WHO responds to cholera cases in Sudan (11.09.2019)

Two cholera treatment centres are treating patients in Blue Nile State and a dedicated isolation centre has been established for cholera case management.

KHARTOUM, Sudan, September 11, 2019 – The World Health Organization (WHO) is working closely with national health authorities and partners to respond to cases of cholera in Blue Nile State in south-eastern Sudan.

Between 28 August and 10 September, Sudan’s Federal Ministry of Health reported at least 51 cases of acute watery diarrhoea in Blue Nile State, including at least 3 deaths. Samples taken from 6 patients and sent for analysis to the Ministry’s National Public Health Laboratory showed that 4 of the 6 samples tested positive for Vibrio cholerae.

“Due to suboptimal health conditions and poor safe water and sewage system structures, exacerbated by polluted water sources caused by recent floods, there is a risk of cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases spreading if no immediate response interventions take place,” said Dr Naeema Al Gasseer, WHO Representative in Sudan.

To monitor and contain the outbreak, WHO has surged a team of public health experts to Blue Nile State; other international experts will soon follow. The WHO team is working with health authorities to strengthen disease surveillance, provide medical treatment for patients, distribute laboratory supplies, monitor water quality and chlorinate public water supplies, and promote health education and hygiene among affected and at-risk communities. Two cholera treatment centres are treating patients in Blue Nile State, and a dedicated isolation centre has been established for cholera case management. To date, 30 patients have been discharged after receiving treatment.

Early and effective response is the best means to stopping an outbreak in its tracks. Given the timely recognition of the cholera cases by the Federal Ministry of Health with full transparency in reporting to WHO under the International Health Regulations, and the swift scale-up of response, we are hopeful that we can soon contain this disease and minimize the number of cases,” added Dr Al-Gasseer.

South Sudan: One year after peace deal, violence and humanitarian needs haven’t decreased (11.09.2019)

A statement from James Reynolds, ICRC’s head of delegation in South Sudan, on the situation in the country one year after the signing of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan.

JUBA, South Sudan, September 11, 2019 – One year after the signing of the peace deal, violence is still pervasive in South Sudan, as clashes between communities threaten lives and the fragile stability.

Surgical teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) continue to treat a large number of patients with gunshot wounds, while needs of the most affected communities remain high. Redoubled efforts are needed to bring a durable peace.

The number of patients with injuries from violence admitted to our surgical units have increased since the signing of the peace deal. From October 2017 to June 2018, 526 patients were admitted, mostly with gunshot wounds. The same period a year later (October 2018 to June 2019) we had 688, an increase of nearly 25 percent. In only one week in April, the ICRC evacuated by air 39 patients with weapon wounds to a hospital we support, forcing us to increase the number of beds in the unit by a third to accommodate the needs.

Violence is also impacting health centres. ICRC teams have collected information on 24 incidents in which facilities were looted or staff threatened since the signing of the peace deal, and this data may only reflect part of the incidents affecting health structures and personnel. In a country where so few health care facilities are functioning after decades of war and under-development, the closure of even one clinic means entire communities go without care, turning preventable, treatable diseases deadly.

The last year has also seen little improvement for most South Sudanese. There are more people facing food insecurity today in the country than at any point since the armed conflict between government forces and the opposition started more than five years ago. People are living in limbo, and recent clashes in some parts of the country, such as Equatoria, continue to displace thousands of people who are then unable to harvest their crops and instead rely on humanitarian aid.

Families have been torn apart by decades of conflict. Today, the ICRC is searching for more than 4,200 South Sudanese whose relatives have reported them as missing. Tragically, with four million South Sudanese still displaced inside the country and across its borders, the number of people who do not know where their loved ones are is likely much higher. Knowing the fate of their missing relatives would offer many South Sudanese the opportunity to move on.

The ICRC has been in South Sudan since its independence in 2011. We also served the needs of South Sudanese during the Sudan’s long war. We can say through firsthand experience that it is impossible to exaggerate the toll that decades of war, violence and uncertainty have had on communities.

It is our hope that the peace deal holds. The return to full-scale conflict in South Sudan could mean that civilians are again exposed to deliberate attacks and displacement, despite being protected under international law.

However, even if today’s current conditions hold, the levels of violence in South Sudan between communities, made possible by the easy access to guns in the country, will continue to threaten the peace and stability that South Sudanese need to recover and rebuild a country that has largely only known war.

More funds needed to counter ‘persistent and multi-faceted humanitarian problems’ in Ethiopa (11.09.2019)

More than eight million people in Ethiopia need food, shelter, medicine or other emergency assistance.

NEW YORK, United States of America, September 11, 2019 – Ethiopia is beset by “persistent and multi-faceted humanitarian problems”, the United Nations relief chief said on Tuesday, calling for more international funding as well as support for the Government-led response to the country’s displacement crisis.

More than eight million people in Ethiopia need food, shelter, medicine or other emergency assistance.

“Drought and flooding, disease outbreaks and inter-ethnic violence” have in recent years “forced millions of people to flee their homes”, said Mark Lowcock, who heads Humanitarian Affairs coordination office OCHA, at the end of a two-day mission to Ethiopia. He was accompanied by senior UN peacebuilding official, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, and Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, independent UN expert on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.

The delegation met with recently returned families and other conflict-affected people in Chitu Kebele in the Yirgachefe district in Gedeo, which is one of the zones most affected by intercommunal violence that has caused displacement and loss of livelihoods since 2018.

“I support the Government’s desire to find durable solutions to displacement problems and am under no illusion as to how difficult that is”, attested Mr. Lowcock. “While many people have now been able to return to their home areas, some remain in limbo, living close to their destroyed or damaged homes and worried they will not have the opportunity to restart farming and other livelihoods they lost when they fled last year”.

And while the Government is trying to deal with the situation, he maintained that “many people in host communities are displaying enormous generosity and humanitarian agencies are supporting them, but more international support is needed too.”

Humanitarian organizations are working with the local authorities and development partners to ensure internally displaced people have access to emergency assistance and basic services.

During the mission, the UN officials reaffirmed their commitment to the Government in helping the voluntary and safe return of all displaced people, or that they be integrated into new settlement areas.

Prior to the Government’s efforts to return people to their areas of origin, some 3.2 million internally displaced remain in Ethiopia, including 2.6 million who fled conflict and 500,000 who were displaced because of climate-related causes.

‘Break the cycle’ of crises

The 2019 Ethiopia Humanitarian Response Plan, which requires $1.3 billion, is only 51 per cent funded and more is urgently required for nutrition, health, shelter, protection, education and other needs.

While aid is a critical lifeline for millions of Ethiopians, most humanitarian needs there are recurrent and predictable, requiring long-term solutions build resilience.

During the mission, the delegation discussed with the authorities and partners how to better support humanitarian and recovery programmes to bolster the Government’s efforts. They also discussed ways to reduce conflict, which require holistic and inclusive peacebuilding approaches to address the root causes of violence.

“Donors have historically been extremely generous to Ethiopia during its worst crises”, Mr. Lowcock acknowledged. “Now, we hope they will also invest more in prevention and long-term recovery efforts so that we can build resilience and break the cycle of recurrent crises – in Ethiopia the next emergency may be only one failed rainy season away”.

The humanitarian chief also expressed concern over the safety of aid workers following the murder of two staff of a highly respected international non-governmental organization in Gambella last week.

“We condemn this terrible attack and are discussing the implications with all concerned,” he flagged.

Somalia: UN warns of lowest cereal production since 2011 (02.09.2019)

Opinion: ZANU-PF is playing it out wrong in concern with the sanctions…

Well, it is about that time. I am tired of reading the propaganda peddled against the sanctions in the Republic of Zimbabwe. That is a continuation of the ones put on the regime of Robert Mugabe and prolonged under the new dispensation of President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Both of them are acting the same way, but thinks that the West and the donor nations will look the other way.

Just as the ZANU-PF using the same methods of silencing opposition, arresting civil society leaders, creating more harder laws for gatherings and also crippling the economy on their own. While the President and his elite is living lavish on the public’s dime. Hoping someone else will cover the bills for the procurement of needed food, supplies and also running the government in general.

I am first showing the reason why the US is having sanctions, than the EU before why the SADC want it away. Before I settle it briefly after. Because to be repetitive is boring, even in 2019.

US OFAC:

The Zimbabwe sanctions program implemented by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) began on March 7, 2003, when the President issued Executive Order (“E.O.”) 13288. E.O. 13288 imposed sanctions against specifically identified individuals and entities in Zimbabwe, as a result of the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons undermining democratic institutions or processes in Zimbabwe. Following E.O. 13288, in response to the continued undermining of democratic institutions, the President issued two subsequent Executive orders that expanded the list of sanctions targets to include immediate family members of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked as well as those persons providing assistance to any such individual” (OFAC – ‘ZIMBABWE SANCTIONS PROGRAM’18.12.2013).

EU Statement:

The EU is not imposing economic or trade sanctions against Zimbabwe. The EU shares the opinion expressed by a number of international organisations whereby the main cause of the serious social and economic crisis which Zimbabwe is experiencing should be sought in inappropriate economic policies, the manner in which the land reform has been carried out, the drought and the HIV/AIDS pandemic;” (…) “the measures adopted by the EU, as a result of the break down of the rule of law and human rights abuses, are the freezing of personal assets of senior members of government and other high-ranking officials, the prevention of the same to travel to EU Member States and the embargo on the sale of arms. None of these measures could affect or cause any hardship to the Zimbabwean population” (EU – ‘POSITION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION ON SANCTIONS AGAINST ZIMBABWE’ August 2019).

SADC Communique:

Summit noted the adverse impact on the economy of Zimbabwe and the region at large, of prolonged economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe, and expressed solidarity with Zimbabwe,and called for the immediate lifting of the sanctions to facilitate socio-economic recovery in the country” (SADC – ‘COMMUNIQUE OF THE 39THSADC SUMMIT OF HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT JULIUS NYERERE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE DAR ES SALAAM, UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA – 17 August – 18 August 2019).

You can easily see why the US and EU continues and prolongs it. As the New Dispensation and the new head of state is acting as much as the previous ones. There is no change and the inflation is also spiralling out of control too. But that is the fault of either the sanctions, MDC or anyone putting negative connotations towards the ZANU-PF. That is the reason for all the trouble.

Not that the ones that ruling the Republic is continuing to do what the predecessor was doing. These actions that ensured that the West put sanctions on Zimbabwe in the first place. This are not even for the economic or financial implosion, but targeted at the leadership and the elites who are going against the public. The ones that is violating the public, human rights violations and the bad-track record, which is very familiar way of ZANU-PF.

So, if the ZANU-PF and their handlers claim the sanctions are hitting the economy. It hits the economy of the elites and not the public. It is the ones whose in-charge of the lack of rule of law and also the ones who are doing the human rights violations. Therefore, it is a lie that the EU and US sanctions are going to the whole system.

What the SADC and ZANU-PF want is to free their liabilities, the persons sanctioned and their companies. Not freeing the economy or stopping the hardship of the people, if they wanted that directly. Than they wouldn’t have given the EU and US a reason to sanction the leadership of ZANU-PF in the first place and repeating the same actions. Peace.

Ebola: As death toll approaches 2,000, vaccines, treatment and behaviour change equally important (27.08.2019)

This warning comes as the death toll for the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) approaches 2,000 and as the total number of cases reaches 3,000.

NAIROBI, Kenya, August 27, 2019 – The availability of an effective vaccine against Ebola and the recent confirmation of two effective treatments do not negate the importance of building trust and understanding in communities affected by the outbreak, warns the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).This warning comes as the death toll for the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) approaches 2,000 and as the total number of cases reaches 3,000.

Dr Emanuele Capobianco, IFRC’s Director of Health and Care said:

The importance of these new treatments – and the continued roll out of vaccines – are not to be underestimated. But alone they are not enough. Now is the time to double down on efforts to engage at-risk communities. For the treatments to work, people need to trust them and the medical staff who administer them. This will take time, resources and a lot of hard work.”

Continued high levels of distrust mean that many Ebola patients are delaying or avoiding going to health facilities. This reluctance significantly decreases their chance of survival, even with access to the newest treatments. It also dramatically increases the risk that the virus will spread to family members and other care givers. More than 42 per cent of alerts that Red Cross receives to bury a loved one are coming from a death at home.

IFRC’s Capobianco said:

“We are asking people to leave the safety of their homes when they fall sick to go to an isolated cell in an Ebola treatment centres where their lives are in the hands of complete strangers. We are asking communities to change the way they care for the sick and the dead in ways that go against their traditions. And we are doing all this in communities that have learned to distrust outsiders following decades of violence and unrest.

“This is our biggest challenge. It is a behavioural challenge, not a medical one. And unfortunately, there is no magic pill to change behaviours.”

Two new treatments that are hailed as an effective cure against Ebola are currently being administered in Ebola treatment centres all over North Kivu and Ituri. IFRC believes that if people understand that the treatment can save lives and can reduce the risk of transmission to their loved ones, they are more likely to seek health care early.

In addition to community outreach and engagement, Red Cross volunteers continue to carry out around 20 safe and dignified burials every day. Volunteers and other burial teams have responded to more than 11,000 safe and dignified burial requests across North Kivu and Ituri provinces.

IFRC is appealing for about 43 million Swiss francs to continue safe and dignified burials and to support 15.5 million people with community outreach, prevention, and preparedness measures. So far, just over half of the amount needed has been received.

RDC: CERF allocates $10 million to the Ebola response in DR Congo (09.08.2019)

UN boosts humanitarian appeal to help tackle Zimbabwe’s ‘worst-ever’ hunger crisis (07.08.2019)

The revised humanitarian appeal covers January 2019 through to April 2020 with a total requirement of $331.5 million need from this point onwards.

NEW YORK, United States of America, August 7, 2019 – With Zimbabwe now experiencing its “worst-ever hunger crisis”, the UN food relief agency has revised its humanitarian appeal to step up food assistance to people most affected by drought, flooding, and economic stagnation.

“Yesterday the humanitarian community launched an urgent appeal for funds to respond to the country’s very difficult humanitarian situation”, World Food Programme (WFP) Spokesperson Herve Verhoosel told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday. “WFP is set to increase aid, especially for drought-affected residents, but also to build community capacity to respond to climate shocks”.

Zimbabwe was once known as leading food producer in the region, one of the bread baskets of Africa, but its problems were exacerbated earlier this year when Cyclone Idai struck, affecting around 570,000 Zimbabweans, together with large parts of Mozambique and Malawi.

The revised humanitarian appeal covers January 2019 through to April 2020, with a total requirement of $331.5 million need from this point onwards.

‘Additional urgent assistance’ required

More than one-third of the rural population, or some 3.6 million people, will be food insecure by October, and by January the figure is expected to increase to 5.5 million during the inter-harvest season, according to WFP. Moreover, most of Zimbabwe’s 60 districts will exhaust their maize stocks by October.

“This accounts for 60 per cent of the rural population”, explained Mr. Verhoosel, adding that the UN agency is providing food assistance to 700,000 people in August.

And “when crop stocks decline, we will scale up for the season between harvests and help 1.7 million people in October-December and two million in January-April, but only if funding allows it”, he added.

WFP needs $173 million to implement its response plan in the next nine months consisting of a wide-ranging programme of humanitarian actions. The agency is asking the international community to quickly make the funds available.

Mr. Verhoosel flagged that following an emergency response, “we need to think about the long term and continue building local capacity”.

Citing that “the recent abandonment of the US dollar and other currencies for commercial transactions” has negatively impacted the economy, he said that while  the actual rates could be “even higher”, the official year-on-year inflation rate “reached 176 per cent in June, with food prices soaring by 252 per cent”.

“Climate shocks such as cyclones or drought also have an immediate impact, especially on the rural population”, underscored the WFP spokesperson, calling on the international community to “respond favorably to this request for funds to respond to this urgent situation”.

Opinion: Must be boring to fight the same fight for over 3 decades and fail!

The NRM struggled to usher peace in the country. Peace ignited infrastructure development. The remaining task is wealth creation mobilisation at household level. A person with a reasonable piece of land is able to handle any agricultural practice” – President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on the 5th August 2019 in Bundibugyo district

If there is anyone who promotes steady progress, must see the last three months as free-fall and as a weakness. The Museveni Wealth Creation Tour, which needed billions upon billions extra paid for, as he opened municipal roads built on donor funds and other projects, which is minor. But big enough for photo-ops.

The President usually came with the same swagger and talking-points, its sort of the same statements, as the citizens will create wealth on small farming with the usage of the right cash-crops. This has been spread to all sorts of initiatives and state sponsored agricultural benefits. Not that they have worked and have failed, one after another. Just like it was meant to be, than the state launches another one battling rural poverty, another donor funded enterprise and gets seedlings, tractors and whatnot to Gulu/Lira. Two years later, the whole cooperation is dead and the President has to come a revive the dead.

This is happening again and again. He comes with small donations, some insignificant changes, promise challenging different. Blames leaders, the Residential District Commanders, the Opposition politicians and even some of the locals ones get caught in the blender too. Until it makes a badly tasting stew, that he serves with a little bit of ignorance of the actual needs. Because, if he had cared about that, the President would have served that a long time ago.

The state has enough schemes, Operation Wealth Creations, NAADs and SACCOs, but none of these is cutting the chase. They are just not up to it and it seems they are there to create a money laundering operation. Because, the state is never up to it and seems to be keen to deliver. They don’t have the needed expertise, the allocations in time or even ordering the right type of crop for the right soil/climate or historical production in that area. It seems something fails, neither the hook or by the crook.

Therefore, it must be boring to scream the same message, that he has spoken of for 3 decades, the message and the promise of greener pasture. The promise, that if you follow me and plant these green seeds, your will grow profits. You grandchildren will eat and they will be able to sell. But we have seen how the state functions.

As the state supported the Soroti Fruit Factory, however, the local farmers produced the right type of fruits, but the factory couldn’t handle the amount and the fruits got wasted. Therefore, the state cannot manage to deliver or even compensate the lost investments of the farmers. Still, he comes around like a King and promises golden roads to heaven. If you follows him.

The same message, that if you grow the right thing as he says, it will pay off. That is his way of fighting poverty. Not educating their kids, not enlighten them with knowledge or skills for the future. No, plant the right type of coffee or sorghum and vote the NRM. This is what the President has spoken of, again and again.

It must be so sad. So brilliantly waste of time. That he speaks of the same, promise the same deliverance from poverty. Pledges the same sort of stories and with the same punchline. And don’t see the foolishness of it. That he has failed, time and time again. The President has had 33 years to fix this. Still, he hasn’t achieved it. His fighting the same fight, as he started in the Bush.

Clearly, the President haven’t managed, haven’t been as visionary or carefully crafting the ministries, the districts, the sub-counties and the agricultural welfare, to be able to follow up, upon the message that he spread since the inception of the NRA. The man of the mustard seed, the man who could conclusively state all the ills of the leadership in Africa. Has clearly lost his touch, his supposed brilliance and uniqueness.

Since, he got to recycle, got to go in circle and never ever win. He has got to use the same methods, the same sort of fight and not winning. Surely, his failed and a giant failure. The peasants are still peasants, they are not middle-class, they cannot afford Benz’s and Lexus, they can barely afford millet and matooki. That is how it is. Utter total failure of policy, of implementation and revision of it.

That can be said, because his track-record says so. If it was working so well, why would he bring the same remedy and same message all-over again? Peace.

Aiming for zero cholera in South Sudan (04.08.2019)