Africa

Blissed out in Cairo and solidarity in the sand

A 63-year-old Kenyan man is hospitalised after he was attacked by a lion wandering along a busy road in the capital, Nairobi.

Devastation from the Mar. 1, 2011 tsunami that swept through Yotukura fishing village. Credit: Suvendrini Kakuchi/IPS

By Armen Chilingaryan
YEREVAN, ARMENIA, Mar 18 2016 (IPS)

Armenia is prone to natural disasters. Eight out of every 10 citizens are likely to experience a natural disaster at some point during their lifetimes – an earthquake, landslide, hailstorm or flooding. Each year, the country incurs $33 million in damage from such disasters.

As a Member State of the United Nations, Armenia joined the Hyogo Framework for Action in 2005, which brought a common understanding, at the global level, of what is needed to minimize the destruction caused by natural disasters.

Immediately after joining this global call, Armenia began to shift its approach from providing humanitarian relief to reducing risk. More than ten years down the line, the country has made every effort to become a safer place to live.

Here’s how. After independence in the early 1990s, many communities in Armenia didn’t have working drainage systems, mudflow channels and soil dams. They now do, thanks to the leadership of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, which pushed for stronger and more conscious urban planning.

In addition, unlike many countries at the time, there was no system in place – neither at national nor at community level – to monitor incoming disasters or coordinate the response once they occurred.

This changed when, in 2010, Armenia set up a national platform and in 2012 a strategy for disaster risk reduction. The region’s first, it extended the responsibility for mitigating risk to many institutions and people concerned, not just the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Next, disaster risk management has been mainstreamed into the Government’s development plans and is much more proactive, relying on data, research studies, satellite pictures, meteorological sensors and other sources.

These measures would not be effective without proper decentralisation of decision-making. In a country where over 30 percent of the population works in rural agriculture, even one severe hailstorm can have devastating consequences on crop production and national poverty rates.

By decentralising the management of disaster risk to nine regional crisis management centers, preventative actions were vastly augmented, targeting those most at risk.

As a result, hundreds of hectares of land and households have been protected thanks to mudflow channels, dams and cleaning drainage systems. When UNDP installed hail nets in three communities, 95 percent of the yield survived after a subsequent wave of hail storms.

The demand for the nets increased sharply in other areas of Armenia, and a range of NGOs, including CARD, World Vision Armenia and Oxfam started replicating that practice across the country.

One of the big takeaways from the Summit in Sendai, Japan was that reducing the risk of disaster must be a collaborative effort. While governments will lead the fight, a range of other stakeholders must be involved.

Armenia’s policy of decentralisation has also seen the active participation of an uncharacteristically large array of stakeholders including local actors, research centers, NGOs, educational institutions, persons with disabilities, women’s networks and organizations, and vulnerable groups.

Finally, the country has taken advantage of overlapping global initiatives. In 2010, 21 cities in Armenia officially joined the “Making Cities Resilient: My City is Getting Ready” campaign under which cities make a commitment to undertake 10 steps to become safer.

One of them, Stepanavan, situated in the north of the country, was selected as a role model during the Sendai conference. The city administration was the first to place resilience at the core of its urban planning and land-use management efforts.

A year ago today, the Armenian delegation, led by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, showcased these successes to the world. Other countries are beginning to take note; providing all levels of society with the means to identify potential disasters, reduce their risk, and coordinate responses.

Guaranteeing people’s safety at a time of grave environmental risk depends on making that change.

(End)

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March 17, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudan people's liberation Movement - North (SPLM-N) said they shot down a Sudanese military unmanned plane in a rebel controlled area in South Kordofan on Wednesday.

In this picture released by the SPLM-N on 17 March, rebel fighters hold up drone aircraft they claimed to have shot down in South Kordofan area of Heiban on 15 March 2016

"SPLA/N air defence unit of Heiban sector under command of Brg. Gen. Nimeri Murad, in Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan state on 15/3/016 at 5;00 pm (local time) shot down Unmanned drawn," said a statement released by the official spokesperson Arnu Ngutulu lodi.

Lodi further stated that the drone was mapping schools, hospitals and water sources as well as markets before to bomb it by the Antonov planes.

The government forces have resumed summer attacks on the positions of the Sudanese rebels in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states since the failure of peace talks to reach a cessation of hostilities deal last December.

In a separate statement on Thursday, the rebel spokesperson said they killed five members of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in an ambush on the road of West Kordofan-El-Obeid on 16 Mars.

Lodi said that the attack which took place in Alshareet Alramly area in South Kordofan where they captured eight NISS members and destroyed two vehicles and one truck.

The Sudanese army didn't issue a statement on the attack and its spokesperson was not available for comment.

This is the third time, rebels in South Kordofan claim the shot down of unmanned planes.

On March 14, 2012 they said they shot down a Sudanese drone in the disputed area of Jau, near the border with South Sudan.

Also, the rebel group announced the shot down of an unmanned spy aircraft near Abri, Dalami town in the far east of Dilling district in South Kordofan.

(ST)

March 17, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudan has no forestry policy and its authorities are worried the world's youngest nation could lose its natural forests, unless stringent measures are put in place to curb the rampant rates of illegal logging.

These fears come barely a month after conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) warned of dangers the lie ahead as the country's wildlife and natural resources face an alarming expansion of illegal exploitation, trafficking and logging.

The report, the agency said, was based on scientific monitoring and investigations undertaken its team undertook in cooperation with local partners over the past months, which documented a sharp rise in illegal activities in various areas of the young nation.

Cited as an immediate threat to South Sudan's forests were illegal logging, gold mining and charcoal production, among others.

Sadly, however, these illegal activities are reportedly being perpetrated by local and international individuals and actors, including members of various armed groups active in the country.

South Sudan is currently embroiled in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of the population, displacing nearly two million of them.

According to conservationists, prior to the outbreak of its war in December 2013, South Sudan's extensive areas of untouched natural woodlands, forests, and savannas, were home to wildlife populations including approximately 2,500 elephant, hundreds of giraffes, the endemic Nile Lechwe and white-eared kob tiang, Mongalla antelope migrations, wild dog as well as chimpanzees.

However, over the past two years of armed conflict, the various armed forces across the country, WCS said, have been implicated in several cases of large-scale illegal exploitation of natural resources.

“The situation of uncontrolled illegal logging, mining, poaching, charcoal trade, and other natural resource exploitation in the country is getting worse,” acknowledges Jaden Tongun Emilio, the chairman natural resource management group for South Sudan.

He calls for the enactment of a natural resource enforcenemt law.

“We need to work together at local, state, and national levels to ensure that the foundation for future development of the country is secured through sound and transparent natural resource law enforcement and integrated management,” stressed Tongun.

Despite concerns from conservationists and authorities, John Aguer considers forest logging and charcoal production as his livelihood.

The wood, which Aguer converts into charcoal and sometimes to build good shelter for his family, is his only means of making a living.

"I usually cut dry trees around the forest and I burn charcoal out of it," the 35-yearl old tells the African Independent, through a translator.

He adds, “As for now, I consider this the only source of my survival.”

Although there is no information on the exact number of forests in the country, forests and woodlands, according to 2009 figures from the Agriculture and Forestry ministry, cover an estimated 29 percent of the land area in South Sudan or 191,667 square kilometres.

A 2010 study conducted by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), estimated that a high rate of up to 2,776 square kilometres of forests and other wooded land were being lost annually in South Sudan.

PRINS Engineering, in a 2011 study, discovered that the forests of the Imatong Mountains, rising to 10,456 feet (3,187 meters) in southern South Sudan were part of the Eastern Afro-montane ecosystem, rated by scientists as one of Africa's biodiversity hot spots.

These forests, it said, are homes to many endemic and possibly unique species, but scientists have yet to study the region's species.

Policy makers, however, say de-forestation remains a threat to forests, but absence of a forestry policy in the country worsens it.

“It is illegal to cut down trees in the forest reserves,” Beda Machar, the Agriculture and Forestry minister told a recent symposium.

But in the absence of laws, he admitted, deforestation will continue to negatively impact on the country's rain patterns and eco-system.

WCS's conservationists also cited the expansion of unregulated charcoal production along, allegedly involving several members of the South Sudanese army (SPLA).

“Illegal logging has occurred in and around Southern National Park and Lantoto National Park (involving Ugandans in complicity with local South Sudanese) and further illegal logging has been reported in forest reserves in the Yambio area,” it further notes.

But while South Sudan makes progress towards fully implementing the peace accord signed in August 2015, there is an urgent need for the Transitional Government of National Unity, State, and local stakeholders and international partners to work together to halt this exploitation crisis, secure the natural resource base for the future development of the country, and prevent further conflict, says WCS.

“The country is highly vulnerable to slipping into a situation in which various individuals and groups take advantage of the governance vacuum to engage in illegal and unsustainable activities plundering and destroying the natural resource base,” conservationists warned.

“This risks exacerbating corruption, armed and political conflict, and undermining future development, and stability in the country”.

Edmund Yakani, an activist, called or full implementation of all wildlife, forestry, mining and the environmental laws of South Sudan.

“Sustainable peace and development will only become a reality if the nation's natural assets are secured, conserved and sustainably utilised for the development of the country and its citizens,” he said.

The country's Imatong forests, experts say, have been heavily degraded and deforested, and Mount Dongotomea is now bearing the brunt of clearing that threatens to fragment the ecosystem further. The mountain's tree cover has reportedly been reduced by two-thirds since 1986, and, if deforestation in the area continues, the natural forests of will also disappear before the end of the decade.

However, as many people get involved in commercial agriculture, deforestation practices may be hard to control given the growing interest of foreign entities in South Sudan's large spans of land.

With more than a third of its population moderately or severely food insecure, South Sudan is among the most food insecure countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. FAO and World Food Program estimate that a significant proportion of the nation's population, as high as 33% in the lean season, depends on food aid to ensure a minimum level of nutritional intake.

(ST)

“They have reduced the quantity of food they used to give us and we still do not know why. But we are managing. We are refugees and we have no choice. All they give us is rice and some soya beans” John Guige, a Nigerian resident and primary school teacher in the Minawao refugee camp […]

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March 17, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudanese government Thursday decided to put an end to its open door policy for South Sudanese nationals fleeing the armed conflict in the neighbouring country and decided to treat them as foreigners.

South Sudanese refugees cook on an open fire at a camp run by the Sudanese Red Crescent Society in the western part of White Nile state, Sudan, on January 27, 2014 (Photo AFP/Ashraf Shazly)

The decision was announced following the weekly cabinet meeting chaired by President Omer al-Bashir. It ends the privilege of equal access to health services and education like the Sudanese citizens and possibility to enter and reside in Sudan without visa or residence permit.

The Sudanese government also decided to take all the necessary measures to establish and verify the identity of the South Sudanese nationals. Further it was decided to take legal measures against anyone who does not carry a passport and a visa.

When an armed conflict broke out in South Sudan, the Sudanese government refused to give the South Sudanese nationals the refugees status or to establish camps for them saying they are free to enter, reside and work in their former country and to receive health and education services.

The decision, at the time, was politically motivated and in harmony with Khartoum' policy hostile to the presence of foreign aid groups the establishment of refugee camps.

But very quickly, the Sudanese authorities to relocate the South Sudanese outside the capital Khartoum to the While Nile state near the border.

In line with the Cooperation Agreement of September 2012, Sudanese and South Sudanese can live and work in the two countries. But the protocol of the four freedoms is not yet implemented, and the South Sudanese nationals should also wait to get their identity documents from their government.

There are nearly 200,000 South refugees in Sudan following the eruption of conflict in South Sudan in December 2013. In addition there are some 300,000 who continue to reside in Sudan since the independence in 2011.

(ST)

March 15, 2016 (YAMBIO) – Communities in the greater Mundri region have asked the newly appointed governor of Amadi state to ensure peace and security are prioritized when he takes over office.

Amadi state governor Joseph Ngere Paciko (ST/File)

The governor of Amadi state, Joseph Ngere Paciko arrived in Mundri West county Monday, amidst of unconfirmed reports that his own people strongly opposed his appointment by President Salva Kiir.

Ngere, however, said he was determined to ensure peace was achieved in greater Mundri, forgive each other and reconcile to open a new page for the development of the newly-created state.

This example, he stressed, was shown to the people of Mundri when he unconditionally forgave unknown gunmen who attacked him and shot his leg at night as he traveled back home from a funeral.

The governor dismissed as false allegations that he was afraid to visit Mundri where his community reportedly threatened to end his life.

“The community of Mundri welcomes anybody,” he said, citing the huge numbers of political leaders, traditional leaders, youth and church leaders who showed up to witness his arrival into the region.

According to the governor, they toured the town and market after the rally and it was all calm and not chaotic as many have alleged.

He further asserted that meetings with security organs, military, youth, women, traditional leaders and the church leaders will continue to see how they could work together to bring total peace and harmony to the people of Mundri as long as he would continue to stay in his office from now, unless changes were made in his position.

In May last year, conflict erupted in Mundri between cattle keepers and farmers over grazing land and later involved the national army (SPLA) and the youth. Several people were reportedly killed including the executive director of Mundri, amidst lootings as thousands fled their homes to bushes and nearby areas for safety.

A recent report by the US-based Human Rights Watch faulted he South Sudanese military of allegedly committing crimes against civilians in Western Equatoria state, but the army denies these claims.

(ST)

March 17, 2016 (YEI) – Two people were killed and another wounded by unknown gunmen along Yei-Lainya highway on Tuesday, authorities said.

The Lainya county commissioner Augustino Kiri, March 16, 2016 (ST)

The Lainya county women association chairperson Ludia Mateyo said insecurity in the area had caused several murders, rape and many people were missing.

She attributed the worrying insecurity situation in Lainya county to the delays by the South Sudanese peace partners to establish the long-awaited Transition Government of National Unity (TGoNU).

A speedy implementation of the August 2015 peace agreement would immediately address the suffering of the citizens, Mateyo said.

“We as women in Lainya county are not able to go the forest to collect fire wood because two of our colleagues were raped by unknown men. Secondly two of our sons were killed”, she added.

The Lainya county commissioner, Augustino Kiri Gwolo confirmed the killings, but said security forces had been deployed to patrol the area.

He called on the population to cooperative with local authorities by availing information on suspicious movements of gunmen in the county.

“The security situation for the last few days is normal except the two incidents that happened the day before yesterday [Tuesday] and yesterday [Wednesday] between Kenyi and Limbe where two people were killed. Then the incident that happened at Yei-Lainya border at Limbe where a commercial car was attacked and one person was injured,” the commissioner told Sudan Tribune.

He added, “We are putting up security arrangements to protect the people. I have told both men and women to cooperate with the authorities in case they see unsuspicious movement of people and to inform us so that this incident does not repeat itself again”.

Commissioner Kiri appealed to the population to remain calm and support government in the implementation of the peace deal seeking to end the nation's over 20-month conflict.

(ST)

March 17, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese president, Salva Kiir, has approved a request by the chief of general staff of South Sudanese army, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), General Paul Malong Awan, to make a reshuffle in the top command of the army.

S Sudan's President Salva Kiir is received by Chief of General Staff of the SPLA Paul Malong Awan at the airport in Juba March 6, 2015 (Photo Reuters/Jok Solomun)

President Kiir, according to a circular given to all units, approved the changes sought by the chief of general staff to swap his deputies.

Awan, according to an administrative order announced on Wednesday, appointed Lieutenant General James Ajonga Mawut Ajonga as the deputy chief of general staff for administration and finance. General Ajonga replaced Lieutenant General Malual Ayom, who has been moved by the same order to the directorate of inspection.

Lieutenant General Thomas Cirillo Swaka has been moved from the directorate of training and appointed head of the directorate responsible for procurement and logistics management.

He replaced Lieutenant General Malek Reuben, who has been the head of directorate for training. Lieutenant General Mangar Buong was named the head of operations and Lieutenant General Bapiny Monytuil retained his previous assignment as the head of the directorate responsible for chief of general staff for moral and orientation.

No explanations for changes were made public. Several military figures attributed the cause of the administrative changes to a simmering friction between chief of general staff and some of his deputies over the manner in which he has been running the affairs of the army.

General Awan has registered interest in wanting to assemble a team of military officers loyal to him and for a very long time sought the approval of president Kiir, who is the commander in chief.

(ST)

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

March 17, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – Survival International (SI)‚ a global movement for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples has lodged complaint against an Italian giant construction company, Salini, over impacts of one of Ethiopia mega projects, the Gilgel Gibe III hydro power plant it has built.

The US$1.5 billion Gibe III project dam is expected to generate 1870 MW of electricity.

Survival said it has reported the Italian engineering giant Salini to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) over the rights impacts to communities in Ethiopia and Kenya.

It also stressed that the construction of the controversial dam in Ethiopia's Omo River cuts off the Omo River's regular flooding‚ over which 100‚000 people rely on to water their crops and livestock and a further 100,000 depend on indirectly.

It said the dam project will eventually destroy the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people in Ethiopia and Kenya.

“Up to half a million people face starvation as a result of the dam Salini has constructed on the Omo River,” Survival said in a statement it issued on Monday.

According to experts, the dam project threatens Lake Turkana – the world's largest permanent desert lake – and disaster for the 300,000 people from tribes living along its shores.

Survival said Salini did not seek the consent of local people before building the dam, but claimed that an “artificial flood release” would compensate them for their losses. However, this promised flood never came and thousands of people now face starvation.

According to Survival, the region is one of the most important sites in early human evolution‚ and an area of exceptional biodiversity‚ with two World Heritage Sites and five national parks.

“The head of Kenya's conservation agency said last week that the dam is unleashing “one of the worst environmental disasters you can imagine.”

Stephen Corry of Survival international said “Salini has ignored crucial evidence‚ made false promises and ridden roughshod over the rights of hundreds of thousands of people.”

"Thousands are now facing starvation because Italy's largest contractor‚ and one of its best known companies‚ didn't think human rights were worth its time,” he said.

He said the real consequences of the Ethiopian government's devastating policies for its country's 'development'‚ which were “shamefully supported by western aid agencies like the UK's DFID and USAID”‚ are plain for all to see.

Stealing people's land and causing massive environmental destruction, he added, is not progress; it is a death sentence for tribal peoples.

Ethiopia has been facing massive protests from a number of international rights groups and environmental campaigners over the construction of the Gibe III dam project.

Groups like the International Rivers, Friends of Lake Turkana, The Oakland Institute, and other groups argued that no inclusive Environmental and Social Impact Assessment was made ahead of the construction and extensively campaigned for halt of the project.

According to the groups, Gibe III like those Gibe I and II diverts the flow of the Omo River in Ethiopia, which feeds 90% of Lake Turkana in Kenya and endangers the lake and tens of thousands of people from 17 ethnic groups who live in the Lower Omo Valley.

Despite huge pressure, Ethiopia however recently completed the Gibe which is the country's second largest hydro power plant after the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam; the horn of Africa's nation is building along the Nile River.

Gibe III, a 610 meter-long and 243 meter high roller-compacted concrete dam has power generation capacity of 1,870 Megawatt.

Ethiopia has dismissed allegations that its dam projects will cause environmental damage to populations in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Previously, Addis Ababa however said claims released by the rights groups are bogus. It further accused them of working for the interest of their western alleys.

(ST)

March 17, 2016 (KHARTOUM/JUBA) - A Sudanese presidential aide Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid on Thursday warned that his government may close the border with South Sudan if Juba continues its support to rebel groups in Darfur and the Two Areas.

Sudanese military personnel inspect the belongings of South Sudanese on the Sudanese border on 18 April 2014 (Photo: Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

Following a meeting between President Omer al-Bashir with the head of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel, Hamid told reporters that the meeting touched on the continued support that Juba provides to Sudanese rebels groups.

"If the South Sudan does not stop supporting the insurgency we will have to take action to protect the country, even if it led to the closure of the border again," he said, adding "We are waiting for the implementation of the Cooperation Agreements signed with the South Sudan since 2012, so there will be no security problems between the two countries."

The renewal of accusations comes after reports in Khartoum about meetings in Juba between senior South Sudanese officials and SPLM-N leadership to discuss the needs of the Sudanese rebels who are facing a large scale military campaign in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.

Last January, President Omer al-Bashir announced the opening of border with South Sudan for the first time since its secession in July 2011. Also it reduced oil transportation fees and decided to open river transport with the South Sudan.

According to the official news agency SUNA, the governor of White Nile state Abdel Hamid Kasha on Wednesday called for the withdrawal of the South Sudanese troops from the border with Sudan, adding that the presence of the SPLA soldiers hinders Khartoum's decision to open the border.

Kasha made his statement during a meeting with an American diplomat from the Office of the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan who visited the border state where are the camps of South Sudanese refugees.

In a statement he issued on 26 January, President Salva Kiir instructed to withdraw South Sudan army units on the border with Sudan, to "at least five miles south of our common borders of 1st January 1956, in accordance with our commitment to the terms of The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005 with Khartoum”.

SPLA TROOPS ARE AT 1 KM

However the top command of the South Sudanese army on Thursday denied the accusations of failing to implement the presidential order.

“That order has been complied with long time ago. Our forces have been withdrawn more than 1 kilometre away from the common border with Sudan but they want us to go beyond that, which has security concerns,” South Sudanese presidential advisor on security affairs, Tut Gatluak, told Sudan Tribune on Thursday when asked to comment on the matter.

Gatluak said the government was concerned that “negative and hostile” rebel forces could take advantage of movement away from the common border and may use the area for activities which may compromise security between the two countries.

The new deputy chief of general staff for finance and administration, Lieutenant General James Ajonga Mawut Ajonga, also confirmed that government forces have complied with the order after the army's chief of general staff, Paul Malong Awan, sent out to all units at the border with Sudan to act in compliance with the order of the president.

“In the army, there is a culture of command, order and comply, which is the guiding doctrine world over for the military. When the office of the commander in chief issued the directives, the chief of general staff received it and acted immediately. He issued instructions to all the units and our troops at the common border with Sudan and they complied,” said Ajonga.

Sudan closed its border with the South Sudan in June 2011, one month before the formal declaration of independence.

At the time, the decision intervened days after the start of a rebellion in the South Kordofan by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N). Khartoum accused Juba of supporting the former members of the ruling party in South Sudan.

(ST)