Day: March 23, 2022

Cameroon

CHOLERA KILLS 55 PEOPLE WITH OVER 1,900 CASES

As of 13 March 2022, the Ministry of Public Health reported that cholera disease had affected 21 health districts, with 1,901 cumulative cases and 55 deaths. The SouthWest region is the most affected, with 1,455 cases and 38 deaths. Violence is prevalent in this region, which already struggles with poor access to basic social services in remote areas, including water and sanitation, as well as limited humanitarian access to people in need. In the first two weeks of March, cholera affected three new health districts, including Njombé and Cité des Palmiers in the Littoral region and Kumba in the South-West region.

Cholera broke out in October 2021 in the South-West region and spread to the Littoral,

Centre, South, and Far North regions.

Nigeria

OVER 440 DISPLACED FAMILIES AFFECTED IN MAFA CAMPFIRE IN BORNO

On 16 March, a major fire broke out in the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) camp in Mafa local government area (LGA), Borno state, affecting 448 displaced families who lost their food stocks, personal belongings, and valuables. The school is already overcrowded with thousands of displaced families who arrived in mid-2021 from camps in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. Humanitarian organizations are assessing the fire’s impact and mobilizing to provide critical assistance. Fire risk awareness and prevention programmes are being carried out in GGSS camp and surrounding host communities to avoid or reduce the occurrence of fire.

DR Congo

ARMED MEN KILL 14 IN AN ATTACK IN DJUGU TERRITORY, ITURI PROVINCE

On 19 March, armed men killed 14 people and wounded five others in a new attack in Drakpa village in Ituri province, the latest in a long string of attacks against civilians in the eastern province. Nearly 2,000 people were forced to flee to nearby villages as a result of the attack. It took place while newly arrived Humanitarian Coordinator Bruno Lemarquis was visiting Djugu territory and wrapping up his first visit to Ituri province.

The Gambia

OVER 6,350 DISPLACED IN THE GAMBIA

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in Banjul, at least 6,350 internally displaced people and refugees have been registered in the Foni Kansala area of The Gambia due to insecurity along its southern border since 21 March. Most of the affected families have critical needs such as food, shelter, water, sanitation, and hygiene. Host families have limited resources to assist the displaced and refugees. Kansala district students have been absent from school since February.

Displaced persons camps have been set up in Bintang, Kansala, and Bondali districts.

Humanitarian organizations are mobilizing to provide critical assistance.

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Relatives of the late former prime minister of Mali say the country’s military government has refused to turn over his body unless they agree not to request an autopsy.

Soumeylou Boubèye Maiga died March 21, 2022, at a Bamako hospital after seven months in detention.

Maiga served under former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was deposed in a 2020 coup. Maiga was arrested in August 2021 on charges of fraud.

His health deteriorated while in jail, and his family repeatedly sought permission to get him released for treatment. For the last three months, he has been under guard at a Bamako clinic.

At Maiga’s home in central Bamako on March 22, where his family gathered to receive guests, his brother Mohamed Boubèye Maiga said the military government has refused to hand over his body unless the family agrees not to request an autopsy.

He added that Maiga’s family, friends and lawyers had been refused access to Maiga in recent months as his health deteriorated, so no loved ones were present when Maigi died.

Several Malian political parties, along with the head of Mali’s U.N. mission and the president of neighboring Niger, have publicly reacted to Maiga’s death.

The spokesperson for a group of opposition parties, Ismael Sacko, talked to VOA from Bamako via a messaging app.

Sacko said Maiga’s death could have been a form of political assassination, so an investigation is crucial.

Aguibou Bouare, president of Mali’s National Human Rights Commission, a governmental agency that investigates human rights abuse accusations, said that the commission monitored Maiga’s case, but it was denied access to the former prime minister while he was in the hospital.

Bouare said that all prisoners, including Maiga, who had not yet been tried have the right to medical treatment and to receive visits from family. Human rights must be respected at all times, in all places, and in all circumstances, he said, especially during exceptional circumstances and periods of crisis.

VOA attempted to reach a Malian army spokesman for comment, but got no response.

The government released a short statement Monday announcing Maiga’s death “after a long illness.”

The military government ordered Radio France Internationale and France 24 off the air last week after RFI and Human Rights Watch reported on alleged human rights abuses by Mali’s army.

Source: Voice of America

Aid agencies working in East Africa warn of a massive humanitarian crisis if the coming rainy season falls short of expectations. The aid groups say persistent drought has left 44 million people in urgent need of assistance across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan.

Millions of people are on the move in East Africa as drought takes their livelihoods and most are forced to flee their homes in search of food and water.

Francesco Rigamoti is the regional humanitarian coordinator for Oxfam Horn East and Central Africa. He says if nothing is done, the situation is poised to get worse in coming weeks.

“The crisis can actually worsen until and beyond June if the March to May rains fail to be average or below average,” he said. “There is a concrete possibility that in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, only between 15 and 20 million people will be in IPC 3 phase and above and unfortunately, the experts are telling us in South Sudan already between May and July 8.3 million people will be in this situation.”

The aid agencies use the IPC scale to classify households’ food insecurity. IPC phase 3 means the households have food consumption gaps that can lead to acute malnutrition.

Since January, at least 13 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have been displaced in search of water and pastures for their livestock.

In Kenya, crop production has dropped by 70%.

Oxfam International head Gabriela Bucher traveled to Somali regions to witness the drought situation and what it is doing to people. She says communities are finding it difficult to adapt to the change in weather patterns.

“For centuries pastoralists have had an extremely resilient and incredible coping mechanism in very harsh conditions but the current situation, the severity of the long drought extension and how many countries are affected is breaking those traditional mechanisms and in reality, we see that the climate crisis is present there and they are suffering the worst consequences of something that [they did] nothing to generate. So we know this is an issue of justice because it’s us, the global community that needs to be aware and respond,” she said.

The aid agencies say more than 650,000 Somalis have fled their homes due to drought, leaving almost half of the children under the age of five acutely malnourished.

Javier Rio Navarro is head of ECHO Somalia, a European Union emergency response organization. He says the country is facing famine.

“Today, we face a number of hard truths in Somalia,” he said. “The consequences of the drought are catastrophic and pose a very real threat of famine in the country. The other real truth is that the capacities of the partners are overstretched and the additional reality is that additional funding is hard to come by. Hence collectively, we need to recognize that the single common priority of humanitarians in Somalia today is to save lives.”

In 2017 humanitarian organizations averted possible famine by getting supplies to communities in hard-to-reach areas on time and using the lessons learned during the 2011 famine which killed a quarter of a million people.

Aid agencies are appealing for more funding to reach millions and save lives.

Source: Voice of America