Africa

DJ's top tips for the continent's best releases

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has learned of the arrival in Djibouti today of the Foreign Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, and the announcement of the release of four Djiboutian prisoners by the Eritrean authorities.

Briefing the Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and United Nations High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein today voiced concern about spiralling violence and rights violations in Burundi, and called for an inclusive political dialogue to peacefully resolve the 11-month crisis.

March 18, 2016 (PIBOR) - The medical charity, Medicins San Frontiers (MSF) said it has re-established a limited medical program in its heavily-looted centre in Pibor, South Sudan.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has expressed dismay at the continued targeting of medical facilities and patients during ongoing conflict in South Sudan (Photo: Kim Clausen/MSF)

MSF said was forced to evacuate to the United Nations base amid heavy fighting on 23 February and upon return four days later, its team found the medical centre was completely looted, depriving the area's170,000 people of access to secondary healthcare and undermining medical response in Lekonguole and Gumuruk.

“We have managed to open a limited medical program to address the most urgent needs of the population, but we have not returned to business as usual in terms of medical capacity,” Corinne Benazech, MSF head of mission in South Sudan said in a statement.

“Our ability to provide medical assistance has been greatly diminished by the looting of our medical facility two weeks ago. It is women and children who suffer most from reduced access to medical care, not only in Pibor, but also in Lekonguole and Gumuruk,” she added.

MSF called on armed actors to respect the provision of medical care.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and over two million displaced in South Sudan's worst outbreak of violence since the young nation succeeded from neighbouring Sudan in July 2011.

A peace deal signed in August last year to end the conflict is yet to make meaningful gains, amid continuous violations of a ceasefire agreed upon by both sides involved in the South Sudanese conflict.

According to MSF, the medical charity has also been supporting the provision of primary heathcare services in Lekonguole and Gumuruk from its medical centre in Pibor, but can now only provide the most critical medicines to support the population of those communities.

“We call on anyone in possession of looted medical equipment to return it to MSF. Some of the items that were taken from us have no use or no value outside of a medical facility. If they are returned to MSF, it will help improve the population's access to medical care by allowing for the resumption of more life-saving medical activities,” said Benazech.

However, as MSF continues providing assistance to those mostly in need, it says any further targeting of its medical services could make it very difficult for MSF to sustain life-saving services in the Pibor area.

(ST)

The wealthy South African family accused of wielding undue influence through links to President Zuma says it has been the victim of "xenophobic and hate speech".

Dubbed by the press as “the man who mends women,” Dr. Mukwege has gained international recognition for his work and earned many prestigious distinctions, including the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 2008 and the Sakharov prize in 2014. At 59, he has also been shortlisted several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Oscar Pistorius is targeted by a conman offering to repeal his murder conviction in return for money.

Rival Islamist militant groups al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram stage separate attacks in Niger, killing four members of the security forces, officials say.

The United Nations health agency has dispatched a team of specialists to Guinea after 2 new cases of Ebola were confirmed yesterday, the first re-emergence of the deadly virus in the Western African country since its original outbreak was declared over on 29 December 2015.

Blissed out in Cairo and solidarity in the sand

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(End)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(ST)