peace deal. All their forces need to stop attacks against civilians, end the use of child soldiers and allow humanitarian workers safe access to people needing their help. Source...

 

 

 

Uhuru’s Decision Good for Him and the Country

 

Daily Nation || 06 October 2014

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s decision to temporarily cede office and attend the International Criminal Court Status Conference as a private citizen marks another milestone in the circuitous trials that seek to put to rest the bitter outcomes of the post-election violence of six years ago.

The Head of State was categorical that he wants to pursue the trial as an individual and avoid dragging the whole nation along with him, and in so doing, protect the country’s sovereignty.

Clearly, he defied the hollow choruses of his loyalists locally, some of whom had threatened to strip naked if he took the Europe-bound flight to answer to the charges.

Similarly, he did not pay heed to the African Union’s resolution last year that decreed that no serving Head of State should face trial at The Hague.

President Kenyatta had only two options – going to The Hague or disobeying the court order and staying put. But he saw the sense in abiding by the resolution of the trial judges because doing anything to the contrary would have been disastrous for him and the country, at large.

For one, Kenya is a signatory to the Rome Statute that gave birth to the ICC. Since the country believes in the rule of law and conformity with international treaties, it would have been wrong for him to turn around and defy the court’s directive.

FUGITIVE

Second, President Kenyatta sought to avoid personal humiliation. Forever, he would have been a fugitive with Kenya turned into a pariah nation. Nobody wants to be in such a distressful situation when, in fact, the case at hand is wobbling and likely to fall on its head any time soon.

At any rate, there is no big deal in going to the court to clear one’s name, especially on charges of crimes against humanity, which carry the heaviest penalty. Deputy President William Ruto has often been there and that has never prevented him from discharging the duties of his high office.

Even so, the challenge remains for Kenya and other African countries to put their acts together and avoid situations where they are unable to resolve internal or electoral differences, necessitating external interventions with the consequent shame.

Violence of the magnitude experienced after the botched 2007 elections is a sad indictment of the country’s electoral and governance structures and must never recur.

Moreover, the plight of the victims of the violence has not been fully addressed. The underlying issues such as historical injustice, socio-economic inequalities, marginalisation and impunity, which led to the flare-up, have not been dealt with exhaustively.

Thus far, President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto have acted with dignity and it behoves the ICC to treat them and the African continent with respect, to disabuse anyone of the the notion that it is a court for poor nations.

In the meantime, life has to continue and the country must steadfastly pursue its agenda of economic development and institutionalising the rule of law and good governance. Source...

 

Liberia 'to prosecute man in US hospital'

BBC || 02 October 2014

The Liberian authorities say they will prosecute the man diagnosed with Ebola in the US, accusing him of lying over his contact with an infected relative.

When he left the country last month, Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan filled in a questionnaire saying that none of his relatives were sick.

But Liberia's assistant health minister said he had taken a sick relative to a clinic in a wheelbarrow.

Mr Duncan is in a serious condition in a Dallas hospital.

His is the first case of Ebola to be diagnosed on US soil, where as many as 100 people are being checked for exposure to Ebola.

More than 3,330 people have died in the Ebola outbreak in four West African countries.

'Speedy recovery'

The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, says the prosecution announcement was made at the weekly Ebola update news conference, which is attended by numerous government officials and was dominated by the case of Mr Duncan.

"We wish him a speedy recovery; we await his arrival in Liberia" to face prosecution, Binyah Kesselly, the chairman of the board of directors of the Liberia Airport Authority, said.

Deputy Information Minister Isaac Jackson confirmed that Mr Duncan would be prosecuted as he "lied under oath about his Ebola status".

Before the briefing, Mr Kesselly told the BBC that Mr Duncan had answered "no" to all the questions on the Ebola form, which includes one about whether the traveller has any relatives sick with Ebola.

Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah explained at the briefing that he was investigating Mr Duncan's movements before he left Liberia on 19 September.

He said Mr Duncan works as a driver in Liberia for Save-Way Cargo, a subsidiary of the international courier service FedEx, and lives in the Paynesville 72nd Community suburb of Monrovia.

Eric Vaye, a neighbour of Mr Duncan's, was also at the briefing to help with contact tracing, and said that nine people had died of Ebola in the district in recent weeks.

Mr Duncan is alleged to have pushed the wheelbarrow when taking a sick relative to a clinic.

Our reporter says this is banned and people are obliged to phone a hotline number to ensure that patients are collected by health workers so further contact with sick people is avoided.

Mr Nyenswah said it was "less likely" that Mr Duncan had passed on the disease when in Liberia because he was not showing signs before he left.

According to the latest UN figures, there have been 7,178 confirmed Ebola cases, with Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea suffering the most.

Leading charity Save the Children has warned that Ebola was spreading at a "terrifying rate", with the number of new recorded cases doubling every few weeks.

UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has called for urgent decisive action including more financial aid, doctors and nurses, from the international community at a conference in London. Source...

 

Nigerian Evangelist “to be sued”

BBC || September 25, 2014

Two South Africans who lost relatives when a church hostel in Lagos collapsed have told the BBC they intend to sue Nigerian evangelist TB Joshua.

The two men, who both lost sisters in the collapse, are appealing for more families to come together in bringing a case against the preacher.

At least 115 people, including 84 South Africans, died when the multi-storey building fell down earlier this month.

The authorities say it had more floors than its foundation could hold.

'No news'

On Sunday, Mr Joshua, who is one of Nigeria's best-known evangelists and is popular across Africa, announced plans to travel to South Africa to visit the families of the deceased.

Emergency workers allege they were prevented from participating in the rescue, only gaining full access to the site on Sunday afternoon - accusations denied by Pastor Joshua's Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN).

Thanduxolo Doro and Mpho Molebatsi waited at Johannesburg's OR Tambo airport for days after the collapse for news of their sisters, who had been visiting SCOAN.

Both families had last heard from their relatives hours before the collapse, which happened at about 13:50 local time (12.50 GMT) on Friday 12 September.

"It is not that the building collapsed, rather what was done after the collapse - we didn't get any news from the church," Mr Doro, whose sister Vathiswa Madikiza died, told the BBC.

"When I contacted them they wouldn't tell me anything. We saw reports that emergency workers were denied access initially, access that could have saved lives. The actions of the church after the incident are very telling," he said.

In an open letter published in South Africa's Star newspaper, Mr Doro called on more families to sue Mr Joshua.

"I need to do this for her. Even if I stand alone, I am determined to see that something is done," he told the BBC.

"I understand that some families are afraid to take on someone who purports to be God's messenger and I don't blame them but I will do this."

Mr Doro says he was informed by South African officials about his sister's death this week, but has to wait for the results of DNA tests before her body can be repatriated for burial.

He told the BBC that he had spoken to two families who were eager to join him in suing Mr Joshua, but no concrete plans had been made.

He has not been in contact with Mr Molebatsi, whose sister Hlubi Molebatsi was also killed.

Mr Molebatsi says he has contacted his lawyers.

"I have spoken to other families but it has been difficult because this is a time of mourning. I would like to see families get something from the church as some of the people who died were breadwinners," he told the BBC.

Some 25 survivors of the collapse are continuing to receive medical care following their return to South Africa.

Officials say 16 of the wounded are in critical condition, with some having had limbs amputated and other complications. Source...

 

Foreign Workers in South Sudan can Stay After all

Daily Nation || By Aggrey Mutambo || September 17, 2014

South Sudan Wednesday evening rescinded its controversial order to eject foreign workers after intense lobbying by diplomats in Juba.

Kenya’s ambassador to South Sudan Cleland Leshore confirmed to the Nation that the order, which had been heavily criticised, had been overturned.

“I have just spoken with the minister for Foreign Affairs (Marial Benjamin) and he has confirmed to me that the order to expel foreigners working in South Sudan has been rescinded,” said Mr Leshore.

Earlier in the day, diplomats from various countries met in the capital Juba to discuss the matter after which they requested to meet the Foreign Affairs minister.

According to Mr Leshore, the envoys, drawn from African embassies and beyond, are expected to meet Dr Benjamin Thursday morning to discuss the matter further.

The withdrawal of the order means Juba has backtracked on  the issue three times in under three years. Two previous decisions to eject foreign workers in favour of locals were equally called off after criticism from the international community.

The South Sudanese Government had earlier issued a “clarification”, insisting that no foreign workers would be expelled. It said it was vouching for South Sudanese people to be given jobs where they qualified.

A senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nairobi confirmed the development, saying Juba had rescinded its decision following “hue and cry” from those that would have been affected.

Juba’s foreign ministry had earlier said foreigners would be given a longer grace period until South Sudan worked on labour laws to guide firms on how to mix locals and foreigners in their employment. “Foreigners working with NGOs or companies here can continue staying until we finalise our labour laws,” spokesman Mawien Makol Ariik told the Nation.

On Tuesday, Juba told firms and NGOs to do away with foreign workers in positions ranging from executive directors to receptionists by October 15, this year, and replace them with “competent” South Sudanese.

South Sudan minister for Labour Ngor Kolong Ngor said the move was meant to protect the rights and interests of the locals.

The move excludes foreigners working with the UN as well as consultants. The directive targeted workers in hotels, aid agencies, oil companies, banks, telecoms as well as tours and travel firms, where many Kenyans work.

Wednesday, Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho said Nairobi had not received formal communication from Juba on the matter, but said it was normal for any government to promote employment of its nationals.

“I saw the circular, I do not think from the casual reading of it that this affects Kenyans,” Dr Kibicho said on the sidelines of a diplomats’ induction session at the Safari Park Hotel.

“We know the kind of assistance we have extended to that country in terms of training of their civil service. Therefore, I do not want to speak too much now,” said Dr Kibicho, promising to issue a detailed response after talking with South Sudanese officials.

South Sudan does not have a labour law and most of its decisions are based on the law in Khartoum which requires that 80 per cent of vacancies in firms and NGOs to go their nationals. Source...

 

Southern African Leaders find a Break-through to Lesotho’s current Political Stalemate

Vatican Radio || By John Baptist Tumusiime || September 17, 2014

The ruling coalition in Lesotho has agreed to hold early elections after it became clear that the three parties in power could not work together for the good of the country. The agreement was reached on Monday in Pretoria, South Africa, at a regional summit of Southern African heads of state, under the auspices of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The last elections were held in 2012 and the next ones were to be held in 2017.

In recent months the coalition has been weakened by disputes between Prime-Minister Thomas Thabane of the All Basotho Convention Party and Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing of the Lesotho Congress for Democracy Party.

The disagreement became so intense and alarming that in June Thabane suspended Parliament to avoid a vote of no confidence, and in the process worsened the differences between his party and the other parties in the coalition. Earlier he had asked the army chief, Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli to step down and relinquish command. He appointed Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao to replace him.

On August 30th the  military reacted to the Prime-minister’s announced changes by attacking the police headquarters, killing one police officer, and by temporarily occupying the capital, Maseru. The military also jammed radio stations and telephone signals. Prime-Minister Thabane fled to South Africa and returned 10 days later under South African protection.

The Prime-Minister has many sympathisers and friends in the police force while his deputy, Metsing, has the support of senior army officers.  This explains why the police force was targeted by the army and why the Prime-minister hurriedly left for South Africa. Lieutenant General Kamoli has refused to step down as army chief, thus creating another crisis in the country.

The Southern African Heads of State, who included Jacob Zuma of South Africa, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Ian Khama of Botswana, advised the coalition leaders to reconvene Parliament and to focus their attention on preparing for early elections on the assumption that this might defuse the political stand-off.

They authorised the deployment of a regional observation mission for three months to ensure peace and stability within the defence, security and law enforcement organs of the state. They also appointed South Africa's Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, as a facilitator. The Coalition government has been asked to work with him in addressing political and security issues as it prepares the country for early elections.

The Catholic bishops conference in the country has been following the situation carefully and with concern. On September 3rd the Bishops issued a statement  reminding the coalition government that it had betrayed the people by its internal disagreements  which had affected service delivery and put the security of the country at risk.

They called upon the army to exercise discipline, reminding it that its mandate is the defence of the state and of the public. They went further to call upon the international community, especially the Southern African Development Community, the African Union and the Commonwealth to which Lesotho is a member, to intervene to protect the rule of law, democracy, human rights, peace and stability.

Lesotho is a small developing country in southern Africa, surrounded by the Republic of  South Africa. It has experienced several political instabilities in the past, sometimes leading to coup d’états by the military.  

The lack of political stability has not only eroded public and international confidence, but it has also affected social and economic development and consequently contributing to poverty because successive governments have focused more on resolving political squabbles than planning for the country and implementing policies. 

The Catholic bishops, in their latest statement, have called for a sense of responsibility on the part of the political class because, according to them, a country led by mindless and corrupt people who are only interested in power, money and not service to the nation, is destined to chaos and collapse.  

The catholic  church leaders have also appealed to the people of Lesotho to pray for peace and to remain vigilant, united, calm, hopeful and patriotic. “God always hears the cry of the poor and the oppressed and saves them”, they concluded. Source...

 

Is South Sudan An Eyesore To The World?

Gurtong || By John Oryem || September 11, 2014

South Sudanese unfortunately did not learn much from tragedies of conflicts from other countries, if they forgot their sufferings and where they came from too soon. From now on, if South Sudanese are not accorded any princely welcome around the globe, they should know, they have become an eyesore among other nationalities.

Political leadership, overwhelmed by spiraling demands of statehood, coupled with presence of excessive wealth, blindfolded those who triggered the current strife after sealing their poverty-ridden past with lust for new life’s style of oligarchs. At the end of it all, every South Sudanese, including initiators of the conflict, became victims with biting economic stagnation hitting hard their hidden treasures. But this was (is) a country seeking its soul after nativity. 

War is humiliating, upsetting and obliterating. The situation caused by South Sudanese is that of self-destruction and defiance to change often laced with impatience at doing things be it private or public. The persistent association of South Sudanese with love of war and destruction is ill-fated and heart wrenching! Independence could have sterilized the country’s historical wounds and gently put it at world’s stage as unblemished nation that gained independence through legitimate referendum.  Stubbornness and lack of taking up offered opportunities for sustainable peace and focusing on nation building by South Sudanese is just gambling with the future of the country by current politico-military leaders.

The ongoing conflict messed up social fabric and created grave injuries by restraining social cohesion and mutual integration. Returnees from neighbouring countries and diaspora were beginning to concentrate on their new realities, till hell broke loose on the evening of Sunday 15^th December, 2013.

The carnage that began with few isolated gunshots in Juba hurriedly engulfed the whole country without reverse. South Sudanese retreated back to their tribal-communal cocoons, graced with hatred, bigotry and thirst for revenge. Scenes of vultures, hyenas, crows, dogs and even chickens pulling at carcasses were transmitted across the world. This was a shame that fascinated media houses to scramble with their amateurs’ photojournalists to report all worse things South Sudanese were doing do to each other.

Not long ago, these same people were beginning to disassociate from their bitter past including liberation’s nightmares. They were made up of survivors and perpetrators of liberation struggle that their forefathers began long ago. Suffering and pain have reached every household in the country due to the ongoing conflict.

The country has gained notoriety and caused bad name with repercussions on international stage becoming awful. The noble citizens of South Sudan were known to be warriors and liberators who exhibited nothing more than defense of their dignity and humanity that many colonizers trampled upon since the arrival of Mohamed Ali Pasha in Sudan in 1921. Independence in 2011 was stamping the last blow on oppression and humiliation.

War is impeding development (human and natural) when much could have been achieved and progress made at all fronts. South Sudan could have joined regional and international bodies to gain economic, cultural, political and academic recognitions. The long journey of burying their past with courage had begun since 2005, only to be disrupted in 2013.

Renewed killings and destructions are hangovers of near past, which still lingers in their midst delicately. With defying glare from world’s leaders, South Sudanese have exposed themselves to scrutiny and evaluation by others as killings without mercy continue. South Sudanese are renowned for recalling their past with passion. A contagious vice that travels faster along ethnic veins.  Injuries committed by fellow South Sudanese and colonizers are categorized at equal length.  In doing so, South Sudanese ignored to take responsibility by cleansing up their injured past. The very act of killing each other, including people with blood relation, left opened room for pre-independence South Sudan’s pessimists to utter their wildest predictions that goes as far questioning legitimacy of the country to statehood.

Their predictions of prevalent lawlessness and splits with possible disintegration after independence were based on ethnic composition of the country. Once again South Sudanese must fight with vigor to say they are one people! They must therefore pull off ills of ethnicity which is a landing pad for pessimists who continue to doubt legitimacy of their country. The country belongs to all ethnic groups in the country as stipulated at independence’s proclamation! 

Diplomatically, the war-weary citizens of South Sudan are urged collectively to move from coast to coast to reclaim their country’s image. This self-destruction to the country’s image by handful privileged along echelon of power must be corrected communally. The country belongs to all, by birth or affinity. The process of healing takes up a journey of justice, peace and total reconciliation through agreed mechanism. Liberation’s path for South Sudanese wasn’t easy one in deed.

Who can dispute that South Sudan, a country whose citizens always fondly refer to it as “the youngest country in world” has become an eyesore among the community of the nations?  If war is not stopped soon, present and unborn South Sudanese will continue to be haunted by the mischiefs of their political founding fathers who failed to bury their differences and rivalries accumulated during painful liberation struggle.  

The feuding political leaders should know, the country belongs to all as witnessed by those who poured out their tears of joy on 9^th July 2011, seeing their emblem rising in the blue skies that afternoon while they cursed the old Sudanese flag that symbolized oppression and human hatred perpetrated against their grandparents. All South Sudanese including foreigners saluted and stood in awe, honouring and singing national anthem with final hope of being first beneficiaries of all good things that was to follow in the new nation.

Eritrea and Namibia which gained their sovereignties recently in the continent no longer say “we are a young nation” when modernity and civility are expected as norm of affiliation to universality. Many holders of South Sudan’s legal documents are being questioned by immigrations officials at crossing points outside the country.

This war is becoming hard to explain to non-citizens of South Sudan. Days after the start of the conflict, we have seen how hundreds of our own brothers and sisters with dual citizenship jam-packed airports, airstrips and embassies, hiding their South Sudanese legal documents in favour of other countries’ passports. With dwindling nationalism in their hearts, some South Sudanese are becoming shameful to hold the country’s passports today.  Others go to the extreme by paying for their residency visas, living as citizens of other countries in their own motherland!

War made them to doubt stability of the country with relentless deaths. South Sudanese with dual citizenships are duty-bound to uplift the fallen image of their country by volunteering as unofficial emissaries of the Republic of South Sudan. Now that the country has been brought into disrepute, aggressive efforts must be exerted to clear the negative image being associated with the country.

To remedy this tarnished image of South Sudan among community of nations, tireless effort is required from all walks of life and interest groups to unify under one and only name, Republic of South Sudan. Government officials, opposition forces and common citizens, all carry passports of the “Republic of South Sudan”. The sovereignty of South Sudan is in each heart. The country is a constituency for every able political force to operate in appropriately. Guarding its territories and citizens should be taken jealously by its political leaders to guarantee continuity of statehood.

There should be change of attitude to love the country that took away the lives of 2.5 million of its citizens not so long ago in the war of liberation. Today over 1.5 million displaced or exiled with others still unaccounted for since the war broke out on 15^th December, 2013. Those imbued with life want peace and urgent restoration of glorious name of their country, South Sudan! Their liberation resilience, steadfastness and God-fearing value should not die in vain.

While physically witnesses of current war are trounced in predicament and untold suffering, the unborn South Sudanese will be lucky to read in books and see images of destructions caused by their forebears. Future citizens of South Sudan shall listen to irrelevant dirges, shameful praise-songs composed during this brotherly war that has since claimed thousands of lives across the country. It is high time South Sudanese, especially people with political influences, cleaned up the negative image created in the country. South Sudanese from all walks of life will be restless till sustainable peace is achieved. Peace that will return their injured image to shine again. They want other citizens of the world to stop considering them as warmongers. It is only through peace that South Sudanese will reclaim their image of courage and determination as expounded by their forefathers, solidified by their contemporary politicians who fostered their dignified sovereignty.

Now that there is light at the end of the tunnel, with both parties to the conflict beginning to agree on some peaceful settlement to the conflict, the suffering citizens are more than expectant to good news of final peace in the land. And thereafter, sisters and brothers to the conflict will gather courage to say “sorry” to each other. Source...

Dr. John Oryem is an advocate of peace and development and a cultural anthropologist. He is the author of several books on poetry and short stories, a frequent commentator on socio-political issues.  Accessible at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Pistorius found Guilty of Culpable Homicide

Aljazeera || September 12, 2014

South African Judge Thokozile Masipa has found Oscar Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide and negligently handling a gun in a restaurant, but acquitted him on two other firearm charges.

On Thursday the sprinter was cleared of murder, but a final verdict on culpable homicide, which is an equivalent to manslaughter, was only handed down on Friday in a Pretoria court.

In the state's first victory after the shock dismissal of murder charges against the star athlete, the judge said Pistorius was guilty of recklessly discharging a firearm in a packed Johannesburg restaurant.

Pistorius was accused of asking to see a gun in Tasha's restaurant and while handling it under the table the firearm went off.

"He may not have intentionally pulled the trigger... that does not absolve him of the crime of negligently handling a firearm," Masipa said.

In a ruling announced on Thursday, Masipa said the 27-year-old amputee athlete could not have foreseen he would kill the person behind the door, his 29-year-old girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on February 14, 2013.

Al Jazeera's Tania Page, reporting live from Pretoria, said that the not guilty verdict in the murder charge has caused a lot of confusion and debate among individuals and law professionals following the case.

The charge of culpable homicide carries a minimum sentence of a fine, or up to 10 years in prison, according to the discretion of the judge.

'Two Oscars' 

Nearly 40 witnesses testified during the trial, including Pistorius, who broke down, weeping and at times vomiting as he heard how Steenkamp's head "exploded" like a watermelon under the impact of his hollow-point bullet.

Prosecutors described the double amputee as an egotistical liar obsessed with guns, fast cars and beautiful women, who was not prepared to take responsibility for his actions.

Defence lawyers sought to explain there are "two Oscars": a world-class athlete and a highly vulnerable individual with a serious disability who acted out of fear, not anger, when he fired the fatal shots.

The sprinter does not deny that he had killed Steenkamp, but questioned why he did it.

He said he thought he was shooting at an intruder and that Steenkamp was safely in bed.

The prosecution said he killed her in a fit of rage after an argument. Source...

 

Mbeki, Obasanjo Discuss Solutions to S. Sudan Conflict

 Sudan Tribune || September 8, 2014

Former South African president, Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart, Olusegun Obasanjo said the solution to South Sudan’s current crisis was within the reach of its people, but that this required an active supportive role from the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union (AU) and the broader international community.

Obasanjo currently heads the AU Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan (AUCISS) while Mbeki chairs its high level implementation panel on Sudan and South Sudan.

The meeting between the two leaders aimed at ‘providing us an opportunity to receive insight and possible proposals from President Mbeki and the high-level panel, for a lasting solution towards healing, reconciliation, accountability and institutional reform”.

Members of the AUCISS had earlier held nationwide consultations with key stakeholders across the spectrum of the South Sudanese society.

“The two former Presidents engaged in a frank and open manner and they both noted the complementarily of the mandates of the two processes,” the AU said in a statement.

Thousands have been killed and over a million displaced since fighting broke out in South Sudan late last year with aid agencies warning of possible outbreak of famine early next year. Source...

 

New Guidelines for Industry on Protecting Children Online

 All Africa || Press Release || September 5, 2014

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), UNICEF and partners of the Child Online Protection Initiative, released updated guidelines to strengthen online protection for children today.

"The revolution in online communications have created tremendous opportunities for young people today, but at the same time they have been exposed to new risks in cyberspace," said ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré. "These guidelines, prepared in partnership with the Child Online Protection initiative, respond to substantial advances in technology to assess and respond to children's needs in the online world."

The Guidelines for Industry on Child Online Protection provide advice on how the ICT industry can help promote safety for children using the Internet or any technologies or devices that can connect to it, as well as guidance on how to enable responsible digital citizenship, learning and civic participation. The updated version provides guidance specifically aimed at companies that develop, provide or make use of information and communication technologies.

"Innovation by the private sector has helped drive the digital revolution. The same spirit of innovation is key to expanding the reach of that revolution to the most disadvantaged children - and to keeping all children safer, more connected, and more engaged as digital citizens of the future," said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

The Guidelines call for a comprehensive response to the online risks facing children and partnerships across multiple stakeholder groups, including governments, companies, civil society, parents and educators.

"Children's online safety is a responsibility we all share: from those who care for and teach children, to the companies who provide online services, to policy-makers. Our goal at Facebook is to provide the most accessible online tools for teens as well as to enable them to seek help and advice when they need it.

The Guidelines provide a framework for company action on children's online safety, so we appreciated the opportunity to contribute our expertise to their development. They are practical, evidence-based and should be impactful," said Simon Milner, Policy Director, Facebook. Source...

The Guidelines were developed in alignment with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Children's Rights and Business Principles. They can be accessed online at www.itu.int/en/cop/Pages/guidelines.aspx