Month: July 2022

SUMMER RAINS START IN SOME AREAS

KEY POINTS

• Current situation: calm in all regions

• June: rains started in summer breeding areas

• July–September: above-normal rains likely in summer breeding areas for small-scale breeding

• October: potential locust increase in African Sahel, Yemen, Indo-Pakistan border

The Desert Locust situation continued to remain calm during June.

Only low numbers of solitarious adults persisted in southeast Egypt and near irrigated areas in the Sahara of Algeria. No control operations were required during the month.

Due to a persistent La Niña, seasonal rains commenced earlier than normal as expected in some southern parts of the summer breeding areas in the northern Sahel between Mauritania and western Eritrea. Rains were heavier and widespread in Mauritania. Nevertheless, vegetation remained mostly dry but was starting to become green in parts of central Niger, the interior of Sudan, and eastern Ethiopia.

In response to a negative Indian Ocean Dipole, pre-monsoon rains fell in some areas along the Indo-Pakistan border that should cause annual vegetation to become green.

During the forecast period, small-scale breeding will occur in the northern Sahel from Mauritania to western Eritrea and along both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border. This will cause locust numbers to increase slightly but remain well below threatening levels. Limited breeding may also occur in northeast Ethiopia and in the interior of Yemen if rains fell during the forecast period.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Blind people in Cameroon were protesting this week against job discrimination when according to witnesses, police bundled them up and dumped them outside the city. Despite the alleged abuse, the protests continue.

Scores of blind Cameroonians continued a week-long protest Friday in the capital against job discrimination, despite allegations this week of police abuse.

The visually impaired braved heavy rain Thursday in Yaoundé to protest in groups of nine along seven major streets.

They raised their white canes and said the world should know that Cameroon’s police abused them every day this week while they were asking the government to provide them with jobs.

Arnaud Djikissi is a spokesperson for the protesters.

He says on day one of the protest on Monday, Cameroon police destroyed their white canes, tore dresses, and arrested and detained blind persons for up to six hours. Djikissi says on Tuesday, while they protested in front of the prime minister’s office, his group of more than 60 blind men was again abused by police. He says the police bundled them in buses, dumped blind persons outside of the capital Yaoundé, and told the sightless people to find their way back home.

When contacted by VOA, Cameroon police acknowledged clearing the streets of the blind protesters for what they said were illegal protests.

But officials at Yaoundé’s first central police station would not comment on allegations they drove blind people outside of Yaoundé and abandoned them.

Eyewitnesses told VOA that police dumped the blind protesters in different districts outside of Yaoundé, some as far as 30 kilometers away. The protesters had to call family members or appeal for rides from drivers passing by to get home.

Local media reported that blind people on Thursday protested the police abuse in towns including Bamenda, Buea and Mbalmayo.

Tancho Fidel is president of the Bamenda-based Organization for the Realization of an Inclusive Society.

“Blind people in Cameroon are not given jobs,” said Fidel. “They are considered as underdogs. When they come out to decry the situation, they are tortured. We want the Cameroon government to consider us as able people and normal human beings.”

Cameroon passed a law in 2010 mandating protections for people with disabilities, including the visually impaired.

But blind Cameroonians say most employers ignore the law, which is rarely enforced.

Cameroon’s government says there are about 600,000 blind people in the country and more than one million who are visually impaired.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2022 – The World Bank today approved an International Development Association (IDA)* additional financing of $250 million to enable Benin to continue its large-scale program to provide water access to rural communities.

This additional financing strengthens the Rural Water Supply Universal Access Program-for-Results (PforR), known as AQUA-VIE. It expands access to water supply services through household connections and standpipes and provides quality water service delivery by professional staff. This additional financing will be used to build 80 new multi-village water supply systems in rural communities so as to supplement the 126 systems under construction. In the long term, the AQUA-VIE program will meet the drinking water needs of more than three million rural residents.

“Through the AQUA-VIE program, Benin has made significant strides in terms of providing rural communities with access to drinking water. This additional financing scales up the work being done to achieve the goal of universal access to drinking water,” said Atou Seck, World Bank Country Manager for Benin. “It also supports reform of the rural water supply sector, which is aimed at ensuring that communities have sustainable and lower-cost access to drinking water.

Implementation of the AQUA-VIE program has already contributed significantly to improvement of the rural water supply systems in Benin. In 2022, average water service coverage in rural communities stood at 73 percent at the national level compared to 42 percent in 2017. The program-for-results operation provides a framework to mobilize additional public and private financing for rural communities.

“This additional financing provides significant support for the 2021-2026 Government Action Plan and strengthens the national rural water supply program. It will assist with the government’s efforts to make drinking water available to the entire country in the near future,” said Romuald Wadagni, Minister of Economy and Finance and Minister of State.

This operation is also in line with the 2021-2026 Government Action Plan and with the World Bank Group’s 2018-2023 Country Partnership Framework for Benin.

*The World Bank’s International Development Association, established in 1960, helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 76 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Resources from IDA bring positive change to the 1.6 billion people who live in IDA countries. Since 1960, IDA has supported development work in 113 countries. Annual commitments have averaged about $21 billion over the last three years, with about 61 percent going to Africa.

Source: World Bank

Somalis across the world marked 62 years of independence Friday with little jubilation and much concern about a future blackened by drought, food shortages, and inflation.

The July 1 holiday commemorates the day Somalia declared independence from British and Italian colonizers, 62 years ago.

For more than three decades, Somalis have marked this day under the threat of chaos and violence, but this year is different. The fear of looming catastrophe in some areas, as a result of a severe drought, which already is turning into famine, has over-shadowed its commemorations.

According to Somalia’s special envoy for humanitarian issues, Abdurahman Abdishakur Warsame, more than 6 million Somalis — nearly half of the country’s population — have been affected by the record drought.

On Thursday, a day before the country’s Independence Day, Warsame said that “the drought has hit 72 of Somalia’s 84 districts and that six of them were already facing famine-like conditions, with extreme food insecurity.”

Doctors in hospitals across several regions in south and central Somalia have reported that children are dying as a result of the situation.

Somalia is experiencing one of the worst droughts in 40 years, and the U.N. and other international aid agencies raised the alarm last month as they warned that 330,000 children in Somalia were at risk of dying from starvation.

Speaking at a small-scale independence commemoration ceremony held Friday at the Mogadishu City House, Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud voiced the country’s greater concern.

“We have decreased the national celebrations for Independence Day to minimize the cost and direct our little available funds to the drought response and saving lives,” Mohamud said.

Mohamud, who was elected in May, directed his remarks to Somali citizens and the international community, pleading for immediate action to help save lives.

Somalia was created in 1960 from a former British protectorate and an Italian colony but collapsed into anarchy following the overthrow of the military regime of President Siad Barre in 1991.

Nearly three decades of civil war, fierce battles among clan warlords, piracy, and terrorism have torn the country apart into clan-based fiefdoms, and rural areas controlled by extremist militants.

A new dawn of hope formed in 2000, however, when a central government backed by the international community was established to assert control over lawless areas. Since then, the country has been inching toward stability, despite facing serious challenges from al-Qaida-aligned al-Shabab insurgents.

Among humanitarian challenges since 2011, the country has grappled with devastating cycles of deadly drought and mass displacement, including one that began earlier this year.

But unlike previous hunger calamities, this one is being exacerbated by a combination of factors: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and locust infestations.

Meanwhile, the Somali diaspora community also is commemorating the day, while exercising caution and exhibiting less jubilation. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is home to the largest population of Somalis in the U.S, the community is hosting smaller parades and other events Friday to celebrate their original country’s birthday.

Similar events were held in Toronto, London, Nairobi, and several cities in Europe, not only to celebrate, but also as a reminder of the country’s dire situation and as an opportunity to raise funds.

Source: Voice of America