Category: APO-OPA

DAKAR, Senegal, March 4, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for West Africa and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA), Mr. Said Djinnit, strongly condemns the renewa…

BRUSSELS, Kingdom of Belgium, March 4, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, will announce €620 million of new EU support to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and €460 million for Rwanda for the period 2014-2020, during a visit to the Great Lakes region in Central Africa together with the Belgian Minister for International Cooperation, Jean-Pascal Labille. The amounts represent a significant increase of funding compared to recent years. Overall, governments and regional organisations in Central Africa, which comprises ten countries, will receive close to €3 billion of EU support over the period 2014-2020.

Ahead of his arrival Commissioner Piebalgs said: “The Great Lakes region and its citizens have faced some exceptional challenges in recent years – these challenges are not over, but we should recognize that we are at a moment of opportunity, with the end of the M23 conflict and welcome signs of improved stability and security. We cannot be complacent: the problem of armed groups is not solved, and we must continue to focus on it, but we cannot afford either to lose sight of our ambitions for long-term economic and social development. The Addis Abeba Peace and Security Framework gives us a shared set of principles and objectives to work towards: the secret now is to help our partners in the region to undertake necessary reforms and to make co-operation across borders a reality in this region.

“Working together brings important benefits in itself, but doing so in the cause of economic development – and above all of peace and security – will provide an invaluable legacy to future generations. This is not just about international assistance, though that is important, but about creating conditions that allow all citizens to fulfil their potential in a safe environment, with their rights protected by strong and accountable institutions.”

EU funding 2014-2020 in the DRC will be used to fight poverty by promoting inclusive and sustainable growth, strengthen democracy and human rights and contribute to peace and stability in the region. It will focus on the areas of health; environment and sustainable agriculture; strengthening governance and the rule of law; the rehabilitation of 150 km of the national road Route Nationale 1, the major transport route linking the seaports with Kinshasa and Mbuji-Mayi in the centre of the country. A special focus will be on security sector reform, continuing work already undertaken to modernize the police, defence and justice systems in DRC, laying the ground for better protection of citizens and their rights.

In Rwanda the overall objective is to reduce poverty, support the already significant progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and to strengthen democratic governance with safeguards for human rights. Focal sectors of EU assistance agreed with donors and government will be sustainable energy, sustainable agriculture and food security and governance.

Schedule of Commissioner Piebalgs

Commissioner Piebalgs will be travelling with the Belgian Minister for International Cooperation, Jean-Pascal Labille. During his stay in the DRC he will meet a number of senior members of the administration on 4 March. He will inaugurate the new EU financed Palais de Justice in Kinshasa.

Subsequently the Commissioner will travel to the east of the DRC, among other things to visit an education centre for children in Goma and meet Dr Denis Mukwege, the Director of the Panzi hospital in Bukavu where thousands of victims of sexual violence are treated. The Commissioner will also visit the Parc National des Virungas (which is supported with funding by the EU and Belgium) whose status as a UNESCO world heritage site is threatened by the possibility of oil extraction.

Commissioner Piebalgs will also present a new programme (EU support €20 million) to tackle gender-based violence in the DRC. Implemented by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the programme focuses on the causes of gender-based violence in the city-province of Kinshasa and the provinces of Bandundu and Maniema by supporting behavioural change, empowering women and improving protection. Activities will include, among other things, training for teachers, information and awareness campaigns, the creation of a database and early warning system on gender-based violence and support to the security and justice sectors to improve the protection of women and children.

On 6 March, Andris Piebalgs will meet the President of Rwanda Paul Kagame and visit the memorial that commemorates the Rwandan genocide which took place 20 years ago. Whilst in Rwanda the Commissioner will also announce a new nutrition programme (€30 million). The project will support the national strategy to eliminate malnutrition in Rwanda targeting the high chronic malnutrition of young children.

EU cooperation with the DRC and Rwanda

The new financial support for the two countries will be drawn from the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) which provides EU support to African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in the years 2014-2020. It follows on from the 10th EDF (2008-2013), under which the DRC has benefited from €569 million, focusing on the key areas of governance, infrastructure, health and environment. In addition to programmed aid, €140 million were spent on urgent activities in the areas of food security, health, justice and gender based violence. Over the same period, the DRC has also received EU funding of an additional €175 million in thematic areas such as support to civil society, fight against climate change, health and sexual violence, environment, food security, democracy and human rights.

Rwanda has received €379 million between 2008 and 2013, with a focus on rural development, regional interconnectivity and budget support (i.e. direct support to the Rwandan government in pursuing its national development plans). An additional €45 million were provided under thematic programmes for food security, the environment and support to democracy and human rights.

NDJAMENA, Chad, March 4, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Tens of thousands of people who have fled from violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) to neighbouring Chad remain in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

“These vulnerable people continue to suffer after surviving the carnage we are witnessing in CAR. We urgently need more resources to help them,” said Thomas Gurtner, Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad. “The world needs to take notice of this human tragedy.”

Since the last wave of violence in CAR began in December last year, the Government of Chad and the United Nations have registered more than 80,000 people arriving from CAR, and their numbers continue to increase. While some 8,000 people have been identified as refugees, the majority of the arrivals are Chadian families who have lived in CAR for several generations. Predominantly women and children, they fled their homes and villages with few or no belongings, seeking refuge from looting, murder and rape.

“Many are injured, traumatized, ill or malnourished. Almost 1,000 children are unaccompanied or separated from their family,” said Mr. Gurtner. “They all need protection support and depend on provision of shelter, clean water, food distribution and health care to survive.”

Transit sites in the capital N’Djamena and in southern Chad are overcrowded, several sheltering more than 10,000 people, and basic services are inadequate. The living conditions are dire with little or no drinking water, overflowing latrines, and risks of outbreaks of diseases such as cholera.

“The Government of Chad, UN agencies and humanitarian partners are doing all they can. But all actors are stretched to their limits and lack resources,” said Mr. Gurtner. “Only more funding will allow us to cover the most urgent humanitarian needs.”

The UN and humanitarian partners have developed a six-month Emergency Response Plan appealing for US$33 million to respond to the immediate needs of an estimated 150,000 people. To date, only US$6 million have been mobilized including US$4.3 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

MASERU, Lesotho, March 4, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — “Unless we step up practical messages to ensure that our productive lands are preserved and degraded lands restored, nothing would stop agriculture in Africa from encroaching on existing forests to meet the increasing demands for land and other resources vital for livelihoods”, stressed by Mrs.Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission during the Africa Environment and Wangari Maathai Day held in Maseru, the Kingdom of Lesotho on 03 March 2014. This is the 12th consecutive year that Maseru has hosted the commemorations since 2002, when they were adopted by the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Durban, South Africa.

The theme of the 2014 Africa Environment Day is Combating Desertification in Africa: Enhancing Agricultural Productivity and Food Security, which aims to raise awareness on desertification and sustainable land management among all stakeholders at community, national, regional and continental levels.

During her remarks, Mrs. Tumusiime highlighted the need for rational utilization of natural resources including water and land in order to secure agricultural development in Africa. The Commissioner recalled that 2014 is the African Union Year of Agriculture and Food Security and the tenth Anniversary of the existence of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which has sustainable and water management as one of its pillars. “Sustainable environmental management is, indeed, fundamental to the pursuit of food security, peace, security and stability in Africa”, she added. (The full speech of the Commissioner is available on www.au.int).

Representing the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Mr. Gaoju Han, underscored the vital role of healthy a environment in the daily lives of human beings. He further said, “The wealth of Africa depends on her ability to conserve and manage her land resources. It is a well known fact that soil degradation not only results in decreased food production but also in droughts, ecological imbalance and consequent degradation of the quality of life”, he said.

Officially marking the commemoration event, Hon. Khotso Matla, Minister of Forestry and Land Reclamation, Kingdom of Lesotho emphasized the harmony between the human being and the environment as an essential requirement for sustainable national or global development.

The 2014 commemoration of the African Environment and Wangari Maathai Day in Lesotho was marked by an awareness raising media workshop from 1-2 March 2014 on the challenges of desertification and sustainable land management in Africa; tree planting, as well as a field visit to school children and models of good land management practice areas among others.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 4, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Statement by Mr. El-Ghassim Wane, Director, PSD, delivered by Dr. Takwa Zebulon Suifon

Head of Delegation of the ICRC to the African Union
Distinguished Delegates,
Partners Pr…

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 4, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Forty unemployed university graduates hired by an IOM livelihoods programme to work as interns in Somaliland’s local and regional government in Burao and Borama have completed their seven-month internships.

Twenty-six of the 14 women and 26 men have already been offered permanent positions in the public and private sectors – many of them in the various local and regional offices in which they completed their internships. In Burao municipality, all nine interns – six women and three men – were hired at the end of the programme.

The Japanese-funded programme offered the graduates an opportunity to support key government agencies and allowed local and regional authorities to diversify their workforce and benefit from the contribution of talented young people.

High unemployment in Somaliland, especially among school-leavers and university graduates, has fuelled an increase in irregular migration, drug addiction and conflict, with hundreds of young people embarking every month on a perilous journey to Europe across the Sahara.

Growing national concern about the problem led Somaliland President Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud Silanyo to establish a national committee to recommend ways to reduce irregular youth migration. The high profile committee has been charged with devising a national youth employment plan.

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 4, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Turkish NGO Gonulluler and the Fondation Baladi pour le Developpement au Tchad, supported by the Turkish Embassy in Chad, have delivered USD 10,000 of desperately needed medic…

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 4, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — This weekend IOM organized four evacuation flights from Cameroon at the request of the Malian government for 672 Malians stranded by the conflict in Central African Republic (CAR.)

Malian Ambassador to Gabon, Dagnoko Diadié, and a Malian Embassy representative went to Kenzou, Cameroon on the CAR border, where over 12,000 migrants are stranded, to identify Malian citizens and to support the IOM effort.

In Kenzou, 261 Malians were stranded with minimal humanitarian support, most living out in the open without shelter or adequate supplies.

Their journey to Kenzou had begun om Bangui and other locations in CAR – a dangerous road trip due to numerous armed groups and checkpoints en route.

IOM rented nine buses and one truck for the Malians to travel the 816 kilometers from Kenzou to Cameroon’s Douala airport. The Cameroonian government provided a military escort. Another 411 Malians were already in Douala, sheltering at the Military Airport Transit Site.

Early Sunday morning (2/3), the IOM charter flights began to transport the Malian migrants from Douala to the Malian capital Bamako.

Many Malians fleeing CAR are traders and the evacuees left with only what they could carry. Everything else was left behind, including work tools and their stock.

On arrival in Bamako, they were exhausted and face an uncertain future. Many have lived in CAR for decades. Their resettlement will require finding housing and new livelihoods.

The approximately 12,000 remaining migrants and Central Africans stranded in Kenzou are receiving little to no humanitarian assistance and continue to live out in the open without tents or mosquito nets.

This stranded population includes 8,000 Chadians. IOM is planning a convoy next week to repatriate Chadians who are in Garua Boulai, Cameroon, just across the CAR border. Another convoy is planned to travel from Kenzou to Moundou, in southern Chad, a distance of 1,000 km.

The cost of the four Malian evacuation flights was covered by IOM’s revolving Migration Emergency Funding Mechanism (MEFM.)

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 4, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by states, is meeting in Geneva from 10 to 28 Marc…

SINGAPORE, Singapore, March 4, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The following foreign Head-of-Mission presented its credentials to President Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam in a ceremony at the Istana :
The High Commissioner of the Republic of Zambia
Hi…