Crisis in Ivory Coast Days Away From Violent Climax - Source (REPORT)

UN forces in Ivory Coast have been accused of doing little to prevent violence. CREDIT: Operation Broken Silence(HN, March 24, 2011) ---- The crisis in Ivory Coast is just days away from a violent climax, with sources on the ground predicting that an all-out civil war will consume the West African nation.

At Abidjan's Golf Hotel, UN forces are protecting Alassane Ouattara, who won a Nov. 28 election according to UN-certified results. One source said the hotel could be attacked by forces loyal to incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to step down. That would likely precipitate an all out civil war.

HUMNEWS understands that family members of Ouattara were evacuated last Sunday and move to safe havens.

Said the source: "The situation is pretty dire. It is unfortunate that so many other events have stolen the headlines from Ivory Coast."

The confirmed death toll from the conflict to 462. Another 450,000 people have fled their homes.

Armed thugs are on the increase and operating with abandon.  Last week a mortar attack on an impoverished village called Attecoube killed one person, seriously injured 18, and 4 of the seriously injured died later in hospital. The source said that as such attacks take place, UN forces stand by idly. Indeed, there are growing complaints from inside and outside the country over inaction as the toll from the crisis mounts.

“There is a UN force on the ground. I think it should, without doubt, play its role more efficiently because it has a mandate that allows it to use force if there are clashes or there is violence,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told France 2 television.

Many members of the UN force are from Bangladesh and Jordan. The source told HUMNEWS that they have been mostly ineffective. Nigeria also typically deploys many members of its military to UN missions in West Africa.

Last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed French-trained, Togolese Major General Gnakoude Berena as the new force commander of the United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI), replacing Major General Abdul Hafiz of Bangladesh.

Nigeria, the current leader of West Africa’s 15-nation ECOWAS bloc, has accused the international community of double standards for imposing a no-fly zone in Libya but doing little in Ivory Coast.

Said the source: "I ashamed to say UN forces stand by and do nothing of an atrocity within site of their HQ. They are operating under Chapter VII mission (the same authority given against Libya), yet the troops are hopeless."

Nigerian Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia has said the UN must endorse any use of force to remove Gbagbo, adding that a blockade was an option if peaceful efforts fail.

“The Ivory Coast is no longer on the brink of civil war, it has already begun”, said Louis Arbour, CEO of the International Crisis Group and former UN Commissioner for Human Rights, who called on Ecowas to take ‘decisive political and military measures.' 

- HUMNEWS staff

Wave of Political Unrest Reaches Syria (News Brief)

photo courtesy of CNSNews(HN, March 23, 2011) -- It may be too early to call the demonstrations in the small city of Daraa a “revolution”. However, it is clear that the wave of political unrest in the Middle East has reached this southern Syrian city.

For nearly a week now protests have been ongoing there with demonstrators calling for freedom and for the end of corruption - the protests have been met with violence from security forces that have so far claimed the lives of five innocent civilians.  

Rights activists in Syria say security forces carried out a deadly attack near a mosque where anti-government protesters have gathered opening fire near the mosque where demonstrators have gathered. However state media said "an armed gang" was behind violence in the southern city of Daraa early Wednesday.

Syria's state news agency SANA quotes an official source as saying the gang attacked an ambulance near the city's Omari mosque, killing a doctor, a paramedic and a driver. The report says security forces confronted the attackers and "hit and arrested" some of them. A member of the security forces was also reported killed in the incident.

HUMNews has not been able to immediately reconcile the conflicting reports.  

Security forces killed four demonstrators in Daraa when protests erupted on Friday. Another demonstrator was killed on Sunday, and an 11-year-old boy died Monday after suffering tear gas inhalation.

In an attempt to contain the unrest, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Tuesday fired the governor of Daraa Province. But his dismissal failed to quell popular anger as protests reached several neighboring towns.

Authorities have also ramped up detentions across the country. A Syrian rights organization said police arrested a prominent activist Tuesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Loay Hussein, a former political prisoner who had spoken out in favor of the protests, was taken from his home near the capital, Damascus. Rights groups have reported dozens more "arbitrary and random arrests."

Protesters are demanding Assad end Syria's emergency law, which has been in place since 1963 when the Baath party took power, banning any opposition to its rule. In addition protesters are demanding Syria curb its pervasive security apparatus, free thousands of political prisoners and allow freedom of expression. Activists have so far not called for the end of his government.

Assad was popularly elected by 97% of all votes in 2000. He pledged to fight corruption, guarantee his people more freedom of expression and would adopt a more liberal market policy.

It became clear a few years into his rule that he has failed miserably on the first two and partially succeeded on the later pledge.

Last year, Human Rights Watch published an extensive report about the human rights situation in Syria in which the organization concluded that Assad's decade in power was marked by repression.

Assad belongs to the ruling Alawite minority party whose members have full control over military and intelligence posts. The rest of the Syrian population is made up of a Sunni majority, Christians, Kurds, Ismailis and Duruz. There are also over 1 million Palestinian immigrants and more recently over 1 million Iraqi refugees living in Syria.

The United States and the United Nations have called for an independent investigation into the recent violence.

- HUMNews staff 

Ghana is a Cholera Endemic Country, Deputy Health Minister Declares (News Brief)

Spread of cholera in Ghana, photo courtesy of myjoyonline(HN, March 22, 2011) -- Deputy Health Minister Rojo Mettle Nunoo says the government in Ghana is rolling out a comprehensive strategy to fight the spread of cholera in the country.

The Ghana Health Service says over 4,000 cholera cases with 61 deaths have been recorded since the outbreak of the epidemic in the latter part of 2010.

Officials of the Disease Surveillance Unit at the Ghana Health Service say the situation is worrying and needs urgent attention.

Cholera cases reported at various health facilities across the country particularly in the Accra Metropolis keeps increasing by the day.

Speaking to Joy News the Deputy Health Minister said Ghana has over the years been known to be a cholera endemic country, owing largely to the attitudinal and lifestyle of some Ghanaians.

He said the recent outbreak was triggered by the early rains, adding, the Interior Ministry in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Organization is tracking the cholera endemic areas in the country to provide the needed health support.

The Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Joseph Amankwa says poor sanitary conditions coupled with the non-adherence to personal hygiene practices are contributory factors to the outbreak.

“Some of the shell fish, and sea foods are some of the causes of cholera. If you pick sea food that is contaminated and not properly prepared you will get cholera.

"People are disposing waste anyhow on main roads, highways and close to rivers. The waste is supposed to be dumped at landfill sites but where are the landfill sites in Accra and other districts?

"We don’t have them and until we address that, it is going to be a major problem for us and every year we are going to have cholera,” he cautioned.

The Ghana Health Service has set up receptive centers at various clinics in the Accra metropolis to deal with the increasing cases.

Deputy Health Minister Rojo Mettle Nunoo says his outfit will embark on a comprehensive education and media outreach program to inform people on the incidence of cholera, the mode of transmission and its prevention.

- HUMNews staff

UN: Fast pace of African urbanization affecting water supplies and sanitation (REPORT)

Rapidly-urbanizing African cities are placing pressure on water supplies. CREDIT: M Bociurkiw/HUMNEWS(HN, March 21, 2011) - Urban centers in Africa are growing at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world.

Today 40 percent of Africa's one billion people live in urban areas - 60 percent in slums - where water supplies and sanitation are severely inadequate, according to the Rapid Response Assessment by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN-Habitat.

Africa's urban population without access to safe drinking water jumped from close to 30 million in 1990 to well over 55 million in 2008.

Over the same period, the number of people without reasonable sanitation services doubled to around 175 million says the report launched on World Water Day 2011 - which is tomorrow, March 22.

One of the most urbanized countries in Africa is Gabon, where 85% of the population lives in urban areas. Almost half of Nigeria's 150 million people live in urban areas, and the country is urbanizing at 3.8% annually. Within the next few years, its commerical capital, Lagos, will be Africa's largest cities.

"These are the stark realities and the sobering facts which need to be addressed as nations prepare for the landmark UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012," said UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

The conference, also known as Rio+20, takes a Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication as one of its two major themes.

"There is growing evidence from work on the Green Economy that a different path in terms of water and sanitation can begin to be realized. Indeed, public policies that re-direct over a tenth of a per cent of global GDP per year can assist in not only addressing the sanitation challenge but conserve freshwater by reducing water demand by a fifth over the coming decades compared to projected trends," added Mr Steiner.

Dr. Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, said: "Africa is the fastest urbanizing continent on the planet and the demand for water and sanitation is outstripping supply in cities. As cities expand, we must improve our urban planning and management in order to provide universal access to water and basic services while ensuring our cities become more resilient to the increasing effects of climate change".

The report, which underlines the growing cooperation between UN-HABITAT and UNEP on such issues, provides case studies of cities in several parts of the Continent where high urbanization rates are not matched with adequate water and sanitation infrastructure.

Addis Ababa, for the past 50 years, the capital of Ethiopia and one of the largest cities in Africa, has grown from 100,000 to 3.5 million people and is today facing severe challenges to provide its residents with enough freshwater and sanitation services. According to the report, only five percent of the solid waste collected in Addis Ababa is recycled and the rest is often piled on open ground, banks of streams and near bridges where it is washed into the rivers. Moreover, fears of food poisoning are worsened by the fact the 60 percent of the city's food consumption is supplied by urban farmers who irrigate their crops using wastewater.

Grahamstown in South Africa is another case study highlighted in the report. Located in a dry part of the country with frequent droughts, the city has seen its population more than double from 76,000 in 2004. Inspiring water initiatives, such as the Blue Drop System which is a regulatory tool used by South Africa's Department of Water Affairs to monitor the quality of drinking water, and rainwater harvesting has helped the city to provide adequate water services to its growing population. However, the city predicts future crises as climate change brings more droughts and water shortages.

Nairobi, Kenya's largest city, has seen its population increase from 119,000 in 1948 to 3.1 million today, many in the more than 200 slum settlements spread across the city and have limited access to safe water and sanitation. The largest slum, Kibera, receives about 20,000 m3 of water per day, 40 percent of which is unaccounted for as it is lost through leakage or dilapidated infrastructure. With half of Kenya's population expected to be living in urban settlements by 2015, the country is looking for solutions and in 2002 introduced the Water Act to improve the legislative framework for effective management and control of water resources.

But while there are solutions, much more needs to be done, notes the report, to improve access to safe drinking water and sanitation for urban areas. Moreover, it is essential that the long-term solutions make a connection between urbanization, water and ecosystems and recognize that urban areas in Africa will continue to grow and will the demand for water and sanitation services.

According to the report, solutions and policy interventions should consider some of the following options:

• Mainstream the environment into urban water management;
• Acknowledge and support the role of the private sector in complementing government and municipal authorities in delivering water and sanitation services especially to the poor urban areas;
• Take into account the generally high levels of income poverty in Africa by acknowledging that market-based approaches are not always the best option to supplying water in urban areas in a sustainable way;
• Inform residents about how the links between forests, protected areas and water supply;
• Demonstrate that it pays to protect watersheds, instead of building expensive water purification systems;
• Raise awareness on the impact of poor water quality on health, economy and the environment;
• Mainstream the environment into urban water management through approaches such as Payments for Ecosystems Services, Integrated Water Resources Management, and Water Demand Management

Exodus Increases as Violence Flares in Abidjan (NEWS BRIEF)

Refugees, who fled the post-election instability in Ivory Coast, wait to be registered at a camp in Liberia. CREDIT: UNHCR(HN, March 20, 2011) - As the situation in Ivory Coast deteriorates due to post-election violence, the flow of displaced people from the commercial capital of Abidjan continues to grow.

UN agencies now estimate that as many as 30,000 people have been displaced in Abidjan alone. At the same time an increasing number of migrants and Ivorians are fleeing the country, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

In recent days, fighting between the internationally recognized President, Alassane Ouattara and his rival for the presidency, Laurent Gbagbo, has escalated and more people are being killed and injured. Officials say it has been the worst week since the post-elkection crisis began in December.

After Nigeria, Mauritania has one of the biggest migrant populations in the country. An estimated 40,000 Mauritanians are living and working in Ivory Coast, 10,000 of whom are in Abidjan, according to the Mauritian Embassy in Abidjan.

The vast majority of them either own or work in small business and are men without accompanying families. Mauritanian migrants say they feel particularly threatened and targeted and as a result, want to return home. Some have had their shops looted while many have witnessed much violence.

The Mauritanian Embassy had already evacuated 2,200 of its nationals by bus but still has several hundreds of its nationals remained camped out in the embassy compound and on surrounding streets. Another 1,000 were schedule to be moved this weekend.

- HUMNEWS staff

As Exodus of Migrants Continues From Libya Gaddafi Asks Them to go Back to Work (NEWS BRIEF)

A Nigerian migrant worker who fled the unrest in Libya waits at the Libyan and Tunisian border crossing of Ras Jdi CREDIT: AlertNet(HN, March 19, 2011) - As thousands of foreign migrant workers continue to stream out of war-torn Libya, the marginalized leader of the country has pleaded for oil field workers to come back to work.

In another bizarre news conference, Colonel Gaddafi said: "We need the workforce to come back and work in the oil fields so that we can resume production."

The plea comes as UN officials say thousands of distressed migrant workers - mostly from Sub-Saharan African countries - continue to stream across Libya's borders.

The latest batch to cross were thousands of Niger nationals who arrived by a convoy of trucks.

On Friday alone, at least 2,000 migrants crossed over the border to Niger and to the Dirkou transit camp, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). They arrived in 18 trucks and extremely hungry after a long trek across the desert. Reports are coming in of another 70 trucks of Nigerien migrants headed towards the border.

The exodus has overwhelm border towns like Dirkou - which only has 4,000 residents but now hosts a population of stranded migrants numbering 4,200. Long waits to get home and difficult conditions has sparked occasional violence, the IOM said.

Yesterday a large group of 204 Mauritanians - including 37 women and 48 children - were evacuated by the UN to their homeland. They had been stranded in the transit camp for more than two weeks.

"The situation for the migrants has been understandably difficult," said Mohammed Abdiker, IOM's Director of Operations. "They are impatient to go home and reach safety. They have already lost their money and possessions after in addition to having fled Libya in difficult circumstances."

- HUMNEWS staff

New Study Estimates Cholera Cases in Haiti Expected to Double Original Predictions (News Brief)

Patients being treated for Cholera in Haiti - photo courtesy of TopNews(HN March 18, 2011) -- Haiti could be facing nearly twice as many cases of cholera this year than what the United Nations originally estimated, say researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Fancisco.

Haiti had been free of cholera for almost a century until last October, when the first cases of disease were reported.

Jason Andrews of Harvard Medical School and colleagues have just published a new study projecting the course of the epidemic over the next year. 

The new study suggests  that nearly 780,000 cholera cases could develop in 2011, with the disease killing about 11,000 people. The UN had estimated 400,000 cases of the diarrheal disease for the country.

The new study uses a more sophisticated mathematical model of the likely course of the outbreak than the U.N. used for its estimates.

Andrews' projection includes assumptions about improving water supplies, vaccination, and the use of antibiotics. He says his model indicates that those interventions can make a real difference in the ultimate impact of the epidemic.

"Certainly, if more aggressive interventions were done, such as vaccinating a larger proportion of the population or a faster rollout of clean water, the impact of interventions could be greater," he says. "But what we found was by doing all three of these interventions, you could avert a substantial burden of cholera and a substantial burden of deaths over the coming year, and that's one of the main messages of my analysis."

So far, 231,070 cholera cases and 4,549 deaths have been reported by the Haitian government.

UCSF medical resident Sanjay Basu, MD, has warned that the “epidemic is not likely to be short-term.”

“It is going to be larger than predicted in terms of sheer numbers and will last far longer than the initial projections,” Basu added.

Public health experts continue to debate the best way to control cholera - vaccination versus antibiotics versus sanitation. But Andrews says his model shows that even modest use of all three can have a significant impact in reducing cholera illness and death.

The model in Andrews' study projects the course of the epidemic for the next year, but it doesn't indicate when Haiti will again be free of cholera.

-HUMNews Staff 

Ivory Coast: The Deteriorating Humanitarian Situation (Report)

Fighting in Abidjan, photo courtesy of Africasia(HN, March 17, 2011) --  Life for the people of the Ivory Coast is getting increasingly worse. The three-month campaign of organized violence by security forces under the control of Laurent Gbagbo and militias that support him gives every indication of amounting to crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

The crisis has escalated since the end of February 2011, with clashes between armed forces loyal to Gbagbo and Ouattara in the western and central regions of the country, as well as in Abidjan, the financial capital.

With around 400,000 displaced persons and the deaths of almost 400 civilians documented by the United Nations the vast majority killed by pro-Gbagbo forces in circumstances not connected with the armed conflict and with no apparent provocation - the attacks appear to be widespread.

On the Ouattara side, armed fighters have begun a pattern of extrajudicial executions against alleged pro-Gbagbo combatants detained in Ouattara territory since the Forces Nouvelles ("New Forces" or FN) gained effective control of the Abobo neighborhood and Anyama village around February 26.

"The time is long overdue for the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against Gbagbo and his allies directly implicated in the grave abuses of the post-election period," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The international community should also send a clear message to Ouattara's camp that reprisal killings will place them next on the list."

Armed fighters loyal to Alassane Ouattara clashed with the pro-Gbagbo security forces yesterday in several areas including Yopougon and Attecoube, while foreigners and ethnic groups viewed as pro-Ouattara are repeatedly harassed.

Fierce fighting and gun battles in the cities of Abobo, Abidjan and Williamsville have seen the most bloodshed. 

Although there is no reference whatsoever on state TV of the ongoing battles in the streets life for much of the population has become very bleak.

Many shops in these cities have been looted and those that have not have been closed as well as most banks.

Man wounded by gunshot in district of Adjame, photo courtesy of AfricasiaDoctors without Borders is reporting that in the city of Abobo only one hospital remains open and in the last two weeks doctors there have treated 129 patients 89 of which have come in with either knife or gun shot wounds.

UNICEF has said that the nation is on the verge of collapse with 1.5 million people at risk from epidemics. Reports of cholera have begun in Abidjan as rubbish lies uncollected and there have been 10’s of deaths reported in rural areas as a result of yellow fever.

In the north schools are closed leaving 800,000 children out of school and although the situation is better in the southern part of the country there are schools closed there as well.

Crime levels are up and armed youth roam the streets with impunity.

As the situation in the Ivory Cost continues to intensify and the country plunges further into economic decay there is real worry that shortages of basic needs will not be able to be met – electricity blackouts and water cuts are among the things people are most concerned about.

Attacks on Foreigners

According to Human Rights Watch residents from Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Niger have given detailed accounts of daily attacks by pro-Gbagbo security forces and armed militias, who beat foreign residents to death with bricks, clubs, and sticks, or doused them with gas and burned them alive.

A Malian man interviewed by Human Rights Watch described how he and six other West Africans were forced into two vehicles by armed militiamen and taken into the basement of an abandoned building. More youths were waiting, who then executed five of the captured West Africans at point-blank range. The homes, stores, and mosques of hundreds of other West Africans have been burned, or they have been chased out of their neighborhoods en masse under threat of death at the hands of pro-Gbagbo militias.

The brunt of these attacks came immediately after Gbagbo's "youth minister," Charles Blé Goudé, called publicly on February 25 for "real" Ivoirians to set up roadblocks in their neighborhoods and "denounce" foreigners.

The situation threatens to worsen further, as a March 7 letter addressed to the Burkina Faso ambassador by a militant pro-Gbagbo group warned. The letter threatened to "cut the umbilical cord" of the Burkina Faso nationals in Côte d'Ivoire unless they left the country by March 22.

Refugees 

U.N. officials say the political crisis has also driven more than 75,000 Ivorian civilians across the border into Liberia, with half that total arriving in just the last two weeks. Aid officials in Liberia's Toe Town say they are struggling to keep up. Augustine Nugba is the local program coordinator for the Catholic charity Caritas.

"As soon as the place is given and we receive the government's okay, we will start to construct a camp and to remove everyone from here," said Nugba.

Food shortages, overcrowding, and inadequate sanitation have brought cases of diarrhea and malaria for refugees, including Victorine Tohogninon.

Tohogninon says that since the refugees came to Liberia, the children and the elderly are getting sick.

If the political crisis is not resolved soon, refugee Charles-Camille Kpehia says there will be no one left in Ivory Coast to govern.

- HUMNews Staff

Update on Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 12:34PM by HUMNEWS

South Africa backs the African Union in recognizing Alassane Ouattara as the winner of Ivory Coast's disputed presidential election, President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.

Zuma said in reply to a question in parliament that South Africa backed the AU's position.

"South Africa fully supports the position taken by the African Union on the 10th of March, namely that Mr. Ouattara is recognised as the winner, which is a reaffirmation of the position of ECOWAS," Zuma said, referring to the West African regional grouping.

He said South Africa supported the AU's attempts to find a peaceful solution to the Ivory Coast crisis. Zuma and officials in his foreign ministry had previously given the impression they thought there were doubts over the vote, suggesting they did not back the tougher line taken by West African leaders on Gbagbo.

"We are all of one mind on the way forward towards a sustainable political solution."

Update on Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 12:38PM by HUMNEWS

According to the BBC, shells have been fired at a district of Abidjan opposed to disputed Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, with reports of at least 10 dead.

Two shell landed in a busy market in the Abobo area, residents said.

Some 370,000 people have fled recent clashes in Abidjan - many from Abobo, which backs the man widely recognised as the winner of last year's elections.

The African Union has given Mr Gbagbo until 24 March to organise a handover of power but he shows no signs of stepping down.

OPT: Blockade Frustrates Gaza Students (Report)

Undergraduate students on the green at Islamic University in Gaza City, photo courtesy Erica Silverman /IRIN(March 16, 2011) -- The next generation in the Gaza Strip may be less educated, less professional and perhaps more radical because an Israeli blockade has restricted educational and employment opportunities, say UN and other sources.

 

The four-year blockade has particularly affected youths aged 18-24, limiting access to higher education, academic exchanges and professional development, says Gaza’s education ministry. About 65 percent of Gaza’s 1.6 million people are under 25, according to UN estimates.

 

“Higher education in all its forms is absolutely critical to a functioning society and the creation of a future Palestinian state,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory Max Gaylard told IRIN, and “to maintain a necessary level of skills in professional sectors, like medicine and engineering.”

 

Gaza’s unemployment rate - nearly 50 percent according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) - indicates dire prospects for the rapidly growing and youthful population.

 

The economic blockade, imposed by Israel after the Islamist resistance movement Hamas took control of Gaza, has obstructed the import of books, science laboratory and other educational equipment to Gaza, according to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Israel allows in limited humanitarian supplies.

 

The lack of facilities, new information and experiences has caused a marked deterioration of Gaza’s whole educational system. Noor, an English education student at Al-Azhar University, ranked second in Gaza, said she lacked essential books for her coursework and even chairs were missing from lecture halls.

 

“Our universities are not ready for new generations,” she explained. “We only have one laboratory and two computer labs, and it is not enough.”

 

Enrolment levels at Gaza’s 14 public and private universities and colleges remain high, but conflict and the stringent blockade have seriously undermined access to, and the quality of, higher education, said UNESCO in a report.

 

According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, “Under the policy of complete closure imposed since June 2007, Palestinians from Gaza who once constituted some 35 percent of the student body at universities in the West Bank are virtually absent from West Bank education institutions.” 

The development of two separate systems due to the Israeli-imposed movement restrictions, meant fewer subjects and facilities for Gaza’s university students, said UNESCO.

 

Can't pay fees 

About 80 percent of the Gaza population is aid dependent, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and higher education institutions in Gaza are feeling the financial strain.

 

According to UNESCO, students are increasingly unable to pay tuition fees, resulting in drop-outs and postponement of studies.

The inability of students to cover fees has hit Gaza universities hard, since student fees provide about 60 percent of university running costs, according to Palestinian NGO Sharek Youth Forum.

 

“The level of education is being compromised and we have trouble hiring qualified professors and staff,” said Kamalain Shaath, president of the Islamic University, ranked top in Gaza and the West Bank. Half the students at the university, he added, were unable to meet tuition requirements this semester.

Damaged buildings still not rebuilt 

Islamic University’s first medical school class of about 50 promising young doctors will graduate this spring, and will be desperately needed in this conflict area, although the university science labs that were destroyed during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead - aimed at ending rocket attacks into Israel - were never rebuilt.

 

Seven universities and colleges were damaged during the offensive, which ended in January 2010, with six buildings fully destroyed and 16 partially, according to UNESCO. As of March 2011, rebuilding has not been possible owing to the embargo on building materials.

 

Overcrowding in schools is another problem. About 81 percent of Gaza’s public schools operate on double shifts, according Gaza’s education ministry director-general, Sharif Nouman. In 2010, only three new schools were built due to lack of building materials, yet another 100 need to be built, he said.

 

Meanwhile, the internal conflict between Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas is putting pressure on the education system, due to the lack of communication between the Gaza and West Bank ministries, he added.

 

Rising unemployment 

The unemployment rate among those aged 15-19 is about 72 percent, while unemployment affects 66 percent of those aged 20-24, according to a January socio-economic report by the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO). West Bank unemployment rates were 29 percent and 34 percent for these age groups, respectively.

 

About 70 percent of industrial establishments in Gaza have closed under the blockade, according to OCHA, while 120,000 private sector jobs were lost in the first two years of closure. A recent easing has allowed the limited export of cut flowers and strawberries from Gaza to Europe.

 

“When young people graduate they have almost no opportunity to find a job in a company or association,” said Bassam, a multi-media student at Al-Azhar University. Some try to start their own businesses, but “this cannot succeed in Gaza now because of the blockade,” he added.

 

UN officials in the region have expressed concern that isolating youth in Gaza from broader values and opportunities will backfire. “A rapidly growing society, becoming poorer, that is subject to restrictions on education will encourage extremism in its worst forms,” warned Gaylard.

 

Deputy director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Public Diplomacy, Danny Seaman, however, said: “Hamas uses access to Israel to perpetrate terror attacks against our civilians and this immediate threat outweighs the concern over increased militancy amongst youth in Gaza.”

 

Some 71 percent of university students surveyed by UNESCO reported they were not hopeful about the future and almost the same number worried there will be another war.

 

“Most of my peers want to emigrate,” said Shadi, a 26-year-old physical therapist in Gaza City. “We are isolated and frustrated.”

 

- Report by IRIN humanitarian news and analysis

As Libya Burns Bangladeshi Migrant Workers Told to Stay Put (NEWS BRIEF)

There are more than 60,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers in Libya. Only a fraction have been evacuated.(HN, March 16, 2011) --- In a shocking move, the Government of Bangladesh, claiming there is little danger to their safety and security, has told tens of thousands of its migrants workers to remain in Libya.

"We are discouraging those Bangladeshi who are still in Libya from coming back. These are poor workers. We are afraid if they come back they will lose everything," Bangladesh's manpower secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan was quoted as saying."If they are not in direct danger, we advise them to stay where they are."

About 60,000 Bangladeshis working on construction sites in Libya have struggled to escape since the violent rebellion against Colonel Gaddafi began. The situation is deteriorating by the day as forces loyal to the recalcitrant leader continues its offensive against opposition forces.

Officials in Dhaka have admitted they had no resources to send ships or planes, and turned to UN agencies to pick up the slack.

Only about 7,500 Bangladeshis have left, but those that remain are being advised by the government not to leave - even though the UN High Commission for Refugees has called for a mass evacuation.

Migrant workers' remittances are a huge income earner for the impoverished country.

Meanwhile other countries with large numbers of migrant workers in Libya are continuing evacuations. Nigeria has chartered Boing 747 aircraft to bring home its nationals.

- HUMNEWS staff, agencies

Abyei: A flashpoint in Sudan's north-south peace process

Sudanese family fleeing Abyei, photo courtesyAfricasia(HN, March 15, 2011) --- In the aftermath of a wave of violence in the Abyei region of Sudan, that left over 100 dead and three villages burned to the ground, thousands of civilians have fled while residents still in town are angry and disillusioned.

“Abyei still remains a flashpoint which could potentially derail the entire peace process. I urge the CPA [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] parties to take immediate action to calm the tensions in the region and urgently reach an agreement on all outstanding issues,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, the UN independent expert on the situation of human rights in Sudan.

Othman warns that violence in this disputed territory could derail the implementation of the peace agreement that ended this country’s civil war, despite a successful referendum that endorsed the secession of the south.

Residents of Abyei were due to hold a separate referendum simultaneously with the rest of Southern Sudan in January to decide whether to become part of the North or South. Attempts to create a referendum commission, however, remain deadlocked, amid feuds between communities in the area over the right to vote.

The referendum was seen as the culmination of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended two decades of civil war between the northern and southern Sudan. The CPA paved the way for the right to self-determination for Southern Sudan.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, voicing deep concern at the violence, called on both North and South to restrain the local communities and resume and conclude negotiations on Abyei as a matter of priority.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson he deplored the fact that the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), which has intensified its patrolling activities on the ground and is on standby to reinforce its peacekeeping presence if the need arises, has been consistently refused access to areas of conflict and considerably restricted in its movement. He appealed to both parties to allow unhindered access to these areas to assess the situation and immediate needs on the ground.

In a statement issued at the end of his visit to Sudan, conducted from 6 to 13 March, Mr. Othman urged authorities to investigate all reports of killings and attacks on civilians in Abyei and bring those responsible to justice.

 “Since the referendum, there have been five major incidents of violent clashes in Abyei between the local police and armed Misseriya tribesmen which have resulted in the death of civilians and massive displacements,” Mr. Othman added.

Separately, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan, Haile Menkerios, last week participated in two meetings of the Abyei Standing Committee in Khartoum, during which representatives of the north and their counterparts from the south were unable to move beyond the issue of the deployment of Joint Integrated Units in Abyei.

UNMIS, meanwhile, verified that both sides have reinforced their positions within the Abyei area, including the confirmed presence of Sudanese Armed Forces and Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) troops not affiliated with the Abyei Joint Integrated Units.

Mr. Menkerios urged both sides to restrain their respective troops to minimize clashes while the political leadership discusses a final solution to the status of Abyei.

Mr. Othman also voiced concern over increasing loss of life and displacement of people as a result of criminal activity, cattle rustling and inter-communal violence in Southern Sudan, and urged the Government there to ensure the protection of civilians even as it seeks measures to address insecurity in the region.

On northern Sudan, Mr. Othman said that law enforcement authorities there continued to violate the people’s rights to fundamental rights and other freedoms, including the rights to the freedom of expression, assembly and association.

“The Government continues to hold a number of opposition political leaders, students and civil society actors in detention without charging them with an offence or affording them the right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention in a court of law,” said Mr. Othman.

He regretted Khartoum’s rejection of his request to meet with the Director General of the National Security Service (NSS) to discuss concerns over the detentions without trial.

“Once again, I wish to draw attention to the guarantees of freedom of expression and freedom from arbitrary arrests and detention enshrined in Sudan’s national constitution and in the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which Sudan has ratified,” said Mr. Othman.

On Darfur, Mr. Othman said the human rights situation for civilians, including internally displaced persons (IDPs), there remains dire.

‘Fighting between Government forces and the armed movements has intensified since December last year and the warring factions have failed to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law,” he said.

During a visit to Zam Zam IDP camp near El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, Mr. Othman said he had seen the plight of some of the people displaced by the fighting.

“Their situation is deplorable, to say the least. I am concerned that without immediate humanitarian assistance the situation of these people, many of whom have been displaced for a second or third time, could reach catastrophic levels,” he said.

Meanwhile, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Georg Charpentier, today voiced concern over deteriorating security in Jonglei and Upper Nile states in Southern Sudan, where the southern army is engaged in operations against renegade groups.

Humanitarian agencies have been unable to reach many people who fled areas affected by the fighting due to insecurity, Mr. Charpentier said in a press release.

The SPLA has declared some parts of Jonglei, including parts of Fangak, Pigi and Ayod counties, “no-go areas” during the military operations. UN humanitarian agencies and their NGO partners are unable to go to the those areas to assess the needs of affected civilians, according to Mr. Charpentier.

Humanitarian agencies are negotiating with the SPLA for access to people in need and asking for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor to enable vulnerable populations to leave the areas of conflict.

-HUMNews Staff, UN News

One Man's Escape from a Tsunami (Perspective)

by Ian Gill

Tsunami, Sri Lanka 2004, photo courtesy of China Daily(HN, March 14, 2011) -- Six years ago on the evening of Christmas Day 2004, Prianka, a senior project specialist at a regional development bank, was staying at a friend’s home near the beach at Hikkaduwa, 60 miles south of Colombo, on Sri Lanka’s west coast.

His friend called him out to admire the reflection of a full moon shimmering in the pool. For some reason, his friend chose this moment to wax philosophical.

“Don’t get too attached to your possessions,” he said. “Everything changes, nothing is permanent.”

The following morning, Prianka relaxed over breakfast and texted his daughter, who was holidaying in Sweden, that he planned to go the beach 300 meters away.

The next instant, his world collapsed into madness.

“I heard people running along a gravel path leading up from the beach. They were yelling and one was shouting, ‘The sea is flooding.’ I thought, ‘How could that happen?’ It was bright and sunny and there had been no rain,” he recalls.

“We went out on the road and I saw a meter high wall of water coming towards us. It was taking everyone who was running. It hit one old lady behind her knees and she fell and was swept away.

“My friend said he wanted his cell phone, but I grabbed him and shouted, ‘Let’s run!’ I asked the house boy ‘Is there a hill nearby?’ He said, ‘Yes, about a kilometer away,’ so we started running.

“I had flip flops but lost them at the first wall I jumped over. I was barefoot, running through people’s yards and leaping over fences, but I have never run so fast, even when I ran track at high school.

“We must have run 500 meters when the water caught up with us and pushed us. I saw this little girl standing on a mound while her mother was trying to carry her other daughter. I grabbed the girl with my left arm. I stumbled. If I had fallen, I would have gone, but the house boy grabbed my arm and saved us.

“I realized I couldn’t run with the girl, or both of us would die. So I left her on a pile of bricks. I don’t know what happened to her. I still feel horrible about it.”

Sri Lanka 2004, Little Girl wandering in debris after tsunami hit, photo courtesy of Topnews“We finally reached this mound with a Buddhist shrine on top. It was about 30 feet high and I climbed to the top. The water rushed around and surrounded us. I didn’t know what had happened or what to do.

“Suddenly, I heard this echoing sound like the helicopters in the movie ‘Apocalypse Now’. We were 2 km inland and I could see this huge wall of water heading for us, taking houses and trees, everything.

“I had been watching this concrete outhouse to check the ground level. The water lifted it like someone lifting a child and carried it towards us. We were close to a tree and I told my friend to hang on to the tree. The water ran up our hill and abruptly stopped.

“There were about 200 people on our hill, and it was utter confusion with people screaming and pulling bodies out of the water. I saw one man with his ear torn off and another missing two fingers.

“We stayed there for over two hours and when the water receded to knee-level we decided to come down as we didn’t want to stay until dark. We waded for two hours in knee-deep water until we came to dry ground.

“We tried to hitchhike to Colombo, but people didn’t want to take us. Every vehicle was full. People thought it was the end of the world. When we did get a ride, twice the vehicles ran out of gas, but the gas stations had closed with the owners hoping to charge higher prices later.

Aftermath of 2004 tsunami, Sri Lanka, photo courtesy of NOAA“I got back to Colombo at 4 in the morning, nearly 18 hours after I had started running. I had no way of communicating with anyone because my friend and I had left our cell phones at the house. When I called my family in Sweden, they had been desperately trying to reach me, but to no avail.  After having read my text message and seen the events on TV, my family had feared the worst.

“My feet were swollen from running barefoot, but otherwise I had only a scratch on my knee. When I think of all the things that could have happened I was incredibly lucky. If we had decided to go anywhere but the hill, if the house boy hadn’t been there, if I had slipped…”

A couple of days later, Prianka accompanied his friend back to Hikkaduwa with food and medicine.

At the ruined home, they found six bodies.

That evening, the moon was full again and shone onto the pool. But instead of shimmering water, the moonbeams spotlighted the bloated corpse of a woman in white floating amid black water and debris.

- Ian Gill is a freelance writer based in Manila

Japan: Second blast at nuclear power plant and reports of cooling breakdown at a third nuclear reactor (News Brief)

(video courtesy of euronews) 

(HN, March 14, 2011) -- On Monday a new explosion hit Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, two days after an explosion at different reactor housing unit at the power plant. Cooling systems have also failed at a third reactor as a result of Friday’s earthquake and tsunami that knocked out electricity to much of the region, Japanese officials said.

Japan Today reported that according to plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. 11 people were injured in the blast, which authorities speculate to by a hudrogen explosion which caused the roof and walls of the building to blow away.

Today’s explosion has increased concern about a possible release of radiation. However, Japan's nuclear safety agency has said there is "absolutely no possibility of a Chernobyl" style accident at the Fukushima I plant, according to the national strategy minister, reports The Daily Telegraph. While the explosions blew the roof off each of the reactor containment buildings, officials said the reactors themselves remained intact.

Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary of the Japanese government, said it was unlikely that a total meltdown would occur in any of the troubled reactors, as none of them were near that point on Monday.

Edano's viewpoint was shared by experts who say the danger of a meltdown is decreasing day by day.

"We're now into the fourth day. Whatever is happening in that core is taking a long time to unfold," said Mark Hibbs, a senior associate at the nuclear policy program for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "They've succeeded in prolonging the timeline of the accident sequence."

There is a general consensus that there is little risk of a Chernobyl-type disaster in Japan, because the Japanese reactors have a containment shell that the doomed Russian reactor did not.

"The likelihood there will be a huge fire like at Chornobyl or a major environmental release like at Chernobyl, I think that's basically impossible," said James F. Stubbins, a nuclear energy professor at the University of Illinois.

"Everything I've seen says that the containment structure is operating as it's designed to operate. It's keeping the radiation in and it's holding everything in, which is the good news," Murray Jennex, of San Diego State University, told the Telegraph.

Since the Fukushima I plant’s cooling systems were shut down by Friday’s earthquake, Japan has been trying to control both overheating reactors with sea water – rendering them useless for future use. Sea water was also channeled into No. 2 reactor today, where the cooling system was shut down.

Radiation levels have measured above normal around the plant as a result authorities have evacuated approximately 210,000 residents within a 13 mile radius, raising fears of contamination to the surrounding area.

-HUMNews Staff

North Kosovo: Dual Sovereignty in Practice (Report)

(HN, March 14, 2011) -- The dispute between Kosovo and Serbia is most acute in Kosovo’s northern municipalities. The North has not been under effective control from Pristina for two decades; its sparse and predominantly rural Serb population uniformly rejects integration into Kosovo. Though small and largely peaceful, it is the main obstacle to reconciliation and both countries’ European Union (EU) aspirations. A Kosovo-Serbia dialogue mediated by the EU began on 8-9 March 2011 and is likely over the coming months to look at some of the consequences of the dispute for regional cooperation, communications, freedom of movement and the rule of law. For now, however, Belgrade, Pristina and Brussels have decided that tackling the North’s governance or status is too difficult before more efforts are made to secure cooperation on improving the region’s socio-economic development, security and public order.

For some time, the North will remain in effect under dual sovereignty: Kosovo’s and Serbia’s. Kosovo seeks to rid the region of Serbian institutions, integrate it and gain control of the border with Serbia. It is willing to provide substantial self rule and additional competencies as suggested under the Ahtisaari plan, developed in 2007 by the then UN Special Envoy to regulate Kosovo’s supervised independence. But local Serbs see the North as their last stand and Mitrovica town as their centre of intellectual and urban life. Belgrade will continue to use its influence in the North to reach its primary goal, regaining the region as a limited victory to compensate for losing the rest of its former province.

Serbia and Kosovo institutions intersect and overlap in the North without formal boundaries or rules. The majority Serb and minority Albanian communities there live within separate social, political and security structures. They have developed pragmatic ways of navigating between these parallel systems where cooperation is unavoidable. Yet, in a few areas – notably criminal justice – cooperation is non-existent, and the only barrier to crime is community pressure.

Northern Serbs across the political spectrum overwhelmingly cleave to Serbia. However, Belgrade and the Northern political elites belong to different parties and are bitter rivals. Apart from the technical work of managing the North, they share only one common interest: keeping Pristina out and blocking any international initiative that could strengthen common Kosovo institutions, notably police and courts. Two other groups, former local leaders who retain strong influence behind the scenes and an organised crime underworld focused on smuggling, share this one overriding goal. Belgrade prosecutes criminals and rivals selectively, allowing others room to operate; their presence in the North provides plausible deniability for many of its actions.

Observers in Pristina and friendly capitals see Serbia’s massive payments to the North as a major obstacle to the region’s integration into Kosovo. As long as Serbian money sustains their way of life, Northerners have little incentive to compromise. Yet, Kosovo’s own constitution expressly permits Serbian funding for education, medical care and municipal services, provided it is coordinated with Pristina, which currently it is not. Only the small amounts that support Serbian police and court systems directly undermine Kosovo’s integrity.

Virtually all Northern Serbs reject integration into Kosovo and believe their institutions and services are far better than what is offered south of the Ibar River, especially in education and health care. Recent scandals in Pristina, such as alleged massive corruption in the governing PDK party and a December 2010 Council of Europe report claiming implication of top Kosovo officials in organ trafficking, reinforce this view. Serbs distrust Pristina, believing that rights and protection promised now would be quickly subverted after integration. They are willing to cooperate with Pristina individually but not to accept its sovereignty. The North is subject to none of the pressures that brought a measure of integration to Kosovo’s southern Serb enclaves, and its views show no sign of softening.

Like Kosovo as a whole, the North suffers from a reputation for anarchy and domination by gangsters and corrupt politicians. And as in the rest of Kosovo, the reputation is largely false. Crime rates are similar and within the European mainstream; urban Mitrovica has more than its share of offences, the rural municipalities much less. Neighbouring Albanian-populated districts fall between these two Serb-held areas in rates for violent and property crimes. The real problems are contraband and intimidation directed at political and business rivals and anyone associated with Pristina.

Well-established Albanian-Serb networks, nevertheless, smuggle goods, free of duty and tax – especially diesel fuel – from Serbia via the North to southern Kosovo. The trade supports a criminal elite that, while small in the regional context, is still large enough to dominate Northern Kosovo. Curtailing this smuggling would benefit all and is achievable with the tacit support of Belgrade and most Northern Serbs. Some goods remain in the North, however, and residents feel no sympathy for policies that would enforce their separation from Serbia.

Nowhere is the North’s dual sovereignty as problematic as in law enforcement. Rival Kosovo and Serbian systems each have only partial access to the witnesses and official and community support they need. The Kosovo police lack the community’s trust and have a poor reputation. Serbia’s police are barred by a UN Security Council resolution and operate covertly. Serbian court judgments and orders are enforceable only in Serbia itself and are limited in practice to civil matters and economic crimes. Kosovo’s Mitrovica district court technically has jurisdiction north and south of the Ibar but is paralysed and can hear only a handful of cases, judged by internationals from EULEX, the EU’s rule of law mission. The insistence of Kosovo and international community representatives that the Mitrovica court can only fully function after Serbs accept its authority in the North adversely affects Kosovo Albanians in the south and undermines the sense that rule of law is the priority.

The North suffers from a near-total absence of productive employment and depends on state subsidies for its survival; rule of law is weak. These problems are real but insignificant compared to the North’s effect on Kosovo and Serbia. Neither can join the EU while the North’s status is in dispute. Addressing local problems by improving on pragmatic solutions already in place and finding a framework for criminal justice acceptable to the local population would likely perpetuate its uncertain status, by keeping it distinct from the rest of Kosovo. Belgrade and Pristina should use the EU-facilitated talks to consider autonomy for the North in exchange for Serbia’s recognition of Kosovo statehood, as Crisis Group recommended in August 2010. If the political will for this comprehensive compromise is lacking, the parties should not allow the dispute to block progress in other areas. They should instead seek flexible, interim solutions to improve law enforcement, customs collection, and allocation of financial aid in the North.

- Report by the International Crisis Group - Pristina/Mitrovica/Brussels

*The views expressed in this report are solely those of the International Crisis Group and not HUMNews.

Bahrain in Turmoil (NEWS BRIEF)

(HN, March 13, 2011) - Protesters in Bahrain were fired upon today by riot police using tear gas and rubber bullets, according to reports coming out of the tiny Gulf nation.

The force was apparently used in an attempt to dislodge protesters from Manama's financial district.

A video posted on YouTube showed one protester being hit at close range by tear gas canisters. There were also reports of a major highway being blocked.

Al Jazeera reported that "hundreds of protesters" are heading to the Pearl Roundabout - Manama'sversion of Tahrir Square - to join the others. It is one of the most violent confrontations since the military killed seven protesters on February 1.

Meanwhile, Twitter postings from several sources suggest a now ongoing or imminent intervention by the powerful Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which includes neighbouring Saudi Arabia, as well as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Last week the GCC approved a $20 billion economic aid package over 10 years for development projects in Bahrain and Oman, which has also seen protests.

These latest developments will be greeted with alarm in Washington - which recently gave into pressure from the Pentagon - as well as intense lobbying from Gulf states - to side with the ruling family and back a course of dialogue with the opposition, according to published reports.

The kingdom is home to the US Fifth Fleet.

- HUMNEWS staff, wires