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Nigeria: Nigeria: Crisis Info on Borno Emergency - November 2016

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Source: Médecins Sans Frontières
Country: Nigeria

The conflict in Borno State started in 2009 when Boko Haram (BH) launched attacks in northeastern Nigeria. By 2014, BH controlled large swathes of territory in Borno State and caused large-scale population displacement. In 2015, Nigeria elected a new President who vowed to take back control of all Nigerian territory from BH. Since then, the Nigerian army escalated their operations and have been engaged in active fighting with BH across Borno, including launching airstrikes in areas under BH control. This has caused further mass displacement of the population, particularly towards Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. Already a large city, the population of Maiduguri has doubled with the arrival of internally displaced people (IDPs), with over 2 million people now living in the city and its immediate surroundings.

The military has taken back some cities and towns outside Maiduguri and is controlling them, meaning that the people within them live under military control, sometimes with little or no possibility to move outside. The government has reiterated its intention to bring all the countryside of Borno under military control in the imminent future, so fighting may continue to impact large areas of the state, affecting an unknown number of people living within those areas. In border areas, the Nigerian army receives military assistance from neighbouring countries Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

As a result of the conflict, 2.6 million people are displaced and 480,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition across the four countries (Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger) according to OCHA.

A total of 1.8 million people are currently displaced in northeastern Nigeria, including an estimated 1.1 million in Maiduguri alone; 4.4 million people are food insecure according to OCHA.

In Borno State, more than 40 per cent of the health facilities are known to be destroyed, many of them found to have been burned during the armed conflict (Borno State Ministry of Health).[1]

Maiduguri

Today, more than 1.1 million IDPs are living in Maiduguri (according to the International Organization for Migration), 90 per cent of them within the host community while the other 10 per cent are accommodated in more than 10 official camps and multiple informal camps and settlements.

MSF focuses on maternal and child health in Maiduguri, running an inpatient therapeutic feeding centre (ITFC) in Gwange district and two large health centres in the districts of Maimusari and Bolori. The Maimusari health centre also includes a paediatric emergency room and inpatient facility. A mobile team runs food distributions and offers medical and nutritional care and vaccination in four informal camps.

Gwange ITFC and ATFC

In Gwange, we have an ITFC with a 110-bed capacity in the compound of the Ministry of Health-run health centre. The ITFC is under five tents, each constituting one ward: admission/triage, an intensive care unit, an isolation ward for children with infectious diseases, an acute phase ward, and a transition/rehabilitation ward. The centre only admits severely malnourished children with complications. Around 300 children are admitted per month, including children over the age of five. To compensate for the lack of food, we started in late September to give a family food ration to each family with a child released from the ITFC. The plan is to increase to 150 beds and to routinely admit children over the age of five. An ambulatory therapeutic feeding centre (ATFC) was opened early November to help with the continuity of care.

Maimusari and Bolori health centres

In Maiduguri, we run two heath centres, Maimusari and Bolori. In these centres we run paediatric outpatient departments (OPDs), ATFCs, and maternity units that provide antenatal and postnatal consultation and assist normal deliveries. In Maimusari, there is also a paediatric inpatient department (26 beds), a paediatric intensive care unit (15 beds) and an emergency room.

Patient numbers increased substantially in September and October, with over 1,000 patients per day being consulted in the OPDs, and on some days more than 700 patients in Maimusari alone (nearly 6,000 consultations per week in both facilities combined). About half of the patients are children under the age of five. People come from all over the city and are already lining up at 6am, even though the health centres do not open until 8am. Lack of free healthcare in Maiduguri is one important reason for this; people have to pay in the state health system and often report being sent away when they don´t have the financial means.

Almost half of the patients under five years of age consulted in Maimusari are malnourished. In the week from 10 to 16 October, more than nine per cent of the patients suffered from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and an additional 31 per cent from moderate acute malnutrition (MAM). About 1,000 children are followed in the outpatient malnutrition programme (ATFC), with 200 to 300 new admissions each week. Currently, only children under 5 years of age are screened and treated for SAM, but this will be expanded to older children and those with moderate levels of malnutrition. The team is also preparing to start a distribution of food rations for families with children in the ambulatory feeding programme in Maimusari (currently 800 children enrolled).

The number of deliveries and antenatal care consultations has also been increasing. In both facilities together, pregnant women receive more than 1,000 antenatal care consultations per week. In Maimusari, about 120 women deliver their babies per week.

The camps

There are still some IDPs arriving in Maiduguri, especially to Muna Garage camp. The relocation of IDPs from Maiduguri to their towns of origin with the army’s assistance has slowed down since the fighting re-escalated at the end of October and most came back to Maiduguri because they did not find adequate living conditions outside. Yet the Nigerian government has repeatedly announced that it intends to close down all IDP camps by the end of May 2017. At the end of September, several camps in school buildings have been closed, as schools reopened after more than two years’ closure due to BH attacks against schools. The IDPs were moved to other camps inside or outside Maiduguri. In Maiduguri, MSF is conducting a health surveillance activity now covering all official camps and the two largest unofficial camps of Muna Garage and Custom House, where mortality rates, especially for children under five, remain a concern.

MSF teams are currently supporting IDPs in four informal camps: Muna Garage (around 14,500 IDPs sheltering in makeshift self-built shelters set up on private land) and Custom House (around 8,000 IDPs sheltering in unfinished buildings and makeshift shelters), both located at the eastern outskirts of Maiduguri at the road towards Dikwa, as well as Nursing Village in Maisandari district (around 2,000 IDPs) and Fariya (around 3,600 IDPs).

The mobile food distribution team started in Muna Garage and Customs House camps in September and were extended in October to smaller camps. MSF regularly distributes millet, beans and palm oil to the inhabitants of the camps, as well as ready-to-use therapeutic food for families with malnourished children. Teams arrange for referral of children requiring inpatient care to our MSF facilities, offer outpatient medical treatment, provide seasonal malaria chemoprophylaxis, and aim to vaccinate all children under five against measles and pneumococcal disease. MSF has also distributed aid kits (mosquito nets, jerry cans, soap, mats, and blankets).

At the beginning of September, MSF teams had recorded a rate of severe acute malnutrition among children under five above five per cent in Customs House camp. Following the food distributions, malnutrition mass screening showed a decreasing trend in severe malnutrition.

Monguno

In Monguno, the current estimated population is 225,000 people. An estimated 68,000 IDPs have been living in nine camps in Monguno, according to the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), with another 60,000 IDPs living among the host community. During October, new arrivals continued. There had been almost no healthcare provision for over a year in the town. Now, there are five medical organisations present, including MSF. Given the lack of secondary healthcare, MSF has set up an ITFC (around 12 admissions per week), a paediatric IPD (around 40 admissions per week) and an emergency room under tents with an overall capacity of 50 beds. Patient numbers have increased, yet the facility is not full at the moment, partly as the admission criteria were set initially for children under five and partly because of the lack of training of local health workers to recognise and refer acute paediatric illness. In September, 389 patients were treated in the emergency room, 70 per cent of them children under five. The main illnesses treated are malaria, respiratory tract infections and measles. The teams will start an OPD at the end of October.

Bama

Bama, once the second-most populated town in Borno State, is now held by the army. An IDP camp is located inside the compound of the hospital, and is under military control. Around 8,000 people are currently living in the camp, mostly women and children under the age of five. They live in makeshift shelters made out of iron sheeting taken from surrounding destroyed houses and are totally dependent on outside assistance, including for food. No one lives outside the camp; the town is otherwise empty. The catastrophic situation of the IDPs in the camp has improved with regular food distributions, including from MSF, and the provision of healthcare and nutritional services in the camp. The once extremely high malnutrition rates are now below the emergency threshold. The Governor of Borno temporarily relocated his office to Bama for several days at the end of September in a symbolic move, but the rehabilitation of houses (which were all burnt) has not yet begun.

The latest intervention of the mobile MSF team in Bama happened from 19 to 22 October. They distributed millet, beans, oil and soap to 1,800 families with children under five. A screening of 2,058 children for malnutrition now demonstrates 2.0 per cent SAM and 7.7 per cent MAM. This is about the same rate recorded in September, with the 22 new SAM cases, mainly new arrivals. The team treated the malnourished children, gave seasonal malaria prophylaxis to more than 1,000 children, and provided a second round of pneumococcal vaccination. They also dug six soak-away pits for the six boreholes and constructed two solar boreholes and water towers.

When an MSF team originally visited Bama with a military escort on 21 June, they found a population in a catastrophic situation: out of the 800 children screened, 19 per cent were suffering from SAM. Counting of the graves in the cemetery behind the camp showed more than 1,200 graves dug since the IDPs had been gathered in the hospital compound. The team returned in July, August, September and October to distribute food and provide medical and nutritional care. During the rainy season, there have been few new arrivals to the camp, and some of the population was moved to other camps (including to Banki). Bama provides a good example of the possibility of rapid stabilisation of a situation if adequate food and medical aid is provided; however, the situation could again rapidly deteriorate if access is lost due to insecurity.

Dikwa

Dikwa is an enclave controlled by the military. Most of the town is destroyed. The population is now estimated at around 70,000 IDPs, but could be higher. Around 21,000 IDPs are living in the community; 49,000 are living in about 14 camps, but only three of the camps are well-defined and organised. There is an UNICEF-supported clinic in the town and health posts in two camps. The people are almost completely dependent on ICRC food rations distributed by the Nigerian Red Cross. The town had been mainly deserted in 2014 and 2015, with only around 12,000 people remaining in a camp. Water is a big concern, both in quantity and quality. Rates of severe acute malnutrition in a recent screening done by UNICEF were very high (14 per cent).

An MSF team visited the town in mid-July (under armed escort) and at the beginning of October (by helicopter). Based on the findings, the team returned to Dikwa on 26 October for four days for a nutritional screening, distribution of therapeutic food and targeted food distributions to families with malnourished children (millet, beans, oil and sardines). They also distributed jerry cans, soap and mosquito nets and provided outpatient medical treatment and seasonal malaria chemoprophylaxis.

Damboa

In Damboa, southern Borno State, the population is currently estimated at 88,000, with many of them being displaced from the surrounding area. More than 8,600 displaced people live in three makeshift camps in public buildings and the general hospital. Half of the town is destroyed. While food availability has improved and food distributions have started, there is hope that this major concern, especially for IDPs without financial means, will be addressed. There is still insecurity in the direct surroundings and groups of displaced people continue to arrive regularly. From 12 October to 2 November, 681 newly displaced people arrived and arrivals are still being registered.

MSF currently has three clinics providing primarily healthcare and nutrition services, including an ITFC and a paediatric department (with 40 beds altogether), outpatient departments and three ATFCs for severely and moderately malnourished children under five years of age (with more than 420 children currently enrolled in the programme). The number of patients consulted is currently 2,200 per week. The majority of patients have presented with malaria, respiratory tract infections and gastrointestinal problems. Malaria remains the main cause of death in the clinics. The team has set up three community malaria points (‘fever clinics’) within the town, where people with fever can be quickly tested and receive basic treatment. MSF is also running an outreach program with 40 staff members who go through the camps and the town, screen children for malnutrition, bring sick patients to the clinics and distribute therapeutic food to families with small children. The teams vaccinated more than 21,000 children against measles in August, distributed mosquito nets, blankets, soap, buckets, potties, cups and kettles to 14,000 families, provided clean drinking water and built latrines in the camps.

Kaga LGA – Benisheikh

In Kaga local government area (LGA), located in western Borno state, MSF is currently running three ATFCs, located in Benisheikh, the capital town of the LGA, Ngamdu and Mainok. Since the end of September, malnourished children who need to be hospitalised from these three locations are referred to a newly created ITFC in Benisheikh. Before that, all the children requiring hospitalis

ation were referred by MSF teams to the ITFC in Damaturu in Yobe state, also run by MSF. From April to September, a total of 418 kids were admitted to the ITFC in Damaturu; in the ATFC in Benisheikh, a total of 1,098 children were enrolled in the programme from August to September. At the same time, a paediatric ward was opened. Both facilities have 25 beds altogether and we are planning to increase the number of beds. Malaria and malnutrition cases have been increasing in recent days with 263 children treated for malaria from August to September. An additional maternity is planned. The team has recently witnessed new arrivals in Benisheikh.

Gwoza

Gwoza is an isolated, severely damaged town in eastern Borno State. Access by MSF teams is only possible by helicopter. In recent days, the number of new arrivals has already increased a bit. Around 45,000 IDPs are living in the last buildings that have not been destroyed – the school and the so-called ‘20 houses square’. There had been no food distributions for three months prior to the arrival of MSF teams. The IDPs allowed to farm only in the morning, on a specific area on the outskirts of the town.

The MSF team rehabilitated a building to be used as health facility, opened an ITFC and ATFC and are running an outpatient department together with UNICEF. In the first two weeks of activities in October, a total of 238 kids were admitted to the ATFC and 13 to the ITFC. A total of 1,042 patients with malaria were treated and more than the 50 per cent of children tested for malaria test positive. The team also plans to improve access to drinking water – there are some privately-owned boreholes in the town, but the IDPs have to pay for the water. Teams registered a high rate of malnutrition during their assessment in August.

Pulka

Pulka is a town 22 kilometres north of Gwoza, with a current population of at least 30,000 people. Access to Pulka by MSF teams is currently possible only by helicopter. On 22 October, an MSF team started activities in the town. The aim is to set up an OPD, ITFC and an ATFC. No other health actors are currently present in Pulka.

Banki

MSF teams from Cameroon have been providing emergency medical assistance and delivering food in Banki, Nigeria, since July. The town has an estimated population of over 20,000 and most of them are displaced. People are stranded in camp controlled by the military and local defence groups, making them utterly reliant on external assistance for food, water and healthcare. MSF medical teams regularly cross the Cameroon-Nigeria border to provide assistance. Fourteen per cent of the children screened by MSF on 19 July were suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and nearly one in three children was malnourished.

Since July, MSF teams have vaccinated 7,500 children under five against measles and provided preventive malaria treatment to over 7,000 children. MSF also conducted over 1,100 consultations for severely malnourished children, nearly 600 consultations for moderately malnourished children and 195 consultations for pregnant women. Seventy-five tons of therapeutic food have been distributed to malnourished children and some 2,400 families have received food rations in a general food distribution. MSF teams carried out water and sanitation activities in the camp by installing water tanks and generators, rehabilitating boreholes and constructing 32 latrines. The camp residents now have access to 15 litres of drinking water per person per day, compared to just five litres in July.

Mortality rates in Banki were very high. When MSF teams first arrived there in July, a rapid assessment found mortality rates four times the emergency threshold. Since then, the situation has somewhat improved as more assistance started to reach the population. Another survey carried out by MSF in September showed that 70 out of 2,134 children under the age of five died between 20 July and September. Of 8,396 adults, 145 died during the same period. A more recent survey from 16 September to 28 October showed that 14 out of 1,916 children under five died. While this shows that the situation is starting to improve, the mortality rates are still worrying and close to the emergency threshold.

Ngala and Gambaru

MSF teams from Cameroon also provide assistance in Ngala and Gambaru in northeast Nigeria. They managed to reach Ngala for the first time on 19 September, where they found 80,000 IDPs living in a camp in acute need of food, healthcare and clean water – surviving with less than a litre of water per person per day. A rapid nutritional screening of more than 7,000 children under the age of five found that one in ten were suffering from severe acute malnutrition and nearly one in four were malnourished. MSF improved the water supply system by drilling boreholes and rehabilitating water pumps and people now have access to eight litres of water per person per day.

In Gambaru, a town a few kilometres from Ngala, the town’s 55,000 residents lack basic food supplies and have no access to healthcare. The only health centre was burnt down, and the road is too dangerous for people to leave to seek care elsewhere.

On 12 October, MSF teams went back to Ngala and Gambaru. They vaccinated 15,000 children under five against measles and distributed food and relief items to 14,600 families. Teams also treated some 700 severely malnourished children and nearly 4,000 who were suffering from moderate malnutrition. 400 general outpatient consultations were also carried out.

[1]http://www.who.int/health-cluster/news-and-events/news/Borno-Health-Sector-Bulletin-Issue3.pdf?ua=1


Nigeria: Nigerian clashes cast doubt on claim that Boko Haram is on its knees

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Source: Guardian
Country: Nigeria

Islamists have launched about 60 strikes on military targets since August, despite president’s claim that they have been ‘technically defeated’

Boko Haram has launched a series of attacks that have inflicted substantial casualties on Nigerian government forces and contradict claims by senior officials that the extremist Islamist group is on the brink of defeat.

Read the full report

Burkina Faso: UN development chief meets communities grappling with scarce and vulnerable water resources in Burkina Faso

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Source: UN Development Programme
Country: Burkina Faso

On official visit to country, Helen Clark also commends country’s “ambitious” new development plan

Ouagadougou - Wrapping up a three-day visit to the country, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark met today with a rural community in Burkina Faso which is bearing the brunt of the effects of environmental degradation and deforestation in a country where scarce water resources leave the population especially vulnerable to even the smallest fluctuations in rainfall.

Lake Dem, in the country’s Central North region, has lost about 40 per cent of its water. The 51,000 inhabitants of the nearby city of Kaya, and the villages around the lake depend on its health for their water supply.

A UNDP project in partnership with the Government of Burkina Faso and with support from the Government of Austria, works with local communities around Lake Dem to address critical issues threatening the lake – including pollution by fertilizers as well as the build up of sand deposits caused by soil erosion. A lake once replete with fish now has none.

Speaking with project participants, Helen Clark commended the grassroots nature of the initiative – noting that the project had come about because of action at the local community level. “You saw what was happening to the lake, and you decided to act. Without the leadership of the communities, projects like this cannot succeed,” she said.

With an initial investment of US$200,000, the project has run pilot schemes to show how ecosystem-based adaptation initiatives can work in practice. At Lake Dem, the project involved the establishment of a local water committee, the development of a land charter, reforestation of the lake’s borders, and action to reduce the sand deposits which threaten to choke the lake.

The visit to Burkina Faso, Helen Clark’s second as UNDP Administrator, also involved discussions with President HE Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, the Prime Minister, Ministers and officials, on the country’s ongoing and future sustainable development. Talks focused particularly on the country’s new national economic and social development plan, ANDES, which was launched in July this year.

“I first came to Burkina Faso six and a half years ago”, Helen Clark told reporters during the visit. “A lot has changed since then. A political transition has occurred, a comprehensive reform programme is underway, and there is a comprehensive national development plan.”

“These major initiatives will be the basis of discussion with development partners at the conference in Paris in early December. UNDP has been closely involved with the preparation of the new national plan and the preparations for the Paris conference”, she said.

Elsewhere during the visit, Helen Clark joined President HE Roch Marc Christian Kaboré and Ministers in Dori in the north of the country at the launch of a new programme – ‘PADEL’ – which seeks to accelerate and transform local development across the country.

Contact information

Dylan Lowthian, Communications Specialist

dylan.lowthian@undp.org - 1 (646) 673 6350

Mali: In Mali, waning fortunes of Fulani herders play into Islamist hands

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Source: Reuters - Thomson Reuters Foundation
Country: Mali

Fulani anger spreads jihad to central and southern Mali as climate change dries up Niger River, exacerbating conflict

  • Fulani anger spreads jihad to central and southern Mali

  • Climate change drying up Niger, exacerbating conflict

  • Risk of revolt spreading to other countries

By Tim Cocks

MOPTI, Mali, Nov 20 (Reuters) - For centuries, Fulani cattle herders and the farmers of central Mali -- both dependent on the Niger River for precious water -- have had a deal.

Read more on the Thomson Reuters Foundation

World: Report on Preliminary Examination Activities (2016)

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Source: International Criminal Court
Country: Afghanistan, Burundi, Colombia, Gabon, Guinea, Iraq, Nigeria, occupied Palestinian territory, Ukraine, World

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, issues her annual Report on Preliminary Examination Activities (2016)

ICC-CPI-20161114-PR1252

Today, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or the "Court"), Mrs Fatou Bensouda, published her annual Report on Preliminary Examination Activities (2016). The report provides an overview of her Office's preliminary examination activities conducted between 1 November 2015 and 31 October 2016 in relation to ten situations under consideration for possible investigation.

During the reporting period, the Office of the Prosecutor ("OTP" or "Office") opened two new preliminary examinations - specifically, those in relation to the situations in Burundi and the Gabonese Republic. Eight situations remain under on-going examination: Afghanistan, Colombia, Guinea, Iraq/UK, Palestine, Nigeria, Ukraine and the situation respecting the Registered Vessels of Comoros, Greece and Cambodia ("Comoros"). As detailed in the report, the Prosecutor is planning to reach a final determination with respect to the situation in Afghanistan and the Comoros referral in the very near future.

The report provides a summary of the current status of each situation under preliminary examination, including the Office's current analyses with regard to issues of jurisdiction and admissibility, as well as the activities carried out by the OTP in 2016 in order to further this work.

The report aims to raise public awareness and promote transparency regarding the Office's preliminary examination process and related activities.

Background

This is the sixth annual Report on Preliminary Examination Activities published by the Office. The Office began releasing these reports in 2011 in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Assembly of States Parties.

Under the Rome Statute, the Office is required to conduct an examination of all communications and situations brought to its attention in order to determine whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation. The factors set out in article 53(1)(a)-(c) of the Rome Statute establish the legal framework for a preliminary examination. In order to determine whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, the Prosecutor shall consider jurisdiction (temporal, either territorial or personal, and material); admissibility (complementarity and gravity); and the interests of justice.

The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC conducts independent and impartial preliminary examinations, investigations and prosecutions of the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Since 2003, the Office has been conducting ten investigations in multiple situations within the ICC's jurisdiction, namely in Uganda; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Darfur, Sudan; the Central African Republic (two separate investigations); Kenya; Libya; Côte d'Ivoire; Mali and Georgia. The Office is also conducting preliminary examinations relating to the situations in Afghanistan; Burundi; Colombia; the Gabonese Republic; Guinea; Iraq/UK; Palestine; Nigeria; Ukraine and respecting the Comoros referral.

Report on Preliminary Examination Activities (2016)
English, Français
Situation in Colombia (Spanish)
Situation in Iraq/UK (Arabic)
Situation in Palestine (Arabic)
Situation in Ukraine (Russian)
Source : Office of the Prosecutor

Nigeria: Nigeria: Periodic Monitoring Report (January - June 2016)

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Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Country: Nigeria

OVERVIEW

Key achievements toward Strategic Objectives

For the first six months of Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) implementation, the humanitarian country team achieved the following:

  • 45,004 beneficiaires out the targeted 61,835, representing 73 per cent, were reached for non-food item (NFI) provisions

  • 393,487 out of 1,666,188 targeted had access to safe water. This represents 24 per cent achievement of target.

  • 20 per cent of targeted children, or 129,000 out of 630,000, had access to classroom equipped with WASH facilities

  • Approximately 80,600 children, or 84 per cent of children, benefitted from life skills lessons in the classrooms/non formal education (NFE) centers

  • About 272,930 people biometrically registered, representing 68 per cent of the target

  • Out of the 6,030 children targeted, 3,294 (or 55 per cent) unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) identified and reached by the Child Protection Sector

  • 159 of 134 targeted schools benefitted from emergency preparedness activities

  • Out of 80 health personnel targeted, 42 (or 53 per cent) were trained on disease outbreak response and coordination.

Challenges

  • Existing unmet needs are exacerbated by needs unfolding in newly accessible areas

  • Funding constraints remain a challenge for agencies to scale up and expand coverage.

  • Grave violation of human rights including death, injuries, sexual violence, exploitation and abuse, forced displacement and attacks on civilian sites with more robust protection mechanisms required.

  • Increase in disease for the most vulnerable due to rainy season.

Recommendations

  • Shift of operational hubs to Borno to expedite response and reducing logistical costs.

  • Incorporate needs in newly accessible areas in the existing operational plans of sectors and agencies.

  • Intensify resource mobilization efforts by engaging donors, the Government of Nigeria and private sector.

  • Strengthen systematic information gathering, analysis and monitoring to guide needs analysis, increase accountability and advocacy for humanitarian action.

  • Enhance community engagement to increase feedbacking and monitoring of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and gender–based violence (GBV) cases.

  • Strengthen localized contingency planning for the rainy season.

Nigeria: ACT Alliance Preliminary Appeal: Humanitarian Crisis in North-East Nigeria – NGA161

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Source: ACT Alliance
Country: Nigeria

Preliminary Appeal Target: US$ 2,688,801

Balance Requested: US$ 2,688,801

Nairobi, 21 November 2016

Dear Colleagues,

The impacts of the ongoing insurgency attacks by Boko Haram on both lives and properties in the North East states of Nigeria have left many in fear, displaced millions of people, while hundreds of thousands have lost their livelihoods and are facing serious starvation. Total number of food insecure people in Nigeria is 14.6 million; 7.3M of these are in Adamawa, Borno & Yobe where Christian Aid (CA) has operations - out of which 3M are in urgent need of food assistance. Over 2.5 million children are malnourished, 2.5 million internally displaced and only 30% of the total needs are currently met. The situation is escalating with the renewed government offensive against Boko Haram in the North East. This will lead to further displacements compounding an already dire humanitarian situation.

Report by Action Against Hunger (ACF) of August 2016, says 7 to 9 children die every one hour from malnutrition. Persons in displaced camps and host communities are living in dire conditions with little or no food, water, without shelter, livelihood or protection. The crisis is affecting several segments of the population including women and children in the North East states of Nigeria. It is one of the worst crises in the world but is currently under reported and underfunded. The critical needs include food, livelihoods support, water, shelter, health services, education and protection.

Christian Aid plans to scale up efforts in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Gombe around Livelihoods support through provision of agricultural inputs to support IDP returnees in host communities whilst still providing emergency relief in host communities in Borno where there is high need for support in food and livelihood, water, shelter and protection aiming to reach about 50,000 households. In addition, Christian Aid plans to continue food and NFI distribution using cash based programming, while providing water and other WASH facilities to communities/IDPs in need.

South Sudan: South Sudan Humanitarian Bulletin Issue 18 | 21 November 2016

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Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Country: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda

HIGHLIGHTS

• Close to three million South Sudanese have now fled their homes since December 2013.

• Thousands displaced by clashes in Unity.

• Food security experts warn of unprecedented levels of food insecurity in South Sudan in 2017.

• Communities along the River Nile are worst affected by the cholera outbreak and account for 91 per cent of reported cholera cases.

Displacement spikes following insecurity

Close to three million South Sudanese have now fled their homes and are either internally displaced or have sought refuge in neighbouring countries since December 2013. This includes an estimated 1.87 million people who are reported to have been internally displaced since December 2013. Of these, about 204,500 were sheltering in United Nations Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites as of 10 November, a more than 20 per cent increase compared to the number seeking shelter in the PoCs at the end of June (169,400).
Large spikes in internal displacement have been reported in the Greater Equatoria region, where fighting has driven tens of thousands of people from their homes since July. In Central Equatoria, the number of displaced people more than doubled from July (71,000) to October (143,000), following insecurity and sporadic fighting in multiple locations. The worst affected areas have been Juba and Yei counties. In Yei town, killings, rapes, abductions and restrictions on civilian freedom of movement by armed actors continue to be reported.
In addition to South Sudanese who have been internally displaced, more than 10,000 refugees - from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic (CAR) and Sudan - who were living in Lasu camp in Yei County, were forced to flee in September following attacks at the camp. Most of the refugees are now thought to be sheltering in bushy areas near the border with DRC.
Internal displacement in Eastern Equatoria has risen more than threefold - from about 46,000 in August to about 158,000 in October – following insecurity and clashes in Budi,
Ikotos, Kapoeta South, Lafon, Magwi and Torit counties. In June 2016, there were only around 7,800 people internally displaced in Eastern Equatoria.
In Western Equatoria, the number of displaced people doubled from about 66,000 in August to more than 124,000 in October. Most recently, fighting in Li-rangu,Yambio County, on 10 and 19 November has triggered displacement of hundreds of people.
Some sought shelter in the compound of a non-governmental organization and a church in Yambio town, while others fled to the bushes. Fighting also erupted in Ezo on 8 November, forcing many people to flee their homes. According to the authorities in the county, hundreds of civilians fled to DRC and CAR, while others hid in bushes and at a Catholic church in Ezo town.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled South Sudan to neighbouring countries, with more than 320,000 people leaving since 8 July, the majority of whom are women and children. This has brought the number of South Sudanese refugees arriving in neighbouring countries since December 2013 to over 1.1 million.

Scale-up of response in the Equatorias continues

Humanitarian organizations continue to scale-up their response to the needs of displaced people and affected host communities in the Equatorias, despite numerous challenges.
In Central Equatoria, distribution of food to more than 51,700 people in Yei town was completed on 9 November and partners are currently providing food to special cases that were not reached during the distribution. In addition, some 25,000 children and women of child bearing age have been vaccinated.
Malnourished children and pregnant and lactating mothers have received nutrition supplements and work is underway to establish a stabilization centre to treat Severe Acute Malnutrition cases.
However, access to areas outside of Yei town remains extremely limited and a high-level mission that planned to bring medical supplies to a village along the Yei-Maridi road was blocked from exiting Yei on 11 November.
In Western Equatoria, humanitarian organizations completed an assessment in areas hosting IDPs in Yambio on 12 November and an inter-agency team visited Mundri West,
East and Mvolo counties on 30 October to assess the humanitarian situation. There are estimated to be more than 109,100 people (35,985 in Mundri West, 39,146 in Mundri East, and 33,979 in Mvolo) affected by fighting and insecurity in the three counties, and many people have fled into the bushes in fear of further attacks. Movement to some areas has been restricted by armed actors, and flare-ups in fighting have affected the response. In Mundri East County, five international aid workers were relocated from Lui on 11 November due to insecurity caused by fighting between armed actors. Advocacy is on-going with parties to the conflict to ensure unhindered humanitarian access to people in need.


Chad: Chad: Situation in the Lac region and impact of the Nigerian crisis Situation Report no 19 (16/11/2016)

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Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Country: Chad, Nigeria

Highlights

  • The security situation is stable, but marked by some security incidents in the border areas.

  • The number of surrendered people is increasing, with more than 1,000 people who have reportedly arrived.

  • Secondary displacements continue. To date, there are 117,873 displaced people in the Lac region and 6,994 refugees. Displacements also affect the Kanem region.

  • Results of the 2016 SMART survey report 12.2% global acute malnutrition and 2.1% severe acute malnutrition in the Lac region. Chronic malnutrition is at 36%, the highest regional rate in the country.

  • Access to water and sanitation has improved: the rate of access to water increased from 23 to 41% in sites and host villages between August and September, and access to sanitation from 10 to 20%.

  • Teachers' strike due to non-payment of salaries and suppression of allowances hampers the start of the new schoolyear, which has only been effective in three private schools and in Dar-es-Salam refugee camp.

  • Only 43% of the funding requirements for the humanitarian response in the Lac region in 2016 was covered by the end of October.

Nigeria: UNHCR uses drones to help displaced populations in Africa

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Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Country: Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, South Sudan, Uganda

Remotely piloted aircraft help to assess needs of people fleeing conflicts and persecution in Mali, Nigeria and South Sudan.

NIAMEY, Niger – For many people drones conjure up images of remotely piloted aircraft bristling with missiles, used for military ends. But in conflict-affected parts of Africa, versions of the technology are being used by humanitarian aid organizations like UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to plan relief responses and save lives.

Drones are increasingly in use in countries like Niger, Burkina Faso and Uganda to help map huge populations of displaced people, assess their needs and figure out how best to get assistance to them. They are also being used to evaluate environmental damage caused by displacement.

“There are numerous peaceful applications of this technology, whether in human rights, aid delivery, or settlement mapping,” says Andrew Harper, head of UNHCR’s Innovation unit, noting that the potential use for drones is “overwhelming.”

The technology has come into its own at a time when record numbers of people have been uprooted from their homes by wars and persecution, more than three million of them by conflicts in South Sudan, Nigeria and Mali that have caused widespread displacement both within and across national borders.

In eastern Niger’s Diffa region, the need for enhanced information management has become increasingly urgent since Boko Haram attacks last June forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes or refugee camps.

As of late October, more than 250,000 men, women and children had been displaced since 2015, many of them seeking shelter in up to 100 informal sites that had sprung up on either side of the main west-east highway from the capital Niamey, with some 20,000 in two camps.

The desperate mix of humanity included internally displaced people (IDPs) as well as Niger returnees and Nigerian refugees. Vulnerable to Boko Haram raids, the population is very mobile, making it difficult to track and map them as they move in search of safety and assistance.

UNHCR turned to a self-taught Nigerian drone maker, Aziz Kountche, to help understand the dynamics of the population movements. He created a simple but effective drone that looks like a model airplane. The T-800 M, which has government authorization to operate in a frontline area, captured video and still images to convert to accurate maps of the new settlements, which will be crucial in supporting the humanitarian response across an area the size of Belgium.

“With the use of the drone images, we want to provide a new level of mapping to strengthen our analysis of the context,” said UNHCR External Relations Officer Benoit Moreno. The images enabled the UN Refugee Agency and its partners to visualize the situation in the sites and identify and meet needs for multiple services, including water systems, latrines, education facilities and health care. It also aided registration of the displaced.

The small aircraft was used to provide detailed bird’s eye images of the two camps in the region, Sayam Forage refugee camp and Kabelawa IDP camp, and it revealed the considerable environmental damage caused by people cutting firewood around the spontaneous sites in an area where two thirds of the land is affected by desertification. The next drone flight should take place early next year.

In neighbouring Burkina Faso, where more than 32,000 Malian refugees remain four years after fleeing conflict in their homeland, UNHCR has been using a more sophisticated drone to monitor the needs of refugees. Many live in the arid Sahel region, too fearful of returning to Mali despite the signing of a peace accord last year.

At sprawling Goudoubo camp, home to some 9,640 refugees near the town of Dori, UNHCR recently piloted a four-propellor drone over the camp’s 12-kilometre-long and five-kilometre-wide area. Unlike the Diffa drone, this one used a video camera to film the shelters, primary school, market, health centre and the road to Dori.

In this harsh, beautiful and extensive environment, use of the drone has provided invaluable video information on how to provide assistance and ensure a sustainable daily life in an area of very few natural resources and infrastructure.

“Aerial views and camp mapping can help reshape our ability to respond to short-term and long-term needs. For instance, we could track the evolution of the locations of the shelters and the movements within the camps, but also document the evolution of the environmental context and the available natural resources in and around the camps. This would also help better prevent and mitigate the risks of natural disasters,” said Alpha Oumar, head of the UNHCR field office in Dori.

Meanwhile in Uganda, which hosts more than half-a-million South Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers, UNHCR hopes to use drone technology to look at how refugee settlements grow and evolve. The project will focus on Bidibidi, which was opened in August and now shelters more than 200,000 people who have fled fresh fighting that erupted in Juba in July.

Part of a strategy to make more systematic use of drones, the machines will be used to show the settlement in various stages, from a small settlement in August to becoming one of the largest refugee-hosting areas in the world.

For UNHCR, the projects in hand are likely just the beginning. “We must recognize technological opportunities for the now, and more importantly for the future,” Harper says. “This is one example of technology coming online that we must utilize for the organization. If we can harness the potential of these interventions, we will not only do our job more efficiently but have a greater impact on persons of concern.”

South Sudan: Interim report of the Panel of Experts on South Sudan established pursuant to Security Council resolution 2206 (2015) (S/2016/963)

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Source: UN Security Council
Country: South Sudan

Letter dated 15 November 2016 from the Panel of Experts on South Sudan established pursuant to Security Council resolution 2206 (2015) addressed to the President of the Security Council

The members of the Panel of Experts established pursuant to Security Council resolution 2206 (2015), whose mandate was extended pursuant to Council resolution 2290 (2016), have the honour to transmit herewith, in accordance with paragraph 12 (d) of resolution 2290 (2016), the Panel’s interim report.

The report was provided to the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2206 (2015) on 28 October 2016 and was considered by the Committee on 11 November.

The Panel would appreciate it if the present letter and the report were brought to the attention of the members of the Security Council and issued as a document of the Council.

(Signed) Payton Knopf
Coordinator
Panel of Experts on South Sudan

(Signed) Andrews Atta-Asamoah
Expert

(Signed) Andrei Kolmakov
Expert

(Signed) Ann Oosterlinck
Expert

(Signed) Klem Ryan
Expert

Interim report of the Panel of Experts on South Sudan established pursuant to Security Council resolution 2206 (2015)

Summary

In the wake of the de facto collapse of the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan after the fighting in Juba in July 2016, the political and security situation in the country has continued to deteriorate markedly, and the prospects for an even more catastrophic escalation of violence at the outset of the dry season in November and December are high. Armed actors on all sides continue to demonstrate in word and in deed that they are preparing for just such an escalation.

The permanent ceasefire envisaged in the Agreement has not been respected by the parties. Violence is surging in greater Equatoria and has included the systematic targeting of civilians, gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and widespread sexual violence as part of the brutal counter-insurgency campaign undertaken by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and militias affiliated with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLM/A) in Government led by the President, Salva Kiir. In Central Equatoria — the seat of the capital, Juba — armed groups are increasingly targeting vehicles carrying goods and civilians, many of whom are Dinka, in retaliation for the government offensive and other policies. Compounded by the intensity of inflammatory rhetoric by Dinka and non-Dinka alike in recent weeks, these tactics have the potential to provoke violent ethnic conflict on an even greater scale. Fighting is also continuing in Western Bahr el-Ghazal, Upper Nile and Unity, and arms continue to flow into the country.

While the flight of the leader of SPLM/A in Opposition, Riek Machar, from South Sudan may give the appearance of the ascendance of Kiir and his inner circle and may have emboldened these elements, deep structural weaknesses within the regime and SPLA, in addition to an increasing lack of control over large portions of the country, nevertheless underscore the tenuous nature of his rule. Kiir’s co-optation of the Agreement by placing his proxies in most positions reserved for SPLM/A in Opposition members within the Transitional Government of National Unity has foreclosed a meaningful political and reconciliation process, further dividing the country along tribal lines, given that many non-Dinka communities — and Dinka alienated by the regime — see no viable forum to express political dissent, pursue reform or ensure their basic security. Provocative policy initiatives, such as Kiir’s order of October 2015 to increase the number of states from 10 to 28, proposed by the Jieng Council of Elders and supported and defended by political figures such as the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Michael Makuei, are exacerbating these divisions.

This volatility is compounded within Juba by concerns about Kiir’s health and the uncertainty of presidential succession. Rumours in mid-October that Kiir had become gravely ill, subsequently proved to be somewhat exaggerated, raised fears of possible armed conflict erupting between various factions over the future of the presidency, notably between the SPLA Chief of General Staff, Paul Malong, and the Director General of the Internal Security Bureau of the National Security Service, Akol Koor, in addition to various other Dinka clans and political affiliates.

The armed opposition to Kiir’s regime is an increasingly multifaceted amalgam of forces encompassing dissident groups with diverse grievances, aims and approaches to the war. Many of these groups are either not under the direct control of SPLM/A in Opposition led by Machar, which was a party to the Agreement, or are only loosely affiliated with it. Nevertheless, Machar’s resilience, notwithstanding the government attempts to assassinate him in greater Equatoria, has seemingly provided more motivation for Equatorian armed elements to associate formally with SPLM/A in Opposition. The perception that the belligerence of Kiir’s Dinka-dominated regime is leading the country inexorably towards a devastating tribal war, coupled with a sense that the international community is failing to take the steps necessary to avoid a further escalation of the conflict, are providing impetus among non-Dinka opposition political and military forces towards greater coordination, if not complete organizational unity.

Mass displacements, both internally and across borders, have accelerated in recent months, with more than 1 million South Sudanese now having sought refuge in neighbouring countries — 200,000 from greater Equatoria alone between July and October.a Severe food insecurity, approaching famine levels in some areas, affects at least 4.8 million people,(a) over one third of the population. Peacekeeping and humanitarian operations continue to be relentlessly obstructed, principally by civilian and armed actors affiliated with SPLM/A in Government. Notwithstanding the purported acceptance by Kiir’s regime of the regional protection force envisaged under Security Council resolution 2304 (2016), his spokesperson publicly rejected the proposed troop-contributing countries on 24 October. While Kiir established a committee on 14 October to facilitate an improvement in humanitarian access within two weeks,(b) there had been no evidence of improved access as at the time of submission of the present report on 28 October. In fact, the government has consistently failed to demonstrate any willingness to alleviate what is by every empirical measure among the worst country-wide humanitarian emergencies in the world.

The extension of the war also continues to pose an increasingly grave threat to the country’s neighbours. For example, on 13 August, some 800 to 900 troops from SPLA Division VI launched an incursion into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, crossing the border and engaging in a battle with SPLM/A in Opposition. On 17 August, two MI-24 helicopters also crossed the border, travelling nearly 6 km into Congolese territory and again attacking SPLM/A in Opposition positions.

(a) Data as at 20 October 2016. See “OCHA humanitarian bulletin South Sudan”, No. 16, 20 October 2016 (b) See “President Kiir forms joint humanitarian aid delivery committee”, Sudan Tribune, 17 October 2016. Available from www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article60555.

Niger: West and Central Africa: Weekly Regional Humanitarian Snapshot (15 - 21 November 2016)

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Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Country: Central African Republic, Niger, Nigeria

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

DONORS PLEDGE OVER US$2 BILLION

Donors on 17 November pledged US$2.28 billion for he country’s National Plan for Recovery and Peacebuilding during a conference by the European Union and the CAR Government in Brussels. The funds are meant to support the country’s efforts to restore peace, security and reconciliation as well as promote development and economic recovery and support the ongoing humanitarian assistance. CAR is still struggling to emerge from the devastation of conflict triggered by a 2013 coup. Violence attacks continue to erupt across the country, causing new displacements and complicating humanitarian operations.

NIGER

SOME 1.9 MILLION PEOPLE NEED ASSISTANCE

Around 1.9 million people, including 340,000 in the conflict-hit south-eastern Diffa region will need humanitarian assistance in 2017, according to the Humanitarian Needs Overview published on 19 November. Assistance will focus on food security, nutrition, the displaced and those rendered vulnerable by natural disasters and epidemics. Some 1.3 million people are food insecure and nearly 1.2 million children require nutrition assistance.

RIFT VALLEY FEVER MORTALITY DROPS

The mortality rate in the Rift Valley Fever outbreak in Tahoua region has declined from 50 per cent at the beginning of the epidemic in August to 14 per cent currently, according to the Ministry of Health. From 7 to 13 November, 36 new cases and no death were recorded. The new cases bring to 227 the total number of cases, including 32 deaths. Among other control measures, the authorities have been urging people to bury animal carcasses, handle infected animals with care and avoid drinking raw milk.

NIGERIA

TEAM DEPLOYED AFTER IDP ABUSE REPORTS

The Government on 14 November deployed a team from the Office of the National Security Advisor to the President following allegations of abuse of women and girls in displacement camps in the country’s northeast. The move follows the deployment of some 100 female police officers to camps to ensure the protection of women. Male officers are now restricted to camp entrances and surroundings to provide general security. Last month, Human Rights Watch reported sexual abuse of women and girls in camps by security officers.

ATTACKS ON THE RISE IN MAIDUGURI

After a three-month lull, Boko Haram gunmen have stepped up attacks targeting camps hosting the displaced, military positions and public places in Maiduguri, the capital of the north-eastern Borno. No fewer than seven suicide attacks have been reported since late October, three of which targeted IDP camps. On 18 November, an explosive was detonated near a police post, while another suicide bomber targeted the federal high court complex. A third assailant was arrested while trying to detonate his explosives. Six people including two security agents were killed in the attacks.

Niger: Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre: Aperçu humanitaire hebdomadaire ( 15 – 21 novembre 2016)

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Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Country: Central African Republic, Niger, Nigeria

REPUBLIQUE CENTRAFRICAINE

PLUS DE 2 MILLIARDS DE DOLLARS PROMIS

Le 17 novembre, les donateurs ont promis 2,28 milliards de dollars pour le Plan national de relèvement et de consolidation de la paix lors d'une conférence organisée par l'Union européenne et le Gouvernement de la RCA à Bruxelles. Ces fonds sont destinés à soutenir les efforts déployés par le pays pour rétablir la paix, la sécurité et la réconciliation, ainsi que pour promouvoir le développement et la relance économique et soutenir l'aide humanitaire en cours. La RCA peine toujours à surmonter la dévastation causée par le conflit déclenché par un coup d‘état en 2013. Des attaques violentes continuent d'éclater à travers le pays, provoquant de nouveaux déplacements et compliquant les opérations humanitaires.

NIGER

QUELQUE 1,9 MILLION DE PERSONNES ONT BESOIN D’AIDE

Selon l’Aperçu des besoins publié le 19 novembre, environ 1,9 million de personnes, dont 340 000 dans la région de Diffa au sudest, auront besoin d'aide humanitaire en 2017. L'aide sera axée sur la sécurité alimentaire, la nutrition, les personnes déplacées et celles rendues vulnérables par les catastrophes naturelles et les épidémies. Près de 1,3 million de personnes souffrent d'insécurité alimentaire et près de 1,2 million d'enfants ont besoin d'une aide nutritionnelle.

BAISSE DE LA MORTALITÉ DE LA FIÈVRE DE LA VALLÉE DU RIFT

Selon le Ministère de la Santé, le taux de mortalité de l’épidémie de fièvre de la vallée du Rift dans la région de Tahoua est passé de 50% au début de l'épidémie en août à 14% actuellement. Entre le 7 et le 13 novembre, 36 nouveaux cas et aucun décès ont été enregistrés; portant à 227 le nombre total de cas, dont 32 décès. Parmi les mesures mises en place, les autorités ont exhorté les gens à enterrer les carcasses d'animaux, à manipuler les animaux infectés avec soin et à éviter de boire du lait cru.

NIGERIA

DÉPLOIEMENT D’UNE ÉQUIPE APRÈS DES RAPPORTS D'ABUS

Le 14 novembre, le gouvernement a déployé une équipe du Bureau du conseiller en sécurité nationale auprès du Président suite aux allégations d'abus de femmes et de filles dans des camps de déplacés au nord-est du pays. Cette décision fait suite au déploiement d'une centaine de policières dans les camps pour assurer la protection des femmes. Les officiers de sexe masculin sont maintenant limités aux entrées des camps et aux environs pour assurer la sécurité générale. Le mois dernier, Human Rights Watch a signalé des agressions sexuelles contre des femmes et des filles dans des camps par des agents de sécurité.

HAUSSE DES ATTAQUES À MAIDUGURI

Après une accalmie de trois mois, les hommes armés de Boko Haram ont intensifié les attaques visant les camps accueillant les déplacés, les positions militaires et les lieux publics à Maiduguri, la capitale du nord-est de l’État de Borno, qui accueille près d'un million de déplacés. Pas moins de sept attentats suicides ont été signalés depuis fin octobre, dont trois ont visé des camps de personnes déplacées. Le 18 novembre, un explosif a été détoné près d'un poste de police, tandis qu'un autre kamikaze a visé le complexe judiciaire fédéral. Un troisième assaillant a été arrêté alors qu'il tentait d’amorcer ses explosifs. Six personnes, dont deux agents de sécurité, ont été tuées dans les attaques.

Chad: Chad: Bulletin MSF n°1 - novembre 2016

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Source: Médecins Sans Frontières
Country: Chad

DANS CE NUMERO

P1 MSF répond en urgence aux cas suspects d’Hépatite E à Am Timam dans la région de Salamat

Qui sont les Médecins Sans Frontières?

P2 Nos activités au Tchad

Interview: Une psychologue panaméenne dans la zone du Lac

Les enfants de Dr. Uli

P3 Les déplacés du Lac

P4 Lutter contre la malnutrition à Bokoro

P5 Interview Dr Rony Brauman: On soignait tout le monde, civils comme combattants

P6 MSF au Tchad en chiffres

Chad: Chad: Providing Support for Mothers and Children

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Source: Médecins du Monde
Country: Chad

Chad is a landlocked country in the Sahel region of north Africa that is largely made up of arid and desert landscapes. Although it is the continent’s 5th largest nation in terms of its geographic area, the people of Chad face a variety of health issues. These issues are exacerbated by the fact that many live in rural areas with little to no access to healthcare. Compared to the United States, where the average life expectancy is 79, the average life expectancy in Chad is just 54 years for women and 52 for men.

In 2015, our Doctors of the World teams provided 1,711 medically supervised births and over 44,170 obstetric consultations for expectant mothers. Some of the leading causes of death for women in Chad are complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. Since 2009, Doctors of the World has been working in the Kanem region, where pregnant women and newborns receive very little medical care, especially in rural areas.

Women often have to walk several hours to reach a health center or to see one of the few doctors in the country. As a result, many women die during childbirth without having received any medical attention. For every 100,000 women, 1,100 die during childbirth and only 4.8% of women use any form of contraception.

Lack of access to healthcare is one of the most challenging health issues confronting the people of Chad. Many women and children do not seek medical care or treatment due to the long distances they have to travel. To address this, our teams equipped local communities with horse carts in order to transport patients more quickly and efficiently. Using the carts greatly reduces the time and effort required to reach a center, enabling women and children to seek care more frequently.

Giving birth in Chad can be extremely risky. Caesarians are rare, and labor can often be obstructed or prolonged due to malnutrition. The difficult labor process can leave women with cases of obstetric fistula that can dramatically impact their wellbeing. These complications can lead to chronic incontinence, which severely impacts women’s personal lives and can result in them being ostracized from the local community.

In order to reduce the dangerous consequences of prolonged and ill-equipped labors, our team has recruited and trained midwives in addition to refurbishing the birthing rooms inside rural health centers. We also provide women suffering from obstetric fistula with medical care and psychosocial support.

Since 2015, Doctors of the World has worked with Action Against Hunger on advocacy in the health districts of Mao, Mondo, and in Mao City. We have worked in over 47 health centers and in Mao’s regional hospital, where we raise awareness among young adolescents about health related issues such as maternal health, the prevention of HIV, the transmission risk between mother and child and the importance of vaccinating new-born babies against disease. Throughout the region we also organize family planning activities and information sessions.


Nigeria: Nigeria Weekly Humanitarian Situation Report No. 11, 10 – 16 November 2016

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Source: UN Children's Fund
Country: Nigeria

Highlights

  • In 2017, displaced and returnee population as well as impoverished host communities in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states are most affected by the conflict in north east Nigeria and in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

  • Over 131,000 children (33 per cent of annual target) with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) have been admitted to therapeutic feeding programmes in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. Cure rate is 86 per cent.

  • Nearly 669,000 people have access to safe water and 987,000 have access to improved sanitation.

  • UNICEF supported Primary Health Care services have, so far, reached more than 3.35 million children.

  • With UNICEF support 5,722 unaccompanied and separated children have been supported through case management and alternative care arrangements.

  • Nearly 93,000 children are accessing education and 157,000 have benefitted from learning materials.

Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs

The October 2016 Cadre Harmonisé, covering 16 states in north Nigeria, indicates an extremely worrisome food security and nutrition situation. The epicentre of the crisis remains in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States, where 4.6 million people are estimated to be food insecure (phase 3-5), with 55,000 in extreme food insecurity (Phase 5).

In conflict affected areas, women, children, elderly, persons with disability and minority groups require specific attention. Several reports and assessments have revealed that limited access to humanitarian assistance and services has contributed to negative coping mechanisms and sexual abuse and exploitation including in IDP camps in Maiduguri.

In the past couple of weeks the number of attacks on civilians has increased, and there are concerns that the use of suicide bombers may continue targeting crowded areas to maximise fatalities and create fear. In 2016 Borno state, which is the epicentre of humanitarian crisis has witnessed the maximum number of security incidents from January to December 2016- 292 incidents resulting in 2,378 fatalities.

According to the preliminary results of the Humanitarian Needs Overview, 8.4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance including 1.68 million IDPs, most of them children in the three most directly affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe. The focus of the 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan will remain on these three states. This is also in line with the findings from the most recent Displacement Tracking Matrix which indicated that Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states are hosting the highest numbers of IDPs and returnees in need of critical life-saving humanitarian assistance. There are 149 formal (20%) and informal camps (80%) in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. The DTM findings also showed that in 116 sites IDPs practice open defecation, in 86 sites no regular malnutrition screening is conducted and in 59 sites children have no access to education.

Nigeria: The new threat for survivors of Boko Haram

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Source: Mercy Corps
Country: Nigeria

“They came to our place and surrounded us,” Mariam says. “They surrounded the whole village.”

Boko Haram had taken them captive. In an instant, Mariam and her family were hostages in their own home, their village in northeast Nigeria cut off from the outside world. There was no food. There was no water. There was no help.

They were trapped, their sheer survival left to the whims of one of the world’s most savage terror groups.

“We were Boko Haram’s target,” Mariam says.

Boko Haram held the village for more than three years, until one day, the Nigerian army appeared. They were rushing the village, hoping to retake control. Mariam saw an opening — perhaps the only one she would have.

“Before the area was bombed, we ran into the bush,” she says. “We didn’t bring anything. We didn’t know which town or village we would reach, so we hoped God would help us.”

Desperate and traumatized, Mariam and her six children were focused on only one thing: getting away.

After three days of walking they reached Sabon Gari, a remote settlement northeast of the city of Biu, where they took shelter in one of the hundreds of white, A-frame tents that dot the spaces between permanent buildings. In Sabon Gari, displaced people outnumber local residents 2-to-1.

But distance from Boko Haram has not provided respite for Mariam and her family. Between the plastic walls of their tent lingers a painful reality: Just because you escaped, doesn’t mean you can survive.

After fleeing, the struggle to live continues

“There is no way we can get something to eat,” Mariam says. “I have no husband, no job. There is no food.”

It’s been three days since her family’s last meal.

Crouched on the ground of her new home, Mariam plucks green leaves off the branches of a local plant used for seasoning. She’s planning to clean and dry the leaves, just in case she somehow finds food to cook them with.

“I have nothing to do because every family is the same,” she says. “There is nowhere to beg. All of them are the same, living under the same conditions.”

After years of fear and violence under Boko Haram,1.8 million people are displaced in northeast Nigeria. Many have no thought of when they will be able to return home, if they have any home to return to. And with few resources to rebuild their lives in their places of refuge, meeting their basic needs is often out of reach.

Waves of conflict and displacement have disrupted planting and forced scores of farmers from their land, plummeting food supplies. The danger of transporting goods means what little food is available isn’t making it where it needs to go, or it’s too expensive for many already-impoverished families to purchase.

Already more than 4.4 million people in northeast Nigeria are plagued with hunger, and recent progress by government forces to recapture territory from Boko Haram has revealed dire conditions in communities previously isolated by the group.

The full extent of the food crisis remains unknown — 2.2 million people still live in unreachable areas.

For more than two years, Mercy Corps has been providing cash and water so people uprooted by Boko Haram can stay healthy and support their families. As more communities become accessible, we are working as quickly as possible to expand our reach.

And we're committed to staying for as long as it takes.

A far-reaching crisis

In Sabon Gari, Hauwa looks down at her thin body. She’s lost a lot of weight since fleeing her home with her husband and five children seven months ago.

Recalling that day brings Hauwa to tears.

“Boko Haram pursued us. That’s why we ran,” she says. “We were in the bush two days. We hid ourselves. We didn’t even follow the road because [the insurgents] would attack us.”

“I left everything [behind]. I had goats, I had a cow. I left it there. I have nothing.”

In communities like Sabon Gari, Hauwa and others primarily support themselves by begging, foraging and selling firewood, or laboring for less than $1 USD a day. But it’s not nearly enough.

“The children are crying for the hunger,” Hauwa says. “I work for two days [at a nearby farm] to get one measure of maize, and then that one measure can’t feed us even one day. There are days when we don’t eat at all.”

“When I see my children suffering without eating, it makes me cry,” she says, “especially when I remember how we were before we came to this place. I never lacked anything when I was at home, but now I don’t have anything.”

The signs of hardship are just as palpable on the road south to Biu, a pathway dotted with army checkpoints, a stark reminder that Boko Haram is still a very real threat.

Alongside the pothole-pocked roadway, maize from the surrounding fields has been harvested and laid out on tarps to dry. It’s too early for this though; the maize isn’t ripe. But people are hungry.

“We came here because of the insurgency,” says Aisha, a mother of four. “My two brothers were killed, and my husband too.” She has been in Biu with her children for three years. “I would like to go back home [but] the whole town is burned, including the house.”

In Biu, Aisha supports her family by doing sewing and farm work, when she can find it.

“We manage to live,” she continues. “At times, when I get money, I buy five measures of maize that can sustain us for a couple of days. When I don’t have money, we just manage with what we have. It’s not enough.”

Today, Aisha is gathered with hundreds of others to receive a voucher from Mercy Corps that can be traded for food or other goods at the local market.

This distribution of vouchers is one of the only forms of aid the community has received in several years. In total, the initiative will reach around 7,500 people, many of whom have been displaced for years without any assistance, with funds to support their families.

“There are a lot of things I miss,” Aisha says, “like food. I don’t have food here, on top of many other things. The food is the most important thing.”

With the voucher, Aisha will receive 17,000 Nigerian Naira (about $54 USD) every month for eight months, so she can purchase the things her family needs to rebuild some stability.

But first: food.

As soon as she gets her voucher, Aisha will head to the market to buy rice, noodles, yam and meat to cook for her family.

It’s going to be a special day, she says.

South Sudan: South Sudan: Humanitarian Dashboard (August 2016)

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Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Country: South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda

Situation Overview

As of end of August 2016, nearly 2.5 million people had fled their homes in South Sudan since fighting broke out in December 2013, with over 1.6 million displaced people inside the country and 882,200 who had fled as refugees to neighbouring countries. There were about 196,960 people sheltering in Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites in United Nations bases.

In August 2016, thousands more civilians in South Sudan were forced to flee their homes due to fighting, mainly in the Equatorias and Unity. In all, about 60,000 people fled South Sudan as refugees to neighbouring countries during August, including nearly 50,000 to Uganda. In Central Equatoria, about 12,100 people were displaced in different locations according to partners' estimates. In central Unity, intermittent fighting and tensions caused thousands of people to flee from Thonyor, Adok and Pilleny. In addition, some people from Thonyor and Thakker (Mayendit) reportedly took refuge in Dablua. In Jonglei, nearly 8,000 IDPs arrived in Poktap, Payuel and Padiet payams in Duk County following fighting in Pajut. In Western Bahr El Ghazal, more than 2,500 people newly arrived at collective sites in Wau town, while in Northern Bahr El Ghazal, food insecurity and malnutrition remained a major concern. Communicable diseases continued to cause death and illness, with ongoing outbreaks of cholera, malaria and kala-azar.

The operating environment remained difficult, with 89 access incidents reported in August compared to 90 in July. This is well above the average number (64) of incidents reported during the first six months of 2016. The month saw a substantial rise in reported incidents in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, from one case in July to nine in August. The month also saw the introduction of new bureaucratic requirements for transportation of medical supplies, and passage of humanitarian convoys out of Juba. However, in one positive development, funding levels increased, with an additional US$157 million received during August for the 2016 Humanitarian Response Plan, bringing the total received as at the end of the month to $677 million; 53 per cent of the total requirement. About 3.4 million people had been reached with humanitarian assistance by 135 organizations by the end of August.

Strategic Objectives

  1. Save lives and alleviate suffering through safe access to services and resources with dignity.
  2. Ensure communities are protected, capable and prepared to cope with significant threats

Nigeria: WASH Sector Nigeria: WASH Operational Presence Adamawa and Yobe, 14 November 2016

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Source: UN Children's Fund
Country: Nigeria

Mali: Mali: la MINUSMA en appui aux élections locales

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Source: UN Radio
Country: Mali

Tel que stipulé dans son mandat, la la Mission multidimensionnelle intégrée de l'ONU pour la stabilisation au Mali a apporté son appui au déroulement, dimanche, des élections locales dans le pays.

Déjà différées à trois reprises, ces élections visent à remettre la démocratie sur les rails dans le pays, et avant leur déroulement, le Secrétaire général avait encouragé le gouvernement malien à poursuivre un « dialogue constructif avec toutes les parties prenantes pour apaiser les tensions qui pourraient survenir, avant et après le vote ».

Sur place, le Lieutenant-Colonel Djibril Aboubacar, Commandant du bataillon nigérien de la MINUSMA, explique en quoi consistait l'appui électoral de la mission.

(Extrait sonore : Lieutenant-Colonel Djibril Aboubacar, Commandant du bataillon nigérien de la MINUSMA)

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