Over 9 million people across the Lake Chad Basin are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Since 2015, CERF has provided more than $90 million for life-saving humanitarian assistance to 3 million people affected by the conflict and deepening food crisis.
West Africa and the Sahel-Sahara region are faced with peace and security challenges that weaken states and affect state-citizen relations. The emergence and proliferation of violent extremist groups aggravate the climate of fear and insecurity, and the actions of these groups affect peace efforts, sustainable development, and human rights. Faced with this reality, policymakers have recognized that preventing violence requires a multidisciplinary and multistakeholder approach. This approach needs to address the underlying conditions that lead individuals to join violent extremist groups, as well as the need to reintegrate members of these groups who wish to return to their original environment.
In the course of the last decade, efforts to solve the problem of violent extremism have consisted primarily of a series of security measures largely inspired by strategies used to fight terrorism. But experience has shown that such strategies are inadequate and at times fuel further extremism. This experience has led international organizations and states to adopt more preventive approaches, such as those detailed in the Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism issued by the UN secretary-general on December 24, 2015. 1 During the presentation of this plan, the secretary-general emphasized that “many years of experience have proven that short-sighted policies, failed leadership, heavy-handed approaches, a single-minded focus only on security measures and an utter disregard for human rights have often made things worse.” It is therefore urgent to identify more effective measures and sustainable policies to prevent violent extremism.
In this context, the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), the International Peace Institute (IPI), and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs co-organized a regional seminar in Dakar, Senegal, on June 27 and 28, 2016, to explore alternative measures to address the violent extremism afflicting the region. This meeting brought together sixty participants from fourteen countries, including political leaders, members of civil society (men, women, and youth), and religious and traditional authorities, as well as representatives of the media (in their capacity as experts), the private sector, governments, and regional and international organizations.
Continued adequate moisture conditions raise hopes for average to above-average harvest
Key Messages
The Intertropical Front (ITF) started its southward retreat in early September but it remains either at or north of its average position, which could mean a normal to longer growing period.
From early July until mid-September, mostly average to above-average rainfall that has been well-distributed over time has fallen throughout most of the region (Figures 1 and 2), which is ensuring good growing conditions.
Seasonal rainfall deficits (Figure 2) are minimal and limited to the extreme western part of the Sahel, the middle of Niger and the southern part of the Gulf of Guinea countries; these deficits are not expected to adversely affect crop development.
The medium-term forecast for the next two weeks (Sept 23-29 and Sept 30-Oct 6) calls for a drier agro-pastoral zone, likely signaling a normal end of the rainy season, and for moderate to heavy rains over the rest of the region where agricultural conditions will remain favorable.
Heavy rainfall over the past two months has caused flooding in some areas along the Niger, Benue and Senegal River basins. Based on the past two weeks’ rainfall amount and frequency as well as the next two-week forecast, the risk of flooding remains high in Senegal and Nigeria.
Update on Seasonal Progress
The Intertropical Front (ITF) reached its northernmost position at the end of August and started its southward retreat in early September. However, the retreat has been slower than average, leaving the ITF north of its climatological position over eastern Mauritania, Mali and Niger and at its climatological position in western Mauritania and over Chad (Figure 3).
The seasonal “minor dry season” in the bi-modal zone finished as usual in late August and early September.
Seasonal rainfall (April-September) has been average to above average over most of the region (Figures 1 and 2). Rainfall deficits are light and limited to a few areas scattered across the region including western Senegal, central Niger, and the southern part of the Gulf of Guinea countries. These deficits, however, are not expected to have an adverse impact on crop and pasture production because: the rainfall distribution over time was favorable without any long dry spells most of the previously mentioned deficit areas were wetter than average during previous month - In some places, the heavy rainfall during August resulted in flooding in low lying areas and along major rivers. Light to moderate flooding has been reported in Mali and Niger along the Niger River and in Nigeria along the Benue and Niger Rivers. Flooding has also been reported in Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Senegal over low lying areas with often poor drainage systems.
While rainfall subsided over most of the Niger River basin during the past two weeks, the Senegal and Benue basins have received heavy and frequent rains. Since the next two week forecast also calls for heavy rains over a large portion of these two basins, the risk of flooding remains high.
The mostly adequate and well-distributed seasonal rainfall across all agro-ecological zones is favorable to crop development, and an average to above-average harvest is expected as a result.
Following a brief period of suppressed rainfall, Guatemala registers heavy precipitation during the last week
Africa Weather Hazards
Prolonged heavy rainfall during the season throughout the Niger River basin has triggered flooding and inundation along the Niger River in Mali, Niger, and Nigeria. Inundation is also expected to be greater than it has been for many years through the inner Niger delta.
Low and poorly distributed seasonal rainfall across parts of central Senegal have led to strengthening moisture deficits and deteriorating ground conditions.
Below-average seasonal rainfall and persistent moisture deficits in the region have negatively impacted developing crops across parts of the eastern Oromia and SNNP provinces of Ethiopia. Similar conditions have also begun to negatively impact ground conditions in many parts of Uganda, South Sudan, and eastern DRC.
There is a potential for increased number of locusts migrating from the Arabian Peninsula which may negatively impact cropping activities.
24 September 2016. Since February 2015, conflict and insecurity have spread from northeastern Nigeria to Cameroon, Niger, and Chad, affecting a total of nearly 21 million people in what is called the Lake Chad Basin. Across the four countries, at least 2.6 million have been displaced, and most of them are hosted by local communities who are themselves vulnerable. The spreading conflict has resulted in violence against civilians, displacement, and a worsening food security and nutrition crisis for millions of people.
The Diffa Region of Niger, nestled in the southeastern corner of the country over 1300 kilometers from the nation’s capital, Niamey, is particularly affected. In the best of times, Diffa’s malnutrition rates among children are high, and existing structural food security and nutrition problems have been exacerbated by the conflict. Global Acute Malnutrition in the Diffa Region now exceeds the 15 percent emergency threshold.
In recent months, new displacements in southeastern Niger are overwhelming the limited resources of communities facing the effects of climate change and recurrent droughts, particularly food insecurity and malnutrition. Internally displaced persons, returning Nigeriens fleeing conflict, and Nigerian refugees all require humanitarian assistance – The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that 399,000 people in southeastern Niger qualify as “severely food insecure”. Pastoralists and farmers are constrained by insecurity and displacement, interrupting normal nomadic routes and normal economic activity, resulting in over-grazing and the risk of inter-communal conflict.
Résumé et conclusions principales
Dans un contexte de pénuries en eau et de déplacements continus à travers la région, les données de la Direction Régionale de l’État Civil et de Réfugiés (DREC-R), publiées en mai 2016, indiquent que la région de Diffa compte 82,524 personnes réfugiées, 31,524 retournés, et 127,208 déplacés internes qui ont besoin d’une assistance humanitaire. D’après les données récoltées par les organisations non-gouvernementales (ONG) et les agences de l’Organisation des Nations Unies (ONU) en juin 2016, près de 43,000 personnes à Kidjendi, près de 13,000 personnes à Gagam, 22,800 à Garin Wanzam, plus de 18,300 à Mainé Soroa, et 23,300 à Nguigmi ont été jugées dans le besoin. Face à la crise en cours, les acteurs humanitaires, sous l’impulsion du Groupe Technique Eau, Hygiène, et Assainissement (EHA) dans la région de Diffa et du Cluster EHA dans la capitale Niamey, ont mis en place une intervention d’urgence pour répondre aux besoins accrus des populations dans le secteur EHA. La réponse EHA a été élaborée en collaboration avec la Direction Régionale de l’Hydraulique et de l’Assainissement (DRHA) et les acteurs de coordination, notamment la Cellule de Coordination Humanitaire.
Dans un contexte de manque d’information sur l’étendue des besoins dans le secteur EHA, la présente évaluation a été menée dans le but de mieux comprendre la situation en termes d’infrastructures dans les zones les plus touchées par les déplacements dans la région de Diffa au Niger. Menée entre le 30 mai et le 23 juin 2016 avec l’assistance du Cluster EHA Global, elle a mis en lumière une série de particularités propres à la situation des points d’eau et des latrines dans la région de Diffa. L’évaluation a été articulée autour de deux composantes : une évaluation de l’état et de la gouvernance des infrastructures d’approvisionnement en eau destinée à la consommation humaine, suivie d’une évaluation des infrastructures de latrines communes construites dans le cadre de la réponse d’urgence aux déplacements forcés.
L’évaluation présente les conclusions s’appuyant sur les données collectées dans la région de Diffa, située dans l’Est du Niger, à la frontière avec le Nigéria et le Tchad voisins. Étant l’une des régions les moins densément peuplées du Niger, elle est composée de six départements : Bosso, Diffa, Goudoumaria, N'Guigmi, Maine-Soroa, et N'Gourti. Menée dans un contexte de forte insécurité et de déplacements continus à travers la région de Diffa et depuis le Nigéria voisin, l’évaluation EHA a notamment permis de mettre l’accent sur le rôle positif joué par les comités de gestion (CGs) dans la gestion et la maintenance des ouvrages d’eau et des latrines, de confirmer que la majorité des points d’eau évalués étaient fonctionnels en juin 2016, mais a aussi montré que des problèmes étaient présents et qu’une partie de la population était déjà engagée dans des habitudes de consommation d’eau risquées.
L’évaluation EHA présente séparément les résultats pour les points d’eau et pour les latrines communes. Deux stratégies d’échantillonnage différentes ont été utilisées, tel que détaillé dans la section méthodologie du rapport.
Si les conclusions pour les points d’eau sont généralisables à toute les zones de la région de Diffa ayant accueilli des réfugiés avec un intervalle de confiance de 96% et une marge d’erreur de 4.5%, les résultats pour les latrines sont indicatifs, et ne présentent des informations qui ne se rapportent qu’aux populations habitant près de ces installations dans la région de Diffa. Aussi bien pour les points d’eau, que pour les latrines, l’évaluation a été organisée selon deux parties comprenant trois questionnaires distincts. Le premier questionnaire était rempli par l’énumérateur lui-même sur la base de ses observations; le deuxième était adressé au CG de l’infrastructure, si existant, et le troisième aux usagers de l’infrastructure. Les résultats présentés sont donc une combinaison de ces différents questionnaires, qui ont été élaborés afin d’être complémentaires et permettre de donner une image d’ensemble. À chaque fois, le rapport mentionne comment et auprès de qui les différentes informations ont été collectées. Ci-dessous, les conclusions principales de l’évaluation EHA sont résumées.
23 septembre 2016– Le Président du Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a assuré vendredi que les hostilités avaient effectivement cessé entre le gouvernement et les mouvements signataires de l'Accord de paix et de réconciliation au Mali, mais que le processus de paix restait fragile du fait des activités de groupes terroristes.
Dans un discours devant l'Assemblée générale des Nations Unies, M. Keita a mis en avant les progrès effectués depuis la signature de l'Accord, notamment dans le domaine des réformes politiques et institutionnelles.
« En dépit des efforts déployés par les parties signataires de l'Accord, le processus de paix reste confronté à de sérieuses entraves liées aux activités des groupes terroristes dans les régions du nord qui multiplient indistinctement les attaques asymétriques contre les paisibles populations civiles, les forces de défense et de sécurité maliennes, les contingents de la MINUSMA (Mission multidimensionnelle intégrée des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation au Mali) et la force française Barkhane », a-t-il cependant affirmé.
Au passage, il s'est félicité de la décision du Conseil de sécurité, dans sa résolution 2295 renouvelant le mandat de la MINUSMA, d'autoriser celle-ci à adopter « une posture plus proactive et robuste ».
Il a appelé au renforcement des capacités opérationnelles des contingents déployés pour assurer la sûreté du personnel de la MINUSMA. Et il a insisté sur la nécessité d'accélérer le processus de cantonnement et du DDR (démobilisation, désarmement et réinsertion), « aux fins d'isoler les groupes armés non signataires de l'accord de paix, affiliés aux réseaux terroristes dont les actions entravent les efforts en cours ».
Plus tôt dans la journée, le Secrétaire général de l'ONU, Ban Ki-moon, avait lui-même appelé toutes les parties concernées à mettre rapidement en œuvre l'Accord de paix au Mali.
« J'appelle les groupes armés à cesser de provoquer des confrontations et toutes les parties à laisser de côté leurs intérêts à court terme et à mettre en œuvre l'accord de paix », avait-il déclaré lors d'une réunion ministérielle sur cet accord, organisée en marge de l'Assemblée générale des Nations Unies à New York.
« La promotion de la paix et de la stabilité au Mali est primordiale pour son peuple, pour la région et pour notre monde », avait affirmé M. Ban.
Depuis 2014 la crise sécuritaire dans la région de l'Extrême Nord du Cameroun a révélé au grand jour les vulnérabilités socioéconomiques et les pesanteurs culturelles qui sapent l’insertion des couches défavorisées, particulièrement les femmes et les jeunes. Ces fragilités sont sources de conflits et exposent les jeunes particulièrement à l’intolérance et à la violence extrême.
Afin d’appréhender les besoins précis de ces couches fragiles, le PNUD a organisé en 2015, des forums de dialogue au cours desquels les besoins prioritaires des jeunes urbains et ruraux et ceux des femmes ont été identifiés et les axes du dialogue intercommunautaire et interreligieux ont été également tracés.
Dans la continuité de ces activités, un atelier de renforcement des capacités d’encadrement socioéconomique et de prévention de l’extrémisme violent par les leaders religieux dans la Région de l’Extrême-Nord a été organisé du 21 au 22 septembre 2016 à Maroua.
L'objectif de cet atelier était de fournir aux leaders religieux des outils et techniques nécessaires pour leurs permettre de participer davantage aux actions de développement local en faveur des couches vulnérables et à la prévention de la violence extrême dans la Région de l’Extrême-Nord.
En effet, les chefs religieux sont proches des populations avec lesquelles ils vivent au quotidien. Ils disposent d’une autorité morale et d’une bonne connaissance des besoins socioéconomiques locaux. Certains animent des organisations caritatives, des structures d’encadrement socioéconomique, des écoles et centres de formation, des groupes de prédication, des centres de santé, etc. Leurs préoccupations sont donc aussi bien spirituelles que temporelles. Mais entre les religieux urbains et les religieux ruraux, entre les obédiences religieuses et entre les contrées, il y a des bonnes pratiques à partager, des limites à combler et des pistes à explorer en commun pour accroître la contribution des leaders religieux à la lutte que l’Etat et ses partenaires mènent contre les difficultés socioéconomiques des populations vulnérables.
Durant ces deux jours d'atelier, les participants ont partagé leurs expériences sur les actions de développement, d’éducation et de formation mises en œuvre par les religieux au profit des jeunes et des femmes ; élaboré de nouvelles stratégies d’intervention et des mécanismes de participation plus accrue des leaders religieux aux efforts de promotion des jeunes et des femmes dans les zones fragiles. Ils ont également été outillés sur les formes que peut prendre l’extrémisme, les indicateurs de risques de radicalisation des jeunes et les moyens de les contenir.
Cette activité a été organisée dans le cadre du programme « cohésion sociale », mis en œuvre par le PNUD avec l’appui financier du Gouvernement du Japon. Il cible les Jeunes et les populations d’accueil dans trois départements, notamment le Mayo Sava, le Mayo Tsanaga et le Logone et Chari. Ils bénéficieront d’opportunités d’emplois humanitaires à cycle court, et de formations qualifiantes pour pouvoir créer de très petites entreprises et améliorer leurs revenus. Ce projet vise également le renforcement des capacités des acteurs sociaux sur leur apport à l’encadrement social des communautés et particulièrement des franges fragiles de la population.
By Jean Gough
GWOZA, Nigeria, 23 September 2016 – Ajija is as frail as you possibly can be when alive. The four-year-old should be actively playing with friends but she can barely stand. When she is checked by a health worker, she is unsurprisingly registered as severely malnourished.
“I feel helpless as I can’t do anything, during the past two years life has been hard, there is little food and many illnesses,” her mother Halima says desperately to me.
This is Gwoza, a remote area of Borno state, on Nigeria’s northeastern border with Cameroon. The makeshift health clinic is packed with mothers bringing their babies and young children for malnutrition screening and treatment.
>>Learn moreabout the humanitarian situation of children in Nigeria
Ajija is tragically not alone. With more areas across northeast Nigeria becoming accessible to humanitarian assistance, the true impact of this crisis is being revealed. There are nownearly a quarter of a million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Borno, a result of more than three years of violence that has devastated the area.
Too dangerous to farm the land, to access markets or even safe water, families and particularly young children have missed out on the essentials for life. For an estimated one million children who still can’t be reached, we can only imagine their fate.
This tragedy for Nigeria’s children was first projected on to the world map in April 2014, when more than 270 girls were abducted by Boko Haram from a school in Chibok. They were also not alone. At least 4,000 young women (ages 18-24), girls and boys have been abducted in the affected northern states of Nigeria since 2009, and some 7,000 women and girls have reportedly suffered sexual violence.
Now Borno’s children are back in the spotlight – this time affected by a food and malnutrition crisis that rivals any. But we cannot rely on intermittent peaks of world attention to call for the support needed. We cannot wait for another tragedy to occur. Work goes on, using any available means possible, even despite anattack on a humanitarian convoy.
Firstly, it’s about saving the lives of children we can reach, many of whom have been uprooted from their homes. Providing what is essentially a simple eight-week course of ready-to-use therapeutic food can help children recover from severe acute malnutrition. But this only works if they also have access to primary health care, safe water and sanitation to avoid preventable and treatable childhood illnesses that can be a matter of life or death for already weakened children.
To achieve this, we must continue to help rehabilitate and upgrade local health clinics, some 60 per cent of which have been partially or completely destroyed across Borno state. We must continue to provide training for health workers and a sustainable source of medical supplies, including the life-saving therapeutic food. At the same time, through a network of community volunteers, with the contacts and knowledge of the local area, we need to rapidly identify and manage cases of child malnutrition.
There is some progress. This year some 75,000 children have been treated for severe acute malnutrition. Since April, nearly twice as many malnutrition screenings have taken place – from 288,000 to some 500,000 – meaning that more children are being seen and treated on a regular basis. But nobody anticipated the true scale of the crisis.
While we fight to save lives, we need to also help children recover mentally from the horrors they have lived through. Returning some normality through play, safe learning opportunities and psychological support where necessary can help bring back childhoods.
Families and children ask for so little. They simply want access to medical facilities and to find health workers and medicines. They want to go to school and find teachers, desks, books and pens. They want hand pumps that deliver safe water.
From Gwoza to Maiduguri and Port Harcourt to Lagos, Nigeria’s most valuable resource is its children. Saving, protecting and tapping in to this resource requires committed and sustained support. Only then can we provide the essential services and normality that children and their families need to rebuild their lives.
Jean Gough was the UNICEF Representative to Nigeria from 2013 until September 2016.
Maiduguri, Nigeria | AFP | Sunday 9/25/2016 - 04:09 GMT
by Aminu ABUBAKAR Phil HAZLEWOOD
The soldier clutched his book with both hands. He shouted his name, rank and Nigerian Army number to no-one in particular. He stood up straight and ended every reply with a bark of "sah" (sir).
But his eyes were fixed to a slowly cranking ceiling fan in the hospital ward -- the thousand yard stare of someone who had seen too much and didn't want to remember.
The soldier said he was caught up in a Boko Haram ambush and colleagues were killed. A bullet hit him in the leg and he hadn't seen combat since.
Instead, he saw the inside of beer bottles, the smoke of cannabis joints, then the drug dependency ward of the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Maiduguri.
Nurses said he was violent and abusive when he was admitted, but after a week he calmed down.
"In times of war, when we are fighting war, it's very good for a man to be a man, to boast that he is a man, to fight the enemy," he said, trying to explain his state of mind.
"But unfortunately due to the ways of the enemies that come to you or due to the ways you meet the enemy, or due to the way you kill him, (or) you deal with the command..."
His voice trailed off and he apologised. "At times that's how we fell into (a) battle that we don't expect in our life... ."
- 'Drastic surge' -
At least 20,000 people have been killed since the start of the insurgency in 2009 but doctors at the hospital say they've treated nearly three times as many for its psychological effects.
That figure is likely to only be the tip of the iceberg: the hospital is the only psychiatric facility in northeast Nigeria -- an area bigger than that of the United Kingdom.
In all, 2.6 million people have fled for their lives: many have seen loved ones killed and their homes destroyed. Women and young girls have been kidnapped and raped. Children have been orphaned.
Francis Zamdai, a nurse in charge of the drug dependency ward, said addiction has affected everyone, from government officials and military officers to farmers and the unemployed.
"Before the insurgency... we used to admit sometimes 20, 25 (patients). But with the eruption of the insurgency we used to have 50, 60, above that," he told AFP.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Ibrahim Adam Mshelia described the increase in mental health cases since the fighting began as a "drastic surge".
"Over 58,000 patients have been seen in the hospital that are related to the insurgency," he said.
"Common causes we see... are post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, substance abuse disorder, psychosis, anxiety disorders like phobia and panic disorder."
- Lifetime effects -
The hospital is tucked away behind high walls and iron gates in a quiet housing estate off the Baga Road, whose market has been a frequent target for Boko Haram's bombs and suicide bombers.
Out-patients wait on rows of benches for consultations; nurses in starched white uniforms -- the women in matching hijabs -- leaf through paperwork.
A special unit to treat children and teenagers has been opened, backed by the International Organization for Migration, packed with toys, board games and with cartoon characters on the walls.
In-patients sleep or sit silently on their beds in the wards or play pool and table-tennis in the occupational therapy unit.
Treatment and rehabilitation for those affected, however, is likely to be needed long after they have been discharged.
"Even after the end of insurgency the effect... will continue to linger. We are looking to 30 to 50 years," said Mshelia.
Some 1.5 million people have sought safe haven in Maiduguri. They will eventually leave but doctors fear that those who have managed to cope so far could break down when they return home.
Meanwhile, levels of drug use are said to be rising in Borno state, exacerbated by porous borders, lack of law enforcement and a desperate, damaged population seeking to deaden pain and fear.
They include use of drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, which were previously unheard of in the state, said Mshelia.
- Overstretched -
The scant provision for mental health services in northeast Nigeria and the scale of the insurgency has left financial and human resources stretched to the limit at the hospital.
Outside, female victims of sexual and psychological violence at the hands of Boko Haram have received some counselling in the camps. But there is agreement more needs to be done for everyone.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in May 2015 called on Nigeria to "scale up the provision of medical and psychosocial support".
For the soldier, a passage in his book is supposed to provide comfort and support for life's spiritual battle between good and evil, right and wrong.
"Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight," it reads.
But it's a real-life battle he has struggled to cope with -- and wishes had never happened at all.
"I wanted to be with my family, in peace," he said.
abu-phz/sf/ns/ceb
© 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse
Highlights
As of 20 September, a total of 2,143 cholera cases have been reported, including 31 deaths. The total number of cholera cases reported this year has exceeded those in 2015. The case fatality rate (CFR), currently at 1.44 per cent, remains substantially lower than last year, reflecting significant improvements in case management and timely referral.
Efforts to control malaria are ongoing. So far, at least 9,118 consultations have been provided in the more severely affected areas of Northern Bahr el Ghazal (NBeG), of which 7,063 tested positive for malaria.
The nutrition situation in NBeG is classified as ‘catastrophic. UNICEF and partners are scaling up the current integrated response
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
The security situation across the country remains tense and unpredictable. Crime rates continue to be high, particularly in Juba, and humanitarian access across the country is shrinking. The security situation in Unity, Upper Nile and Greater Equatoria, combined with inaccessible roads, is affecting the ability to delivery humanitarian assistance.
There has been an upsurge in the number of cholera cases reported in Mingkaman, though no new deaths have been reported. UNICEF continues to support the cholera response in all affected states. Malnutrition remains a key concern, in particular in Northern Bahr el Ghazal (NBeG), where the nutrition situation is now ‘catastrophic.’ An updated Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) analysis was conducted between 16-21 August; the report is currently awaiting Government approval and official release.
Situation in Numbers
1.69 million People internally displaced since 15 December 2013 (OCHA Humanitarian Snapshot, 28 July 2016)
Over 1 million South Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries since December 2013 (UNHCR South Sudan Situation Information
Humanitarian Strategy
An updated strategy with a detailed response plan on containment and control of the cholera outbreak is in place. The strategy also covers preparedness measures in at-risk locations to avert spread. UNICEF continues to support the cholera response in all the affected states, focusing on community level interventions, while filling supply gaps at the referral facility level to address the whole continuum of care. In most locations, an integrated response with WASH, Health and Communication for Development (C4D) components is in place. UNICEF is working with nine implementing partners on the response – Health Link, ACROSS, LIVEWELL, BEDN, IMC, SMC, ARUDA, CORE-GROUP, and RUWASSA. To date, nearly all reported cholera cases have benefited from UNICEF support.
Meanwhile, UNICEF and partners have scaled up interventions to address increased rates of malnutrition in NBeG. An integrated response including health, nutrition and WASH is being implemented at the community level to address underlying causes of malnutrition, malaria and diarrohoea. With the evolution of the situation and possible increase in humanitarian needs in Warrap and Greater Equatoria, UNICEF is also scaling up the capacity to address any potential emergencies in the region.
The Rapid Response Mechanism (RRMs) will continue to focus on reaching otherwise inaccessible populations with urgent, life-saving interventions. The core package of RRM interventions has been refined to focus on high-impact, immediate-term services, including food distribution; preventative nutrition activities including Blanket Supplementary Feeding Programme (BSFP), Vitamin A and deworming; vaccination; and registration of separated and unaccompanied children.
A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in northeast Nigeria's Borno State, where violence has displaced thousands and cut off enclaves outside the state capital of Maiduguri from humanitarian aid.
Boulama Mala: “It’s hard at my age to feed 10 people.”
“It’s Boko Haram who chased us from our village, that’s why we are here in this camp,” says Boulama Mala, 60 years old, who lives in a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Beni Shiekh. “I live with my wife, my children, and grandchildren. There are 10 of us all together. With the little that we can sell, then we eat that day. Otherwise we go to sleep with an empty stomach. It’s hard at my age to gather wood to sell and feed 10 people.”
Ya Zara: “We have nothing right now, we just fled to survive.”
“It’s Boko Haram who terrorized us; it is they who brought us here,” said Ya Zara, 40 years old, who lives in the same IDP camp as Mala in Beni Shiekh. “We have nothing right now, we just fled to survive. We tried to save our souls, we took nothing with us. We farm to survive but the plots are too small. We have nothing to drink, nothing to eat—that’s our problem today.”
Awa Mudu: “Leaves are not enough to live on, but that’s all we have.”
Awa Mudu lives in Kokerita IDP camp, in Yobe, the state located next to Borno. “The only way to survive here is to gather wood to cook and sell,” she says. “We suffer a lot from a shortage of wood because it is very difficult for my husband and I to collect, as we are quite old. We just returned from the forest where we gathered some leaves. The leaves are not enough to live on, but that’s all we have.”
Aissa: “Soon our children will die from hunger.”
“We were threatened with guns while we were looking for wood,” says Aissa, who currently lives in the IDP camp in Beni Shiekh with her five children. “We were so afraid and we are still afraid. We don’t really have food and that poses a serious problem for the children. Soon our children will die from hunger. We have been here nearly three years. During this time we have not received help, especially in food distribution. We try to do our own activities to survive.”
This is a bi-monthly update that compiles innovative policy, practice and partnerships that aim to strengthen engagement of disaster-affected communities in humanitarian action from the Southern and Eastern Africa region. The aim of the publication is to create awareness about these initiatives and share good practices. Readers are encouraged to forward this email through their own networks. Contributions of similar articles are invited.
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Sectors of assistance
CCCM 79,247 Approximate numbers of IDPs
WASH
15.5 Litres per person per day (UNMISS Site) 25 Repaired in Wau Municipality, 229 Individuals per tap
S-NFI
504 Vulnerable IDPs relocated over the last 7 days
HEALTH
4,009 Consultations provided at the three sites in the last 7 days
CCCM
• A four-day general food distribution (GFD) exercise took place at the Wau PoC during the week.
• To support candidates who are collecting signatures from the community to stand for upcoming elections, community awareness activities are ongoing throughout the POC; voting will begin next week.
• Population head count took place at all 6 sites in Wau during the week. While population figures remained more or less unchanged over the past month, there was a significant increase in the population at the Nazereth collective site which increased by 53% (see map attached).
• Since 14 September enumerators have been conducting movement trend tracking at three major feeder roads. As violence in Wau town increased between 21 and 24 September, the number of people citing insecurity as there reason for leaving increased at all 3 checkpoints.
WASH
• IOM continues to provide safe water to IDPs, providing an average of 438,570 litres of water each day. IOM continues to provide daily water quality monitoring of all water points as well as daily monitoring of the PoC water source (shallow well).
• During the week six boreholes were rehabilitated in Wau Municipality, with five hygiene promotion sessions held in the surrounding area. A total of 31 boreholes have been repaired in Wau South. Additional boreholes have been identified for repair in Wau North, with technical assessments to take place during the week.
HEALTH
• The top morbidity at the three clinics was malaria (2,486 consultations) followed by Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (632 consultations).
• Routine vaccination continued during the week with 216 children receiving vaccinations.
• 29 pregnant, and 106 non-pregnant women received the tetanus toxoid vaccine during the week, an increase from the previous week.
• 5,734 individuals were provided with health promotion messages at the three clinics, including the importance of vaccinations for children and women of reproductive age, family planning and malaria prevention.
• 5,022 individuals were reached with psychosocial support (PSS) messages at the three sites, and through 687 household visits.
Training of 24 PSS mobile support team members was completed during the week, from this 10 support groups will be formed to work at the three sites - PoC, SSRC and Cathedral.
S-NFI
• Site decongestion activities are ongoing with 504 vulnerable IDPs relocated to 8 newly constructed communal shelters.
• 95 households at Lokoloko collective centre received solar lamp distributions.
I. Contexte
Depuis avril 2016, des mouvements de population sont enregistrés du Tchad vers la frontière centrafricaine de Moyenne-SIdo. En effet, entre le 5 avril et le 5 août, 1135 individus au total (400 chefs de ménages) étaient enregistrés comme nouvellement retournés des sites de réfugiés du Tchad (Maingama ,de Bolomeg ,et Sido Tchad) sur le site de transit de Moyenne-Sido (dit site "bâche"). Ces personnes se sont principalement et initialement déplacées depuis l'axe Bangui-Boali, et les évènements de 2013. Pour ces populations qui, après s'être refugiées au Tchad pendant plusieurs mois, ont vu leurs conditions de vie se dégrader rapidement ces derniers mois à la fois à cause de l'arrêt de l'aide et des complications qui leur était faites pour pouvoir chercher le bois, le passage de la frontière a souvent été l'occasion pour ces familles d'une totale décapitalisation.
Contrairement aux familles vivant sur le site de déplacés installées depuis 2013 (site de la paix et site Croissant-Rouge Qatari), ces retournés du site bâche n'ont pour le moment reçu aucune assistance humanitaire. La stratégie du HCR pour l’accompagnement de ces rapatriés volontaires n’est pas connue des autres acteurs.
Les besoins en nourriture et le manque de moyens de subsistance sont les plus notables ; la population du site bâche ne disposent pas de savons ni d'articles NFI.
Key Points
Relatively well-distributed rainfall in most of the region with above normal in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.
Normal availability of pastures in the pastoral areas of the region.
Increase in the number of food and nutrition insecure people in North East Nigeria, including 65,095 people in phase 5 (famine)
Since the beginning of the rainy season, a favourable rainfall has been observed in the region. Yet, deficits were observed in the extreme west of the Sahel, particularly in west-central Senegal, Mauritania, The Gambia and Liberia, the extreme south of Togo as well as the central region of Ghana.
Heavy rains caused floods in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and north east Senegal. In addition to the destruction of houses and the exposure to sanitary risks, in rural areas, these floods affected the livelihoods of households (crop destruction, loss of livestock, barrier to the commercialization of food products, etc.).
The update of the Cadre Harmonisé analysis in the three states (Adamawa, Borno and Yobe) of north east Nigeria shows that approximately 4,5 million people are food and nutrition insecure, especially returnees who are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.
According to the WFP’s mobile survey (mVAM) conducted between June and July 2016 in the North East Nigeria, in Potiskum (Yobe) and Maiduguri / Jere (Borno) LGA, the percentage of severe food insecure households has doubled since February-March 2016.
Overall, the cereal prices in the region remain at relatively low levels compared to the five years average. Exceptions are found in Ghana and Nigeria where high inflation is being observed.
Participants in the regional technical consultation on agricultural and food prospects in the Sahel and West Africa, held from 19 to 21 September 2016, in Lomé, Togo, draw the following conclusions:
1. As part of preparations for the agro-pastoral season, States and their partners provided support to farmers with inputs (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides) and agricultural equipment, even if these efforts have not met the expressed needs.
2. On rainfall, the rainy season installation was early in Central and Eastern Sahel, including in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad. However, it was late in Western Sahel (Senegal, the Gambia, Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau). Overall, starting from July, the rains have been abundant and well distributed in time and space, except in part of the agro-pastoral areas of Niger and Chad. At the Gulf of Guinea, light rainfall deficits were noted particularly in August, in the coastal area from Sierra Leone to Nigeria. In early September, seasonal rainfall totals were everywhere normal to excess, except in places along the coastline, in Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Nigeria where light deficits were observed. The heavy rains have caused flooding in some countries, causing damage to crops, infrastructures and loss of human lives and livestock, including in Benin, Burkina, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and the Gambia.
3. Regarding the hydrological situation, like the rainfall, river water flows and volumes are important this year and close to or even higher than those in wet years. The filling level of irrigation structures and dams is also satisfactory and favourable to off-season cropping. However, the high flood of the Niger River has caused losses of acreages for swamp rice crops in Mali.
4. On the crop situation, plantings were early in Central and Eastern Sahel, normal in coastal countries and late in Western Sahel. Due to good soil water, from July, the level of vegetative growth and development of the crops is satisfactory. This, combined with the possibility that rains continue to fall into October promises average to higher crop yields.
5. As for the phyto-sanitary situation, it is generally calm and under control, except in Burkina Faso and Benin where damage from caterpillar infestations on maize were observed. The desert locust situation remains always calm overall. However, the presence of winged individuals in small numbers is reported throughout the summer breeding areas in the northern Sahel of West Africa, Sudan and along the Indo-Pakistan border. This follows on the improvement of the ecological conditions in outbreak areas with risks of small-scale breeding especially in the west and northwest Mauritania.
6. As a result of the foregoing, good to very good harvests are expected this year in the region. Thus, for cereals, production could be between 64 and 75 million metric tonnes, i.e., increases between 0.2% and 28% compared to last year and the past five-year average. Production of roots and tubers would be between 151 and 168 million metric tonnes with increases of 3 to 22% compared to last year and the average of the past five years.
7. On the pastoral level, the situation is overall satisfactory because of the good filling level of water points, the abundance of pasture and control of animal diseases by the vetterinary services. However, low forage biomass productivity pockets can be observed in places in Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad.
8. Markets were generally well supplied in the region due to the fact that cross-border trade flows were maintained during the 2016 lean season and the good progress of the rainy season, which encouraged traders and farmers to market their stocks. The demand side experienced a normal seasonal increase. Prices of local cereals, tubers and cash crops are generally up compared to the five-year average. These increases are more pronounced in Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and in certain markets of Benin, Togo, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Senegal. In the coming months, given the good harvest prospects, commodity prices will experience a seasonal decline, except in Nigeria where they will remain above the fiveyear average. As for livestock, the situation is variable depending on the marketing basins. Prices are overall rising except in countries of the Eastern Basin where the continued depreciation of the Nigerian currency and the crisis around Lake Chad Basin have negatively affected the functioning of markets.
9. In nutritional terms, the situation remains worrying. According to UNICEF (July 2016), 9.4 million children under 5 could suffer from global acute malnutrition in the Sahel countries and the eleven States of Northern Nigeria affected by the conflict, including 3.5 million in its severe form.
10. The food situation is overall satisfactory and was reinforced by the early harvest, from August in the coastal countries, and September in the Sahel. However, conflicts in the Lake Chad Basin and Northern Mali, represent the major threat to food security in the region. Thus, in Northern Nigeria, nearly 5.8 million people need immediate food and humanitarian assistance, including 4.5 million people in the States of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
