Posted on

Côte d’Ivoire stand-off Over But Humanitarian Crisis Continues, UN and Partners Warn

14 April 2011 –Although the political stand-off in Côte d’Ivoire ended earlier this week, the humanitarian crisis spawned by months of violence continues, United Nations agencies and their partners stressed today as they appeal for $160 million to scale up aid to affected populations inside the country.

Today’s appeal represents a five-fold increase over the $32 million initially sought by aid agencies in January at the onset of the humanitarian crisis stemming from the fighting that ensued after Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down after he lost the UN-certified presidential run-off election last November to Alassane Ouattara.

Mr. Gbagbo finally surrendered on Monday after more than four months of turmoil in the West African nation. UN aid officials have estimated that up to 1 million Ivorians have been displaced by the violence, with some internally displaced and others forced to flee into neighbouring countries – particularly Liberia, which is hosting 135,000 Ivorians.

“The humanitarian crisis is not yet over,” said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Côte d’Ivoire, Ndolamb Ngokwey. “All across the country, it will take many months to restore people’s dignity and rebuild livelihoods.

“Aid agencies will be here as long as it will take but we need to start now. We are asking for only $74 for each person affected,” he stated.

The $160 million appeal aims to provide food security, nutrition, education, protection, water, health care and sanitation to as many as two million people throughout Côte d’Ivoire. It will also allow UN agencies and non-governmental organizations, to significantly scale up relief programmes, notably in the commercial capital of Abidjan and in the west.

The appeal also seeks funding for aid to the north, an area that has received little attention during the past four months, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Humanitarian agencies have also appealed for $146 million to address the needs of the Ivorians who have sought refuge in Liberia.

Meanwhile, the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) reports that the security situation in Abidjan is improving. In addition, water, electricity, and basic services have been restored in some areas, and businesses are re-opening and traffic is returning to the streets.

“I would not be surprised to see that cars, taxis will emerge increasingly in large numbers by the end of the week,” said Y. J. Choi, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of UNOCI. “We will help encourage people to leave their homes and resume their activities,” he added.

In an effort to do just that, the mission organized a peace parade today in which a caravan of dozens of cars drove through the main streets of Abidjan to mark the improved security situation there.

Mr. Choi, who took part in the event, did acknowledge that some districts of the city were not yet secure, noting for example that there is still sniper fire in Yopougon. He also pledged that UNOCI will continue to help Côte d’Ivoire meet the challenges it faces.

Hamadoun Touré, spokesperson for UNOCI, said that Abidjan had seemed like a ghost town for the past several weeks. “People were scared to go out while they were short of basic needs like food, water and medicine,” he told the UN News Centre.

“It [the parade] is a signal to encourage them to try and lead a normal life,” he said, adding that this was the right time to hold such an event since fighting has ended in the city and the post-electoral crisis has reached a turning point with the capture of Mr. Gbagbo.

UN News Center

Share
Posted on

Ivory Coast Sit-tight Laurent Gbagbo Captured

Ivory Coast's Gbagbo grabbed

UN News Center

11 April 2011 – The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Cote d’Ivoire today confirmed that the country’s former president Laurent Gbagbo has surrendered to forces loyal to President-elect Alassane Ouattara and is currently in their custody.
“ONUCI [UN Operation in Cote d’Ivoire] is providing protection and security in accordance with its Security Council mandate,” the spokesperson of the Secretary-General told reporters at UN Headquarters.

Côte d’Ivoire has been engulfed by violence since last November, when Mr. Gbagbo refused to step down from power, despite losing a UN-certified and internationally recognized presidential election to Mr. Ouattara.

The Security Council, meanwhile, went into urgent consultations during which it will hear a briefing on the unfolding situation in Côte d’Ivoire from the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy.

From The BBC

Besieged Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo has been detained in the main city Abidjan and delivered to the headquarters of his elected successor.

He reportedly surrendered to Alassane Ouattara’s forces after French tanks advanced on his residence.

Mr Gbagbo had been refusing to cede power to Mr Ouattara after losing November’s presidential election.

France said pro-Ouattara troops had detained him, but an aide to Mr Gbagbo said it was French special forces.

Mr Gbagbo was then taken to the city’s Golf Hotel, where Mr Ouattara has his headquarters.

UN peacekeepers accused pro-Gbagbo forces of endangering the civilian population and had asked French troops in Ivory Coast to act against the defiant leader’s heavy weapons.

Ivory Coast’s permanent representative to the UN, Youssoufou Bamba, said Mr Gbagbo would stand trial.

In London, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said that if charges were brought, Mr Gbagbo should be tried in an orderly manner.

‘Gbagbo has surrendered’

Forces loyal to Mr Ouattara launched an offensive from their stronghold in the north at the end of March, after months of political deadlock during which Mr Gbagbo refused to recognise his rival’s election victory (continue at BBC)

From the Wall Street Journal

Forces loyal to Ivory Coast’s elected president Alassane Ouattara have seized strongman Laurent Gbagbo from his residence, bringing to a head a protracted conflict between two presidential rivals that had tilted the world’s largest cocoa producer toward civil war.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Ouattara said Monday that Mr. Gbagbo was captured during a flurry of fighting earlier in the day. “There [was] heavy fighting involving French soldiers, the United Nations and our forces against Mr. Gbagbo’s forces,” spokeswoman Sogona Bamba-Arnault said from Paris. “Once all heavy weapons were destroyed, Mr. Gbagbo was there and we arrested him.”

An aide to Mr. Gbagbo said the incumbent ruler was first arrested by French special forces, and only later handed to forces loyal to Mr. Ouattara.

In Paris, French officials had no immediate comment.

Ms. Bamba-Arnault, the president-elect’s spokeswoman, said Mr. Gbagbo was taken to the Golf Hotel, where Mr. Ouattara has set up his office.

Mr. Gbagbo lost a November presidential runoff certified by the U.N. but refused to recognize the result, citing voting irregularities.

When attempts by African leaders to mediate the conflict failed, Mr. Ouattara’s rebel forces launched an offensive, sweeping south and capturing key towns and ports that Mr. Gbagbo’s army once held.

That advance stalled outside the main Ivory Coast city of Abidjan, a stronghold for Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters. It was only when the U.N. and Licorne, or Unicorn—the French battalion stationed in Abidjan—launched a series of aerial attacks that the rebels were able to encircle the former Ivory Coast president in his residence.

The U.N. and the French said the air assaults were intended to protect civilians by destroying Mr. Gbagbo’s artillery and weapons stockpiles. Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters said the military intervention was the work of a former colonial power pushing a political rival into the presidency.

Mr. Gbagbo resisted surrender, and a core of a couple of hundred supporters rebuffed initial efforts to capture his residence. Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters continued to attack French and U.N. targets, prompting a retaliation that appeared to pave the way for the former president’s capture on Monday.

Recent controversies associated with his rebel forces have complicated Mr. Ouattara’s struggle to oust the Ivory Coast strongman from his residence, and also point to the challenges of reconciliation after the conflict. The Ivory Coast fought a two-year civil war after Mr. Gbagbo came to power, and although the conflict officially ended in 2002, the country has remained sharply divided.

In a report released by New York-based Human Rights Watch over the weekend, Mr. Ouattara’s forces were said to have “killed hundreds of civilians, raped more than 20 alleged supporters of his rival, Laurent Gbagbo, and burned at least 10 villages” in the country’s western region during their advance south. The report said Mr. Gbagbo’s backers also killed supporters of the president-elect, but it called on Mr. Ouattara to investigate abuses on both sides.

That report followed a separate account from the International Committee of the Red Cross, estimating that 800 people were killed in intercommunal violence in the town of Duekoue, after troops loyal to Mr. Ouattara moved through the area.

The International Criminal Court also has said it was considering opening an investigation into reports of atrocities during the conflict.

Mr. Ouattara has pledged to launch an investigation into the allegations, and vowed that the perpetrators would be brought to justice in domestic or international courts.

Share
Posted on

Genetically Modified Fungus Could Fight Malaria

Bacteria use for producing anti-body against malaria are seen through a microscope at Westminster University in London, Tuesday, March 15, 2011. In a cramped London laboratory filled with test tubes, bacteria and mosquitoes, scientists are trying to engineer a new weapon in the battle against malaria: a mutant fungus. For years, Angray Kang at Westminster University and colleagues have been testing whether they could genetically tweak a fungus to kill the malaria parasite carried by mosquitoes.

NPR

In a cramped London laboratory filled with test tubes, bacteria and mosquitoes, scientists are trying to engineer a new weapon in the battle against malaria: a mutant fungus.

For years, Angray Kang at Westminster University and colleagues have been testing whether they could genetically tweak a fungus to kill the malaria parasite carried by mosquitoes.

Now they’ve found that in lab experiments, mosquitoes exposed to the fungus show a sharp drop in levels of the parasite. If it works that way in the wild, that should make it harder for the disease to infect people.

Kang said the mutant fungus could be sprayed onto walls and bednets like insecticides and could be made for a comparable cost.

He said the same process of genetic modification could also be used to target other insect-spread diseases like dengue and West Nile virus. The research was done together with scientists at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Early results were published recently in the journal Science.

“This is very exciting research,” said Andrew Read, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Pennsylvania State University. He has worked on similar projects but was not involved with the fungus research. “It tells us that if you can’t find something in nature to do what you want, you can just make it.”

Read said using the souped-up fungus might be less environmentally invasive than other genetic approaches. Some critics have warned that competing biological approaches, like scientists creating mutant mosquitoes, could wreak havoc to ecosystems if billions of the insects are released into the wild.

With the fungus, “you just spray it on the wall and it does its job,” Read said. “You don’t have to worry about generation after generation of the stuff.”

He also said the fungus technology could be a new way of dealing with insecticide-resistant mosquitoes, an increasing problem that has meant the return of effective but controversial sprays like DDT. “With the (mutant) fungi, you wouldn’t have chemical residues hanging around,” he said. “It would just be a fungus very similar to what is already found in nature.”

In laboratory tests, Kang and colleagues found mosquitoes exposed to the mutated fungus had malaria parasite levels about 85 percent lower than normal. When they added a scorpion toxin to the mix, levels dropped by 97 percent. No tests have shown whether using the fungus would curb human malaria cases, but experts think fewer malaria parasites should translate into fewer cases.

“If the strategy works and there are fewer parasites, this could change how malaria is spread and reduce transmission to humans,” said George Christophides, an infection expert at Imperial College London who was not associated with the research.

Kang’s experiment involved inserting a human antibody against malaria into a fungus commonly found in soil and plants worldwide. Spores made by the fungus burrow into the mosquito, invading its circulatory system. When the malaria-causing parasite multiplies inside the insect, the antibody keeps the parasites from reaching the mosquito’s salivary glands. That theoretically stops the disease’s spread.

“The mosquito can be infected by malaria, but it can’t pass it onto humans,” Kang said. The mutated fungus then eats away at the mosquito from the inside, killing the insect after a couple of weeks. That’s long enough for the mosquito to reproduce, which should lessen its incentive to evolve resistance to it.

The same fungus — minus the genetic modifications — is already produced in industrial quantities to squash locust outbreaks in Australia. The fungus is naturally lethal to locusts, so no genetic modification is needed.

If Kang and colleagues can get enough funding, they hope to test the mutant fungus in malaria-endemic countries like Burkina Faso, Kenya or Tanzania.

Other experts doubted whether the laboratory experiment could be replicated in the wild. “It’s a neat scientific idea, but there are questions about (the mutated fungus’s) stability and formulation,” said Janet Hemingway, director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. She said the mutant fungus would have to survive being shipped to Africa and then be viable for another three to six months in stifling heat once it’s sprayed onto walls or bednets.

One group that campaigns against genetically modified organisms warned the mutant fungus could skew behaviors of other wildlife.

“The release of any genetically modified organism into the environment runs the risk that it may have wider impacts than just its target,” said Pete Riley, campaign director of GM Freeze, a U.K.-based advocacy group. He said the modified fungus could have unintended consequences which might be impossible to reverse. “Nature has a pretty cunning way of getting around everything we throw at it,” he said.

Kang acknowledged that simply having a new mutant fungus would not stop malaria. “We still need better drugs and other interventions,” he said. “But malaria kills about a million people every year so we have to try whatever may work.”

Share
Posted on

Preventing Genocide Only Real Way to Honour Rwandan Victims – Ban

7 April 2011 –The only way to truly honour the memory of the more than 800,000 people who perished in Rwanda 17 years ago is to ensure that such tragedies never occur again, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, as the United Nations observed the annual day of remembrance of the victims of the genocide.

“Preventing genocide is a collective and individual responsibility,” Mr. Ban said in a message for the day, which is observed every year on 7 April. “Rwanda’s survivors have made us confront the ugly reality of a preventable tragedy.”

More than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and Hutus were murdered in the tiny African nation, mostly by machete, during a period of less than 100 days beginning in April 1994.

The Secretary-General noted that the recognition of the collective failure of the international community to come to the assistance of the people of Rwanda, and to shield the victims of the wars in the Balkans, led to the endorsement by the 2005 World Summit of the responsibility to protect.

Recent measures by the Security Council in response to the crisis in Libya, in particular the adoption of Resolutions 1970 and 1973, mark a significant step along this path, he added.

In addition, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other international courts are sending a “strong signal” that the world will not tolerate impunity for gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

“My Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect monitor developments worldwide looking for early signs of risk. We must remain ever vigilant.”

Mr. Ban paid special tribute to the people and Government of Rwanda for the resilience and dignity they have shown in working towards national recovery and managing the trauma of the genocide.

This year’s commemoration includes a memorial ceremony to be held at UN Headquarters in New York this evening that will honour the victims, as well as the survivors, and emphasize ways in which education can help reconciliation. It will feature musical performances as well as testimony from Immaculée Ilibagiza, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide.

In addition, a student conference will be held on Friday focusing on genocide prevention and feature Francis Deng, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and Clemantine Wamariya, genocide survivor and student at Yale University.

Share
Posted on

Pro-Gbagbo forces in Côte d’Ivoire Inform UN of Their Intention to Stop Fighting

5 April 2011 –The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire reported today that it has received telephone calls from the heads of forces loyal to former leader Laurent Gbagbo stating that their soldiers have been instructed to stop fighting and hand in their weapons to the UN.

The UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) said the calls came from General Philippe Mangou, the chief-of-staff of the Defence and Security Forces, General Thiape Kassarate Edouard, the commander of the National Gendarmerie and General Bruno Dogbo Blé, the commander of the Republican Guard.

Troops loyal to Mr. Gbagbo, the former president who refused to step down after losing the election in November to opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, have been engaged in fierce fighting with forces loyal to Mr. Ouattara, who have in recent weeks stepped up their offensive to force the ex-leader out of power. Mr. Ouattara is the internationally recognised President of Côte d’Ivoire.

“UNOCI has given orders to its troops to receive arms wherever they are handed in and to offer protection to disarmed FDSCI [Defence and Security Forces of Côte d’Ivoire] elements, including the Special Forces,” the UN mission said in a press release.

Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that the situation in Abidjan, the West African country’s commercial capital and the scene of the some fiercest fighting over the past week, is alarming.

Most of the hospitals are not functioning and ambulances have been fired on when they tried to enter the city, according to OCHA.

Valerie Amos, the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, who is visiting Côte d’Ivoire, reported that internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the western town of Duékoué, the scene of an alleged massacre of civilians last week, were “fearful and traumatized.”

Ms. Amos, who is also the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and head of OCHA, stressed the need for physical protection for those affected and the distribution of sufficient humanitarian aid. Access to many civilians in need has, however, been severely restricted or completely cut off since mid-February when the fighting intensified, according to OCHA.

The Emergency Relief Coordinator was accompanied on the visit to Duékoué yesterday by the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ivan Simonovic, who went to the town to look into the mass killings that allegedly took place last Wednesday.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) voiced alarm over the impact of the violence in Côte d’Ivoire on children.

“We are especially troubled by reports that children are among the victims of a mass killing there,” said Anthony Lake, the UNICEF Executive Director. “And children continue to be recruited by armed forces on all sides of the conflict – a grave violation of their rights which jeopardizes not only their future but also the chances for achieving sustainable peace in Cote d’Ivoire.”

“We fear outbreaks of disease if we and other agencies cannot reach the thousands of internally displaced families,” added Mr. Lake.

UN News Center

Share
Posted on

Molesters of Campus Woman Thief, Amina, to Be Dismissed, Vice Chancellor

[ad#GBAF-1-text]

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana has condemned last week’s sexual onslaught on a lady who allegedly stole a laptop and mobile phones from the Mensah Sarbah Hall annex B.

Some male students of the Hall molested and stripped the young lady entirely, exposing her private parts. Whilst she struggled to extricate herself from the over a dozen young men, others filmed her. The video was subsequently circulated and copies sent to some media houses.

The Vice Chancellor of the University Professor Ernest Ayeetey told Campus station, Radio Universe, that the act was disgraceful and the students involved will be punished.

“what we saw was a criminal behavior and that falls within the ambits of the law enforcement agencies of Ghana. One thing I can assure Ghanaians is that this University would not protect anybody who has broken the laws of Ghana. In the past students assumed that if they committed crimes their behavior could be excused on the grounds of being students and that the university would go and say they’re students so leave them: we will not do that” he stressed.

“If the law enforcement agencies want to pursue anybody, we will collaborate with them and cooperate as much as possible to ensure that justice is served. We will have our own mechanisms for sanctioning, we can dismiss and indeed we will dismiss”he noted.

Meanwhile the Legon Police command says it has identified some students who engaged in the act.

Crime Officer at the Legon Police Station, ASP Emmanuel Basin-Tale told Citi News “arresting the students is not necessarily a challenge but because they are students we just want to go through the school authorities before picking them”.

The young lady (Amina) now in police custody, is said to be responding to treatment. Professor Ernest Ayeetey noted that “there should be two aspects, the university sanctions as well as the criminal aspect being dealt with by the law enforcement agencies. This university would treat students the way the laws of Ghana require and the way our statutes demand”.

][ad#GBAF-1-text]

Share
Posted on

Angelina Jolie Calls for Continued Support to Populations Fleeing Libya and Humanitarian Access to Those Inside

Angelina Jolie, UN refugee agencys Goodwill Ambassador

RAS ADJIR, Tunisia The UN refugee agencys Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie travelled on Tuesday morning to the Tunisian-Libyan border to urge greater international support for people fleeing Libya.

More than 400,000 people have escaped the violence in Libya in the last month, arriving in surrounding countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Niger, Algeria, Chad and Sudan. Tunisia alone has received more than half of the outflow from Libya and has mobilized an outstanding relief operation.

The outpouring of generosity from the Tunisian people says so much for the future of this country, said UNHCRs Goodwill Ambassador. It is a sign of the openness sweeping across the region.

At the end of February, transit facilities were erected 7 km inside Tunisia to provide temporary shelter. At the same time, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration began helping migrants home with a humanitarian air evacuation. Today, over 70,000 people have reached home safely with help from UNHCR and IOM, but more continue to arrive. Some 11,000 third country nationals are still in transit.

The international community has done well to reinforce Tunisias remarkable relief effort, said Jolie. But with 2,000 people still crossing each day, we cannot let the funding dry up and need to sustain the momentum.

During the visit, an important contribution is being made by the Jolie-Pitt Foundation to help sustain the humanitarian evacuations being carried out. The Foundation covered the costs for a flight of 177 persons to return to their countries of origin and purchased an ambulance to help support Tunisian efforts on the border to assist the injured arriving from Libya.

We would encourage others, individuals and governments, to continue to support and assist with the needs on the ground, said Jolie.

While migrants make up the majority of these new arrivals, there are also some 2,500 people from war-torn countries who are unable to return home and thus require international protection.

Theyre waiting here with little hope, unable to return home and unsure of whats to come. This constant cycle of displacement must finally come to an end, said Jolie.

In conversations on Tuesday with people who had recently left Libya, UNHCRs Goodwill Ambassador was told of heavy fighting inside the country. She listened to harrowing stories of checkpoints, harassment and assaults. She appealed for measures that would allow the UN and non-governmental organizations to access Libya, and to distribute urgent assistance, including food and medical supplies.

Jolie also heard dramatic accounts of eastern and sub-Saharan Africans being deliberately targeted inside Libya. Many remain in hiding in desperate conditions, unable to move for fear of violence. Jolie called for a humanitarian corridor to facilitate the safe access of these populations to points of refuge.

Without this corridor, thousands of eastern and sub-Saharan Africans are escaping Libya by sea, relying on unseaworthy vessels organized by smugglers. In recent weeks, there have been several landings on the small Italian island of Lampedusa as well as interceptions off the coast of Tunisia. There are also reports of some people not surviving the perilous journey across the Mediterranean.

UNHCR

Share
Posted on

UN-backed Partners Help DR Congo Introduce Pneumonia Vaccine

4 April 2011 –The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today added the vaccine against pneumonia to its national immunisation programme in a United Nations-backed initiative to drastically improve the chances of survival for children under the age of five.

The expanded programme is supported by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), which brings together governments, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and other key players in global health.

It will initially be rolled out in two of DRC’s 11 provinces as the country steps up the fight against pneumonia, one of the biggest killers of children worldwide, and is responsible for a quarter of all deaths of children under the age of five in the African nation.

DRC’s First Lady, Olive Lembe Kabila, and Health Minister Victor Makwenge Kaput joined parents and health workers in Kinshasa to witness the first child being inoculated as part of the official introduction of pneumococcal vaccine into the national routine immunization programme.

On the same day in Paris, GAVI founding partner Bill Gates launched a European-wide awareness campaign to highlight the extraordinary life-saving opportunity that vaccines represent for donor countries.

Globally, pneumococcal disease, the most common and serious form of respiratory infections, kills over a million people every year – including more than half a million children before their fifth birthday.

It is the leading cause of pneumonia, which is the major cause of death among children under the age of five, contributing to 18 per cent of the mortality of children in that age group.

“Today’s launch is an enormous moment for my country, where too many children die of this terrible disease,” said Mr. Kaput. “Pneumonia causes suffering and death. Therefore we celebrate a wonderful day today.”

Léodégal Bazira, the acting WHO Representative in DRC, said: “The introduction of the pneumococcal vaccine and the systematic immunization of the children could save the life of one in five children dying from respiratory infectious diseases.”

A 2004 study by UNICEF showed that that pneumonia killed at least 132,000 children under the age of five in DRC, making it the second biggest cause of death – after malaria – of children under the age in the country.

“With electricity, roads, and refrigerators in short supply, delivering vaccines to remote health centres in DRC is an enormous challenge,” said Pierrette Vu Thi, the UNICEF Representative in DRC. “Together with its partners UNICEF is committed to ensure that all children in this country have the same access to this life-saving vaccine.”

In the past five months, Nicaragua, Guyana, Yemen, Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Mali also introduced pneumococcal vaccines thanks to support from GAVI.

UN News Center

Share