http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbFri, 20 Nov 2009 13:14:04 GMTBANGKOK Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Indonesia’s West Sumatra province, recently hit by a deadly 7.9 magnitude earthquake, is likely to experience an even bigger quake, and buildings need to be constructed to withstand this, experts say.BANGKOK Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Indonesia’s West Sumatra province, recently hit by a deadly 7.9 magnitude earthquake [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86480], is likely to experience an even bigger quake, and buildings need to be constructed to withstand this, experts say.
 
The 30 September earthquake, which struck off West Sumatra’s coast, hit the provincial capital of Padang, killing more than 1,100 people and leaving numerous collapsed and damaged buildings.
 
As a result, 45 engineers from Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, funded by the intergovernmental Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction, undertook a three-week survey of 4,000 buildings in the quake zone.

“Essentially we were looking at factors that have basically either contributed to their failure from the ground shaking, or also the factors that have contributed to … some structures not being impacted,” Matthew Hayne from Geoscience Australia and co-leader of the team, told IRIN.
 
“Some recent studies indicate there is a big [likelihood] of having an 8.5 earthquake in the next decade … Our building codes should consider this potential event,” said Wayan Sengara from the Center for Disaster Mitigation at the Institute of Technology Bandung in Indonesia, and co-leader of the survey team.
 
The survey has identified the need for technical advice and education for home builders, while there are also several engineering recommendations, including the proper use of reinforcement and concrete.
 
The results, which are being passed to Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, are intended to help build safer buildings during the reconstruction phase.
 
“One of the driving factors behind the survey that we’re doing here and the recommendations … relate to the fact that there is a high probability that the future event, when it occurs, will be a tsunamigenic event as well as that earthquake,” said Hayne.
 
Preparing for the next disaster
 
The Indonesian government has put the number of severely and moderately damaged houses at 181,665, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' (OCHA) latest situation report on 3 November. Ten hospitals, 272 health facilities and 1,078 schools were damaged.
 
The survey team, assisted by university engineering students, focused on medical facilities and schools.
 
Sengara said building codes - which needed to be updated; the extent of compliance of building designs to the codes; and, in turn, the compliance of construction to building designs, were all factors that played into the extent of damage.
 
“Most of the buildings we surveyed [that] experienced some damage were constructed before 2002. So the construction behind the design of the building, and also the construction quality, seems to be one of the contributors to the damage,” he said.
 
He warned of an “accumulated risk” if the survey’s recommendations were not followed through, but also flagged difficulties with enforcing compliance with building codes, even if they were updated.
 
“This is an issue in many provinces in Indonesia. What happens is that the compliance of the design to the building code is not well enforced by the government,” said Sengara.
 
“Before the building can be constructed, there is supposed to be a building permit and before issuing this building permit, there should be some requirements. The compliance of the design to the building code has to be reviewed. And in the current situation, this process is weak,” he said.
 
Indonesia is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is vulnerable to seismic activity because tectonic plates meet there. West Sumatra’s low-lying coastline faces the Indian Ocean and the province has been called a “supermarket” for disasters, earthquakes and tsunamis by local officials.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87111BUJUMBURA Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Next year’s elections in Burundi, billed as a milestone on the country’s long road to sustainable peace, could trigger more conflict because of a combination of widespread illegal weapons and well-organized youth wings of political parties, according to analysts.BUJUMBURA Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Next year’s elections in Burundi, billed as a milestone on the country’s long road to sustainable peace, could trigger more conflict because of a combination of widespread illegal weapons and well-organized youth wings of political parties, according to analysts.

Power struggles in Burundi have provoked bouts of armed violence and civil war from independence in 1962 until the country’s last rebel group gave up and became a political party in April 2009.

According to Jean-Marie Gasana, a veteran Burundi analyst, the risks associated with the youth wings are exacerbated by the presence “of large caches of arms in the hands of civilians.

"Even more worrying is what happens should the opposition contest the outcome of the elections," he told IRIN in Bujumbura. "We are likely to see a repeat of scenarios... where violence has ensued following flawed elections."

"We could return to civil war,” echoed Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa, founding president of the Burundi Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detainees.

"We have to also pay attention to the police and army, both of which have integrated former rebels into their ranks," he added. "If there is an incident during the elections, these people could be tempted to support their original movements."

Some of the armed, government-controlled former rebels in the capital operate outside the formal structures of the police and army, according to one human rights activist, who asked not to be named.

“The situation could become chaotic because youth [groups] have often been used during past civil wars and this is no different,” said Mbonimpa.

Some of these groups feel unfairly targeted by the authorities. Odette Ntahiraja, the secretary-general of the Mouvement pour la solidarité et la démocratie (MSD), a party registered in June 2009, told IRIN its young supporters were “often denied the right to hold demonstrations.

“Sometimes they are even arrested and some are beaten. Yet other youth groups are armed and go ahead and intimidate people without any action being taken against them,” she added.

Risk of election violence

For the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, such uneven attitudes by the authorities help to make Burundi a “classroom example of a country at potential risk of election-related violence”.

Jamila El Abdellaoui, a senior researcher in the institute’s conflict prevention programme, says [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SHIG-7X3DP3?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P] another reason is the reported “[re-]arming of militias by several political parties as tools to intimidate the electorate.

“The fact that the reintegration phase of the country’s recently completed DDR [disarmament, demobilization and reintegration] process has largely failed, especially concerning those returning to urban areas, explains the availability of some former combatants to join such groups,” she argues in an October article.

Pancrace Cimpaye, spokesman for the main opposition Front pour la démocratie au Burundi (FRODEBU), said his party would not arm its young supporters but added that they would “stand up” for the people if they were targeted by the ruling party.

"Our main concern as we head to the polls is security; we urge the international community to pay more attention to this and, if possible, help in the setting-up of a special protection unit specifically for the elections," he said.

For the European Network for Central Africa (EURAC), [http://www.eurac-network.org/web/index.php?] a Brussels-based coalition of advocacy NGOs, “The potential for violence is not yet under control” in Burundi. It cited divisions within political parties, widespread precarious living conditions, bad governance and the fact that “the rule of law is still under construction” as potential drivers of unrest.

For land conflict and human rights consultant Rene-Claude Niyonkuru, land issues are another factor: "We would be mistaken if we said there will be no violence - especially related to issues such as land. The people are frustrated, especially returnees, who are coming home in large numbers. The government had been encouraging them to return [but] it seems the same government is ill-prepared to ensure their smooth resettlement."

He called for the mobilization of the population to address land conflicts: "Why can't we use the election period to interrogate potential candidates on their proposals and commitment to the resolution of land disputes in the country?"

Voluntary disarmament

Civilians across Burundi handed in thousands of guns, grenades and rounds of ammunition during a voluntary disarmament campaign in October. According to Leopold Banzubaze, deputy head of the National Disarmament Commission, more than 80,000 weapons – which Banzubaze said amounted to almost 80 percent of all the weapons in circulation - had been handed in since 2007.

Many analysts believe that despite these campaigns, there are tens of thousands of firearms still circulating in Burundi. According to the commission’s own data, fewer than 2,500 of the weapons handed in during the last phase of voluntary disarmament were rifles. The rest were grenades (10,429), bombs (218) and mines (28).

Officials in Burundi seem to be aware of the risks surrounding the polls.

"I can say there are cases of murders and other killings which are the consequences of our civil war,” Guy-Michel Mfatiye, chief of staff in the Ministry of Human Rights and Gender, told IRIN.

He added that his ministry was working with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to “sensitize the people at different levels from the regional, provincial and even to the communal level on why the elections are important and how to conduct themselves during that period”.

According to the president of the electoral commission, Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, it has established a technical committee on security and is working with the Ministry of Public Security - with the support of donor countries such as the Netherlands and Norway as well as the UN Development Programme - to build the capacity of the security forces to ensure peaceful elections.

"The issue of security is important before, during and after the elections; our message as the electoral commission to political parties is: stop rival youth groups from provoking each other, the parties are on the ground, they can stop any harmful activity by their members," Ndayicariye said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87117BANGKOK Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN has warned of serious health risks and food security problems over a lack of funding to assist the Philippines after the country was hit by three major storms and typhoons.BANGKOK Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN has warned of serious health risks and food security problems over a lack of funding to assist the Philippines after the country was hit by three major storms and typhoons.

“The emergency response is being hampered by low levels of funding, particularly in areas such as agriculture, protection, shelter and education of children,” Jacqueline Badcock, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Philippines, said in a statement on 18 November.

The UN launched a flash appeal for US$74 million in Manila on 7 October after tropical storm Ketsana flooded the nation’s capital and outlying regions in late September.

Before the country could recover, Typhoon Parma hit on 3 October, and then Typhoon Mirinae on 31 October, bringing widespread damage and misery. The additional devastation, which has affected 10 million people, led to a revised appeal (see: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EDIS-7XUQ73?OpenDocument) this week of $143.7 million from humanitarian agencies.

Donors have only handed over $26 million in funding to date – about 36 percent of the original $74 million requested, or 18.6 percent of the revised $143.7 million, according to the UN.

If funding levels do not increase substantially, about 1.7 million people living in or displaced from areas that are still flooded face serious health and protection risks, warned Badcock’s office.

Some 350,000 people may not be able to return to or rebuild their homes and more than one million children may not be able to resume their education, it said.

The disasters severely affected the critical planting season in Northern Luzon, the country’s main agricultural region, and preliminary assessments cited in the revised appeal showed some 100,000-120,000 farming households had lost 100 percent of their production and assets.

“The November planting season might be missed, which has longer-term implications for food security,” the statement added.

In a separate interview, Badcock told IRIN that donors had been waiting for more information about the scale of damage caused, and that the first appeal had not fully assessed the extent of the devastation.

“The extent of the appeal and the damage was not really well understood by everybody until all the assessments were done,” she said.

“This revised [appeal] has a lot more analysis … we hope it will provide more clarity and confidence to the donors that these are real needs."

Early recovery

The total revised amount of $143,774,080 will cover the immediate and early recovery needs of 4.2 million people, including more than 520,000 children under the age of five. This is twice the population covered under the original appeal.

The revised appeal is planned to run until March 2010 and is being presented on 18 November to donors and the government in Manila, UN officials said.

“The urgent needs remain the people who live in evacuation centres, who need continuing assistance with food and shelter,” said Badcock.

“Then there are farms where the water is going down. We need to get those farmers rehabilitated and planting out for the next season, and their families need food for the next three months because they lost their harvest,” she said.

“Water and sanitation remain critical, particularly in the flooded areas, where there are huge Filariasis [http://www.who.int/topics/filariasis/en/] and Dengue [http://www.who.int/topics/dengue/en/] concerns.”

Early recovery efforts are needed to assist people in restoring their livelihoods, as well as fully restoring schools that are damaged or being used as evacuation centres, she said.

The appeal is being made by UN agencies, NGOs, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87094JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (IRIN) - Fearing a resurgence of xenophobic attacks, around 2,500 Zimbabwean migrants have taken refuge in government buildings in De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, after some of their shacks in an informal settlement were attacked and demolished, said a police official. JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (IRIN) - Fearing a resurgence of xenophobic attacks, around 2,500 Zimbabwean migrants have taken refuge in government buildings in De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, after some of their shacks in an informal settlement were attacked and demolished, said a police official.

The attacks took place early in the morning of 17 November in Stofland, meaning dustland in Afrikaans, the largest squatter camp in De Doorns. All the displaced Zimbabweans are documented.

The local police station commander, Superintendent Desmond van der Westhuizen, told IRIN the local residents were unhappy that farm owners had been employing Zimbabweans for "less money", and had complained that farmers were "excluding the local community".

The global economic recession has hit South Africa hard; the government's latest labour force survey said 484,000 jobs had been lost in the last six months, and unemployment stood at 24.5 percent for the period July to September 2009, up from 23.2 percent during the same period in 2008.

Van der Westhuizen told IRIN that the situation had been tense since 13 November, when Zimbabweans had been involved in a violent spat in an informal tavern. "Following that incident, some 68 Zimbabweans" had fled the area, fearing a resurgence of xenophobic violence.

In May 2008 a tide of xenophobic violence erupted in Johannesburg and quickly spread through most parts of the country, killing more than 60 people and displacing about 100,000 others.

"The same area was affected in 2008," van der Westhuizen said. The 68 Zimbabweans took refuge in government buildings in De Doorns during Saturday and Sunday.

The police, accompanied by local government and disaster management officials, held a meeting with the informal settlement residents on the evening of 16 November to calm the situation. "But the residents threatened to prevent the Zimbabweans from going to work on 17 November [Monday morning]," van der Westhuizen told IRIN.

Police had to fire rubber bullets to disperse the residents, who attacked some more shacks in Stofland, forcing the Zimbabweans to flee. "Fortunately, none of the Zimbabweans were harmed and they all moved out with their personal belongings voluntarily," the police superintendent said.

The local authorities are trying to erect a tent shelter and provide portable toilets for the displaced people on the town's sports ground. Van der Westhuizen told IRIN: "We are making interim arrangements to keep them here for a week until we try and mediate with the local residents to get the Zimbabweans integrated back into the community."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87090BISHKEK Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Rapidly melting glaciers in mountainous regions of Kyrgyzstan over the next few decades could lead to increased desertification and land degradation, according to experts.BISHKEK Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Rapidly melting glaciers in mountainous regions of Kyrgyzstan over the next few decades could lead to increased desertification and land degradation, according to experts.

By the end of the century, we could see temperatures rising 4-6 degrees centigrade, and by 2050 the number of glaciers could fall from 8,200 to 142, Zukhra Abaikhanova, environment programme adviser with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Kyrgyzstan, told IRIN. The figures are also contained in Kyrgyzstan's submission [http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/natc/kyrnc2e.pdf] to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

"In the last few decades, we have witnessed the melting of our glaciers. Many have disappeared... The result could be desertification and soil degradation," she said.

According to Bakyta Mamytova, a specialist in mountain soil biology at the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences, such a temperature rise, assuming precipitation remains at its current level, would lead to increasing desertification.

The result would be soil erosion which "could affect living standards, the economy and the environment. We are experiencing this today already," Mamytova said.

Deputy Director of the State Agency for the Preservation of the Environment and Forestry Aitkul Burkhanov said some of the land currently used in Central Asia for grazing and growing crops may not be fit for purpose in a few decades.

He said glacier melt would reduce the amount of water available for drinking and irrigation.

Agricultural zoning

Ninety percent of all water in the country is used for irrigation, said UNDP's Abaikhanova. We need to reconsider "agricultural zoning" to ensure food security; and more efficient use of water at household and state level needs to be implemented, she said.

On "agricultural zoning" (moving crops to other areas or introducing new ones), Abaikhanova said work on that front was just beginning. "There will be a pilot project in the northern province of Chui. The main aim is to assess the prospects of agricultural adaption in the identified area, taking into consideration climate, temperature and humidity changes... We need to identify how the soil will change, what type of adaption measures will be needed in crop production, animal husbandry and preserving pasturelands in Kyrgyzstan."

A June 2009 World Bank report entitled Adapting to Climate Change in Europe and Central Asia [http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2009/06/16/000333037_20090616235855/Rendered/PDF/489480ESW0ECA010Box338935B01PUBLIC1.pdf] warned that climate change's impact in the Europe and Central Asia Region could be exacerbated by post-Soviet era environmental mismanagement and poor infrastructure.

Marianne Fay, the author of the report, said: "Increases in temperature are affecting hydrology, with a rapid melting of the region's glaciers and a decrease in winter snows. Many countries are already suffering from winter floods and summer droughts - with both southeastern Europe and Central Asia at risk of severe water shortages. Summer heat waves are expected to claim more lives than will be saved by warmer winters."

A joint report, [http://www.grid.unep.ch/glaciers/pdfs/6_9.pdf] entitled Global Glacier Changes: facts and figures, by the UN Environment Programme and the World Glacier Monitoring Service released on 1 September 2008 said mountain ranges in Central Asia function as water towers for millions of people. "Glacier runoff thereby is an important freshwater resource in arid regions as well as during the dry seasons in monsoonal affected regions," the report said, adding that during the 20th century, the glacier area is estimated to have decreased by 25-35 percent in the Tien Shan area of Kyrgyzstan.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87051KABUL Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - For Kabul’s estimated population of 4-5 million there are only 35 public toilets, according to the municipal authorities.KABUL Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - For Kabul’s estimated population of 4-5 million there are only 35 public toilets, according to the municipal authorities.

“We need at least 65 extra public latrines in Kabul immediately,” Nesar Ahmad Habibi, head of Kabul’s waste management authority, told IRIN, adding that the lack of government action and limited resources had prevented the construction of sufficient public toilets in the city.

"We have even sent proposals to the president's office but to no avail," he said.

Many people are forced to defecate and urinate in the open: "It's not that we don't want to use a latrine, it's because there is no latrine," said Arifullah, a local man.

"If you have a pain in your stomach and there is no toilet how long can you wait?" asked another man.

Only five of the 35 public toilets have facilities for the disabled - well below what is needed given the large number of disabled people resulting from three decades of turmoil.

People who use the latrines have to pay a small fee to cover maintenance and cleaning - 5-10 Afghanis [10-20 US cents], a sum that the large number of extremely poor people in the city would prefer to avoid paying.

No soap

"I don't use the latrines because they are extremely dirty," said Abdul Jamil, a young man. "There is also no soap to wash your hands."

None of Kabul's public toilets provide soap or hand-drying facilities.

Whilst hand-washing is crucial for disease prevention, soap is also not available in toilets in most Kabul schools, officials in the Ministry of Education said.

"Inappropriate latrines, open defecation and poor waste management cause serious diseases and damage the environment," Hassan al-Sayed, country director of the French NGO Solidarités, [http://www.solidarites.org/defaulteng.shtml] told IRIN.

Waste management

In September 2008 Kabul Municipality told IRIN [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80641] that up to 90 percent of the 3,000 tons of solid waste produced in the capital every day was managed and dealt with.

However, officials say waste management capacities have deteriorated sharply in the past year: "Now we collect only about 50 percent of the solid waste produced in Kabul on a daily basis," said Habibi, citing dwindling resources, staff reductions and broken-down trucks as major problems.

"For waste management in Kabul we need 17,500 staff but we have only 3,000; and we need 2,500 trucks but we only have 119."

Rapid population growth and unregulated housing developments have created serious social and environmental challenges in Kabul [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75508], according to government officials.

Al-Sayed, whose organization has been helping households in Kabul to build hygienic latrines, emphasized the importance of public awareness about sanitation and hygiene.

"What if there are hundreds of safe latrines but people don't use them," he said, adding that people should know the risks of open defecation and unsafe latrines.

Only 12 percent of Afghans have access to improved sanitation and less than 25 percent have access to safe drinking water, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Most Afghans use the traditional dry vault toilet systems [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73691] which were ranked the worst toilets in the world by The State of the World's Toilets 2007 [http://www.wateraid.org/documents/the_state_of_the_worlds_toilets_2007_1.pdf] report.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87052POCHALLA Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - An increasing number of people in Southern Sudan cannot find enough to eat or adequate pasture and water for their livestock, raising fears of conflict between communities over grazing lands, local leaders warned.POCHALLA Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - An increasing number of people in Southern Sudan cannot find enough to eat or adequate pasture and water for their livestock, raising fears of conflict between communities over grazing lands, local leaders warned.

"Where there was peace, there was no rain and then where there were good rains, there was insecurity," Kuol Manyang, governor of Jonglei State, said.

His counterpart from Upper Nile State, Gutlauk Deng Garang, warned that hunger would force pastoralist cattle herders to move their animals, sharply increasing the likelihood of clashes with rival ethnic groups.

"We expect the cattle herders to start moving soon, and then it is expected [that there will] be conflict between the Lou and the Jikany Nuer," Garang told IRIN recently. Conflict between the Shilluk and Dinka communities had added to food insecurity, he said.

More than 2,000 people have died and about 350,000 have been displaced by violence across Southern Sudan since January, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The World Food Programme (WFP), which began airdropping food in the area on 4 November, estimates that 1.2 million people are already facing serious food insecurity in Southern Sudan.

"Air drops are a last resort to get food into these inaccessible places during this time of hunger," Michelle Iseminger, head of WFP in Southern Sudan, told reporters at Pochalla, a remote settlement on Sudan’s border with Ethiopia.

Wider problem

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the food insecurity in the region is part of the wider threat facing eastern Africa and the Horn, where prolonged drought and mounting conflict have left an estimated 20 million people needing food aid.

The warning came at a tense time for Southern Sudan, which is struggling to recover from a 22-year civil war that ended less than five years ago. Elections are due in April, followed by a referendum on the south's potential full independence in 2011.

"If we are not able to handle the situation well... repairing adequate supplies... we can expect very, very significant levels [of hunger] which can border on the red flag emergency, which becomes a famine," Hilde Johnson, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) deputy executive director, said during an 8 November visit to Jonglei's capital, Bor.

"When natural resources are being diminished on a daily basis, you will see hard pressure coming in on already meagre resources," Johnson added. "This will exacerbate conflict, there is absolutely no doubt."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87057HARADH Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid workers at al-Mazraq camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haradh District, Hajjah Governorate, northernYemen, say more and more children are arriving at the camp in a state of moderate or severe malnourishment.HARADH Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid workers at al-Mazraq camp [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87005] for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haradh District, Hajjah Governorate, northernYemen, say more and more children are arriving at the camp in a state of moderate or severe malnourishment.

"During our tent visits, we found that an average family has a severely or moderately malnourished child," said Sarah Yahya, a volunteer working with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on identifying malnourished children.

Khalid Shaibani from the UNICEF-run therapeutic feeding centre (TFC) at the camp told IRIN the number of malnourished children was increasing by the day as new IDP families arrived.

"Two babies died from malnutrition complications just a few days after their families secured shelter in the camp. Another 10 were referred to a hospital in Haradh town, 40km west of the camp," he said.

Of the 3,000 under fives targeted by a recent screening in the camp, 667 cases (22 percent) were severely malnourished and 200 (6.67 percent) moderately malnourished, according to Shaibani.

In September UNICEF screened about 1,200 under-five IDP children in the camp and found 7 percent severely malnourished. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86423]

Ali Mahdi is one of the parents who brought his two young children to the TFC.

"Faris's arms and legs are getting thinner and thinner by the day. No food remains in his stomach for more than 10 minutes due to very bad diarrhoea and vomiting. He hardly stands up or sits down and spends most of the time lying on his back," said the father of the four-year-old boy.

Mahdi, his wife and their six children fled their home in the Dhafir District, Saada Governorate, to the Saudi border in mid-August because of fighting between government troops and Houthi-led insurgents. Whilst taking refuge there, they had very limited access to food, Mahdi’s wife, Khudhra, told IRIN.

After a Saudi army operation against Houthi insurgents in the border area in early November, the family was forced, along with hundreds of others, to flee again. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86977]

Chronic malnourishment

Rajia Ahmed Sharhan, a nutrition officer with UNICEF in Sanaa, said moderate malnourishment is not very visible.

“Probably malnourishment was there among some children before the displacement occurred, but was not very visible. When the families had to flee and had problems with accessing proper and nutritious food for weeks, those moderate cases became severe,” she said.

"We cannot say that the war situation is the only source of the problem because mothers neglect their babies and don't know how to feed them. Several cases had shown chronic malnutrition," said UNICEF volunteer Yahya.

Tent visits to increase mothers' awareness on how to care for their babies, as well as to promote breastfeeding, revealed that many mothers often gave their babies tea with bread in the morning and at night, which can lead to anaemia and malnutrition, Yahya said, adding: "If water is given in lieu of tea, symptoms will be milder.”

"Even worse, mothers with newborns come to us and ask for milk powder, preferring it to breastfeeding. They aren't aware of the benefits of breastfeeding for their babies," Yahya said.

According to the World Health Organization, only 11.5 percent of mothers in Yemen exclusively breastfeed their babies until they are six months old. [http://www.who.int/nutrition/databases/infantfeeding/countries/yem.pdf]

Plumpy’Nut treatment

TFC provides different types of therapeutic formula to affected children, depending on how serious the case is, TFC's Shaibani said. "Acute moderate cases get two sacks of Plumpy’Nut [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=72897] a day while severe cases with serious complications are given concentrated proteins and vitamins through nasogastric tubes in the camp's clinic."

He said 75-percent fat milk is given to infants with oedema (an abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin or in one or more cavities of the body), usually caused by malnourishment complications. "If no improvement is noticed, the centre refers critical cases to the Haradh-based hospital or to Sabin Hospital in Sanaa."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87062BAGHDAD Sunday, November 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Iraq’s minority communities in the northern province of Nineveh have appealed to local and national authorities for protection amid warnings of an increase in attacks against them in the run-up to January’s national elections.BAGHDAD Sunday, November 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Iraq’s minority communities in the northern province of Nineveh have appealed to local and national authorities for protection amid warnings of an increase in attacks against them in the run-up to January’s national elections.

“As Christians we have been feeling insecure since the 2003 [US-led] invasion as we are subjected to killings, kidnappings, extortion and displacement by different parties due to either political agendas or extremist ideologies,” said Ihsan Matti, a 33-year-old taxi driver in Mosul, provincial capital of Nineveh.

Matti said Iraq’s security forces were slow to respond to any anti-Christian attacks and left their communities vulnerable to more violence. “The government still doesn’t deal with the threats we face seriously. We are still facing the same threats without any sustainable measures [to counter them].”

Since 2003, minority communities have been repeatedly attacked by militants, the majority of whom were affiliated to al-Qaida in Iraq, by their own admission. The militants accuse minorities of being crusaders, devil-worshipers, infidels or traitors for co-operating with US forces.

The main groups of minorities targeted in Nineveh Province are the Shabaks, whose numbers are estimated at 300,000-400,000 and have a religion containing elements of Islam, Christianity and other religions; the Yazidi community, which worships Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel; and Christians, which are made up of Chaldeans, Orthodox, Catholics, Assyrians, Anglicans and Armenians.

The deadliest attack on a minority group was in August 2007 when four truck bombs detonated simultaneously in the small village of Qahataniya, killing more than 300 Yazidis. Some five months before that, truck bombs hit markets in the northwestern city of Tal Afar, killing at least 152 Turkomen people.

In October 2008, a new wave of anti-Christian violence erupted in Mosul when gunmen started attacking Christians and threatening others, forcing them to leave the city either to displacement camps or outside the country.

Government measures

Abdul-Raheem al-Shimari, head of the provincial Security and Defence Committee, warned that such attacks were likely to increase in the province in the run-up to January’s national elections, as minority communities had a significant stake in them.

“I do believe that there will be some security disturbances not only for the minority communities but for the whole province as we approach the elections,” al-Shimari told IRIN. “All parties, especially those with influential militias, will have a role in destabilizing the security situation to embarrass the other.”

He added that plans were underway to recruit 14,000 new police officers and soldiers from the province. The new recruits are to be spread around Nineveh but with a greater concentration in the areas where minorities live.

“This will help the residents of these areas to protect their communities,” al-Shimari said, adding that 50cm-wide trenches were being dug around the Christian towns of Tilkaif and Hamdaniya to prevent car bombs getting in.

Ridha Jawad, 54, of the Shabak community complained of the government’s “lax measures”, which he said encouraged militants to increase their brazen attacks.

“If there were tough measures from the government against those who attack us, such as arrests and executions, we would never see such an increase in these attacks,” Jawad said. “We want quick and effective measures.”

“On vulnerable ground”

On 10 November, New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) shed light on another source of repression for these minority communities in Nineveh; the longstanding territorial dispute between the central government and the Kurdish regional government.

It its 51-page report titled "On vulnerable ground", HRW said minorities in the disputed northern areas are caught between the semi-autonomous regional authorities of Kurdistan and the central government in Baghdad. It said the ongoing dispute threatens to create a "human rights catastrophe" for these communities.

"The competing efforts to resolve deep disputes over the future of northern Iraq have left the minority communities who live there in a precarious position, bearing the brunt of conflict and coming under intense pressure to declare their loyalty to one side or the other, or face consequences," the report said.

"They have been victimized by Kurdish authorities' heavy handed tactics, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, and intimidation directed at anyone resistant to Kurdish expansionist plans," it added.

The rights watchdog called upon the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government to protect minorities and to create an independent inquiry body to determine those responsible for the orchestrated killings of minorities.

Yazidi community member Hamoo Khalil, 44, said that if the government did not do more to protect them from attacks they would be forced to take matters into their own hands.

“If the situation continues like this we’ll find ourselves taking up our own arms to defend our families,” said Khalil, a father of six who runs a small supermarket in Baashiqa town, about 15km north of Mosul. “I’m afraid that we’ve reached the point where we have no trust in the government’s forces.”

sm/edhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87044JUBA Friday, November 13, 2009 (IRIN) - Reported cases of kala azar infection, a deadly disease also known as visceral leishmaniasis, have continued to rise in Southern Sudan, according to medical workers.JUBA Friday, November 13, 2009 (IRIN) - Reported cases of kala azar infection, a deadly disease also known as visceral leishmaniasis, have continued to rise in Southern Sudan, according to medical workers.

"We are clearly in the midst of a kala azar epidemic," Jill Seaman, working in the Old Fangak clinic in Jonglei State, run by the Sudan Medical Relief organization, said.

"Our numbers are remaining high - with 80 admissions in the past week and patients coming daily," Seaman, an infectious disease expert, said in a 12 November email to IRIN.

The outbreak, which is transmitted by the sand fly, has hit some of the most remote and difficult-to-access regions of Upper Nile and Jonglei states, areas also suffering from recent inter-ethnic clashes.

The disease is almost always fatal within one to four months unless treatment is given, but some 95 percent recover if treated in time.

However, many patients were arriving too late at health centres, Seaman said. "Some people come to die the same day," Seaman said. "There is so much anaemic heart failure in the early months of an outbreak, requiring blood transfusion - if at all possible."

MSF teams

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF - Doctors Without Borders) has sent emergency teams into Upper Nile and Jonglei to try to treat those they can reach.

"Numbers continue to increase in terms of admissions and those being treated, but the main concern is that there are many still in remote areas who are not receiving treatment," said Ross Duffy, who heads MSF Holland in Southern Sudan.

The disease suppresses the immune system, leaving victims open to other infections such as malaria or pneumonia. Symptoms include fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, nosebleeds, a swollen spleen and jaundice.

"The symptoms can appear like malaria, and there is not a huge awareness of kala azar in many communities, but we are working to get the message out," Duffy added.

With poor or badly timed rains meaning failed harvests, coupled with months of insecurity caused by inter-ethnic clashes, many people are already weakened.

"Other NGOs are now looking for spots not well covered - there are surely people dying in their villages without coming for care," Seaman added.

Many of those received by clinics are children, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which is supporting efforts to treat those affected.

"Children account for a significant proportion of the outbreak: admission figures over the past two months show that 42 percent of patients were children under five, and 47 percent aged 5-17," a 9 November WHO health situation report said.

Kala azar is endemic in some parts of Southern Sudan and outbreaks occur every 5-10 years. Treatment involves an injection every day for a month - requiring patients to stay near health facilities, which can put enormous pressure on those caring for them.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87027KAUDA Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - The Nuba Mountains, a former frontline region in Sudan’s north-south civil war remain tense, years after the 2005 north-south peace agreement, local leaders and analysts say.KAUDA Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - The Nuba Mountains, a former frontline region in Sudan’s north-south civil war remain tense, years after the 2005 north-south peace agreement, local leaders and analysts say.

Comprising some 48,000sqkm of green uplands and farmland, the area is part of northern Sudan’s Southern Kordofan State, but as during the war, remains politically dominated by the southern-led Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

Tensions and mistrust have remained high between Sudan’s north and south - major political, ideological and religious differences are unresolved – not least in the Nuba region.

"Security is a big problem, with violations and hostility between two parties - the SPLM and the NCP [National Congress Party], and a lot of conflict between tribes," said Kamal al-Nur, commissioner of SPLM-controlled Heiban County in Southern Kordofan.

"We are concerned that violence will escalate as we come closer to the elections - and in the period after the elections - to the referendum," al-Nur added. General elections in Sudan are slated for April 2010, before a southern independence referendum in 2011.

During the war, the Nuba population suffered aerial bombardment, isolation, shortages, land expropriation and forced population movements, according to international human rights groups.

The area is characterized by a mix of ethnic groups and coexistence between Muslim, Christian and traditional believers.

"We fought for long years… for equality, for the right to live as we want and not under the [Islamic] Sharia law of the north," said Younan Albaround, the SPLM chairman in Kauda, the party’s former headquarters for Nuba during the war.

“Popular consultation”

Unlike Southern Sudan and the oil-rich region of Abyei which are due to vote on independence and self-determination in 2011, the 2005 peace deal only set out arrangements for interim power sharing and ”popular consultation” in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Abyei, Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile are sometimes referred to as Sudan’s “three areas” – transitional and contested-zones straddling the north-south political, military and cultural fault lines.

"Whilst the South and Abyei have clearly defined rights to an independence referendum - guaranteed by the presence of the SPLA and thus with the option of unilateral secession should the peace deal fail to be fully implemented - the two `contested areas’ are only given the ill-defined concept of `popular consultation’ on their future status," said Peter Moszynski, a Sudan analyst who began working in the Nuba region in 1981.

The SPLA’s ranks in the Nuba mountains were largely filled by local people, but those forces have officially pulled out of the region under terms set down by the peace agreement, with only special joint north-south units remaining.

Tensions have also risen following recent comments by senior Southern Sudanese officials in favour of separation, including a speech by the Southern president, Salva Kiir, that voting for unity would make southerners "second class" citizens.

"The Nuba people fear the breakaway of the south because they will be left as an isolated minority in the north - and will also be on the frontline of any future north-south conflict," Moszynski said.

"There are huge concerns that the Nuba Mountains could return to fighting," said Sudan analyst, John Ashworth. "They have no referendums - but many ordinary people are not aware of that yet and will be angry when it finally dawns on them. The `popular consultation’ is vague and probably meaningless."

A public opinion study by the Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) found people saw few positive outcomes for the future.

"Participants report that there is persistent, and potentially explosive, conflict in Southern Kordofan," the March 2009 study entitled Losing Hope noted.

In ethnic terms, the people of the Nuba Mountains usually identify more closely with the “African” southerners than their northern Arab neighbours.

"They describe the conflict as a fight over land and grazing rights. The Nuba argue that Arabs are armed [while the Nuba are not], that Arab traditional leaders are not neutral, and that the central government is behind much of the violence," it added.

"Arab participants say that it is the Nuba who are the instigators, and that they are responsible for the violence and theft in the region."

Few, the study found, were optimistic for the future: "The scale of the current conflict in Southern Kordofan is such that many participants believe the state is close to a return to general, state-wide war."

Similar sentiments were echoed by the International Crisis Group (ICG) in October 2008, in a report on Southern Kordofan entitled The Next Darfur?

"If the NCP, SPLM and international community fail to pay the required attention to the divided region," the ICG warned, "their inaction could come back to haunt them in a way that threatens the stability of the already divided country."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86994NAIROBI Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Programmes supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria reported 2.3 million people on life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in June 2009. Funding to beneficiary countries is based on performance, and failure to meet targets can lead to delays, suspension, discontinuation or termination of grants.NAIROBI Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Programmes supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria reported 2.3 million people on life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in June 2009. Funding to beneficiary countries is based on performance, and failure to meet targets can lead to delays, suspension, discontinuation or termination of grants.

In November 2008, IRIN/PlusNews brought you a list of some of the countries that have fallen foul of the Fund's strict accounting procedures; here is an updated version.

Kenya - In November 2009 the Global fund's technical review panel - an independent team of health and development experts - recommended that the Global Fund Board reject a bid for $270 million in Round 9 of funding. The chair of Kenya's CCM said the main reason given was poor coordination between the country's two health ministries.

The government has experienced difficulties with its Global Fund proposals in the past. In 2008 the Global Fund rejected Kenya's application for $300 million in Round 8, and $37 million was delayed in 2003 after claims of corruption in the National AIDS Control Council.

Mauritania - In September 2009 the Global Fund suspended support to the Executive Secretariat of the National AIDS Committee after finding evidence of fraudulent and unjustified expenditures. The Fund demanded the reimbursement of US$1.7 million within three months, and immediate removal of the people identified as responsible.

The new government, named in September after presidential elections in June, began proceedings against four National AIDS Committee members suspected of embezzlement. The State has promised to return the $1.7 million and account for a further $2 million whose use was questioned, and has committed to re-structuring the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM), Mauritania's funding management body; CCM weakness is seen as contributing to the problems.

Philippines - In September 2009 the Global Fund suspended all five of its grants to the Tropical Disease Foundation (TDF) - the principal recipient - after an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General found that around $1 million of $85 million in total disbursements were unauthorized expenditure. The Global Fund has demanded repayment and will transfer the TDF's grants to a new principal recipient.

Zimbabwe - in 2009 the Global Fund decided to bypass the National AIDS Council as the principal recipient of existing and future grants, choosing to channel money through the United Nations Development Programme and paving the way for the country to receive a grant of $37.9 million in August.

Zimbabwe has had a turbulent relationship with the Global Fund; several proposals have been rejected and the government has frequently accused the Geneva-based agency of political bias, which the Fund denies.

Chad - In 2006 the Global Fund suspended support after an audit uncovered misuse of funds and a lack of satisfactory capacity in the principal recipient and sub-recipients to manage the Fund's resources. The suspension was lifted in 2007 after a series of investigations and commitments from stakeholders to put better systems in place.

Nigeria - In 2006 the Fund decided to discontinue its Round 1 support for HIV/AIDS programmes, but awarded other HIV/AIDS grants in Round 5.

Myanmar - In 2005 the global Fund terminated grants worth $98.4 million [http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/pressreleases/?pr=pr_050819] after the government imposed temporary restrictions on travel and new procedures for reviewing the procurement of medical and other supplies. The Fund said at the time that the restrictions "prevented implementation of performance-based and time-bound programs in the country".

Senegal - In 2005 the Fund cut malaria grants worth $7.1 million [http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/pressreleases/?pr=pr_050301] over systemic issues that resulted in poor performance. A grant proposal for malaria projects submitted in Round 4 was later approved.

South Africa - In 2005 the Global Fund Board stopped funding for an HIV prevention programme [http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=39240]. The Board decided that the grant, received by an NGO named loveLife, had failed to "sufficiently address weaknesses in its implementation".

Uganda - In 2005 the Global Fund temporarily suspended all five of its grants after a review by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers found "serious mismanagement" of one of the grants by the Project Management Unit in the Ministry of Health.

The grants were worth $201 million over two years, of which $45.4 million had been disbursed. The health minister and his two deputies lost their positions and are standing trial with several other government officials for the misuse of Global Fund money.
Ukraine - In 2004 the Global Fund temporarily withdrew grants worth $92 million [http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/pressreleases/?pr=pr_040130] citing "management issues". The grants were reinstated six weeks later, when a new principal recipient, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, was put in place.

Pakistan - In 2002 the Fund discontinued support for Pakistan's malaria projects because of weak project implementation, slow procurement of health products, poor data quality, and slow spending of project funds; according to reports, only 15 percent of insecticide treated bed nets were distributed during the grant period.

Several other countries, including Bolivia, East Timor, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Togo, have also had funding proposals rejected, or have had funding withdrawn. Countries can appeal a grant decision when a proposal has been rejected in two consecutive rounds.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86972NAIROBI Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Kenyan officials are protesting as 'unfair' a recommendation by the technical review panel of the Global Fund to reject the country's bid for Round Nine funding.NAIROBI Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Kenyan officials are protesting as 'unfair' a recommendation by the technical review panel (TRP) of the Global Fund http://www.theglobalfund.org to reject the country's bid for Round Nine funding.

James Ole Kiyapi, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Medical Services and chair of Kenya's country coordinating mechanism http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/ccm/?lang=en, who is responsible for submitting grant proposals to the Fund, said the main reason for the TRP's recommendation was that Kenya's two ministries of health had failed to properly coordinate the management of resources.

In 2008 Kenya split its health ministry into the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, and the Ministry of Medical Services. Local media have reported wrangling over roles and access to financing - at one point both ministries appointed someone as head of the National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections Control Programme, a major HIV/AIDS body.

The final decision on the recommendations of the TRP lies with the Global Fund Board http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/board/?lang=en, which is meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

A high-powered delegation has been sent to appeal the decision. "We hope our side of the story will be heard," said Ole Kiyapi. The country is requesting US$270 million from the Fund.

Kenya's 2008 proposals http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/fundingdecisions/notapproved for funding for HIV, TB and malaria were also rejected; in 2003 the Global Fund delayed the disbursement of funds over concerns about corruption in the National AIDS Control Council.

Analysts say a recent row http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86496 among HIV/AIDS NGOs over funding could also have played a part in the TRP's decision.

"We as a country have done a shoddy job of managing previous funds. Let this be a wake-up call, and let us learn from our mistakes and tackle the problems that have put us here in the first place," said James Kamau, head of the Kenya Treatment Access Movement, a national advocacy group.

Aidspan, an independent watchdog of the Global Fund, http://www.aidspan.org/index.php?page=gfgrants&menu=globalfundgrants&country=96, gives Kenya a 'D' in terms of grant performance, noting that on average Kenya grants are almost nine months behind schedule.

"If the bid is rejected outright people will die, because the government itself contributes nothing to HIV treatment in this country," Kamau said, adding that the government should start funding its own HIV programmes rather than relying so heavily on donors in order to avoid such uncertainty in the future.

The Global Fund, Kenya's biggest HIV/AIDS donor, has contributed over US$87 million to prevention, treatment and care programmes; more than 200,000 Kenyans are receiving antiretroviral medication.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86969COLOMBO Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) are a key obstacle to the return of thousands of conflict-displaced to their homes in northern Sri Lanka, say government and UN officials.COLOMBO Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) are a key obstacle to the return of thousands of conflict-displaced to their homes in northern Sri Lanka, say government and UN officials.

The government estimates over 1.5 million landmines and UXO contaminate more than 400sqkm in the north.

“Humanitarian demining and the removal of UXO are prerequisites for the delivery of humanitarian assistance, early recovery and development in conflict-affected areas,” Andrej Mahecic, a spokesman for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said in Geneva on 6 November.

“Demining also enables infrastructure development and the resumption of social services and livelihoods,” he said.

Nearly 300,000 people fled fighting in the northeast in the final months of the 26-year civil war between government forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and were placed in a string of government-run camps in the north.

Of these, more than 108,000 have been resettled thus far, according to government figures, with tens of thousand waiting to be resettled in the coming weeks.

Most of the returns have been to Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts, with smaller numbers to Polonnaruwa District, UNHCR said.

“While our concern was to ensure the speedy resettlement of the IDPs, their safety was also of paramount importance to the government,” Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told diplomats one day earlier.

Delays

According to the UN, the need for re-establishing basic infrastructure and demining means that a significant number of the displaced - mainly from Kilinochi and Mullaitivu districts - would be unable to return home for several months.

“This is a huge challenge. The intensity of contamination depends on the intensity of the fighting,” Neil Buhne, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Sri Lanka, told IRIN.

“In some areas there is no clear idea about the number of mines or other ordnance. Sometimes you can’t give a clean bill to areas that have been demined.”

In the past, the UN has expressed frustration over the possibility that many of the war-displaced would remain in government camps indefinitely, and warned of donor lethargy.

“I think donors would be happier to help the civilians returning to their villages than help them remain at welfare camps indefinitely,” Buhne said.

Colombo has recently imported new equipment to accelerate the demining effort. According to Bogollagama, equipment worth US$4 million has been imported from Slovakia and Croatia which is capable of clearing 5,000 square metres per day.

On 7 November, UNHCR also handed over five demining machines to the Sri Lankan government.

“The equipment will be immediately dispatched to the return areas in Sri Lanka’s north, where demining is being carried out by the Sri Lankan government together with UNDP [UN Development Programme] and other international and local demining actors,” said Mahecic.

Buhne also noted that sustained assistance would be needed to help the returnees: “There is a lot more to be done to improve the socio-economic standards of these people… Some of these people have been on the run [for] over a year and displaced multiple times. We need to help them regain their livelihoods and a sense of normalcy.”

“Now that a significant number of the IDPs have been resettled, we have to focus on their livelihood development, provide them with employment opportunities or help [them] return to their previous occupations and trade,” said Bogollagama.

World Vision in funding plea

Meanwhile, other relief agencies like World Vision said urgent funds were needed to support the accelerated return process.

In a statement on 6 November, the agency said it urgently needed US$2 million to help the current wave of returns: "We have been advocating for returns to happen as soon as possible and now that it is finally taking place, it is time for those who pledged to support the return to honour those commitments," World Vision Sri Lanka director Suresh Bartlett said.

At least, 2,000 people were returning to their villages daily, the NGO said.

"We all have a moral responsibility to assist these fractured communities… We should not allow the situation to ever return to the era of bitter mistrust and conflict," Bartlett said.

Following recent returns, some 163,000 displaced people are still in camps where conditions are deteriorating, UNHCR said on 6 November.

contributor/ds/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86944BAGHDAD Sunday, November 08, 2009 (IRIN) - More and more people in Iraq are being affected by food insecurity, a senior official has said. Reduced domestic agricultural production, inflation, unemployment and a crumbling system of subsidized food distributions have hit poor people the hardest.BAGHDAD Sunday, November 08, 2009 (IRIN) - More and more people in Iraq are being affected by food insecurity, a senior official has said.

Reduced domestic agricultural production, inflation, unemployment and a crumbling system of subsidized food distributions have hit poor people the hardest.

“There is still a big percentage of Iraqi people who can’t secure enough food. With unemployment running at 18-20 percent they can’t buy what they need,” said Muna Turki Al-Mousawi, head of the state-run Centre for Market Research and Consumer Protection, adding that about 20 percent of Iraq’s 25 million people live below the poverty line.

Domestic agricultural production - already affected by reduced rainfall - has also been hit by a lack of government support and lax controls on cheap food imports, with which farmers cannot compete in some cases, she said.

On 31 August, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Iraq had its worst cereal harvest in a decade and that its wheat harvest was set to fall to one million tonnes, from an average of 3.5 million tonnes per annum over the past decade. Domestic rice production also fell from an average 500,000 tons a year to an estimated 250,000 tons this year.

Iraq imports more than 80 percent of its food needs, al-Mousawi told IRIN.

The crumbling subsidized food distribution scheme which was set up in the 1990s and designed to supply basic food items to poor people as part of the UN oil-for-food programme is making matters worse. At least 60 percent of the population depends on the subsidized food, according to Iraqi Trade Ministry figures.

There are quality and distribution problems: “We have comments on the quality of the food items. And it never reaches the families in time or in sufficient quantities. Some of its items are only distributed 8-10 months a year,” she said, contrasting the current situation with that prior to 2003 when “there was a kind of stability with regard to food security nationwide as there was control of imported food and government support to agriculture.”

Government support for farmers?

After 2003, she said, the borders were opened to random imports without real scrutiny, and government support for farmers diminished, adversely affecting domestic production, which could not compete with cheaper imports.

“The government has realized these dangers over the past two years and started to support the farmers and impose restrictions on food imports, and yet we are still far from the self-sufficiency we had, as we are only producing 20 percent of our food needs,” she said.

Three draft laws which aim to protect local production and regulate imports, if approved, could dramatically improve the situation, al-Mousawi said.

Abdul-Zahra Al-Hindawi, spokesman for the Iraqi Planning Ministry’s Central Organization for Statistics and Information Technology (COSIT), estimates that about 23 percent of Iraqis live below the poverty line, meaning they earn US$66 a month or less.

“One quarter of the whole population is not a small percentage. It needs a lot of thinking and economic strategies to help change this reality and improve it,” he said.

COSIT is set to present a national five-year anti-poverty strategy to the Cabinet by the end of November.

sm/ed/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86926ISLAMABAD Sunday, November 08, 2009 (IRIN) - As concern over the lack of access to internally displaced persons (IDPs) from South Waziristan grows among humanitarian workers, UN agencies have called for measures to ensure the security of all civilians caught in the conflict, including relief workers.ISLAMABAD Sunday, November 08, 2009 (IRIN) - As concern over the lack of access to internally displaced persons (IDPs) from South Waziristan grows among humanitarian workers, UN agencies have called for measures to ensure the security of all civilians caught in the conflict, including relief workers.

“All those who are involved in the military operation in one way or the other should ensure human safety and security to aid organizations to reach out to the affected population,” Martin Mogwanja, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan, said in a joint press conference with the UN Refugee Agency and the World Food Programme on 5 November.

Authorities have reassured international agencies about the welfare of IDPs and have said it is still too dangerous to allow relief workers access to the area.

“The Pakistan military is meeting the needs of displaced people,” Lt-Gen Nadeem Ahmed of the army’s Special Support Group told the media.

Mogwanja said assistance would continue to IDPs whether they were from Malakand Division or South Waziristan. International agencies, including UN organizations, are currently working with local partners to assist the displaced.

“We are providing assistance of all kinds despite the lack of access,” Billi Bierling, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told IRIN.

Mogwanja said it was “the responsibility of the government to ensure security”. He said so far no camps had been set up for IDPs, but “if the government of Pakistan decided to establish camps, the humanitarian community would assist with tents, site preparation, water and sanitation and other services”.

Authorities have cited security concerns as a reason for not setting up camps. Most of the 240,000 displaced from South Waziristan are staying with host families. Others have rented accommodation. While some of the displaced are stuck in South Waziristan, most have fled to the neighbouring Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts of North West Frontier Province, which are considered too insecure for aid workers.

kh/edhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86929KABUL Sunday, November 08, 2009 (IRIN) - Over 400 new cases of H1N1 influenza and eight fatalities have been reported in Afghanistan since 3 November, according to the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). In total, 772 people (456 Afghans and 316 foreigners) have been infected by the virus in the country, the MoPH said. KABUL Sunday, November 08, 2009 (IRIN) - Over 400 new cases of H1N1 influenza and eight fatalities have been reported in Afghanistan since 3 November, according to the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). In total, 772 people (456 Afghans and 316 foreigners) have been infected by the virus in the country, the MoPH said.

“The pandemic H1N1 has killed 10 Afghans over the past two weeks,” Farid Raaid, MoPH’s spokesman, told IRIN on 8 November.

The country declared a health emergency on 1 November and since then all schools and universities have been closed.

The MoPH has also increased its appeal for funding to combat the pandemic influenza to US$125 million. Raaid said no funds had been received as of 8 November but said the World Health Organisation had pledged 550,000 doses of H1N1 vaccines.

ad/ edhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86931NAIROBI Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Three years after being diagnosed with HIV, Alice Mworia, 28, went for a routine medical check-up during which she told the nurse she had noticed an unusual vaginal discharge; a test revealed she had pre-cancerous lesions on her cervix that could develop into cancer if untreated.NAIROBI Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Three years after being diagnosed with HIV, Alice Mworia, 28, went for a routine medical check-up during which she told the nurse she had noticed an unusual vaginal discharge; a test revealed she had pre-cancerous lesions on her cervix that could develop into cancer if untreated.

"I was experiencing a bad smell from my private parts and I wondered whether it was because I was HIV-positive; I could not keep quiet any more and I shared with one of the nurses and she referred me to the doctor," Mworia told IRIN/PlusNews. "I did not even know there was anything called cervical cancer, which I was informed can kill very easily."

According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO) [http://apps.who.int/hpvcentre/statistics/dynamic/ico/country_pdf/KEN.pdf], some 2,635 Kenyan women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year, with 2,111 dying from the disease, making it the most prevalent cancer among women in the country. About 38.8 percent of women in the general population are estimated to harbour cervical human papillomavirus (HPV) infection [http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/HPV] - a leading cause of cervical cancer - at any given time.

High risk, low knowledge

For cervical HPV infection to progress to cancer, certain co-factors must be in place, including smoking, long-term hormonal contraceptive use and co-infection with HIV.

"Women who are HIV-positive have weak immune systems and this makes them very susceptible to persistent human papillomavirus that develops into cancer of cervix," said Lucy Muchiri, a senior lecturer in human pathology at the University of Nairobi's College of Health Sciences and a member of the sub-Saharan Africa Cervical Cancer Working Group.

"It takes a relatively shorter time for the HPV virus to develop into full-blown cancer of the cervix for women who have the HIV infection … It would take relatively longer in women who are not infected with HIV."

Pap smear tests - which check for changes in the cells of the cervix - are available at most district health facilities in Kenya, but according to WHO, fewer than 6 percent of women access them.

"I think many women die from the disease for a number of reasons - one is ignorance because knowledge about the disease among women and in the general population is very low and it is mistaken for other diseases," she said. "It is appalling that despite most cancer-related deaths in women happening because of cervical cancer, it is the least talked about or even known by people, including women."

According to Francis Kimani, director of medical services at the Ministry of Health, Kenya is planning a screening programme for early detection and treatment of cervical cancer as well as a widespread education campaign.

Education gap

"I think our best bet is to carry out education to let people know about the disease and that early detection of it can be very helpful," Kimani told IRIN/PlusNews. "It is true that not many people - especially in rural areas - know about the disease."

Studies [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2631263] have shown that HPV is higher among women who have multiple sexual partners and unprotected sex.

"Maybe to prevent it in the first place, the same methods used in combating HIV, like condom use, abstinence and keeping to one faithful partner, should be encouraged in this case too," Muchiri suggested.

She noted that the government also needed to invest in making the HPV vaccine - which protects against four major types of HPV, including two types that are responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancers - widely available in public hospitals.

Vaccine availability

The Kenya Pharmacy and Poisons Board approved the sale of an HPV vaccine in the country in 2007, but its availability is extremely limited and it is still prohibitively expensive for most Kenyans.

"HPV is a sexually transmitted virus and with the vaccine in place, it is important to encourage parents to take their young girls between the ages of nine and 15 to be vaccinated before they debut into sex," she said.

A recent study by the local NGO, Centre for the Study of Adolescence, found that four in 10 Kenyan girls had sex before the age of 19, many of them as early as 12.

"Once they [women] become sexually active, it is important to encourage [them] to go for Pap smear tests or visual detection of the pre-cancerous lesions but even vaccination at this stage is still feasible so long as one has not contracted the virus," Muchiri added.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86853KUTUBDIA Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - The fisherman, his wife, three sons, two daughters, a sister-in-law, a dog and a goat and I eye each other dubiously. The family of eight is not certain whether I will be able to sleep in their mud hut, which is slightly bigger than a large sports utility vehicle. The animals seem to agree.KUTUBDIA Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - The fisherman, his wife, three sons, two daughters, a sister-in-law, a dog and a goat and I eye each other dubiously. The family of eight is not certain whether I will be able to sleep in their mud hut, which is slightly bigger than a large sports utility vehicle. The animals seem to agree.

Brajhari Das, the fisherman, quickly makes up his mind. "Kono samsaya nahin [There is no problem]," he says in Bangla.

Just then, the heavens open. The monsoon rains - two months late - begin to pound the tin roof, deafening us. Brajhari shouts to make himself heard above the din, "Space is not a problem, but can you manage on the mud floor?"

The rain drips in. His daughters, Priyanka, 12, and Priyushi, 8, giggle as I try to dodge the leaks, but their father has weightier problems on his mind - the hut is less than 500m from the sea, which is creeping closer "day by day".

Brajhari and his family live in a village on Kutubdia, an island off Bangladesh's southeastern coast in the Bay of Bengal. Stronger and higher tides, cyclones and storm surges are eating away all the islands; Kutubdia, which once covered 250 sq km, has been reduced to about 25 sq km within a century, but the islanders are convinced the sea level is also rising.

Brajhari, who heads the local fishermen's association, is 41 but looks in his late 50s. "It is a hard life as a fisherman - it is a dangerous profession," he says wearily, running his fingers through his greying hair. His face his tired but his eyes sparkle when he talks about his children, or the fish he caught that day.

Rupen, his 14-year-old son, speaks a bit of English. "My father goes out to the sea every six hours; he has an hour-long break in between and then he is back on the sea. We worry all the time if he will come back or not." Most days, after spending almost the entire day at sea, he makes a little over a dollar.

A few years ago, Brajhari disappeared while at sea. A rescue team from the village found him months later in the custody of the coastguard in neighbouring India, after he had drifted west into the Indian side of the Bay of Bengal.

Last month Brajhari bought his own boat with money carefully saved over many years. "He is now independent - earlier, he had to beg people in the village to take him along to the sea," Rupen said proudly.

The boat cost him 50,000 taka (US$723) - in the village of a 1,000 fishermen, only 20 own boats. Brajhari, who understands some of the conversation, beams.

Besides their "lifelong struggle with the sea", as Brajhari's wife, Purumi, put it, the islanders also have to beware of sudden climatic events, like cyclones.

Their village, East Aliabardail, was hit by Cyclone Aila in May 2009 and part of their hut was destroyed. Aila killed at least 190 people in Bangladesh but no lives were lost in the village because disaster officials evacuated most residents in time. Outside, the waves crash in the rain.

Cyclones, and the coastline creeping steadily inland, have forced the family to relocate and build new homes five times in the past three decades. "Because of all these cyclones we have left all our [dinner] plates and other belongings at my parents' house, which is a permanent structure further inside the island," said Purumi as she served food on the only two plates in their home.

"It would be good if the officials would fortify the island's coastline; we will have a better chance at survival in this drowning land," said Brajhari.

A woven cane mat suspended on two wooden poles divides the hut into two rooms, one with a table for each of the children to study and eat at, and some plastic chairs; there is no other furniture.

All their clothes hang on a rope along a wall of the hut. Their most precious belongings - photographs of long-lost friends and the children's school certificates - are locked in a small wooden box on a shelf.

The family eats when Brajhari brings home his catch; most of the money he earns each day is spent on rice. "We love our rice - our family needs at least six kilograms every day," he said, heaping it onto his plate. There are some curried shrimps and a fried hard boiled egg to go with the rice.

The family have their meal after Brajhari and I have eaten. Priyanka and Priyushi help their mother clean up. After dinner the children finish their homework beneath the solar lamp provided to five houses in the village by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

"I got the UNDP to open a school for our village," Brajhari commented. "I don't want our children to go into this profession [fishing] - I want them educated and out of here. There is no future here on this island."

His eldest son is a tailor in Dubai, but has been not yet been able to send money home, another is a hairdresser in town, and then there is Rupen, who "wants to be someone famous - pray for me". The youngest son is in primary school. Priyanka and Priyushi giggle and cover their faces shyly. "I think they might become doctors or teachers," says Purumi, trying to answer for them.

The rains stop suddenly. We realize we are all a bit tired from being forced to have a rather loud conversation and woven cane mats are spread out on the mud floor for the night.

I get to sleep near the entrance between the dog, the goat and Purumi's sister. None of the animals stir in the night, but I am awakened around midnight, when Brajhari has to go to sea. He creeps back into the hut around 5 a.m., throwing his wet clothes outside. Purumi is up and sweeps the muddy entrance.

The village is surrounded by slushy clay soil. My feet sink into it as I go out to brush my teeth, clutching my bottle of mineral water. The villagers head for the hand-pump. A plastic sheet tied around four poles serves as the neighbourhood toilet; the women rush to get there before the men get up.

It is another day. Brajhari has to go out to sea again. After a quick bath under the village hand-pump, he and Purumi prepare for their morning prayers. They fill two brass containers with water, cover the water with flower petals and place the urns on a raised mud platform in a corner of their home. They squat in front of the platform and pray.

"We worship the sea and the River Ganges," said Brajhari. "Their water is our life - we seek their blessings and ask them to be kind to us every day."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86854DAKAR Friday, October 30, 2009 (IRIN) - Local civil society activists say Guinea's latest political crisis has taken on an ethnic dimension in N’zérékoré - junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara’s home region - which has an ethnically mixed population and has experienced communal clashes before.DAKAR Friday, October 30, 2009 (IRIN) - N’zérékoré – Guinea junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara’s home region – has an ethnically mixed population and has experienced communal clashes before. Guinea’s latest political crisis has taken on an ethnic dimension there, according to local civil society activists.

The 28 September killing of over 150 civilians by security forces in the capital Conakry triggered tension in the southeastern Forest Region.

NGOs and local authorities are trying to rein in ethnic dissension and establish dialogue among the various communities in the region.

This week the regional capital, the city of N’zérékoré, remained relatively calm but with underlying tensions, residents told IRIN. They said the days ahead would be crucial for maintaining peace.

Immediately after the Conakry killings rumours emerged in N’zérékoré that local members of the Peulh ethnic group would demonstrate against Camara and that the Guerzé, the junta leader’s ethnic group, would react violently against anyone participating.

On 10 October civil society organizations and religious and traditional leaders held a “day of dialogue”, amid what a report from the meeting called “a national crisis that compromises stability”.

“At the meeting people from the Peulh and Guerzé communities said there was no truth to the rumours,” said Béatrice Kolié, facilitator in conflict resolution with the NGO Réseau de Femmes du Mano pour la Paix (REFMAP). REFMAP and a local traditional communicators’ NGO initiated the meeting, with the support of the NGOs Faisons Ensemble and World Education.

Kolié said after the talks tensions had eased considerably. “But we don’t yet know where these rumours originated.”

The meeting report said: “It is important to note that even though the rumours were groundless they were about to set ablaze the region, and beyond that the country.”

After the events of 28 September political conflict took on an ethnic tone in N’zérékoré, Kolié said. Another observer, who requested anonymity, said there is palpable tension between Guerzé and Peulh youths. One day in mid-October some N’zérékoré neighbourhoods were strewn with flyers that read in part: “If Dadis leaves power, the Peulhs leave N’zérékoré”.

N’zérékoré is no stranger to ethnic tensions: In the past there have been clashes between Malinké and Guerzé.

Ethnic dimension

Guinea is home to four main ethnic groups – Peulh (a majority at about 40 percent), Malinké, Soussou, and several smaller groups from the Forest Region. From independence in 1958 to the 2008 coup bringing Camara to power, the country has had two presidents – one Malinké and one Soussou. Observers say many Peulh think it is “their turn”. Meanwhile Camara supporters are seen as playing on the exclusion of Forest Region ethnic groups, according to International Crisis Group (ICG).

“No matter how you look at it, in Guinea the ethnic dimension constitutes a very prominent element in every socio-political aspect,” Mohamed Jalloh, Guinea expert with ICG, told IRIN.

One man who said he was beaten by soldiers on 28 September in Conakry told IRIN every soldier he came in contact with asked him his ethnicity. Youths in Conakry said in the following days soldiers harassed and threatened Peulh people. The current defence minister, Sekouba Konaté, has links with rebel and militia groups from Guinea’s and neighbouring Liberia’s recent past, according to ICG, who says in its latest report that the junta is training militias in the southeast.

Kola nuts and caravans

In opening the 10 October meeting in N’zérékoré – after a moment of silence for the 28 September victims – a sage presented 10 kola nuts each to community representatives as a sign of welcome and brotherhood.

Members of several ethnic groups discussed the situation, with traditional and religious leaders reminding participants that they are all part of one Guinea and if the nation suffers, all suffer.

A Peulh Islamic leader at the meeting, who has lived in the region for more than 40 years – “in perfect harmony with my Guerzé hosts” – urged participants to work for national unity.

One of the recommendations from the meeting was that citizens and authorities go after rumour-mongers. “Identify, denounce and interrogate those propagating rumours,” the report recommends, adding: “This assumes the effective involvement of the authorities, defence and security forces and the judiciary.”

The participants also recommend using local radio to defuse rumours, reviving local structures aimed at preventing conflict, holding more dialogue days, organizing youth prayer days, and forming interethnic and religious committees.

In another initiative local civil society groups conducted a “peace caravan” in which people gathered and visited representatives of various ethnic communities, to shake hands and talk.

“This was to reinforce national unity,” said Auguste Impérial Théa of a N’zérékoré peace and development coalition; he helped organize the caravan. “There was a serious tear in the social fabric and that is dangerous.”

He added: “We plan to expand the caravan to the rest of the region. This is giving people a chance to talk about the fear that is in their hearts.”

Intra-ethnic threats

One Guerzé man who requested anonymity said ongoing peace-building efforts must immediately be concentrated on the youth, claiming that young Guerzé reject – often violently – the slightest criticism of junta leader Camara. He said he knows a woman market vendor who was recently beaten by some youth for selling goods to Peulh.

One day he heard a group of Guerzé youths alleging that the international media were paid by the Peulh to spread bad information about Guinea. “When I spoke up and simply asked them if they could say that Dadis’s actions up to now have really been noble, they roughed me up and threatened me with a knife, calling me a traitor and a bastard – saying that I must not be a true Guerzé. I was completely taken aback.”

When the man went to a lawyer about the confrontation the lawyer said that given the current conditions in Guinea it was best to keep quiet. “The lawyer told me, ‘Otherwise you’ll give up your life for nothing.’”

ICG in its report expresses concern over inter-communal violence in the region, noting that a top junta official recently on a visit to N’zerekore declared, “Dadis or death”.

The Guerzé man told IRIN on another occasion he was threatened again when he tried to ease hate talk against the Peulh.

“I heard a group of Guerzé youth saying they would have to eliminate some Peulhs to diminish their number in Guinea. After the initial incident I had vowed I would keep quiet, but this disturbed me so much; I just had to say something.” He said he told the youths that hurting or killing Peulh would solve nothing.

“Later that night the group – with a few additional people – came to my home... two people in the group who have known me for a long time urged the others not to harm me.”

He added: “But I live in fear. Every day I fear they could come to my home and attack me.”

Conflict resolution worker Kolié said communities must continue to meet and talk. “In conflict prevention we cannot say `we’ve done this and that and now we’re finished’. It must be ongoing.”

np/cb/bphttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86819SHEBERGHAN Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Several thousand people returning to their homes in the northern Afghan provinces of Sar-i-Pul and Jowzjan need help before winter, according to aid agencies and local officials.SHEBERGHAN Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Several thousand people returning to their homes in the northern Afghan provinces of Sar-i-Pul and Jowzjan need help before winter, according to aid agencies and local officials.

Aid agencies say most are returnees from Iran and from a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in southern Afghanistan.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it had set up a tented camp in an arid area in Sozma Qala District, Sar-i-Pul Province, to accommodate hundreds of returnees from Iran. Some aid had been distributed to them, it said.

About 300 families had returned to Jowzjan Province from Zhari IDP camp in Kandahar Province, provincial governor Mohammad Hashim Zaray told IRIN.

“Some people have gone to their homes but some have set up tents and temporary settlements in the outskirts of Sheberghan [capital of Jowzjan Province] and other areas,” said Zaray, adding that insecurity, land disputes and lack of jobs were the main problems facing returnees.

Intensifying insurgency-related violence, the lack of aid and difficult living conditions forced over 2,000 IDP households in Zhari camp to sign up for a UNHCR-assisted voluntary return programme in 2009, according to relevant officials in Kandahar.

“About 850 families have left the camp so far this year but hundreds of families still live in Zhari,” Mohammad Azam Nawabi, director of the refugees department in Kandahar, told IRIN.

Shelter

As winter approaches, the need for decent shelter is becoming more important. “Our children will die from cold,” said one man outside his tent in Sar-i-Pul Province.

“This winter will devastate my family because we have no home, no warm clothes, no food and nothing to resist the cold,” said another man.

Central and northern parts of Afghanistan normally get snow in early November.

Aurvasi Patel, head of UNHCR's office in the northern province of Balkh, said efforts were under way to assist 5,000 families in the north and northeast of the country before winter.

She said the aid for returnees would include food and non-food items such as warm clothes and charcoal - supported by UNHCR, the UN World Food Programme and the UN Children’s Fund.

UNHCR has earmarked US$14 million for its shelter programme in 2009: Some 10,000 returnee families will be given help to rebuild their houses in different parts of the country.

Longstanding problem

Hundreds of thousands of people - mostly ethnic Pashtuns - fled their homes in the north and sought refuge in IDP camps in the south of the country in 2001-2002 because of insecurity and ethnic tensions.

UN agencies delivered basic aid to about one million IDPs for a while but ended its operation in March 2006 in a bid to encourage people to return to their home areas.

Over five million Afghan refugees have returned to Afghanistan - mostly from Pakistan and Iran - over the past eight years, according to UNHCR.

Hundreds of thousands of IDPs have also returned to their original homes in the past four years, it said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86795DERA ISMAIL KHAN Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Fear and a growing wariness on the part of potential IDP hosts means some South Waziristan internally displaced persons (IDPs) are finding it hard to get accommodation in the neighbouring districts of Dera Ismail Khan and Tank.DERA ISMAIL KHAN Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Fear and a growing wariness on the part of potential IDP hosts means some South Waziristan internally displaced persons (IDPs) are finding it hard to get accommodation in the neighbouring districts of Dera Ismail Khan and Tank.

"No one is ready to take us, because they think we are sympathetic to the militants battling government forces," said Wazirullah Mehsud, 60.

He also believes that because those fleeing the battle zone are Mehsuds - from the same tribe as the leaders of the Taliban based in South Waziristan - hosts are sometimes reluctant to take them in.

"The thing is that some of the people coming from South Waziristan could be militants. Dera Ismail Khan has seen many bomb attacks and other violent incidents in recent years. We are scared to keep people from South Waziristan in our homes, especially when many of them are men, because they could have links to the militants," said Salim Khan, a local shopkeeper.

Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, a spokesman for the Pakistan military, told the media: "Militants are shaving their beards and mingling with ordinary people to try and flee."

Continuing attacks are adding to people's apprehensions. A car bomb in a crowded market area in Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, killed at least 100 people on 28 October.

Fear

"Such news makes us afraid, even though we want to help people in trouble," said Aleem Ahmed, an electrician based in Dera Ismail Khan. He said he was "thinking about" a request from a friend to host an IDP family.

The Mehsud and Wazir tribes make up most of the 500,000 population of South Waziristan, one of seven tribal territories adjacent to Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. The current leader of the Taliban, Hakeemullah Mehsud, like his predecessor, the late Baitullah Mehsud, belongs to the larger Mehsud tribe.

"I have had many problems even finding a room to rent. Because I am on my own, with my two sons, people think we may be militants," said Asad Mehsud, 60. His wife and daughters-in-law have moved to Peshawar, where the family has relatives.

Other IDPs, particularly those who have close relatives in Dera Ismail Khan, face fewer problems. "We have been well looked after by my cousin and his family. Even though they have five children themselves, and it has been hard to add seven more to their household, they have been kind and have taken us in," said Saifullah Mehsud.

"As far as we know the IDPs are still staying with host families," Billi Bierling, public information officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Islamabad, told IRIN. She said the overall registration figure of IDP families from South Waziristan had reached 33,371. In Dera Ismail Khan and Tank 1,689 IDP families were registered on 28 October, as the influx from conflict-hit areas continues. No formal IDP camps have been set up as yet.

Culture shock

For some IDPs, especially women who have in many cases never left their villages, the experience is a bewildering one. "I had never seen water flow from taps inside homes, or used a toilet that flushes," said Waseefa Bibi, 25, a mother of two. She is also delighted with the nappies donated to her for her three-month-old baby, saying, "now I know how to put one on."

However, Waseefa and other displaced women, have problems too: "We live in a house belonging to our hosts, with 13 people in four rooms. Our hosts are not close relatives, and it is hard for me and my sister-in-law to maintain 'purdah' [seclusion from men who are not blood relatives observed by some women on the basis of religious belief]. We also feel very shy going to the toilet when the men are around," Waseefa told IRIN.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86799KATHMANDU Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Bhutanese refugees in Nepal have expressed dismay at a recent decision by the World Food Programme (WFP) to cut food rations sharply.KATHMANDU Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Bhutanese refugees in Nepal have expressed dismay at a recent decision by the World Food Programme (WFP) to cut food rations sharply.
 
“We are worried about the children,” said Yam Gurung, a 33-year-old refugee at the Beldangi-2 camp in Jhapa District, nearly 500km southeast of Kathmandu. “They suffer from an insufficient diet already and this can only make things worse.”
 
Gurung, who has three children aged 5-14, said each person used to receive a monthly food ration of around 5.6kg of rice, whereas now they receive half that.
 
“We are still shocked over the news. We hope the cuts won’t last any longer,” 24-year-old refugee Prakash Dhamala said, citing health concerns for the elderly.
 
Owing to a funding shortfall, WFP on 15 October was forced to cut food rations to more than 88,000 Bhutanese refugees living in camps in Nepal.
 
WFP has been providing rice, lentils and other food to the refugees, who fled neighbouring Bhutan when ethnic tensions flared nearly two decades ago. They have lived ever since in seven camps in eastern Nepal, where they rely on WFP aid as they are not allowed to work.
 
The food ration cut effectively means the daily food intake of each individual is less by 700 kilocalories and 14 grams of protein, according to WFP.
 
WFP said this was the first time in 18 years such action had been taken, and it was working to resolve the problem by appealing to donors for US$4 million to allow continued feeding until January 2010.
 
Blocked
 
However, money is not the only problem: Rice, which is the main staple of the refugees’ diet, is generally transported via India’s Calcutta dry port, the main transportation hub for all imports and exports for landlocked Nepal, and large quantities of rice have been stuck there throughout much of Dasain (19-28 September), one of the biggest and longest Hindu festivals for both India and Nepal.
 
“By the first week of November, if everything goes well, we will deliver a full ration,” WFP country director Richard Ragan told to IRIN, expressing concern, however, over the upcoming strikes in the Terai region organized by ethnic-based political groups.
 
Ploy?
 
Some fear the WFP move is a ploy to force them to go to third countries. “Many refugees don’t want third country resettlement and worry the cuts are an attempt to pressure them into accepting it,” Jiten Subba, another refugee, said. WFP has flatly denied such a charge.
 
The refugees are divided over whether they should aim for resettlement in third countries or return to Bhutan. [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84934] More than 80,000 refugees have expressed interest in resettlement, but a sizeable minority want to return to Bhutan.
 
“We try to tell the refugees that this has nothing to do with donor fatigue or third country resettlement. We are spending US$1 million every month for the refugees and it is often a challenge to do that,” Ragan explained, adding that WFP was also feeding nearly two million impoverished Nepalese.
 
Since March 2008, some 23,000 Bhutanese refugees have resettled in Europe and the USA, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
 
Meanwhile, many refugees hope this move by WFP will stimulate the debate over jobs: “We should be allowed to generate our own resources - especially those who do not wish to resettle in Western countries,” said refugee Jiten Thapa.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86800MANILA Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (IRIN) - Weeks after back-to-back cyclones left nearly 1,000 people dead, the Philippines is grappling with an outbreak of a deadly flood-borne disease that has infected survivors from areas where dirty water has yet to subside, officials say.MANILA Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (IRIN) -  Weeks after back-to-back cyclones [http://www.irinnews.org/Asia-Country.aspx?Country=PH] left nearly 1,000 people dead, the Philippines is grappling with an outbreak of a deadly flood-borne disease that has infected survivors from areas where dirty water has yet to subside, officials say.
 
In a report to emergency relief agencies, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said that as of 26 October, there were 2,158 confirmed cases of Leptospirosis infections, with 167 deaths reported by the National Epidemiology Centre [http://www2.doh.gov.ph/nec/app_main.htm].
 
With more than 120,000 people crammed into evacuation centres in Manila and outlying areas that are still submerged in putrid, stagnant water, Duque said the likelihood of more outbreaks was high.
 
The deaths linked to Leptospirosis - a bacterial infection caused by contact with water contaminated by rat and other animal urine - were in addition to the 929 people who died from devastation wrought by tropical storm Ketsana, which hit on 26 September, and Typhoon Parma, a week later. According to the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) [http://ndcc.gov.ph/home/], more than nine million people were affected by the two storms.
 
"There is a surge in the number of hospitalized cases of Leptospirosis from among the victims of recent typhoons who have [lost] … their homes," Duque said in a memorandum order issued last week to state-run hospitals to prioritize cases of the disease.
 
"Various local government units and hospitals have reported an increasing number of cases of Leptospirosis among communities that have been submerged in flood waters and from among those who have been transferred to evacuation sites,” it read.
 
Duque said the best preventive measure to combat the disease is to drain the flooded areas and force people to move - something that government is hard-pressed to do since many areas remain inundated and some families have returned to their partly submerged homes to prevent looting.
 
As a stop-gap measure, he said the health department had sent teams to provide antibiotics to those infected while at the same time seeking the help of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) in containing the outbreak.
 
Private hospitals have also agreed to take in patients that state-run hospitals can no longer accommodate, Duque said.
 
National epidemiology chief Eric Tayag said the antibiotics were meant to cut the infection rate in half as a preventive measure.
 
Symptoms

The disease is characterized by jaundice and flu-like symptoms and ultimately renal and kidney failure, requiring dialysis.
 
WHO said the Leptospirosis bacteria commonly enters the body through skin cuts and abrasions and could begin manifesting in symptoms including severe headaches, fever, vomiting and blood-shot eyes. Meningitis and bleeding of the lungs may also occur.
 
"One out of 10 of those infected by Leptospirosis can have complications that can cause death. This includes acute renal failure," Tayag told reporters.
 
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/leptospirosis_g.htm#How%20long%20is%20it%20between%20the%20time%20of%20exposure%20and%20when%20people%20become%20sick] the time between exposure to a contaminated source and falling ill is two days to four weeks.
 
WHO has dispatched a four-man team of experts to the country to help control the outbreak.
 
"They will be assisting the government by providing technical assessments and assistance in the surveillance, epidemiological and clinical care of those who fall sick from the disease," said Soe Nyunt-U, WHO representative to the Philippines, noting that apart from Leptospirosis, thousands still living in evacuation camps where access to water and sanitation remain poor, are in danger of other infectious diseases.
 
"The situation is worsened by the fact that many hospitals and clinics are damaged or still under water, with some staff unable to get to work, either because they are marooned in evacuation centres or are still repairing their homes," he said in a statement.
 
"At the same time, victims of the floods are causing a surge in demand at the health facilities."

Meanwhile, officials are preparing for another storm. Weather forecasters say Typhoon Mirinae is about 837km west-northwest of Guam, moving westward at 32km/hr. Mirinae strengthened from a tropical storm over the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines and may reach Luzon island, where relief work continues, in the coming days.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86779MIDRAND Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Disaster risk reduction as a tool for climate change adaptation is a "technical mouthful" said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction. MIDRAND Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Disaster risk reduction as a tool for climate change adaptation is a "technical mouthful" said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction.

Members of the Pan-African Parliament thought so too. The legislative body of the African Union met in Midrand, halfway between Johannesburg and Pretoria in South Africa, for a parliamentary debate on climate change in Africa.

Shebesh, the new champion of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Africa for the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR) has been given the job of making the subject accessible.

Why?

The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, said DRR was "the first line of defence" against climate risks. Many countries did not have a plan that covered what to do to adapt to the impact of climate change, but drawing up a disaster risk reduction plan was a starting point.

DRR deals with the short-term changes in climate variables, such as temperature; adaptation to climate change is about long-term changes to climate. It is now widely acknowledged that reducing vulnerability to climatic variables could improve resilience to the increased hazards associated with climate change.

What does it mean?

Wahlström acknowledged that trying to explain to countries what this meant, and how to take DRR into account, could sometimes be problematic. Essentially, it is about "disaster-proofing" any plan or programme.

"You take into account the current and future disaster risks. If you are building a bridge in an area, you study the soil, ask the people who live in the area about what they know about the conditions in the area: do they build in the area? What precautions do they take? The easiest thing to do is draw up a check list."

Wahlström said she had come across several cities and towns in developing countries who had already been doing this, and "we are now busy putting all this information together for our next report."

She also said she would not be surprised if "disaster-proofing" became a pre-requisite for sourcing money for any climate change adaptation project, "but I would rather countries took up the initiative on their own." India, she said has made it mandatory for projects costing a certain amount to be disaster-proof so as to qualify for funds.

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