http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbWed, 10 Mar 2010 08:33:58 GMTQALA-E-NAW Wednesday, March 10, 2010 (IRIN) - A year after his expulsion from Iran for not having a work permit, Abdul Majid, 26, has found paid employment in Muqor District, Badghis Province, northwestern Afghanistan. But it is not a normal job: “My son has joined the Taliban,” Majid’s father, Bismillah, told IRIN, adding that he had had no contact with his son for over three months. QALA-E-NAW Wednesday, March 10, 2010 (IRIN) - A year after his expulsion from Iran for not having a work permit, Abdul Majid, 26, has found paid employment in Muqor District, Badghis Province, northwestern Afghanistan.

But it is not a normal job: “My son has joined the Taliban,” Majid’s father, Bismillah, told IRIN, adding that he had had no contact with his son for over three months.

He said that in Muqor and other districts in Badghis Province some young men, like his son, were joining the insurgents - mainly for economic reasons. “He joined the Taliban out of desperation because he looked for a job for several months but got nowhere.”

“They attack aid convoys, kidnap people and do all other kinds of extortions,” said Sayed Ahmad Sameh, the provincial police chief.

The insurgents are believed to be making hefty profits from the narcotics economy, which the UN Office for Drug and Crimes (UNODC) has estimated at over US$3 billion a year. Ransom payments and “taxes” also pours money into the insurgents’ pockets, according to experts and government officials.

“In places, they control roads, collect revenues and mete out swift justice. They co-opt disenfranchised groups and pay young men to fight,” said General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of all foreign forces in Afghanistan, in his counter-insurgency doctrine in 2009.

Sections of the international media allege that Taliban leaders pay their soldiers more than the government pays members of the police and army.

However, money may not be the only or even the main motivation for many Taliban recruits: “We do not fight to get rich but to satisfy almighty Allah,” Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, told IRIN on the phone from an undisclosed location.

“The Taliban do not have dollars, and those that want to get rich work for the government,” he said.

Creating jobs for young people is a key plank in US strategy: “Job creation is critical to undermine extremists’ appeal in the short-term and for sustainable economic growth in the long-term,” according to the US government.

Noor-ul-Haq Ulomi, a member of parliament, questions that analysis. “If youths are joining the Taliban out of joblessness it proves the government’s failure in creating legitimate job opportunities. Why are people not joining the army and police instead of the Taliban?”

Warning

The former special representative of the UN Secretary-General, Kai Eide, in his last policy paper warned of the dangers of exaggerating the number of the insurgents who are joining the Taliban for purely economic reasons.

“We should not underestimate the number of those who fight for reasons of ideology, resentment and a sense of humiliation - in addition to criminal elements,” he said in the paper entitled A Strategy for Transition to Afghan Leadership.

“It may not be difficult to buy a young man out of unemployment, but it is difficult to buy him out of his convictions,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Karzai has vowed to tackle corruption in his government. Afghanistan is ranked only second to Somalia in Transparency International’s 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index.

UNODC reported that Afghans paid US$2.5 billion (23 percent of gross domestic product) in bribes to government officials in 2009 - something that is probably alienating many young Afghans.

Over half the population (estimated at 27-28 million) is under 18, and unemployment is believed to be running at over 40 percent. Afghanistan was ranked the second poorest in the world by the UN Development Programme in 2009.



ad/cb/oahttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88372BAGHDAD Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - The security situation in Iraq's northeastern province of Diyala is slowly improving and thousands of displaced families have returned to their homes, according to officials. BAGHDAD Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - The security situation in Iraq's northeastern province of Diyala is slowly improving and thousands of displaced families have returned to their homes, according to officials.

"Despite the fact that the security situation in some parts of the province is not good, some areas where the security situation has improved are witnessing good return levels," said Thari Mohammed, a senior official in the Ministry of Displacement and Migration in Diyala.

Mohammed said about 12,900 displaced families (roughly 77,000 individuals) had returned to their homes between late 2008 and 31 December 2009. A further 39,000 families were still displaced - 13,000 within the province and 26,000 in other provinces, Mohammed said.

Some 12,500 families who had returned in the above time period had received the government's one-off grant of one million Iraqi dinars (US$850) and other aid to help them resume their lives. The remaining 400 families were expected to receive this aid soon. His office had also helped people return to their former jobs.

Diyala, sandwiched between Baghdad and the Iranian border, has been a major insurgent stronghold since the US-led invasion in 2003. In late 2008 Iraqi and US forces launched a crackdown, and the religiously mixed province witnessed fierce clashes.

According to a 23 February statement from the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), Diyala has the second highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) after Baghdad. Some 300,000 Diyala residents fled their homes after 2006.

To return or not to return?

Hasiba Jabir, a 54-year-old mother of six who fled the province in late 2007 with her family, is among those who have returned. She said financial difficulties had forced her to return.

"At the beginning [of our displacement] we stayed at a relative’s house in Baghdad, but we couldn't continue like that as the house was too small for two families, so we rented a small house for about $500 a month," said Jabir, who is a retired English teacher.

"As of last July, my husband also retired and we lost a big chunk of our income and resources and therefore we decided to go back," she said. "Although there are sporadic attacks, the situation is better than in 2007 when we left."

But Khalid Jalil Mohammed, another IDP from Diyala, is not convinced.

"The security situation in the province is still not good enough for me and my family [to return]," said Mohammed, a barber who left his home in Diyala in early 2007. "I'm happy with my work here [in Baghdad] and my sisters and brothers are also happy with their schools and universities, and we do not need to put ourselves at risk," he said.

Meanwhile, attacks in Diyala are still taking place: On 3 March three suicide bombers killed 32 and injured dozens of others, Diyala police spokesman Capt Ghalib al-Karkhi said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88363BOSASSO Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - The number of people seeking mental health treatment has increased in Bosasso, the commercial capital of Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, despite the existence of only one small health unit, officials said.BOSASSO Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - The number of people seeking mental health treatment has increased in Bosasso, the commercial capital of Somalia's autonomous region of Puntland, despite the existence of only one small health unit, officials said.

"We have only two rooms; one for males and one for females, with five beds each," Abdulkadir Khalif Ali, the nurse who manages the Bosasso general hospital's mental health wing. "The demand is rising; there are days when I have 20 or 30 patients, some requiring hospitalization, but I have to release them because there is no space."

Ali, the only qualified medical employee in the unit, told IRIN there was no psychiatrist. "I do almost everything a doctor would do," he added. "But we could do with one, no question."

The hospital recorded some 844 patients in 2009, despite the lack of mental health facilities and staff.

Francesca Rivelli of the protection sector, psycho-social support and mental health, of the NGO Gruppo per le Relazioni Transculturali (GRT), told IRIN the hospital was far too inadequate for the number of people it served.

"It is too small if we consider the inhabitants of Bosasso and moreover if we consider that the MHD [mental health department] at Bosasso hospital also serves people from all over Puntland and south-central Somalia," she said.

GRT set up the mental illness unit in 2004 and supported it up to 2008 when it stopped the support due to lack of donor funding. "There is support for malaria, TB and HIV/Aids but not so much for mental health," Rivelli.

Cases of post-stress traumatic syndrome have increased in Somalia mainly because there has been an increase in insecurity since the fall of the Siad Barre government in 1991, coupled with sporadic clashes, displacement and the daily uncertainty and violence in an impoverished environment, she said.

"In Somalia we're also talking about a long-standing and unique combination of harsh conditions..." said Rivelli.

Lack of interest

Ali said most of his patients displayed an array of mental illnesses such as psychosis, mood disorders, substance abuse, depression, neurosis and epilepsy.

Unfortunately, not many aid organizations in Puntland, he added, were interested in mental health issues. "I think they are more comfortable in other areas, such as FGM/C [female genital mutilation/cutting] and other easier-to-understand diseases."

Rivelli, however, said it should not be too difficult or costly to work in the mental health sector "through fine-tuned support initiatives at secondary health system level, namely strengthening the services provided by the local MHD.

"At the outset of the intervention, it is necessary to rely on motivated and qualified medical staff providing incentives both money-wise and in terms of motivation in coordination with the hospital system, to stop the turnover and brain-drain of the already few human resources," she added.

Secondly, having psychotropic drugs provided by international agencies and donors would boost the quality of treatment offered to the patients.

There was also a need to carry out the clinical and social work side by side with professional workers such as health workers and counsellors.

Running out of drugs

Ismahan Nur had brought her 30-year-old brother-in-law from the town of Galkayo, 750km south of Bosasso, to the hospital. He had been sick for more than two years and the family tried traditional means to cure him. "We tried everything but he only got worse. He stopped eating, was not sleeping and was suspicious of everybody."

They brought him to the hospital in January and he was put on medication for schizophrenia, according to Ali. "He is much better now. He is lucid, eating and sleeping well."

Ali, however, warned that the hospital was running out of drugs. "We have started telling people to buy the drugs from the town," adding that most of the patients could not afford medicines.

According to Rivelli, in the past three years only the European Union and World Health Organization had allocated funds to some interventions in mental health in Somalia; "thus the overall budget allocated is negligible compared to the needs".

Most of that supported running costs of existing but neglected facilities, drugs, training and education campaigns, such as the initiative to free patients from being chained.

A great deal had to be done to improve mental health in Somalia. "Referral mechanisms to bridge the gap between rural and urban areas; community-based mental health programmes and research on the use of khat, gender and mental health, ex-combatants and mental health," she said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88364DAKAR Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - A polio vaccination campaign in the violence-wracked central Nigerian city of Jos has been delayed until 13 March due to the violence and a recent health worker strike, aid workers said.DAKAR Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - A polio vaccination campaign in the violence-wracked central Nigerian city of Jos has been delayed until 13 March due to the violence and an on-going health worker strike, aid workers said.

"We needed more time to plan because of the displacement that happened after the previous violence [in January] said Mathew Dabup, The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) polio immunization manager in Plateau State, which includes Jos.

IFRC has been conducting training for health workers who did not join the strike in Plateau State he told IRIN. IFRC is one of the agencies running a weeklong regional campaign to vaccinate at least 85 million children in West Africa against polio, a highly infectious viral disease that invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours.

The Nigeria Red Cross has estimated that some 20,000 people were displaced by violence in Jos during January. When asked if the latest violence, which has again displaced unknown numbers and killed hundreds, would disrupt the campaign, Dabup said he hoped the vaccinations would take place as planned. "We have taken into consideration in our ... [vaccination plan] the camps for the displaced, along with the other sites to target."

Violence and polio

Chris Maher, head of country operations for polio eradication at the World Health Organization (WHO), told IRIN: "Implementing vaccination activities in security-compromised areas is both logistically and operationally challenging, and it is obviously more dangerous for the staff working on the ground."

He said strategies in southern Afghanistan and the conflict-affected areas of Pakistan and Somalia included quick campaigns carried out during "lulls in conflict".

In areas like Jos, where there were "periodic acute flare-ups of civil unrest, rather than the constant levels of insecurity", WHO's strategy was to adjust the timing of vaccinations so as to reach as many children as possible while protecting health workers.

"Their dedication to ensuring that all children, even in security-compromised areas, are reached with vaccine and protected from polio, is heroic." he told IRIN.

Two hundred thousand vaccinators are trying to vaccinate 43 million children younger than five, the age group most vulnerable to infection. In Jos the goal is to reach 215,000 children - the official census of under-five children - although the actual number of children is higher, based on the more than 300,000 children vaccinated against polio in December 2009, according to IFRC.

Nigeria is the epicentre of the current outbreak in the region that erupted again in the second half of 2008. After multiple rounds of vaccinations, in 2009 the number of reported cases in Nigeria fell by half to 387, according to the multi-agency global polio eradication initiative.

Neighbouring countries in West Africa have discontinued polio vaccination campaigns in recent years, making them vulnerable to re-infection during Nigeria's 2008 outbreak. Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo have reported polio cases in the past 12 months.

pt/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88369BOSASSO Monday, March 08, 2010 (IRIN) - A long civil war, frequent droughts, unemployment and high food prices have led to an increase in the number of street children in Bosasso, the commercial capital of Somalia’s self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, with NGOs and government officials calling for urgent steps to resolve the problem. BOSASSO Monday, March 08, 2010 (IRIN) - A long civil war, frequent droughts, unemployment and high food prices have led to an increase in the number of street children in Bosasso, the commercial capital of Somalia’s self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, with NGOs and government officials calling for urgent steps to resolve the problem.

"In the past, most of the children on the streets of Bosasso were from south-central Somalia," said Muse Ghele, governor of Bari region. "Now we are noticing more and more locals both from urban and rural areas.”

Between 4,500 and 5,500 children are on Bosasso's streets, according to the governor.

Abdulaziz Mohamed Hamud, child protection consultant with OxfamNovib, told IRIN: “You have to understand that numbers of street children are estimates and could be even higher... There are no exact figures but the numbers seem to be increasing daily."

Young providers

The children, according to Abdihakim Farah Arush, chairman of the Bari Child Protection Network (BCPN), fall into two categories: those who work to help their families, mostly local and internally displaced (IDPs) who go home at night; as well as those who sleep on the street, mostly substance abusers.

The reasons for the children being on the street vary, he said. Many of those from south-central Somalia were separated from their families on their way north while others end up on the streets to help their families, or fend for themselves.

Shoe-shining and car-washing, serving as porters or washing sacks in the market are the jobs of most of the street boys in Bosasso.

Arush said while most street children were boys, more and more girls were joining them, cleaning business premises or people’s homes. Some children as young as two or three were put on the streets to beg by desperate families.

Hamud of OxfamNovib said most of the children suffered abuse and physical violence. "Many of them have the scars as proof. On the street at night they are easy prey with no one to protect them."

Risks

Many have been infected with "all sort of diseases, such as TB, skin diseases; while many others suffer from malnutrition. Most don’t know what they suffer from," Hamud added.

Abdullahi Said, 12, is on the street because he has to help his mother with his three younger siblings. He collects garabo (leftover khat) and sells it to those who cannot afford the good khat or he shines shoes. On average, he takes home 30,000 Somali shillings (about US$1) a day.

"What I make from garabo and shining shoes is what I take home to help my mother feed us,” he told IRIN. Said’s father died in 2009 so the responsibility of helping his mother care for the family fell on him.

“My mother used to go to the market and do any job she could find but now she cannot even do that. She just had the baby,” he said.

There are no agencies that help the street children directly, said Hamud.

Arush’s agency is part of a child protection network in Puntland. "Unfortunately we cannot provide material support but we advocate for them and when we get information that they are in trouble we try to intervene,” Arush said.

Hamud said a lot more was needed to help the children. "First, serious assessments need to be carried out to determine the extent of the problem,” he said. Many of the older children were turning to crime. “They not only pose a security, but also a social, risk. We need to address their needs as a matter of great urgency.”

Legal intervention needed

He said Puntland should have a separate juvenile justice system to deal with child offenders. “Now, children arrested by the police end up in the same cells as adults, where they are vulnerable to abuse.”

He said those involved in child protection were trying to lobby the legislature for a Juvenile Justice Law, aimed at guaranteeing children's rights, so that children would no longer be kept in jail with adults or tried in adult courts.

“Agencies and local authorities should do everything possible to provide them with an alternative to the streets.”

Governor Ghele said the authorities had identified a site to build a home for the children but did not have the financial resources to build and operate it. "We need a lot of support if we are going to put them in safe homes," he said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88351SANAA Monday, March 08, 2010 (IRIN) - A mine risk education campaign aimed at targeting a sizeable portion of the roughly 238,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in three Yemeni governorates - Saada, Hajja and Amran - started on 7 March.SANAA Monday, March 08, 2010 (IRIN) - A mine risk education campaign aimed at targeting a sizeable portion of the roughly 238,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in three Yemeni governorates - Saada, Hajja and Amran - started on 7 March.

Three teams of five members of the National Mine Action Programme (NMAP) - jointly run by the National Mine Action Committee (NMAC) and UN Development Programme (UNDP) - started distributing leaflets to IDPs in camps.

According to UN agencies, fewer than 30 percent of Yemen’s estimated 250,000 IDPs live in camps.

"The campaign will last up to 18 days initially, and after that, other mine-affected communities will be targeted, depending on funds," NMAP director Mansour al-Azi told IRIN, explaining that he expected the first 13 days of the campaign to be devoted to IDP camps.

In the wake of a recent ceasefire agreement, and as people begin to return to their homes, there is an urgent need to warn people of the dangers posed by landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), according to UNDP.

The campaign is a joint effort of NMAC, the Social Affairs & Labour Ministry, UNDP, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Save the Children and some local NGOs.

It will include radio and TV messages, banners, posters and leaflets, workshops, and peer group education at schools in the three governorates. "Children who do not attend school will be reached through children’s and youth centres in IDP camps," UNDP said.

The Interior Ministry said that since the mid-February ceasefire between the army and Houthi-led rebels, at least five people have been killed and 20 injured (mostly children) in Saada Governorate by landmines or UXO, especially in the area of Malahidh, a town in the southwestern part of the governorate.

Member of parliament Mohammed al-Hawri, who chairs a committee in charge of supervising the ceasefire in the northern part of Saada, urged the clearance of heavily contaminated areas before the rainy season.

"The rainy season is the most dangerous because floods can shift mines," he said.

Years of conflict

Yemen is contaminated with mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) as a result of armed conflicts from 1962–1969, 1970–1983, and in 1994. Most of the mines were laid prior to uni?cation in border areas between northern and southern Yemen, according to the Landmine Monitor Report (LMR) 2009.

Since the Houthi-led insurgency in June 2004, there have been allegations of landmine use by government troops and rebels in Saada Governorate, with the government and the rebels accusing each other of laying them, said the report.

There have been some reported 5,000 mine/ERW casualties in Yemen since 1962. "In all years, except 2005, women and children make up a significance percentage of the casualties," the report said.

NMAP’s Al-Azi said 74 deminers had been injured and 57 killed since 2000. "Every Yemeni governorate, except for Mahweet [some 90km west of the capital Sanaa], has a problem with mines."

There are 827,000 people countrywide living next to land affected by landmines, he said. "Since we started the [landmine awareness] programme in 2000, we have reached 670,542 of them and educated them about mine risks."

NMAP has surveyed and cleared 691,838,911 square metres out of the 923,000,000 square metres of land affected, or suspected of being affected, by mines, and the rest is in the process of clearance.

The Yemeni government estimated US$32 million was needed for mine clearance in the five years to 2014, but this did not include landmine awareness drives and victim assistance.

Yemen joined the Mine Ban Treaty in 1999 and needs to get rid of all landmines and ERW by 1 March 2015.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88353ABUJA Monday, March 08, 2010 (IRIN) - Hundreds of people in the city of Jos, 350km northeast of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, have been buried in mass graves after machete-wielding intruders attacked residents at 3 a.m. (local time) on 7 March.ABUJA Monday, March 08, 2010 (IRIN) - Hundreds of people in the city of Jos, 350km northeast of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, have been buried in mass graves after machete-wielding intruders attacked residents at 3 a.m. (local time) on 7 March.

"There was a mass burial of the dead last night [7 March], organized by the state government under tight security. No resident was allowed near the mass grave during the burial, as the graveyard was cordoned off by soldiers," Fidelis Tawkek told IRIN.

"There is a heavy military presence in the area, with the deployment of three trucks of soldiers and two armoured cars to [prevent] escalation of violence," Shamaki Gad Peter, of the League for Human Rights, a local NGO, told IRIN on 8 March. He said villagers had counted 202 cadavers.

Peter said the attacks were "well-coordinated and indiscriminate, as they were launched simultaneously, and women, children and the handicapped were macheted and then burnt."

In the dead of night

"Hundreds of Fulani herdsmen [a primarily nomadic ethnic group] invaded our village [Dogo Nahawa] and two neighbouring villages of Zot and Ratsat. My wife and two children were killed in the attack," Peter Gyang told IRIN. "The attackers fired gunshots just to scare people out of their houses, and then hacked them with machetes before setting them on fire."

Another resident, Yusuf Alkali, told IRIN he thought the attacks were reprisal killings for violence in January, when hundreds of Fulani nomadic herders were killed.

"It is obvious that the attacks were reprisals for the raid carried out on Fulani settlements in the area during the January violence by Berom [ethnic group, mostly Christian] youth, in which scores of the nomads, including women and children, were killed and hundreds of cattle taken away," said Alkali.

Why?

A local NGO working to prevent desertification in northern Nigeria, Green Shield of Nations, said there were an estimated 15 million pastoralists in northern Nigeria.

Dwindling cultivable land, political gerrymandering and impunity have increased the risk of violence, making Plateau State vulnerable to recurring violence, according to the government and rights groups.

The perpetrators of sectarian violence are rarely prosecuted, according to Human Rights Watch. Local police said more than 300 people arrested after the January killings were still in police custody in Jos and Abuja in late February.

The government is still in the process of demarcating grazing reserves in the northern states of Katsina and Bauchi, in an effort to curb deadly clashes between nomads and farmers over shrinking cultivable pastures caused by poor seeds and soil.

When the northern state of Jigawa – long a focus of community violence – cordoned off livestock routes several years ago, conflicts dropped from an average of 20 per year to only three in 2009, the state's director of livestock services told IRIN in October 2009.

Displaced again

Most of the estimated 20,000 people displaced during the violence in January have started leaving the nine camps set up to house them in Jos.

Auwalu Mohammed, director of the Red Cross in Jos, noted that "The number of IDPs [internally displaced persons] in those camps has significantly dwindled, as we now have not more than 6,000 people in them."

Relief workers are now determining the number of people displaced by the violence on 7 March.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88354SANAA Thursday, March 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Saada Governor Taha Abdullah Hajer has urged aid agencies to help develop an information database on the tens of thousands of people displaced by intermittent fighting between the Yemeni army and Houthi-led Shia rebels in northern Yemen since 2004.SANAA Thursday, March 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Saada Governor Taha Abdullah Hajer has urged aid agencies to help develop an information database on the tens of thousands of people displaced by intermittent fighting between the Yemeni army and Houthi-led Shia rebels in northern Yemen since 2004.

The move comes after the latest ceasefire agreed between the two sides in mid-February.

"The database will help ensure a better distribution of humanitarian assistance to needy internally displaced persons [IDPs] in various areas," Hajer said during a 2 March meeting on coordinating the efforts of aid agencies operating in Saada. "It will also help IDPs get equal health care and other basic services."

The meeting reviewed a report by the Saada-based Social Affairs & Labour Office which said over 6,000 children in Saada IDP camps have psychological problems and diseases as a result of the violence and negligence.

The report also highlighted the plight of more than 12,000 displaced families from Saada living outside camps, and said the new database would aim to help pinpoint needs.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) agrees that a comprehensive database could help, Marie Marulaz, an external relations officer with UNHCR, told IRIN. Deploying the database in Saada could lead to the creation of a harmonized and comprehensive nationwide data system, thereby enhancing protection response and overall management, she said.

In 2009 an IDP registration workshop attended by representatives of the government, UN agencies, NGOs, IDPs and others validated the new registration methodology, data collection form and database, according to Marulaz. Thereafter, work on the database began in Hajjah, Amran and Sanaa governorates, she said.

Access problems

However, as with the delivery of aid, access problems are significant: Aid workers and local officials see poor security, destruction of infrastructure and landmines as major challenges.

"Constraints and limited access of UN agencies to areas where displaced populations are located have impacted the registration and subsequent delivery of assistance in some areas of Saada Governorate," Marulaz said.

Abdullah Dhahban, a Saada local council member, told IRIN that security still remained a real challenge for IDP registration staff.

"Some Saada districts are still controlled by Houthi fighters… Other areas where thousands of IDPs are sheltering are still inaccessible due to the destruction of road networks over the past six months of clashes… Staff fear going to the field as they hear about landmine casualties almost every day," he said.

Governor Hajer was quoted by Yemen News Agency on 2 March as saying the currently estimated 300,000 IDPs - in and outside camps - were distributed as follows:

- Hajja Governorate 100,000
- Saada Governorate 90,000
- Amran Governorate 48,000
- Al-Jawf Governorate 12,000
- Sanaa (the capital) 20,000
- Alab area near the border with Saudi Arabia 14,000

Prior to the escalation of hostilities in August 2009, the number of IDPs in the north was estimated at about 100,000.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88309KATHMANDU Thursday, March 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Efforts to help thousands of families displaced during Nepal’s decade-long armed conflict (1996-2006) to return to their homes or resettle have stalled over government inaction, leaving many unassisted, aid agencies say.KATHMANDU Thursday, March 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Efforts to help thousands of families displaced during Nepal’s decade-long armed conflict (1996-2006) to return to their homes or resettle have stalled over government inaction, leaving many unassisted, aid agencies say.

There are an estimated 52,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) registered with the government, according to the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MOPR), although the UN estimates there could be up to 70,000.

In 2007, the government formulated a national IDP policy that allowed for the return, integration and resettlement of IDPs.

Crucial directives for implementing the policy on the ground were also submitted to the Cabinet at the end of 2007, but are still waiting to be approved.

“The failed implementation of the IDP policy is clearly at the heart of the problem,” said Frederik Kok, senior country analyst with the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

“The failure to adopt the directives is undermining return efforts and preventing IDPs from enjoying their full rights,” he told IRIN.

The IDP policy provides assistance which includes shelter, food, security, health services, training and appropriate compensation. It also includes a rehabilitation programme for IDPs to help them recover their lives where they used to reside.

The directives were intended to give clear instructions from the central government to district-level officials on how to implement this policy.

Wendy Cue, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Nepal, said information about the IDP policy and its implementation had not been transmitted to district-level authorities, who are key in ensuring IDP returns and rehabilitation.

“The displaced people haven’t received the type of assistance they need in terms of legal assistance or access to information that the government should provide,” Cue told IRIN.

Assistance lacking

About half of the IDPs are in Kathmandu, where they live in squatter settlements, crowded neighbourhoods and along the Bagmati river. Families are also scattered in the urban areas of Bardiya and Dhangadi districts in the country’s mid- and far-western regions, and other major cities such as Biratnagar and Nepalgunj. “We... have been constantly making efforts to help the IDPs,” Shankar Prasad Pathak, a senior official from the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction, told IRIN.

“We will be introducing an IDP rehabilitation programme which includes income generation and reintegration support for the IDP families,” he added.

In spite of these efforts, displaced families still lack access to basic services such as water and sanitation, and health and education, and have poor livelihood opportunities, say agencies.

Mistrust

Meanwhile, those IDPs who do attempt to return to their homes face a number of obstacles, according to the latest report on Nepal IDPs issued on 28 January 2010 by the IDMC. [http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004BE3B1/%28httpInfoFiles%29/FFF5958EB13C0AF8C12576B900395E1D/$file/Nepal_Overview_Jan10.pdf]

Returnees have to cope with inadequate livelihood opportunities and discrimination borne of the mistrust amongst communities generated during the years of conflict. Along with the IDPs, returnees are also locked in a struggle to win back homes and land confiscated by the rebel Maoists and their supporters during the conflict.

“We have lost all hope of ever reclaiming our land and have lost our only source of livelihood,” said Dipendra Shrestha, originally from mid-western Bardiya District, but who fled the conflict and now lives in Nepalgunj city.

“The question is, what do they return for when they have no land to grow their crops and many suffer from insecurity,” said Bhola Mahat, regional coordinator of the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), [http://www.insec.org.np/] a Nepali human rights group.

Losing interest?

Besides the stalled implementation of the government’s IDP policy, aid workers say they are now concerned about diminishing interest by the international aid community in this issue, now rarely discussed.

Since 2008 there has been a gradual disengagement of the UN and the international community in general, including international NGOs, from the issue of conflict-induced IDPs, according to the NRC.

“Priorities have now again shifted back to development programmes with decreasing funding available for humanitarian programmes,” said the NRC’s Kok.

The humanitarian community has also lost its capacity, while local and international NGOs and UN agencies are no longer as active on the issue as before, said OCHA's Cue.

“We are trying to get together and find the capacity to have somebody who can focus on this issue to work with the government and get the IDP directives passed,” she added.

Government forces battled Maoist guerrillas for 10 years before a peace agreement was signed in November 2006, ending an anti-monarchist revolt that killed more than 13,000 people.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88310BUJUMBURA Thursday, March 04, 2010 (IRIN) - As Burundi approaches elections designed to cap the country’s democratic transition after years of civil conflict, there is growing concern about worsening security and limits to political freedom.BUJUMBURA Thursday, March 04, 2010 (IRIN) - As Burundi approaches elections designed to cap the country’s democratic transition after years of civil conflict, there is growing concern about worsening security and limits to political freedom.

“The situation is explosive,” Pierre Clavier Mbonimpa, chairman of the Association for the Promotion of Human and Prisoner Rights (APRODH), told IRIN.

“Demobilised people [former members of now defunct armed groups] have become uncontrollable,” he said. (Read an IRIN story on the prevalence of weapons and political youth wings)

“Youths from the [ruling] CNDD-FDD party cause many problems in the country. But in reaction, the [opposition] FRODEBU youth has become very active. Judging by their name, Intakangwa, which means ‘those who cannot be frightened’, they are prepared to respond to any provocation,” said Mbonimpa.

Elections for councillors in Burundi’s 117 communes take place on 21 May. There is a presidential election on 28 June, a legislative poll on 23 July, and senators will be elected on 28 July. In September, Burundians will vote for heads of 2,639 “collines”, the country’s smallest administrative units.

“People are killed in their houses for unknown reasons,” according to François Bizimana, spokesman for the CNDD opposition party.

“When we organize meetings, the Imbonerakure break them up and beat our supporters,” he said, referring to the ruling party’s youth arm, whose name means “those with foresight”.

“Some of our supporters are arrested. How can people come to meetings under such conditions? How can people vote for our programme if we have no chance to explain it?” he asked.

“They used to sing war songs to intimidate our members, but they have now passed from threats to acts, killing our supporters here and there,” alleged Jean-Bosco Havyarimana, spokesman for the National Liberation Forces, one of several rebel groups turned political parties.

Destabilizing factor

Party youth wings are a “major destabilizing factor” in Burundi, Gertrude Kazoviyo, deputy president of the Observatory of Government Action, warned while presenting the annual report of the Forum of Civil Society Organizations in late February.

Alexis Sinduhije, leader of another opposition party, the Movement for Solidarity and Democracy, who spent several months in jail in late 2008 and early 2009 for insulting President Pierre Nkurunziza, accused “agents of the national intelligence service” of killing two student members of his party in February 2010.

“I do not know if an arrest warrant has been issued, but they have not been prosecuted,” he told IRIN.

Ruling party chairman Onesime Nduwimana dismissed the idea that politics or the elections were linked to recent killings in Burundi. Cases of one kind of manslaughter or another feature in newspapers on an almost daily basis. According to APRODH, in 2009 there were 411 killings in Burundi, a country of some eight million inhabitants.

“We have a history of conflicts of every kind, conflict over land… People can kill each other because of what they have gone through during the civil war. But there is a tendency to use some facts for political ends,” he said.

For Salathiere Muntunutwiwe, a political analyst and university lecturer, the prevailing climate imperils the whole electoral process.

“In the absence of the free exercise of political competition, people will not have the right to choose whoever they want. Coupled with the opposition parties’ mistrust of the government’s ability to organize free and fair elections, this could lead to the rejection of the election results,” he said.

Isolated cases

But as far as the ruling party chairman was concerned, by and large the situation was under control. “There are isolated cases in provinces where the administration is weak and not well organized, like Kirundo [in the north], or zones like Kinama, in the capital. However, those behind such acts are punished accordingly,” Nduwimana said.

“Compared with the situation of the 1960s and in 1993 the situation is more favourable. Today there is no ethnic or regional mistrust among Burundians, there is no situation of war as it was in 1993,” he added.

While discounting the likelihood of a return to full-scale war, Sinduhije, the once-jailed opposition leader, believes the instability is a deliberate ploy by the ruling party “to have its term extended or to force people to vote for it”.

A view echoed by FRODEBU’s chairman, Leonce Ngendakumana, who in late February accused elements of the police and army of “intimidating the population to force them to vote for the ruling party”.

Police neutrality questioned

The partisan nature of some in the security forces is in part due to the fact that many were drawn from former rebel groups integrated into state machinery after signing peace accords.

“In spite of the training, some elements of the national security forces have not yet [internalized] that they have to remain neutral during the electoral process,” explained Kazoviyo of the Observatory of Government Action.

In a February report on Burundi, Ensuring credible elections, the International Crisis Group also noted that “the police have remained passive or become accomplices to the ruling party abuses”.

“There are thus legitimate fears they could become politicized, similar to the national intelligence service, which is already trying to destabilize the opposition,” ICG warned, calling for neighbouring countries to provide a regional force to help train their Burundian counterparts and to support election security and monitoring.

Grievances over living conditions among the lower ranks are yet another cause for concern, after protests led to some arrests and sackings.

“There is serious mistrust between junior officers and commanders. A delegation of junior officers came and told me that if their claims were not met before the elections, the polling stations would be burned,” Mbonimpa, the human rights activist, told IRIN.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88313KHARTOUM Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - Weeks of fighting in parts of Darfur have raised concern over the plight of civilians, as insecurity has prompted humanitarian agencies to suspend activities in some areas.KHARTOUM Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - Weeks of fighting in parts of Darfur have raised concern over the plight of civilians, as insecurity has prompted humanitarian agencies to suspend activities in some areas.

The clashes have led to displacements in eastern Jebel Marra in South Darfur and North Darfur states, and in western Jebel Marra and the Jebel Moon region in West Darfur state, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update on 2 March, stressing that accurate information from the ground was very scarce because of lack of access.

The rebel Sudan Liberation Army, Abdel Wahid Nour faction (SLA-Nour), which refuses to join peace talks with the Sudanese government until a full cessation of hostilities is implemented, has accused government forces of attacking its positions east of Jebel Marra.

"There were random air attacks on villages," Al-Sadeq Al-Zein Rokero, an official with SLM-Nour faction, said. "The situation is very tragic. This may be the most violent attack by the Sudanese armed forces."

However, Sudan's army spokesman, Al Sawarmi Khaled, denied there had been any government military action. "The armed forces are present in the area to preserve order. They did not clash with Abdel Wahid's forces."

The US State Department cast doubt on this denial in a statement expressing extreme concern “about reports that Government of Sudan forces are conducting offensive operations against ... [SLA-Nour] positions in the Jebel Marra area of Darfur that have reportedly caused significant civilian casualties, displacement, and the evacuation of humanitarian organizations".

The statement called on both parties “to refrain from further violence and to allow the Joint African Union-UN Mission in Darfur access to Jebel Marra to assess the humanitarian situation and restore stability".

OCHA spokesman Sam Hendricks said media reports about the number of casualties in the recent fighting were unreliable.

“There is no way to find about casualties. There is no access to areas affected by the fighting," he said.

Malnutrition concerns

French aid group, Médecins du Monde (MdM), the only medical NGO in the Deribat area in eastern Jebel Marra, suspended operations after attacks last week, which resulted in the displacement of more than 100,000 people, the group stated on its website.

In the towns affected by the fighting - Marra, Kidingeer, Leiba and Fugoli, Feina and Deribat - three other NGOs suspended operations because of insecurity and fighting, Hendricks said. Besides water and sanitation, the NGOs also dealt with food, education, NFIs and livelihoods.

"The situation is very bad. We are really concerned," said Jerome Larche, head of MdM's Sudan programme. The population no longer had access to any medical facility, Larche said.

Malnutrition, which the French aid group was addressing, and access to clean water, were among the main problems for the population in the area, Larche said.

"After the fighting started, we had reports that six children died from malnutrition complications. The rate of acute malnutrition is going to increase if we cannot go back to the area soon," Larche said.

The NGOs, whose offices were looted during the fighting, are preparing emergency intervention to return to Deribat as soon as the fighting stops.

In western Jebel Marra, fighting since January between SLA-Nour factions, and between Sudan's government forces and SLA-Nour, displaced several villages, including Nertiti, Guldo and Thur, which are now reportedly calm, OCHA said in its update.

In Nertiti, a joint UN and NGO assessment estimates about 2,000 households recently arrived in the area.

In Guldo, leaders of the community, which is hosting the newly displaced, estimated about 3,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) were staying in the village. "Food shortages are of concern in the area due to the combination of poor harvest and lack of access to markets," the OCHA update stated.

In Thur, the Government Humanitarian Aid Commission, HAC, estimates around 1,760 IDP households are newly arrived.

Poor harvest

In North Darfur state, Aradeep, Katur, Fanga and Gosdor are among the areas affected by the fighting.

Local sources have said it is likely most of Gosdor's 12,000 people have moved to the hills, where food needs are a major concern, due to a recent poor harvest.

In West Darfur, clashes in January and early February between the Sudanese armed forces and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, before the two parties signed a ceasefire agreement on 23 February, have led to unconfirmed reports of the displacement of around 4,000 people in Selea.

"Confirmation of overall affected population remains impossible until assessments can be conducted," the OCHA report said.

In anticipation of urgent needs, the World Health Organization and NGO partners have pre-positioned emergency health supplies for transfer to Kulbus hospital.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88293ABIDJAN Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - After weeks of protests, some which turned deadly, the opposition has joined a new government and called off any further demonstrations. Ivoirians took to the streets following the latest delay in legislative and presidential elections, scheduled to take place in March after six postponements in five years. Disputes over the electoral roll – and who is or is not a true Ivoirian and thus eligible to vote – continue, creating an increasingly xenophobic and violent atmosphere across the country, according to rights watchdog Amnesty International. Here is a timeline of events leading to the current political crisis. ABIDJAN Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - After weeks of protests, some which turned deadly, the opposition has joined a new government and called off any further demonstrations.

Ivoirians took to the streets following the latest delay in legislative and presidential elections, scheduled to take place in March after six postponements in five years.

On 12 February Laurent Gbagbo dissolved government and the Independent Electoral Commission; in response, opposition party leaders stopped recognizing President Gbagbo as head of state.

Disputes over the electoral roll – and who is or is not a true Ivoirian and thus eligible to vote – continue, creating an increasingly xenophobic and violent atmosphere across the country, according to rights watchdog Amnesty International.

Here is a timeline of events leading to the current political crisis.

26 February 2010
A new electoral commission headed by a member of the opposition is formed. Opposition leader calls off demonstrations, announces the opposition’s acceptance of 11 positions in the new 27-member government.

23 February 2010
The president's office announces a partial government, without opposition party representation.

22 February 2010
Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso, mediator in the Ivorian political crisis, arrives in Abidjan, the economic hub of Côte d'Ivoire, to try reconciling the parties.

Two demonstrators are killed during protests in Daloa, about 150km west of the capital, Yamoussoukro, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

18-20 February 2010
Protesters take to the streets on the 18th in Issia in the centre-west, on the 19th in Gagnoa, about 130km southwest of Yamoussoukro, on the 20th in Man in the far west, and also in Korhogo in north-central part of the country. Five protesters are killed in Gagnoa.

On 20 February thousands of protesters march in Bouaké, the second largest city in Côte d'Ivoire, smashing shops, looting a government building, and setting fire to cars.

15-17 February 2010
Protest demonstrations take off in Katiola, in the interior of the country, on 15 February and in Bouaké on the 17th .

12 February 2010
President Gbagbo dissolves the Independent Electoral Commission.

Opposition parties call for people to protest on the streets. A group representing Côte d'Ivoire's leading opposition parties, Rally of Houphouétistes for Democracy and Peace, issues a communiqué stating they no longer recognize President Gbagbo as head of state. Elections are deferred for the sixth time.

11 February 2010
Voter registration for pending elections is suspended.

9 January 2010
President Gbagbo accuses electoral commissioner Robert Mambe of fraudulently adding over 429,000 names to the electoral list of people he said were not proven to be native Ivoirians.

3 December 2009
Burkina Faso mediators announce an election deadline of early March.

14 November 2009
The Independent Electoral Commission confirms that elections will not be held on 29 November as planned.

29 October 2009
UN renews sanctions against Côte d'Ivoire until 31 October 2010.

16 October 2009
Independent Electoral Commission announces a provisional voter list will not be ready for another month.

16 June 2009
Independent Electoral Commission proposes holding elections in the last week of November and the beginning of December at the latest.

26 May 2009
Rebels controlling the north of the country officially hand power over to civilian administrators, which aim to restore government control over the whole country. However,rebels still retain much control over local economy and security forces.

14 May 2009
Prime Minister Guillaume Soro announces presidential elections will take place on 29 November.

18 November 2008
Elections supposed to be held in December 2008 are delayed.

30 July 2008
President Gbagbo visits rebel headquarters in Bouaké for a "Flame of Peace" ceremony to symbolically burn weapons.

24 April 2008
Ivorian Political Party Code of Conduct is adopted at a ceremony attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President Gbagbo, Prime Minister Soro, high-ranking members of the diplomatic community and Ivorian civil society representatives.

14 April 2008
Council of Ministers announces presidential elections will take place on 30 November 2008 under the peace plan, as proposed by the Independent Electoral Commission.

15 January 2008
UN Security Council Resolution 1795 is passed, giving the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Côte d'Ivoire the power to certify elections.

27 November 2007
President Gbagbo and Guillaume Soro sign a peace accord in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital, fixing the date for legislative and presidential elections for June 2008 at the latest.

20 November 2007
The new Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Côte d'Ivoire, YJ Choi, arrives.

15 October 2007
Elections that were to be held in November 2007 are put on hold as voter identification and registration are not complete, according to the government.

30 July 2007
President Laurent Gbagbo travels to central town of Bouaké, stronghold of the former rebels, in his first visit to rebel territory since the rebellion began. Officials burn a pile of arms in a ceremony, declaring “the war in Côte d’Ivoire is over”.

29 June 2007
Prime Minister Guillaume Soro's aircraft comes under attack in the northern Ivorian city of Bouaké, headquarters of his former rebel group. Four people are killed and a number injured from the attack but Prime Minister Soro emerges unhurt. The UN mission in Côte d’Ivoire subsequently endorses the Prime Minister's call for an independent international inquiry into the incident.

18-19 June 2007
A Security Council mission visits Côte d'Ivoire to assess progress of the peace process in the country and to exchange views with parties to the conflict on how to move forward the peace process.

17 May 2007
Government militias start to disarm.

11 April 2007
A quadripartite agreement to eliminate the buffer zone known as the zone of confidence is signed by the Defence and Security Forces of Côte d'Ivoire (FDS-CI), the Armed Forces of the Forces Nouvelles (FAFN), the commanders of the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire and the French Licorne forces.

4 March 2007
President Gbagbo and rebel leader Soro sign the Ouagadougou peace deal under the aegis of Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré. The pact sets a new timetable for organising elections in Côte d'Ivoire and reuniting the country.

31 October 2006
Presidential elections are cancelled.

17 October 2006
The African Union Peace and UN Security Council extend President Gbagbo's mandate by one year, during which time the roadmap is to be fully implemented. President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa is replaced by the African Union Chairman as mediator.

6 October 2006
An extraordinary summit is held with ECOWAS leaders, at which recommendations for a roadmap to peace in Côte d'Ivoire are put forward.

12 July 2006
The president’s party Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI) calls for a boycott of the voter identification hearings which sparked bloody demonstrations by the Young Patriots (a militia close to President Gbagbo) who blockaded various cities to prevent the identification process.

4 December 2005
Charles Konan Banny, the governor of the Central Bank of West Africa States, is appointed interim prime minister by mediators.

8 November 2005
The first meeting of the newly established International Working Group (see 21 October 2005) is held.

31 October 2005
Presidential elections are cancelled.

21 October 2005
Security Council adopts resolution 1633, endorsing the previous African Union decision, extending President Gbagbo's term by one year, deciding that a new prime minister acceptable to all parties and with executive powers should be designated; establishing a roadmap for disarmament, identification and organisation of elections supervised by an International Working Group; and strengthening the threat of sanctions against individual spoilers.

29 June 2005
The Declaration on the Implementation of the Pretoria Agreement, signed on 11 April, on the peace process in Côte d'Ivoire is signed in Pretoria under the auspices of the African Union.

6 November 2004
The national armed forces of Côte d'Ivoire attacked the French Licorne forces. The Council condemns the attacks and confirms that French forces and the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) are authorized to use all necessary means to fully carry out their mandate.

30 July, 2004
West African heads of state come together in Accra, capital of Ghana, to get opposition party leaders in Ivory Coast to sign the Accra 3rd Agreement, fixing a calendar for disarmament of the militia and rebels.

27 March 2004
Rebels and the opposition party, Rally for the Republic, pull out of the government after an anti-Gbagbo march is banned, leading to protests in which more than 100 are killed.

27 February 2004
Security Council adopts resolution 1528 establishing UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI). The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) forces and the UN Mission in Côte d'Ivoire's (MINUCI) authority is transferred to the new mission.

13 May 2003
Security Council adopts resolution 1479 establishing the UN Mission in Côte d'Ivoire (MINUCI) with a mandate to facilitate the implementation of the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement and of the ceasefire.

March 2003
A government of national reconciliation is formed with members from the rebel ranks and a consensus prime minister, Seydou Diarra.

24 January 2003
The French sponsored Linas-Marcoussis Agreement is signed between the Ivorian government and all political forces.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88295MINGORA Tuesday, March 02, 2010 (IRIN) - Girls in Swat District, northwestern Pakistan, have gone back to school, and most women who had been prevented from working have returned to work, but people are still fearful.MINGORA Tuesday, March 02, 2010 (IRIN) - Girls in Swat District, northwestern Pakistan, have gone back to school, and most women who had been prevented from working have returned to work, but people are still fearful.

"We worry the Taliban will return and the persecution will start again. In every neighbourhood there are people who are linked to the militants and who keep an eye on the activities of us women," Sumira Bibi, 20, who works at a cosmetics factory, told IRIN in Mingora, Swat's main town.

According to the government's National Commission on the Status of Women, there were 1,000-1,200 women factory workers in Mingora before the Taliban takeover in 2009. It is unknown how many have returned to work.

Tens of thousands of civilians were displaced from Swat in the spring and summer of 2009 due to intense fighting between government forces and Taliban militants. Most returned after the army regained control in July. (See Swat timeline) [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82864]

Razia Khalid, 35, dons her blue 'burqa' each morning before accompanying, on foot, her two daughters to the nearby school where she teaches. She had never worn a 'burqa' till 2007 when local Taliban militants forced all women to wear one.

"I mentally feel like discarding it. My husband, an educated man, wants me to give it up. But I am afraid to do so," Razia told IRIN.

A deep sense of trauma exists in many places. Since November 2009, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has set up 10 welfare centres, known as "Friend's House" to offer support and counselling to those affected by conflict.

"When you live through a war, the fear stays for a long time," said Sumira Bibi. For her, and for many others, it has not faded away yet.

"My mother is still afraid to send my younger sister to school, because there have been continued attacks on schools across the tribal areas. We see reports in the media almost daily. She would also like me not to work, but we need the money," Sumira said.

Tension

There are also reports from Swat that state action against militants is continuing, adding to the tension.

"We have credible reports of arbitrary detentions, including female relatives of militants," Asma Jahangir, chairperson of the autonomous Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told IRIN.

Peace is still elusive in Swat: Thirteen people were killed and at least 40 injured in a suicide attack [http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C02%5C23%5Cstory_23-2-2010_pg1_5] in Mingora's Nishat Chowk area earlier this month.

"It could have been any of us, or our children. So many women go there to shop, or run errands and collect children from school," said Uzma Bano, 50. She said there was a sense of increased militant activity, as the official focus switches to other places where militants are entrenched. "We fear the Taliban could attempt a comeback of some kind".

Meanwhile, Sardar Hussain Babak, education minister for the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), has told the media in Peshawar that since December 2009 there has been a 1 percent increase in female enrolment. This is a significant development in a part of the country where, according to official figures, the literacy rate for women stands at below 23 percent.

"Parents are now bringing in girls to enrol at schools every day. They are more confident about this," Zubaida Khan, the head of a local private school for girls, told IRIN.

School infrastructure, however, is "in ruins", according to Ibrash Pasha, an activist with the NGO Khwendo Kor, which works for the education of girls.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88282GAZA CITY Tuesday, March 02, 2010 (IRIN) - More than 4,036 houses in the Gaza Strip were totally destroyed or beyond repair in the aftermath of Israel’s 23-day conflict with Hamas from 27 December 2008 to 17 January 2009, according to an April 2009 UNRWA and UN Development Programme assessment. GAZA CITY Tuesday, March 02, 2010 (IRIN) - More than 4,036 houses in the Gaza Strip were totally destroyed or beyond repair in the aftermath of Israel’s 23-day conflict with Hamas from 27 December 2008 to 17 January 2009, according to an April 2009 UNRWA and UN Development Programme assessment.

Rebuilding these homes has been almost impossible because Israel has not allowed cement and building materials into Gaza since June 2007, saying they could be seized by Hamas for military purposes.

The UN has repeatedly called for the lifting of the blockade on humanitarian grounds. 

See Gaza mud brick houses slideshow: http://www.irinnews.org/photogallery/Gaza_mud_brick_houses_Mar2010/index.html

International donors pledged US$4.5 billion in aid for the Palestinian Authority, much of it specifically for Gaza, at a conference in Egypt in March 2009, but little has reached the Strip because of the continuing blockade and bitter divisions between political parties Hamas and Fatah.

Those made homeless in last year’s war have squeezed in with relatives, rented apartments or made do in their damaged homes, aid workers said.

A new project by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) aims to build around 120 mud brick houses for dozens of homeless families in the next few months. Each house costs about US$10,000 and takes three months to build.

While the houses offer better conditions than tents and can stand for 100 years, they are not meant as a long-term solution, UNRWA said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88284KABUL Tuesday, March 02, 2010 (IRIN) - Hundreds of families who fled fighting in the Marjah area of Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, in February have started returning home; conditions are difficult but steps are being taken to help them, government officials say. KABUL Tuesday, March 02, 2010 (IRIN) - Hundreds of families who fled fighting in the Marjah area of Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, in February have started returning home; conditions are difficult but steps are being taken to help them, government officials say.

Over 4,000 families were displaced by a major anti-Taliban offensive by NATO and Afghan forces which began on 13 February, according to the provincial authorities.

“Over 600 displaced families have returned to Nad Ali and Marjah [both towns in Nad Ali District] from Lashkargah over the past four days,” Ghulam Farooq Noorzai, director of Helmand’s refugee affairs department, told IRIN, adding that more people would return in the days ahead.

Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman of the governor of Helmand, gave a bigger return figure: “About 2,500 families have returned to their homes and only 1,000-1,200 families are in Lashkargah.”

The government said it is not providing transport assistance to the returning families. Most people were using small cars as they had few belongings.

However, roads around Marjah have been risky because of improvised explosives planted by the insurgents.

“The main Lashkargah-Marjah road is closed due to mines and bombs but people are using alternate routes,” said Ahmadi, adding that NATO and Afghan soldiers were working to remove improvised bombs and reopen the main road.

The Interior Ministry said three car passengers were killed in an improvised explosion in the outskirts of Lashkargah city on 1 March.

Having announced the end of the military phase of the operation, NATO and Afghan government officials have vowed swiftly to deliver security, good governance and services.

People would also receive financial assistance from the government and NATO if their houses or other property was damaged or destroyed as a result of the offensive, Ahmadi said.

Health centres

“We have reopened and supplied with medicines four basic health centres in Marjah and Nad Ali,” Enayatullah Ghafari, head of Helmand’s public health department, told IRIN, adding that plans are under way to conduct a polio immunization campaign in the area because in February a sub-national immunization drive was not implemented there.

Government officials said schools will be reopened in Marjah and Nad Ali in the near future. Over the past two years, under the Taliban, all schools in the area had been closed.

However, not everyone is happy: “The Taliban were just and efficient but the Karzai government is corrupt and bad,” said one man in Lashkargah city.

Shops are reopening in Marjah but food and other prices are high because of shortages: Roadside bombs and insecurity are a disincentive to local truckers.

“We have asked the UN and other international aid agencies to help us quickly deliver food aid to 6,000 families in Marjah and Nad Ali and we hope they will respond soon,” said Noorzai.

Some of the displaced children attending health centres in Lashkargah town in mid-February were acutely malnourished, according to Ghafari, who added that food insecurity threatened the health of many children and pregnant women.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88285JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, March 02, 2010 (IRIN) - Long dry spells in parts of Africa and erratic rainfall in Asia have cast uncertain clouds over crop yields for 2010 in the world's poorest countries. Food prices in most developing countries are down from their 2008 crisis levels, but still higher than they were in 2007. JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, March 02, 2010 (IRIN) - Long dry spells in parts of Africa and erratic rainfall in Asia have cast uncertain clouds over crop yields for 2010 in the world's poorest countries. Food prices in most developing countries are down from their 2008 crisis levels, but still higher than they were in 2007.

In the first of a four-part series on food security in some of the world's most vulnerable countries, IRIN asks, "Are we heading for another crisis?"

It would take "two consecutive bad years" for a repeat of the 2008 food and fuel crisis to arise, said Abdolreza Abbassian, economist and secretary of the Intergovernmental Group on Grains at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Unlike the situation in 2008, global cereal stocks are at comfortable levels.

But there were "many factors at play" in food prices. "In fact, we're projecting prices to stay firm, even in the medium term (the next 10 years), although they may not exceed the highs witnessed in 2008," Abbassian commented.

It is still a matter of adequate supply to meet growing demand, and the supply of food cereals has been declining. The gradual reduction in subsidies and support for the world's biggest producers in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries - the US and the European Union (EU) in particular - has meant smaller surpluses.

"On the other hand, population growth and economic prosperity fuel demand - as in Asia, especially in China and India - therefore, we are moving into a situation whereby supply expansion could decelerate, while demand will continue to grow - sometimes even faster than in the past," said Abbassian. 

A paper by the OECD suggested that food prices would start rising again, "(albeit not to 2008 peaks) once economies come out of the recession, as the basic structural demand and supply-side determinants are still very much present ... [with] demand growing faster than supply. Food prices should therefore no longer be seen as a 'shock' or short-term 'crisis', but rather as a longer-term structural issue."

Biofuels still a threat

Some of the structural changes that brought about the 2008 food price crisis, such as diverting agricultural land from producing food cereals to grains for biofuel, had yet to be addressed, Abbassian said.

ActionAid, an international NGO, calculated in its new report, Meals per gallon: the impact of industrial biofuels on people and global hunger, that by 2020 biofuel consumption in the European Union (EU) would jump nearly four-fold, and that two-thirds would be imported, mainly from the developing world.

"Biofuels are conservatively estimated to have been responsible for at least 30 percent of the global food price spike in 2008," said ActionAid, which warned that a repeat of crisis could be in the offing, with the supply of food cereals likely to be compromised by a demand for biofuels in the EU.

"Up to 100 million more people could go hungry if Europe commits itself to a huge increase in biofuels consumption in order to meet new European Union legislation," said the report.

The legislation dates back to an agreement between the EU states in 2008 to meet 10 percent of their transport fuel needs from renewable sources, including biofuels, hydrogen and green electricity, by 2020.

In a scenario that takes into account a planned and predictable biofuel expansion in some countries, the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), projected maize prices rising by more than 20 percent by 2020, and by more than 71 percent in a drastic expansion scenario.

C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer, academics at the University of Minnesota, wrote in an article published in 2007 in Foreign Affairs, an American magazine, that if the prices of staple foods continued to increase as per the IFPRI projections, the number of food-insecure people in the world would rise by over 16 million for every percentage increase in the real prices of staple foods.

ActionAid noted that "If all global biofuel targets are met, it is predicted that food prices could rise by up to an additional 76 percent by 2020." The NGO said it found that EU companies had already acquired, or were negotiating for, at least five million hectares in developing countries, which could threaten food supplies of some of the most vulnerable populations.

According to FAO, one in six people in the world are now hungry, with the 2008 crisis having pushed another 100 million into poverty and food insecurity.

There could be a solution. The global stock of cereals, which has relied on countries in the western hemisphere, has begun to look towards the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a regional organization comprising the Russian Federation, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Georgia.

Abbassian pointed out that Russia has become the world's second largest exporter of wheat after the US. "Unfortunately, they [the CIS] are located in a part of the world which is extremely vulnerable to environmental shocks."

Weaker international prices for sugar, dairy and cereals have caused FAO's Food Price Index, released on 2 March, to register a decline: "The index is down 21 percent from its peak in June 2008, but up 22 percent from the corresponding period a year ago," said Abbassian.

There was always a chance that prices might spike "as a result of market imbalances but, overall, high prices will encourage more investment in agriculture, which in turn will help in closing the gap between supply and demand", he noted.

Liliana Balbi, a senior economist at the FAO Global Information and Early Warning System, said she thought speculation was contributing to price volatility. "The fact is, prices go up quickly but don't come down fast."

Nevertheless, Abbassian was optimistic. "Technological progress and changing diets will help in maintaining a stable global food situation, even though developments at country/local level may not always be as rosy!"

The percentage hike in food prices varies between countries, as do the causes. Balbi's unit identified 33 countries that were the world's most food insecure in its Crop Prospects and Food Situation report for February - the first in 2010. Many were going hungry because they could not afford food.

Most countries on the February list have been there before; new entries are rain-poor Niger, conflict-torn Yemen and earthquake-hit Haiti.

The ActionAid report found that "each 10 percent increase in the prices of cereals (including rice) adds nearly US$4.5 billion to the aggregate cereals import cost of those developing nations that are net importers."

In the next three parts of the series, IRIN will provide a snapshot view of food vulnerability in the 33 countries spread across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88287COLOMBO Monday, March 01, 2010 (IRIN) - This time last year, Arulamma Thambiraja, 99, was among tens of thousands of civilians trapped in Sri Lanka's north by fighting between government forces and the since-defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).COLOMBO Monday, March 01, 2010 (IRIN) - This time last year, Arulamma Thambiraja, 99, was among tens of thousands of civilians trapped in Sri Lanka's north by fighting between government forces and the since-defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

When the fighting reached her village of Navajeevanam, near the town of Paranthan in Kilinochchi district in January 2009, her family fled deeper into areas controlled by the LTTE. She was carried on a chair by her sons and grandchildren during most of their journey.

In April 2009, she entered a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) with her family and was there until January this year. She now lives with a relative near the capital Colombo, where she told IRIN of the fighting and her dreams to return home:

"Things were deteriorating by the minute, there was shelling from all sides. I never expected to survive. Every second was like a lifetime there.

"My sons were carrying me. We could not stay in one place for long, it was very difficult. Food was hard to find ... going to the toilet was risking death.

"It is with God's grace that I am here, nothing else. I don't know how I made it out, it was terrible, there were people everywhere running scared. I just closed my eyes every time there was a loud sound; I never expected to open them. It was a like a very long, very bad dream.

"So many things have happened in my lifetime. The war began when I was already a grandmother and in my 60s. I have seen things I never thought I would, so much death, so much destruction.

"When the authorities said we could return to our villages, my family did not want to return immediately. We were not sure what we would find in the village. The house was destroyed, there were mines everywhere. And my children felt I needed rest.

"I don't know anyone in my lifetime who has lived to 100 years, no one in my village has lived that long. I want to be the first, I want go there and celebrate.

"I just want to go back to my village, live like I used to, in peace, with no worries. That is my only dream."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88256QUETTA Monday, March 01, 2010 (IRIN) - Significant development and poverty challenges in Balochistan Province, southwestern Pakistan, are being exacerbated by growing security concerns, according to aid workers. Decades of nationalist unrest, underdevelopment and the scaling down of UN and NGO activity have left residents feeling neglected and fearful for their safety, they say. QUETTA Monday, March 01, 2010 (IRIN) - Significant development and poverty challenges in Balochistan Province, southwestern Pakistan, are being exacerbated by growing security concerns, according to aid workers.

Decades of nationalist unrest, underdevelopment and the scaling down of UN and NGO activity have left residents feeling neglected and fearful for their safety, they say.

President Asif Zardari on a recent visit to the province, which is nearly as big as Germany but has a population of only 10 million, said he was aware of the problems but urged people not to resort to violence.

In April 2009 ethnic violence led to a wave of killings and riots.

“We know there is a feeling of sadness in Balochistan. The people here do not sob, and prefer to pick up guns,” he said in a statement on 25 February. He called for patience: “I have good knowledge of the problems of Balochistan. I need some time to solve these problems… There might not be any immediate relief, but over a period of time, you will witness significant change in your lives.”

Abductions

In recent years, there have been a number of abductions of aid workers, causing the UN and many NGOs to scale down operations, making life even harder for the most vulnerable. There have also been recent media reports of Taliban militants operating in the province.

“A few years ago, many NGOs were active here, running schools or offering aid. Now many have pulled out,” said Naimat Khan, 60, a resident of a village a few miles outside Quetta, the provincial capital. “This has also led to unemployment, because some NGOs have let local staff go.”

The head of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) office in Quetta, John Solecki, was kidnapped in February 2009 and released a few months later. Because of concerns over the safety of its staff, the UN scaled back operations in Balochistan in July 2009, and in October the World Food Programme (WFP) closed 20 food hubs, though Amjad Jamal, a spokesman for WFP in Pakistan, told IRIN WFP projects in the province were continuing “as usual”.

The reported abduction on 18 February 2010 of four Pakistani employees of US-based NGO Mercy Corps while visiting projects in Balochistan has added to concerns.

“Our programmes in Balochistan have been temporarily interrupted as we determine the nature of this incident,” Joy Portella, director of communications for Mercy Corps in Seattle, told IRIN.

Impact on health care

Access to health care is limited in Balochistan and officials in Islamabad and Quetta accept there is a need to improve the situation.

“There was good work going on for us here. Doctors came in to take care of women, but now after this latest incident where people have been abducted, we are worried no one will come,” local resident Azmatullah Jalal told IRIN from the town of Zhob, some 300km north of Quetta.

“Security concerns further handicap people, since few volunteers or NGO activists are now willing to travel in Balochistan,“ said Robina Mughul, who runs a voluntary clinic in Quetta.

Meanwhile, I.A. Rehman, secretary-general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told IRIN: “The problem in Balochistan is the perception of injustice as well as the reality of deprivation that people suffer.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88267KABUL Monday, March 01, 2010 (IRIN) - The number of civilian deaths caused by the conflict in Afghanistan in the first two months of 2010 was slightly lower than in the same period in 2009, according to two Afghan human rights groups.KABUL Monday, March 01, 2010 (IRIN) - The number of civilian deaths caused by the conflict in Afghanistan in the first two months of 2010 was slightly lower than in the same period in 2009, according to two Afghan human rights groups.

Some 163 civilians died and 187 were wounded in violent incidents in different parts of the country in January and February 2010, compared to 201 deaths in the same period of 2009, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said.

“Ninety-two civilian deaths have been attributed to the armed opposition and 71 to pro-government Afghan and foreign forces,” Fareed Hamidi, a commissioner of the AIHRC, told IRIN.

The Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM), a non-government rights body, had slightly different figures: 201 civilian deaths in the first two months of 2010 as against 297 in 2009.

ARM said it gathers data from a variety of sources including local and international media, government officials, provincial councils, NGOs and local people. AIHRC said it verifies violent incidents through its provincial offices and a "civilian casualty verification team".

The figures may come as a surprise given the major anti-Taliban military operation which began on 13 February in the southern province of Helmand.

“Suicide attacks, improvised bombs, air strikes and crossfire between belligerent parties caused most of the civilian deaths over the past two months,” Ajmal Samadi, ARM’s director, told IRIN.

He said at least 45 civilians had died in Helmand and Uruzgan provinces, southern Afghanistan, as a result of airstrikes and military operations by pro-government Afghan and foreign forces from 13 to 23 February 2010.

Jeff Lifton, a spokesman of the NATO-led forces in Kabul, regretted the deaths of 15 civilians killed by foreign forces during the offensive in Helmand’s Nad Ali District; and NATO’s top military commander in Afghanistan apologized on 22 February for the death of several civilians in an air strike in Uruzgan Province.

No apology

Taliban insurgents do not usually publically apologize for the harm they cause to civilians, though they claimed responsibility for the assault on a guest house in the centre of Kabul on 26 February in which, according to President Hamid Karzai’s office, [http://president.gov.af/Contents/88/Documents/1350/kabul_attack_eng.html] 13 civilians, including six foreigners, were killed.

On 28 February an improvised roadside bomb allegedly planted by the Taliban in Helmand’s Nawzad District killed at least seven people and injured five others, the Interior Ministry said.

“Verbally the warring sides respect civilian protection but in practice they all have killed an alarming number of civilians. We’ve had enough empty promises. It is time for all to stop killing civilians,” said ARM’s Samadi.

A human rights unit of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which has been tracking civilian casualties since 2007, said it publishes figures twice a year. In January and February 2009 it recorded 290 civilian deaths. [http://unama.unmissions.org/Portals/UNAMA/human%20rights/Protection%20of%20Civilian%202009%20report%20English.pdf]

Last year was the deadliest year for Afghan civilians since the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001, according to rights watchdogs and UNAMA, and there are no signs of the conflict abating in 2010, given a major US/NATO troop surge.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88268GOMA Monday, March 01, 2010 (IRIN) - For the many thousands of people displaced by conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kivu regions who have returned to their villages, home has its many hardships.GOMA Monday, March 01, 2010 (IRIN) - For the many thousands of people displaced by conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kivu regions who have returned to their villages, home has its many hardships.

“Return has not always been durable, as the reduction of food rations in camps [for displaced people - IDPs] and the arrival of the new planting season rather than any improvement in security have led people to go back,” the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) stated in a 24 February report. 

“Many people returned home to find their land occupied, while renewed clashes in return areas also forced people to flee again soon after their arrival home,” it said.

Across eastern DRC, “access to basic necessities … has deteriorated over the last year in the context of military operations and reprisals and continuing abuses against the population. The vast majority of IDPs and returnees have no access to health centres and schools, or to clean water, food, seeds, tools or building materials,” according to the report.

During 2009, according to IDMC, about a million people returned to their villages in North and South Kivu - about the same number who fled because of clashes, mainly between government forces and Rwandan Hutu rebels.

In North and South Kivu, there are 1.36 million IDPs, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In the North Kivu capital of Goma, some 77,000 people live in IDP camps, against about twice that number two years ago.

"Many have gone back to their land, and we are getting noises that more want to return," Masti Notz, head of the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, in North Kivu told IRIN.

“Positive change is progressively taking place in Eastern DRC,” Alan Doss, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, wrote in the East African newspaper on 1 March.

"While displacements and isolated attacks remain a problem in the Kivus, a number of people feel more secure today than they were a year ago," he added.

Status issues

Aid workers believe that in the wake of a tripartite agreement between Rwanda, DRC and UNHCR, many of the 50,000 DRC nationals living in Rwandan camps could soon return home.

Before the accord, thousands had already returned spontaneously. "In 2009 in Masisi, more than 6,000 people told us they had returned from Rwanda since 2000, under the auspices of various groups that controlled the area," Karl Steinacker, UNHCR coordinator for eastern DRC, said. "The challenge is to identify genuine civilians."

The status of the returnees, according to Refugees International, needs to be resolved given that some are Rwandans. There is also a need for stronger verification mechanisms to regulate future population movements.

In a 19 February statement, the group said locals had told its researchers of an area inside the Virunga National Park called "Coline Banyarwanda" ("the hill of those who come from Rwanda"), where they should not be.

Another large group of recently arrived Rwandans was living illegally in Bwiza, in a settlement inside the national park. In nearby Matanda, armed cattle herders had reportedly occupied land by force.

"It is important to note that these tensions are taking place in zones that are controlled by the former CNDP [The Congrès national pour la defense du peuple ] rebel group, who are clearly protecting these Rwandans," it added.

The CNDP, led by Bosco Ntaganda, theoretically ceased to be a rebel movement with the integration of its elements into the Congolese army in 2009, but security sources in Goma say it has retained some of its structures.

Land pressures

Competition for land, exacerbated by the destabilizing effects of enforced or spontaneous migration, is more commonly a source of conflict than generally supposed, according to analysts.

The Overseas Development Institute (ODI), for example, argues that reallocations of land during conflict or the profit from sale or use of land can provide a means of sustaining such conflict.

In the Kivus, notes the Goma-based Pole Institute , the economy is historically based on agriculture and long-distance trade, while the economic dimension of ongoing conflict is about rights of access to land and control of trade routes, not about minerals.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88269SANAA Thursday, February 25, 2010 (IRIN) - Cereal production in Yemen has declined for the second consecutive year due mainly to a lack of rainfall, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation Abdulmalik al-Thawr.SANAA Thursday, February 25, 2010 (IRIN) - Cereal production in Yemen has declined for the second consecutive year due mainly to a lack of rainfall, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation Abdulmalik al-Thawr.

Yemen’s grain production, including sorghum and wheat, declined to 675,000 tons in 2009 from 715,000 in 2008, according to the government’s Central Statistics Organization (CSO).

While aggregate cereal production in 2009 was only slightly lower than in the previous year, it was about 24 percent less than the 2007 bumper crop, according to a report [http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/ak342e/ak342e00.htm] by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“Most of the water sources in valleys producing grain dried up… About 97 percent of the country’s agricultural land is threatened by desertification," al-Thawr said.

Ismail Muharram, head of the Agricultural Research & Development Authority based in the central governorate of Dhamar, said agriculture in Yemen largely depended on rainwater.

"The rainfall season was three weeks late, and as a result many crops withered, particularly in the central highlands," he said, pointing out that 2009 rainfall was much lower than average.

Impact of northern conflict

According to Muharram, conflict in the north is another factor behind the decline in food output.

"Many farmers from various districts in the northern governorates of Saada and Amran fled their farms, which have been left untended,” he said, noting that those farmers used to be responsible for about 20 percent of the country's cereal production.

FAO estimates that two million people - including conflict-affected civilians, refugees, and other vulnerable people - are likely to face increased food insecurity, requiring targeted food assistance estimated at about 100,000 tons during 2010.

Increasing `qat’ burden

`Qat’, a mildly narcotic leaf chewed by many Yemenis, accounts for one third of the value of agricultural production, and its plantation area is expanding every year - a fact that is also contributing to the steady drop in grain production, according to environmental specialist Mohamed al-Ariqi.

"Arable land used for `qat’ is expanding by 9 percent a year, whereas land used for grain and other crops is steadily shrinking,” he said, adding that `qat’ trees take up to 40 percent of annually consumed water supplies in the country.

Even the poorest households try and find money for ‘qat’. A recent WFP/UNICEF survey found that nearly half of pregnant and breastfeeding women consume the leaf, with detrimental effects on the nutritional status of mothers and children.

Food insecurity “severe”

A 19 February report [http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/ifpridp00955.pdf] by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) said the vast majority of Yemeni households are net food buyers, even in rural areas, and only 4 percent of rural households are net food sellers. With cereal imports accounting for up to 80 percent of consumption requirements (90 percent for wheat and 100 percent for rice), the recent surge in international food prices has significantly affected domestic prices and affordability.

"Chronic household food insecurity is widespread and severe, and the country has one of the worst malnutrition rates in the world," Mohammed Bashir, head of local NGO Agricultural Cooperation Union, told IRIN.

A 25 February press release by the World Food Programme (WFP) set out preliminary results from its comprehensive food security survey:

- 32 percent of the population is food insecure, i.e. suffering from acute hunger;
- 12 percent of the population suffers from severe food insecurity;
- One in 10 children under five are acutely malnourished;
- 25 percent of all women of child-bearing age are malnourished.

Meanwhile, the government - supported by international donors such as the European Commission, World Bank and German Agency for Technical Cooperation - is developing a national food security strategy, which is expected to be finalized in May 2010, al-Thawr said.

Al-Thawr also called for the development of a water management strategy and a food security information system.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88235GAZA CITY Wednesday, February 24, 2010 (IRIN) - Sami al-Qouqa, a 30-year-old former fisherman from al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, lost his left hand when his fishing boat came under fire from an Israeli gunboat on 12 March 2007, in an incident documented by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. GAZA CITY Wednesday, February 24, 2010 (IRIN) - Sami al-Qouqa, a 30-year-old former fisherman from al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, lost his left hand when his fishing boat came under fire from an Israeli gunboat on 12 March 2007, in an incident documented by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

“I was on my small fishing boat in Palestinian fishing waters when two Israeli warships approached me. The Israeli navy shouted at me: ‘Go back or we’ll kill you!’ Initially, I refused, so they began shooting at me. One of the gunboat’s shells hit me and seriously wounded my left forearm and hand,” al-Quoqa told IRIN.

He was taken to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City where doctors amputated his hand. He has since been unemployed and depends on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) for food aid for his wife and two sons.

Gaza fishermen say ever-tightening restrictions on where they can fish, frequent attacks by Israeli gunboats and an economic blockade in place since 2007 are putting more and more of them out of business.

“Now, Israelis shoot all the time and without reason. The Israeli navy keeps confiscating fishing equipment and ripping up fishermen’s nets. We want a solution but we don’t know how or what or when. How long can this go on?” Muhamed Subuh al-Hissi, a member of the Palestinian fishermen’s trade union in Gaza, told IRIN.

He said that before the 23-day Israel-Hamas war in Gaza around the beginning of 2009 Israeli gunboats only opened fire on fishermen who strayed beyond the three-mile buffer zone, but now boats were shot at well within the zone.

Under the Oslo Accords, a peace agreement between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel signed in 1993, fishermen in Gaza were legally allowed to venture out 20 nautical miles. However, since the start of the second `intifada’ in 2000, the Israeli navy imposed a three-mile fishing limit, and has enforced it rigourously since last year’s war, saying it was necessary to stop weapons being smuggled into Gaza.

Israeli view

“The Israeli marines shoot at Palestinian boats which are suspected of smuggling arms into Gaza, posing a threat to the security of Israel," Avikhay Adrii, an Israeli army spokesman, told IRIN. “Some groups use Palestinian fishing boats for terror purposes and the Israeli navy must protect Israel’s shores.”

In early February Israeli Navy Commander Maj-Gen Eliezer Marom told reporters that Palestinian “terror organizations” were “making cynical use of Gaza’s fishermen for terror purposes” after the discovery on an Israeli beach of a third explosive device disguised as a barrel. He said any collaboration with the Palestinian militant groups who claimed responsibility for the launching of the barrels would harm fishermen’s livelihoods.

“Regular security ships guard the area, and allow Gaza’s fishermen to fish peacefully. I call on them not to cooperate with terror organizations and not to allow them to use these fishing boats for these purposes,” he said.

According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), from 20 January to 2 December 2009, there were 36 Israeli naval attacks on Gaza fishermen while enforcing their buffer zone.

Local witnesses said the latest incident was on 22 February, when Israeli gunboats fired on fishermen off the coast of Gaza, forcing them to return to shore. An Israeli military spokeswoman denied the shooting occurred.

Dwindling catches, hopes

According to Gaza-based Palestinian think-tank PAL-Think,10 years ago there used to be about 6,000 fishermen in Gaza catching 3,000 tons of fish a year; now there are around 3,600 making such small catches that some have turned to opening fish farms on land.

The Israeli blockade also prevents the export of fish out of Gaza, further hitting the livelihoods of fishermen.

“As a result of the Israeli-imposed restrictions on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian fishermen cannot reach many points and cannot catch many fish… All the boats fish in the same areas, and there are no fish as a result in Gaza,” Hamas agriculture minister Mohamed Ramadan Agha told IRIN.

He called on international organizations to take serious action to protect the livelihoods of Palestinian fishermen.

Meanwhile, former fisherman al-Qouqa is despondent: “I’m really living a miserable life because fishing is impossible with only one hand. I come to the port just to see and talk with my fishermen friends. I can’t stay at home all the time.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88222BELETWEYNE Wednesday, February 24, 2010 (IRIN) - Displaced and ostracized, his drug supply cut off because of conflict, Ade Sheikdon Negeye, a resident of the town of Beletweyne in central Somalia, is caught up in a cycle of suffering. He is one of 49 leprosy patients displaced from the town when fighting between two Islamist groups intensified in early February in Hiran region, central Somalia. He spoke to IRIN about his plight:BELETWEYNE Wednesday, February 24, 2010 (IRIN) - Displaced and ostracized, his drug supply cut off because of conflict, Ade Sheikdon Negeye, a resident of the town of Beletweyne in central Somalia, is caught up in a cycle of suffering. He is one of 49 leprosy patients displaced from the town when fighting between two Islamist groups intensified in early February in Hiran region, central Somalia. He spoke to IRIN about his plight:

"Like many other patients, my life is in danger because it is now very difficult for us to access drugs or to be treated like other human beings deserving of human rights.

"But even before I got displaced, I had been without medication because aid agencies that used to supply the drugs pulled out of the region six months ago, citing insecurity.

"People with leprosy are more affected by the weather than other displaced people because the intense heat during the day and the extreme cold at night causes our wounds to fester and the skin to crack.

"Since we fled our homes we have suffered so much; our skin is damaged and cracked and, even worse, getting food has become even more difficult.

"In Beletweyne, most of us depended on well-wishers to give us food, ordinary people even helped provide bread, but here in the countryside, where we thought we had escaped fighting, our lives have become worse because people run away from us. There is this myth that people with leprosy eat human flesh; the isolation we are facing is amazing.

"The most unforgettable and heartbreaking thing is the deadly isolation; everybody we come close to runs away; even drivers we asked to help us flee Beletweyne could not - other passengers would shout at them to move on whenever we flagged down a car. This has forced many of us to trek on foot for long distances.

"For me the trekking was terrible, I kept dragging my feet until I was bleeding all over, my limbs looked like raw meat.

"One day, my family told me I could no longer sit with them under one shelter and that I could no longer sleep in the same hut as them. They dragged me out, far away from them. Since then, I have moved from trouble to trouble.

"Everywhere I go, fingers are pointed at me as if I am a criminal. I have identified one tree under which I sit when no one is around; I have made it my home since I can't rejoin my family. My people [Somalis], unsurprisingly, believe that any person suffering from this disease is a man-eater; I think this is why everyone runs away from me."

as-mshm-js/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88223SANAA Tuesday, February 23, 2010 (IRIN) - Hundreds of children have either been killed or used as child soldiers in fighting between Yemeni government forces and Houthi-led Shia rebels in the north of the country since August 2009, according to a new report by Seyaj Organization for Child Protection (SOCP), a local child rights NGO.SANAA Tuesday, February 23, 2010 (IRIN) - Hundreds of children have either been killed or used as child soldiers in fighting between Yemeni government forces and Houthi-led Shia rebels in the north of the country since August 2009, according to a new report by Seyaj Organization for Child Protection (SOCP), a local child rights NGO.

The 22 February report said some 89,000 children were forced to flee their homes with their families, whilst "187 children were killed, 402 exploited as soldiers by Houthis, and another 282 recruited by pro-government local militias."

The findings are based on an SOCP survey in December 2009 - with support from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) - of children in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Hajja, Saada and Amran governorates, as well as in some of Saada's conflict-ridden districts: Saada city, Razeh, Alb, Baqem, Ghamr and Qataber.

According to the report, 42 percent of children in camps (estimated at 35,000) are affected by malnutrition, 19 percent have diarrhoea, 25 percent have respiratory infections, and 3 percent malaria.

SOCP conducted interviews with 684 former child soldiers and collected information on a total of 73,926 children for the survey.

Aid agencies say more than 70 percent of the estimated 250,000 people displaced by the conflict since 2004 live outside IDP camps, with children making up over half of the displaced population.

On 11 February the two sides agreed on a ceasefire, which is fragile, with reports of sporadic clashes.

The SOCP report said 383,332 children in Saada (about 97 percent of the governorate's school-age children) had been unable to go to school in this period.

Displacement, insecurity, and the destruction of schools, or their utilization for military operations, were the main reasons, Ahmad al-Qurashi, head of SOCP, told IRIN.

Of the 701 schools in Saada Governorate, 17 were destroyed in the fighting and another16 had been taken over by one or other of the warring parties. Most of the remaining schools were deserted, he said.

Child soldiers

"The number of children exploited as soldiers could be much higher than the figure indicated by the report because we had difficulty detecting who is still under 18 due to lack of birth documents," SOCP lead researcher Fahd al-Sabri told IRIN. He said only 8 percent Yemeni citizens have birth certificates.

"The number of children killed during the fighting could also be much higher than the figure in the report because many areas hit by fighter jets of the Saudi and Yemeni armies remained inaccessible," al-Sabri said.

Since August 2009, aid agencies have had difficulty getting comprehensive information about the war’s impact on children, according to UNICEF child protection specialist George Abu al-Zulof, but, he told IRIN, most of the laws regarding child rights appeared not to have been respected during the fighting.

We urge parties to the conflict to release child soldiers so they can get back to school, Abu al-Zulof said, and he called for "an impartial investigation" into the impact of the war on children.

SOCP chairperson al-Qurashi urged Yemen to update Child Rights Law No. 45 of 2002 to make provision for clear penalties against individuals who exploit children in armed conflict.



ay/at/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88208KABUL Monday, February 22, 2010 (IRIN) - The number of those displaced by a major anti-Taliban military operation in Nad Ali District, Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, has more than doubled over the past four days, according to the provincial authorities.KABUL Monday, February 22, 2010 (IRIN) - The number of those displaced by a major anti-Taliban military operation in Nad Ali District, Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, has more than doubled over the past four days, according to the provincial authorities.

Over 3,700 families (some 22,000 people) displaced from the Marjah and Nad Ali areas have been registered in Helmand’s capital, Lashkargah, Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman of the Helmand governor, told IRIN on 22 February.

He said most internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been hosted by relatives and friends; a few had sought refuge in abandoned buildings.

The Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) said over 450 families (about 2,700 individuals) had fled to Nawa District and other nearby locations in Helmand since shortly before the 13 February offensive.

“We are trying to do a rapid assessment of IDPs in Nawa and pockets in Nad Ali [District] where people have fled from the conflict,” ARCS provincial head Ahmadullah Ahmadi told IRIN.

Some of those arriving in Lashkargah on 20-21 February said they had left their homes in Marjah because of the lack of food.

“All shops and markets are closed and there is no food for people to buy locally,” said one displaced man, Abdul Bari.

“Food prices have skyrocketed in Marjah and Nad Ali and people cannot afford it,” said another man, Ghulam Mohammad.

Prior to the offensive Marjah’s population was estimated at about 80,000. Over 40,000 people are believed to be still there, according to ARCS which has volunteers in Marjah and elsewhere in the province.

“People are unable to leave Marjah because of scattered mines and threats by the armed opposition,” said ARCS’s Ahmadi.

Aid convoy

Backed by NATO, a humanitarian aid convoy with mainly food items for 2,500 families was expected to reach Marjah on 22-23 February, ARCS said.

NATO and government officials have vowed to improve services and rebuild quickly in Marjah and Nad Ali once the area is cleared of Taliban fighters, but it is unclear how much longer the fighting may go on.

Aid agencies are concerned that if the conflict intensifies many more people could be displaced, placing a severe strain on local families in Lashkargah as well as the government and aid agencies.

“Response activities need to be enhanced, coordinated and made more effective in order to prevent a humanitarian crisis of conflict IDPs,” warned ARCS’s Ahmadi.

The government has ruled out the establishment of a new IDP camp in Lashkargah, saying it could result in a protracted emergency.

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