The African Emergency Locust Project recently held a one-day training workshop for National Assembly Members, media, veterinary officials and health workers on safety and pest handling.

The gesture is part of their attempt to cope and control poisonous substances use to kill pests which are hazardous to humans, livestock, and to the environment.

The forum was also aimed at creating awareness for stakeholders on the need for proper mechanisms to minimise the risk associated with pesticide use and handling.

The representative of the permanent secretary at the Department of State for Agriculture, Mr. Jerro Manneh, dwelled on the importance of the training. He stressed the need for reserve measures to advert unforeseen scares from the improper use of pesticides.

Ms. Yassin Kan, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer with the African Emergency Locust Project, gave a brief background to the project. In ensuring that the recommendations reach the beneficiaries Ms Kan called on National Assembly Members to use their enormous moral authority to dilate the ideals they have learned to the people at the grassroots.

Ms. Kan made assurances, that she will do all that is necessary to achieve the objectives of the project.

After deliberations participants came up with sound recommendations for proper implementation and effective utilisation of pesticides.

The Ethiopian government and its humanitarian partners yesterday announced that a total of $67,737,459 is required to fund the country’s humanitarian response to the effects of the prevailing drought.

An estimated 2.2 million people are in need of emergency food assistance following inadequate rainfall in some parts of the country during the 2007 meher rainy season, which runs from June to October. In addition, about 947,000 vulnerable people will continue to receive assistance under the country’s Productive Safety Nets Programme – a relief-to-development project initiated by the government in 2005 in an attempt to end dependency on food aid.

Most of those affected by the effects of the dry weather conditions live in the Somali, the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s State (SNNP), Tigray and Oromia Regions.
“Conditions in Ethiopia have improved since the beginning of the year. Nevertheless humanitarian situations of various kinds remain of great concern to all of us,” said Vincent Lelei, head of OCHA, Ethiopia, speaking in Addis Ababa the launch of the Joint Government and Humanitarian Partners’ 2008 Humanitarian Requirement Plan.

“The continued collaboration by all humanitarian actors in Ethiopia for the benefit of the most vulnerable in the country is highly appreciated, and we look forward to strengthening this collaboration,” Mr. Lelei added.

The total food aid requirement for those in need is estimated at about 171,646 metric tonnes. Particular attention will also be paid to health and nutrition, water and sanitation, and agriculture to help address the adverse impact of the drought.

Drought in the Horn of Africa is also expected to lead to reduced crop harvests Djibouti, Eritrea, Djibouti, northern parts of Kenya and south-central Somalia.

OCHA

Three factors, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), were responsible for the rapid deterioration in Somalia's humanitarian situation - an extremely harsh dry season, increasing insecurity and high rates of inflation.

According to the Food Security Analysis Unit and Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net), the number of people in humanitarian emergency in the first quarter of this year increased from 315,000 to 425,000 while there are now 745,000 newly displaced people against 705,000.

The most severely affected areas are Galgadud, Mudug, Hiiraan, coastal Shabelle and pockets in Sool, Nugaal and Hawd areas in the north.

"Food security continues to worsen in central and Shabelle regions and among the urban poor and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the south," Fews Net stated in an alert. "Because of La Niña, associated with drier-than-normal conditions, pasture and water resources throughout the key pastoral areas of the country are being depleted early, leading to a deepening crisis among pastoral communities."

It said the total number of people in need of humanitarian assistance and livelihood support for the next six months would increase from two million to as many as 2.5 million.

OCHA said deteriorating security had slowed down humanitarian deliveries and affected the ability of aid agencies to support populations in need.

Food convoys, for example, were held up in Mogadishu awaiting an improvement in the security situation.

Recently, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported that large numbers of displaced Somali families were surviving on less than one meal a day and spending large proportions of their meagre income buying drinking water.

Squatting in the scorching sun, Adan Hassan Mahamud pointed to the parched landscape around Hamure village, 280km east of Bosasso in the self-declared autonomous Somali republic of Puntland.

"I have seen droughts but nothing like this in 12 years," Mahamud, 80, said. "Many in the community have lost a large number of livestock - their only means of livelihood."

Like most of Puntland, Hamure village is experiencing what locals describe as one of the worst droughts in decades. The last rains fell three years ago.
The drought, Mahamud said, had forced most of the 400 families to abandon the village - some going as far as 100km away.

"Many have moved to the villages of Buq Atato, Eil Gaal and the town of Qandala, because they still have boreholes that have water," Said Waberi, the district commissioner of Qandala, the headquarters of the area, told IRIN.

Hamure is at the epicentre of a drought whose symptoms, according to Amina Mohamed of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), were first noticed last June in the Mudug region of central Somalia.

"By November it was spreading to other areas, including Sanaag, Sool, Nugal and Bari," Mohamed, UNICEF’s chief field officer in Puntland, said.

Experts worry that the situation is not improving. The Food Security and Assessment Unit of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, has, for example, forecast that the April to June gu [long] rains are likely to be "normal to below-normal throughout most of Somalia".

"If it does not rain soon we are looking at a major humanitarian emergency," Mohamed said.

Water crisis

Driving through villages near Bosasso, the landscape that used to be dotted with water wells and barkads (water catchments) appears largely deserted as local livestock move away to search for water.

In villages such as Hamure, most of the people left are elderly. "Because of the severe water shortage, families with surviving livestock took them to where they could find water," said Waberi.

The situation is worsened because many boreholes have broken down with age or lack of proper maintenance. "If a borehole broke down, the town or village that depended on it for water would be forced to move," the district commissioner added.

UNICEF has rehabilitated 30 shallow wells in the worst affected areas, targeting locations with displaced populations, but it is not enough.

In Hamure, for example, the 50 or so households left in the village, whose only well has dried up, depend on trucked water. But this is very expensive.

According to Waberi, a 200 litre drum of water that used to cost 30,000 shillings (about US$2) last year is now going for up to 360,000 shillings ($14), which most villagers cannot afford.

The situation has been aggravated by the declining value of the Somali shilling, which is at an all-time low against the dollar, exchanging at 28,000 to the dollar against 15,000 in 2007.

"We are being killed by inflation. Everything costs a lot more than it did a year ago," Mahamud said.

Lost livelihoods

Like Mahamud, most local villages across Puntland worry that their pastoralist livelihoods will be devastated by the drought.

"In some communities between 60 and 80 percent of goats and sheep have already died," said Waberi.
Ainab Nur, a 70-year-old resident of Darjaale village in Skushban district, told IRIN he had lost more than 300 sheep and goats.

Locals said the surviving livestock were mostly camels. But Puntland's deputy minister of interior, Ibrahim Artan, told IRIN that even the camels had been weakened by lack of water and pasture.

"They could start dying if it does not rain soon," Artan said. "These people cope with their livestock and when they lose that, they are in serious danger. If camels start dying, people will be next."

Abdi Shahkur Mire, a former Puntland deputy minister of information, said the drought was likely to get worse before the situation improved.

"The signs do not point to a quick amelioration of the situation," Mire said. "We need to mobilise our people, particularly the business people, to help."

It is a view shared by local aid workers but not by the Puntland government. "We are doing everything we can to mitigate the drought," Artan told IRIN. The government, he added, had already started trucking water to some of the worst affected areas.

Mire, however, said water trucking was a short-term solution. He urged aid agencies and the government to come up with a long-term solution.

Fifteen people have died and hundreds more were left homeless after days of torrential rains in Kasai Occidental and Bandundu provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a humanitarian official told IRIN.

"At least 500 people have been left without shelter; some are still sleeping in the rubble of their houses while others have found refuge with their neighbours," Marie-Madeleine Kaneku, the director of the NGO Carotas in Luebo district of Kasai Occidental, said.

The dead included three children aged between six and 10, who died when the walls of their homes collapsed. Others were seriously injured.

At least 100 houses were destroyed by the torrential rains and the accompanying strong winds on 2 April in the town of Tshikapa, Kaneku said.

"Two schools have also been damaged by the rains," she said.

Heavy rains were also reported in Tshikapa, 101km away, where a hospital was destroyed. "The main building at the health centre of Kapemba was damaged," she said.

"Following the damage to the health centre we were forced to evacuate all the sick," François Kamudji, the medical director at the hospital, said.

Kamudji said the damaged building was one of two that had remained after three other buildings had been destroyed by previous heavy rains. The hospital was built in 1950.

"We are in a very difficult situation and we will not be able to deal with any cases of emergency surgery; the medication and healthcare equipment was destroyed by the rain," he said.

The heavy rains covered a stretch of 350km. Kaneku said those affected by the rains had not yet received help.

Cote d’Ivoire’s government has announced emergency measures to cut prices of food and basic services following protests against the cost of living, but demonstrators have warned they are ready to go back on to the streets as soon as prices creep up again.

The government has promised to temporarily suspend taxes on staple goods including rice, oil, milk, flour, sugar and fish, in a statement released on 1 April.

Francois Kablan, spokesperson for the Ivorian Consumers Association (ACCI) which organised protests on 31 March Said that the price reductions must be immediate. “If tomorrow [2 April] prices are not falling as promised by the government, we will go back out on the street even more determined to fight,” he warned.

Protests on 31 March started in the Abidjan neighbourhoods of Cocody and Yopougon. There were more clashes between riot police and demonstrators in both districts in the morning of 1 April.

In poor neighbourhood close to the airport, Port-Bouët, one civilian was reportedly killed on 1 April by riot police and 20 other demonstrators were wounded.

According to the independent newspaper L’Inter, government officials have warned newspapers against covering the food price protests.

State run media in Cote d’Ivoire has not reported on the demonstrations.

Source: IRIN

In a move that could alleviate Southern Africa's struggle to cope with the growing demand for electricity, while helping Zimbabwe with its chronic shortage of foreign exchange, neighbouring countries have proposed recapitalising some power stations and coal mining.

South Africa's power utility, Eskom, and Anglo Platinum, a South African mining company, as well as the Botswana Power Company have shown an interest in Zimbabwean thermal power stations located in the capital, Harare, in Bulawayo, the second largest city, and in Munyati, near the town of Kwekwe in Midlands Province.

Anglo Platinum, which has been negatively affected by power outages in its home country, has asked to be allowed to export electricity to South Africa as part of its proposal.

In February, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) taskforce on implementation of power projects held an emergency meeting in Botswana on the state of energy supply in the region, attended by ministers of energy, at which a resolution was adopted to source funding for the energy sector.
The meeting heard that if this resolution were not implemented, development would be stifled, and that the region required US$46.4 billion for long-term development of the energy sector, while US$5 billion was needed to complete current energy projects by 2010.

Tomaz Salamao, SADC executive secretary, was quoted in the media saying: "The current electricity supply demand balance in the SADC region is precarious, as evidenced by the recent frequent recurrence of blackouts and load shedding in virtually all the countries of the SADC mainland as well as Madagascar."

Since the beginning of 2008, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe have been among the countries in the region hit by widespread planned and unplanned outages, affecting every sector of the economy.

Eskom, a major regional supplier, has blamed the blackouts on heavy rain in the coal-producing parts of the country, which it said had affected the quality of coal required for its coal-fired plants, and breakdowns at several of its key generating plants.

Money needed

Ben Rafemoyo, chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), recently told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines, Energy, Environment and Tourism that his organisation needed US$3.8 billion for a complete overhaul of obsolete equipment to generate at least 2,000MW needed to meet national requirements.

"We are in a precarious financial position because our tariffs are very low," said Rafemoyo. The Hwange power station in Matabeleland North Province was producing 280MW, when it could generate 750MW at maximum capacity. Rafemoyo said the Kariba hydropower station on the Zambezi River, on the northern border with Zambia, had a generating capacity of 750MW, but was producing 720MW.

"Other power stations can generate 170MW but are not generating anything because of lack of coal. The older the machines at power stations, the more breakdowns we experience and these are costly to repair."

Zimbabwe generates 1,000MW, against a daily requirement of 1,500MW, and imports 40 percent of its electricity from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and South Africa. The country has had to resort to power rationing because of the shortfall, which has affected many industries, homes, schools and hospitals.

Coal shortages

Zimbabwean power stations have also been affected by coal shortages. Energy Minister Mike Nyambuya confirmed that failure to provide enough coal and ageing equipment had affected the country's ability to fulfil its energy requirements.

Although energy shortages were predicted in 1995, nothing was done about the looming problems. "Most of our machinery for energy generation have not been replaced in the last ten years," he said.

Eskom, according to senior officials in the energy industry, was ready to pump up to US$25 million into the Hwange Colliery Company (HCC), Zimbabwe's sole coal producer, to ensure reliable and uninterrupted coal supplies if the proposed takeover of the three thermal stations, with a combined potential of 500MW, was formalised.

Burzil Dube, spokesperson for HCC, told IRIN: "I can not say offhand how much would be needed [to resuscitate the mining company] but, certainly, we would need a huge recapitalisation if we would have to supply enough coal for the power stations."

If the proposal is accepted, 50 percent of the power generated would be consumed locally and the other half exported to South Africa. The Botswana Power Company's proposed plan to supply coal to the two power stations in Bulawayo and Harare would also mean that half the power generated would be exported to Botswana while the rest would be consumed locally.

ZESA Holdings is already in partnership with its Namibian counterpart, NamPower. Under the deal, the Namibian power utility has provided a US$50 million loan for the rehabilitation of the power station at Hwange, the country's largest.

Hwange is operating below capacity because the country does not have enough money replace spare parts. When refurbishments are complete, Namibia is expected to receive 180MW of electricity for five years as part of the power purchasing arrangement.

Authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia have appealed for international aid as parts of the region are ravaged by drought, which is killing livestock, the principal livelihood in the area.

"We issued an appeal for help yesterday in a meeting with agencies represented here," Mohamed Said Kashawiito, the director-general of the ministry of interior, told IRIN on 5 February.

He said most of Puntland was affected by the drought, leading some nomads who lost their livestock to move to urban centres.

The problem is most acute in the districts of Armo, Ufeyn, Iskushuban; parts of Qandala, Alula, Soolka-Beyla and Qardo; and all of Bari region. Parts of Nugal and Mudug are also seriously affected.

He said Sool and parts of Sanaag, which are claimed by both Puntland and the neighbouring self-declared republic of Somaliland, were also affected.

"Sool has the added problem of recent fighting and displacement," Kashawiito added.

The biggest problem was lack of water, Kashawiito said.

"Many people in this area depend on Barkad [water catchments] for their water but the lack of sufficient rains in the last couple of seasons has made matters worse," adding that most of the catchments were "either empty or nearly empty".

He said the Puntland administration was setting up a task force to assist the affected, with water trucking for the worst affected areas "an immediate priority".

Kashawiito said it was doing all it could but lacked the wherewithal to deal with the situation and was calling on international aid agencies to intervene before the situation deteriorated further.

He said the first priority was to deliver water to affected areas and to distribute food to those who had lost their livestock and livelihoods.

"Some of the populations are no longer able to cope and need immediate intervention in terms of food," he warned. "We need urgent assistance," he said.

“Should the Gu rains, which usually start in April, be delayed or fail, the situation will become even more critical,” said Matthew Olins, deputy head of office of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA-Somalia).

“In central and northern regions NGOs and the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] are responding with emergency water-trucking and repairing boreholes. ICRC, in particular, is carrying out a large-scale water-trucking programme in parts of Galgadud, Mudug and other parts of Puntland.  

“In the first half of February, CARE completed a food aid distribution in Galgadud and South Mudug targeting 230,000 people. Water-trucking for livestock and other emergency food and nutrition interventions are also being considered,” he said.

As violence in Somalia escalated this year to some of the worst levels in over 15 years, both assistance for and attention to one of the most challenging and acute humanitarian situations in the world seemed to wane.

Ethiopian troops and Transitional Federal Government forces, supported by international partners such as the United States and the European Union, clashed with a range of armed groups, including remnants of the Islamic Courts Union. The fighting caused an unknown number of civilian casualties and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from the capital, Mogadishu.

In 2007, MSF increased its presence in Mogadishu in different locations and opened an emergency response program in Afgooye, just outside the capital, where an estimated 200,000 internally displaced persons sought refuge, living in extremely harsh conditions with little access to food, water, and shelter. Many of those remaining in Mogadishu are staying in makeshift camps with little more than ripped cloth and plastic sheeting for shelter and are exposed to a high degree of violence.

In a country where a 16-year conflict has resulted in some of the world's worst health indicators, with an estimated life expectancy of 47 years, few international aid organizations managed to run effective independent aid programs. Present since 1991, MSF increased its operations in 2007 and is now running projects in 10 out of the 11 regions of south and central Somalia.

Nevertheless in many areas, especially in the Mogadishu area, MSF is extremely frustrated by its inability to reach more patients due to security concerns. In August, MSF called upon all parties to the conflict to respect the safety of medical workers and allow access to medical care in and around Mogadishu.

Throughout MSF hospitals, from Kismayo to Galcayo, the medical services provided range from primary and maternal to surgical care, with nurses and doctors treating malnutrition, tuberculosis, kala azar, cholera, and war-related trauma on a daily basis.

The Zimbabwe government's emergency assistance arm, the Civil Protection Unit (CPU), is moving hundreds of people to higher ground and advising others to do likewise in the wake of flooding that has claimed three lives and resulted in a fourth person being listed as missing.

More rain has been forecast across Zimbabwe after a two-week deluge flooded low-lying areas in the Muzarabani district of Mashonaland Central Province, in the north of the country.

CPU deputy director Sibusisiwe Ndlovu told IRIN that an unspecified number of homes and livestock had been washed away in Muzarabani district, and that the Hoya Bridge linking Muzarabani with nearby Mukumbura district had also been destroyed.

"We can confirm that three people have died, while a fourth is missing in the Chadereka area of Muzarabani in Mashonaland Central after floods
devastated the area," Ndlovu said.

"More than a thousand people have been displaced and moved to higher ground, while the Air Force of Zimbabwe has deployed two helicopters to rescue
people who may be stranded in the low-lying areas."

The CPU has advised people living in low-lying areas, including Tsholotsho, in Matabeleland North Province in western Zimbabwe; Middle Sabi, near the Save River in Manicaland Province in the east; and Chikwalakwala, on the Limpopo River floodplains in the southeast, to move to higher ground.

Information and publicity minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told IRIN that, "Naturally, when such a humanitarian crisis ... occurs, it is incumbent upon humanitarian organisations to complement the efforts that we as government are doing. Flood victims who have been internally displaced will naturally be in need of many forms of assistance, especially food, blankets, water purification tablets and shelter, such as tents."

Ndlovu said, "The humanitarian assistance can be channelled through to the Civil Protection Unit, who are responsible for containing the situation on the ground."

Flood damage unknown  

Humanitarian organisations contacted by IRIN said they were assessing the impact of the floods. "For now, it is virtually impossible to access most parts of the district because roads and bridges have been washed away, and many vehicles trying to get into the district have become stuck in the mud," a field officer, who declined to be identified, told IRIN.

"The truth of the matter is that very few people have an accurate knowledge of what is happening because the roads are impassable."

Hector Chikowore, Zimbabwe's Principal Meteorologist, told local media that Zimbabwe was experiencing unusually heavy rains this year. "Since the start of the wet spell on December 3, Belvedere, in [the capital] Harare, has received 276mm, which is about a third of its seasonal average of 841mm.

"There is therefore an increased risk of flooding, especially in low lying areas such as Muzarabani and the Sabi Valley, [near the Limpopo River in the south], that have received considerable rain."

The CPU has issued flood warnings across the country, including in the usually dry southern provinces of Midlands, Masvingo, and Matabeleland South and North. There has also been flooding in Harare's high-density suburbs of Kuwadzana, Dzivarasekwa and Rugare, and more flooding is expected after the city's largest supply dam, Lake Chivero, reached capacity after two weeks of incessant rain.

Sheilla Shumba, a resident of Kuwadzana, told IRIN that her house was flooded and her furniture destroyed. "We hardly get electricity in this part of the city, and depend on firewood, which is now soggy because of the rains. I now have to visit my relatives whose houses have not been flooded so that we can get some hot meals."