30/May/2009 WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 480 for 23 - 29 May 2009

TO BE NOTED:

	humanitarian news and analysis UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Table of contents
1. NIGERIA: Displaced out of aid workers' reach
2. In Brief: Nigeria’s Cross River state passes child rights act
3. In Brief: Polio campaign to target ‘at-risk’ Liberia
4. CHAD: Scores of children among rebels rounded up in east
5. WEST AFRICA: Protecting children from orphan-dealers
6. WEST AFRICA: West Africa faces yellow fever vaccine shortage
7. NIGERIA: Relief workers slowly access conflict-hit Delta creeks
8. NIGERIA: Timeline of recent events in Niger Delta
9. LIBERIA: First birth registrations in Liberia for 19 years
10. BENIN: Polio vaccine drive suspended by health sector strike

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NIGERIA: Displaced out of aid workers' reach DAKAR, 25 May 2009 (IRIN) - Aid agencies are unable to access an area in the Niger Delta where more than 2,000 people are believed to be hiding in the bush after a military offensive against militants forced families to flee their homes. full report

In Brief: Nigeria’s Cross River state passes child rights act DAKAR, 26 May 2009 (IRIN) - As violence continues in Delta and Rivers states in the Niger Delta region, international community members welcomed the passing into law of the Child Rights Act on 26 May in nearby Cross River state. full report

In Brief: Polio campaign to target ‘at-risk’ Liberia MONROVIA, 26 May 2009 (IRIN) - Liberia – declared polio-free since 2006– will be among 11 West African countries covered in a vaccination campaign to be launched 29 May by the World Health Organization (WHO). full report

CHAD: Scores of children among rebels rounded up in east N'DJAMENA, 27 May 2009 (IRIN) - At least 85 minors are among 212 suspected rebels imprisoned by the Chadian government after recent clashes between rebels and the army in eastern Chad, according to UN Children’s Fund officials, who have visited the children. full report

WEST AFRICA: Protecting children from orphan-dealers ACCRA, 27 May 2009 (IRIN) - The recent rape of an eight-month-old boy in an orphanage in the Ghanaian capital Accra revealed conditions that child rights advocates say are rampant across West African orphanages. When the authorities investigated the incident they discovered 27 of the 32 children living in the home were not orphans. full report

WEST AFRICA: West Africa faces yellow fever vaccine shortage DAKAR, 27 May 2009 (IRIN) - Up to 150 million people in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria could be at risk of contracting yellow fever says the World Health Organization, as the International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Yellow Fever Vaccine says it has just a quarter of the US$186 million it needs to vaccinate people in 12 at-risk countries. full report

NIGERIA: Relief workers slowly access conflict-hit Delta creeks DAKAR, 28 May 2009 (IRIN) - The Nigeria Red Cross says conflict-hit areas it has been able to access in the Niger Delta are in better condition than anticipated, but that continued restrictions on aid workers’ movement leaves many questions unanswered. full report

NIGERIA: Timeline of recent events in Niger Delta DAKAR, 28 May 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of people are displaced in the Niger Delta region after the military stormed the area in pursuit of militants it said had attacked government troops. The move comes two months after President Umaru Yar'Adua said he would consider amnesty for some militants. Yar'Adua and his predecessors have battled for years with the local groups - perpetrators of regular violent attacks and kidnappings - who say they are fighting for the people's rights in the oil-rich region. IRIN highlights some of the events leading up to the latest clashes. full report

LIBERIA: First birth registrations in Liberia for 19 years MONROVIA, 29 May 2009 (IRIN) - The Liberian government says it has resumed registering births following a 19-year interruption due to the civil war. full report

BENIN: Polio vaccine drive suspended by health sector strike DAKAR, 29 May 2009 (IRIN) - Benin has suspended indefinitely a polio vaccination campaign because of a health workers’ strike, as polio re-emerges in several West African countries. full report

as heavy rain continues to cause floods and mud flows which have displaced over 15,000 people

TO BE NOTED: From ReliefWeb:

"Tajikistan: Appeal for aid as floods, mud flows displace 15,000

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

Date: 20 May 2009

ALMATY, 20 May 2009 (IRIN) - Aid agencies in Tajikistan have appealed for emergency aid to replenish the country's stocks, including food, as heavy rain continues to cause floods and mud flows which have displaced over 15,000 people.

A 15 May report by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said continuous torrential rain since 20 April had displaced more than 734 families (over 15,000 individuals), and was stretching emergency supplies country-wide.

"We ask the international community to help replenish our stocks so we can continue to respond to the onslaught of small-scale emergencies," Gabriella Waaijman, an OCHA regional disaster response adviser in Almaty (Kazakhstan), told IRIN.

The Tajik government has said heavy rain between 20 April and 15 May caused flooding and mud flows in 25 of the country's 58 districts, leaving over 21 people dead. Some 14,000 hectares of agricultural land had been damaged and 3,600 people had lost their homes, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, with Khatlon and Sughd provinces worst hit.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has agreed to provide 150 tents to the newly displaced families.

According OCHA, additional tents, bedding, clothes and kitchen utensils will be needed until displaced families are properly resettled.

Construction tools are also urgently required, as well as training on disaster and earthquake-proof construction methods, as the government has promised to provide safe housing for the displaced."

Reference map of Tajikistan

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On paper rebels and the military in Chad are in agreement: a child should not be part of any armed forces

TO BE NOTED: From IRIN:

"CHAD: Instability threatens demobilisation of child soldiers

Photo: Anne Isabelle Leclercq/IRIN

Young men removed from armed forces and rebel groups take literacy courses at a transition centre in the Chad capital N'djamena

N'DJAMENA, 16 April 2009 (IRIN) - On paper rebels and the military in Chad are in agreement: a child should not be part of any armed forces. But renewed insecurity over the last few months has triggered an increase in child recruitment, humanitarian workers say.

In May 2007, during a return to calm following a peace accord between the government of Chad and various rebel groups, the government signed an agreement with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to end the use of children in armed forces or groups.

UNICEF says in 2007 the programme, supported by UNICEF and Spanish and Japanese aid organisations, enabled 496 children to leave the armed forces and armed groups.

But since the end of 2007, with renewed attacks on President Idriss Déby’s regime the demobilisation movement has come to a halt. "Suddenly there was a feeling of war and preparation for war, and collaborative efforts [with the forces and armed groups] turned sour,” one aid worker told IRIN.

In 2008 just 59 children were freed from the armed forces and rebel groups and none so far in 2009, according to UNICEF.

Many aid workers in Chad told IRIN the recruitment of children has increased in recent months. "Armed groups continue to recruit child soldiers freely”, the international organisation Oxfam said in a recent statement.

Recruitment campaigns, carried out by "unidentified" entities, often target refugee camps in eastern Chad, where more than 250,000 people who have fled Darfur are living.

Hidden recruitment

Despite widespread accounts of child recruitment and the presence of children in armed groups, the subject remains taboo within rebel groups and the national army in Chad (ANT).

Gen Béchir Ali Haggar, commander of the inter-army military schools group and representative of the Ministry of Defence working with humanitarian actors, told IRIN “officially” there are no longer children in the army. "When [rebel groups] integrated into the army [in 2007] they took many children and some [military] leaders tried to keep them. But the children were not paid by the army.”

Children eager to reintegrate Efforts to remove Chadian children from the army and rebel groups have been effective, which makes it all the more regrettable that progress has halted, Désiré Mohindo from UNICEF said. Older children received professional training. Some were eventually hired on and now work as tailors, chefs, mechanics or carpenters. Others received support to set up income-generating activities such as farming or small-scale business. They all had the opportunity to take literacy classes, which were carried out at ‘transition and orientation centres’ (CTO). The younger children were integrated into schools, with particularly encouraging results, said Mahamat Ali Zenal Abidine, director of the CTO in the capital N’djamena, which is managed by the organisation CARE and houses 38 children. "Nearly all of them are among the best students in the class. Some of them are even top of the class.” The children also receive psychological care. "Some of them were involved in ‘tribal’ wars, and they grew up surrounded by hatred for other people,” explained Abidine. This is the case for Yaya (not his real name), who arrived at the centre in 2007. He recognised that while he wanted to make a fresh start and become a driver/mechanic, he did not want to return to his region in Dar Tama. "I am sure if I go, I will see the injustices, which will push me back into the rebellion.” The staff training the children are seeing progress, particularly in the drawings that cover the walls of the centre in N’djamena. "When they arrive here the children often have violent reactions and they draw scenes of war. Then they [calm down] and start to draw the school benches,” Abidine said. The centre continues to monitor the children once they have left to "stop them from slipping into delinquent ways, drugs or alcohol, because they are still very young,” he said. Reintegrating children who have been removed from armed groups is a long process, but it deserves to be supported, said Jean-François Basse, chief of the child protection section of UNICEF in Chad. "If donor countries had not invested in [the programme to remove and reintegrate these children], the community would have lost 555 children.”

But a senior army officer recognised that there "could be some children". And a soldier who recently worked in the east of the country told IRIN: "There are children, but not just in the army, the rebels have them [too]. This is a war, we need everyone."

Makaila Nguebla, a member of the armed opposition and former Africa coordinator for the national alliance of armed groups in Chad, rejected the idea that rebellion would lead to further child recruits. "We are very careful with that. We cannot allow ourselves [to use children] as we are looking for international credibility,” he told IRIN.

Of the 555 children removed from armed groups since 2007, 87 percent came from rebel groups who had signed a peace agreement with the government and the rest were from the national army.

Recruitment of children is often a problem of ignorance, Désiré Mohindo, child protection specialist at UNICEF, told IRIN. "Some leaders are not well educated. When you say ‘child’ they think of children of seven or eight and they think that at 14 one is no longer a child.”

UNICEF estimates that today there are around 10,000 children under age 18 who work for the armed forces or rebel groups in the country. Child recruitment, which previously happened mainly in the east of the country, is starting to spread to other regions such as the south, aid workers say.

Three of the five transition and orientation centres set up in 2007 to house the demobilised children have closed. The two remaining centres – one in the main eastern town of Abéché and one in the capital N’Djamena – house 80 children. It has not yet been possible to reunite these children with their families; most are from eastern Chad, where insecurity is still a major concern, so returning would mean risking recruitment again.

UNICEF started training officers and soldiers in the army in 2008 about the need to keep children out of the army. There are currently 20 trained peer educators and UNICEF intends to increase efforts in 2009 in collaboration with the UN mission in the Central African Republic and Chad, MINURCAT.

But funding is a challenge. Currently 35 percent of the 2009 requirements, estimated at US$900,000, are covered by UNICEF, and a contribution from the US government is expected in the next few days, said Jean-François Basse, chief of the child protection section of UNICEF in Chad.

"There is still interest from donors,” Basse told IRIN. But he said the continued presence of children in armed groups could put donors off. "The fact that minors can still be seen in the armed forces or groups could be seen as lack of political will to release children.”

ail/ci/lc/np

Theme(s): (IRIN) Children, (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Governance, (IRIN) Human Rights"

Each year in Cameroon at least 45,000 children die due to malnutrition, according to the UN Children's Fund.

TO BE NOTED: From IRIN:

"CAMEROON: "Silent emergency" persists

Photo: Elizabeth Dickinson/IRIN

Aid groups have poured in to Cameroon occasionally to help deal with refugee influxes, but aid officials say many local communities also face dire conditions (file photo)

DAKAR, 18 April 2009 (IRIN) - Each year in Cameroon at least 45,000 children die due to malnutrition, according to the UN Children's Fund.

UNICEF says it has been difficult giving voice to Cameroon's "silent emergency", unfolding as it is in a relatively stable country in sub-Saharan Africa, overshadowed by conflicts and refugee crises elsewhere in the region.

“It is a silent emergency because we have children in the north, extreme north and east who are severely malnourished,” Ora Musu Clemens, UNICEF representative in Cameroon, told IRIN from the capital Yaoundé.

In northern Cameroon global acute malnutrition (GAM) – weight deficit for height – stands at 12.6 percent, striking 115,000 children under five, according to UNICEF. Nearly 40 percent of children – some 350,000 – suffer chronic malnutrition. The World Health Organization classifies a GAM between 10 percent and 14.9 percent as "serious", warranting supplementary feeding; 15 percent and above constitutes an emergency.

UNICEF says new nutritional and health surveys in Cameroon are planned for later this year.

“Often when it comes to malnutrition in the region we think only of the ‘purely’ Sahel countries,” UNICEF-Cameroon nutrition specialist Denis Garnier told IRIN. “But Cameroon has high levels of malnutrition in its northern part equal to those in the Sahel; unfortunately this does not get the same attention.”

The population of the north and extreme north regions is about 4.9 million – more than the entire population of Liberia or Mauritania.

The causes of malnutrition in Cameroon are many and varied, and similar to those in many Sahel countries, according to Garnier: lack of basic healthcare, food insecurity, poor access to essential child-survival services and poor infant feeding practices. Isolation of these zones is also a contributing factor. Exacerbating difficult living conditions in eastern and northern Cameroon are influxes of refugees from Central African Republic and Chad.

“To its great credit Cameroon has opened its borders to refugees from Chad and Central African Republic,” UNICEF’s Clemens told IRIN. “But refugees are putting a great deal of pressure on already scarce resources. The host communities are not rich, yet are sharing what little is there.”

Nutrition and health

Nutritionist Garnier said the government is taking encouraging steps to integrate nutrition and malnutrition treatment into health services, but much remains to be done by all concerned, and resources are lacking.

Augustin Ndongmo Nanfack, head of nutritional monitoring and evaluation with Cameroon’s Health Promotion Department, told IRIN that for the first time the government is placing nutrition coordinators around the country. “We have had a deficit of nutritionists in the field,” he told IRIN. “Cameroon has not been seen as a country that has a problem of under-nutrition, but it clearly does.”

Photo: IRIN

He added: “We cannot possibly fight for the health of the population without paying attention to nutrition.”

What is needed, UNICEF’s Garnier said, is for government, UN agencies and NGOs to collaborate on reducing malnutrition. “Part of the challenge in the north and far north regions is a lack of NGO partners, particularly to monitor nutrition activities and quality of health care.”

He said many NGOs have come in to deal with refugee influxes in Cameroon. “But they leave after those emergency operations. It is difficult to mobilise NGOs for these regions because the problems are structural and because they are not well-known – we do not hear of them.”

Garnier said there is an “urgent” need to reinforce communities' capacity to deal with and prevent malnutrition. UNICEF and the government plan to scale up malnutrition treatment services in the north. A training on community-based management of malnutrition in three northern districts is planned for end of April, Garnier said.

In a recent paper UNICEF says large sectors of Cameroon's population lack access to basic health services, safe water, sanitation facilities and basic education.

But UNICEF has received no funding to date for its humanitarian operations in Cameroon for 2009, according to head of office Clemens. “This is very concerning to us. Donors are more focused on development issues here in Cameroon. But within that future-oriented, development context you have a humanitarian situation that must be addressed.”

The agency is appealing for US$650,000 to prevent and combat nutrition in 2009 and $2.48 million for humanitarian operations in all."

Women in villages around Korhogo, northern Côte d’Ivoire, dare not walk to their fields alone for fear of rape.

TO BE NOTED: From IRIN:

"COTE D'IVOIRE: Rape a daily menace for rural women

Photo: Nancy Palus/IRIN

Women in Korhogo say they go to the fields in a group because of the risk of rape

KORHOGO, 30 March 2009 (IRIN) - Women in villages around Korhogo, northern Côte d’Ivoire, dare not walk to their fields alone for fear of rape.

“Women are attacked even with their babies on their backs,” said Fatoumata (real names not used). “The attacker just goes for what he is after and that is that. The baby could even die.”

Women gathered at a health centre in Korhogo, 630km north of the commercial capital Abidjan, told IRIN women are frequently raped as they walk to and from their fields.

Attackers often hide in karité or néré trees, whose fruit villagers harvest for lotions, food and other products, the women told IRIN.

“They shake the trees so some of the fruit will fall, to lure women to stop and gather it up,” Mariam said. “When the woman stops the man attacks her.”

The assailant is generally not armed; since the woman is alone it is easy for the man to overpower her, the women said.

“One day villagers found the body of an elderly woman who had been raped and died in the attack,” Salimata said.

Fanta Coulibaly, head of a committee to fight violence on women and children – part of the Ministry of Family, Women and Social Affairs – said people in several regions of Côte d’Ivoire have told her rape on the way to the fields is common.

“Women cannot even do their work in peace without the threat of rape,” she told IRIN in the capital Abidjan.

Since a coup attempt in 2002 rebels have controlled Côte d’Ivoire’s north. The conflict and proliferation of arms in the country have exacerbated poverty and crime, but the women in Korhogo said rape in rural zones has been common since long before the conflict.

The women said when someone is raped she reports it in the village and men go out to try to catch the attacker, but it is difficult to track him down.

Boua Diarrassouba, regional director in Korhogo for the Ministry of Family, Women and Social Affairs, told IRIN that in the rural setting when an assailant is caught, villagers usually take justice into their own hands.

Women cannot even do their work in peace without the threat of rape

“The dignity of a man is his wife,” he said. When a woman is attacked in this way, if the culprit is caught, the punishment is generally a beating or worse, he said. “These cases usually end in bloodshed. The local authorities are not contacted except perhaps later to examine the damages.”

Rapists are called tchétchan, in the local language, Senoufo, meaning one who has an innate and uncontrollable urge to have sex with women; not all rapists are tchétchan, women told IRIN, but this is the word used for rapists.

Women said when rapes happen in the town of Korhogo – which they said is also common – most victims are not motivated to go after their attackers because they have no confidence the process will lead to punishment. One described a recent case in which an accused rapist was detained for just hours then let go.

“Nothing happens to the men who do this,” Fati said. “That’s why they continue to carry out such acts.” All the women gathered nodded in agreement.

A lack of legal infrastructure in the north is part of the problem, activists against sexual violence say. More than six years after the rebellion the government in January held an official ceremony to mark the redeployment of justice officials to the north, but the process is yet incomplete.

When asked what could be done about the problem of attacks on the way to the fields, Mariam described her idea for a sting operation to catch assailants.

“A man should dress up as a woman – with a skirt, a stuffed bra under women’s clothes, a headscarf,” she said. “Then he would walk alone toward the fields. A group of villagers would follow him. If an attacker strikes, the man could fight him off until the villagers could come and capture him.”

“We suffer greatly from this threat,” Fatoumata said. The women said they are not free to work as they wish.

Women who have been raped are not marginalised by others in the village, those gathered at the health centre told IRIN. Several of them said at once: “We all know it could be us next time.”

Yusuf says he would rather risk death than live a life of certain poverty in Somaliland.

TO BE NOTED: From ReliefNet:

"Somalia: Somaliland youth risk death in search of better life

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

Date: 30 Mar 2009

HARGEISA, 30 March 2009 (IRIN) - Harir Omar Yusuf, about to finish high school, should be choosing a degree course and deciding on a career direction; instead, he spends most of his time planning a perilous escape from his hometown of Hargeisa, capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland in the northwest of Somalia, to Europe.

"As soon as I finish high school I will go there, because I have nothing to stay for in Somaliland," he told IRIN, adding that his parents could not afford university fees and he was not assured of a place even if they could.

Yusuf has many friends who have made the journey - first through Ethiopia, then Sudan and Libya and finally to Italy via the Mediterranean Sea - and are now living as illegal immigrants in Italy and other European nations. He also has many friends languishing in Sudanese or Libyan jails, arrested for entering the country illegally, and knows of many who died making the trip, but he remains determined.

Tens of thousands of Somalis also try to cross the Gulf of Aden into Yemen every year aboard small vessels run by people-traffickers operating from Somali ports; according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), one out of every 20 people attempting the journey in 2007 died.

Yusuf says he would rather risk death than live a life of certain poverty in Somaliland.

Unemployment

"The issue of young people running away is very problematic in Somaliland," said Omer Ali Abdi, the director of the youth department in the Ministry of Youth and Sports. "Year after year, graduates from secondary schools are increasing and our universities just don't have the capacity to take in all of them - and even when they graduate from university, there is no guarantee they will get a job."

According to Ahmed Hashi Abdi, vice-minister in the Ministry of Planning and Coordination, only 10-20 percent of people under 35 are employed.

"Because it is unrecognised internationally, Somaliland has no access to bi-lateral funding, which has caused our economy to suffer, especially after the livestock ban of 1999, which destroyed the main source of income of most of our people," Abdi said. "For the same reason, international scholarships and higher education exchange programmes are not open to our students."

An outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in Saudi Arabia in 1999 resulted in a regional ban on imported livestock from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Kenya, and Djibouti; the ban on Somalia remains in place and now includes several other Middle Eastern nations.

After the ban, remittances became the main foreign exchange earner; thousands fled the country during an outbreak of war in 1988, and regularly send money to their families. The Ministry of Planning estimates remittances account for US$500 million - or about 80 percent of Somaliland's economy.

"When people leave the country legally, we are happy that they are able to send back money, but as much as possible we try to discourage young people from leaving illegally - then it becomes a matter of life and death and we cannot encourage that," Abdi said.

Despite the risks, many families scrimp and save to send their children on these journeys. Over the past year, Amina Rooble (not her real name) has spent more than $6,500 on transport, communication, paying traffickers and bribing prison officers, all in an effort to get her son Hashim to Italy.

Although his boat sank, Hashim survived and is now seeking asylum in Italy. "Even though my son was rescued, two other members of my family died on that boat," Rooble said.

Incentive to stay

The government and local NGOs have run campaigns to discourage young people from leaving, but according to Yahye Mohamoud Ahmed, head of the Somaliland National Youth Organisation NGO, unless the government can provide some motivation, young people will continue to escape in droves.

"They have no incentive to stay - no jobs and no businesses, so it is fairly futile to tell them to stay," he said. "They need to be given the capacity to feed themselves here."

Ahmed added that many young men were now taking swimming lessons and using hi-tech communication equipment - such as satellite telephones to make SOS calls - to make their trips safer.

"When they hear about their friends and relatives in London or Italy, they get encouraged to go; even when their relatives have no jobs there, they still think they have a better life than here," he added.

According to Ahmed Abdi, the national development plan includes the creation of two vocational training institutes in every region of Somaliland to boost the number of tertiary institutions and the variety of courses available.

"We also intend to set up micro-finance schemes to enable them to be self-supporting," he added.

He noted that despite the continued livestock ban, a few countries in the Arab world were starting to buy Somaliland's meat, and the government hoped the Saudi ban would be lifted, restoring the industry.

Youth policy

The Ministry of Youth and Sports, in partnership with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), is drafting a national youth policy - due to be passed by parliament in 2011 - that hopes to address issues of youth emigration, unemployment, education and political participation.

"What we need more than anything is resources from our international partners focused on development rather than strictly emergencies - resources focusing on education and building the economy would encourage young people to stay and build their own nation," the Ministry of Youth's Abdi said."

On a good day I expect to make a profit of 50 meticais [$1.90].

TO BE NOTED: From IRIN:

"MOZAMBIQUE: Fina Bota, "One day I would like very much to have my own piece of land"

Photo: Givemore Nyanhi/IRIN

Fina Bota in Tunduru Park, Maputo

MAPUTO, 14 March 2009 (IRIN) - The plastic cap off a bottle of water, a twist of paper and a woven reed mat to serve as a tray are all that widow Fina Bota, 32, needs to sell roasted peanuts and earn a simple living in Mozambique's capital, Maputo.

"I am a mother of two children and I live in Maxaquene district in Maputo. I was born here, in Maputo. I sell roasted peanuts every day and I have been doing this for as long as I can remember, since I was a very young girl. My husband died two years ago and I am a widow.

"Every day I go to buy my peanuts at a nearby market called Bella Rosa. I buy peanuts worth 65 meticals [US$2.50] and take them home, where I add salt and roast them over a charcoal stove. On a good day I expect to make a profit of 50 meticais [$1.90].

"A blue bottle cap measures peanuts worth 1 metical [3 US cents]. When a client buys more than one cap I simply count the number of caps, and if the customer buys for 5 meticais [15 US cents] I use a bigger bottle cap, like those used for perfumes or hair lotions.

"When my husband died two years ago he left me with two children. Both of them are girls. My first-born daughter is called Amelia and is 16 years old and learning at a nearby government school. Joanna, my second-born daughter, is only six years old, but she has also started to go to school.

"The money that I raise through selling peanuts is not enough for my needs and the needs of my two children. My children always need money for school materials like uniforms, school books, and pens and pencils.

"The house where I stay is not mine, so every month I have to pay rent of 300 meticals [$11.30]. Each day I need to budget 10 meticals [30 US cents] for onions and tomatoes, 20 meticais [60 US cents] for rice, and another 10 meticais [30 US cents] for bread in the morning.

"This year the cost of living, especially basic commodities such as rice, is very high compared to previous years, and that also makes my life difficult.

"I have lived all my life in Maputo, and one day I would like very much to have my own piece of land where I can farm my own crops, but right now I have to keep on working like this until my life changes."

Bennett, arrested little more than an hour before Zimbabwe swore in 36 cabinet ministers from across the political spectrum

TO BE NOTED:

"ZIMBABWE: Abduction threatens unity government

Photo: Movement for Democratic Change

Roy Bennett

HARARE, 13 February 2009 (IRIN) - The future of Zimbabwe's 48-hour-old unity government may hang in the balance after a leading member of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was abducted by police outside the capital, Harare, on 13 February.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was installed as prime minister on 11 February, while President Robert Mugabe retained the executive post he has held for 29 years in a deal designed to heal the political divisions that have brought the once prosperous country to its knees.

The MDC said in a statement on 13 February: "Roy Bennett, MDC Treasurer General and Deputy Minister of Agriculture designate, has just been abducted by police from the Law and Order section at Prince Charles airport, just outside Harare. The police were led by one Assistant Commissioner Nyongwe."

Bennett, arrested little more than an hour before Zimbabwe swore in 36 cabinet ministers from across the political spectrum, was expected to be installed as a deputy minister next week.

Richard Cornwall, a senior researcher at the South Africa-based think-tank, the Institute for Security Studies, told IRIN the abduction bore the hallmark of "hardliners" attempting to "scupper this deal [unity government] before it gets off the ground."

He said the focus has been on the divisions between Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Tsvangirai's MDC, but recent developments showed "what sort of divisions exist within ZANU-PF, not all of who agree with the unity government." The next few days would determine Mugabe's "ability to bring the hardliners to heel," he commented.

Cornwall said it was understood that the "hardliners" were from the Joint Operations Committee (JOC), which comprised security chiefs of the army, police, Central Intelligence Organisation and the prisons department, and was coordinated by Emmerson Mnangagwa, at one time a presidential pretender.

The appointment of Bennett, a white farmer whose land was taken during the government's fast-track land reform programme in 2000, may have been seen as "a signal" to ZANU-PF hardliners that the MDC would renegotiate land ownership in Zimbabwe, Cornwall said.

Bennett fled his homeland and spent three years in exile after being accused of plotting to kill Mugabe, and only returned to Zimbabwe a few days ahead of Tsvangirai's inauguration.

Signs of tension

Indications that the unity government was facing severe challenges came within 24 hours of Tsvangirai assuming office, when he visited detainees ahead of their release from Harare's high-security Chikurubi prison.

A few hours earlier on 12 February, the Harare Magistrate's Court ordered the release of Jestina Mukoko, a veteran journalist and human rights activist, and two MDC activists accused of undergoing military training in neighbouring Botswana in order to topple Mugabe's government.

Harrison Nkomo, one of the lawyers representing the more than 30 detained activists, including Mukoko, told IRIN the three detainees had initially been taken to a private hospital in Harare after their release was ordered.

There is no doubt that they need urgent medical attention. For example, when Justina [Mukoko] was abducted on December 3 in 2008, she weighed 70kg but now she weighs 52kg

"Prison officers later came during the afternoon on Thursday [12 February] and returned them to the high-security prison complex before [taking] them [back to the hospital] at midnight. A private doctor and a government medical officer have examined the three, and they both agreed that they needed urgent medical attention."

Nkomo told IRIN the government was opposed to the three detainees receiving medical attention. "There is no doubt that they need urgent medical attention. For example, when Jestina was abducted on December 3 in 2008, she weighed 70kg but now she weighs 52kg, meaning she has lost 18kg in the two months that she has been detained."

At his inauguration, Tsvangirai said the jailed activists would not "remain in those dungeons any day or any week longer". Bennett's whereabouts remained unknown at the time of writing. "

Logan told IRIN rape continues to be a “serious post-war challenge.” Liberia emerged in 2003 from 14 years of civil war.

An ugly but important post on IRIN:

"LIBERIA: Rape stokes HIV concerns

Photo: Prince Collins/ IRIN

A rape victim in Liberia who said an army officer raped her during the final days of the country's civil war

MONROVIA, 23 January 2009 (IRIN) - Health workers in Liberia report at least 100 people seeking care for rape and other forms of sexual violence each month, according to rights groups that compile government figures; the government is concerned that not enough survivors are receiving treatment to prevent HIV infection.

At the SGBV [sexual and gender-based violence] Duport Road Clinic in the capital Monrovia, director Joan Dalton said the situation is “still a nightmare” with the clinic treating five rape victims in January.

One of the government’s priorities is to increase the use of the antiretroviral post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) treatment by survivors of sexual assault and rape to help avoid HIV infection, according to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria grant coordinator David Logan.

He said he did not have estimates on how many victims of sexual violence who seek medical services start the PEP treatment.

Logan told IRIN rape continues to be a “serious post-war challenge.” Liberia emerged in 2003 from 14 years of civil war.( 5 YEARS ON )

Twenty government-run health centres across the country offer free services, including PEP, to victims of such violence, according to the Ministry of Gender and Development.

Grant coordinator Logan said part of the newly-awarded $78-million Global Fund grant will go toward counselling, PEP treatments and trainings on sexual and violence for health workers.

A nurse in the capital Monrovia’s John F. Kennedy Hospital told IRIN the hospital has had an increase in the number of rape victims seeking services in recent years. “Most the HIV-positive girls I am working with told me they were infected through rape,” said Kumbah Vincent.

A rape survivor who gave her name as Martha Flomo told IRIN she did not seek medical care after she was raped in 2003. “It was the final round of fighting in Monrovia. I was forced to go to bed with one of the generals. I am sure I contracted the [virus] from him. But HIV prevention? No, that was not on my mind.”

Flomo said that after her community learned about her HIV status, she felt she had to leave. “I had no alternative but to vacate the community and go elsewhere where people did not know I was HIV-positive.”

A 2008 government report identified stigma( NB ) as a “main obstacle" to victims' turning to PEP and SGBV services.

Flomo told IRIN her only friends are other HIV survivors. “We all meet and talk about whether we can still contribute to society. We are confident that we can play our part in helping to rebuild Liberia – if only we are accepted and allowed.”

The creation of a governmental commission in recent years to fight sexual violence and a soon-to-open court devoted to such crimes has encouraged survivors to step forward, said Deweh Gray, president of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia, known as AFELL. “But for all those who are reporting these crimes, there are others being treated in clinics and hospitals who do not want to file criminal charges. They prefer to stay silent.”

" At least 5.5 million people - over half Zimbabwe's population - are in need of food aid "

Checking in on Zimbabwe. From IRIN:

"ZIMBABWE: Corruption bedevils farming inputs

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Photo: IRIN

Food in short supply

HARARE, 19 January 2009 (IRIN) - An audit of an agricultural inputs programme aimed at rewarding productive farmers has unearthed cases of corrupt reselling of the aid by senior government officials and parliamentarians. ( SURPRISE )

Brig-Gen Douglas Nyikayaramba, in charge of logistics of the "Champion Farmers" programme, told the official Sunday Mail newspaper that some senior ruling party officials, including eight parliamentarians, had resold the free inputs, or hired farmers to farm on their behalf with the intention of splitting the profits from harvest sales.

"We will soon reveal the names of the members of the august House who have been caught up in the scam. This is tantamount to corruption and the culprits will be charged accordingly," Nyikayaramba was quoted as saying.

The government's Champion Farmers scheme, designed to boost production, has been mired in controversy over its lack of transparency and potential for politicisation. The delays in distribution, with the rainy season well underway, have also been criticised for undermining whatever benefit could have been achieved.

A farmer in Chegutu, about 80km south of the capital, Harare, told IRIN that his maize crop was waist high and in urgent need of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, but none was in the shops and he was not a beneficiary of input aid.

"All we hear are that some of our neighbours have received fertiliser, but we don't know what criteria are being used by the soldiers to distribute the fertiliser. The lack of transparency in the whole exercise will have the effect of creating more man-made food shortages."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, for fear of victimisation, the farmer said, "It is the ordinary Zimbabwean farmer and citizen who are being affected by the corruption because the inputs are surfacing on the black market, being sold at extortionist rates."

Renson Gasela, secretary for agriculture of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change faction led by Arthur Mutambara, said anomalies in the Champion Farmer programme were not surprising, and doubted that ZANU-PF officials would be prosecuted.

"To start with, the army should not be playing an active role in the distribution of farming inputs - they are only likely to give them to their friends and a few well-connected farmers," he told IRIN.

South Africa has provided Zimbabwe with a R300 million (US$32 million) agricultural inputs package, which been distributed without an agreed monitoring mechanism( SILLY ) involving NGOs and regional governments in place to ensure transparency, IRIN reported on 14 January.

At least 5.5 million people - over half Zimbabwe's population - are in need of food aid as a result of a series of poor harvests and an economic crisis that has robbed farmers of the ability to afford seeds, fertiliser and fuel. "

It just goes on and on.

" This raises deep concerns over the possible use of civilians to render areas immune from military operations."

Checking in on Sri Lanka. From IRIN:

"Sri Lanka: Rising concerns over thousands trapped in conflict areas

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

Date: 19 Jan 2009

COLOMBO, 19 January 2009 (IRIN) - Concerns are rising over the safety of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in conflict-affected areas in northern Sri Lanka without safe passage out of the fighting.

Officials from the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said more than 230,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Vanni remain precariously close to heavy fighting between government forces and cadres from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

"In Sri Lanka, strict compliance with international humanitarian law( YES ) is all the more critical with the intensification of fighting in the Vanni region and reports of intermittent artillery fire into civilian populated areas in recent weeks," John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, stated in his report to the Security Council in New York on 14 January.

Holmes said civilians had been denied the right to escape the fighting. "I am, however, concerned that some 350,000 civilians, including IDPs, are trapped in an increasingly confined space and effectively prevented from leaving by Tamil Tiger rebels. This raises deep concerns over the possible use of civilians to render areas immune from military operations( A WAR CRIME, AS IN GAZA. )."

Freedom of movement

The UN has called on the LTTE to ensure freedom of movement. "In accordance with international humanitarian law, the United Nations calls upon the LTTE to allow civilians to be able to move freely to areas where they feel most secure and for the Government to receive newly displaced people according to internationally agreed principles," Holmes said in statement released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in New York on 16 January.

The ICRC said civilians were being concentrated in a shrinking area, increasingly jeopardising their safety. "Because of ongoing combat operations and the moving frontline, tens of thousands of displaced civilians are concentrated in an area so small that there are serious concerns for their physical safety and living conditions, in particular in terms of hygiene," the ICRC said in its latest monthly bulletin released on 16 January.

The ICRC remains the only agency with a permanent presence in the region after UN and other international relief agencies relocated out of the Vanni in September 2008 following a government security directive.

The unstable security situation had made arranging safe passage for UN and government supply convoys, ambulances and other humanitarian vehicles difficult, the agency stated.

"In addition, the ICRC has to negotiate safe passage over a distance of up to 30km between government- and LTTE-held areas with the parties every day."

It had to wait five days before being able to escort the latest convoy on 16 January. ICRC officials in the capital, Colombo, said on 2 January a convoy returning from the Vanni was caught in the fighting; a truck was damaged and the driver sustained minor injuries.

Hundreds flee

The government said more civilians were expected to flee the fighting and it was making arrangements to accommodate at least 30,000 families at three locations in Vavuniya District, 250km north of Colombo.

"More people are expected to enter government-controlled areas in the near future. Government is standing by in preparation to provide all relief measures to those coming," Member of Parliament and adviser to President Mahinda Rajapakse, Basil Rajapakse, said at a media briefing on 18 January.

While most of those escaping the fighting have been moving south, others are moving north of the Vanni, towards the Jaffna Peninsula. K Ganseh, the government agent for the Jaffna District, the highest ranking public official in the district, said that by 17 January 1,200 persons had sought refuge in Jaffna.

"If the people have more friends and relatives in Jaffna District, they'll come north to live with them. Family and friends are the deciding factor that motivates the people to go to Vavuniya [south] or Jaffna."

ap/bj/mw

[END] A selection of IRIN reports are posted on ReliefWeb. Find more IRIN news and analysis at http://www.irinnews.org

Une sélection d'articles d'IRIN sont publiés sur ReliefWeb. Trouvez d'autres articles et analyses d'IRIN sur http://www.irinnews.org

This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. Refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use.

Cet article ne reflète pas nécessairement les vues des Nations Unies. Voir IRIN droits d'auteur pour les conditions d'utilisation."

Photo: UNHCR/OCHA

A map showing internal displacement and humanitarian access in Sri Lanka

See full version IMAGE or PDF of this map and a Sri Lanka country profile