UN DELIVERS RELIEF TO SOMALIA AS RESPONSE TO HORN OF AFRICA DROUGHT GATHERS PACE

UN DELIVERS RELIEF TO SOMALIA AS RESPONSE TO HORN OF AFRICA DROUGHT GATHERS PACE

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today it had airlifted emergency nutrition supplies and water equipment into Somalia, the country worst affected by a severe drought that has ravaged large swaths of the Horn of Africa, leaving an estimated 11 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

UNICEF said in an update to the media that the supplies were delivered to Baidoa, a town in the Bay region of south-central Somalia, as part of the agency's life-saving assistance for drought-affected children.

More than half a million children in Somalia are acutely malnourished and in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Southern Somalia is the most affected area with 80 per cent of all malnourished children living there.

The delivered consignment of relief items included five tons of essential nutrition supplies, including therapeutic food and medicines to treat severely malnourished children, and equipment to supply clean water to a camp for displaced persons in Baidoa.

"Health supplies are also en route via Mogadishu, consisting of health kits with essential medicines to treat common childhood illnesses, such as respiratory tract infections, diarrhoea, minor injuries and worm infestation. The supplies are sufficient to treat up to 100,000 people over a period of three months," <"http://www.unicef.org/media/media_59225.html">said Rozanne Chorlton, UNICEF Representative for Somalia.

"We are ready to work anywhere in Somalia, provided we get unhindered access to reach the most vulnerable children in need," she added.

Meanwhile, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, who is visiting Kenya, will at the weekend travel to the north-western district of Turkana, where malnutrition rates have risen dramatically and child mortality rates are above the emergency threshold, the agency's spokesperson in Geneva, Marixie Mercado, told reporters.

UNICEF is working with partners in all drought-affected areas of Kenya to scale up access to nutrition services and treatment, and to expand access to safe drinking water, education and protection.

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) said that a poor health care system in drought-affected areas of the Horn of Africa, low immunization coverage, population movements, lack of clean drinking water and poor sanitation have left people vulnerable to communicable diseases.

Health priorities included management of severe malnutrition, child illness and maternal health, immunization and waterborne disease control and treatment, according to Tarik Jasarevic, the WHO spokesperson in Geneva.

He <"http://www.unog.ch/unog/website/news_media.nsf/(httpNewsByYear_en)/526C97D011139924C12578CE003BEF8E?OpenDocument">said that the health sector was under-funded even as the need to scale up emergency health care to sick and severely malnourished children has risen.

In Ethiopia, WHO is supporting the training of health workers on the management of severe acute malnutrition and delivering inter-agency emergency health kits to the Government, UN agencies and non-governmental partners, Mr. Jasarevic said.

He noted that in Somalia as many as 413,000 children under the age of five would be reached during the ongoing "Child Health Days" in Somaliland. Mothers and children have been receiving polio, measles and tetanus toxoid vaccination, de-worming treatment and nutritional screening. The campaign will be extended to Puntland next week targeting 156,000 children.

A measles outbreak has been reported in the drought-affected Kenyan district of Mwingi and in the Dadaab camps that accommodate mainly Somali refugees, according to Mr. Jasarevic. WHO is conducting training for all district health teams and in refugee camps on the integrated disease surveillance and response, as well as emergency preparedness and response, he added.

UNICEF and WHO are preparing to launch a vaccination campaign along the Somali-Kenyan border and in the Dadaab refugee camps, Mr. Jasarevic said.

Horn of Africa Drought Needs Long-Term Solutions

Horn of Africa Drought Needs Long-Term Solutions

Joe DeCapua VOA

Photo: Reuters
A woman holds her malnourished child on arrival at Banadir hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia 

As the Horn of Africa suffers through its worst drought in 60 years, governments and humanitarian agencies are responding to the immediate needs of millions of people, namely for food and water. But there are calls for long-term solutions to help the region break the cycle of humanitarian emergencies.

The International Fund for Development (IFAD) says there's much that can be done to deal with recurring droughts.

"They're not only ongoing, but they seem to be increasing in frequency over the past 20 years. And this is probably attributable to climate change," saidGeoffrey Livingston, IFAD's regional economist for the Horn of Africa. He added, "There doesn't seem to be a great deal of mitigation measures from one drought to the next."

Emergency response, long-term measures

Aid agencies, which say as many as 10 million people are at risk, are appealing for millions of dollars to fund emergency programs.

"Droughts are endemic to the Horn of Africa. However, each time it happens, these droughts bring an incredible amount of distress and the resilient mechanisms that need to be in place aren't yet in place," he said.

IFAD has warned the effects of drought "cascade through countries in the form of higher food and fodder prices, civil unrest and diminished social services as governments redeploy budgets to meet the most pressing needs of their citizens."

IFAD has a number of programs in the Horn to try to "build resilience."

"When we talk about resilience, we're talking about the ability for farming communities to…get some harvest when there are less rains…through the use of drought resistant seeds…on-farm storage capacity, so that when a farmer has an ok harvest he or she is able to put that harvest aside and have something in reserve for when the rains fail," said Livingston.

Other measures include pro-active efforts by governments to provide emergency services for herders, including feed supplements and financing for fodder. There are also techniques to harvest what little rain does fall.

"Of course," he said, "When there's no rain at all, their utility is less. But if there are these things in place then it can make a bad situation be a little bit more livable."

Time and commitment

Such resilience-building measures cannot be put in place overnight. In a country like Somalia, for example, the devastation of the drought is being compounded by conflict. Many thousands of Somalis have fled to neighboring countries to find food and water. Aid agencies were are? often unable to reach those in need.

But Livingston said, "With concerted effort by the donor community and the required investment and cooperation by the concerned governments, I think an awful lot can be achieved in a five to seven year period."

If those measures are not put in place, he said, "You'll see these almost-annual cycles of devastation on a yearly basis."

Since 1978, IFAD, based in Rome, has invested nearly $13 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries.

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SOMALIA: Mogadishu hospitals running out of medicine

SOMALIA: Mogadishu hospitals running out of medicine

MOGADISHU/NAIROBI, 15 July 2011 (IRIN) - Hospitals in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, have been hit by a shortage of drugs following the arrival of large numbers of drought-displaced people in the past two months, with health officials reporting that up to five patients were dying daily due to disease outbreaks.

 "Hospitals are experiencing shortages of medicines yet they need to distribute drugs to deal with outbreaks of measles, diarrhoea, malnutrition, malaria and respiratory diseases," Aden Ibrahim, the Health Minister in Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, told IRIN in Mogadishu.

 A severe drought has hit many parts of Somalia, with civil society officials reporting that hunger-related deaths were on the rise as areas that were previously not drought-prone were also affected [ http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93197 ]. The hunger-stricken were moving to the city and other urban areas in south-central Somalia in search of help.

 At a press conference on 15 July in Nairobi, US deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Reuben Brigety II, said historically, those fleeing their homes were financially and physically able to leave, while those remaining behind were often worse off.

 He said the ongoing crisis in Somalia was different. "We are seeing now even the poorest of the people in Somalia are leaving - farmers, herders, people for whom there just is no food any more."

 In Mogadishu, Ibrahim said the city was no longer able to handle the flood of desperate people.

 "At least three to five children are dying daily [in the hospitals] following disease outbreaks as a result of the large influx of the drought-displaced in the city," he said.

 Lul Mohamoud Mohamed, the director of Banadir Hospital, the largest in Mogadishu, said the facility had exhausted its medical supplies due to a sharp increase in the number of patients.

 "No organization supports the hospital directly; we used to get medicine from DBG [Daryeel Bulsho Guud, an NGO based in Germany] as well as medicine for diarrhoea and measles from UNICEF [UN Children's Fund] and WHO [World Health Organization] but we have run out, due to the large number of patients we're receiving," Mohamed said.

 She said hospital authorities had written to UNICEF, WHO and other organizations for help but had yet to get a response.

 Most of the children referred to Banadir, Mohamed said, were in a serious condition.

 "Three to four of the estimated 100 children we receive at the hospital daily die; we cannot save them because we are now in a situation where we cannot do anything, especially for those suffering from measles," Mohamed said.

 A month ago, she said, the hospital used to receive up to 70 child referrals daily, "but now we receive about 100 referrals because of the outbreak of diseases such as measles and diarrhoea in the city".

 In the first quarter of 2011, Banadir received 160 measles referrals and 440 other referrals in the second quarter, Mohamed said.

 "We received 1,228 child diarrhoea patients in the first quarter and another 2,003 in the second quarter," Mohamed said, adding that the facility registered 160 and 440 cases in the first and second quarter, respectively.

 While otherwise healthy children recover from measles within two or three weeks, the consequences can be severe for displaced children who are already vulnerable. WHO says that "particularly in malnourished children and people with reduced immunity, measles can cause serious complications, including blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhoea, ear infections and pneumonia".

 The outbreak is facilitated by low immunization coverage in the areas currently affected by drought, according to Tarik Jasarevic, a media and advocacy officer with WHO. "There was already a weak health system and problems with water and sanitation in these areas," he said.

 In neighbouring Kenya, where many Somalis have sought refuge, WHO, UNICEF and the Kenyan Ministry of Health are planning a measles and polio vaccination campaign that will target 215,000 children under-five. De-worming tablets and Vitamin A will also be provided.

 The campaign will target children in Mogadishu, and those who live along the Kenya-Somali border, including the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya, Fafi and Lagdera districts and migration corridors such as Garissa municipality.

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Somaliland: Political Recognition Key To Progress On The Ground

Somaliland: Political Recognition Key To Progress On The Ground

Somaliland's stability and effective governance are in dire contrast to Somalia. Nonetheless a failure to formally recognise Somaliland as a sovereign state continues to undermine economic progress and prosperity.

Below is an article published by The Huffington Post:

Timothy A. Ridout

Master's student at the Fletcher School at Tufts University

Somalia Is Not a State

Most think of Somalia as a single entity, but it needs to be conceptualized in terms of three distinct regions: Somaliland, Puntland and southern Somalia. The first two are functioning states in northern Somalia, whereas the rest of Somalia is an anarchic region allegedly governed by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

The TFG is not actually a government, and the state it purports to govern does not exist. Both are fictions perpetuated by the United Nations and its member states. By doing so, the international community is impeding peace, development and anti-piracy efforts in Somalia.

In the strictly legal sense, the TFG is the internationally recognized government of the Somali state. But by every other measure, the Somali state ceased to exist in 1991, and no government has effectively administered all of Somalia since. The TFG exists only because of financial and military assistance from foreign supporters. It does not have domestic authority or control outside of Mogadishu, and if it tried to assert any claim over Puntland or Somaliland, it would be rebuffed by the established authorities in those states.

Puntland has governed itself as an autonomous region since 1998, but it has not officially broken ties with the rest of Somalia. Somaliland declared independence in 1991 and has since become one of the most robust democracies in Africa. Southern Somalia remains anarchic and stateless.

The TFG has never enjoyed much support among Somalis. Created in 2004 after a peace conference in Mbagathi, Ethiopia, it could not even enter Mogadishu until the Ethiopian invasion of 2006-2007. Backed by the United States, this invasion routed the Shariah-based Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). Before the invasion, the home-grown UIC had defeated warlords and was establishing a rudimentary government. It brought the greatest level of order to southern Somalia since 1991.

After destroying the relatively moderate UIC and implanting the unpopular TFG in Mogadishu, Ethiopian troops went home, leaving the task of supporting the TFG to a few thousand African Union soldiers operating under a UN mandate. Known as AMISOM, this primarily Ugandan contingent has been fighting hardline Islamist militants who emerged from the shattered UIC. The main militant group is familiar to many: al-Shabaab.

Although the TFG's mandate was set to expire in August 2011, it was recently extended for another year at a UN-sponsored conference in Kampala, Uganda. This was a mistake. Conferences held outside Somalia that attempt to graft a government onto Somali society have failed for 20 years. Instead of embracing and learning from indigenous Somali successes in the north, the international community undermines them by supporting the TFG.

Somaliland and Puntland were created by Somalis through extensive clan-based consultation, incorporating traditional leaders and culminating in local peace conferences. They have achieved levels of peace and stability unknown in the south.

Puntland initially flirted with democracy, but it has moved toward a more authoritarian model. Puntland's first president was Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. Though criticized for his strong-arm tactics, he strengthened the state apparatus and helped build institutions. However, he soon became focused on leveraging his position to become the head of the TFG, and Puntland started to languish.

Yusuf led the TFG from 2004 until 2008. He was succeeded by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who had been a prominent leader in the UIC.

Puntland still has a functioning government, but it has not lived up to its early potential. Piracy has flourished in Puntland because of corruption and lawlessness. Had the international community offered institution-building assistance in the early 2000s instead of trying to artificially reconstitute the Somali state, Puntland probably would not be the pirate haven it is today.

Somaliland is a stable democratic state that respects the rule of law (it even has a pirate prison), but its economic growth has been hampered by its lack of international recognition. Investors, aid agencies and Somaliland's diaspora have been deterred by Somaliland's ambiguous legal status.

Last year, the Obama administration implemented a "dual-track" approach toward Somalia, engaging both the TFG and the governments in Somaliland and Puntland. This is a good first step, but the TFG should be taken out of the equation as soon as possible. The international community should find a way to combat al-Shabaab without supporting the TFG. Military assistance in southern Somalia should be geared toward providing security while locals are encouraged to build their own government from the ground up.

Meanwhile, Puntland should be given incentives to root out corruption and enhance the rule of law. Assistance should be offered to help build its institutions and professionalize its security apparatus. Whether it declares full independence or someday forms a state with southern Somalia is Puntland's decision to make.

Somaliland should be recognized as a sovereign state. It is a model of effective self-governance in a chaotic region, serving as bulwark against terrorism and piracy. The politics of international recognition are complicated, but South Sudan shows that they are not insurmountable.

Recognizing the reality on the ground and adjusting our policies would do much to help the Somali people. Continuing to pretend that Somalia is one state governed by the TFG will bring more of the same.

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-a-ridout/somalia-is-not-a-state_b_894734.html

Presidential Candidate Promises a New Cameroon if Elected

Presidential Candidate Promises a New Cameroon if Elected

Paul Ayah says Cameroon has been stagnant under 29 years of president Paul Biyah's leadership

James Butty-VOA

Photo: AFP
Shugaban Kamaru, Paul Biya

One of the candidates in this year's Cameroon presidential election says if elected, he would push to decentralize government.

Paul Ayah, currently a member of Cameroon's National Assembly, says if elected, he would only lead a five-year transitional government and would not seek re-election.

He said Cameroon has been stagnant under 29 years of President Paul Biyah's leadership.

"In Cameroon today, there's a lot of waste. Cameroon is highly centralized to the extent that a high percent of our national budget remains in the nation capital whereas the rest of the country is in abject poverty. We are endowed with a lot of human and natural resources. Our country should not be where we are whereby we push vehicles to the nearest town, the hospitals are empty; [and] the schools are empty," he said.

Ayah said he has written a book entitled My Vision of a Born Again Cameroon to help him restart the country if he is elected in October.

He said part of his vision of a new Cameroon would include reducing the number of Cabinet positions from the current 64 to 20 and naming an equal number of men and women Cabinet ministers.

"I'm going to make a [new] map of Cameroon with 10 states, which is to say we are going to have a federation in Cameroon. Whereas we have about 64 ministers today in Cameroon, we are going to have a maximum of 20, and we're going to be a unique country in the world where in the government there will be 10 women and 10 men; 12 ministries will be given to the youth and the adults will have only eight," Ayah said.

Ayah said the new decentralized Cameroon under his leadership would promote mechanized agriculture, confine the soldiers to their barracks, and make everyone's salary public as a way of fighting corruption.

Ayah said he will not boycott the November poll, unlike main opposition leader John Fru Ndi of the Social Democratic Front party who has indicated he would boycott the election because of "irregularities".

"Before entering parliament, I have been in the judiciary for upwards of 24 years. I am a lawyer and I'll be the last man to go outside the legality to replace a government. We are in for an election; anybody preaching boycott to me is preaching defeatism. We have to fight within the law to change Cameroon, and that's what I am in for," Ayah said.

Opposition leader Fru Ndi has said that the November election will not be free and fair because the electoral commission is not independent.

Fru Ndi also said the top leadership of the electoral commission is made up of former members of the ruling Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People, a charge the party denies.

But Cameroon's electoral board chairman Samuel Fonkam told VOA recently that opposition concerns that October's general elections will be rigged are unfounded.

Fonkam said the electoral commission in Cameroon only applies the rules as they exist, not the rules as they ought to be," Fonkam said.

Ayah said while the Cameroon electoral commission lacks independence, not participating in the coming election would amount to defeatism.

"It is true, very, very true that the Cameroon electoral commission is not independent. I've attacked it all around in the press, on the radio and television," but not going in for election to me amounts to defeatism," Ayah said.

Somaliland: Africa´s 56th country at the doorsteps

Somaliland: Africa´s 56th country at the doorsteps

By

Abdulazez Al-Motairi

"If South Sudan and Eritrea could gain sovereignty, so will Somaliland" Somaliland President Mohamed Siilaanyo said.

Somaliland President was officially invited to attend the 1st independence day of South Sudan, and Juba administration received the president with head of state reception and Somaliland flag was flying high in Juba. This is very courageous step that acknowledges the status of Somaliland, and towards better cooperation between Hargiesa, Somaliland and Juba, South Sudan in the future.

Hundreds of South Sudanese danced in the streets on Saturday for a joy and to mark their long-awaited independence, a hard-won separation from the north. There is a lot of uncertainty waiting this fractured region. The people of South Sudan lived under gun point from 1953, in which they started their armed struggle against their former compatriots in North Sudan. The regime in Khartoum used all means of discrimination against citizens in the south, as they were regarded "Second Class citizens".

On 9th July 2011 will always remain in the hearts of every South Sudanese because it is the day that defined their existence with defined territory. The oil deposits in South Sudan attracted the attention of the western countries, who later led the disintegration campaign of Southern Sudan from Khartoum.

Today, Somaliland is in very similar situation to that of South Sudan and asking for self-determination with all conditions of statehood fulfilled. Somaliland case could be much stronger than that of Juba because it was an independent for four days upon an agreement signed between Britain and Somaliland.

Somaliland case of independence neither violates the A.U's charter, nor UN's definition for statehood. Its borders are defined by the A.U's Article 4 that respects the borders inherited from the colonial powers. Somaliland has democratic and liberal system of governance. It hosted free and fair elections under independent observer, and opposition won. The peaceful and civilized power transfer in Somaliland after election results caught the world in surprise.

Somaliland permanent population and it not only controls its territory, but it also practices democracy and the rule of law through the country. Furthermore, Somaliland engages other nations bilaterally.

Somaliland was not the first country that unconditionally united another, and as the hasty union went from jubilant to disastrous abandoned that unity. Egypt and Syria, Senegal and Gambia, Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau, and Senegal and Mali all renounced their original commitment to unity and reverted to their colonial borders, and today Somaliland is not an exception.

On 26th June 1960, Somaliland was formally recognized as the Republic of Somaliland by UN and other 35 countries including Britain, Israel, Egypt and USA.

However, Somaliland united with Italia Somalia (Today's South Somalia) to bring all Somali speaking people in horn of Africa (Djibouti, parts of Ethiopia and Kenya). This unity created an illegal territorial expansion policy by regime in Mogadishu, which resulted instability in the region.