Africa

June 14, 2016 (JUBA) – The United Nations Human Right Council (UNHRC) has selected a three-member committee to monitor human rights violations in South Sudan and aid the process of transitional justice, healing and reconciliation.

A general view of participants during the 29th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 3 July 2015 - (UN Photo)

The President of the Human Rights Council, ambassador Choi Kyonglim (Republic of Korea), announced Tuesday the appointment of Yasmin Sooka (South Africa), Kenneth R. Scott (USA) and Godfrey M. Musila (Kenya), to serve as the three members of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.

Sooka will serve as Chair of the three-person commission. She is a human right lawyer who served on South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 1994 to 2001.

The Council decided to establish, for a period of a year, the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan at its 31st session on 23 March 2016, to monitor and report on the situation of human rights in South Sudan and make recommendations for improvement.

Through Human Rights Council resolution 31/20 on the situation of human rights in South Sudan, which was adopted by consensus, the 47-member body mandated the three-person Commission to assess the human rights situation in the country since December 2013, in order to establish facts in support of transitional justice, accountability, reconciliation and healing.

The Commissioners, who will serve in their personal capacities, will provide guidance to the Government of South Sudan on transitional justice, accountability and reconciliation issues and will engage with international and regional mechanisms to promote accountability for human rights violations and abuses.

The commission is scheduled to present a comprehensive written report to the Human Rights Council at its 34th regular session, in March 2017.

According to chapter five of the August 2015 peace agreement, a Hybrid Court will be formed to try suspects for the crimes committed during the 21 months of conflict between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar.

There will be a separate body for truth, healing and reconciliation to mend ties for the ethnically divided country.

(ST)

June 14, 2016 (JUBA) - A unit of the faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), a co-national army of South Sudan under the command of President Salva Kiir, has ransacked a market in Kajokeji county of the proposed Yei River (Central Equatoria) state, sparking armed confrontation in which more than 20 lives were lost.

Women sell food at Konyo Konyo market in South Sudan (Reuters)

The actual motive behind the looting of the civilians market remains unclear. Neither the office of the spokesperson of the SPLA nor the governor of the proposed Yei River state has issued a statement providing explanations or circumstances under which armed confrontation ensued in one of the supposedly relatively peaceful and calm places in the country since the conflict broke out in mid- December 2013.

Local accounts from eyewitnesses attributed the cause to the deployment of a unit of the SPLA force to Nyepo payam, located north of Kajokeji, without the knowledge and approval of the local authorities.

“The report I received from the area is that the humanitarian situation is dire after this incident. The civilians have fled their homes. They are sleeping out in the open and in churches with limited capacity to accommodate them,” a legislator representing Kajokeji at the national legislative assembly in Juba said Monday in an exclusive interview.

“Also these are places which were not meant to residences. They were meant for something else,” he added.

The lawmaker who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals claimed the armed confrontation was sparked by the behaviours of some elements of government's forces who entered the market to loot.

“My daughter and my brother were in the market when this incident occurred. What they told me and has been confirmed by several people is that some elements of the SPLA forces that were deployed to Kajokeji recently on dubious grounds decided to go to the market and started taking food items by force from owners,” he said.

The national army forces, he said, argued that the government had not paid them salary for long and that they had no money to pay for the food.

“When they were asked to pay, they refused and said that they have not been paid by the government. Now who did not pay them, government or the civilians, asked the legislator? “This was caused the fight because youth felt agitated and so decided to stop intimidation,” he explained

Other sources claimed that the clashes erupted when armed men loyal to the first vice president, Riek Machar, decided to intervene upon seeing the intimidation of the natives by the SPLA forces.

Upon the clash in the market, according to another source, the local command of the army unit in the area decided to send reinforcements from the main barrack in Mundari area in central Kajokeji but their movement was intercepted and fell into ambush laid on the way and lives were lost.

Another reinforcement sent from Juba fell in an ambush and additional lives were lost.

It is unclear how many lives have been lost from both sides. Many sources put figures of the government killed in two ambushes at more than 20 soldiers but local residents put the figures higher.

(ST)

June 14, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Defence Minister Awad Ibn Ouf said Tuesday that the Border Guard Forces (BGF) would participate among the rest of the regular forces in the collection of illegal arms in Darfur.

Sudan's defence minister Awad Ibn Ouf (SUNA Photo)

In April, President Omer al-Bashir announced the formation of a national body under the title of Darfur Disarmament Higher Committee to collect illegal weapons from the hand of civilians.

He said there will be a first phase were people will be asked to voluntarily handover their arms, adding that the second step will be heavy disarmament operations and legal action will be taken against those who didn't deliver their weapons.

The BGF is comprised mostly of the Arab militia mobilized by Khartoum to help quell the revolt of Darfur rebels who took up arms against the government in February 2003.

On Monday, Ibn Ouf inspected the BGF troops at the Wadi Sayidna military area north of Khartoum upon their return from the combat operations in the Blue Nile state.

He said the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), the BGF and the other regular forces would participate in the collection of the illegal arms in Darfur in order to enhance peace and stability, pointed that the BGF has responded to the call of duty in all battlefields.

The Defence Minister further hailed efforts of the BGF in maintaining security and stability and supporting programs of voluntary return of the IDP's to their original villages, pointing to the significant victories in the Blue Nile and the entire military operations zones.

The Sudanese government has been fighting the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) in South Kordofan and Blue Nile areas since 2011.

Earlier this month, the Blue Nile Governor Hussein Yassin Abu Sorwal said that SAF managed to retake control of the strategic area of Jebel Kilgu, 30 km south of the Blue Nile state capital Ed-Damazin.

The Sudanese government had dispatched hundreds of the Rapid Support Force (RSF) militiamen to participate in the recent battles in the Blue Nile.

The SRF militiamen are accused to taking part in the counterinsurgency campaign led by the Sudanese army against Darfur rebel groups. UN agencies estimate that some 300 thousands civilians were killed.

For his part, SAF Chief of Staff Emad al-Din Mustafa Adawy stressed that SAF would meet the needs of the BGF and provide training for its soldiers to carry out their duties fully.

He also pointed to the recent victories in Jebel Kilgu, Torda and Angassana Hills in the Blue Nile, pledging to provide resources for the BGF in order to protect the borders efficiently.

(ST)

June 14, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese president, Salva Kiir, has issued a provisional order appointing all the state governors as interim leaders of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in their respective states.

South Sudanese president Salva Kiir (Photo: Reuters)

The order appointed 28 governors of the newly created controversial 28 states, ending tensions and uncertainty over who controls party branch offices after the division of the states since 2 October last year.

According to Bol Makueng, secretary of information at the secretariat of the faction of the SPLM loyal to President Kiir, said the appointments came in accordance with the mandate given to the President by the party's political bureau.

Makueng further explained that the 28 governors will lead the party in the new states until state congresses are conducted.

“These are interim arrangements until congresses are conducted. And it is within the powers of the chairman after the meeting of the political bureau had resolved and authorized him to issue a provisional order in his capacity as the chairman of the SPLM,” Makueng said.

“So the state governors are the interim leaders now,” he said.

The main duties of the interim leaders, according to Makueng, are to help in planning, coordination and organization and receive directives and guidance from head office on how they could be running the affairs of the party in the state through the existing secretariat.

He also added that they may upgrade the county offices in places where a county has been upgraded to become a state of its own as a result of the creation of more administrative units.

(ST)

June 15, 2015 (KJARTOUM) - The Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement - Minni Minnawi on Wednesday called on the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to take part in the ongoing efforts to bring peace in Sudan.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni gestures during his inauguration in Kampala on 12 May 2016 (Photo AFP)

The two groups, which hold arms against the government of President Omer al-Bashir in Darfur region since 2003, call to open the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) for talks and refuse to sign the Roadmap Agreement brokered by the African Union asking to create a conducive environment for the constitutional conference .

''The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement Sudan (JEM) strongly believe that the Republic of Uganda with its visionary leadership is best placed to play a constructive role in the search for peace in the Republic of Sudan," said a joint statement extended to Sudan Tribune in the first hours of Wednesday.

The two rebel movements pointed to the " instrumental role" played by President Museveni in the resolution of the South Sudanese crisis, the recent rapprochement between Khartoum and Kampala and the Ugandan role in the conclusion of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 ending the civil war between Sudanese government and the SPLM.

'' Therefore, SLM and JEM wholeheartedly request and welcome H. E. President Yoweri Museveni to exploit his exceptionally rich experience in the affairs of the region and his outstanding statesmanship in working for peace in the Republic of Sudan which will consequently contribute positively to the sustenance of peace in the Republic of South Sudan,'' the two group said.

Kampala and Khartoum traded accusations for longtime of supporting rebel groups, but their relations have improved over the past months and the ICC-wanted President Omer al-Bashir attended the inauguration of President Museveni last May.

Also, Museveni made negative remarks in his inaugural address about the International Criminal Court when he described it as 'a bunch of useless people'.

last month the two rebel groups asked Qatar to join the African Union-led mediation in order to discuss some outstanding issues already outlined in the DDPD.

But seemingly, Khartoum refused the request as it keeps saying the holdout groups have to ink the DDPD and then the government can discuss to their requests.

(ST)

June 14, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Tuesday said it has foiled people-smuggling operation via the Red Sea coast in Port Sudan pointing that two suspects were arrested.

Saudi men rest along the beach overlooking the Red Sea - (Photo Reuters/Susan Baaghil)

Sudan is considered as an origin as well as transit region for the illegal migrants and human trafficking. Thousands of people from Eritrea and Ethiopia are monthly crossing the border into the Sudanese territories on their way to Europe through Libya or Egypt.

The Sudan Media Center, a website closely linked to the country's intelligence circles, quoted a well-informed security source as saying that the NISS had foiled the smuggling of 22 people to a neighbouring country through the Sudanese coast on the Red Sea.

He said that a maritime security force had busted the boat which was waiting to load the illegal migrants at Danganab area after it received information about a people-smuggling operation to a neighbouring country.

The same source stressed that two suspects were arrested, pointing that the boat belongs to fish trader in Port Sudan.

He said that the illegal migrants confessed that the smuggling operation is carried out by several people belonging to one of Eastern Sudan's tribes at Al-Shagar area in the sea port of Sawakin, saying they charge each passenger between 2000 to 9000 Sudanese pounds (SDG) (about $150-$640).

He added that the suspects have been handed over to the police to take the legal action against them.

Last week, Sudan, Italy and the United Kingdom said they arrested in Khartoum an Eritrean man suspected of controlling one of the world's four largest criminal migrant trafficking organizations.

In January 2014, the Sudanese parliament approved an anti-human trafficking law which punishes those involved with human trafficking with up to 20 years imprisonment.

Also, in 2014, Khartoum hosted a conference on human trafficking in the Horn of Africa, organised by the African Union (AU), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Sudanese government.

15 countries and European Union representatives attended the meeting, during which a joint strategy and action plan to combat human trafficking was adopted.

(ST)

The longer the political crisis continues in Guinea Bissau, the more likely the country could see setbacks to its development and economic gains, warned the head of the United Nations peacebuilding office there, urging the Security Council to pay greater attention to the situation.

The UN human rights office today urged the Libyan authorities to undertake an effective, thorough and impartial investigation to bring perpetrators of torture to justice, after 12 people were found dead last Friday.

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By Jawed Naqvi
Jun 14 2016 (Dawn, Pakistan)

In the departure lounge near Gate No 308 at the Istanbul airport there’s a coffee shop, which has thrown a few chairs and tables near the exit to cater to its needy customers whose flights are delayed. It was here that I got an important glimpse the other day of how one can still frontally approach issues of religious sensitivities. The young Turkish waiter asked an old Arab man to place the order. The man said he was only waiting for his flight to be announced. “Not here, please. This is a coffee shop.” The Arab vacated the chair without fuss.

Next, the waiter turned to a well-heeled albeit younger man who could be from anywhere. Occupying a useful seat he was not generating a lira’s worth of business for the coffee kiosk. “I am fasting,” the man pleaded. “Please go and fast somewhere else. We are serving food to the hungry,” he was told politely. The man left without demur.

I believe this is how Kemal Ataturk would have liked his people to be. They should not flaunt their religion in public, and keep it preferably a private affair. Jinnah applauded Ataturk. Gandhi, on the other hand, as an advocate of the controversial Khilafat Movement, had little time for the Turkish hero’s secular politics.

In the Erdogan era, a marked deviation from the Ataturk vision of Islam seems to have crept in. The Turkish president was asked why he cut his last week’s trip to the United States short. He said he thought it would be “unnecessary” to stay until the burial ceremony of boxing legend Muhammad Ali after realising the event on June 10 would have “no religious aspect”.

A new vocabulary of orthodoxy is palpable today, which quickly mutates into extremism, and it is not limited to Muslims.

Even in the Erdogan era, however, there are limits to how far one can take the public display of religion. For example, travelling from Delhi on Turkish Airlines, I saw the bar nicely stocked with a range of drinks that would have pleased Ghalib. When I asked the plane’s chef on the Istanbul-Dakar sector why his bar was so completely depleted, the man smiled back. “We are a discreet airline. We are flying to a Muslim country.”

As far as Islam in Senegal goes it is the official religion. But try and find a woman in hijab in Dakar and you would not succeed though they will in all probability be scrupulously observing their Ramazan fast. With their beautifully assembled attire woven in a riot of colours, one can’t easily tell a Christian Senegalese from his Muslim counterpart. And yet both sides will be observing their faith with sincerity.

I drove to the Keur Moussa abbey on Sunday to listen to the fabled Gregorian chants its black African denizens sing for congregations every week. I remembered the late Muhammad Ali’s persistent questions to his mother at their Louisville church. Why were all the angels white, Ali would want to know. Well, he would have found both Mary and Jesus in their black African avatar at the Senegal abbey, an hour’s drive from Dakar. The angels hovering over them are black too. And the music, it is divine.

The situation in South Asia is fraught by comparison. Americans ‘skedule’ their appointments while the English ‘shedule’ them. The obvious reason for pronouncing schedule differently, the Americans will laugh, can be found in the different ‘shools’ the two attended. South Asia’s debate between Ramadan and Ramazan would reflect a similar unequal contest of receding and upwardly mobile cultures, had it not been usurped by its pervasive religious revivalism.

Given the mushrooming clusters of orthodox believers we face today, the chances are that those who prefer the Arabic Ramadan would be found to be the more assertive Muslims against the conventional lot who have stayed with Ramazan to describe the month of fasting. A new vocabulary of orthodoxy is palpable today, which readily mutates into extremism, and it is not limited to Muslims.

The syndrome exists among a growing number of north India’s Hindus, for example. They have migrated from the traditional and laid-back Jai Ramji ki as a social greeting over the years to Jai Shri Ram, the latter with pronounced religious and even militant underpinnings.

It is highly probable in my view that the mob that lynched Mohammed Akhlaq — whether he ate or did not eat beef — would respond to Jai Shri Ram rather than to Jai Ramji ki as a greeting. It is equally my instinct that the Pakistani policeman who assaulted an 80-year old Hindu man for eating outside his house in Sindh before sunset last week is a partisan of Ramadan over Ramazan. Check it out. My hunch derives from the pattern of vocabulary religious orthodoxy assumes.

Given my early exposure to Ramazan in Lucknow, it is difficult to accept that there is no music on the occasion today. Some of you will remember how in the mornings singers who would call out in unison to the fasting men and women, and their children for sehri, the last meal before sunrise.

On the other hand there was the legacy of Ghalib always offering his own insights with roots placed deep in realism: Iftaar-i-saum kii jise kuch dast gaah ho/ Us shakhs ko zaroor hai rozaa rakha kare/ Jis paas roza khol ke khaane ko kuch na ho/ Roza agar na khaaye to naachaar kya kare. (The one who has the means to break his fast/ that person should indeed keep the fast/ The one who has nothing to break his fast with/ What else can he do but to ‘eat the fast’).

In Delhi, there were poetry soirees during Ramazan where the congregation would conclude with the morning meal. Apparently, a couplet would lure the audiences: Mushaira bhi hai, sehri ka intezam bhi/ Daawat-i- aam hai, yaarane nuqtadan ke liye. (This mushaira will end with sehri. Friendly critics and commoners are welcome for both).

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi. jawednaqvi@gmail.com

This story was originally published by Dawn, Pakistan

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Peter Mcharo's two children digging their father’s maize field in Kibaigwa village, Morogoro Region, some 350km from Dar es Salaam. Mcharo has benefitted greatly from conservation agriculture techniques. Credit: Orton Kiishweko/IPS

By Dr. Katrin Glatzel
KIGALI, Rwanda, Jun 14 2016 (IPS)

After over a year of extreme weather changes across the world, causing destruction to homes and lives, 2015-16 El Niño has now come to an end.

This recent El Niño – probably the strongest on record along with the along with those in 1997-1998 and 1982-83– has yet again shown us just how vulnerable we, let alone the poorest of the poor, are to dramatic changes in the climate and other extreme weather events.

Across southern Africa El Niño has led to the extreme drought affecting this year’s crop. Worst affected by poor rains are Malawi, where almost three million people are facing hunger, and Madagascar and Zimbabwe, where last year’s harvest was reduced by half compared to the previous year because of substantial crop failure.

However, El Niño is not the only manifestation of climate change. Mean temperatures across Africa are expected to rise faster than the global average, possibly reaching as high as 3°C to 6°C greater than pre-industrial levels, and rainfall will change, almost invariably for the worst.

In the face of this, African governments are under more pressure than ever to boost productivity and accelerate growth in order to meet the food demands of a rapidly expanding population and a growing middle class. To achieve this exact challenge, African Union nations signed the Malabo Declaration in 2014, committing themselves to double agricultural productivity and end hunger by 2025.

However, according to a new briefing paper out today from the Montpellier Panel, the agricultural growth and food security goals as set out by the Malabo Declaration have underemphasised the risk that climate change will pose to food and nutrition security and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. The Montpellier Panel concludes that food security and agricultural development policies in Africa will fail if they are not climate-smart.

Smallholder farmers will require more support than ever to withstand the challenges and threats posed by climate change while at the same time enabling them to continue to improve their livelihoods and help achieve an agricultural transformation. In this process it will be important that governments do not fail to mainstream smallholder resilience across their policies and strategies, to ensure that agriculture continues to thrive, despite the increasing number and intensity of droughts, heat waves or flash floods.

The Montpellier Panel argues that climate-smart agriculture, which serves the triple purpose of increasing production, adapting to climate change and reducing agriculture-related greenhouse gas emissions, needs to be integrated into countries’ National Agriculture Investment Plans and become a more explicit part of the implementation of the Malabo Declaration.

Across Africa we are starting to see signs of progress to remove some of the barriers to implementing successful climate change strategies at national and local levels.  These projects and agriculture interventions are scalable and provide important lessons for strengthening political leadership, triggering technological innovations, improving risk mitigation and above all building the capacity of a next generation of agricultural scientists, farmers and agriculture entrepreneurs. The Montpellier Panel has outlined several strategies that have shown particular success.

Building a Knowledge Economy

A “knowledge economy” improves the scientific capacities of both individuals and institutions, supported by financial incentives and better infrastructure. A good example is the “Global Change System Analysis, Research and Training” (START) programme, that promotes research-driven capacity building to advance knowledge on global environmental change across 26 countries in Africa.

START provides research grants and fellowships, facilitates multi-stakeholder dialogues and develops curricula. This opens up opportunities for scientists and development professionals, young people and policy makers to enhance their understanding of the threats posed by climate change.

Sustainably intensifying agriculture

Agriculture production that will simultaneously improve food security and natural resources such as soil and water quality will be key for African countries to achieve the goal of doubling agriculture productivity by 2025. Adoption of Sustainable Intensification (SI) practices in combination has the potential to increase agricultural production while improving soil fertility, reducing GHG emissions and environmental degradation and making smallholders more resilient to climate change or other weather stresses and shocks.

Drip irrigation technologies such as bucket drip kits help deliver water to crops effectively with far less effort than hand-watering and for a minimal cost compared to irrigation. In Kenya, through the support of the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute, the use of the drip kit is spreading rapidly and farmers reported profits of US$80-200 with a single bucket kit, depending on the type of vegetable.

Providing climate information services

Risk mitigation tools, such as providing reliable climate information services, insurance policies that pay out to farmers following extreme climate events and social safety net programmes that pay vulnerable households to contribute to public works can boost community resilience. Since 2011 the CGIAR’s Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the Senegalese National Meteorological Agency and the the Union des Radios Associatives et Communautaires du Sénégal, an association of 82 community-based radio stations, have been collaborating to develop climate information services that benefit smallholder farmers.

A pilot project was implemented in Kaffrine and by 2015, the project had scaled-up to the rest of the country. Four different types of CI form the basis of advice provided to farmers through SMS and radio: seasonal, 10-day, daily and instant weather forecasts, that allow farmers to adjust their farming practices. In 2014, over 740,000 farm households across Senegal benefitted from these services.

Now is the time to act

While international and continental processes such as the Sustainable Development Goals, COP21 and the Malabo Declaration are crucial for aligning core development objectives and goals, there is often a disconnect between the levels of commitment and implementation on the ground. Now is an opportune time to act. Governments inevitably have many concurrent and often conflicting commitments and hence require clear goals that chart a way forward to deliver on the Malabo Declaration.

The 15 success stories discussed in the Montpellier Panel’s briefing paper highlight just some examples that help Africa’s agriculture thrive. As the backbone of African economies, accounting for as much as 40% of total export earnings and employing 60 – 90% of the labour force, agriculture is the sector that will accelerate growth and transform Africa’s economies.

With the targets of the Malabo Declaration aimed at 2025 – five years before the SDGs – Africa can now seize the moment and lead the way on the shared agenda of sustainable agricultural development and green economic growth.

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Farmers are in despair at the drought crisis in Southern Madagascar, where at least 1.14 million people are food insecure. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

By Miriam Gathigah
BEKILY, Madagascar, Jun 14 2016 (IPS)

Havasoa Philomene did not have any maize when the harvesting season kicked off at the end of May since like many in the Greater South of Madagascar, she had already boiled and eaten all her seeds due to the ongoing drought.

Here, thousands of children are living on wild cactus fruits in spite of the severe constipation that they cause, but in the face of the most severe drought witnessed yet, Malagasy people have resorted to desperate measures just to survive.

“We received maize seeds in January in preparation for the planting season but most of us had eaten all the seeds within three weeks because there is nothing else to eat,” says the 53-year-old mother of seven.

She lives in Besakoa Commune in the district of Bekily, Androy region, one of the most affected in the South of Madagascar.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says that an estimated 45,000 people in Bekily alone are affected, which is nearly half of the population here.

Humanitarian agencies like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) estimate that 1.14 million people lack enough food in the seven districts of Southern Madagascar, accounting for at least 80 percent of the rural population.

The United Nations World Food Programme now says that besides Androy, other regions, including Amboassary, are experiencing a drought crisis and many poor households have resulted to selling small animals and their own clothes, as well as kitchenware, in desperate attempts to cope.

After the USAID’s Office of U.S Foreign Disaster Assistance through The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) organised an emergency response in January to provide at least 4,000 households in eight communes in the districts of Bekily and Betroka with maize seeds, many families had devoured them in less than three weeks.

Philomene told IPS that “the seeds should have been planted in February but people are very hungry.”

Due to disastrous crop production in the last harvesting season, many farmers did not produce enough seeds for the February planting season, hence the need for humanitarian agencies to meet the seed deficit.

Farmers like Rasoanandeasana Emillienne say that this is the driest rainy season in 35 years.

“I have never experienced this kind of hunger. We are taking one day at a time because who knows what will happen if the rains do not return,” says the mother of four.

Although the drought situation has been ongoing since 2013, experts such as Shalom Laison, programme director at ADRA Madagascar, says that at least 80 percent of crops from the May-June harvest are expected to fail.

The Southern part of Madagascar is the poorest, with USAID estimates showing that 90 percent of the population earns less than two dollars a day.

According to Willem Van Milink, a food security expert with the World Food Programme, “Of the one million people affected across the Southern region, 665,000 people are severely food insecure and in need of emergency food support.”

Against this backdrop, the U.S. ambassador to the UN Agencies in Rome (FAO, IFAD and WFP), David Lane, has urged the government to declare the drought an emergency as an appeal to draw attention to the ongoing crisis.

Ambassador Lane says that though the larger Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) member states are making plans to declare an emergency situation in 13 countries in the southern region, including Madagascar, “the government of Madagascar needs to make an appeal for help.”

“Climate change is getting more and more volatile but the world does not know what is happening in Southern Madagascar and this region is indicative of what is happening in a growing number of countries in Southern Africa,” he told IPS during his May 16-21 visit to Madagascar.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), these adverse weather conditions have reduced crop production in other Southern African nations where an estimated 14 million people face hunger in countries including Southern Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Malawi and South Africa.

Thousands of households are living precarious lives in the regions of Androy, Anosy and Atsimo Andrefana in Southern Madagascar  because they are unable to meet their basic food and non-food needs through September due to the current El Niño event, which has translated into a pronounced dry spell.

“An appeal is very important to show that the drought is longer than usual, hence the need for urgent but also more sustainable solutions,” says USAID’s Dina Esposito.

The ongoing situation is different from chronic malnutrition, she stressed. “This is about a lack of food and not just about micronutrients and people are therefore much too thin for their age.”

She says that the problem with a slow onset disaster like a drought as compared to a fast onset disaster like a cyclone – also common in the South – is to determine when to draw the line and declare the situation critical.

Esposito warns that the worst is yet to come since food insecurity is expected to escalate in terms of severity and magnitude in the next lean season from December 2016 to February 2017.

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Protesters along a Kenyan street. Elections should not mean destroying every gain made over the previous years. PHOTO | TONNY OMONDI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By Dr. Francis Ole Kaparo and Siddharth Chatterjee
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 14 2016 (IPS)

Kenyans, and friends of Kenya, are once again hoping that the five-yearly ritual of elections will not take the form of widespread ethnic violence and destruction of property. However, recent intransigent positions over the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) are a cause for apprehension and concern.

The social and economic effects of the 2007 election dispute are still being felt, and key sectors of the economy, including tourism, are still struggling. The violence had also left its scar on the survivors in the form of anxiety and post-traumatic stress. Statistics on sexual and gender-based violence show that whenever election-related violent conflict occurs, it is the innocent women and children who suffer most.

As a development partner of Kenya, and guided by the core values of respect for human rights, diversity, equality and inclusion, the United Nations (UN) family is determined to do all it can to help prevent a recurrence of violence and conflict.

The UN in Kenya is currently supporting institutions to deliver a free, fair and peaceful election, with an eye on the welfare of the most vulnerable populations. It recognizes the adverse effects of violence on the poor, especially women and children, and believes that respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to peacefully assemble, is critical to fostering democracy and dialogue.

Through the current electoral support project entitled Strengthening Electoral Processes in Kenya (SEPK), supported by the European Union (EU), the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the UN is supporting institutional strengthening, professional development, procurement and the use of information and communication technology for the 2017 elections.

The UN is also working with various stakeholders such as the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), faith-based organizations, and civil society groups towards peace building, conflict prevention, and on early-warning and response mechanisms.

These investments will only yield fruit if there is a genuine desire to carry out a peaceful election. For those seeking elective office, the elections must not be a zero-sum game, and the welfare of the country must supersede individual gain.

Kenyans must start believing that elections do not mean destroying every gain made over the previous five years, and that political contestation is possible without violence. The youth must decide to carve out a better future for themselves and say no to politicians who misuse their energy and enthusiasm.

It must not be lost on them that the heaviest toll from election violence is always on the poor youth, most of whom are already affected by lack of opportunities and have little hope of coming out of poverty.

These young populations provide a demographic edge for economic prosperity, but they are also a powder keg, especially when political self-interests clash, that ignites violence and lawlessness. Today, there is no greater need than that of investing in their future in order to stay the country from degenerating into chaos whenever elections approach.

Kenya has made significant of strides in attracting foreign direct investment. For instance, the Tenth World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference that was held in Kenya last year cemented Kenya’s global significance and reinforced the belief that Kenya is open for business. However, a politically charged and polarized environment does not bode well for a conducive environment that attracts new investors, while at the same encouraging the old ones to stay put.

With Kenya hosting several high-level meetings in the coming months; such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on 17-22 July 2016; Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) on 27-28 August 2016 – the first time the conference is being held outside Japan – and the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) 28 November – 1 December 2016; the political violence will not help the country’s image – that of a stable destination that attracts tourists and investors. Kenya must continue to gain the confidence of the international community by demonstrating that it can handle the demands of democratic space.

Efforts that are being made to ensure that Kenya has a peaceful, credible, free and fair election, such as the recent formation of the parliamentary joint select committee to unlock the IEBC impasse, are a welcome step. The work being done by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) to ensure a peaceful, harmonious and integrated society should be supported by all.

While ultimately it is the people of Kenya who will chart the course that the country takes through the institutions they have put in place, the UN will continue to remind the leaders of sides of the political spectrum of Kenya, of their obligation to the poor and vulnerable.

As the official election campaign period approaches, we must choose the dove of fraternity and mutual concession over the hawk of belligerence and mutually destruction.

Senegalese Fatma Samoura will begin work in her new role as Fifa secretary general on Monday after successfully passing an eligibility check.

June 13, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The UAE Etisalat Group has announced selling its 92.3 percent shareholding in Sudanese fixed line operator Canar to Bank of Khartoum for 349.6 million dirham ($95.2 million).

In a statement issued on Monday, the Etisalat Group said that Bank of Khartoum, which already owns 3.7 of Canar company, has exercised its right as shareholder to reject selling the stakes of the Etisalat to Zain, a mobile telecommunications company known as (Zain-Sudan).

The Etisalat Group and the Bank of Khartoum have signed the final documents of the deal at a cost of 349.6 million dirham, with a rate of 17.504 dirham per share, the statement said.

The Etisalat stated that the completion of the agreement is still subject to the approval of the Sudanese concerned authorities. In line with the deal, the number of the Bank of Khartoum shares in Canar Company increased from 3.7% to 96%.

Previously The Etisalat had agreed to sell its stake in Canar for Zain-Sudan with the same price the stake was sold to the Bank of Khartoum, but the deal was aborted by the Bank of Khartoum when it used its right of rejection.

The deal sparked a row between the Bank of Khartoum and Zain-Sudan as the two firms traded accusations in a rare public dispute over the conditions of the sale.

It was also reported that Zain-Sudan decided to close its accounts and withdraw its funds from the Bank of Khartoum and sell its assets.

(ST)

June 13, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudan's national security forces have been accused of firing live bullets at University of Juba students during an election organized by students to nominate the guild president of the University.

University of Juba (File photo )

The shooting took place at 8:00 pm on Monday, forcing many of the students who have attended the occasion to flee from the scene.

A Juba University student identified himself as Deng has told Sudan Tribune over phone interview that a group of national security personnel broke into the University premise and intimidated students before they could fire bullets.

He claimed as the election was ongoing, groups of students allied to the President Salva Kiir's faction of the transitional government went out and brought some militants from the national security to force students out of the hall and called for electoral committee to remain behind with all casted votes.

Deng further explained that the arrival of the national security at the venue threatened students and those responsible for students' body leadership election.

He said students were intimidated, calling for their arrest, as they waited for electoral results declaration. Although students insisted to continue with the push of results declaration, he added, the group of the national security personnel started to scare the students through use of live bullets, fired randomly into the air.

Several other sources told Sudan Tribune that there was a disagreement between university students who are supporters of the armed opposition leader, the First Vice President, Riek Machar and those supporting President Salva Kiir.

Puot Kang, a member of Sudan People Liberation Movement armed opposition, and chairman of the armed Youths league, has also confirmed that students were forced out of University of Juba on Monday evening.

He said as students conducted a peaceful election on the top seat of students leader at the University, the group of the national security drove into the venue and surrounded the premises.

Kang said the involvement of the national security in the students' activities meant violation of South Sudanese transitional constitution for freedom of assembly and expression.

“We need to respect all citizens' rights in freedom of assembly. It is not acceptable for the national security to interfere with other people's right of expression,” he said over phone interview with Sudan Tribune.

Kang further explained that the SPLM-IO led by Machar is now the main peace partner in South Sudan's peace agreement, adding that they have condemned the students' provocation by the national security forces.

Last week a group of students were arrested at Juba University because of having allegedly supported of the armed opposition groups.

(ST)

June 13, 2016 (JUBA) – The head of the United Nations peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous said South Sudan has opened a new page in its national life with the coming into force of the newly-established Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU).

The head of the UN peacekeeping mission, Herve Ladsous speaking in Juba (UNMISS photo)

He said peace and security should be prioritised as he held a meeting in the capital, Juba with President Salva Kiir and his two vice presidents during a visit to the young nation.

The UN involvement in the country, Ladsous said, should not be seen as the work of a substitute government, but that key decision-making be in hands of South Sudanese.

‘‘It was very important to listen to our South Sudanese interlocutors with one very important message; it is that the responsibilities are theirs, but that the UN are here to help,” said the UN head of peacekeeping mission.

He added, “We are not there to substitute, the decisions have to be made by the South Sudanese themselves, but we are in support”.

According to Ladsous, South Sudanese leaders should focus on, stability and security, the situation of internally displaced persons, building an institutional framework, the economy and humanitarian situation with focus on food insecurity.

Tens of thousands of people were killed and nearly two million were displaced in South Sudan's worst ever violence since its secession from neighbouring Sudan in 2011.

Ladsous also visited displaced camps in Bentiu and Malakal, raising issues of human rights and tasking the government not to compromise on the rights of ordinary people.

“I would also mention, of course that we remain very attentive to human rights and similar issues, but we are taking a positive view. Again, a new page has opened and the relationship of the United Nations with South Sudan similarly is now on a new footing,” he further stressed.

South Sudan had been in political crisis since the current first vice-president was sacked by president Kiir in 2013, following a war which broke out in the young African nation.

President Kiir and his deputy Machar, under the terms of a peace agreement signed in August 2015, formed a 30-month Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU).

(ST)